EP2268182B1

EP2268182B1 - Nozzle

Info

Publication number: EP2268182B1
Application number: EP09733134.2A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Andreas Pohl; Henrik Nygren; Bo Pilsmo
Original assignee: Electrolux AB
Current assignee: Electrolux AB
Priority date: 2008-04-15
Filing date: 2009-04-14
Publication date: 2015-06-10
Anticipated expiration: 2029-04-14
Also published as: SE0800858L; SE532296C2; WO2009128762A1; CN102006811B; WO2009128762A8; EP2268182A4; EP2268182A1; CN102006811A

Description

Technical field

The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner nozzle comprising a housing having a cleaning surface, configured to face a surface to be cleaned, the nozzle further comprising at least one main brush which can be moved between a first and a second position by means of a switch, wherein, in the first position, said at least one main brush projects downwardly from the cleaning surface, and, in the second position the main brush is retracted.

Background

Such a nozzle is disclosed for instance in GB1468006 . The moveable brushes described therein allows the nozzle to be optimized either for cleaning of smooth floors (first position) or carpets (second position), simply by the user controlling the switch which is in the form of a pedal. One problem associated with such nozzles is how to provide the user with feedback concerning in which position the brushes currently are. The nozzle of GB1468006 therefore is provided with a window in the housing. Through the window, a cam surface is visible and rotates as the nozzle switches between the first and second positions. The cam surface is provided with symbols on the parts thereof which become visible through the window in the first and second position, respectively. Thereby, the user can determine in which position the brushes are.
That solution however is quite complex due to the provision of the window in the housing. Additionally, the symbols may under some circumstances be difficult to se for a user standing upright, for instance under poor lighting conditions.

Summary of the invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a nozzle of the initially mentioned kind which wholly or partly obviates the above mentioned problem.
EP1092380A1 discloses a vacuum cleaner head suction system including a shoe plate that forms a suction channel, two wheels disposed towards the back of the head beneath the suction pipe and two parallel brushes to the front of the head. A third brush is situated between the wheels at the entrance of the suction pipe. The brush housing can pivot the brush between active or inactive positions, when inactive the sucker contacts the floor being supported by the front brushes and the wheels, when active the front and back brushes support the suction pipe.
This object is achieved by means of a nozzle as defined in the appended claim 1. More particularly, a nozzle of the initially mentioned kind then comprises at least one auxiliary brush which is arranged to move correspondingly to said at least one main brush. The auxiliary brush projects, in the first position, towards the surface to be cleaned in an inclined manner and extends beyond the edges of the housing, such that the auxiliary brush is more readily visible from above the nozzle than in the second position.
This provides a direct feedback to the user, even without the use of symbols etc. Additionally, the auxiliary brush may enhance the cleaning efficiency in the first position.
The housing may extend transversely to the intended direction of movement of the nozzle The nozzle may comprise a first auxiliary brush, extending around the corner between the rear cleaning surface edge and the right cleaning surface edge, and a second auxiliary brush, extending around the corner between the rear cleaning surface edge and the left cleaning surface edge. This feature provides good dust collecting performance, particularly when cleaning in a floor-wall corner.
The auxiliary brush may be attached to a brush holder at an attachment position and the brush holder may be arranged to be moved downwardly by the actuation of the switch. Further, an abutment may be arranged, offset a distance from the attachment position in the direction of the closest cleaning surface edge, such that the auxiliary brush is flexed outwardly, being bent in the area between the abutment and the attachment position when the brush holder is lowered. This provides a simple, yet reliable, function for controlling the movement of the auxiliary brushes.
The switch may comprise a pedal on the nozzle.

Brief description of the drawings

Fig 1 is a perspective view of a vacuum cleaning nozzle.
Figs 2A, 2B, 2C, and 4 illustrate a vacuum cleaning nozzle with retracted brushes (second position).
Figs 3A, 3B, 3C, and 5 illustrate a vacuum cleaning nozzle with projecting brushes (first position).
Fig 6 is a side view showing the pedal of the vacuum cleaning nozzle.
Fig 7 is an enlarged view of a part of the cross section in fig 2B.
Fig 8 is an enlarged view of a part of the cross section in fig 3B.

