GB2231778A

GB2231778A - Floor cleaner

Info

Publication number: GB2231778A
Application number: GB9011164A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Masataka Fukuda
Original assignee: HOKY KK
Current assignee: HOKY KK
Priority date: 1989-05-26
Filing date: 1990-05-18
Publication date: 1990-11-28
Also published as: DE4016849A1; JPH0334A; GB9011164D0; FR2647330A1

Description

SPECIFICATION

CLEANER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a rotary brush for a cleaner, and more particularly to a rotary brush by which such disadvantages that a part of the rotary brush provided with no slidably rubbing members such as bristles, blades and the like which abut upon a surface to be cleaned as well as a bearing part are wound or twined thereabout by pieces of thread, cotton or the like can be eliminated. Description of the Related Art

In general, rotary brushes used for cleaner are divided broadly into two types, i.e., bristle brushes and blade brushes.

Bristle brushes in which a bristle material is used as the slidably rubbing member have been employed for a long time.

Blade brushes were introduced as an improvement over bristle brushes which had the disadvantage that pieces of thread, cotton or the like wind easily around the bristles. An example of such blade brushes is shown in Fig. 2 which is constructed such that a rotating base shaft 14 is provided with a plurality of blades 13 made of a flexible material such as rubber and the like as its slidably rubbing members (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Publication No. 35246/1988). A conventional cleaner in which the rotary brush 12 of this blade brush type is used is shown in Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10. More specifically, Fig. 7 is a bottom plan view of the cleaner, Fig. 8 is a vertical sectional view of Fig. 7, Fig. 9 is a side view of Fig. 7, and Fig. 10 is an enlarged sectional view showing a bearing portion of the rotary brush, respectively.

When a cleaner body 10 of the cleaner is moved forwards and backwards on the surface of a floor, the rotation of ground wheels 7 causes driven rollers 3 of the rotary brush to rotate thereby rotating the rotary brush 12, and as a result dust on the floor can be swept up and contained in dust chambers 4 positioned at the front and the rear of the cleaner body 10 on either side of the rotary brushes 12.

In such a type of conventional cleaner, although pieces of thread or cotton are not entangled in the blades 13, pieces of thread or cotton are caught at sites A and B of the bearing portion (Fig. 10) as well as sites C and D on the side ends of the blade 13 (Fig. 10) and hence the following defects have heretofore been observed.

Namely, when pieces of thread or cotton are caught at sites A and B rotating resistance of the rotary brush 12 increases and it often results in the brush not rotating.

Particularly, when winding or twining of pieces of thread or cotton around the site A becomes significant, there is a possibility of side plate la, the bearing portion of a casing 1 being bent outwards (in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 10), 2 - C, and finally the rotary brush 12 becoming disengaged from the side plate la of the bearing portion.

On the other hand, while winding or twining of pieces of thread or cotton around the sites C and D does not result in any functional disadvantage as a floor cleaner due to the winding itself, such winding or twining is not desirable from a hygienic point of view.

Winding of pieces of thread or cotton around the site D is particularly undesirable since the rotating base shaft 14 has a smaller diameter, and hence pieces of thread or cotton tend to be held between a side end portion of the driven roller and a side end portion of the blade 13. Thus, it is difficult to remove the pieces of thread or cotton twined from the site D by hand.

As a countermeasure for preventing the sites A and B from being affected by winding or twining of pieces of thread or cotton, it is known to form each bearing member 18 (Figs.5 and 6) with a dish-shaped washer 18a and a shaft 18b is fixed to a side plate la of a main body. Opposite ends of the rotary brush 12 are journaled by the shafts 18b, so that the sites A and B of the bearing portion are sk;eded from being invaded by pieces of thread, cotton or the like as shown in Figs. 5 and 6.

This construction is such that pieces of thread or cotton which may come into sites E and F in Fig. 5 are allowed to wind around a small diameter site G which is smaller in size than that of the driven roller 3. According to the construction described above, winding of pieces of thread, cotton or the like around the bearing portion and the adjacent sites can tentatively be prevented, but when the amount of winding of pieces of thread, cotton or the like wound around the small diameter site G exceeds over a certain amount because of use of the cleaner for a long period of time, the pieces of thread, cotton or the like can overflow from the small diameter site G and reach the bearing sites E and F before long. Hence, the above described improved construction has not been necessarily satisfactory in use.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in view of the problems involved in the prior art, and an object of the invention is to provide a cleaner which is adapted to discharge automatically pieces of thread, cotton or the like (or simply "pieces of thread etc.") which have become wound or twined once around the bearing or the end portions of the slidably rubbing member outside the cleaner (on a floor), whereby rotation of the rotary brush can favorably be maintained always.

