EP3809935A1

EP3809935A1 - Cleaning appliance

Info

Publication number: EP3809935A1
Application number: EP19811940.6A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Kietak Hyun; Jonguk HER; Sangchul Lee
Original assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Current assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Priority date: 2018-05-31
Filing date: 2019-05-21
Publication date: 2021-04-28
Also published as: WO2019231157A1; KR102074288B1; TW202000110A; US20210137336A1; EP3809935A4; TWI728366B; KR20190136643A

Abstract

A cleaning appliance comprises a housing provided in a hollow cylinder shape, having an intake unit and an exhaust unit; a fan provided to include an impeller located in the housing, a rotary shaft to which the impeller is fixed, and a motor rotating the rotary shaft, moving the air entering the housing through the intake unit to the exhaust unit; a particle separator provided inside the housing to provide a path for guiding the air entering the intake unit to the impeller, separating particles from the air by using a centrifugal force; a battery housing located at a point spaced apart from a pint where the intake unit is located, as much as 180°, in a space provided by a circumferential surface of the housing and protruded to be far away from the circumferential surface of the housing; a battery provided in the battery housing, supplying a power to the motor; and a handle provided to connect the circumferential surface of the housing with the battery housing, wherein the rotary shaft is inclined at an angle greater than 0° and smaller than 90° toward a direction where the handle is located based on a vertical line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.

Description

CLEANING APPLIANCE

The present invention relates to a cleaning appliance.

A cleaning appliance is an appliance for cleaning the indoor by sucking particles such as dust. It is general that a conventional cleaning appliance comprises a housing provided with an intake unit and an exhaust unit, a fan for moving the air entering the intake unit to the exhaust unit, a separator for separating particles from the air moving by the fan, a battery for supplying a power to the fan, and a handle provided in the housing.

Meanwhile, the conventional cleaning apparatus has a problem in that the center of gravity of the appliance is formed at a position far away from the handle because the intake unit is provided on a front surface of the housing, the handle is provided on a rear surface of the housing and the separator and the fan, which are heavy parts, are provided inside the housing.

The case that the center of gravity of the cleaning appliance is far away from the handle means that the center of gravity of the cleaning appliance is far away from a user's wrist, and if the center of gravity of the cleaning appliance is far away from a user's wrist, a problem occurs in that a big force is required for direction switching or position change of the cleaning appliance.

Also, the fan provided in the conventional cleaning appliance is generally provided to discharge the air toward the handle. However, in this case, since the air is discharged to the user's hands which are gripping the handle, a problem occurs in that displeasure is caused to the user.

An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning appliance of which handling is easy.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning appliance which is capable of preventing the air from being discharged toward a user's hands.

The present invention provides a cleaning appliance comprising a housing provided in a hollow cylinder shape, having an intake unit and an exhaust unit; a fan provided to include an impeller located in the housing, a rotary shaft to which the impeller is fixed, and a motor rotating the rotary shaft, moving the air entering the housing through the intake unit to the exhaust unit; a particle separator provided inside the housing to provide a path for guiding the air entering the intake unit to the impeller, separating particles from the air by using a centrifugal force; a battery housing located at a point spaced apart from a pint where the intake unit is located, as much as 180°, in a space provided by a circumferential surface of the housing and protruded to be far away from the circumferential surface of the housing; a battery provided in the battery housing, supplying a power to the motor; and a handle provided to connect the circumferential surface of the housing with the battery housing, wherein the rotary shaft is inclined at an angle greater than 0° and smaller than 90° toward a direction where the handle is located based on a vertical line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.

The rotary shaft may be provided to be inclined at an angle of 30° to 60° toward a direction where the handle is located based on a straight line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.

The rotary shaft may be provided to be inclined at an angle of 45° toward a direction where the handle is located based on a straight line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.

The housing may include a first housing providing a space in which the particle separator is stored, provided with the intake unit on a circumferential surface; a second housing providing a space in which the fan is stored, inclined from an upper end of the first housing toward a direction where the handle is located; a first cover provided to open or close a lower surface of the first housing; and a second cover provided to open or close an upper surface of the second housing and provided with the exhaust unit.

The angle of the second housing inclined toward the handle based on the vertical line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator is set to be equal to the angle of the rotary shaft inclined toward the handle.

