JP2007054303A - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vacuum cleaner equipped with a simple mechanism which can certainly maintain a contraction of a hose, the vacuum cleaner equipped with the simple mechanism which can presentably maintain the contraction of the hose and the vacuum cleaner which can store a presentable stand. <P>SOLUTION: The contracted extendable hose 14 is stored in a storing cover 10 and a flexible hose 13 which is excellent in flexibility is bent to approximately 180°, so that the storage of the stand of the vacuum cleaner 1 has improved appearance. The flexible hose 13 and the extendable hose 14 made of different materials can be connected by a connection member 16 corresponding to required characteristics. Also, an engaged ring 30 disposed in the connection member 16 and a storage cover 10 are fixed by making an engaging nail 64 of an engaging ring 63 be engaged with an engaged groove 62 and the contraction of the extendable hose 14 can be certainly maintained with a simple mechanism. Also, the storage cover 10 is coated with a surface cover 19 so that it is not exposed outside and the contraction of the extendable hose 14 has good appearance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner.

In the conventional vacuum cleaner storage method, the main body of the vacuum cleaner is placed on the floor, the locked portion of the pipe is fitted to the locking portion provided on the vacuum cleaner main body, There is a stand storage for storing the vacuum cleaner so that the pipe stands upright (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-197076

  However, when the length of the hose is sufficiently secured for comfortable use of the electric vacuum cleaner, a large storage space is required because the hose is greatly curved in the conventional stand storage. Also, the curved hose gets tangled with the pipe and the vacuum cleaner body, and the appearance is not good. For this reason, if the curved hose is contracted, it is possible to store the stand with a good appearance. However, it is necessary to maintain the contracted state of the hose surely with a simple mechanism.

The objective of this invention is providing the vacuum cleaner provided with the simple mechanism which can maintain the contraction state of a hose reliably.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum cleaner provided with a simple mechanism that can maintain the good contraction state of the hose.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum cleaner that can be stored in a stand with good appearance.

  In order to achieve the above object, a vacuum cleaner according to the invention described in claim 1 is disposed in the main body of the vacuum cleaner in which the electric blower is built and the main body of the vacuum cleaner, and is normally extended. An expansion / contraction part, a bending part that is configured separately from the expansion / contraction part, disposed on the opposite side of the cleaner body with respect to the expansion / contraction part, and the other end of the expansion / contraction part and one end of the bending part A flexible hose in which one end of the expansion / contraction part is detachably connected to the cleaner body, and one end is connected to the one end side of the expansion / contraction part. And a cylindrical storage cover that covers the periphery of the unit and stores the expansion / contraction part contracted when the expansion / contraction part contracts.

  According to this configuration, the other end side of the hose is closed and the inside of the hose is decompressed by the electric blower built in the main body of the vacuum cleaner, or the expansion / contraction portion of the hose that has been contracted manually is maintained in a contracted state. Can be stored in the storage cover. And since a bending part bends according to shrinkage | contraction of an expansion-contraction part, the stand accommodation with a good appearance of a vacuum cleaner is attained. In addition, since the storage cover is provided on the vacuum cleaner body side, the other side of the hose can be used when holding the other end of the hose opposite to the one end connected to the vacuum cleaner body and operating the vacuum cleaner. The weight of the storage cover is not added to the user's hand holding the end side, and the electric vacuum cleaner can be easily handled. Moreover, the expansion / contraction part and bending part from which a required characteristic differs can be formed by a different material by connecting an expansion-contraction part and a bending part with a connection member.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a cylindrical front cover that covers the periphery of the storage cover is provided.
According to this configuration, the front cover can be given an arbitrary design, and the front cover covers the storage cover for storing the contracted expansion / contraction hose, so that the contraction state of the expansion / contraction hose can be maintained with good appearance. it can. Further, the storage cover covered with the front cover can play a role of storing the telescopic hose without being constrained by the appearance.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, a fixing member that detachably fixes the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member is provided.
According to this configuration, when the expansion / contraction part of the hose is contracted, the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member are fixed to each other by the fixing member, so that the contraction / contraction part is expanded and restored. Regulated, the storage cover can securely store the contracted expansion / contraction part.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the present invention, the fixing member includes a locking portion provided on one of the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member, and on the other. And a locked portion that can be locked to the locking portion.
According to this configuration, the other end of the storage cover is locked with the locking portion provided on either one of the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member, and the locked portion provided on the other side. The connecting member can be securely fixed. Further, by using a part of the connecting member, the locking portion or the locked portion can be integrally attached to the connecting member, so that the number of parts can be reduced.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to claim 4, wherein the locking portion includes an arc-shaped portion, protrusions formed at both ends of the arc-shaped portion, and the circle at a center position of the arc. A ring member having a claw projecting inward from the arcuate part, and the ring member, by locking the projection and controlling the movement of the projection, so as not to be inadvertently removed. And a holding member that holds it so as not to bend more than necessary, and the locked portion has a cylindrical shape in which a groove portion on which the claw portion can be locked is formed on the periphery, By bending the ring member, the claw portion and the groove portion are separated in the radial direction, and the locking of the locked portion by the locking portion is released.

