JPH0738842B2 - Vacuum cleaner - Google Patents

Description

Description: [Industrial application] The present invention relates to an operation control means of an electric vacuum cleaner.

[Prior Art] FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 are a side sectional view and a perspective view of a suction portion of a conventional electric vacuum cleaner disclosed in JP-A-1-198519. In the figure, (1) is a suction part, (2) is a motor built in the suction part, (3) is a rotary brush driven by the motor (2), (4) is a belt, and (5) is a suction part (2 (6) hose, (7) vacuum cleaner body, (8) intake port, (9) motor, (10) dust collection chamber, (11) exhaust port, (12) ) Is the local operation part, (13)
Is a floor surface detection device including a light emitting element (13a) and a light receiving element (13b), (14) is a floor surface contact switch for detecting that the user has landed on the floor surface, and (15) is control for controlling the detection device. Circuit.

When cleaning with the above vacuum cleaner,
When the switch in 2) is set to "auto" mode and the vacuum cleaner is started, the floor surface detection device (13) first functions. That is, the light beam emitted from the light emitting element (13a) is reflected by the floor surface as shown by the broken line in the figure and is received by the light receiving element (13b). Since the light ray reflectance differs depending on the type of floor surface, the light receiving amount of the light receiving element (13b) differs, and the intensity of the signal generated by the light receiving element (13b) also differs. That is, in the case of a carpet, the reflectance is lower than that between tatami mats and boards, and there is a tendency for diffuse reflection, so the amount of light received by the light receiving element (13b) is small, and therefore it is possible to distinguish between the carpet and tatami mats or boards. .

If the control circuit (15) discriminates this identification signal and the floor surface is a carpet, the rotating brush (3) is driven by the motor (2) and the blower motor (9) in the main body (7) is activated. Control to drive. When the space is between tatami mats or boards, the motor (2) is stopped and the blower motor (9) is stopped.
Is controlled so that the driving is weak.

When the suction part (1) moves away from the floor, the floor contact switch (14) and the control circuit (15) stop the operation of the rotary brush motor (2) and the blower motor (9). Has been done.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, since the conventional vacuum cleaner is configured as described above, it has some problems. First of all, the reflection type floor surface detection device is susceptible to not only the type of floor surface but also the surface condition and color of the floor surface, and the amount of reflected light changes significantly. Is very low.

Also, the floor contact switch is an ON / OFF switch with a simple structure that protrudes from the lower surface of the suction part, so the vacuum cleaner user may accidentally change it to the contact switch while the input position switch of the operation switch is ON. If touched, the rotating brush may suddenly start rotating and cause an unexpected accident.

Furthermore, as a result of analyzing the cleaning operation, it was found that the time the cleaner user leaves the cleaner for 20% of the time, such as cleaning up or moving an object, with the input position turned on. During that time, the suction part is left in contact with the floor surface,
The contact switch turns ON, the rotating brush rotates, and the blower motor operates strongly. As a result, power is wasted and noise is continued.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems of the conventional device, and an object thereof is to provide an electric vacuum cleaner having high safety, improved floor surface detection accuracy, and energy saving and noise reduction. It is a thing.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, an electric vacuum cleaner according to the present invention is provided with a light-shielding plate having a slit axially attached to a wheel of a suction portion, and a light-shielding plate sandwiched therebetween. A rotation detecting means for the wheel of the suction part, which is composed of a light emitting element and a light receiving element, is configured to block / transmit the emitted light of the light emitting element by the rotation of the wheel and output a pulse signal, and the rotation detecting means provided from the bottom surface of the suction part. It is composed of a contact element that is biased and protrudes and moves up and down according to the state of the floor surface, and a light emitting element and a light receiving element that are arranged with the contact element interposed therebetween. Contact displacement detection means configured to cut off / transmit, output signal conversion means for converting the output signals of the rotation detection means and the contact displacement detection means into one output signal, and the output signal From conversion means Looking at the change in amplitude of the pulse signal output presence and the output pulse signal, in which a motor control means for controlling the power and ON / OFF of the motor of the rotating brush of the blower motor.

[Operation] The output of the output signal converting means is output as HL or HM pulses according to the cutoff / transmission of the emitted light of the light emitting elements of the rotation detecting means and the displacement detecting means.

Depending on the presence / absence of this output, whether it is in the form of a pulse, the shape of the pulse, that is, HL or HM, etc., attachment / detachment of the suction part to / from the cleaner body, whether the cleaner is operating, or the physical surface of the floor. Depending on the situation, that is, whether it is a carpet floor or a floor or a tatami floor, the output of the vacuum cleaner blower is controlled and the rotary brush is driven or stopped accordingly.

