Pool cleaner with a protracted filter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9909332-B2
Application number	US-201414578512-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 22, 2014
Priority date	Jan 7, 2014
Publication date	Mar 6, 2018
Grant date	Mar 6, 2018

Abstract

A pool cleaning robot that may include a fluid inlet, a filter; a winding mechanism and a holding mechanism; wherein the holding mechanism is configured to hold the filter; 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 in the filtering position; and wherein the filter portion, when positioned in the filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that enters through the fluid inlet.

First claim

We claim:

1. A pool cleaning robot that comprises a fluid inlet, a pump motor, an impeller, a filter, a driving motor for moving the pool cleaning robot, a winding mechanism and a holding mechanism;
wherein the holding mechanism is configured to hold the filter;
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 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 is upstream to the pump motor.

2. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the 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; wherein each winding iteration is followed by a filtering period during which the other filter portion is arranged to filter fluid.

3. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 2 wherein each winding iteration comprises a continuous winding of the filter.

4. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 2 wherein each winding iteration comprises a non-continuous winding of the filter.

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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

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

10. 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.

11. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 10 wherein the sensor is a fluid attribute sensor.

12. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 10 wherein the sensor is a filter shape sensor.

13. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 10 wherein the sensor is a wound filter sensor that is configured to sense attributes of filter portions that are wound by the winding mechanism.

14. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 10 wherein the sensor is a load sensor that is configured to sense a tension of the filter.

15. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 10 wherein the sensor is a winding monitor that is configured to estimate a progress of the winding of the filter.

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

17. 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 the pump motor and the drive motor.

18. 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.

19. 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.

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

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

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

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

24. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 further comprising an additional filter, an additional winding mechanism, an additional fluid inlet and an additional holding mechanism; wherein the additional holding mechanism is configured to hold the additional filter; wherein the additional winding mechanism is configured to perform a winding of the additional filter thereby removing an additional filter portion that was positioned in an additional filter filtering position and placing another additional filter portion in the additional filter filtering position; wherein the additional filter portion, when positioned in the additional filter filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that passes through the additional filter.

25. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 24 wherein the filter and the additional filter are spaced apart from each other.

26. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 24 wherein a length direction of the filter and a length direction of the additional filter are parallel to each other.

27. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 24 wherein a length direction of the filter is oriented to a length direction of the additional filter.

28. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 24 wherein the filter and the additional filter differ from each other by at least one filtering parameter.

29. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 further comprising an additional filter, wherein winding mechanism is further configured to perform a winding of the additional filter thereby removing an additional filter portion that was positioned in an additional filtering position and placing another additional filter portion in the additional filtering position; wherein the additional filter portion, when positioned in the additional filter filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that enters through the fluid inlet.

30. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 29 wherein the additional filter surrounds the filter.

31. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 29 wherein the filter is of a finer filtering level than the additional filter.

32. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 further comprising an additional filter, wherein the winding mechanism is further configured to perform a winding of the additional filter thereby removing an additional filter portion that was positioned in an additional filtering position and placing another additional filter portion in the additional filtering position; wherein the additional filter portion, when positioned in the additional filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that enters through an additional fluid inlet.

33. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 29 wherein the additional filter surrounds the filter and wherein the filter is of a finer filtering level than the additional fi

Assignees

• Maytronics Ltd

Inventors

• Maggeni Yohanan
• Golan Oded

Classifications

• 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

• C02F2103/42

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

• E04H4/1654 Primary

  Self-propelled cleaners · CPC title