  According to this configuration, the claw portion of the ring member provided in the locking portion provided in either one of the other end of the storage cover or the connecting member is engaged with the groove portion of the locked portion provided in any one of the other. By stopping, the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member can be securely fixed. In addition, the ring member has a projection formed on both ends of the arcuate portion that is locked to the holding member so that the ring member is not inadvertently detached and lost, and the ring member is bent more than necessary and is not plastically deformed. Is retained. In addition, when the ring member is bent and the claw portion of the ring member and the groove portion of the locked portion are spaced apart in the radial direction, the locking of the locked portion by the locking portion is released, so that the simple With the mechanism, the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member can be fixed and released.

FIG. 1 is a right side view of a vacuum cleaner 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, a part of which is shown in cross section. In the following, for convenience of description of the vacuum cleaner 1 and its components (components), the left side in FIG. 1 is the front (front end) side, the right side is the back (rear end) side, the upper side is the upper surface (upper) side, and the lower side. The side will be described as the bottom (lower) side, the front side as the right side, and the back side as the left side.
The vacuum cleaner 1 includes a cleaner body 2, a rotation mechanism 5, a hose 3, a pipe 6, a suction tool 7, a storage cover 10, and a front cover 19.

  The vacuum cleaner body 2 has an electric blower (not shown) built therein, and a suction force is generated by the electric blower. Further, a locking portion 11 is provided on the front side of the bottom surface of the cleaner body 2. At the time of so-called stand storage (see FIGS. 2 and 3) where the vacuum cleaner main body 2 is attached to the floor with the back surface facing the top and the vacuum cleaner 1 is stowed and stored (see FIGS. 2 and 3), the latching portion 11 is the pipe 6 It keeps in a vertical state, and has a shape for fitting a hook 12 provided on the pipe 6.

4 is a right side cross-sectional view for explaining the rotation mechanism 5, the storage cover 10, and the hose 3 when the hose 3 is not bent in FIG. The direction in FIG. 4 is the same as the direction defined in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, the rotating mechanism 5 includes two cylindrical bodies having different diameters, and the rear end portion of the large-diameter cylindrical body 51 is detachably connected to the cleaner body 2, and the small-diameter cylindrical body 52. Is connected to the rear end of the hose 3. The front end side inner peripheral surface of the large diameter cylindrical body 51 and the rear end side outer peripheral surface of the small diameter cylindrical body 52 are in sliding contact with each other. Therefore, the hose 3 is rotatable about the axis with respect to the cleaner body 2 through the rotation mechanism 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, the hose 3 includes a connecting portion 9, an expansion / contraction hose 14 as an expansion / contraction portion, a connecting member 16, a bending hose 13 as a bending portion and an operation portion from the rotation mechanism 5 to the pipe 6. 4 is provided.
The bent hose 13 and the telescopic hose 14 of the hose 3 have flexibility and can be bent into an arbitrary form.