In order to attain the above object, the cleaner according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention is constructed as follows.

I. With respect to prevention of pieces of thread etc. around bearing portion sites:

(1) A rotary supporting shaft for rotary brush has a substantially frustoconical shape, the proximal end of which is thick, while the distal end thereof is made thin. As a result, the pieces of thread etc., which have once wound around a larger diameter site of the supporting shaft of the rotary supporting shaft shift automatically towards the distal end (smaller diameter site) of the rotary supporting shaft with rotation of the rotary brush.

(2) Bearing holes for supporting said rotary supporting shaft are through holes so that they communicate with the outside of the cleaner. Thus, the pieces of thread etc. which shifted to the smaller diameter site of the supporting shaft as described above fall down on to the floor.

(3) The bearing portion is adapted to be elastically deformable towards the outside of the cleaner. Hence, the pieces of thread etc. which have once wound around the larger diameter site of the supporting shaft transfer more easily to the smaller diametric site thereof.

II. With respect to prevention of pieces of thread etc. around side portions of a slidably rubbing member:

A guide ring having the following construction is inserted into a gap defined between the driven roller and a side end portion of the slidably rubbing meffiber.

The diameter of a cylindrical portion of the guide ring is made larger than that of the driven r: oller. Thus, the pieces of thread etc. which have once wound around the guide ring can shift easily to the outer circumferential part of the driven roller and finally transfer to the bearing portion.

(2) A notched portion is defined on the end portion of the guide ring on the side of the slidably rubbing member, and the side end portion of the slidably rubbing member Is adapted to position in the notched portion. As a result, pieces of thread, cotton or the like are not caught by a space defined between the side end portion of the slidably rubbing member and the guide ring.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of examples with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a bottom view showing a cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing a conventional rotary brush of blade brush type; Fig. 3(a) and (b) are sectional views each showing a part of the cleaner of Fig. 1; Fig. 4(a) is a perspective view showing a part of the cleaner of Fig. 1; Fig. 4(b) is a perspective view, corresponding to Fig. 4(a), showing a part of another embodiment of the cleaner according to the present invention; Figs. 5 through 10 are views showing a conventional cleaner, respectively, in which:

Fig. 5 is a sectional view showing a part of a conventional cleaner with which a constructional member shown in Fig. 6 is incorporated; Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the conventional constructional member composed of a bearing member and a driven roller; Fig. 7 is a bottom view showing the conventional cleaner; Fig. 8 is a side view, in vertical section, along the line VIII - VIII of Fig. 7; Fig. 9 is a side view corresponding to Fig. 8; and Fig. 10 is a sectional view showing an essential part of a bearing portion of a rotary brush.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The cleaner according to the present invention will be described in detail hereinbelow by referring to the accomapanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a bottom view showing a cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention in which like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout Figs. 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, so that overlapped description as to construction, principle for collecting dust and the like of a cleaner will be omitted.

Constructions of side end portions of a slidably rubbing member and a bearing which are subject matters of the present invention will be described in detail hereinbelow.

it is to be noted that in the present embodiment, the invention will be described in connection with a so-called blade brush in which blades as mentioned above are used as slidably rubbing members.

Fig. 3(a) is a sectional view showing the construction and mounting of an end portion of the rotary brush and Fig. 4(a) is perspective view showing an essential part of the members shown in Fig. 3(a) wherein a rotary brush 12 is constructed such that eight blades 13 which are made of a flexible material such as rubber or the like are spirally mounted on the cylindrical surface of a rotating base shaft 14 as the slidably rubbing members. A driven roller 3 is fixed to a end portion of the rotating base shaft 14. On a bearing side of the driven roller, a rotary supporting shaft 15 is formed having a substantially frustoconical shape the distal end of which is larger in diameter than the proximal end. Furthermore, a guide ring 17 the diameter of which is larger than the outside diameter of the driven roller 3 is integrally formed with the driven roller on the end of the roller facing the blades 13.

