JP2019083873A - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a vacuum cleaner in which a user can select a mode with high suction force or a mode with suppressed noise.SOLUTION: An autonomously travelling type vacuum cleaner equipped with an electric blower 11, and wheel units 2 and 3 for self-travelling has at least two kinds of operation modes including an automatic operation mode in which the electric blower 12, and the wheel units 2 and 3 are operated at normal rotation, and high suction force is generated; and a silent mode in which the rotation of the electric blower 12, and the wheel units 2 and 3 is slowed down as compared to the automatic operation mode.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an autonomous traveling body having a mode of traveling autonomously automatically and a mode of operating manually, and illustrates the use as a vacuum cleaner.

JP, 2006-346178, A

  However, in the vacuum cleaner as shown in Patent Document 1, there is a problem that the noise is large if a high suction force is secured during autonomous traveling.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum cleaner which allows a user to select a mode with high suction power and a mode with reduced noise.

  In an autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner provided with an electric blower and a wheel unit for self-propelled operation, an automatic operation mode for operating the electric blower and the wheel unit by normal rotation to generate a high suction force, rotation of the electric blower and the wheel unit It is characterized in that it comprises at least two or more operation modes of a silent mode which is slower than the above-mentioned automatic operation mode.

  Further, the setting operation time of the silent mode is characterized in that it is longer than the automatic operation mode.

  Further, the present invention is characterized in that the difference between the noise in the automatic driving mode and the noise in the silent mode is 3 dB or more.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vacuum cleaner in which the user can select a mode with high suction power and a mode in which noise is suppressed.

  Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vacuum cleaner which secures a sufficient cleaning effect even in the silent mode.

  Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vacuum cleaner in which the noise energy felt by the user is half.

The perspective view which looked at the autonomous running type vacuum cleaner concerning an embodiment from the left front. AA sectional drawing of FIG. The perspective view of the internal configuration which saw through the case of the autonomous running type vacuum cleaner. The bottom view of an autonomous running type vacuum cleaner.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S according to this embodiment as viewed from the left front, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an interior seen through the case 1 of the autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S. FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S. FIG.

[Autonomy type vacuum cleaner S]
The autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S has a case 1 (upper case 1 u, lower case 1 s) constituting an outer shell, and is provided with various sensors therein. In the autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S, the drive wheels 2 and 3 provided on the lower case 1s side are in contact with the floor Y, and the wheel units 20 and 30 rotate the drive wheels 2 and 3 in the front-rear direction. It is movable. In the present embodiment, in the direction in which the autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S advances, the side provided with the main brush 5 is the rear. The autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S normally travels forward, and travels rearward when it approaches or contacts an obstacle or the like.

  Further, the vertically upward direction is upward, the driving wheels 2 and 3 are opposed to each other, the driving wheel 2 side is left, and the driving wheel 3 side is right. That is, as shown in FIG.

  The autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S includes the auxiliary wheel 4, the main brush 5, the rotating brush 7 and the like in addition to the pair of drive wheels 2 and 3 on the lower case 1 s side. The autonomously traveling type vacuum cleaner S autonomously moves by means of the driven wheels 4 and 3, which are rotated by a motor, in addition to the driven wheels 2 and 3 which rotate. The autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S can move forward, reverse, turn left or right, turn around the corner, etc. by setting the rotational speeds of the drive wheels 2 and 3 to different values or setting the rotation directions the same or opposite. It is. The drive wheels 2 and 3 are located outside the end of the main brush 5 in the left-right direction.

  The autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S has a main brush 5, drive wheels 2 and 3, and a rotating brush 7 in order from the rear. It is preferable that the front end of the main brush 5 be positioned rearward of the rear ends of the drive wheels 2 and 3 in the front-rear direction. By doing this, it is easy to increase the left and right dimensions of the main brush 5 while keeping the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S small. For example, the main body external shape of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S shown in the present embodiment is about 250 mm.

