GB2256128A

GB2256128A - Vacuum cleaner garden accessory.

Info

Publication number: GB2256128A
Application number: GB9111503A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Francis John Caves
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1991-05-29
Filing date: 1991-05-29
Publication date: 1992-12-02
Also published as: GB9111503D0

Abstract

Air and leaves drawn into an attachment for a vacuum cleaner 13 pass through a mincer or cutter assembly 1 which shreds the leaves so that they are able to pass through a standard hose 4 to a large air tight receptacle or collection bin 5, which may be fitted between the vacuum cleaner and the attachment. The mincer or cutter assembly may be driven by an air motor, powered by the air drawn through the attachment, or by an electric motor. <IMAGE>

Description

VACUUM CLEANER GARDEN ACCESSORY This invention relates to a vacuum cleaner accessory or attachment for use in the garden.

The familiar household vacuum cleaner is now tending to be supplemented by a more powerful suction cleaner which is intended for wet and dry use all around the home. Such a vacuum cleaner can make many collecting and cleaning tasks much easier. However, picking up fallen leaves from paths and flowerbeds can still cause problems since many leaves are too large to pass easily down a cleaner hose and then the capacity of the dust bag is usually too low to hold more than a small quantity of leaves.

The present invention was devised to overcome some of these problems by enabling comparatively large pieces of material to be picked up and delivered to a dust bag.

According to the invention, there is provided a vacuum cleaner tool including a rotating cutter arranged to shred material entering the tool for delivery to a vacuum hose.

Preferably, the cutter is driven by a vacuum motor driven by air entering the hose. In a different embodiment the motor is an electric motor.

Conveniently, the rotating cutter is mounted on a common shaft with a turbine rotor. The rotating cutter may feed incoming material against a fixed cutter plate so that a shearing action will be applied to the material.

The cutter plate may be perforated to permit sheared material to pass through. The cutter plate may additionally support a bearing for the shaft of the cutter.

The cutter is provided with a sharpened edge only on its inner end adjacent the cutter plate. At its outer end the cutter has a smooth edge but this may include a feeding means such as a screw feeder to assist entry of leaf material towards the cutter plate.

The vacuum cleaner tool as just described is capable of being used with a flexible hose of a domestic or wet/dry vacuum cleaner. However, since the tool is suited to picking up large volumes of garden waste, it is convenient to provide the cleaner with an intermediate dust collection bin which will collect most of the entering waste before this reaches the dust bag of the cleaner. The invention therefore comprises a vacuum cleaner dust collection bin.

In yet a further embodiment, the dust collection bin is provided with an upper opening which is so arranged that it will support and form a vacuum seal with a motor and vacuum pump unit of a wet/dry vacuum cleaner. This arrangement will thus enable a conventional vacuum cleaner to be given temporarily a dust collection bin of large size so that it will become much more useful for picking up large quantities of debris such as fallen leaves.

The vacuum cleaner dust collection bin may be provided with a readily removable yet air-tight lid and support means such as feet and wheels. Since the shredded material entering the bin will be reduced to small fragments, this will tend to pack down effectively in the bin and, in the garden, the filled bin can be wheeled conveniently to a compost heap area for discharge of the collected material.

A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 shows the complete assembly; Figure 2 shows the turbine leaf cutting head assembly with the outer casing cut away.

Figure 3 shows a cross-section of the collection bin.

Figure 4 shows a design for a specific cleaner.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, a cylindrical housing 1 contains an air-driven turbine 17 which drives a mincing blade 18 via a shaft 16. The shaft mountings 14 and 15, fitted with low friction bearings such as PTFE, are skeletal so as not to obstruct the air flow and the front face of the mounting 15 serves as a cutting surface with the back edge of the mincer 18. The mincer has a screw or similar device 19 to initially break up and feed in the leaves.

The diameter of the mincer is chosen to be as large as possible to easily pickup large leaves, but not so large as to reduce the vacuum so that reasonably heavy, possibly wet leaves cannot be picked up. The turbine could be of tangential design, and the mincer could be of reciprocating design. The mincer blade should not have a sharp leading edge for safety reasons, but should use the back edge which would be inaccessible to fingers when rotating.

Brush attachments could be provided for sweeping paths, to be push fitted to the mincer casing.

The mincer assembly 1 is located at the end of a conventional tube 2 and flexible hose assembly 4 with push fit couplings 3, leading to the collection bin 5, and a further hose 11 connects to the vacuum cleaner 13.

Hose 11 might be the one supplied with the vacuum cleaner.

Referring to Figures 1 and 3 the collection bin is fitted with a handle 8, wheels 9, and legs 10, to enable it to be easily moved during use and wheeled to a compost heap when full, the lid 6 having been removed. The lid is retained by catches 7 which exert sufficient pressure against the sealing ring 23 to make the whole air-tight. The inlet nozzle 20 is angled downwards and the outlet 21 has a coarse filter 22 so that not very much debris can been drawn into the vacuum cleaner. If the bin is made of translucent plastic, or has a transparent panel, it can be seen when it is full.

Referring to Figure 4 the bin 5 replaces the collection bin supplied with a specific manufacture of vacuum cleaner, of which there are several similar types in production, the top of the bin being arranged to mate with the body of the cleaner 13.

Claims

1 n mincer attachment for reducing the size of debris such that it can pass through a small (standard) size hose to a vacuum cleaner.

2 n vacuum cleaner garden accessory comprising a turbine driven mincer capable of picking up leaves and cutting them so as to all ow them to pass through a conventional hose to an in-llno large air-tight collection bin, from which the air is withdrawn by the vacuum cleaner.

s A mincer attachment, as described in any preceding claim, driven by a tangential air motor such as a Peiton wheel.

4 n mincer attachment as described in any preceding claim, driven by an electric motor.

5 n mincer attachment, as described in any preceding claim, connected by a standard hose to a vacuum cleaner to which has been fitted a specially large receptacle to accomodate a substantial quantity of leaves.