GB2098055A

GB2098055A - Suction cleaners

Info

Publication number: GB2098055A
Application number: GB8113955A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Hoover Ltd
Current assignee: Hoover Ltd
Priority date: 1981-05-07
Filing date: 1981-05-07
Publication date: 1982-11-17

Abstract

A suction cleaner has an upright casing 14 provided with a door 20 on which filter bags are mounted and a pivotable tube 42 having an outlet 50 provided with a seal 52 and a bag latching assembly 60, which automatically engages a collar 32 of a filter bag as the door is closed and transfers the filter bag from the door to the tube 42 in sealing relationship therewith. When the door is closed and the cleaner used, dirt-laden air exhausts up tube 42 into the bag, inflation of the bag being accommodated by rearward pivotal movement of the tube 42. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Suction cleaners This invention relates to suction cleaners of the type which incorporate a disposable dirt bag usually made of porous paper. Many suction cleaners of this type have been manufactured and proposed but not manufactured in which the paper bags are manually inserted and removed from a cleaner casing. Generally speaking this involves awkward manual manipulation of the bag both during removal and insertion and the user finds it difficult to keep his or her hands clean during this operation.

U.S. specification 2646855 (Senne) proposes a filter replacement mechanism for a vacuum cleaner in which a filled bag is manually removed from a casing after the casing has automatically moved to an open position. As the operator manually moves the casing back to its closed position the mechanisms therein will automatically release the lowermost of a reserve of fresh filter units and permit one of the units to drop in a swinging motion downward into a position occupied by the previously removed filter bag. This construction does not however provide for automatic securement of a filter bag in an operative position in relation to an air conduit.

German specification 2139671 (Siemens) also discloses a construction in which a reserve of filter bags is shown but there is no reference as to how the bags are secured in position in the cleaner in their operative position.

According to one aspect of the present invention a suction cleaner has a bag carrier and a bag mount which are relatively movable towards one anotherto cause securing means automatically to secure a bag on the bag mount with an opening of the bag in sealing engagement with an air conduit, whereafter the bag carrier and the bag mount are relatively separable to permit the bag to expand between the bag carrier and the bag mount. Conveniently the bag carrier acts as a magazine to receive a plurality of bags and the bag carrier may be movable between an open position with respect to a casing to permit with drawl of a full bag, and a bag transfer position in which a bag on the carrier is addressed to the bag mount.The bag mount may be movable between a bag loading/bag unloading position and an operative position to which the bag is carried by the bag mount away from the bag carrier. In this case the bag mount, in the bag loading position, has latch portions of the securing means engaging opposite sides of a bag collar provided on the bag.

At least one latch portion is preferably biased to a latching position by a stationary cam against which the latch portion engages during movement of the bag mount towards its operative position. The bag collar may have the bag opening aligned therewith and the collar, in the bag loading position, is engaged by a hook on the bag mount. The bag mount preferably has an annular seal arranged to be compressed by movement of the bag collar when the bag carrier is moved to the bag transfer position.

In order to position the bag for unloading qt a convenient location the bag mount may be returnable from its operative position to the bag unloading pos ition by movement of bag carrier.

One of the latch portions may be relased automat ically on movement of the bag mount to the unload ing position whilst the other latch portion remains engaged with the bag collar.

Specifically the cleaner may be of an upright type and the bag mount comprises a tube extending upwards within an outer casing, the air conduit being formed at the upper end of the tube and the tube being pivotally mounted about a horizontal axis. Thus the bag carrier may comprise a door to the outer casing which is pivoted to the remainder of the casing about an axis extending parallel to said horizontal axis.

According to another aspect of the present invention a suction cleaner has a bag mount which is arranged to receive a dirt bag in sealing relationship to an air conduit, the air conduit being movable between the bag receiving position in which a bag may be addressed to the mount and a bag-latched position in which the bag is secured to the bag mount, and latching means carried by the air conduit and arranged automatically to secure the bag to the bag mount as the air conduit is moved between the bag receiving position and the bag-latched position.