Detailed description

Fig 1 is a perspective view of a vacuum cleaning nozzle 1. The nozzle 1 comprises a connection tube 3 allowing the nozzle to be connected to a vacuum cleaner. The nozzle further comprises a housing 5 which extends transversely to the general intended direction of movement of the nozzle, which is indicated by an arrow 7 in fig 1. The bottom side of the housing defines a cleaning surface or glide surface, facing the floor to be cleaned. In the illustrated example, the cleaning surface is generally rectangular and exhibits long front and rear edges and short left and right edges. By the rear edge is meant the edge in the direction of which a vacuum cleaner tube extends towards a vacuum source when attached to the connection tube 3.
The nozzle has a pedal 9 which can be manoeuvred between a first and a second position by a user. In the first position one or more lines of brushes projects from the cleaning surface of the nozzle and towards the surface to be cleaned. These brushes serve to maintain a minimum distance between the bottom of the nozzle housing and the floor, in order to protect the floor from being scratched, and to provide a reasonably uniform pressure in the space between the cleaning surface of the nozzle and the floor. Additionally, the bristles of the brushes serve to force dust particles into the air flow under the nozzle in an efficient manner. These brushes however are not useful when cleaning carpets. On the contrary, the friction between the nozzle and a carpet may become too high, such that it may be difficult to move the nozzle over the carpet in an efficient manner. Therefore, the user may manoeuvre the pedal into the second position whereby the brushes are retracted, such that they do not to any greater extent take part in the cleaning process and do not obstruct the movement of the nozzle over the carpet.
The switch operating the brushes is thus in this case a pedal. By a pedal, in this context, is meant any mechanism or set of mechanisms that can be manoeuvred by a user, by means of the user's foot or hand, between a first and a second position. For instance, in addition of the pedal 9 of fig 1, a lever or two buttons may be considered.
Additionally, the nozzle of fig 1 is provided with wheels 11 in order to further facilitate the movement of the nozzle over the surface to be cleaned.
The brushes extending downwards or vertically in the projecting position are hereinafter called main brushes. As initially mentioned, the nozzle of the present disclosure includes one or more auxiliary brushes which extend, in the projecting position, towards the surface to be cleaned, in an inclined manner and beyond the edges of the cleaning surface, such that the auxiliary brushes are visible from above the nozzle. Thanks to this feature, a user can immediately recognise that the brushes are in the projecting position, without looking under the nozzle or looking closely at the pedal. The function of this feature will now be discussed in more detail with reference to an example illustrated by the appended drawings.
Figs 2A, 2B, 2C, and fig 4 illustrate a vacuum cleaning nozzle with retracted brushes (second position). Fig 2A shows a plan view of the nozzle exposing the cleaning surface. Fig 2B shows a cross-section A-A trough the nozzle in fig 2A, and fig 2C shows a cross-section B-B trough the nozzle in fig 2A. Fig 4 shows a perspective view of an exposed mechanism, i.e. with the housing top removed. Figs 3A, 3B, 3C, and 5 illustrate corresponding views of a vacuum cleaning nozzle with projecting brushes (first position). Fig 6 shows a pedal of a vacuum cleaning nozzle.
Starting with fig 2A, the cleaning surface 13 of the nozzle is shown. An air opening 15 in the centre of the cleaning surface is connected to connection tube 3 (fig 1) and conveys an airflow that takes up dust particles beneath the cleaning surface 13. At the rear and front edges of the cleaning surface 13, first 17 and second 19 main brushes are located. A first 21 and a second 23 auxiliary brush is located at the right and left rear corner of the cleaning surface respectively (right and left as seen from a position a user usually has when using the nozzle). As can be seen, the first auxiliary brush 21 extends around the corner between the rear cleaning surface edge and the right cleaning surface edge. The second auxiliary brush extends around the corner between the rear cleaning surface edge and the left cleaning surface edge.
With reference to fig 6, the pedal is arranged to be attached to the housing by means of a pivot pin which extends through a first hole 27 in the pedal. The pedal is thus pivotable around a pivot axis which coincides with the first hole. A second hole 29 is arranged to accommodate a hoop, and is offset in the vertical direction (vertical as seen from the floor) from the first hole.
The pedal 9 of the nozzle operates on a hoop 25, which is best seen in figs 4 and 5. When the user operates the pedal 9, the hoop moves sideways as illustrated by the arrow 31 in fig 5. The hoop 25 is U-shaped, having a longer mid section and two shorter end sections. The pedal 9 holds one end section and the other end section is held by a hoop holder 33, which is pivotably attached to the housing, similarly as the pedal 9, such that both end sections of the hoop 25 will carry out substantially identical movements.
The hoop 25 in turn acts upon a brush holder 35 via rollers 37, which are attached to the loop end sections. The brush holder 35 comprises a first 39 and a second 41 ramp surface, which are located between end positions of the hoop end sections in the movement thereof caused by the pedal.
Therefore, as is best seen in figs 2C and 3C, when the pedal 9 is switched from the retracted position (second position, suitable for carpet cleaning) to the projecting position (first position, suitable for hard floor cleaning), the pedal forces the hoop 25 to the right as seen in fig 2C to the position illustrated in fig 3C. Thereby, the rollers 37 rise on the ramp surfaces 39, 41, such that the brush holder 35 is forced downwards. The brush holder 35 is spring loaded such that, when the pedal 9 is forced back to the original position by the user, the brush holder is forced back upwards when the rollers 37 move down over the ramp surfaces 39, 41. As illustrated, the brush holder may be provided with recesses at the end positions of the rollers, such that a snap action is provided.
Thus, the main brushes 17, 19 may be conveniently moved up and down by the user switching the pedal 9 from one position to another.
The movement of the auxiliary brushes 21, 23 are now described in greater detail with reference to figs 7 and 8, which show enlarged the cross sections of figs 2B and 3C, respectively, in the area of the auxiliary brush 21 (c.f. fig 2A).
Initially, with reference to fig 7, the auxiliary brush 21 is attached to the brush holder at an attachment position 43 (a line shown in cross-section in the illustrated case). There is further provided an abutment 45, which is attached to the housing of the nozzle. The auxiliary brush abuts the abutment when lowered. The abutment 45 is offset a distance d from the attachment position in the direction of the closest cleaning surface edge. When the brush holder is lowered, as the pedal is switched, the auxiliary brush 21 interacts with the abutment 45, such that the auxiliary brush is flexed to the right in the image, being bent in the area between the abutment and the attachment position.
Thereby, the free end of the auxiliary brush is moved outwardly and extends beyond the cleaning surface of the housing as can be seen in fig 8. As can be seen in fig 3A, the free end of the auxiliary brush 21 extends even further in the area slightly below the cross section illustrated in figs 7 and 8. Thanks to the extending auxiliary brush, the user can easily verify that the brush projects, as do the main brushes which are not visible.
The invention is not restricted to the described embodiment and may be varied and altered in different ways within the scope of the appended claims. For instance, many other mechanisms than the hoop-brush holder mechanism described above may be used, such as e.g. a wheel provided with an auxiliary brush strip along a part of its periphery, which brush strip is made to be projecting or to be retracted by turning the wheel. As a further alternative, an electric actuator may be used to move each brush.
Additionally, the auxiliary brushes may be placed anywhere along the cleaning surface periphery, not just at the corners illustrated in fig 2A.
The pedal of the illustrated embodiment may be replaced e.g. by an electric switch on another part of the vacuum cleaner. It is even possible to provide a fully automatic switching function that senses the presence or absence of a carpet beneath the cleaning surface and retracts or makes the brushes project accordingly. Such a function may be controlled by the pressure under the cleaning surface. In that case, the user controls the brushes simply by moving the nozzle from a carpet to a smooth floor. However, the auxiliary brushes still provides the user with feedback information such that the user can verify that the nozzle operates correctly.