As shown in FIG. 4, the connecting member 16 has a cylindrical shape that is smaller in diameter than the bent hose 13 and the expandable hose 14. By fitting the front end of 14 to the rear end of the connecting member 16, the bent hose 13 and the extendable hose 14 are connected to each other.
As shown in FIG. 1, the operation portion 4 provided on the distal end side of the hose 3 includes a pipe portion 17 extending in the axial direction of the hose 3, and a grip 15 extending outward from the pipe portion 17 in the direction intersecting the axial direction. It has.

When the grip 15 of the operation unit 4 is gripped, the hose 3 is bent at the bending position of the bending hose 13 due to its own weight. Moreover, the rear end side of the hose 3 from the bent position of the bent hose 13 hangs down vertically.
The pipe 6 is connected to the tip of the pipe portion 17 of the operation unit 4. The pipe 6 is a longitudinal, for example, resin-made pipe that connects the operation unit 4 and the suction tool 7. The pipe 6 is coaxially formed in the pipe 35 at the front end side (side to which the suction tool 7 is attached) and the rear end side (side to which the operation unit 4 is connected) pipe 36 at the substantially central portion in the length direction. It is housed and configured to be variable in length. A hook 12 having an L-shaped side view is provided on the lower side of the distal end side pipe 36 in the length direction. When the stand is stored as described above, the hook 12 is fitted into the engaging portion 11 of the cleaner body 2 so that the pipe 6 stands upright with respect to the floor as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The vacuum cleaner 1 is stored in a stand.

The suction tool 7 includes a housing 39, a connection tube 40, and a coupling mechanism 50 that attaches the connection tube 40 to the housing 39.
The rear end side pipe 35 of the pipe 6 can be detached from the operation unit 4, and the operation unit 4 can be directly coupled to the connection cylinder 40 of the suction tool 7.
The storage cover 10 has a cylindrical shape, and the rear end side is fixed to the connection portion 9 of the hose 3 and the distal end portion of the small-diameter cylindrical body 52 of the rotation mechanism 5 (see FIG. 4). Therefore, since the weight of the storage cover 10 is supported by the cleaner body 2, when gripping the grip 15 and handling the vacuum cleaner 1, the user's hand holding the grip 15 has the storage cover 10 's hand. The weight of the vacuum cleaner 1 can be easily handled without adding weight. In addition, the front end side of the storage cover 10 extends to the middle of the telescopic hose 14 and covers the rear part of the telescopic hose 14 when the stand is not stored. The axial length of the storage cover 10 is substantially the same as the axial length of the telescopic hose 14 in the fully contracted state shown in FIG. Therefore, the tip of the hose 3 is closed, and the inside of the hose 3 is decompressed by an electric blower (not shown) built in the cleaner body 2 or when the telescopic hose 14 is shrunk manually, so that the hose 3 is shrunk. The telescopic hose 14 is accommodated in the cover while maintaining the contracted state. Further, as described above, the telescopic hose 14 is supported by the rotation mechanism 5 so as to be rotatable about the axis. Therefore, even if the contracted expansion / contraction hose 14 is twisted about its axis, the twisting mechanism 5 eliminates the twist, so that the expansion / contraction hose 14 can be seen and stored in the storage cover 10 and can be electrically cleaned. The stand storage appearance of the machine 1 can be improved.

