JPH03237957A - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control automatically the suction power most properly and to improve convenience greatly by doing arithmetic output of dust senor and output of condition sensor, and controlling the rate of rotation of a motor fan. CONSTITUTION:Control circuit 26 receiver output of dust sensor 24 and output of condition sensor 27, and outputs the results of calculation to control the rate of rotation of motor fan 34 through bidirectional thyristor 33. The rate of rotation of motor fan 34 and the suction power are controlled by output VA of dust sensor 24 and output VB of condition sensor 27. The suction power is controlled most properly by dust amount on the floor, movement of hand operation part, an operation speed. When output VA, VB of dust sensor 24 and condition sensor 27 are not generated, the motor fan 34 is stopped to operate, and when only output VA of dust sensor 24 is generated, the suction power is controlled corresponding to the dust amount.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner that controls the rotational speed of an electric blower based on the outputs of a state sensor and a dust sensor that detect the movement of a hand-held operating unit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In recent years, with the diversification of objects to be cleaned such as carpets, there has been an increase in the number of electric blowers whose rotational speed can be varied as needed. There are also vacuum cleaners that are equipped with various sensors and control the rotation speed according to the signals from the sensors.

Conventionally, this type of vacuum cleaner has generally had the configuration shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The configuration will be explained below.

As shown in the figure, connect the hose 2 to the vacuum cleaner body l,
A hand operation part 3 is provided at the tip of the hose 2, and a floor suction tool 4 is further provided. Electric blower 5 provided in the vacuum cleaner body 1
and a first bidirectional thyristor 6 are connected in series and connected to an AC power supply, and a second bidirectional thyristor 8 is connected to the gate of the first bidirectional thyristor 6 via a resistor 7.
is connected between the gate of the second bidirectional thyristor 8 and one side of the AC power source via a trigger element 9 and a current limiting resistor 10.11.
It is connected to a switch 12 and a slide resistor 13 installed in the switch 12 and the slide resistor 13, respectively. Further, a capacitor 14 is connected between the trigger element 9 and the T1 terminal of the second bidirectional thyristor 8.

As is clear from the above configuration, when the value of the slide resistor 13 of the hand-held operation unit 3 is changed, the charging time for the capacitor 14 changes, the trigger timing of the trigger element 9 changes, and the electric power of the electric blower 5 changes. The rotation speed is controlled.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such conventional vacuum cleaners, the value of the slide resistor 13 in the hand-held operation unit must be manually varied by the user, and as a result, the level of dirt on the surface to be cleaned and the amount of cleaning The method of cleaning depends largely on the user's intuition, and there are many problems in achieving optimal cleaning.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and its first object is to improve usability by detecting the amount of dust on the floor and the movement of the hand-held operating unit to automate cleaning that conventionally relied on intuition. A second purpose is to automatically stop the hand control unit when it is at rest or stationary, thereby improving safety. Furthermore, the third objective is to automatically determine the user's cleaning style and the degree of cleaning necessity of the cleaning surface, and to set the optimal cleaning mode according to each household, greatly improving usability.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above-mentioned first object, the present invention provides a dust sensor that detects the amount of dust passing through the air flow path, and the forward/backward, left/right, up/down movement and operation speed of the hand control unit. and a control means for inputting the outputs of the dust sensor and the state sensor, and the control means calculates the output of the dust sensor and the output of the state sensor to control the rotation speed of the electric blower. This is the first means of solving the problem. Furthermore, in order to achieve the second objective, in addition to the first problem solving means described above, when the output of either the dust sensor or the condition sensor is generated, the rotation speed of the electric blower is controlled, and both The second problem-solving means is that the operation is stopped only when no output is generated from the sensor. Furthermore, in order to achieve the third objective, in addition to the first problem solving means, the control means has a timer function,
The output of a dust sensor that detects the amount of dust distribution on the floor surface, the output of a status sensor that detects the number of reciprocations of the hand control unit, and the operating time counted by the timer function are calculated, and the state of the entire surface to be cleaned is determined by the calculation. The third problem-solving means is to provide a storage means for storing the recognized results.

Effects of the present invention is based on the above-mentioned first problem-solving means. Depending on the amount of dust on the floor surface and the cleaning speed, for example, when the amount of dust is large and the cleaning speed is fast, control can be performed to increase the suction force for speedy cleaning. Suction power can be controlled according to the amount of dust and cleaning speed. In addition, with the second problem solving means, when the dust sensor and the status sensor are not outputting, it is possible to determine that the cleaning is suspended or in a stationary state and automatically stop the operation, and when restarting the operation, the hand control It can be activated by holding and generating movement.

Furthermore, the third problem-solving means determines the necessity of cleaning the surface by calculating and storing three pieces of information: the amount of dust on the floor, the number of reciprocations of the hand control unit, and the operating time of the vacuum cleaner. When cleaning the floor, you can control the suction power to the optimum level based on the previous information.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, an example of the first invention will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in the figure, a light emitting element 22 and a light receiving element 23 are installed facing each other in the air passage 21 to form a dust sensor 24, and the output of the light receiving element 23 is transmitted to the first level detector 2.
5, the amount of light fluctuation that occurs when the dust passes is determined by the first level detector 25, and the pulse signal is converted into a pulse signal and input to the control circuit 26.

In addition, the status sensor 27 is equipped with a spherical ball 28 inside a closed case, and has a light emitting element 29 and a light receiving element 30.
A second level detector detects the change in light intensity caused by the ball 28 interrupting the optical axis of the photointerrupter 31 in proportion to the cleaning speed in response to the movement of the hand control unit. Detected by 32 and control circuit 2
6 is entered. The control circuit 26 is configured to input the output of the dust sensor 24 and the output of the state sensor 27, perform calculations, and use the output to control the rotation speed of the electric blower 34 via the bidirectional thyristor 33.

