GB2200538A

GB2200538A - Vacuum cleaner nozzle assembly

Info

Publication number: GB2200538A
Application number: GB08802361A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Darwin S Crouser; Vincent L Weber
Original assignee: HOOVER PLC
Current assignee: HOOVER PLC
Priority date: 1987-02-04
Filing date: 1988-02-03
Publication date: 1988-08-10
Anticipated expiration: 2008-02-03
Also published as: FR2610187A1; FR2610187B1; GB8802361D0; GB2200538B

Abstract

A vacuum cleaner nozzle assembly comprising wand coupling 14, 15, brush carrier 12, and nozzle member 18 is characterised in that both brush carrier and nozzle member are mounted for pivotal movement about the same axis 21 which is located to the rear of trailing brush strip 100. Both brush carrier and nozzle member may be pivotally mounted on hollow pins 20 extending transversely from wand coupling piece 15 wheels 42 may also be rotatably mounted on the hollow pins. Actuating levers 96, 96<1> may be mounted on the brush carrier to move the nozzle member relative to the brush carrier against the action of compression springs 86 whereby brush strips 98, 100 are relatively raised from their normally extended position. Improved performance is said to result from lack of interference between brush strips and nozzle member. <IMAGE>

Description

Improvements Relating to Floor Care Appliances This invention relates to floor care appliances and, more particularly, relates to a vacuum nozzle having a brush mounting arrangement.

Vacuum nozzles have been provided with agitators such as brushes to aid in the cleaning function by, for example, facilitating nozzle travel or dislodging dirt so the same may be removed by suction.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a vacuum cleaner nozzle assembly comprises a brush carrier carrying forward and rearward transversely extending brushes and a nozzle member having a transversely extending downwardly opening nozzle located between the brushes and pivoted to the brush carrier about a transverse axis to the rear of the rearward brush to afford substantially vertical movement to the nozzle relative to the brushes.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a floor care appliance includes a) means for forming a nozzle for said floor care appliance, b) means for mounting an agitator for said floor care appliance, c) said means for mounting an agitator and said means for forming a nozzle being pivoted together, and d) said means for mounting an agitator being disposed above said means for forming a nozzle.

The invention thus provides an assembly in which the brush structure is mounted over the nozzle body.

The brush structure may be pivoted to the nozzle body so as to provide adjustability therebetween. The brushes may be mounted on a housing that envelopes over the nozzle, per se. The brush supporting structure may be pivoted to the nozzle at a nozzle-wand coupling pivot to provide proportionate response therebetween.

In a preferred construction according to the invention, a cleaning appliance has, generally, a nozzle part and a brush carrying part, the nozzle part including a nozzle opening adjacent its bottom and a central passageway that communicates conventionally with a wand coupling member to which a rear portion of the nozzle part is pivoted, confluently. The brush carrying part takes the form of an outer housing that is disposed over the nozzle and carries forward and rearward brush strips which are disposed to extend along the front and rear sides of the nozzle opening and is pivoted at its rear on the same axis as the nozzle-wand coupling pivot. In this construction, a pair of rear wheels are located at this pivot axis, with the brush carrying part having pivot pins elastically engaging in pins on the wand coupling part that form the general pivot for it and the brush carrying parts.The brush carrying part includes a pair of spaced, vertical side walls that tend to maintain it, the nozzle part and the aforesaid wheels in assembled condition. The nozzle part and the brush carrying part are resiliently urged together by a pair of conical compression springs which act therebetween and tend to move the brush part against the nozzle so as to resiliently urge the brush strips towards the floor. A pair of pivoted linked levers capable of moving over centre are disposed to extend outwardly of the brush carrying part for operation initiation to move the brush strips upwardly away from the nozzle part into a less extended position relative to the surface on which the nozzle is disposed.

The invention may be carried into practice in various ways but one vacuum cleaner nozzle assembly constructed in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the nozzle assembly; Figure 2 is a central, cross sectional view of the assembly: Figure 3 is a front elevational view, partly in cross section, of the assembly with#the brushes extended; Figure 4 is an exploded perspective view of the assembly; Figure 5 is a generally horizontal sectional view of the assembly taken on line 5-5 of Figure 2; and Figure 6 is a view like Figure 3 with the brushes retracted.

There is shown in Figure 1, a cleaning appliance 10 having a brush mounting piece 12 which serves as the housing cover for the cleaning appliance 10. A wand 13 is releasably connected to a wand coupling 14. This is telescopically inserted into a wand coupling pivot piece 15 and is conventionally disposed at the rear of the cleaning appliance 10, while a pair of pedals 16, 16 extend above the brush mounting pieces 12 to serve as an operator actuated adjusting means that will be explained later in this description.