The invention may be carried into practice in a number of ways but one specific embodiment will now be described by way of example with refernece to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an upright suction cleaner with a door in an open position and with certain parts broken away to illustrate the invention, Figure 2 is a perspective view of a paper bag with a cardboard collar secured thereto which is utilised in the cleaner of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a sectional side elevation of the cleaner of Figure 1 with its door partially closed, Figure 4 is an enlarged sectional side elevation showing a stage of closure slightly beyond the position of Figure 3, Figure 5 is a front elevation of the cleaner with a bag collar in the position of Figure 4, Figure 6 is a sectional side elevation showing the bag collar partially engaged by a pair of latches, Figure 7 illustrates the arrangement with the door fully closed and the paper bag, engaged by the latches, beginning to expand, Figure 8 illustrates the bag fully expanded, Figure 9 shows the door open and the bag drawn forward towards a removal position but still engaged by the latches, and Figure 10 illustrates a stage slightly beyond Figure 9 in which the bag is ready to be removed by hand from the cleaner.

The embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings is applied to a fairly conventional upright cleaner having a lower casing 10 housing a motor fan unit which is arranged to drive an agitator situated at a forward suction nozzle 11. The cleaner has a pair of forward wheels not shown and a pair of rear wheels 12.

Extending upwards from the rear of the casing 10 is a further upright generally rectangular casing 14 of a rigid nature and which is surmounted by a handle 16. The casing 14 is secured in its upright position of Figure 1 by a latch, not shown, which can be released by a foot pedal 18.

The casing 14 has a door 20 extending the full height of the front thereof and which is shown in a pivoted open position in Figure 1. The door carries three tongues 22, 24 and 26 for mounting a series of five paper bags of the type shown in Figure 2. Each bag comprises a folded and glued paper bag 30 made of conventional material which filters dirt from an air stream which passes through the porous wall of the bag. The bag has a cardboard mounting collar 32 provided with an oval opening 34. The collar has slots 36,38 and 40 to receive the tongues 22,24 and 26 respectively. The tongues 22 and 26 each have a hook 27 whilst the tongue 24 is of a resilient nature to permit its free end to flex up and down. The door 20 thus acts as a magazine containing five bags with the cardboard collars 32 facing rearwards.In accordance with the present invention, closing of the door from the position of Figure 1 automatically latches the rearmost bag collar onto a mechanism contained within the casing 14 in a manner to be described.

For this purpose the casing 14 has extending upwardly therein an exhaust air fill tube 42 of a rigid tubular nature connected at its lower end by a bellows, not shown, to an exhaust opening extending from the outlet of the motor fan unit. The fill tube 42 is arranged to pivot about a horizontal axis 44 at its lower end. Slightly above the pivot 44 the door 20 is interconnected with the front of the fill tube 42 by means of a strap 46 formed in three sections 46A, 46B and 46C interconnected by living hinges.

The fill tube 42 extends upwards within the casing 14 and terminates in a forwardly extending circular outlet 50 which is surrounded by a circular seal 52 formed of foam plastics. Upstanding from the top forward edge of the circular opening 50 is an arcuate hook 54. The hook 54 is not secured to the seal 52 so that, as will be described, a cardboard collar 32 of a bag can firstly be addressed up against the seal 52 as shown in Figure 3 thereafter the seal can be compressed to the position shown in Figure 4 at which time the collar 32 of the bag lies in a plane slightly behind the hood 54. The bag and collar achieve this position during the closing movement of the door to the position of Figure 4.

Secured to or moulded integrally with the rear upper end of the fill tube 42 is a bag latching assembly generally indicated at 60 and which includes a plate 62 which is connected, via a living hinge 64, to an upper latch member 66 which includes a generally horizontal portion 66A and a downwardly turned latch hook 66B together with a rear upstanding tab 66C. The member 66 is completed by a pair of vertical webs 66D shown most clearly in Figure 1. In Figures 1 and 4 the upper end of the tab 66C is engaged in a downwardly facing notch 68 of a spring latch 70 which forms part of an inverted U shaped channel 72 which has an upper web 74 and a pair of side webs 76.The spring latch 70 has its rear end integral with the web 74 but its sides are separated from the side webs 76 to enable the spring latch 70 to move upwards and downwards, for example, to the position shown in Figure 6.

The latching assembly 60, at its lower end, includes a lower latching member 80 which comprises a generally rectangular horizontally extending frame which, as shown in Figure 1, includes a portion 80A lying to the rear of the fill tube 42, a pair of side portions 80B and an L-shaped forward portion 800 which includes an upstanding latch hook 80D, which, as will be described, is arranged to engage in front of the lower edge of the cardboard collar 32.

The latching member 80 is completed by an upstanding portion 80E which is connected via a living hinge 82 with the latching assembly 60.