The handle may include a bar shaped handle body extended from the battery housing toward the second housing; and a bar shaped connection body connecting the handle body with a circumferential surface of the second housing.

A length of the battery from the circumferential surface of the first housing toward a direction headed for the handle may be set to be longer than a length of the battery toward a height direction of the first housing and a length of the battery toward a diameter direction of the first housing.

The center of gravity of the fan may be located between the center of gravity of the particle separator and the center of gravity of the battery, and the center of gravity of the battery may be located between the center of gravity of the fan and the center of gravity of the handle.

The center of gravity of the fan may be located above a reference line passing through the center of the intake unit, the center of gravity of the particle separator and the center of gravity of the battery may be located below the reference line, and the center of gravity of the handle may be located on the reference line or below the reference line.

The center of gravity of the fan, the center of gravity of the particle separator, the center of gravity of the battery and the center of gravity of the handle may all be located on a single vertical line that includes the reference line.

The particle separator may include a partition provided inside the housing, partitioning the first housing and the second housing from each other; a partition through hole provided to pass through the partition; chamber bodies provided in a hollow cylinder shape, having one end fixed to the partition and the other end which is in contact with the first cover, and partitioning an inner space of the first housing into a first chamber communicated with the intake unit and a second chamber communicated with the partition through hole; a body partition partitioning an inner space of the second chamber into a first space communicated with the partition through hole and a second space which is not communicated with the partition through hole; a communication hole provided to pass through the chamber bodies to communicate the first space with the first chamber; a path body provided in a pipe surrounding the partition through hole, having one end fixed to the partition and the other end communicated with the second space by passing through the body partition; a discharge pipe provided as a pipe extended from the partition through hole toward the body partition and provided inside the path body; an inlet provided to pass through the path body, guiding the air supplied to the communication hole to the inside the path body; and an air flow forming portion provided in a screw shape between the discharge pipe and the path body, rotating the air entering the inlet inside the path body.

The fan may include a case provided in the second housing, storing the impeller therein; a case intake hole provided on one surface of the case headed for the partition through hole to allow the air to enter the inside of the case; and a case exhaust hole provided on one surface of the case headed for the exhaust unit to discharge the air inside the case to the outside.

The cleaning appliance of the present invention may further comprise a first filter located between the partition through hole and the case intake hole, filtering the air; and a second filter located between the case exhaust hole and the exhaust unit to filter the air, wherein the second filter may be provided to filter particles smaller than those filtered by the first filter.

The present invention may provide a cleaning appliance that improves a user's convenience (handling) by decentering the center of gravity of components constituting the cleaning appliance based on a user's wrist.

Also, the present invention may provide a cleaning appliance which is capable of preventing the air from being discharged toward a user's hands.

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an example of a cleaning appliance of the present invention.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate an example of a particle separator provided in the present invention.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrates the center of gravity of main components constituting a cleaning appliance of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to drawings and embodiments, which specifically specify components of the present invention but are used to assist understanding of the present invention.

Also, specific components in the following embodiment may be exaggerated or downsized for convenience of description and understanding. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described below, and various corrections and modifications may be made from the embodiment by the person with ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains.

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate an example of a cleaning appliance 100 of the present invention. The cleaning appliance of the present invention comprises a housing 1 provided in a hollow cylinder shape, an intake unit 15 and an exhaust unit 17 provided in the housing 1, a fan 5 (see FIG. 2) provided inside the housing, moving the air from the intake unit 15 to the exhaust unit 17, a particle separator 4 (see FIG. 3) guiding the air entering the intake unit 15 to the fan 5 and separating particles from the air by using a centrifugal force, and a handle 8 provided in the housing 1 to allow a user to grip it.

The handle 8 may be provided to be located at a point (point spaced as much as 180°) symmetrical to a point, in which the intake unit 15 is located, from a space provided by a circumferential surface of the housing 1.

The housing 1 may include a first housing 11 providing a space in which the particle separator 4 is stored, and a second housing 13 provided to be communicated with the first housing 11, providing a space in which the fan 5 is stored. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a case that the second housing 13 is located above the first housing 11.

The first housing 11 and the second housing 13 may be provided in a hollow cylinder shape, and the second housing 13 may be provided to be inclined from an upper end of the first housing 11 toward a direction (direction of a position of the handle) opposite to a position of the intake unit 15.