Claims

A vacuum cleaner nozzle (1) comprising a housing (5) having a cleaning surface (13), configured to face a surface to be cleaned, the nozzle further comprising at least one main brush (17, 19) which can be moved between a first and a second position by means of a switch (9), wherein, in the first position, said at least one main brush projects downwardly from the cleaning surface, and, in the second position the main brush is retracted, the nozzle further comprising at least one auxiliary brush (21, 23) which is arranged to move correspondingly to said at least one main brush and characterized by the at least one auxiliary brush (21, 23) projects, in said first position, towards the surface to be cleaned in an inclined manner and extends beyond the housing, such that the auxiliary brush is more readily visible from above the nozzle than in the second position.
A vacuum cleaner nozzle according to claim 1, wherein the housing (5) extends transversely to the intended direction of movement (7) of the nozzle, the nozzle comprises a first auxiliary brush (21), extending around the corner between the rear cleaning surface edge and the right cleaning surface edge, and a second auxiliary brush (23), extending around the corner between the rear cleaning surface edge and the left cleaning surface edge.
A vacuum cleaner nozzle according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the auxiliary brush (21) is attached to a brush holder (35) at an attachment position (43), the brush holder (35) is arranged to be moved downwardly by the actuation of the switch (9), and an abutment (45) is arranged, offset a distance (d) from the attachment position in the direction of the closest cleaning surface edge, such that the auxiliary brush is flexed outwardly, being bent in the area between the abutment and the attachment position when the brush holder is lowered.
A vacuum cleaner according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the switch comprises a pedal (9) on the nozzle.