JP4752662B2 - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly to dust detection and input control of an electric blower.

Conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 9, this type of electric vacuum cleaner has a built-in control means including an electric blower and a signal processing unit in the vacuum cleaner main body 1, and a hose connecting the hand operating unit 4 and the vacuum cleaner main body 1. 3, a motor built in the suction tool 6, a rotating brush that scrapes dust rotated by the motor, and an extension pipe 5 that connects the suction tool 6 and the hand operation part 4. Is used to control the suction force control of the electric blower and the presence or absence of rotation of the electric motor. In addition, you can select multiple suction forces such as “OFF”, “Random”, “Strong”, “Weak” positions, etc. at the hand control unit 4 and reduce suction force by reducing the air volume in the dust collection at the “Strong” position. In order to compensate for this, most of the airflow is detected by the current detection means of the electric blower 2 and is controlled to increase the suction force. Also, in recent years, the current flowing through the electric blower is detected, the air volume is estimated based on the correlation, and dust is collected and the current value is reduced. Control that considers usability for notifying or reducing the suction force is also performed. Further, in the “automatic” and “weak” positions, a dust detection means 11 for detecting the passage of dust is provided at the connection portion of the hose 3 in the dust collecting path on the cleaner body 1 side. Control is also performed to improve dust collection efficiency so as to increase the suction force and perform cleaning while displaying in the operation section).
JP 2002-248070 A

  However, in the conventional configuration, when dust is sucked from when the user starts cleaning, the suction air volume decreases due to pressure loss of the dust in the dust collection chamber. In such a case, since there is no suction wind, the electric blower is in a state close to idling, and the rotational speed increases. Then, a sound having a frequency proportional to the rotation speed is generated, and a wind noise is reduced, so that a sound proportional to the rotation speed may be annoying.

  In particular, in the type in which dust is detected and the input of the electric blower is varied according to the signal, when the airflow has decreased and before the decrease, the airflow is The fluctuation at the time of reduction was very uncomfortable noise.

  In order to solve the conventional problems, an electric vacuum cleaner of the present invention includes an electric blower that generates a suction force, a drive unit that drives the electric blower, an air volume detection unit that detects a suction air volume, and dust detection. And a dust detection means for outputting a dust signal, and a control means. The control means receives a dust signal from the dust detection means, and inputs an electric blower corresponding to the suction air volume to a predetermined width. In a vacuum cleaner that is configured to be variable, the width when the dust blow signal is input and the input of the electric blower is varied when the suction air flow becomes less than the predetermined air flow, the input before the suction air flow becomes less than the predetermined air flow It is characterized in that it is made smaller with respect to the width when changing. As a result, it is possible to reduce the cleaning sound when dust is accumulated, and to provide a highly usable vacuum cleaner.

  The vacuum cleaner of the present invention can suppress a sound proportional to the number of rotations of the electric blower due to a decrease in the amount of air when sucking garbage, and can provide a highly usable vacuum cleaner for the entire region.

  The first invention includes an electric blower that generates a suction force, a drive unit that drives the electric blower, an air volume detection unit that detects the suction air volume, a dust detection unit that detects dust and outputs a dust signal, In a vacuum cleaner comprising a control means, wherein the control means receives a dust signal from the dust detection means, and the input of the electric blower corresponding to the suction air volume is configured to vary a predetermined width. The width when changing the input of the electric blower when a dust signal is inputted when the air flow becomes below the predetermined air volume becomes smaller than the width when changing the input before the suction air volume becomes below the predetermined air volume By doing so, easy-to-use and low noise cleaning can be performed.

  According to a second invention, in the first invention, when the air flow becomes equal to or less than a predetermined air volume, a sound proportional to the rotational speed of the electric blower is generated by lowering the central value of the suction force that is varied by a signal from the dust detection means. Can be reduced.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric blower that generates a suction force, a drive unit that drives the electric blower, an air volume detection unit that detects an intake air volume, a dust detection unit that detects dust and outputs a dust signal, In a vacuum cleaner comprising a control means, wherein the control means is configured to receive a dust signal from the dust detection means and to change the input of the electric blower corresponding to the suction air volume by a predetermined width. As the suction air volume when the air is input is reduced, the width of variable input of the electric blower is also reduced. As the suction air volume is reduced, the variable width of input of the electric blower can be reduced. The sound proportional to the number of rotations can be reduced in the entire air volume range.

  The fourth aspect of the invention is that the variable width of the electric blower of the third aspect of the invention is continuously reduced, so that the variable width of the input of the electric blower can be continuously reduced, with more accurate control. Sound proportional to the number of rotations of the electric blower can be reduced.