The intake unit 15 is provided on a circumferential surface of the first housing 11 to allow the external air to enter the inside of the first housing. As shown in FIG. 2, the intake unit 15 may include an intake hole 153 provided to pass through the first housing 11, and an intake pipe 151 extended from the intake hole 153 toward a direction (direction far away from the handle, Y-axis direction) far away from the center of the first housing 11.

Although not shown, the cleaning appliance of the present invention may further include an extension pipe detachably provided in the intake pipe 151, and a nozzle provided on a free end of the extension pipe to move particles to the extension pipe.

The exhaust unit 17 is provided to pass through an upper surface or a circumferential surface of the second housing 13 and discharges the air inside the second housing 13 to the outside. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a case that the exhaust unit 17 is provided on the upper surface of the second housing 13.

The exhaust unit 17 may include an upper through hole 171 (see FIG. 1) provided to pass through the upper surface of the second housing 13, a cover 173 (second cover) provided to open or close the upper through hole, and an exhaust hole 175 provided to pass through the second cover.

Since the second housing 13 is provided to be inclined toward the handle 8 and the exhaust hole 175 is located on the upper surface of the second housing 13, the air discharged through the exhaust hole 175 is not headed for the handle 8.

If the exhaust unit 17 is provided on the circumferential surface of the second housing 13, the exhaust unit 17 may be provided with a plurality of exhaust holes passing through the circumferential surface of the second housing 13. In this case, the exhaust holes should be provided in an area, which is opposite to the position of the handle 8, in a space provided by the circumferential surface of the second housing 13. This is to allow the air discharged from the exhaust hole to prevent from being headed for the handle 8.

As shown in FIG. 1, the first housing 11 may further be provided with a discharge unit 18 for discharging particles stored in the housing 1 to the outside. The discharge unit 18 may include a lower through hole 181 provided to pass through a bottom surface (one surface of the first housing located to be opposite to the exhaust hole) of the first housing 11, and a cover 183 (first cover) for opening or closing the lower through hole.

The first cover 183 may rotatably be provided in the first housing 11. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, a shaft 12 forming a rotation center of the first cover and a fastening unit 14 provided to face the shaft 12 may be provided on the circumferential surface of the first housing 11, and a first fastening unit 185 coupled to the shaft 12 and a second fastening unit 187 provided on a free end of the first cover 183 and detachably coupled to the fastening unit 14 may be provided in the first cover 183.

Moreover, a sealing portion 189 compressed between the first housing 11 and the first cover 183 when the lower through hole 181 is closed may further be provided in the first cover 183. Preferably, the sealing portion 189 is made of an elastic body such as rubber.

As described above, the fan 5 is provided in the second housing 13 to move the air of the housing 1 to the exhaust unit 17, and the particle separator 4 is provided in the first housing 11 and provides a path for guiding the air entering the intake unit 15 to the fan 5. Particles such as dust contained in the air are separated from the air by a centrifugal force while the particle separator 4 is moving to the fan 5 along the path. A detailed structure of the particle separator is as follows.

The particle separator 4 includes a chamber forming portion 41 for forming a first chamber 41a and a second chamber 41b inside the first housing 1, and a cyclone forming portion 42 for forming an air current arousing a centrifugal force while supplying the air inside the second chamber 41b to the fan 5.

The chamber forming portion 41 may include a partition 411 provided inside the housing 1, partitioning the first housing 1 and the second housing 13 from each other, chamber bodies 413 and 415 provided as a cylinder having one end fixed to the partition 411 and the other end which is in contact with the first cover 183, partitioning an inner space of the first housing into two chambers 41a and 41b, and a body partition 417 for partitioning the second chamber 41b formed inside the chamber body 415 into a first space 418 and a second space 419.

The partition 411 may be provided even in any shape that can partition the inner space of the first housing from an inner space of the second housing. The partition 411 is provided with a partition through hole 412 provided to pass through the partition.

The chamber bodies may be provided as a first body 413 fixed to the partition 411 and a second body 415 fixed to the first body. In this case, the partition through hole 412 should be provided to communicate the second chamber 41b with the inner space of the second housing. That is, the first body 413 should be provided in a shape surrounding the partition through hole 412.