In order to guide the fill tube and the latch assembly 60 in an arcuate movement about the hinge 44 without twisting, a pair of cam members 86 and 88 extend forwardly from the rear wall of the casing 14 to engage the undersurfaces of the sides 80B of the latching member 80. In a similar mannerthe upper end of the assembly is guided by means of the upper surfaces of the vertical webs 66D which engage the under side of the U shaped channel 74.

Figure 1 shows the position of the door in its most open condition at which time the magazine of bags carried by the door 20 will be well clear of the seal 52 at the top of the fill tube 42. In Figure 1 the fill tube is limited in its forward movement by a plate 41. Figure 3 illustrates the door in a partially closed position at which the rearmost bag has its cardboard collar 32 about to touch the seal 52. Figure 4 illustrates a slightly more rearward position of the door 20 when the pressure of the user closing the door causes a web 21 on the door to compress the bags on the door so that the collar 32 of the rear bag compresses the seal 52, at which stage the collar 32 lies in a plane behind the hook 54 as has been described.

Further closing movement of the door 20 causes the fill tube 42 to pivot rearwardly about its lower hinge 44 from the position of Figure 4 to the position of Figure 6. In this latter position it will be appreciated that the living hinge 64 has moved arcuately, rearwardly, and upwardly to cause the rear upstanding tab 66C to bias the spring latch 70 upwards to the position shown in Figure 6. In fact in Figure 6 it will be seen thatthe parts 62, 66C and 80E are in what may be termed a stressed dead-centre position in which they are all in line. Achieving the position of Figure 6 has caused the latch member 66 to rotate anticlockwise until its downwardly turned latch hook 66B engages over the forward edge of the bag collar 32 between the collar and the remainder of the paper bag. Similarly the lower upstanding latch hook SOD is rotated clockwise to engage behind the lower rear edge of the bag collar 32. The anticlockwise rotary movement of the upper latch member 66 forces the bag collar 32 downwards between the seal 52 and the upstanding arcuate hook 54.

Full closing of the door about its pivot 55 to the position of Figure 7 causes the latch assembly 60 to be forced beyond its dead centre position and rearwardly so that the upper end of the rear upstanding tab 66C clears the notch 68 to allow free rearward movement of the fill tube 42 about its axis 44. The lower latch member 80 is then guided by the cam 86 so that it rotates slightly further clockwise, as the upper latch member 66 rotates slightly further anti clockwise, fully to engage behind the lower and upper edges of the bag collar 32 respectively. It is to be noted in Figure 6 however that the bag collar 32, engaging the seal 52 has in fact moved to a slightly higher position in relation to the other bags in the magazine.This is possible due to flexing ofthetongue 24 (Figure 1), which at the same time disengages the bag collar 32 from the hooks 27 of the tongues 22 and 26. The positive action of the latch member 66 and 80 also ensures that the bag collar keeps the seal 52 compressed to maintain a good seal between the fill tube 42 and the paper bag proper. As soon as the cleaner is operated, dirt-laden air will exhaust up the fill tube 42 and into the bag via the circular opening 50, so commencing inflation of the bag - see Figure 7. Inflation of the bag causes further rearward movement of the fill tube 42 to the maximum rear ward position shown in Figure 8. Alternatively, momentum of the fill tube may take it to the operative position.Normal operation of the cleaner can now continue until the time is appropriate to remove and dispose of the bag being used in the cleaner.

This is achieved simply by opening the door 20. This causes the fill tube 42 to be pivoted anticlockwise to the position of Figure 9 by virtue of the strap 46 which acts as a tension link as shown in Figure 9.

This draws the upper end of the fill tube forwardly to the position of Figure 9 at which time the rear upstanding tab 66C hits the rear of the latch 70. The slight further movement of the door to its fully open position of Figure 10 causes the rear upstanding tab 66C to be engaged in the notch 68 of the spring latch 70, so causing the upper latching member 66 to rotate clockwise to the position shown in Figure 10 which clears it from the upper edge of the bag collar 32. It is to be particularly noted at this time that the lower latch 80 remains in position engaging the lower edge of the bag collar 32.For this purpose the latch hook 80D of the latch member 80 is provided with a rear face at its point of engagement with the collar 32 which causes a force to be applied to the collar 32 rearwardly to retain the latch member 80 engaged with the collar 32 although it is in fact free at that time to drop back to the position of Figure 3 as soon as the bag is removed. The bag is so removed simply by the operator lifting it out of the cleaner from the Figure 10 position. The door is then closed again and the same cycle occurs in order to secure the next bag from the magazine to the latching assembly 60.

