WO2013011182A1

WO2013011182A1 - Cleaning utensil

Info

Publication number: WO2013011182A1
Application number: PCT/ES2012/070533
Authority: WO
Inventors: Luis Sans Vollmer
Original assignee: Luis Sans Vollmer
Priority date: 2011-07-19
Filing date: 2012-07-13
Publication date: 2013-01-24
Also published as: FR2978026B1; FR2978026A1; DE112012003017B4; ES2367741B1; US20140137351A1; DE112012003017T5; ITUD20120129A1; ES2367741A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a cleaning utensil for cleaning floors and other surfaces, comprising cleaning rollers actuated by a gear mechanism with rotation conversion, said mechanism being actuated by a single drive wheel.

Description

Cleaning tool

DESCRIPTIVE MEMORY OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The purpose of the present invention patent application is to register a cleaning tool that incorporates notable innovations and advantages in its particular embodiments with respect to cleaning mops and brooms, vacuum nozzles and crumbs.

More specifically, the invention proposes the development of a cleaning tool, in particular suitable for cleaning floors and other surfaces comprising cleaning rollers that are driven by a gear mechanism with rotation conversion, which is actuated by a single driving wheel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Currently in the market for household goods there are different utensils for cleaning floors and other surfaces, such as brooms, vacuum cleaners and others. The brooms have the disadvantage that they require the action of sweeping, dirt is dragged to a certain point and finally they require an additional collector to collect the dirt. The mops do not require the action of sweeping and at first they do not require an additional collector since the dirt remains stuck in the mop itself, but the use of this device is limited to interior surfaces (tiles, parquets, etc.) and for a very specific dirt (mainly dust and hair).

A vacuum cleaner for domestic use is characterized by having at least one mouth that is in contact with the surface to be cleaned, essentially two types of mouths exist, the mouth with retractable filaments for use in tiles, carpets and any surface in general, and the mouth of fixed filaments for use on delicate surfaces such as parkets and certain types of tiles.

In both mouths manufacturers must enable small openings in the filament wall to allow dirt to enter. This design reduces the efficiency of the vacuum cleaner by having the following disadvantages:

- The suction of the vacuum cleaner is limited by the filament wall itself that only allows the air flow to circulate through the small openings

- The filaments themselves eject the particles out when they move along the surface to be cleaned.

On the other hand, the crumbs that have rollers, base their operation on the collection of crumbs by the bottom of the device, having as main drawback that it is very easy for the collected particles to leave the same again because they can not implement any roll-over system that insulates dirt from the roller. In the state of the art there are a variety of utensils based on rollers or barbed brushes intended to collect dirt on the floor or surface.

Examples of this type of utensils are described in patents US4007508, US2004034952 and ES0286283. However, the device represented in US Patent No. US4007508 has a certain complexity by requiring four tractor wheels (driving) to force the direction of rotation of the rollers (instead of just one). At the same time, the existence of these four driving wheels limits the freedom of movement on the surface to be cleaned in exclusively straight directions preventing curves and therefore easily moving the device in any desired direction. This finally forces the device to be lifted off the ground and redirected to use it in a new direction.

Patent No. US2004034952 is also known in which a cleaning tool is provided provided with a gear mechanism (very similar to that of US4007508 but simplified) which acts in such a way that when the tool is moved forward the associated roller Turn collecting dirt. However, if the user moves the tool in the opposite direction (backwards), the gear mechanism does not act so that the roller does not collect dirt and only allows one-way work (forward). Finally, patent ES0286283 also has the disadvantage that it only acts in one way and therefore only works by moving the device forward.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention consists of a cleaning tool that has two rotating rollers parallel to each other that rotate in opposite directions towards the interior of the utensil. This allows dirt to be trapped between the two rollers and detached at the top of the rollers by decoupling the filaments of both rollers, the centrifugal force of the rollers and the combing of the filaments inside the utensil.