The first body 413 and the second body 415 may be provided in a hollow cylinder shape, and the second body 415 may be provided such that its one end is fixed to a free end of the first body 413 and its other end is in contact with the sealing portion 183 of the first cover.

A plurality of communication holes 414 for communicating the first chamber 41a with the first space 418 are provided on a circumferential surface of the first body 413. Therefore, the air entering the first chamber 41a through the intake unit 15 may be supplied to the first space 418 of the second chamber 41b through the communication holes 414.

A discharge hole 416 (see FIG. 3) is provided on one surface of the second body 415 which is in contact with the sealing portion 189 of the first cover. The particles stored in the second body 415 may be discharged to the outside of the housing through the discharge hole 416 when the first cover body opens the lower through hole 181.

The body partition 417 is fixed to any one of the first body 413 and the second body 415 to partition the inside of the second chamber 41b into two spaces 418 and 419. The first space 418 is a space communicated with the partition through hole 412, and the second space 419 is a space which is not communicated with the partition through hole 412.

As shown in FIG. 3, the cyclone forming portion 42 may include a path body 421 of which one end is fixed to the partition 411 and the other end is communicated with the second space 419 by passing through the body partition 417, a discharge pipe 424 located inside the path body 421 and communicated with the partition through hole 412, an inlet 423 provided to pass through a circumferential surface of the path body 421, and an air flow forming portion 425 provided between an outer circumferential surface of the discharge pipe 424 and an inner circumferential surface of the path body.

The path body 421 is provided as a pipe surrounding the partition through hole 412, and the discharge pipe 424 is located inside the path body 421. The path body 421 is communicated with the second space 419 through a particle discharge hole 422 provided one a free end (bottom surface of the path body). The path body 421 may be provided to have a diameter which becomes smaller toward the free end. This is to strongly maintain intensity of the air flow formed in the path body 421.

The air flow forming portion 425 is provided in a screw shape, and the inlet 423 is located to be higher than the air flow forming portion 425. Therefore, the air entering the path body 421 through the inlet 423 when the fan 5 is operated will move (cyclone movement) to be rotated inside the path body 421 in the middle of moving to the discharge pipe 424 through the air flow forming portion 425.

If cyclone movement occurs inside the path body 421, the particles contained in the air move to a rim (the circumferential surface of the path body) of the path by means of a centrifugal force and then will be discharged to the second space 419 by means of gravity.

Unlike the shown drawing, the inlet 423 may be provided as a hole provided to pass through an upper surface of the path body 421. In this case, an upper end of the path body 421 should be provided to be spaced apart from the partition 411 without being fixed to the partition 411. Since the path body 421 is fixed to the partition 411 through the air flow forming portion 425 and the discharge pipe 424, the path body 421 may maintain a state fixed to the partition 411 even though the upper end of the path body 421 is spaced apart from the partition 411.

The cyclone forming portion 42 having the aforementioned structure may be provided with a plurality of cyclone forming portions. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a particle separator 4 provided with nine cyclone forming portions 42.

As shown in FIG. 2, the fan 5 may include a case 51 provided in the second housing 13, an impeller 57 rotatably provided inside the case, and a motor 54 fixed to the case, rotating the impeller 57.

The case 51 is provided with a case intake hole 511 and a case exhaust hole 513, and it is preferable that the case intake hole 511 is provided on one surface of the case 51 headed for the partition through hole 412 and the case exhaust hole 513 is provided to pass through one surface of the case 51 headed for the exhaust hole 175. This is to minimize path resistance between the partition through hole 412 and the exhaust hole 175.

The motor 54 is fixed to a support 515 provided in the case 51. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a case that the support 515 is located between the case intake hole 511 and the case exhaust hole 513 and a rotary shaft 545 is connected to the impeller 57 by passing through the support 515. That is, the motor 54 may include a fixed unit 541 fixed to the support 515, a stator 543 provided inside the fixed unit, and a permanent magnet 546 fixed to a free end (one of a rotary shaft located inside the fixed unit) of the rotary shaft 545.

The motor 54 may be provided to be supplied with a power through a power source provided indoor, or may be provided to be supplied with a power through the battery 7 detachably provided in the housing 1.

Meanwhile, for filtering particles which are not removed through the particle separator 4, the present invention may further include at least one of a first filter 91 and a second filter 92. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a case that the first filter 91 and the second filter 92 are provided in the cleaning appliance 100 of the present invention.