  As shown in FIG. 2 etc., the autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner S is provided with the main brush 5 and the rotating brush 7 on the lower case 1s side, and the battery 9 inside the case 1, the control device 10 (control board), electric motor The blower 11 and the dust collection case 12 are provided.

  The electric power from the rechargeable battery 9 is supplied to a motor for driving the drive wheels 2 and 3 and the various brushes 5 and 7, an electric blower 11 and the like.

  The internal speed reduction mechanism of the drive wheels 2 and 3 can be miniaturized, for example, by using a cycloid gear. The rotating brush 7 is a brush having one or more hair bundles rotating about a vertical axis as a rotation axis, and can repel dust present on the floor surface Y toward the rear. The rotating brush 7 rotates in the direction (the direction of the arrow α1 in the drawing) from the outside in the left-right direction of the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S toward the front. As a result, dust on the outside of the left and right dimensions of the autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S can be collected toward the inside. The rotation axis of the rotating brush 7 is preferably substantially parallel to the vertical direction. The rotating brush 7 can set the position of the rotation axis and the length of the hair bundle so that at least a part of the hair bundle reaches outside the lateral end of the rotating brush 7.

  It is desirable that the length of the rotating brush 7 projects outside the case 1 so as to reach the end of the corner when the autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S moves, for example, to the corner where two wall surfaces in the room intersect. However, it is preferable that the length does not reach the central axes of the drive wheels 2 and 3 so as not to prevent the rotation of the drive wheels 2 and 3. Alternatively, a part or all of the rotating brush 7 may be covered with an elastic body. By doing this, even in the case of a long hair bundle, the strength can be secured.

  The main brush 5 is a brush having a rotation axis in the left-right direction, and can scrape dust present on the floor surface Y and feed it toward the dust collection case 12 in the case 1. The main brush 5 is located rearward of the rotating brush 7, and easily scrapes off dust that the rotating brush 7 has thrown away. The rotation axis of the main brush 5 is not necessarily limited to the left and right direction, and may be provided in the other horizontal direction.

  The dust collection case 12 has a suction port 12i connected to a suction port 14i located above the main brush 5. Also, the dust collection case 12 has an opening different from the suction port 12i, and the dust collection filter 13 is attached here. The dust collection filter 13 suppresses dust from leaking out of the dust collection case 12.

  The electric blower 11 is disposed between the upper case 1 u and the lower case 1 s near the center of the autonomously traveling vacuum cleaner S in the front-rear direction and the left-right direction. When the electric blower 11 is driven, air can be sucked into the dust collection case 12 from the floor surface Y via the suction port 14i, and a flow can be generated which is discharged from the exhaust port 1s5 to the outside. Dust is sent into the dust collection case 12 together with air, and the dust can not pass through the dust collection filter 13 and is stored in the dust collection case. The air flows from the suction port 14i to the downstream side sequentially through the suction port 12i, the dust collection case 12, the dust collection filter 13, the electric blower 11, and the exhaust port 1s5 illustrated in FIG. The exhaust port 1s5 can be provided inside the drive wheels 2 and 3 in the left-right direction within the range of the electric blower 11 in the front-rear direction. Thereby, the flow path from the electric blower 11 to the exhaust port 1s5 can be shortened. In addition, the suction port 14i is provided in the upper back side of the main brush 5 which scrapes the dust on a floor surface. The main brush 5 receives rotational force from the main brush motor 5m. The electric blower 11 and the main brush motor 5m are desirably brushless motors in order to suppress noise and facilitate control of the number of rotations.

[Select mode]
The autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S can control the driving speed and cleaning time of each motor by the control device 10, and the user can select the driving speed and cleaning time of the motor by designating the operation mode. . The operation mode can include, for example, an automatic operation mode, a careful operation mode, a spot operation mode, and a silent operation mode.

  In the automatic operation mode, “normal” and “strong” are detected as the rotation speed of the electric blower 11 by the state of the floor (detected by the resistance of the main brush 5) or the amount of dust detected by the dust sensor provided in the suction port 12i. Switch. Also, the drive wheels 2, 3 rotate at a "fast" speed. The operation time (cleaning time) by the autonomous drive is automatically judged and operated from about 30 minutes to about 60 minutes by the size of the space to be cleaned detected by the sensor and the remaining amount of dust detected by the dust sensor. By this, the operation time is short and the operation time is short, and high cleaning ability can be exhibited in a wide range.