Turning to the remaining Figures of the drawings, it can be seen that the brush mounting piece 12 is received over a nozzle piece 18 and is pivoted thereto in the following manner. The wand coupling pivot piece 15 includes a pair of integral sidewardly extending cylindrical bosses 20, 20 that form the axis 21 for pivoting of the cleaning appliance 10 relative to wand coupling 14 and wand coupling pivot piece 15. These bosses are inserted through bores 22, 22 formed on a pair of vertical flanges 24, 24 disposed in a pair of parts 26, 28 that form nozzle piece 18. These parts are generally mirror images of one another and only differ at their adjoining borders where part 28 of nozzle piece includes a lower tenon 30 and an upper tenon 32 at an inward termination of its lower and upper, generally horizontally, extending walls 34, 36, respectively.These tenons mate with grooves (not shown) at inward terminations of lower and upper generally horizontally extending walls 38, 40, respectively, of part 26.

A pair of rear wheels 42, 42 are next mounted on cylindrical bosses 20, 20 by being telescoped over the bosses by means of bores 44, 44 extending through the wheels 42, 42. These bores are slightly larger in diameter than the bosses so as to permit the wheels 42, 42 to rotate freely thereon. This entire assemblage is capped by the brush mounting piece 12 which has vertical, rear, wall yokes 46, 46, spaced from each other approximately the distance between the outer faces 48, 48 on the mounted wheels 42, 42. The yokes 46, 46 include integral, inwardly extending pins 50, 50 which engage in bores 52, 52 in the outwardly extending cylindrical bosses 20, 20 on the wand coupling pivot piece 15 when the brush mounting piece 12 is outwardly deformingly mounted over the assembled wheels 42, 42.

At this location the wall yokes 46, 46 compressingly maintain the wand coupling piece 15, the nozzle piece 18, and the wheels 42, 42 in assembled condition.

The nozzle piece 18 includes a nozzle opening 54 that extends transversely relative to the depth of the nozzle piece 18, nearly from side to side of the nozzle piece to provide a wide sweeping area. This is, in part, due to the fact that there is no obstructive interference with it by the brush piece 12. The nozzle opening 54 merges upwardly into a rearwardly tapering transition duct section 56 that, in turn, is confluently connected to a ball joint duct section 58.

This section receives a rounded duct section 60 on wand coupling pivot piece 15, a seal being provided by a pair of sealing surfaces 62, 64 on the wand coupling pivot piece 15 conventionally engaging against internal surfaces on the ball joint duct section 58. The cylindrical bosses 20 and wall yokes 46 on brush mounting piece 12, as already related, maintain the wand coupling pivot piece 15 and nozzle piece 18 assembled in this confluent condition.

The nozzle piece 18 also includes a pair of screw bosses 66, 66 which aid in the mounting of a bottom plate 68 on the bottom side of nozzle piece 18, through screws 70, 70 that extend through countersunk bores 72, 72 in bottom plate 68-and into the bosses 66, 66. A pair of rear screws 74, 74 also extend through bottom plate 68 to engage in threaded bores 76, 76 in nozzle piece 18. Bottom plate 68 includes a suction opening 78 substantially coextensive to the nozzle opening 54 of nozzle piece 18.

The nozzle piece 18 also includes a pair of spring wells 80, 80 disposed behind the screw bosses 66, 66, with these wells each formed by a bore 82 closed at its inner end by an inner seat 84. A compression spring 86 of truncated conical shape is disposed so as to have an inner end 88 abuttinglyr compressingly engaging the inner seat 84 of the spring wells80 of the nozzle piece 18 to urge it upwardly.

The other end of each spring 86 engages against the bottom side of a head 90 of a screw 92 to resiliently urge this screw downwardly. This screw is threadedly inserted in an integral downwardly depending boss 94 of the brush mounting piece 12 which is also urged, sequentially, downwardly by the spring 86 so that the brush mounting piece 12 and nozzle piece 18 are resiliently urged together by the springs 86, 86.

The brush mounting piece 12 also mounts a pair of actuating levers 96, 96' which are utilized to move the nozzle piece 18 against the action of the springs 86, 86 to separate the nozzle piece 18 and brush mounting piece 12 and effectively, ideally, retract a pair of brush strips such as forward and rearward brush strips 98, 100, respectively.

These brush strips are mounted in slots 99 and 101 formed in brush mounting piece 12. The slots open downwardly for the upward reception of the brush strips which are wedgingly held therein. A reinforcement piece 103 is utilized with brush strip 100 since its slot 101 is discontinuous in the centre portion of the brush mounting piece 12.