The first filter 91 may be located between the second communication hole 19 and the case intake hole 511 and provided to filter the air, and the second filter 92 may be located between the case exhaust hole 513 and the exhaust hole 163 and provided to filter the air.

The first filter 91 and the second filter 92 may be provided to filter particles having the same size, or may be provided to filter particles having different sizes. In the latter case, it is preferable that the second filter 92 filters particles smaller than those filtered by the first filter 91. This is to minimize the amount of fine dust discharged to an indoor space.

Hereinafter, an operation process of the cleaning appliance having the aforementioned structure will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

If a power is supplied to the motor 54 to rotate the impeller 57, the air enters the first chamber 41a through the intake pipe 151 and the intake hole 153. A guide 155 for allowing the air discharged from the intake hole 153 to enter the first chamber 41a along a tangent direction of a circumferential surface of the first chamber 41a is provided in the intake pipe 151. Therefore, the air entering the first chamber 41a will cyclone move along the circumferential surface of the first chamber 41a.

If the air cyclone moves inside the first chamber 41a, particles will move to the circumferential surface of the first chamber 41a by a centrifugal force and then move to the first cover 183 provided on the bottom surface of the first housing by gravity, and the air will enter the second chamber 41b through the communication holes 414.

The air entering the second chamber 41b moves to the path body 421 through the inlet 423, and the air entering the path body 421 will cyclone move during the process of passing through the air flow forming portion 425.

If cyclone movement occurs in the path body 421, the particles contained in the air move to the circumferential surface of the path body 421 by a centrifugal force and then discharged to the second space 419 by gravity, and the air will be discharged to the outside of the housing 1 through the discharge pipe 424, the partition through hole 412, the case intake hole 511, the case exhaust hole 513, and the exhaust hole 175.

A user may remove the particles collected in the second space 419 and the first chamber 41a by rotating the first chamber 183 to open the lower through hole 181.

As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 5, it is preferable that a straight line V2 passing through the center of gravity G2 of the fan 5 is provided to be inclined at an angle A greater than 0° and smaller than 90° based on a straight line V1 passing through the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator. That is, it is preferable that the rotary shaft 545 is provided to be inclined at an angle A greater than 0° and smaller than 90° based on a straight line V1 passing through the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator toward a direction where the handle 8 is located.

If the rotary shaft 545 is provided in a direction orthogonal to the straight line V1 passing through the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator, the air may be discharged toward a direction where the handle 8 is located, whereby problems may occur in that displeasure is caused to a user and fine dust is sprayed to a user.

Meanwhile, if the particle separator 4 and the fan 5 are located up and down and thus the rotary shaft 545 is located on a straight line V1 passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator 4, a problem may occur in that the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator and the center of gravity G2 of the fan are all located in front of the handle 8. The case that the center of gravity of the cleaning apparatus is far away from the handle 8 means that the center of gravity of the cleaning apparatus is located to be far away from the user's wrist, and if the center of gravity of the cleaning appliance is far away from the user's wrist, a problem occurs in that a big force is required for direction switching or position change of the cleaning appliance.

The angle A set in the rotary shaft 545 may solve the above two problems. That is, since the angle of the rotary shaft 545 is smaller than 90°, the air is not discharged to the direction where the handle 8 is located.

Also, since the center of gravity G2 of the fan is close to the handle 8, if the angle A of the rotary shaft with respect to the straight line V1 passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator is 0°, the center of gravity of the cleaning appliance may move to the direction where the handle 8 is located. Therefore, the user may handle the cleaning appliance 100 by using a relatively small force.

Meanwhile, it is preferable that an angle of the second housing 13 inclined toward the handle with respect to a vertical line passing through the center of the first housing 11 is set to be equal to the angle A of the rotary shaft 545 inclined toward the straight line V1 (straight line orthogonal to the first cover) passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.

However, it is preferable that the inclined angle A of the rotary shaft 545 with respect to the straight line V1 passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator is set to 30° or more and 60° or less. This is because that it is difficult to expect a big difference from the conventional cleaning appliance having an incline angle of 0° if the inclined angle A is less than 30° and it is difficult to expect a big difference from the conventional cleaning appliance having an incline angle of 90° if the inclined angle A is 60° or more.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a case that an inclined angle A of the rotary shaft 545 with respect to the straight line V1 passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator is set to 45°. According to an experiment, in this case, it is evaluated that load felt by a user in handling of the cleaning appliance is the lowest.

