KR20080077307A - Hose for steam cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

A hose for a steam cleaner is provided to receive conductive wires of small and large diameters in spiral expansion projections having different expanded projection sizes for smoothing an inner peripheral surface of the hose and restricting wind loss in the hose, thereby increasing suction efficiency of the cleaner. A hose(10) is installed at a steam cleaner. Insulated coating conductive wires(31,32) for large and small currents are adjacent along an inner peripheral surface of a hose body(30) to an axial direction of the hose and wound spirally with a predetermined gap so that an insulated covering material of the insulated coating conductive wire for large current is thick, and an insulated covering material of the insulated coating conductive wire for small current is thin. The insulated coating conductive wire for small current has a smaller diameter than the insulated coating conductive wire for large current. The insulated coating conductive wire for large current is used as a power supply wire of a steam generating heater. The insulated coating conductive wire for small current is used as a signal wire of an on/off control circuit of an electric blower. The hose body has first and second spiral expansion projections(35,36) having different projection sizes.

Description

HOSE FOR STEAM CLEANER

1 is a partially broken side view of a steam cleaner hose according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of an essential part of the hose for the steam cleaner of FIG. 1;

3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion of the insulation coated conductive wire for high current of the steam cleaner hose of FIG. 1;

4 is a side view of the steam cleaner.

5 is a diagram schematically illustrating a manufacturing process of a hose.

6 is a side view of the hose connected to the connection housing;

7 is a partially broken side view of a conventional electric cleaner hose.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: steam cleaner hose

17: heater for steam generation

18: electric blower

30: hose body

31: insulated conductive wire for high current

32: insulated conductor wire for small current

35: first bulge protrusion

36: second bulging protrusion

40: conductive wire of insulated coated conductive wire for high current

41: Insulation coating material for high current Insulation coating material before a conductive

42: inner layer

43: outer layer

45: conductive wire of insulated coated conductive wire for small current

46: Insulation coating material of insulated coating conductive wire for small current

The present invention relates to a steam cleaner hose installed on a steam cleaner for cleaning the surface to be cleaned while releasing steam.

In general, as the hose for an electric cleaner, a plurality of insulating coated conductive wires 2, ... are maintained along the inner circumferential surface of the flexible hose body 1 as shown in FIG. 7 in the axial direction of the hose. The structure which wound while spirally and provided appropriate shape retention and flexibility is known.

This vacuum cleaner hose has an intake nozzle and is connected and connected between the operation cylinder with a handle switch and the cleaner main body, and the on / off control of the electric blower provided with the insulation coating conductive wires 2, ... is provided on the cleaner main body side. It is intended to be used as a signal line of a circuit or a power supply line of a rotary brush provided on the intake nozzle side.

In this type of vacuum cleaner hose, an attempt has been made to reduce the weight and improve the operability by variously improving the structure of the insulated coated conductive wire, as disclosed in, for example, Reference Documents 1 to 3.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-268717

[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-175858

[Patent Document 3] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-369774

There are various types of electric vacuum cleaners, but one of them is a steam cleaner that cleans a surface to be cleaned while releasing steam. In such a steam cleaner, since steam serving as a conductive medium may be sucked into the hose, particularly if the insulation-coated conductive wire through which a large current flows is damaged and short-circuited, it may lead to a huge accident. In addition, when the insulation coated conductive wire of the hose is used as the electric power supply line of the heater for steam generation, a larger current flows than when used as the signal line of the on / off control circuit of the electric blower or the electric power supply line of the rotary brush. This was even higher.

Therefore, in the steam cleaner hose, it was necessary to take more safety measures, such as to thicken the thickness of the insulation coating material of an insulation coating conductive wire sufficiently compared with the above-mentioned general vacuum cleaner hose.