  Here, with regard to the operation time, for the automatic operation mode, the careful operation mode, and the silent operation mode, it is from the reception of the cleaning start instruction until the start of the return operation to the base station or the charging stand or the base station or the charging stand It is the time until the feedback operation is completed. On the other hand, for the spot operation mode, the execution time of the spot operation mode can be said.

  In the careful operation mode, the rotational speed of the electric blower 11 and the speeds of the driving wheels 2 and 3 are the same as in the automatic operation mode, and the cleaning time is fixed to preferably longer than the automatic operation mode, for example fixed for about 70 minutes. As a result, high cleaning ability can be exhibited over a wide range without depending on the size of the room.

  In the spot operation mode, the electric blower 11 is fixed to “turbo”, which has a rotational speed higher than that of the “strong” automatic operation mode, and the drive wheels 2 and 3 rotate at “slow” speeds. The cleaning time is about one minute and the limited space is cleaned. This allows any narrow area to be cleaned with higher suction.

  In the silent operation mode, the electric blower 11 is fixed at "weak", and the drive wheels 2 and 3 rotate at "slow" speed. The cleaning time is automatically judged about 45 minutes to 90 minutes as in the automatic operation mode. Thus, in the silent operation mode, it may take longer or shorter time than the automatic operation mode and the careful operation mode. In this way, when using the autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner S at home, etc., it is possible to clean a wide range with a sufficient cleaning ability while suppressing noise. The width of the cleaning time is wide because there are various possibilities for the user's preference (whether to end the operation early or to operate for a long time if silent). In the silent mode, the cleaning performance is suppressed by the decrease of the rotational speed of the electric blower 11, so the rotational speed of the drive wheels 2 and 3 is also reduced by the same time, and the same area is cleaned for a long time Covers the suppression of For this reason, it is preferable that the cleaning time be longer than in the automatic operation mode.

  The user may set the cleaning time. By setting the rotational speed so that the difference in noise between the automatic operation mode and the silent operation mode is 3 dB or more, it is possible to halve the energy of the noise felt by the user.

  For example, control of the electric blower 11 in this embodiment is "weak" about 12000 rotations, "standard" about 17500 rotations, "strong" about 24500 rotations, "turbo" about 37000 rotations, and control of the drive wheels 2 and 3 is The body travel speed is controlled to "fast" 330 mm / s and "slow" 200 mm / s.

  The “standard” and “strong” of the electric blower 11 is the maximum number of rotations from the capacity of the rechargeable battery 9 and the cleaning time. The control of the drive wheels 2 and 3 uses the speed from the maximum speed based on the braking distance from the reaction of the sensor to the stop of the main body from the size of the main body to 330 mm / s as the minimum speed at which the internal gear can operate. It is set to "slow" 200 mm / s. At that time, the difference between the “fast” and “slow” noises of the drive wheels 2 and 3 is about 2.5 dB, and it is necessary to make a difference of about 9 dB to provide a 3 dB difference between the automatic operation mode and the silent operation mode. Therefore, "weak" was reduced by about 30% from "standard" to 12,000 revolutions.

2, 3 drive wheels (wheels)
5 main brush 6 dust guiding member 7 rotating brush 8 sensor (obstacle detecting means)
9 rechargeable battery 11 electric blower 12 dust collection case 14 suction part S autonomous traveling type vacuum cleaner

Claims (3)

An autonomous traveling vacuum cleaner capable of executing an autonomous drive automatic operation mode while driving an electric blower and drive wheels,
A vacuum cleaner capable of executing a silent mode in which the rotational speed of the electric blower and the drive wheel is made slower than that of the automatic operation mode.   The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the operation time of the silent mode is longer than that of the automatic mode.   The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the difference between the noise in the automatic operation mode and the noise in the silent mode is 3 dB or more.

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