The levers 96, 96' each include aligned, outwardly extending pins 102, 104 integral therewith, which extend generally transversely to and horizontally relative to the major extent of the levers, a pedal section 106 and trunnion sections 108, 108' disposed below the pedal section 106 and carrying a pin 110 mounting a roller 112. The levers 96, 96' are each mounted by the pins 102, 104 being received in wells 114, 116, formed in the bottom side of the brush mounting piece 12 with the levers 96, 96', being also captured between the brush mounting piece 12 and the nozzle piece 18 so that each of the rollers 112 may move along a surface 118 formed on the nozzle piece 18.

The levers 96, 96' are connected together by a thrust link 120 which is mounted to and extends between the levers 96, 96' on the pins 110. This link is disposed on the rear side of the levers 96, 96' in a space afforded for it and may slightly swing and move rectilinearly as the levers 96, 96' are turned to extend or retract the brush strips 98, 100. The pedal sections 106 are disposed conveniently so that one is always up while one is always down so that foot engagement of one of the pedal sections is always available for the operator of the cleaning appliance 10.

The operation and structure of the cleaning appliance 10 should now be clear. The brush mounting piece 12 sits over and serves as a cover or housing for the nozzle piece 18 with both of these pieces pivoted to the wand coupling pivot piece 15. Springs 86, 86 tend to maintain the brush mounting piece 12 and nozzle piece 18 in close contiguity so that the brush strips 98, 100 are, in effect, extended. Manipulation of the actuating levers 96, 96' in the desired direction forces the nozzle piece 18 downwardly (Fig. 6), thereby raising the brush strips 98, 100. At all times, the brush strips 98, 100, as carried by the brush mounting piece 12 operate outside the extended suction opening 78 without interference with it or the nozzle piece 18 and without resort to a number of small parts required to fit tightly within a conventional nozzle housing.

Claims

Claims:

1. A vacuum cleaner nozzle assembly comprising a wand, a brush carrier carrying forward and rearward transversely extending brushes, and a nozzle member having a transversely extending downwardly opening nozzle located between the brushes and pivoted to the brush carrier about a transverse axis to the rear of the rearward brush to afford substantially vertical movement to the nozzle relative to the brushes, the carrier being pivoted about the said axis to the wand.

2. An assembly as claimed in Claim 1 which includes spring means biasing the nozzle to an upper position relative to the brushes.

3. An assembly as claimed in Claim 2 which includes pedal means for moving the nozzle against the spring bias to a lower position relative to the brushes.

4. A vacuum cleaner nozzle assembly substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

5. A floor care appliance including a) means for forming a nozzle for said floor care appliance, b) means for mounting an agitator for said floor care appliance, c) said means for mounting an agitator and said means for forming a nozzle being pivoted together, and d) said means for mounti#ng an agitator being disposed above said means for forming a nozzle.

6. A floor care appliance as claimed in Claim 5 in which the means for mounting an agitator includes a housing for covering the means for forming a nozzle.

7. A floor care appliance as claimed in Claim 5 or Claim 6 in which the means for forming a nozzle is pivoted to a wand coupler member, and the means for mounting an agitator is pivoted to the wand coupler member.

8. A floor care appliance as claimed in Claim 5 or Claim 6 in which a wand coupler member having wheels is pivotally attached to the means for mounting an agitator, and the means for mounting an agitator is pivoted to the wand coupler member at the axis of the wheels.

9. A floor care appliance as claimed in any of Claims 5 to 8 in which the agitator includes at least one brush strip.

10 A floor care appliance as claimed in any of Claims 5 to 9 in which the pivot is at least partly formed by pins extending sidewardly from a coupler member.

11. A floor care appliance as claimed in Claim 10 in which the pins extend through walls on the means for forming a nozzle to form a pivot with it, the sidewardly extending pins mount wheels for relative rotation therebetween, and the means for mounting an agitator include means for engaging with the pins for limiting outward movement of the said walls.

12. A floor care appliance as claimed in Claim 11 in which the means for engaging the pins include vertical abutting walls.

13. A floor care appliance as claimed in Claim 11 or Claim 12 in which the sidewardly extending pins also provide the pivot for the means for mounting an agitator.

14. A floor care appliance as claimed in Claim 13 in which the sidewardly extending pins include axially extending bores, the means for mounting an agitator include second sidewardly extending pins, and the second sidewardly extending pins engage in the said bores to afford said pivoting.

15. A floor care appliance as claimed in any of Claims 5 to 14 which includes means for adjusting the said means for mounting the agitator relative to the said means for forming a nozzle disposed to act therebetween.