Air conditioner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9827525-B2
Application number	US-201514597258-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 15, 2015
Priority date	Jan 17, 2014
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

An air conditioner is provided that includes a filter, a filter cleaning unit having a space formed therein to place foreign matter separated from the filter, a moving mechanism to make the filter cleaning unit move along the filter, the moving mechanism including a first gear having a closed loop section shape with gear teeth formed at at least one of an outside circumference or an inside circumference, a gear guide to guide the first gear to rotate while maintaining at least one linear portion, a second gear engaged with the first gear, a drive source to make the second gear rotate, a third gear engaged with the linear portion of the first gear, and a connection mechanism connected both to the third gear and the filter cleaning unit to make the filter cleaning unit move, thereby permitting to make the moving mechanism compact and enhancing reliability.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An air conditioner comprising:
a filter;
a filter cleaning head having a space formed therein to receive foreign matter separated from the filter;
a moving transmission configured to move the filter cleaning head along the filter, wherein the moving transmission includes:
a first gear having a closed loop section with gear teeth formed on at least one of an outside circumference or an inside circumference thereof,
a gear guide that holds the first gear during its movement, the gear guide being configured to maintain at least one linear portion of the first gear,
a second gear engaged with the first gear,
a drive motor to cause the second gear to rotate, the rotating of the second gear causing the movement of the first gear along the gear guide, and
a third gear engaged with the linear portion of the first gear to move linearly along the linear portion while rotating based on the movement of the first gear; and

a connection transmission connected to the third gear and the filter cleaning head to cause the filter cleaning head to move based on the rotation of the third gear.

2. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the gear guide includes an inner guide positioned on an inside of the first gear.

3. The air conditioner of claim 2 , wherein the gear guide further comprises an outer guide surrounding the outside circumference of the first gear.

4. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the inner guide includes;
one pair of inner linear portions opposite to each other, and
one pair of inner curved portions connecting the inner linear portions.

5. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the inner guide further includes a partition plate portion between the pair of inner linear portions.

6. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the partition plate portion is positioned to partition an inside space of the first gear into a first space on one side of the partition plate portion and a second space on the opposite side of the partition plate portion.

7. The air conditioner of claim 6 , wherein the second gear is positioned in the first space and the third gear is positioned in the second space.

8. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the one pair of inner linear portions and the one pair of inner curved portions are formed along an outside circumference of the partition plate portion.

9. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 5 , wherein one of the one pair of inner linear portions have a width smaller than a width of the other one of the one pair of inner linear portions.

10. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the outer guide includes at least one outer linear portion facing the inner linear portion and spaced from the inner linear portion.

11. The air conditioner of claim 3 , wherein the outer guide has a pass through hole formed therein parallel to a moving direction of the filter cleaning head and configured to receive a portion of the connection transmission.

12. The air conditioner of claim 3 , wherein the gear guide further includes a gear cover coupled to at least one of the inner guide or the outer guide to protect the first gear.

13. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the drive motor is mounted to the gear cover.

14. The air conditioner of claim 1 , further comprising a supplemental moving transmission positioned opposite to the moving transmission, relative to the filter cleaning head, the supplemental moving transmission being connected to the moving transmission via a shaft and being connected to the filter cleaning head.

15. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the moving transmission further includes a shaft connection gear engaged with the first gear, the shaft connection gear having the shaft connected thereto.

16. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the supplemental moving transmission includes;
a first guide gear having a closed loop section with gear teeth formed on at least one of an outside circumference or an inside circumference thereof,
a supplemental gear guide that holds the first guide gear during its movement, the supplemental gear guide being configured to maintain at least one linear portion of the first guide gear,
a second guide gear engaged with the first guide gear, and
a second connection transmission engaged with the first guide gear and connected to the filter cleaning head to move the filter cleaning head.

17. The air conditioner of claim 16 , wherein the supplemental moving transmission further includes a third guide gear engaged with the linear portion of the first guide gear, and
wherein the second connection transmission is further connected to the third guide gear to cause the filter cleaning head to move.

18. The air conditioner of claim 1 , wherein the filter cleaning head includes;
a dust box having the space formed therein, and
a brush rotatably positioned at the dust box in contact with the filter,
wherein the connection transmission is further connected to the brush to rotate the brush.

19. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the connection transmission further includes:
a gear shaft having the third gear mounted thereto,
a fourth gear mounted to the gear shaft,
a fifth gear engaged with the fourth gear to be rotated in a direction opposite to the fourth gear, and
a brush rotating shaft mounted to the fifth gear connected to the brush.

20. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the connection transmission further includes a brush rotating shaft having the third gear mounted thereto, connected to the brush and rotatably supported by the dust box.

21. The air conditioner as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the dust box includes;
a dust box casing having a foreign matter inlet formed therein, and
a separable case detachable from the dust box casing for receiving the foreign matter in a space formed therein.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Oh Jihye
• Seo Beomsoo
• Jun Jihoon

Classifications

• B01D2279/50

  for air conditioning · CPC title

• F24F13/28 Primary

  Arrangement or mounting of filters · CPC title

• B01D46/681

  by scrapers, brushes or the like · CPC title

• F24F8/90

  Cleaning of purification apparatus · CPC title

• F24F8/10

  by separation, e.g. by filtering · CPC title