  5th invention is cleaning by having the alerting | reporting means which alert | reports that it became below predetermined air volume while alert | reporting the presence or absence of garbage in any one invention of 1st-4th. You can check the amount of garbage without changing the state.

  According to a sixth invention, in any one of the first to fifth inventions, an operating means that can be arbitrarily operated by a user is provided, and the suction power, the presence / absence of dust, and the timing of air flow reduction can be switched by the operating means. Since it was made possible, the user can set a predetermined air volume according to his / her preference.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of the electric vacuum cleaner according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an external view of the electric vacuum cleaner.

  1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes an electric vacuum cleaner main body, and 2 an electric blower 2 for generating a suction force and collecting dust in a dust collection chamber (not shown). Reference numeral 3 denotes a hose, which connects the vacuum cleaner main body 1 to the hand operating unit 4 for switching operation positions such as “strong”, “automatic”, and “weak” which are the strength of the suction force of the electric blower 2. 6 is a suction tool for sucking dust and the like on the surface to be cleaned in contact with the floor surface, a rotating brush (not shown) for scuffing up dust on the surface to be cleaned, and an electric motor (not shown) for driving the rotating brush. Built in. The rotating brush is driven by the electric motor via a belt (not shown) or the like, or the electric motor is built in the rotating brush and the rotating brush is driven via a gear (not shown) or the like. and so on. Reference numeral 5 denotes an extension pipe which allows the suction tool 6 and the hose 3 to communicate with each other. By operating the hand operating unit 4 and driving the electric blower 2 and the electric motor, dust on the surface to be cleaned is scraped up from the suction tool 6, and the dust passes through the extension pipe 5 and the hose 3 to be used in the vacuum cleaner. While being transported to the main body 1, dust is collected in a dust collection chamber (not shown) built in the main body 1 of the vacuum cleaner, and the suction air is discharged from the main body 1 of the vacuum cleaner.

  In response to an operation from the hand operation unit 4, the electric blower 2 and the control means 9 that controls the operation of the electric motor are built in the cleaner body 1. In addition, the suction tool 6 is provided with a child nozzle (not shown) so as to be detachable so as to clean a narrow gap with the suction tool body. ”And“ child nozzle ”to switch the operation mode. The dust detection means 11 for detecting the passage of dust is provided in the intake path. When dust is not detected by the dust detection means 11, the electric blower 2 and the electric power of the electric motor are reduced, and if detected, the electric motor is detected. By increasing the suction force of the blower 2 and the electric motor, power consumption is reduced when there is no dust, and energy is also saved.

  In FIG. 1, 12 is a driving means for driving the electric blower 2, 13 is an air volume detecting means for detecting the suction air volume, 11 is a dust detecting means for detecting dust, 14 is an informing means for informing whether dust is present, 9 Is a control means for receiving the signal from the dust detection means 11 and varying the suction force in a plurality of stages, inputting the detection signal of the air volume detection means 13 and outputting the signal to the notification means 14.

  About the vacuum cleaner comprised as mentioned above, the operation | movement and an effect | action are demonstrated below.

  When the user performs cleaning, he / she has a power plug and inserts it into a commercial power source (AC 100V). Thereafter, the operation is started by operating a switch (for example, strong, weak, automatic, off) in the hand operation unit 4 as shown in FIG. Here, each position will be described. First, the cutting position is a position to be pressed when the vacuum cleaner is not used, and the operation of the electric blower 2 is stopped. The weak position is a position set in the case of a soft and light cleaning object, and the input of the electric blower 2 is also set lower than other positions. The entrusted position is the recommended position, and is the position where the optimum input is set by the signal of the dust detection means 11, and the input can be varied depending on the presence or absence of dust, without using unnecessary power. It is a position that can be cleaned. The strong position is a position where the maximum suction force is generated, and the suction force is not changed by the dust detection means 11 and is about 900 W when the air volume is open.

  For each operation, the control unit 9 detects that the user has operated the input operation unit 4 and operates the electric blower 2 through the driving unit 12 according to each position.

  Here, a graph showing the correlation between the suction air volume and the input of the electric blower in FIG. 7 will be described.

In the table relating to the amount of suction air generated by operating the electric blower 2 and the input of the electric blower 2, for example, if operating in the automatic position, the amount of dust detected by the dust detection means 11 for 440 W input When there is little, it is divided into three stages, standard and large, and further, the suction air volume is 1.4 m ³ / min as a boundary, less than or above, and each numerical value is added, and the value obtained by adding this value to 440 w is the electric blower 2 Determine the input. For example, if the waste amount is 1.6 m ³ / min as a standard, it becomes 510 w at 70 + 440 w.

