US3456280A - Vacuum cleaner with cordwinder,wire harness,and electrical terminal board - Google Patents

Description

July 22, 1969 R. J. BROWN AL .VACUUM CLEANER. WITH connwlNur-J'u, www HAHNmss, ANU

ELECTRICAL TERMTNAL BOARD Filed OCt. 24, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 NVNTORS Roar/er J. Bzawnl Jou/v J-Mousl/TY THEIR ATTOR A 3,456,280 AND July 22, 1969 R. -LBROWN ET AL VACUUM CLEANER WITHl CORDWINDER, WIRE HARNESS ELECTRICAL TERMINAL BOARD 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed OCb. 24, 1967 INVENTORS Eo 8527 J Bzowm/ Jef/N Maya/rv Byrm THEIR ATTORNEYS United States Patent Olce 3,456,280 VACUUM CLEANER WITH CORDWINDER,

WIRE HARNESS, AND ELECTRICAL TER- MINAL BOARD Robert J. Brown and John J. Moughty, South Salem, N.Y., assignors to Electrolux Corporation, Greenwich, Conn., a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 24, 1967, Ser. No. 677,663 Int. Cl. A471 9/00 U.S. Cl. 15-323 5 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A vacuum cleaner having a unitary electric conductor harness for electrically coupling the cordwinder, motorblower unit, switch, and electric outlets of the cleaner and a terminal board to which the harness is removably connected. The terminal board is designed so that strip contacts carried by the harness are each hooked onto the board at one end and latched to the board at a depressed portion in the strip contacts corresponding with a depression in the terminal board within which resilient fingers are located for receiving each of the strip contacts. The resilient fingers can be spread apart for quick removal of the strip contacts and replacement of the harness.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to apparatus to facilitate the assembly and field repair of vacuum cleaners and in particular to apparatus for making electrical connections be-v SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Soldering machines and machines for rapidly attaching crimp connectors to conductor leads are not capable of functioning within the confines of a vacum cleaner body and therefore these operations have been done heretofore by a skilled worker. By virtue of this invention connectors can be crimped onto a conductor harness on a production line and snap fastened in place within the small confines of the cleaner body by unskilled labor in a short time.

An object of the invention therefore is to provide apparatus for facilitating assembly during manufacture and field repair of a vacuum cleaner by unskilled persons.

Another object of the invention is to provide a terminal board having snap-like strip contacts which allows a circuit harness to be attached and replaced within the small confines of a vacuum cleaner body with greater ease than heretofore.

The foregoing objects, and additional objects and advantanges will be apparent from the following detailed description of the attached drawing illustrating presently preferred embodiment of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. l is a somewhat diagrammatic, cut-away view of a vacuum cleaner incorporating the subject invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the conductor harness shown in FIG. l.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the terminal board with the strip contacts of the harness shown in FIG. 2 attached.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the terminal board taken on line 4, 4 of FIG. 3.

3,456,280 Patented July 22, 1969 FIG. 5 is a partial side view of the housingffor the cordwinder showing the circuit elements incorporated therein for cooperation with the terminal board. `V

The vacuum cleaner shown diagrammatically in PIG. l consists of an elongated body 10 which receives, at one end, a cordwinder unit generally designated 11 upon which a cordset 12 is reeled and payed-out as is well known. A conventional motor-blower unit, generally designated 13 is mounted within the cleaner body 10 in any suitable manner for drawing air into a conventional dust bag 14 within the inner body 15. A front cover 16 which is hinged onto the body 10 at one end incorporates a suction inlet conduit 18 of known design with which a hose 9 is connected. Dirt entrained in the air stream created by the blower is conducted via the hose 9 and suction inlet 18 to the dust bag or dust separator. The dust bag 14 is removed and replaced through the opening which is closed by the front cover in use. The suction inlet conduit 18 is provided with electric conductors so that current can be supplied to a motor driven tool attached to the other end of the hose 9 as described in detail in copending application Serial No. 648,653 filed June 26, 1967, in the name 0f Robert I. Brown et al. Current from the cordset 12 is distributed by the harness generally designated 19, (FIG. 2) to the On Off switch 17 and the electric components incorporated in the front cover. The harness conductors 19a are cut to length and conventional crimp connectors 20 are attached thereto in a separate mass production operation. The strip contacts 21 are likewise attached by crimping to the other end of the harness connectors by high speed crimping machines so that the harness 19 may be supplied to an assembly station as a complete subassembly such as shown in FIG. 2, including a mounting grommet 22 for attaching the harness to a bulkhead in the cleaner body and a tail end grommet to provide added insulation for the harness conductors bridging the gap between body 10 and the hinged front cover 16 particularly when the front cover is open.