To explain the operation in the above configuration, Fig. 2 (al, (
As shown in bl, the rotation speed of the electric blower 34 is controlled by the output VA of the dust sensor 24 and the output VB of the condition sensor 27, and the suction force is controlled as shown in FIG. 2 (C1). If the cleaning speed is fast, it is determined as "speed cleaning" mode and the suction power is controlled to the maximum.
When the amount of dust is small and the cleaning speed is fast, the suction force is suppressed and the operating force is controlled to be low. In addition, if there is a large amount of dust and the cleaning speed is slow, the suction power is controlled to be slightly lower in "Lover's Easy Cleaning" mode, which cleans slowly and slowly. Furthermore, when the amount of dust is small and the cleaning speed is slow, the system enters the "power save operation" mode and controls the suction power to a low level.

In addition to the above, the suction force can be automatically controlled using a wide variety of cleaning patterns.

As described above, according to the vacuum cleaner of the first embodiment of the invention,
The suction force can be optimally controlled based on the amount of dust on the floor and the movement and operating speed of the hand control unit, greatly improving usability.

Next, an embodiment of the second invention will be described.

The configuration of the embodiment of the second invention is the same as the embodiment of the first invention shown in FIG.
, (dust sensor 24 and condition sensor 2 like bl)
When the outputs VA and Va of No. 7 are not generated, the operation of the electric blower 34 is stopped as shown in Fig. 3 fc), and the dust sensor 2
When only the output VA of No. 4 is generated, the suction force is controlled according to the amount of dust, and when only the output Va of the state sensor 27 is generated, the control is performed so that the "war save operation" mode is set.

In this way, according to the vacuum cleaner of the second embodiment of the invention,
There is no dust and the device automatically stops when the hand control unit is at rest or stationary, greatly improving safety.

Next, a third embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4. Components having the same configuration as the embodiment of the first invention are given the same reference numerals, and the explanation thereof will be omitted.

As shown in the figure, the control circuit 35 has a timer function and is capable of counting the operating time when the vacuum cleaner is operated.

The storage device 36 stores values obtained by calculating the outputs and operating times of the dust sensor 24 and the state sensor 27.

To explain the operation in the above configuration, the dust sensor 24 detects the amount of dust distributed on the floor surface, the condition sensor 27 detects the number of times the user reciprocates the floor suction tool during cleaning, and these dust sensors 24, the output of the status sensor 27, and the operating time are processed by the control circuit 35, and the level of dirt on the surface to be cleaned, the specificity of the cleaning speed of the user, the cleaning range, etc. are determined, and the room or surface to be cleaned is determined. Recognize the overall condition,
Controls the rotation speed or 0N-OFF of the electric blower 34,
Furthermore, this arithmetic processed information is stored in the storage device 36. Therefore, during the next cleaning, the suction force can be controlled according to the cleaning patterns of each household and each user. Note that the object to be controlled by the output of the control circuit 35 is not only the electric blower 34, but also an electric suction nozzle provided on the floor suction tool, which enables more detailed cleaning.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above embodiments, according to the present invention, the rotation speed of the electric blower is controlled by calculating the output of the dust sensor and the output of the condition sensor, so that the amount of dust on the floor and the amount of dust at hand can be controlled. The suction force can be optimally controlled by the movement and operating speed of the operating part, and cleaning, which previously relied on the user's intuition, has been completely automated, greatly improving usability. In addition, the output of the dust sensor and the output of the status sensor have been improved. Since the operation is stopped when no dust occurs and the hand control unit is at rest or stationary, it is determined that it is not cleaning and automatically stops, greatly improving safety. Effective use of electricity can be achieved.

Furthermore, since the output of the dust sensor, the output of the condition sensor, and the operating time are calculated and stored, the user can use information such as the amount of dust on the floor, the number of times of cleaning, and the duration of exercise to determine how the user cleans. It can automatically determine the need for cleaning for each cleaning surface, and the optimal cleaning mode for each household can be set, greatly improving usability. In addition, the object to be controlled by the blade of the control means not only controls the electric blower to control the suction force, but also controls the electric suction nozzle provided on the floor suction tool, thereby enabling more detailed cleaning.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 (a) - (C1 is the output waveform diagram and suction force characteristic diagram of each sensor of the same vacuum cleaner, Figure 3 fal - (C1 is the output waveform of each sensor of another usage example of the same vacuum cleaner) Fig. 4 is a block circuit diagram of a vacuum cleaner according to another embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional vacuum cleaner, and Fig. 6 is a suction force characteristic diagram.
The figure is a circuit diagram of the conventional vacuum cleaner. 21...Air passage, 24...Dust sensor, 26...Control circuit (control means), 27...
...Condition sensor, 34...Electric blower.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A dust sensor that detects dust in the air flow path, a status sensor that detects the forward/backward, left/right, up/down movement and operation speed of the handheld operating unit provided in the handheld operating unit, and the dust sensor and the status sensor. control means for inputting the output of the dust sensor, and the control means calculates the output of the dust sensor and the output of the condition sensor to control the rotation speed of the electric blower. (2) The number of rotations of the electric blower is controlled when an output from either the dust sensor or the condition sensor is generated, and the operation is stopped when the output from both sensors is not generated. The vacuum cleaner mentioned. (3) The control means has a timer function, and controls the output of the dust sensor that detects the amount of dust distribution on the floor, the output of the state sensor that detects the number of reciprocations of the hand control unit, and the operating time counted by the timer function. 2. The vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, further comprising a storage means for storing the result of calculating and recognizing the state of the entire surface to be cleaned by said calculation.