JP4896166B2 - Stick type vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a stick-type vacuum cleaner.

  Conventionally, many canister-type vacuum cleaners have been widely used. In general, a canister type vacuum cleaner is equipped with an electric blower including a centrifugal fan and a DC motor as a suction drive source.

  As such a canister-type vacuum cleaner, “a single-phase AC commutator motor, a centrifugal fan, a fixed guide blade provided at the shaft end of the single-phase AC commutator motor, and a casing that covers the centrifugal fan and the fixed guide blade” There is a "vacuum cleaner provided with an electric blower composed of" (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  As another canister-type vacuum cleaner, an electric blower having a built-in electric blower “consisting of a brushless motor unit 51 operated by inverter control and a fan unit 52, which is different from a commutator motor in an electric motor” (See, for example, Patent Document 2).

JP-A-9-28641 (page 3, FIG. 3) Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2003-135320 (page 4-5, FIG. 3)

  Here, since the centrifugal fan blows air in the centrifugal direction, the fan diameter increases in order to obtain a large air volume. In addition, the DC motor requires a commutator (or brush) and is difficult to downsize. Due to the features of the centrifugal fan and the DC motor, the electric blower described in Patent Document 1 is large and heavy, and the main body of the vacuum cleaner is also large and heavy.

  Moreover, the vacuum cleaner of the said patent document 2 can be reduced in size by the space of a commutator (or brush) by employ | adopting a brushless DC motor instead of a DC motor. However, since the centrifugal fan has a large diameter, the electric blower is also large.

  On the other hand, there is a stick-type vacuum cleaner that is smaller than the canister type. When the electric blower described above is applied to this stick-type vacuum cleaner, the electric blower is swollen at the portion where the electric blower is stored. For this reason, a user's operation effort becomes large and the usability becomes a problem.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides a stick-type vacuum cleaner that is small, lightweight, and easy to use.

A stick type vacuum cleaner according to the present invention drives a brushless DC motor , a cylindrical case, a dust collecting chamber, a centrifugal fan, an electric blower having a brushless DC motor controlled at high speed by an inverter, and the brushless DC motor. A drive circuit including the inverter and a drive circuit chamber that houses the drive circuit, and in the case, the dust collection chamber, the electric blower, and the drive circuit chamber are arranged in this order from the front end side. The air sucked into the case from the front end side of the case by the operation of the electric blower passes through the dust collection chamber, the electric blower, and the drive circuit chamber in this order, and is provided on the rear end side of the case. It is exhausted from the exhaust port .

  The stick type vacuum cleaner according to the present invention is disposed in the case of the cylindrical case in the order of the dust collection chamber, the electric blower, and the drive circuit chamber from the front end side, and the rear of the case where the drive circuit chamber is located. An exhaust port is provided on the end side, and the electric blower has a centrifugal fan and a brushless DC motor controlled at high speed by an inverter, so that the centrifugal fan can have a small diameter. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a stick-type vacuum cleaner that is small and lightweight without causing the stick shape to swell, is easy to use, and has a small operation load.

It is a block diagram which shows the stick type vacuum cleaner which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the electric blower of the stick-type vacuum cleaner. It is an arrangement plan of an electric blower and a drive circuit in the stick type vacuum cleaner. It is a block diagram of the drive circuit of the same stick type vacuum cleaner. It is a block diagram of the drive circuit of the stick type vacuum cleaner which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a stick-type vacuum cleaner according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, and shows a side view. As shown in FIG. 1, the stick-type vacuum cleaner 1 has a floor nozzle 10 rotatably attached to the tip of a cylindrical case 2. And in the case 2, the dust collection chamber 20, the electric blower 30 as a suction drive source, and the drive circuit chamber 40 are arrange | positioned in order from the front end side, and these are in the state which connected. The frame of the electric blower 30 is supported on the case 2 by an arm (not shown). A handle 11 is rotatably attached to the rear end of the case 2.