[Embodiment of the Invention] FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of an electric vacuum cleaner showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view of a suction portion thereof.
~ (11) is the same as or equivalent to the conventional device, (20) is a hand operation part, (21) is a rear wheel, (22) is a front wheel, (23) is a rotation detector, (24) is a contact displacement detection The device (25) is a suction part control device.

FIG. 3 (a) is a sectional view of a light shielding plate sensor as a rotation detecting means. The rear wheel (21) of the suction part (1) partially projects from the lower surface of the suction part (1) and is rotatably attached to the shaft (21a). One end of the shaft (21a) has a light shield plate sensor (23). )
The light-shielding plate (26) constituting the above is attached. Light shield (2
Light-shielding plate sensor (2) consisting of 6) and rotation detection element (27)
In 3), the shading plate (26) is a disk having a plurality of slits (26a) as shown in FIG. 3 (b), and the rotation detecting element (27) sandwiches the shading plate (26) to emit light. Element (27a)
And a light receiving element (27b). The light shielding plate (26) is rotated by the rotation of the rear wheel (21) to block / transmit the light emitted from the light emitting element (27a), and the light receiving element (27b) receives this and emits a pulse signal. .

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the contact displacement detector. In the figure, (28) is a contactor, (29) is a light-shielding shaft, (30) is a holding member, (31) is a spring, (32) is a housing, ( 33) is the displacement detection element, (33
a) is a light emitting element, and (33b) is a light receiving element. Contact (2
8) is pressed downward in the housing (32) by the spring (31) via the holding material (30), and the lower end of the contactor (28) is on the lower surface of the suction part (1) and the rear wheel (21). , Front wheels (2
It is configured so that it projects 12 more than 2). A displacement detecting element (33) including a light emitting element (33a) and a light receiving element (33b) is arranged on the upper surface of the housing (32) so as to sandwich the light blocking axis (29), and the vertical movement of the contactor (28) is arranged. Causes the light blocking shaft (29) to move up and down, and the light emitting element (33
Block or transmit the radiated light of a). Contact (28)
The vertical movement of the contact differs depending on the condition of the floor surface. For example, when it is soft like a carpet, since the downward force of the spring (31) is strong, the contact element (28) moves upward with respect to the wheels (21) and (22). The amount of displacement to is small and the shading shaft (29) does not shield the radiated light because it does not reach the radiated light. However, if the floor surface is hard, such as between the plates, the contact surface of the wheel (21) and contactor (28)
The contact surface (28) rises with respect to the wheels (21) and (22), and the light-shielding shaft (29) shields the light emitted from the light-emitting element (33a) because the ground surface of the contactor is flush with 12 and the contact surface is zero. To do.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the functions of the rotation detector and the contact displacement detector. In the figure, (35) is the control circuit of the suction part, (35
a) is a current limiting resistor for driving the light emitting elements (27a) and (33a), which is connected to the light emitting elements (27a), (33a) and the resistor (3) from the power supply Vcc.
5a) and are connected in series.

The output generation section including the light receiving elements (27b) and (33b) is composed of a parallel circuit having three paths from Vcc to the output signal section (35d). The first is a circuit for connecting the displacement detecting element (33) to the light receiving element (33b) via the resistor RB (35b), and the second is a path for directly connecting to the light receiving element (27b) of the rotation detecting element (27).
The third is a path connected through the resistor RC (35c).
Since the output signal section (35d), which is the connection point of the three paths, is grounded via the voltage dividing resistor RA (35e), the resistor RA (3
The potential of 5e) becomes the output voltage.

Assuming that the values of the resistors RA, RB, and RC are Ra = RB << Rc, as shown in FIG. 6, the rotation detecting element (27)
And the displacement detection element (33) are combined with the blocking and transmission of the emitted light, that is, the output signals of the rotation detection element (27) and the displacement detection element (33) are overlapped, so that the output voltage becomes different. . As shown in FIG. 6, when the radiation of the rotation detecting element (27) is transmitted, the light receiving element (27b) is turned on and there is no resistance in this path, so the output voltage (35d)
Has a high output (H) close to the power supply Vcc regardless of other paths. Further, when the radiation of the rotation detecting element (27) is cut off, the displacement detecting element (33) releases / transmits the radiation, thereby obtaining an output voltage corresponding to the resistors RB and RC. That is, the light receiving element (27b) is OFF and the light receiving element (33b) is ON
At this time, the current flowing through the resistor RB is larger than the current flowing through the resistor RC, and the output (M) is obtained by the voltage division ratio of RB (35b) and RA (35e). When the light receiving element (27b) is OFF and the light receiving element (33b) is OFF, the output is (L) due to the voltage division ratio of RC and RA.