By the way, if the thickness of the insulation coating material of all the insulation coating conductive wires is made thick uniformly, since the thick insulation coating conductive wire will be wound spirally, the weight of the whole hose will increase and when the hose bends, There is a problem in that the operation becomes a bad hose because it is easy to interfere.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object thereof is to provide a steam cleaner hose having excellent operability while implementing safety measures to reliably suppress an accident caused by a short circuit.

In order to solve the above problems, the steam cleaner hose 10 of the present invention is installed in the steam cleaner for cleaning the surface to be cleaned while releasing steam, a large current along the inner peripheral surface of the hose body 30 having flexibility Insulation coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for insulation and insulation coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for small current are wound in a spiral while adjoining the axial direction of the hose and maintaining a predetermined distance, and the insulation for the large current The insulating coating material 41 in the coating conductive wires 31 and 31 is made thick, and the insulating coating material 46 in the insulating coating conductive wires 32 and 32 for the small current is coated with the high current coating. It is made thinner than the insulating coating material 41 in the conductive wires 31 and 31, and the insulating coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for the small current are smaller in diameter than the insulating coating conductive wires 31 and 31 for the large current. It is characterized by.

Specifically, the large current insulating coated conductive wires 31 and 31 are used as the power supply lines of the steam generator 17, and the small current coated conductive wires 32 and 32 are used as electric blowers ( 18) is used as a signal line of the on / off control circuit.

Further, the insulating coating material 41 of the insulating coating conductive wires 31 and 31 for the large current is used as the inner layer 42 covering the conductive line 40 and the outer layer 43 covering the inner layer 42. It is set as the two-layer structure which consists of these, and these inner layer 42 and outer layer 43 are made into the non-bonding state. In addition, the inner layer 42 of the insulating coating material 41 is bonded to the conductive wire 40.

In addition, the hose main body 30 includes a spiral first bulging protrusion 35, 35 having a large amount of protrusion in the outward direction of the hose diameter, and a spiral second having a small protrusion amount in the outward direction of the hose diameter. The expansion projections 36 and 36 are provided, and the insulation coating conductive wires 31 and 31 for the large current are accommodated inside the first expansion projections 35 and 35, and the second expansion projections 36 are provided. The inner circumferential surface of the hose is made substantially smooth by accommodating the insulation-coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for the small current inside the 36.

Next, the Example of this invention is described in detail, referring drawings. As shown in FIG. 4, the steam cleaner hose 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an operation cylinder having an intake nozzle 11 and a handle switch 12 attached thereto, as illustrated in FIG. 4. 13) and the cleaner main body 14 are connected and connected.

The steam generating device 15 and the wiping member 16 are equipped with the intake nozzle 11 of this steam cleaner. In the steam generator 15, the water supplied from the tank (not shown) is heated by the steam generator 17 to discharge the steam toward the surface to be cleaned as steam. When the intake nozzle 11 is moved on the surface to be cleaned by operating the operation cylinder 13 in this state, the surface to be cleaned with moisture by steam is wiped with water by the member 16 to be wiped off. Dust attached to it is removed. Moreover, the vacuum cleaner main body 14 is equipped with the electric blower 18, and by driving this electric blower 18, the dust on the surface to be cleaned is sucked in with the air from the inlet 20 of the intake nozzle 11. have.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the hose 10 includes a flexible hose main body 30 and an insulating coated conductive wire 31 for high current spirally wound along an inner circumferential surface of the hose main body 30. , And the insulation-coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for the small current, and the shape retention of the hose 10 is maintained satisfactorily by these conductive wires 31, 32,.

The hose body 30 is made of, for example, soft polyvinyl chloride (PVC), soft polyethylene (PE), soft polypropylene (PP), other soft synthetic resin materials, or a material in which rubber is mixed with these materials. It is formed.