Eight notched grooves (notched portions) 17a corresponding to the number of the blades 13 are defined on an end of the guide ring 17, and it is arranged in such that a side end portion of each blade 13 is placed so as to fit into each notched groove 17a.

The rotary brush 12 constructed as described above is rotatably journaled by bearings 19. The upper end portion 19a of each bearing 19 is rigidly mounted a part of a casing 1, an a bearing hole 19b is defined on a suspended part 19c of the bearing 19. The bearing hole 19b is a through hole. The suspended part 19c of the bearing 19 may comprise a leaf spring or a thin plat of plastic material so as to be capable of elastically deforming. As a result, the suspended part 19c can be easily bend outwardly, while it can be restored to the original position when no external force is present.

In the above construction, pieces of thread, cotton or the like 20 deposited in a gap defined between a side of the driven roller 3 and the bearing 19 shift gradually to the proximal end of the rotary supporting shaft 15 with rotation of the driven roller 3. This is because the pieces of thread, cotton or the like which have once wound around a larger diameter site of the rotary supporting shaft 15 have such a tendency that they move easily towards a smaller diameter site thereof. Thus, the pieces of thread, cotton or the like which have once wound around the proximal end of the supporting shaft shift to a smaller diameter site of the distal end of the supporting shaft with rotation of the driven roller 3 in accordance with the above-mentioned principle, and finally these pieces fall down on the surface of a floor through a space between the distal end of a smaller diameter site and a side wall of the casing 1.

In most cases, the pieces of thread, cotton or the like 20 fall down on the floor in a ring shape having a diameter corresponding to that the rotary supporting shaft 15. Further, in the case where the amount of the pieces of thread, cotton or the like 20 caught by the rotary supporting shaft becomes significant, the suspended part 19c of the bearing is bent outwards as shown in Fig. 3(b), and as a consequence a gap defined between the rotary supporting shaft 15 and the bearing hole 19b is expanded so that the pieces of thread etc. 20 are easily discharged. When discharge of the pieces of thread etc. 20 is completed, the bearing 19 is restored again to the original position (Fig. 3(a)) because of elasticity of the bearing 19.

Furthermore, those pieces of thread etc. swept up by means of end portions of the blades 13 which have not been contained in dust chambers 4 wind or twine around the guide ring 17. In this case, since each side end portion of the blades 13 positions in each notched groove 17a of the guide ring 17, no pieces of thread etc. which have once wound around the guide ring 17 reach the rotating base shaft 14. In this respect, the pieces of thread etc. which have once wound or twined around the surface of the guide ring 17 shift always towards a smaller diameter site thereof, so that these pieces of thread etc. transfer further to the driven roller 3 having a smaller diameter than that of the guide ring 17 and finally they move to the rotary supporting shaft 15. The pieces of thread etc. which reach the rotary supporting shaft 15 are discharged on the surface of a floor through the bearing hole 19b in a ring shape as described above. Accordingly, such ring-shaped pieces of thread etc. can be collected almost perfectly when cleaning the floor again, because the ring shaped pieces of thread etc. are less likely to be caught by the rotary brush due to the shape thereof.

While the present invention has been described in conjunction with the embodiment of a cleaner wherein said guide 1 ring is used in combination with the rotary supporting shaft of frustoconical shape, whereby pieces of thread etc. wound around the rotary brush are discharged outside the cleaner through the guide ring and the frustoconical rotary supporting shaft, only the guide ring may be installed on a cleaner in which said frustoconical rotary supporting shaft is not used because of a construction and the like of a bearing portion. In this case, a diameter of the guide ring 17 should be smaller than that of the driven roller 3. According to the construction as described above, the pieces of thread etc. which have once wound around the guide ring do not shift to the driven roller 3, but are retained on a cylindrical portion of the guide ring 17. These pieces of thread etc. are, however, caught loosely by the guide ring, because the guide ring has a larger diameter than that of the rotating base shaft. Besides, the pieces of thread etc. are not captured between side end portions of each blade and side end portions of the driven roller 3, so that they may be removed easily by hand.

Although the cleaner of the present invention has been described in connection with that in which a blade brush is used as the rotary brush, the invention is, of course, applicably also to a rotary brush of bristle brush type wherein bristles 131 are mounted on its rotating base shaft as slidably rubbing members as shown in Fig. 4(b).

