Pool cleaner with a protracted filter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016305144-A1
Application number	US-201615134407-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 21, 2016
Priority date	Jan 7, 2014
Publication date	Oct 20, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A pool cleaning robot that may include a fluid inlet, a filter; a winding mechanism and a holding mechanism; wherein the winding mechanism is configured to perform a winding of the filter thereby removing a filter portion that was positioned in a filtering position and placing another filter portion, that was previously stored by the holding mechanism, in the filtering position; wherein the filter portion, when positioned in the filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that enters through the fluid inlet; and wherein the holding mechanism is configured to hold the filter and to store folded and unused filter portions.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A pool cleaning robot that comprises a fluid inlet, a filter; a winding mechanism and a holding mechanism;
wherein the winding mechanism is configured to perform a winding of the filter thereby removing a filter portion that was positioned in a filtering position and placing another filter portion, that was previously stored by the holding mechanism, in the filtering position; wherein the filter portion, when positioned in the filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that enters through the fluid inlet; and wherein the holding mechanism is configured to hold the filter and to store unused filter portions, wherein one or more unused filter portions are folded.

2 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 , wherein the holding mechanism defines one or more openings through which the other filter portion passes when positioned to the filtering position.

3 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 2 , wherein the one or more openings are defined by rectangular parts of the holding mechanism.

4 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 , winding mechanism is configured to perform the winding of the filter by performing multiple winding iterations; wherein each winding iteration results in a removal of one current filter portion from the filtering position and a placement of another filter portion in the filtering position.

5 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 4 wherein each winding iteration comprises a continuous winding of the filter.

6 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 4 wherein each winding iteration comprises a non-continuous winding of the filter.

7 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding of the filter extracts the other filter portion from the holding mechanism.

8 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the filter comprises multiple filter portions; wherein at least two of the multiple filter portions differ from each other by at least one filtering parameter.

9 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the other filter portion, when positioned in the filtering position, has an opening that faces the fluid inlet and has a closed end that faces the winding mechanism.

10 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the winding mechanism is detachably coupled to a housing of the pool cleaning robot.

11 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 comprising a controller; wherein the controller is configured to trigger the winding of the filter.

12 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 comprising a sensor that is configured to provide at least one of a filter replacement indication and a filter portion replacement indication.

13 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a fluid attribute sensor.

14 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a filter shape sensor.

15 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a wound filter sensor that is configured to sense attributes of filter portions that are wound by the winding mechanism.

16 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a load sensor that is configured to sense a tension of the filter.

17 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a winding monitor that is configured to estimate a progress of the winding of the filter.

18 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding mechanism comprises a winding motor that is dedicated for winding the filter.

19 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding mechanism meshes with a transmission mechanism that mechanically couples an axle on which the filter is wound to a motor selected out of a pump motor and a drive motor.

20 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding mechanism is configured to compress debris trapped within the filter by performing the winding of the filter.

21 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the holding mechanism is configured to store multiple filter portions, before any of the multiple filter portions are positioned in the filtering position, in a compressed form.

22 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the holding mechanism surrounds a fluid path that starts at the fluid inlet.

23 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the holding mechanism is detachably coupled to the housing.

24 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the filter is made of an elastic fabric.

25 . The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the filter is made of a non-elastic fabric.

Assignees

• Maytronics Ltd

Inventors

• Maggeni Yohanan
• Golan Oded

Classifications

• E04H4/1654 Primary

  Self-propelled cleaners · CPC title

• C02F2103/42

  from bathing facilities, e.g. swimming pools · CPC title

• C02F1/001

  Processes for the treatment of water whereby the filtration technique is of importance (C02F1/44 takes precedence; construction of filters in general B01D24/00 - B01D41/00) · CPC title

• B01D33/0183

  supported · CPC title

• B01D2201/31

  Other construction details · CPC title