In this hose main body 30, for example, four spiral protrusions 35, 36, ... in total are formed by expanding in the outward direction of the hose diameter, and the protrusions 35, 36, ... are formed between the flat portions 37,. …). The protrusions 35, 36, ... are two first bulging protrusions 35, 35 having a larger protrusion amount in the outward direction of the hose diameter, and two second protrusions having a smaller protrusion amount in the outward direction of the hose diameter. It consists of bulging protrusions 36 and 36. These first bulging protrusions 35 and 35 and the second bulging protrusions 36 and 36 are alternately formed in the axial direction of the hose while maintaining a predetermined interval in the axial direction of the hose. The inside of the first bulging protrusions 35, 35 is a large-diameter concave groove 35a, 35a having a substantially U-shaped cross section, and the inside of the second bulging protrusions 36, 36 is a small U-shaped cross section. The diameter concave grooves 36a and 36a are formed. In addition, the shape of the concave grooves 35a, 36a, ... is not limited to a U-shaped cross section, for example, the cross section may be substantially U-shaped, or the V-shaped cross-section may be almost.

The large-diameter concave grooves 35a and 35a of the first bulging protrusions 35 and 35 accommodate the insulation-coated conductive lines 31 and 31 for large current. The small-diameter concave grooves 36a and 36a of the second bulging projections 36 and 36 are housed with the insulating coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for small current. That is, the insulated sheathed conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current and the insulated sheathed conductive wires 32 and 32 for small current are alternately adjacent to each other in the axial direction of the hose and maintain a predetermined distance, while the hose body 30 It is wound spirally along the inner circumferential surface of). In addition, the insulated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current and the insulated conductive wires 32 and 32 for small current are not limited to two lines, and may be smaller or larger than that. In this case, What is necessary is just to form a processus | protrusion part in the hose main body 30 according to the number.

As shown in Fig. 3, the insulating coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current are formed by covering the conductive wire 40 with a thick insulating coating material 41, and a large diameter cross section is formed in a substantially circular shape. have. The conductive wire 40 is made of, for example, a hard wire made of a steel wire, a piano wire, a hard wire rod which is subjected to rust prevention plating on these wires, and the like. The insulating coating material 41 has a two-layer structure composed of an inner layer 42 covering the conductive wire 40 and an outer layer 43 covering the inner layer 42. The inner layer 42 is made of, for example, semi-rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or other semi-rigid synthetic resin material. The outer layer 43 is made of, for example, semi-rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or other semi-rigid synthetic resin material. The conductive wire 40 and the inner layer 42 are bonded to each other, the inner layer 42 and the outer layer 43 are in a non-bonded state, and the outer layer 43 and the hose body 30 are in a bonded state. There is. The insulation coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current which are constituted in this way are used as electric power supply lines for supplying electric power to the heater 17 for steam generation provided on the intake nozzle 11 side.

Since a large electric current flows through such a large-current insulated-coated conductive wire 31 and 31, when an electric leakage etc. generate | occur | produce, especially when there exists a possibility that steam which becomes a conductive medium in the hose 10 may be sucked, it will cause a huge accident. There is a risk. Therefore, as mentioned above, in the insulation coating electrically conductive wires 31 and 31 for a large current, the insulation covering material 41 is thickened, and the short circuit is reliably prevented. In addition, by not only thickening the insulating coating material 41 but also by using a two-layer structure in a non-adhesive state, even if the outer layer 43 is damaged and cracks are generated, the cracks can be prevented from propagating to the inner layer 42. As a result, the insulation performance is further improved. In addition, by adhering the conductive wire 40 and the inner layer 42 to each other, the rotation or twist of the insulating coating material 41 with respect to the conductive wire 40 is prevented, and the damage such as the insulating coating material 41 to be torn is suppressed. Doing.