In addition, while a resilient material such as a leaf spring or a thin plate of plastic material has been used for the 11 - bearing 19 to attain elastic deformation in the present embodiment, various different constructions for achieving the same function as that described above may be considered, and hence the invention is not limited to the bearing as described in the present embodiment.

The present invention has been constructed as described above, so that advantages are obtained thereby as follows.

Since the pieces of thread, cotton or the like which have once wound around the rotary supporting shaft of the rotary brush are discharged automatically on to the surface of a floor during cleaning, there is less tendency for rotation of the rotary brush to become unsmoothened and in turn, for the rotary brush to fall off from the casing.

It becomes possible to automatically discharge the pieces of thread, cotton and the like which have twined once around end sites of the brush on to the surface of a floor, or it becomes also possible to easily remove such pieces of thread etc. from the brush.

The pieces of thread, cotton and the like discharged on the surface of a floor are in ring-shaped masses having a small diameter, so that such ring-shaped masses are never caught up in the rotary brush when they are swept up again and can be easily collected.

While in the foregoing, preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in considerable detail for purpose of illustration, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that many of these details may be varied without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The foregoing description relates to a cleaner in which the brush or brushes are rotated by means of rollers contacting the surface over which the cleaner is pushed. It will be appreciated that the invention Is also applicable to a cleaner in which the brush or brushes are motor driven, for example a vacuum cleaner.

13 -

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A cleaner comprising:

a generally cylindrical brush rotatably mounted in a body via bearing means and arranged to be driven by at least one driven roller; and discharge means for facilitating discharge of pieces of thread, cotton or the like from the region of the brush mounting.

2. A cleaner as claimed in claim 1 wherein said discharge means comprises rotary supporting shafts mounted on opposite ends of said rotary brush each having a substantially frustoconical shape with the proximal end portion being thicker than the distal end thereof, and said bearing means for journaling said rotary supporting shafts comprising through holes formed in the cleaner body.

3. A cleaner as claimed in claim 2 wherein said bearing means is one which can be elastically deformed outwards.

4. A cleaner as claimed in claim 3 wherein said bearing is made of an elastic material.

5. A cleaner as claimed in claim 1 wherein said discharge means comprises guide rings each composed of a cylindrical part and notched grooves defined thereon, disposed between a slidably rubbing members of said rotary brush and said bearing means, and end portions of said slidably rubbing members being positioned in said notched grooves of said guide rings, respectively.

6. A cleaner as claimed in claim 5 wherein said cylindrical parts of said guide rings are integrally formed with driven - 14 1 rollers, and the outside diameter of said cylindrical parts is larger than that of said driven rollers.

7. A cleaner as claimed in claim 1 wherein said discharge means comprises rotary supporting shafts disposed on the opposite ends of said rotary brush having a substantially frustoconical shape, of which the proximal end portion is thicken than the distal end portion; bearings which journal said rotary supporting shafts having bearing holes which are formed as through holes: and guide rings each composed of a cylindrical part and notched grooves defined thereon disposed between the slidably rubbing members of said rotary brush and driven rollers, end portions of said slidably rubbing members being positioned in said notched grooves of said guide rings, respectively.

8. A cleaner as claimed in claim 7 wherein said bearing is one which can be elastically deformed outwards.

9. A cleaner as claimed in claim 8 wherein said bearing is made of an elastic material.

10. A cleaner as claimed in any one of claims 7, 8, and 9 wherein said cylindrical part of said guide ring and said driven roller are integrally formed with each other, and outside diameter of said cylindrical part is larger than that of said driven roller.

11. A cleaner as claimed in claim 7 wherein said bearing is made of an elastic material, which is elastically deformable outwards.

12. A cleaner as claimed in claim 11 wherein said - 15 cylindrical part of said guide ring and said driven roller are integrally formed with each other, and outside diameter of said cylindrical part is larger than that of said driven roller.

- 16 19K1a. TnePacn- Oflicc.SaeI-7c,.i-qe-66 7 1 High Holborn. London WC1114TP. P=ther copies maybe obtainedfrom The Patent Office. Sales BrEnch, St Mary Cray, Orpington, Kent BR5 3RD- Printed by Multiplex techniques ltd. St Mary Cray. Kent, Con. 1W