The front cover 19 has a cylindrical shape made of cloth-like rubber material, and the rear end side is fixed to the rear end portion of the storage cover 10 and the front end side is fixed to the front end portion of the storage cover 10 (FIG. 4). reference).
A feature of the vacuum cleaner 1 according to this embodiment is that it includes a hose 3, a storage cover 10, a connecting member 16, and a front cover 19, which will be described in detail below.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the storage cover 10 includes a strong elastic wire 53 having a high restoring force and a cover skin portion 54 that covers the outer periphery of the spiral in the axial direction. The strong elastic wire 53 is made of steel or resin and forms a spiral in the axial direction, and the outer peripheral surface of the storage cover 10 has an uneven portion in which the spiral shape of the strong elastic wire 53 is embossed. Further, the cover skin portion 54 is covered. By this uneven part, the spiral pitch of the strong elastic wire 53 becomes clear, and the state (expansion / contraction, bending, etc.) of the storage cover 10 can be grasped by observing the spiral pitch. In addition, you may form the shrinkable cover 10 so that there may be no uneven part. In that case, the outer peripheral surface of the shrinkable cover 10 becomes smooth and the appearance is good. Further, the storage cover 10 is formed so that the spiral pitch of the strong elastic wire 53 in a normal state is relatively narrow, and when the pitch is widened, the pitch is reduced. Therefore, the storage cover 10 becomes a flexible coil spring, can follow the movement of the telescopic hose 14 due to the flexibility, and can smoothly store the telescopic hose 14.

  In the bent hose 13 and the telescopic hose 14, an elastic wire (not shown) having a restoring force that forms a spiral in the axial direction and a hose skin portion (not shown) that covers the outer periphery of the spiral in the axial direction. ) And are provided. The elastic wire (not shown) is made of steel or resin, and the outer peripheral surfaces of the bent hose 13 and the expansion / contraction hose 14 are uneven portions in which the spiral shape of the elastic wire (not shown) is embossed. As shown, it is covered with a hose skin (not shown). By this uneven portion, the spiral pitch of the elastic wire (not shown) becomes clear, and the state (expanded, bent, etc.) of the bent hose 13 and the telescopic hose 14 is grasped by viewing the spiral pitch. be able to. In addition, you may form the bending hose 13 and the expansion-contraction hose 14 so that there may be no uneven part. In that case, the outer peripheral surfaces of the bent hose 13 and the telescopic hose 14 are smooth, and the appearance is good. The expansion / contraction hose 14 is formed so that the helical pitch of an elastic wire (not shown) in a normal state is relatively wide and the pitch is widened when the pitch is compressed. The bent hose 13 is formed so that the helical pitch of an elastic wire (not shown) in a normal state is relatively narrow, and the pitch is reduced when the pitch is widened. Therefore, as described above, the bent hose 13 and the telescopic hose 14 have flexibility and can be bent into an arbitrary form. Further, the restoring force that works so as to shrink when the helical pitch of the strong elastic wire 53 of the storage cover 10 is expanded is when the helical pitch of the elastic wire (not shown) of the telescopic hose 14 is compressed. Stronger than the resilience working to spread. Therefore, the retracted retractable hose 14 is securely stored in the storage cover 10.

  If a lead wire (not shown) is wired along an elastic wire (not shown), an electric circuit is formed by the elastic wire (not shown) and the lead wire (not shown) of the hose 3. Therefore, the cleaner main body 2 and the operation unit 4 are electrically connected, and an electric blower built in the cleaner main body 2 is operated by operating an operation switch (not shown) provided in the operation unit 4. (Not shown) and the like can be controlled.

  The telescopic hose 14 is required to relieve external forces such as pulling and twisting, while the bent hose 13 relieves repeated bending stress up to about 180 ° in addition to those performances. Performance (flexibility) is required. Therefore, the materials of the elastic wire (not shown) and the hose skin part (not shown) provided in each of the bent hose 13 and the telescopic hose 14 also differ depending on the required performance. As described above, by using the connecting member 16, the bent hose 13 and the telescopic hose 14 formed of different materials are connected. In order to connect the bent hose 13 and the expansion / contraction hose 14 directly and continuously (unify them) without using the connecting member 16, the material of the bending hose 13 and the expansion / contraction hose 14 must be the same. In this case, an expensive material for forming the bent hose 13 having more performance items required than the telescopic hose 14 is selected. Therefore, if the connection member 16 is used, the bending hose 13 and the expansion / contraction hose 14 can be formed of different materials, and are inexpensive compared to the case where the bending hose 13 and the expansion / contraction hose 14 are directly connected without using the connection member 16. The hose 3 can be created.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the back surface of the vacuum cleaner body 2 is attached to the floor, the front surface thereof is directed to the ceiling, and the pipe 6 is erected by fitting the hook 12 of the pipe 6 into the engaging portion 11 of the vacuum cleaner body 2. The hose 3 is bent by its own weight in the state where the stand is stored. At this time, the bending hose 13 having excellent flexibility as described above becomes the bending position of the hose 3. The telescopic hose 14 of the hose 3 is greatly curved.