  For each operation, the control unit 9 detects that the user has operated the input operation unit 4 and operates the electric blower 2 through the driving unit 12 according to each position.

  Explaining the phenomenon that the air volume decreases while cleaning is performed. As shown in FIG. 4, when the air volume is taken on the horizontal axis and the input is taken on the vertical axis, the horizontal axis is replaced with the dust volume in the dust collection chamber, which is correlated with the air volume be able to. That is, as cleaning is performed, the amount of dust in the dust collection chamber increases and pressure loss occurs. It becomes difficult for the sucked air to pass through. Therefore, the air volume decreases.

  Now, the case where the user sets the automatic position for changing the input of the electric blower 2 by the signal of the dust detection means 11 will be described. The entrusted position is a recommended position in consideration of energy saving, and the power of the electric blower 2 is varied according to the state of the suction tool 6 and information from the dust detection means 11.

  The explanation will be made in a state where no garbage is collected.

  When there is no input from the dust detection means 11, the control means 9 sends a signal to the drive means 12 so as to drive the electric blower 2 with an input of 440 W (point A in FIG. 4) at normal times. Receiving this, the driving means 12 starts the operation of the electric blower 2. If no dust is detected while the dust detection means 11 is sucking, no signal is sent to the control means 9, and during that state, the air volume corresponding to the amount of dust in the dust collection chamber is used. The input fluctuates between the state of point A and the state of point B.

  Here, a case where dust is sucked will be described.

  When the dust is sucked, the dust detection means 11 detects the dust and outputs a signal to the control means 9. Receiving this, the control means 9 increases the input due to the presence of dust, and sends a signal to the drive means 12 to set the input to, for example, 550 W in order to suck the dust firmly. Upon receiving this, the driving means 12 changes the electric blower 2 that is currently operating with an input of 440 W to 550 W input. As a result, the suction force is increased and dust removal is improved. When this input is UP, at the same timing, the notification means 14 is turned on for a predetermined time (for example, 0.8 seconds) to notify the user that there is dust.

  For example, as described above, the 550 W line (C-D) is detected when the dust detection unit 11 detects the dust for the 440 W line (A-B). ), The sound proportional to the rotational speed generated by the rotation of the electric blower 2 becomes very conspicuous due to the reduction in wind noise due to the reduction in the amount of air sucked when the air volume decreases. In addition, the fact that the sound greatly fluctuates even though the suction amount is reduced is not suitable for the actual use. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, the control means 9 performs control in which the point G that becomes the 550 W line at that air volume (air volume F point) is reduced to, for example, the 500 W line. By doing so, it is possible to reduce noise by reducing the width of the dust detection means 11 detecting dust and increasing the input even when the air volume has decreased.

  Furthermore, the same effect can be obtained by changing the automatic basic line 440W (A-B) in FIG. In other words, when the air volume drops below a predetermined amount (point F in FIG. 5), the current line is switched to the (IH) line to operate.

  As a result, the volume of the base can also be reduced, and noise can be reduced. Moreover, in FIG. 6, by setting the width (arrow y) for changing the input when the dust is detected by the dust detection means 11 so as to be inversely proportional to the noise of the electric blower 2, the usability is very high. It becomes a high thing. In this case, the input when dust collection is not performed is the 440w (AB) line described above, and the noise level is approximately 550w (point C) when the dust detection means 11 detects dust. The input fluctuation of the electric blower 2 is caused to vary along a line (CG) drawn in anticipation of fluctuations in the input that can be made constant.

  The air volume detection means 13 and the predetermined air volume F point will be described.

There are various methods for air volume detection. For example, it is assumed that the estimation is performed according to the current value of the electric blower 2, such as the air volume, temperature change, and current change. When the operation is performed in the 440 W line at the automatic position, the signal of the driving means 12 for driving the electric blower 2 is constant, and the current changes depending on the air volume. This is because when the air volume is reduced, the load applied to the electric blower 2 is reduced, so that the current is reduced, and this change is detected. Therefore, the relationship between the current and the air volume is as shown in FIG. Each point (point A, B, J) is the same point as in FIG. As described above, the relationship between the air volume and the current in the line when the dust detection means 11 does not detect the dust at the automatic position has a correlation, and this is used to select the point F. For example, the point set in FIG. 5 is a point around 1.4 m ³ / min, but it may be possible for some users to change the point sooner. Therefore, a selection switch 4a that can change the switching point is provided in the current input operation unit 4 so that the user can easily set it. As shown in FIG. 9, when there is a signal from the dust signal detecting means 11, the input fluctuation is performed, but when the point of the F point in FIG. Press “fast”. Also, if it is possible to make it a little later, switching can be performed by pressing “slow”. At this time, as shown in FIG. 10, a storage means 15 capable of storing this setting is provided, and the set value can be stored. In this storage, the control means 9 detects a signal from the input operation unit 4 and outputs it to the storage means 15 for storage. At the time of use again, the control means 9 reads the stored value from the storage means 15 and sets it as the set value of the F point.