The dust collection chamber 20 is a room for collecting dust and the like, and collects dust by a paper filter or a cyclone method.
In the drive circuit chamber 40, a plurality of exhaust ports 2a are formed in the case 2, and an exhaust filter 50 is attached to the exhaust port 2a.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the electric blower 30. As shown in FIG. 2, the electric blower 30 includes a centrifugal fan 31, and a brushless DC motor 32 having a rotor 32a and a stator 32b.
The centrifugal fan 31 has a small diameter (for example, about 50 mm).
The rotor 32a of the brushless DC motor 32 uses a permanent magnet. Since the brushless DC motor 32 using a permanent magnet can obtain a large torque with a small current, the brushless DC motor 32 is suitable for downsizing compared to the DC motor, and has good driving efficiency, so that energy saving can be achieved.
Thus, since the electric blower 30 has a configuration suitable for downsizing, for example, the cylindrical case 2 can be realized with an inner diameter of about 50 mm. This 50 mm is almost the same diameter as a handle of a general stick type vacuum cleaner, and is a diameter that is convenient for the user to handle.

FIG. 3 is a layout diagram of the electric blower 30 and the drive circuit chamber 40. As shown in FIG. 3, the drive circuit chamber 40 is provided with a drive circuit 41 for driving the electric blower 30, and the electric blower 30 and the drive circuit 41 are electrically connected. The drive circuit chamber 40 communicates with the electric blower 30, and the exhaust from the electric blower 30 flows into the drive circuit chamber 40 (arrow A). By doing in this way, the effect which cools the inside of drive circuit room 40 can be acquired. Therefore, due to this cooling effect, it is not necessary to provide a heat radiating member such as a heat radiating plate or a heat sink in the drive circuit 41, and cost reduction, weight reduction, and space saving are possible.
In addition, the drive circuit 41 is mounted on a long and narrow electronic substrate, for example, a size of about 200 mm long × 50 mm wide so as to fit in the stick-shaped case 2.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the drive circuit 41 provided in the drive circuit chamber 40. As shown in FIG. 4, the drive circuit 41 includes a converter 110 connected to the AC power supply 90 via the reactor 100, an electrolytic capacitor 120 connected to the output side of the converter 110, and an input side connected to the electrolytic capacitor 120. Inverter 130, DC voltage converter 140 connected to the output side of converter 110, microcomputer 150 that is supplied with a drive voltage from DC voltage converter 140 to drive and control inverter 130, and detection signal to microcomputer 150 Is provided.

The AC power supply 90 is AC 100V in a general household in Japan, but may be other AC voltage.
Converter 110 constitutes a bridge circuit composed of a plurality of rectifier diodes.
The inverter 130 forms a bridge circuit including a plurality of switching elements and a plurality of freewheeling diodes. As the switching element, for example, a MOSFET or an IGBT can be used.
The microcomputer 150 is generally configured by software, but can also be configured by hardware using an electronic circuit such as a logic circuit.
The position sensor 160 is attached inside the brushless DC motor 32, detects the rotational position of the brushless DC motor 32 by detecting the position of the rotor 32 a of the brushless DC motor 32, and outputs a detection signal to the microcomputer 150. As the position sensor 160, for example, a Hall IC can be used.

Next, the operation of the drive circuit 41 will be described with reference to FIG.
When an AC voltage is input from AC power supply 90, reactor 100 suppresses harmonic currents and the like and outputs them to converter 110. The converter 110 converts an alternating voltage into an arbitrary direct voltage and outputs it. The electrolytic capacitor 120 smoothes the DC voltage output from the converter 110 and outputs it to the inverter 130 and the DC voltage converter 140.
The DC voltage converter 140 converts a DC voltage into an arbitrary DC voltage and supplies it to the microcomputer 150 as a power supply voltage.
The microcomputer 150 obtains rotational position information of the brushless DC motor 32 from the position sensor 160, performs control calculation for driving the brushless DC motor 32 at high speed, and outputs a control signal to the inverter 130 for control. Since the control calculation is performed based on the rotational position of the brushless DC motor 32 detected by the position sensor 160, highly accurate control can be performed.

  Here, as a method of controlling the brushless DC motor 32, general vector control, V / F control, or the like can be used. By being controlled by such a control method, the brushless DC motor 32 can realize a rotational speed of about 100,000 rpm.