The insulation coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for the small current are formed by covering the conductive wire 45 with a thin insulating coating material 46, and the cross section of the small diameter is formed almost circularly. As the conductive wire 45, one having the same material and diameter as the conductive wire 40 of the insulating coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current is used. That is, it consists of hard steel wires which consist of steel wires, a piano wire, a hard wire rod etc. which gave these wires antirust plating, for example. The insulating coating material 46 is a single layer structure, for example, made of semi-rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or other semi-rigid synthetic resin material. The insulating coating material 46 is bonded to the conductive wire 45 and the hose body 30. The insulation-coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for the small current configured in this way are used as signal lines of the on / off control circuit of the electric blower 18 provided on the cleaner main body 14 side.

Since only a weak current flows through these insulated conductive wires 32 and 32 for small currents, even if a short circuit occurs, no significant accident is caused, and the safety measures are sufficient as the normal insulation treatment. Therefore, in the insulation coating conductive wires 32 and 32 for a small current, the insulation coating material 46 is thinner than the insulation coating material 41 in the insulation coating conductive wires 31 and 31 for large currents (typically, Is the same as the case where the insulation treatment is performed), and the diameter is smaller than that of the insulation coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current. Accordingly, the overall weight of the hose 10 can be reduced, and when the hose 10 is bent, the interference between the conductive wires 31, 32, ... which are alternately positioned in the axial direction of the hose is prevented, It is set as the hose 10 which is easy to bend. In addition, the thickness of the insulating coating material 41 in the insulation coating conductive wires 31 and 31 for a large current is 2 of the thickness of the insulating coating material 46 in the insulating coating conductive wires 32 and 32 for small currents. To about 4 times.

Referring to the manufacturing method of the hose 10 described above, first, as shown in Fig. 5, the conductive lines 31, 32, ... of four lines are set as a pair S, and the predetermined interval W is maintained. Then, the interval between the preceding winding line and the subsequent winding line is also spirally wound while maintaining the predetermined interval W.

Next, the strip | belt-shaped material 50 for hose main body formation which has the width | variety which corresponds to almost 4 pitches of electrically conductive wires 31, 32, ... is extruded from a synthetic resin extruder. The strip 50 is spirally formed on the conductive lines 31, 32, ..., with the three projections 35, 36, ... in the longitudinal direction covering the conductive lines 31, 32, .... Wind up. Then, the side edge portions 51 and 51 of the preceding strip member 50 and the subsequent strip member 50 are polymerized or polymer-bonded to a portion covering the conductive line 31 to thereby form the hose main body 30. The hose 10 which accommodates the conductive wires 31, 32, ... in the recessed grooves 35a, 36a, ... is manufactured.

The hose 10 manufactured in this manner has a structure in which the spiral protrusions 35, 36, ... protrude alternately in the axial direction of the hose on the outer circumferential surface thereof, and the inner circumferential surface is almost smooth, so that the wind loss is low. It is.

In use of the hose 10, as shown in FIG. 6, connecting housings 55 and 56 are connected to both ends of the hose 10. As shown in FIG. Then, the connecting housing 55 on one end side of the hose 10 is inserted and connected to the cleaner main body 14 side, and the electrical connector 55a is inserted and connected at the same time, and the connecting cylinder 56 on the other end side is connected to the operation cylinder 13. Insertion and connection), and the electrical connector 56a is inserted and connected at the same time.

In this way, the vacuum cleaner main body 14 and the operation cylinder 13 are connected through the hose 10, and a series of air paths are formed between the vacuum cleaner main body 14 and the intake nozzle 11. As shown in FIG. In addition, the power source on the cleaner body 14 side and the steam generator heater 17 on the intake nozzle 11 side are electrically connected by the insulation-coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current, and the insulation for small currents is electrically connected. The coated conductive wires 32 and 32 form an on / off control circuit of the electric blower 18 on the cleaner body 14 side. Then, by operating the knob switch 12 of the operation cylinder 13, by supplying power to the steam generating heater 17 to discharge steam, or by turning on / off control circuit to the electric blower 18 It can be driven.