Additionally, this tool has a rotation conversion mechanism that is operated through a single driving wheel in contact with the surface to be cleaned and that allows the rollers to always rotate in the same direction of rotation, regardless of the direction of rotation of the driving wheel Finally, the device consists of a second wheel or scroll wheel, in contact with the surface and independent of the driving wheel, which allows the device to be oriented in any direction without lifting it from the ground. With this arrangement of the wheels, the tool is allowed to move along the surface in any direction, allowing both main rollers to always rotate in the same direction of rotation regardless of the direction of use of the utensil on the selected direction, both forward and backward.

The present invention has been developed in order to provide a cleaning tool that solves the problems existing in the state of the art, also providing additional advantages, depending on the specific embodiment, which will be apparent from the accompanying description. then.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning tool, in particular suitable for cleaning floors and other surfaces having cleaning means actuated by a gear mechanism with rotation conversion.

In particular, the invention relates to cleaning means which are composed of two main filament rollers or the like, rotating parallel to each other and located inside a cavity of an internally hollow housing, which rotate in opposite directions to each other. . In addition, the gear mechanism with turn conversion is driven by a single drive wheel suitable for coming into contact with the surface to be cleaned, which is associated with the main shaft that transmits the turning movement to the two main rollers through axles. associated to each of the main rollers, thanks to the rotation conversion mechanism and which allows the main rollers to always rotate in the same direction of rotation, regardless of the direction of rotation of the driving wheel, sweeping dirt particles into the device.

On both main rollers a hairstyle is performed inside the device in order to help remove dirt particles from the filaments of the rollers and thus improve the cleaning efficiency of the device.

The device has a second wheel, or scroll wheel in contact with the surface and independent of the driving wheel, which allows the device to be oriented in any direction of use in a much more efficient and simple way and without lifting it of soil or surface, to redirect it.

In relation to the gear mechanism with rotation conversion, the main axis of said mechanism has an elongated body of substantially circular section, except for a section of non-circular section, on which a movable central wheel is coupled on said non-circular section and rotating in solidarity with the main axle, in which the central wheel is delimited by a first and second bounding wheel which in turn are mounted on the main axis by the section of circular section, freely rotating on said main axis, the central wheel being and the bounding wheels alternately coupled to each other, such that the bounding wheels and the main shaft are capable of rotating in the same direction of rotation or in opposite directions. In addition, preferably the central wheel consists of a wheel with a non-cylindrical axle with a cross section equal to the section of the non-circular section of the main axle, comprising on both surfaces of its faces at least one concentric toothed crown relative to the non-cylindrical axis of the wheel and where each crown is formed by a plurality of teeth.

It should be mentioned that this cleaning tool does not require any electrical device for its operation, being therefore completely mechanical so that it is not necessary to use batteries or power supply means or maintenance.

As mentioned, the driving wheel and the scroll wheel are independent of each other, allowing the orientation of the device towards any direction of use, which, in a preferred embodiment, where the maximum operating efficiency of the device is achieved, corresponds to the direction perpendicular to the axes of the main rollers.

To further ensure that the device can be moved, not just oriented, a variant of wheels could be made in any direction as described below.

The utensil may comprise a driving wheel capable of rotating with respect to a main axle, including a plurality of radially arranged second wheels and protruding from the edge of the driving wheel body, in which the second wheels rotate freely with respect to respective secondary axes of rotation perpendicular to the main axis of the driving wheel.

In this way it is allowed to move the driving wheel in any direction as it will rotate in a specific direction, but at the same time thanks to the radial wheels it will be allowed to move it on the surface.

The scroll wheel must also be multidirectional to make the whole tool multidirectional, but in this case since this wheel is not the driving wheel, it can have the same arrangement as the one discussed above or it can have any other multidirectional wheel arrangement.

In this way, it is possible to have a multidirectional tool that allows to continue being effective in a wide range of different directions (and in both directions of the direction) to the perpendicular of the axes of the main rollers (ideal direction of use) reaching the extreme that if the device moved in a direction parallel to the axes of the main rollers, the utensil would move without problem, the main rollers would not rotate and the utensil would act as a broom.