Referring more particularly to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, the strip contacts 21 attached to the harness have a reverse bend 23 at one end, and a blade 24 at the other end for receiving the leads 13a from the motor-blower unit (FIG. 1). The harness conductors 19a are attached to the strip contact 21 by crimping tabs 25 (FIG. 2) depending from a depressed portion 26 of the contacts 21. The depressed portion 26 of t-he contacts 21 interconnects the blade portion 24 with the coplanar portion 27 adjacent the bent end 23. As will be explained in connection with FIG. 5 the surface portion 27 of contacts 21 functions as a wiper contact surface with the free end of strip contacts 42 on the cordwinder cover 41.

Afterminal board generally designated 30 which is fixed, by riveting or other suitable means, on the inner surface of the cleaner body 10 adjacent to the cordwinder unit 11 as shown in FIG. 1 is provided with a number of apertures 31 which receive the bent end 23 of the contacts 21 thereby hooking one end of the contacts to the elevated wall 32 of the board. The depressed portion 26 of each of the contacts 21 is received between a pair of resilient fingers 33 for holding the contacts on the terminal board. The contacts 21 are held against lateral movement by the bent end 23 of the contacts which are located in the apertures 31 as well as the fingers 33 which engage the depressed portion 26 of the contacts. Longitudinal movement of the contacts 21 to the left as viewed in FIG. 3 is prohibited by engagement of Ithe depressed portion 26 of the contact with the adjacent side wall of the terminal board which is spaced from and parallel with fingers 33 (FIG. 5). Movement of contacts 21 to the right in FIG. 3 is prohibited by the hook 23 of the contacts which engage the adjacent end of the upper wall 32. Contacts 21 are removed from the terminal board by spreading lingers 33 apart and lifting the contacts so that the depressed portion 26 is elevated above upper Wall 32, then the contact can be moved to withdraw the hook 23 from the aperture 31 of the terminal board.

The terminal board 30 is provided with wall members 34 which dene a Well for the blades 24 to insure against physical contact between the adjacent motor leads attached to the blades 24. Wall members 35 may be provided to prevent accidental connection of a motor lead 13a with a blade 24 that is not to be connected with the motor.

FIG. illustrates the arrangement for making contact between the cordset 12 of the cordwinder 11 and the strip contacts 21 mounted on the terminal board 30. In FIG. 5 the reel 39 (which is similar to the reel shown in U.S. Patent No. 3,011,033) for winding and paying-out the cordset is only partly shown to simplify this view. One flange of the reel 39 is provided with a pair of slip rings (only one is shown) which engage brushes 40 (FIG. 1)

