Dust collector for vacuum cleaner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10791898-B2
Application number	US-201615542463-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2016
Priority date	Jan 14, 2015
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure discloses a dust collector for a vacuum cleaner, including a first cyclone disposed within an outer case to filter out dust from air introduced from an outside thereof and introduce the air from which dust has been filtered out to an inside thereof, a second cyclone accommodated in the inside of the first cyclone to separate fine dust from the air introduced to the inside of the first cyclone, a first guide vane spirally extended from an annular shaped first space between the first and the second cyclone to induce rotational flow so as to introduce air introduced into the first space to an inlet of the second cyclone, and a second guide vane spirally extended along an inner circumference of the inlet to enhance the rotational flow of air introduced to an inside of the second cyclone through the inlet.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A dust collector for a vacuum cleaner, comprising:
a first cyclone within an upper portion of an outer case to filter out dust from air introduced from an outside of the outer case and to introduce air from which dust has been filtered out to an inside of the first cyclone;
a second cyclone accommodated in the inside of the first cyclone to separate fine dust from air introduced to the inside of the first cyclone;
a plurality of first guide vanes spirally extended from an annular shaped first space between the first cyclone and the second cyclone to induce a rotational flow so as to direct air introduced into the first space to an inlet of the second cyclone; and
a plurality of second guide vanes spirally extended along an inner circumference surface of the inlet to enhance the rotational flow of air introduced to an inside of the second cyclone through the inlet,
wherein each of the plurality of first guide vanes is inclined to extend upwardly in a rotational flow direction toward the inlet of the second cyclone,
wherein each of the plurality of second guide vanes is inclined to extend downwardly in the rotational flow direction toward the inside of the second cyclone, and
wherein intersections between adjacent pairs of the plurality of first guide vanes are offset in a circumferential direction with respect to intersections between adjacent pairs of the plurality of second guide vanes.

2. The dust collector of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of first guide vanes are positioned to be spaced from each other at predetermined intervals along an inner circumference surface of the first cyclone or an outer circumference surface of the second cyclone.

3. The dust collector of claim 2 , wherein an entrance extended toward an inner circumference surface of the outer case is formed at the upper portion of the outer case to rotate air introduced from an outside in the rotational flow direction, and
the plurality of first guide vanes are formed in the rotational flow direction to rotate and move air introduced into the first space upward in the rotational flow direction.

4. The dust collector of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of first guide vanes are formed to be protruded from the outer circumference surface of the second cyclone toward the inner circumference surface of the first cyclone.

5. The dust collector of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of second guide vanes are formed in the rotational flow direction to allow air rotated and moved upward in the rotational flow direction along the plurality of first guide vanes to be rotated and moved downward in the rotational flow direction and introduced to an inside of the second cyclone.

6. The dust collector of claim 2 , wherein an end of any first one of the plurality of first guide vanes overlaps an end of an adjacent second one of the plurality of first guide vanes in a vertical direction of the second cyclone.

7. The dust collector of claim 1 , wherein a vortex finder is provided at the inside of the second cyclone to discharge air from which fine dust has been separated, and
the plurality of second guide vanes are installed on the inlet, which is a space between the vortex finder and an inner circumference surface of the second cyclone.

8. The dust collector of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of second guide vanes are positioned to be spaced from each other at predetermined intervals along an outer circumference surface of the vortex finder.

9. The dust collector of claim 8 , wherein an end of any first one of the plurality of second guide vanes overlaps an end of an adjacent second one of the plurality of second guide vanes in a vertical direction of the vortex finder.

10. The dust collector of claim 7 , wherein a plurality of ribs extended radially are provided at an inside of the vortex finder to mitigate the rotational flow of discharged air.

11. The dust collector of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of first guide vanes are positioned to be spaced from each other at predetermined intervals along an inner circumference surface of the first cyclone or an outer circumference surface of the second cyclone, and
wherein each of the plurality of ribs extends in a radial direction that corresponds to an intersection between an adjacent pair of the plurality of first guide vanes.

12. The dust collector of claim 7 , wherein the vortex finder includes a taper portion formed at a lower end thereof, a diameter of taper portion progressively decreasing toward the lower end of the taper portion.

13. The dust collector of claim 1 , wherein the first cyclone includes:
a housing formed to accommodate the second cyclone therein and provided with an opening portion communicating with an inside on an outer circumference surface thereof; and
a mesh filter installed to cover the opening portion to filter out and separate the dust from air.

14. The dust collector of claim 13 , wherein an outlet of the second cyclone is installed to pass through a bottom surface of the housing, and
an inner case is installed at a lower portion of the housing to allow the inner case to accommodate the outlet so as to collect fine dust discharged through the outlet into a fine dust storage unit within the inner case.

15. The dust collector of claim 14 , wherein
dust filtered out through the mesh filter is collected into a dust storage unit between an inner circumference surface of the outer case and an outer circumference surface of the inner case, and
the dust collector further comprises:
a lower cover that is hinge-coupled to the outer case to form a bottom surface of the outer case and the inner case when closed, and discharges dust collected in the dust storage unit and fine dust collected in the fine dust storage unit at a same time when opened.

16. The dust collector of claim 15 , wherein a plurality of ribs for dust collection protrude from the inner circumference surface of the outer case to collect the dust introduced into the dust storage unit.

17. The dust collector of claim 13 , wherein the first cyclone further includes a skirt that protrudes outward at an incline from the outer circumference surface of the housing below the opening portion.

18. The dust collector of claim 1 , further comprising an upper cover mounted on an upper end of the second cyclone to cover the first space between the first cyclone and the second cyclone.

19. The dust collector of claim 1 , wherein the second cyclone includes a casing having a truncated conical shape that is gradually narrowing downward.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Hyun Kietak
• Lee Seungyeop
• Ahn Hyukjin

Classifications

• A47L9/1633 Primary

  Concentric cyclones · CPC title

• A47L9/1658

  Construction of outlets · CPC title

• A47L9/1608

  Cyclonic chamber constructions · CPC title

• A47L9/1683 Primary

  Dust collecting chambers; Dust collecting receptacles · CPC title

• A47L9/1666

  with filtering means · CPC title