  Therefore, the electric blower (not shown) of the cleaner body 2 is operated to reduce the pressure in the hose 3 while the distal end side of the operation unit 4, for example, the distal end portion of the housing 39 of the suction tool 7 is closed. Shrink the hose 14. The telescopic hose 14 may be contracted manually. Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the contracted expansion / contraction hose 14 is accommodated in the storage cover 10, and the bending hose 13 is bent to about 180 ° at the above-described bending position, so that the hose 3 can be stored compactly, The appearance of the stand storage of the vacuum cleaner 1 is improved.

  As shown in FIG. 5, a fixing ring 18 as a locking portion is provided at the tip of the storage cover 10. The fixing ring 18 includes a cylindrical casing 55, a cylindrical holding ring 66 connected to the tip of the casing 55 as a holding member, and a locking ring 63 as a ring member held by the holding ring 66. And are provided. As shown in FIG. 6, the locking ring 63 includes a claw-shaped arc-shaped portion 65 having a C-shaped longitudinal section, and a claw projecting radially inward at a central position on the inner circumferential surface of the arc-shaped portion 65. A locking claw 64 (see FIG. 7A) as a portion and a regulating rib 67 as a protruding portion that protrudes radially inward at both ends on the circumference of the inner peripheral surface. The regulation rib 67 includes a narrow portion 69 on the inner peripheral surface side of the arc-shaped portion 65, and a wide portion 70 adjacent to the narrow portion 69 on the radially inner side, and is tangential to the arc-shaped portion 65. When viewed from the side, it has a substantially T-shape standing from the inner peripheral surface of the locking ring 63.

Then, in a state where the locking ring 63 is externally fitted to and held by the holding ring 66, a through hole that penetrates the holding ring 66 in the radial direction is provided at a circumferential position of the holding ring 66 that faces the locking claw 64. 61 is formed, and two guide portions 68 are formed corresponding to the regulating ribs 67 at the circumferential positions facing the regulating ribs 67.
The guide portion 68 is formed so as to connect two sets of two sides facing each other in the quadrangular concave portion 71 and a quadrangular concave portion 71 that is recessed radially outward on the inner peripheral surface of the holding ring 66. A cross groove 72 having a cross shape as viewed from the inside passing through the holding ring 66 in the radial direction is provided. The depth in the radial direction of the recess 71 is equal to or greater than the thickness in the radial direction of the wide portion 70 of the regulation rib 67, and the axial length of the recess 71 is the axial length of the wide portion 70. On the other hand, it is equal or better. The cross groove 72 is provided with one circumferential groove 73 and one axial groove 74 that form the cross shape, and the circumferential groove 73 and the axial groove 74 are mutually connected. It intersects at the longitudinal center position. The axial length of the circumferential groove 73 is equal to or greater than the axial length of the narrow portion 69 of the regulating rib 67 and is shorter than the axial length of the wide portion 70. The axial length of the axial groove 74 is equal to or greater than the axial length of the wide portion 70, and the circumferential length is equal to the circumferential length of the narrow portion 69 and the wide portion 70. That's it. Thereby, the restriction rib 67 can penetrate the width direction groove 74 in the radial direction.