In this way therefore the user of the cleaner only has periodically to load a magazine of five bags into the door and close the door of the cleaner in order to install the first bag in the cleaner. When requiring changing, the bags are removed in the manner indicated and the fresh bags installed simply by reclosing the door. The operator has no intricate assembly work to carry out and can keep his or her hands perfectly clean during the replacement operation. If in checking a bag after removal, the user finds that in fact it need not be replaced yet, the bag can be simply reinserted manually by direct engagement with the latching means rather than placing back on the tongues on the door.

Claims

1. A suction cleaner having a bag carrier and a bag mount which are relatively movable towards one another to cause securing means eutomatically to secure a bag on the bag mount with an opening of the bag in sealing engagement with an air conduit, whereafter the bag carrier and the bag mount are relatively separable to permit the bag to expand between the bag carrier and the bag mount.

2. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 1 in which the bag carrier acts as a magazine to receive a plurality of bags.

3. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 in which the bag carrier is movable between an open position with respect to a casing to permit withdrawal of a full bag and a bag-transfer position in which a bag on the carrier is addressed to the bag mount.

4. A suction cleaner as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 in which the bag mount is movable between a bag loading/bag unloading position and an operative position to which the bag is carried by the bag mount away from the bag carrier.

5. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 4 in which the bag mount, in the bag loading position has latch portions of the securing means engaging opposite sides of a bag collar provided on the bag.

6. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim Sin which at least one latch portion is biased to a latching position by a stationary cam against which the latch portion engages during movement of the bag mount towards its operative position.

7. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 5 or claim 6 in which the bag collar has said bag opening aligned therewith, and the collar, in the bag loading position, is engaged by a hook on the bag mount.

8. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 7 in which the bag mount has an annular seal arranged to be compressed by movement of the bag collar when the bag carrier is moved to the bag-transfer position.

9. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 4 in which the bag mount is retrunable from its operative position to the bag unloading position by movement of the bag carrier.

10. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 5 and as claimed in claim 9 in which one of the latch portions is released automatically on movement of the bag mount to the unloading position, whilst the other latch portion remains engaged with the bag collar.

11. A suction cleaner as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the cleaner is of an upright type and the bag mount comprises a tube extending upwards within an outer casing, said air conduit being formed at the upper end of the tube and the tube being pivotally mounted about a horizontal axis.

12. A suction cleaner as claimed in claim 11 in which the bag carrier comprises a door to the outer casing which is pivoted to the remainder of the casing about an axis extending parallel to said horizontal axis.

13. A suction cleaner having a bag mount which is arranged to receive a dirt bag in sealing relationship to an air conduit, the air conduit being movable between a bag-receiving position in which a bag may be addressed to the mount and a bag-latched position in which the bag is secured to the bag mount, and latching means carried by the air conduit and arranged automatically to secure the bag to the bag moutn as the air conduit is moved between the bag-receiving position and the bag-latched position.

14. A suction cleaner substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying draw ings.

15. A suction cleanerfilterbag comprising a porous paper bag having an opening, a bag collar secured to the exterior of the paper bag and having an operaning aligned with the opening in the paper bag, at least one edge portion of the collar extending beyond an edge of the paper bag, the bag collar having two spaced elongate slots in said edge portion to receive mounting tongues on a suction cleaner, the direction of elongation of one slot being coincident with the direction of elongation of the other slot.

16. A suction cleaner filter bag as claimed in claim 15 including a further elongate slot positioned between the spaced elongate slots.

17. Asuction cleanerfilter bag as claimed in claim 16 in which the further elongate slot extends at right angles to the direction of the spaced elongate slots.

18. A suction cleaner filter bag as claimed in claim 17 in which the further elongate slot is openended at one end.

19. A suction cleaner filter bag comprising a por ous paper bag having an opening, a bag collar sec ured to the exterior of the paper bag and having an opening aligned with the opening in the paper bag, at least one edge portion of the collar extending beyond an edge of the paper bag, the bag collar hav ing at least two spaced elongate slots in said edge portion to receive mounting tongues on a suction cleaner, the direction of elongation of one slot being at right angles to the direction of elongation of the other slot.

20. A suction cleaner fiter bag as claimed in claim 19 including a further elongate slot in said edge portion and having its direction of elongation aligned with the direction of elongation of one of the two spaced elongate slots.