When the suction part (1) runs on the floor, that is, when the wheel (21) rotates, the interception plate detection sensor (23) is driven, and the rotation detection element (27) repeats ON / OFF continuously. In combination with the cutoff / transmission of the displacement detecting element, the output becomes a pulse shape of H-M or H-L as shown in FIG. The generation of this pulse detects the traveling of the suction section (1),
Also, the physical property of the floor surface, that is, the difference between the carpet and the board or the tatami mat can be detected depending on whether the low level of the pulse is M or L.

In FIG. 5, the output signal (35d) is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 20a of the hand operation unit (20) and input to the hand control device (20b). Hand control device (2
0b) determines the detection state based on this signal, generates an input control signal for the rotary brush motor (2) and the blower motor (9) in accordance with the detected state, and outputs the output control circuit (20c).
The motors (2) and (9) are controlled via.

As described above, the electric vacuum cleaner is provided with the rotation detector (23) and the contact displacement detector (24), converts each signal of the detector into one pulse signal, and blower according to the converted signals. It is a feature of the present invention that the output of each motor of the rotary brush is controlled.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the hand operation unit (20), in which (36) shows a key switch and (37) shows a display unit. The key switch (36) is auto (36a), on / off (36b), auto (36
c), turbo (36d), curtain (36e), off (36f) 6
The display (37) is made up of automatic switches (36
It is provided with five LEDs (37a) to (37e) corresponding to the switches from (a) to the curtain (36e). Of the above, the auto (36a) and the on / off (36b) switch and the LEDs (37a) and (37b) are the rotary brush motor (2).
Switch (36c) to off (3
6f) and LEDs (37c) to (37e) are the blower motor (9)
Belong to.

The auto switch (36a) is for teaching the function of automatically turning on / off the rotating brush (3) according to the information of the rotation detecting means and the floor surface detecting means, and the on / off switch (36b) is , For manually controlling the rotating brush (3).

Further, the auto switch (36c) has a function of automatically setting the input of the motor (9) of the blower according to the information of the rotation detection means and the floor surface detection means, and the turbo switch (37
The d) and the curtain switch (37e) are for manually controlling the motor regardless of the information of the detecting means.
The off switch (36f) is for stopping the motor (9).

By pressing the above switches, the motor (2),
(9) does each operation, but each LE of the display section (37)
D lights up in response to each of the above operations and displays each operation.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Connect the plug of the vacuum cleaner to the power supply and press the auto switch (37a) of the hand control unit (20) to control the hand control device (2
By 0b), each detection of the suction part (1) becomes a functional state, and the operation of the cleaner is started. The output signal (35d) of each detector in the suction section is digitized by the A / D converter (20a), and the value is read by the hand controller (20b) (S
1). Then, the hand control device (20b) judges whether or not the read value is 0 (S2), and if the value is 0, it means that the suction unit is not attached to the cleaner body, and therefore the blower The motor of (2) is made strong, and the motor (2) of the rotating brush is stopped. If the value is not 0, since the suction part (1) is attached to the main body of the vacuum cleaner, it is further determined whether or not the value is a pulse (S4). If the value is not a pulse, the suction part (1) runs. Since the cleaning is not performed, that is, the cleaning is not performed, the processing is performed without the cleaning operation (S5).
At this time, the blower motor is weakly operated, and the rotary brush motor is stopped. If there is a pulse, that is, if the suction section is running, read the (L) level of the pulse (S
6), if it is at (L) level, the displacement detection element (33) blocks the emitted light, that is, the floor surface is between the plates or tatami, so the processing (S8), that is, the motor of the blower is in the middle operation, and the motor of the rotating brush is Stop. Also in (S7) (L)
If it is not the level, it is judged whether the pulse level is the (M) level or not (S9), and if it is the (M) level, the floor surface is fully covered. As a processing (S10), the blower is operated strongly and the rotary brush is used. To drive. If it is not at (M) level, it is considered as an error, and the processing is performed (S11), the blower is weakly operated, and the rotary brush is stopped.