As described above, the motor 54 provided in the fan may be provided to be supplied with a power through the battery 7 detachably provided in the housing 1. In this case, the circumferential surface of the first housing 1 should be provided with a battery housing 6 for storing the battery 7.

The battery housing 6 provided in the present invention is located at a point (spaced point of 180°) located to be opposite to the point where the intake unit 15 is located, in the space provided by the circumferential surface of the first housing 11. Also, the battery housing 6 is provided to be protruded toward a direction far away from the circumferential surface of the first housing 11.

The battery 7 may detachably be inserted into the battery housing 6 through an insertion hole 61 (see FIG. 1) provided to pass through a bottom surface of the battery housing 6 a side of the battery housing 6.

In this case, one end of the handle 8 may be fixed to the circumferential surface of the second housing 13 and the other end of the handle 8 may be fixed to an upper surface of the battery housing 6. That is, the handle 8 may include a bar shaped handle body 81 extended from the battery housing 6 toward the second housing 13 and a bar shaped connection body 83 connecting the handle body 81 to the circumferential surface of the second housing 13.

The handle body 81 may be provided to have an inclined angle of 70° to 80° with respect to a reference line L1 passing through the center of the intake unit. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a case that a straight line L2 passing through the center of the handle body 81 has an inclined angle of 75° with respect to the reference line L1.

If a height of the battery housing 6 is increased, since a length of the handle body 81 may be reduced to cause inconvenience of a user, it is preferable that a length (length of Y-axis directional battery) of the battery 7 from the circumferential surface of the first housing 11 to a direction where the handle body 81 is located is set to be longer than a length (length of Z-axis directional battery) of the battery 7 with respect to a height direction of the first housing 11 and a length (length of X-axis directional battery) of the battery with respect to a diameter direction of the first housing 11.

Moreover, it is preferable that the center of gravity G2 of the fan is located between the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator and the center of gravity G3 of the battery and the center of gravity G3 of the battery may be provided to be located between the center of gravity G2 of the fan and the center of gravity G4 of the handle 8. This is to allow a user to handle the cleaning appliance by using a small force by arranging each of the centers of gravities G1, G2 and G3 to be closed to the center of gravity G4 of the handle.

Meanwhile, even though the center of gravity G2 of the fan is located between the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator and the center of gravity G3 of the battery and the center of gravity G3 of the battery is located between the center of gravity G2 of the fan and the center of gravity G4 of the handle, if the centers of gravities G1, G2 and G3 of the fan, the particle separator and the battery are located on one straight line, the center of gravity of the cleaning appliance will be far away from the handle 8.

Therefore, it is preferable that the center of gravity G2 of the fan is located above the reference line L1 passing through the center of the intake unit 15 and the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator and the center of gravity G3 of the battery are located below the reference line L1 passing through the center of the intake unit.

However, the center of gravity G4 of the handle may be located on the reference line L1 passing through the center of the intake unit, or may be located below the reference line L1 passing through the center of the intake unit.

Also, as shown in FIG. 6, it is preferable that the center of gravity G2 of the fan, the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator, the center of gravity G3 of the battery, and the center of gravity G4 of the handle are provided on a single plane (height directional section of the cleaning apparatus). That is, it is preferable that the center of gravity G2 of the fan, the center of gravity G1 of the particle separator, the center of gravity G3 of the battery, and the center of gravity G4 of the handle are all located on a single vertical surface including a straight line passing through the center of the intake unit. This is because that the case that the centers of gravities G1, G2, G3 and G4 are all located on a height directional section (Z-axis direction) of the cleaning apparatus is more favorable for handling of the cleaning apparatus.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the invention. Thus, the above embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention should be determined by reasonable interpretation of the appended claims and all change which comes within the equivalent scope of the invention are included in the scope of the invention.