  In the stick type vacuum cleaner 1 configured as described above, when the electric blower 30 is driven, a suction force is generated, and dust and the like are sucked from the floor nozzle 10. The sucked dust is accumulated in the dust collection chamber 20. As described above, since the brushless DC motor 32 is rotated at a high speed by the inverter, even the small-diameter centrifugal fan 31 can improve the blowing efficiency and obtain a large air volume. For this reason, even if it is a small electric blower 30, high suction performance can be obtained. In addition, although the upper limit carrier frequency for the inverter 130 to operate with high cost performance is about 20 kHz, it can be considered that control becomes unstable as the rotational frequency of the centrifugal fan 31 becomes equal to this. In such a case, the problem can be avoided by setting the number of poles of the brushless DC motor 32 to 4 or less.

  The air from which dust is separated from the floor nozzle 10 is blown by the electric blower 30 and flows into the drive circuit chamber 40 to cool the drive circuit chamber 40 (arrow A in FIGS. 1 and 3). By doing so, it is possible to prevent the operation of the drive circuit 41 from becoming unstable due to a temperature rise, and it is not necessary to provide a separate heat dissipation member. And the air which passed the drive circuit chamber 40 is exhausted through the exhaust filter 50 provided in the exhaust port 2a (arrow B of FIG. 1).

  As described above, according to the stick-type vacuum cleaner 1 according to the first embodiment, the dust collection chamber 20, the electric blower 30, and the drive circuit chamber 40 are arranged in this order from the tip side in the cylindrical case 2. The electric blower 30 is composed of a small-diameter centrifugal fan 31 and a brushless DC motor 32 controlled at high speed by an inverter. For this reason, the centrifugal fan 31 can be reduced in diameter. Therefore, the stick shape of the stick-type vacuum cleaner 1 does not swell and is small and lightweight, improving usability and reducing the operation burden.

  Moreover, since the brushless DC motor 32 includes the rotor 32a using a permanent magnet, the drive efficiency is good and an energy saving effect can be obtained. In addition, since the position sensor 160 that detects the rotational position of the brushless DC motor 32 is provided, highly accurate inverter control can be performed.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the drive circuit 41 of the stick type vacuum cleaner according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.
In the drive circuit 41 of the second embodiment, the same components as those of the drive circuit of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals.
In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the position sensor 160 is omitted from the drive circuit 41 (see FIG. 4) described in the first embodiment.
By omitting the position sensor 160, the sensor mounting space inside the brushless DC motor 32 can be omitted, so that a smaller brushless DC motor 32 can be realized.
There is also an advantage of sensor cost reduction. In this case, high-speed driving of the brushless DC motor 32 can be realized by performing sensorless control that obtains position information from current and voltage flowing through the motor.

  Examples of the use of the electric blower described in the first and second embodiments include general vacuum cleaners and jet towels.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Stick type vacuum cleaner, 2 Case, 2a Exhaust port, 10 Floor nozzle, 11 Handle, 20 Dust collection chamber, 30 Electric blower, 31 Centrifugal fan, 32 Brushless DC motor, 32a rotor, 32b Stator, 40 Drive circuit chamber, 41 drive circuit, 50 exhaust filter, 90 AC power supply, 100 reactor, 110 converter, 120 electrolytic capacitor, 130 inverter, 140 DC voltage converter, 150 microcomputer, 160 position sensor.

Claims (3)

A cylindrical case,
A dust collection chamber;
An electric fan having a centrifugal fan and a brushless DC motor controlled at high speed by an inverter;
A drive circuit including the inverter for driving the brushless DC motor;
A drive circuit chamber for housing the drive circuit,
In the case, in order from the front end side, the dust collection chamber, the electric blower, and the drive circuit chamber are disposed,
Air sucked into the case from the front end side of the case by the operation of the electric blower passes through the dust collection chamber, the electric blower, and the drive circuit chamber in this order, and is provided on the rear end side of the case. A stick-type vacuum cleaner that is exhausted from an exhaust port .   The stick type vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the brushless DC motor includes a permanent magnet.   3. The stick type vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the drive circuit includes a position sensor that detects a rotational position of the brushless DC motor.

Images