Thus, the control circuit (25) of the vacuum cleaner outputs the output signal (35
According to d), it is determined whether or not the suction part (1) is attached to the main body of the cleaner, the presence or absence of the cleaning operation, the state of the floor surface, etc., and an appropriate processing operation is performed accordingly. In the above procedure, comparison and determination of the output signal (35d) is performed after holding a predetermined time by a timer or the like.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the light shielding plate having the slit axially attached to the wheel of the suction portion, and the light emitting element and the light receiving element sandwiching the light shielding plate are provided. , Rotation detection means for the wheel of the suction part configured to block / transmit the emitted light of the light emitting element by rotation of the wheel and output a pulse signal, and to be biased and protruded from the lower surface of the suction part, It is composed of a contactor that moves up and down according to the state, and a light emitting element and a light receiving element that are arranged so as to sandwich the contactor, and is configured to block / transmit the emitted light of the light emitting element by the up and down movement of the contactor. Contact displacement detection means, output signal conversion means for converting the output signals of the rotation detection means and the contact displacement detection means into a single output signal, and a pulse signal output from the output signal conversion means. Existence and output It is equipped with a motor control unit that controls the power of the blower motor and the ON / OFF of the rotary brush motor by observing the change in the amplitude of the generated pulse signal. Since it is configured to detect the presence or absence and the physical state of the floor surface and automatically control the rotation of the rotating brush or the operating condition of the blower accordingly, the following advantageous effects will be achieved. It was

(1) When the suction part of the vacuum cleaner does not run, that is, when cleaning is not performed, even if there is an output from the contact displacement detection means, the motor of the blower is automatically set to a weak operation and the motor of the rotating brush is driven. Since the power supply is stopped, it is possible to prevent the waste of electric power, the generation of noise, and the like, and it is easy to ensure the safety for the user.

(2) Since the contact detection sensor is used in the floor detection mechanism, the floor detection accuracy is high and the safety is high.

(3) Since the output signal converting means for converting each output signal of the detecting means for detecting whether or not the suction portion is mounted on the main body, the traveling of the suction portion, the state of the floor surface, etc. into one output signal, the signal line is provided. It became possible to provide a vacuum cleaner that is simple and easy to use.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial side sectional view of an electric vacuum cleaner according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view of a suction portion, and FIG. 3 (a).
Is a side view of the rotation detector, FIG. 4B is a plan view of the light shielding plate, FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view of the contact displacement detector, and FIG. 5 is a block showing functions of the rotation detector and the contact displacement detector. FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of an output signal, FIG. 7 is a plan view of an operating portion at hand, FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the operation, FIG. 9 is a partial sectional view of a conventional vacuum cleaner, and FIG. The figure is a perspective view of the suction part. In the figure, (20) is the operation part at hand, (20a) is the A / D converter, (20
b) hand control device, (20c) output control circuit, (21) rear wheel, (22) front wheel, (23) rotation detector, (24)
Is a contact displacement detector, (25) is a suction part control device, (26)
Is a light shielding plate, (27) is a rotation detecting element, (27a) is a light emitting element, (27b) is a light receiving element, (28) contactor, (29) is a light shielding shaft, (30) is a holding material, (31) is Spring, (32) housing, (33) displacement detection element, (33a) light emitting element, (33
b) is a light receiving element, (35) is a suction part control circuit, (35a) is a resistor, (35b) is RB, (35c) is RC, (35d) is an output, (3
5e) RA, (36) key switch, (36a) auto switch, (36b) on / off switch, (36c) auto switch, (36d) turbo switch, (36e) curtain switch, (36f) is an off switch, and (37) is a display section. The same reference numerals in the drawings indicate the same or corresponding parts.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Yosuke Otsuka 2-14-40 Ofuna, Kamakura-shi, Kanagawa Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Life Systems Research Institute (72) Inventor Akihiro Iwahara 1728 Omaeda, Hanazono, Saito-gun Address 1 Mitsubishi Electric Home Equipment Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP-A-2-159236 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A main body, a blower built in the main body, a suction part that has a rotating brush and travels on a floor surface to suck dust along with air, and a hose that connects the suction part and the main body. An electric vacuum cleaner comprising: a light-shielding plate having a slit axially attached to a wheel of a suction portion; a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element sandwiching the light-shielding plate; Rotation detecting means for the wheel of the suction portion configured to block / transmit light and output a pulse signal, and a contactor that is biased and protrudes from the lower surface of the suction portion and moves up and down according to the state of the floor surface. And a contact displacement detection means configured to block / transmit the emitted light of the light emitting element by the vertical movement of the contact, the light emitting element and the light receiving element being arranged with the contact sandwiched therebetween, and the rotation. Detection means and contact The output signal conversion means for converting each output signal of the position detection means into a single output signal and the presence or absence of the pulse signal output from the output signal conversion means and the change in the amplitude of the output pulse signal are checked. An electric vacuum cleaner comprising: a motor control means for controlling the power of the blower motor and the ON / OFF of the rotary brush motor.