Claims

A cleaning appliance comprising:

a housing provided in a hollow cylinder shape, having an intake unit and an exhaust unit;

a fan provided to include an impeller located in the housing, a rotary shaft to which the impeller is fixed, and a motor rotating the rotary shaft, moving the air entering the housing through the intake unit to the exhaust unit;

a particle separator provided inside the housing to provide a path for guiding the air entering the intake unit to the impeller, separating particles from the air by using a centrifugal force;

a battery housing located at a point spaced apart from a pint where the intake unit is located, as much as 180°, in a space provided by a circumferential surface of the housing and protruded to be far away from the circumferential surface of the housing;

a battery provided in the battery housing, supplying a power to the motor; and

a handle provided to connect the circumferential surface of the housing with the battery housing,

wherein the rotary shaft is inclined at an angle greater than 0°and smaller than 90°toward a direction where the handle is located based on a vertical line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.
The cleaning appliance of claim 1, wherein the rotary shaft is inclined at an angle of 30° to 60° toward a direction where the handle is located based on a straight line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.
The cleaning appliance of claim 1, wherein the rotary shaft is inclined at an angle of 45° toward a direction where the handle is located based on a straight line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator.
The cleaning appliance of claim 1, wherein the housing includes:

a first housing providing a space in which the particle separator is stored, provided with the intake unit on a circumferential surface;

a second housing providing a space in which the fan is stored, inclined from an upper end of the first housing toward a direction where the handle is located;

a first cover provided to open or close a lower surface of the first housing; and

a second cover provided to open or close an upper surface of the second housing and provided with the exhaust unit.
The cleaning appliance of claim 1, wherein the angle of the second housing inclined toward the handle based on the vertical line passing through the center of gravity of the particle separator is set to be equal to the angle of the rotary shaft inclined toward the handle.
The cleaning appliance of claim 5, wherein the handle includes:

a bar shaped handle body extended from the battery housing toward the second housing; and

a bar shaped connection body connecting the handle body with a circumferential surface of the second housing.
The cleaning appliance of claim 5, wherein a length of the battery from the circumferential surface of the first housing toward a direction headed for the handle is set to be longer than a length of the battery toward a height direction of the first housing and a length of the battery toward a diameter direction of the first housing.
The cleaning appliance of claim 5, wherein the center of gravity of the fan is located between the center of gravity of the particle separator and the center of gravity of the battery, and the center of gravity of the battery is located between the center of gravity of the fan and the center of gravity of the handle.
The cleaning appliance of claim 8, wherein the center of gravity of the fan is located above a reference line passing through the center of the intake unit, the center of gravity of the particle separator and the center of gravity of the battery are located below the reference line, and the center of gravity of the handle is located on the reference line or below the reference line.
The cleaning appliance of claim 9, wherein the center of gravity of the fan, the center of gravity of the particle separator, the center of gravity of the battery and the center of gravity of the handle are all located on a single vertical line that includes the reference line.
The cleaning appliance of claim 4, wherein the particle separator includes:

a partition provided inside the housing, partitioning the first housing and the second housing from each other;

a partition through hole provided to pass through the partition;

chamber bodies provided in a hollow cylinder shape, having one end fixed to the partition and the other end which is in contact with the first cover, and partitioning an inner space of the first housing into a first chamber communicated with the intake unit and a second chamber communicated with the partition through hole;

a body partition partitioning an inner space of the second chamber into a first space communicated with the partition through hole and a second space which is not communicated with the partition through hole;

a communication hole provided to pass through the chamber bodies to communicate the first space with the first chamber;

a path body provided in a pipe surrounding the partition through hole, having one end fixed to the partition and the other end communicated with the second space by passing through the body partition;

a discharge pipe provided as a pipe extended from the partition through hole toward the body partition and provided inside the path body;

an inlet provided to pass through the path body, guiding the air supplied to the communication hole to the inside the path body; and

an air flow forming portion provided in a screw shape between the discharge pipe and the path body, rotating the air entering the inlet inside the path body.
The cleaning appliance of claim 11, wherein the fan includes:

a case provided in the second housing, storing the impeller therein;

a case intake hole provided on one surface of the case headed for the partition through hole to allow the air to enter the inside of the case; and

a case exhaust hole provided on one surface of the case headed for the exhaust unit to discharge the air inside the case to the outside.
The cleaning appliance of claim 12, further comprising:

a first filter located between the partition through hole and the case intake hole, filtering the air; and

a second filter located between the case exhaust hole and the exhaust unit to filter the air,

wherein the second filter is provided to filter particles smaller than those filtered by the first filter.