connected to the cordwinder housing 41 of insulating material. Housing 41 is attached to the cleaner body 10 in any known manner. The brushes. 40, of which only one is shown in FIG. 5, are electrically coupled to strip contacts 42 by means of a rivet which also secures the brushes 40 and one end of the strips 42 to the housing 41. The strips 42 are also anchored in channels formed in the housing 41 by means of tags 43 struck from the strip for this purpose. The strips 42 are congured to t the contour of the housing as shown in FIG. 5 and terminate in spring contacts 44 which establish a wiping engagement with portion 27 of the strip contacts 21 mounted on the terminal board 30 and crimped to the harness 19. The electrical connection of the conductors of the cordset with the slip rings mounted on the reel of the cordwinder is well known, therefore these details are not shown in the drawing or described. However, the electric circuit between the cordset 12 and the terminal block 30 includes slip rings 38 on the cord reel 39` which are connected to the conductors 12 of the cordset. The slip rings 38 engage the brushes 40 attached to the strips 42 which terminate in resilient contacts 44. The contacts 44 engage the surface portion 27 of the strip contacts 21. Therefore when the cordwinder unit 11 is assembled with the cleaner body during manufacture or in the field it is electrically connected to the harness 19 automatically by virtue of the wiping engagement of contacts 44 with the strip conductors 21 connected to the terminal board 30. Thus, a defective or worn cordwinder can be removed and a new cordwinder inserted in the eld without requiring skilled labor to disconnect and rewifre the cordwinder connections with the harness.

It will be apparent that if the harness wires are long enough to extend beyond the cleaner body 10 for connection with a replacement cordwinder unit, that these wires could become entangled with the rotor or commutator of the motor when the replacement cordwinder was pushed into the cleaner body.

It will be equally apparent that the terminal board and removable strip contacts 21 overcome this problem as well as the problems noted above in the Background of the invention. That is, in manufacturing the vacuum cleaner the harness is attached to the strip contacts 21 by a known crimping machine prior to assembly in the cleaner body. This harness assembly is then attached to the interior of the cleaner body merely by hooking the bent end onto the terminal board and pushing it down onto the board until the lingers 33 grasp the depressed portion 26 of the strip contacts 21. Once the harness is attached to the terminal board the motor-blower unit can be inserted in the cleaner body and the motor leads placed on the blades 24 by solderless connectors 20 attached to the motor leads and since only two blades 24 are accessible, due to wall parts 35 of the terminal block, these connections can be made by unskilled labor.

The foregoing description of a presently preferred embodiment of the invention is given in connection with a vacuum cleaner, however, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that its application is not limited to use in a vacuum cleaner and that various modifications can be made in adapting the invention to other apparatus.

What is claimed is:

1. The combination comprising a terminal board having a plurality of strip contacts removably connected thereto; said contacts having a reverse bend portion .at one end, a depressed portion in each of said contacts spaced from said one end for defining a wiper contact surface between said depressed portion and said reverse bend, wire and insulation tabs depending from said depressed portion in the direction of said depressed portion and a blade portion defining the other end of said strip contacts, said blade portion being elevated above said depressed portion; said terminal board consisting of insulating material and having a plurality of apertures in an end wall of said terminal board receiving the bent end of each of said plurality of strip contacts, a second wall portion connected with said first wall portion and defining a corner of said terminal board, said second wall portion having a recess corresponding with the depressed portion of said strip contacts, and a plurality of resilient bifurcated members receiving the depressed portion of said strip contacts whereby each of said strip contacts is removably secured on said terminal board.

2. The combination accord-ing to claim 1 with the addition of wall members on said terminal board interposed between adjacent blade portions of said strip contacts for insulation purposes.

3. The combination of claim 1 with the addition of electric harness means having said strip contacts fastened to the conductors of said harness means.

4. The combination of claim 1 with the addition of a vacuum cleaner having an elongated body member, a cordwinder means at one end of said body, said cordwinder means having electric conductor means attached thereto, said cordwinder conductor means terminating in spring contacts at each end, said spring contacts at one end of said conductor means engaging said wiper surface of said strip contacts for electrically coupling said cordwinder means with said harness.

5. The combination of claim 4 with the addition of a motor-blower unit in said cleaner body having motor leads, the motor leads of said motor -blower unit having terminal means adapted for connection with said blade portions.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,195,343 3/ 1940 Sayre.

2,809,361 10/1957 Woofter et al 339-148 X 2,961,688 11/1960 Descarries 15-323 3,029,462 4/ 1962 Tamarin 191-12.2 X 3,106,435 10/1963 Yopp.

3,209,308 9/ 1965 Aquillon.

LARAMIE E. ASKIN, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R.

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