  The restricting rib 67 is restrained from moving in the radial direction by the wide portion 70 being fitted into the width direction groove 74 of the guide portion 68 of the holding ring 66 and being locked to the inner peripheral surface of the recess 71. The On the other hand, since the narrow portion 69 is slidable in the circumferential direction within the range of the circumferential length of the circumferential groove 73, the regulation rib 67 is also slidable in the same direction and range. After the restriction rib 67 is locked to the guide portion 68 in this way, the locking ring 63 is fitted onto the holding ring 66 as shown in FIG. 7A. At the same time, the locking claw 64 of the locking ring 63 passes through the through-hole 61 of the holding ring 66 and is exposed to the inner peripheral surface of the holding ring 66, and protrudes inward in the radial direction of the holding ring 66.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the connecting member 16 is provided with a locked ring 30 as a locked portion having a cylindrical shape that covers the outer periphery with a gap in the radial direction. The locked ring 30 functions as a fixing member together with the fixing ring 18. The connecting member 16 and the locked ring 30 are fixed to each other in the axial center position by screws or the like. At the rear end of the locked ring 30, a locked groove 62 is provided as a groove, which is a recess formed in an annular shape on the outer peripheral surface thereof.

  The holding ring 66 of the fixing ring 18 has a larger diameter than the locked groove 62 and the locked ring 30. As shown in FIG. 8, when the contracted telescopic hose 14 is accommodated in the storage cover 10 and the hose 3 is bent to about 180 °, the retaining ring 66 and the locking ring 63 are connected to the locked ring 30 and the engaged ring. The locking claw 64 is engaged with the locking groove 62 and the locking claw 64 is locked to the locked groove 62. Thereby, the fixing ring 18 of the storage cover 10 and the connecting ring 16 provided with the locked ring 30 and the locked ring 30 at the tip of the telescopic hose 14 are securely fixed. For this reason, the retractable expansion hose 14 is restricted from being stretched and restored, and the storage cover 10 can be securely stored in a contracted state of the expansion hose 14. Further, as described above, since the locked groove 62 is annular with respect to the locking claw 64 provided at one place on the inner circumferential surface of the arc-shaped portion 65, the circumferential direction of the locked groove 62 is increased. The locking claw 64 can be locked at any position. Therefore, alignment between the locking claw 64 and the locked groove 62 is not required, and the fixing ring 18 and the connecting member 16 of the storage cover 10 can be fixed easily and reliably. In addition, in the state where the fixing ring 18 and the connecting member 16 are fixed, the regulating rib 67 is located on the circumferential edge side of the arc-shaped portion 65 in the circumferential groove 73 (see FIG. 6). Therefore, since the wide portion 70 is always locked to the inner peripheral surface of the recess 71 and the movement in the radial direction is suppressed, the restriction rib 67 does not come off from the width direction groove 74 and the locking ring 63 is lost. There is no fear of doing it.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 7A, the regulating rib 67 of the locking ring 63 is slid in the circumferential direction toward the arc center of the arc-shaped portion 65 (the arrow direction in FIG. 7A). The sliding of the regulating rib 67 is stopped at the edge of the circumferential groove 73 on the locking claw 64 side. As a result, the locking ring 63 having a C-shaped longitudinal cross-section has the arc-shaped portion 65 greatly opened compared to before the slide, and at the same time, bends in the radial direction, so that the locking claw 64 moves against the locked groove 62. Spaced in the radial direction. The interval between the locked groove 62 and the locking claw 64 here corresponds to a length obtained by converting the sliding amount of the regulating rib 67 in the circumferential direction into the radial direction. Then, the fixing ring 18, the locked ring 30, and the connecting member 16 of the storage cover 10 are released from being fixed with the gap of the locking claw 64 to the locked groove 62. The above-mentioned slide amount is set to a minimum value necessary for the locking claw 64 to be spaced from the locked groove 62, so that the regulating rib 67 slides and locks more than necessary. There is no risk of bending until the ring 63 is plastically deformed. As described above, the fixing ring 18, the locked ring 30, and the connecting member 16 can be fixed and released by a simple mechanism including the locking ring 63, the holding ring 66, and the locked groove 62. .

  Moreover, the above-mentioned uneven | corrugated | grooved part is formed in the outer peripheral surface of the storage cover 10, and since the outer peripheral surface is covered with the surface cover 19 and is not exposed outside, the contraction state of the expansion / contraction hose 14 is good-looking. Maintained. And the storage cover 10 covered with the front cover 19 can play the role which accommodates the expansion-contraction hose 14 without being caught by the external appearance. Therefore, it is possible to freely make various changes including the appearance necessary for the storage cover 10 to play the role of storing the telescopic hose 14. Further, the front cover 19 may be given an arbitrary design, so that the appearance of the contracted state of the telescopic hose 14 can be further improved.