  Now, with respect to the notification means 14, the extension pipe 5 as shown in FIG. 2 is set at a position that can be seen when the user performs cleaning. However, the user may feel that the notification means 14 is lit by turning on / off the display within the line of sight because the notification means 14 is lit a lot. In addition, there are cases where the user wants to know the presence of garbage but knows how to clean a part that looks dirty even without lighting. Even in such a case, since the user feels at a glance, the input is changed, but the operation of the notification means 14 can be suppressed. As shown in FIG. 11, an ON / OFF switching unit 16 is provided between the control unit 9 and the notification unit 14 so that the user can switch and can be switched by the input operation unit 4 (FIG. 12).

  In addition, there is a model in which a conventional vacuum cleaner informs the display of the main body 1 when the dust collection chamber is full, but this time, the user prefers the dust detection means 11 of the electric blower 2 to the preference. The ability to set the input indicates that the user wants to lower the sound at this point. Therefore, when this point is reached, not only the display of the main body but the notification means 14 makes it possible for the user to surely recognize during cleaning and warns that the garbage is almost full. Notifying when the presence or absence is detected. Here, the notification means 14 emits, for example, two-color light emission (red: when dust is detected, yellow: warning that it is almost full) so that the user can be surely recognized during cleaning.

  In this operation, when the air flow point F in FIG. 5 is reached, the air flow detection means 13 detects this signal and sends a signal to the control means 9. Receiving this, the control means 9 sends a signal to the notification means 14 and can be notified.

The circuit block diagram of the vacuum cleaner in Embodiment 1 of this invention External view of the vacuum cleaner in the same embodiment The figure which shows the example of the hand operation part of the vacuum cleaner in the embodiment The figure which shows the correlation of the air volume and input of each position of the conventional vacuum cleaner The figure which shows the correlation of the airflow and input of each position of the vacuum cleaner in embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the correlation of the air volume, input, and noise of each position of the vacuum cleaner in embodiment of this invention The graph which shows the correlation with the suction | inhalation air volume of the vacuum cleaner and the input of an electric blower in embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the correlation of the air volume and electric current of the entrusted position in the same embodiment The figure which shows the other example of the hand operation part of the vacuum cleaner in the embodiment Circuit block diagram of the electric vacuum cleaner in the same embodiment Another circuit block diagram of the vacuum cleaner in the same embodiment The figure which shows the other example of the hand operation part of the vacuum cleaner in the embodiment

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vacuum cleaner main body 2 Electric blower 3 Hose 4 Hand operation part 5 Extension pipe 9 Control means 11 Dust detection means 12 Drive means 13 Air volume detection means 14 Notification means 15 Storage means 16 ON / OFF switching means

Claims (6)

An electric blower for generating a suction force, a driving means for driving the electric blower, an air volume detection means for detecting the suction air volume, a dust detection means for detecting dust and outputting a dust signal, and a control means, In the vacuum cleaner in which the control means is configured to receive a dust signal from the dust detection means and to change the input of the electric blower corresponding to the suction air volume by a predetermined width, the suction air volume becomes equal to or less than the predetermined air volume. The vacuum cleaner is designed so that the width when the dust signal is input and the input of the electric blower is varied is smaller than the width when the input before the suction air volume falls below the predetermined air volume is varied. . The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the central value of the suction force, which is variable by a signal from the dust detection means, is lowered when the air flow becomes equal to or less than a predetermined air volume. An electric blower for generating a suction force, a driving means for driving the electric blower, an air volume detection means for detecting the suction air volume, a dust detection means for detecting dust and outputting a dust signal, and a control means, When the control means receives a dust signal from the dust detection means, and the electric vacuum blower is configured to change the input of the electric blower corresponding to the suction air volume by a predetermined width, when the dust signal is input The vacuum cleaner which made the width | variety which changes the input of the said electric blower small, so that the suction | inhalation air volume is small. The vacuum cleaner according to claim 3, wherein the width for changing the input of the electric blower is continuously reduced. The electric vacuum cleaner according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a notification unit that notifies the presence / absence of dust and also notifies that the air volume has become equal to or less than a predetermined air volume. The vacuum cleaner according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein an operation means that can be arbitrarily operated by a user is provided, and the suction force, the presence / absence of dust, and the timing of air flow reduction can be switched by the operation means.

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