The present invention is not limited to only the above embodiments, but of course includes many modifications to the above embodiments within the scope of the present invention. For example, in the said embodiment, although the insulation coating electrically conductive wire for the high current of a hose is used as an electricity supply line of the heater for steam generation, you may use as another electricity supply line. In a steam cleaner such as a steam generator provided on the cleaner main body side, since it is not necessary to supply electric power to the heater for steam generation through the conductive wire of the hose, a large current insulated sheathed conductive wire is provided to the intake nozzle side, for example. It may be used as an electric power supply line for supplying electric power to the installed rotary brush.

In the steam cleaner hose of the present invention, since the insulating coating material of a large current insulating coating conductive wire, such as that used as an electric power supply line of a steam generator, is thickened, it is possible to reliably prevent a short circuit that may cause a huge accident. To increase safety. In addition, since the insulation coating conductive wire for a small current which is sufficient as a safety measure only by performing a normal insulation process, for example, used as a signal line, the thickness of the insulation coating material is restrained and made into small diameter, The weight can be reduced, and the interference between the conductive wires when the hose is bent can be prevented and the flexibility can be improved. Thereby, it can be set as the hose which is safe and usability is favorable.

In addition, it is possible to prevent the propagation of the crack to the inner layer even if the outer layer is damaged and cracks are generated by not only thickening the insulating coating material of the insulated coated conductive wire for high current, but by using the two-layer structure in the non-bonded state. In addition, by adhering the conductive wires and the inner layer to each other, it is possible to prevent rotation or twisting of the insulating coating material with respect to the conductive wire and to prevent damage to the insulating coating material. Thereby, a short circuit can be prevented more reliably and a safety | security can be improved further.

In addition, a large diameter and a small diameter conductive wire are respectively accommodated inside the protrusions with different protrusions formed in the hose body, and the inner circumferential surface of the hose is almost smoothed to suppress wind loss in the hose, thereby improving suction efficiency of the cleaner.

Claims (5)

As a steam cleaner hose 10 installed in a steam cleaner for cleaning the surface to be cleaned while releasing steam, Along the inner circumferential surface of the flexible hose body 30, the insulated coated conductive lines 31 and 31 for high current and the insulated coated conductive lines 32 and 32 for small current are adjacent in the axial direction of the hose, and the predetermined It is spirally wound while maintaining the interval of, thickens the insulation coating material 41 in the insulation coating conductive lines 31 and 31 for the large current, and the insulation coating conductive lines 32 and 32 for the small current. Thinner than the insulating coating material 41 in the insulating coating conductive wires 31 and 31 for a large current, and for a small current rather than the insulating coating conductive lines 31 and 31 for the high current. Steam-type cleaner hose, characterized in that the insulating coated conductive wire (32, 32) of the small diameter. The insulation coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current are used as electric power supply lines of the heater 17 for steam generation, and the insulation coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for small current are electrically transmitted. A steam cleaner hose for use as a signal line of an on / off control circuit of the blower (18). The inner layer 42 which covers the electrically conductive line 40, and the inner layer 42 which coat | covers the insulated coating material 41 of the said insulated coating electrically-conductive wires 31 and 31 for a high current. The steam cleaner hose which makes a two-layer structure which consists of an outer layer 43 which coats | covers, and makes these inner layers 42 and outer layers 43 non-adhesive. The steam cleaner hose according to claim 3, wherein the inner layer (42) of the insulating coating material (41) is bonded to the conductive wire (40). 2. The hose body 30 according to claim 1, wherein the hose main body 30 has a spiral first bulging protrusion 35, 35 having a large amount of protrusion in the outward direction of the hose diameter and a small amount of protrusion of the hose diameter in the outward direction. Helical second bulging projections 36 and 36 are provided, and inside the first bulging projections 35 and 35, the insulating coated conductive wires 31 and 31 for high current are accommodated, and the second bulging projections are provided. A steam cleaner hose which makes the inner circumferential surface of the hose almost smooth by accommodating the insulation-coated conductive wires 32 and 32 for small current inside the (36, 36).

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