  In the above description, the fixing ring 18 is provided in the storage cover 10 and the locked ring 30 is provided in the hose 3. However, the fixing ring 18 is provided in the hose 3 and the locked ring 30 is stored. The cover 10 may be provided. Further, the fixing ring 18 and the locked ring 30 may be provided between the storage cover 10 and the rotation mechanism 5 instead of being provided between the storage cover 10 and the connecting member 16.

In the above description, the rotation mechanism 5 is provided between the hose 3 and the cleaner body 2, but may be provided between the hose 3 and the operation unit 4. Further, the hose 3 may be detachable from the operation unit 4.
The present invention is not limited to the contents of the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the claims.

FIG. 1 is a right side view of a vacuum cleaner 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, a part of which is shown in cross section. In FIG. 1, it is the figure by which the one part was shown by the cross section by the right view of the vacuum cleaner 1 at the time of storing the stand, without retracting the expansion-contraction hose 14. FIG. In FIG. 1, it is the figure by which the one part was shown with the cross section by the right view of the vacuum cleaner 1 at the time of retracting the expansion-contraction hose 14 and storing the stand. In FIG. 1, it is a principal part right sectional drawing for demonstrating the rotation mechanism 5, the storage cover 10, and the hose 3 when the hose 3 is not bent. FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG. 4 for explaining a fixing ring 18 and a locked ring 30. It is the perspective view from the upper right of the fixing ring 18 in FIG. 5, and the principal part disassembled perspective view. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 5, showing a state where the fixing ring 18 and the connecting member 16 are fixed. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. 5 and shows a state in which the fixing ring 18 and the connecting member 16 are released from being fixed. In FIG. 4, the contracted telescopic hose 14 is accommodated in the storage cover 10 and the hose 3 is bent to about 180 °.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Electric vacuum cleaner 2 Vacuum cleaner main body 3 Hose 10 Storage cover 13 Bending hose 14 Telescopic hose 16 Connecting member 18 Fixed ring 19 Front cover 30 Locked ring 62 Locked groove 63 Locking ring 64 Locking claw 65 Arc shape Part 66 Retaining ring 67 Regulating rib

Claims (5)

A vacuum cleaner body with a built-in electric blower,
An expansion / contraction part that is arranged on the vacuum cleaner body side and is normally extended, and is configured separately from the expansion / contraction part, and is arranged on the opposite side of the vacuum cleaner body with respect to the expansion / contraction part. A flexible member having a bent part and a connecting member for connecting the other end of the extendable part and one end of the bent part, wherein one end of the extendable part is detachably connected to the cleaner body. A hose,
A cylindrical storage cover that has one end connected to the one end side of the stretchable part, covers the periphery of the stretchable part, and houses the stretchable part contracted when the stretchable part shrinks;
A vacuum cleaner characterized by comprising:   The electric vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, further comprising a cylindrical front cover that covers the periphery of the storage cover.   The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, further comprising a fixing member that detachably fixes the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member. The fixing member is
A locking portion provided on either one of the other end of the storage cover and the connecting member;
A locked portion that is provided on either side and can be locked to the locking portion;
The vacuum cleaner according to claim 3, wherein the vacuum cleaner is included. The locking portion is
A ring member having an arcuate part, protrusions formed at both ends of the arcuate part, and a claw part projecting inwardly from the arcuate part at a central position of the arc;
A holding member that holds the ring member so as not to be inadvertently detached and bent more than necessary by locking the protrusion and controlling the movement of the protrusion. And
The to-be-latched portion has a cylindrical shape in which a groove portion on which the claw portion can be latched is formed on the circumference,
The bending of the ring member separates the claw portion and the groove portion in the radial direction, and the locking of the locked portion by the locking portion is released. 4. The vacuum cleaner according to 4.

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