According to another aspect of the invention, the housing is defined by side walls and an upper base, the interior of the housing may include an interior separation wall and a lower base that would form a storage area or particle container. This container of particles would not be necessary for the specific realization of mouths of vacuum cleaners since in In this case the dirt would be sucked from the top of the device.

Advantageously, the storage area includes retention means in an area close to the entrance of the storage area that reduces the passage section. In this way, it is avoided that in the case of rotating or overturning the tool, the particles and dirt in general accumulated in the storage area, leave it.

Preferably, the retention means consist of a wall section that can have an inclination with respect to the horizontal plane in a downward direction when the utensil is arranged in a condition of use, such that it is difficult for the dirt to leave and at the same time dirt drop is facilitated in the storage area. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is this section of wall that additionally combs the roller to help remove dirt and travels along the inclined wall towards the storage area, constituting the combing means.

In an alternative embodiment, the retaining means have a second inclined wall downwardly located on the opposite side wall and at a different height so that they define a zig-zag path towards the storage area making it more difficult to exit the dirt in case of overturning of the utensil.

Another inconvenience to overcome in this type of devices is to allow the collection of dirt located at any point on the surface of the utensil out of reach of the main rollers (for example under the mechanism or wheels) and allow dirt to be collected between the limits of the utensil and the rollers, such as collecting dirt located near a socket where the main rollers do not reach and the device can no longer move because it is limited by the socket itself.

In a preferred embodiment and to solve the above problem, the axes of the main rollers or secondary axes could include toothed crowns that engage with toothed crowns coupled to filament rollers or the like, secondary, which rotate in the opposite direction to the associated main roller, such that the end of each rotating main roller is linked to a filament roller or similar secondary, said filament rollers adopting a substantially "X" shaped configuration in a horizontal plane, such that they are arranged on the outside of the cavity of the housing.

The presence of the secondary rollers favors that the dirt particles, etc., when the utensil is moved in one direction, are displaced towards the central part of the utensil, which corresponds to the area where the two rotating main rollers in charge of Collect the particles.

Thanks to all the previous technical characteristics, a cleaning tool is provided with a gear mechanism with turn conversion, in which only one is used a single driving wheel for the actuation of said gear mechanism and with this, of the multiple cleaning elements, so that it is constructively much simpler, more effective in cleaning and much more maneuverable with respect to the utensils known in the prior art .

Throughout the description and the claims, the word "comprises" and its variants are not intended to exclude other technical characteristics or components. For those skilled in the art, other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be derived partly from the description and partly from the practice of the invention. The following examples and drawings are provided by way of illustration, and are not intended to be limiting for the present invention. In addition, the present invention covers all possible combinations of particular and preferred embodiments indicated herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1.- Shows a schematic plan view of a cleaning tool of the broom type, with enlarged detail of the gear mechanism, in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2.- Shows a schematic plan view of the crumb type cleaning tool.

Figure 3.- Shows a schematic view in side elevation of a section of the cleaning tool of the type of vacuum cleaner, according to an embodiment of the invention. Figure 4.- Shows a detail view in front and side elevation of the multidirectional driving wheel.

Figure 5.- Shows a schematic view in side elevation of a section of the inner housing of the cleaning tool, according to an embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in Figure 1, there is a cleaning tool, indicated in general with reference (1), which is suitable for cleaning floors and other surfaces that mainly comprises cleaning means provided with a cleaning mechanism. gear with turn conversion, which will be described in more detail below.

In particular, the cleaning means comprise two main rollers of filaments or the like, rotating (2) parallel to each other and located, in a horizontal plane, inside a cavity of an internally hollow housing (3), in which such rotating rollers (2) rotate in opposite directions to each other. The two main rotating rollers (2) are identical.

As can be seen in figure 1, the gear mechanism has a single driving wheel (4) suitable for coming into contact with the surface to be cleaned, which is associated with a main shaft

(5) that transmits the turning movement to the two main rotating rollers (2) through a pair of secondary shafts

(6). Each of the secondary axes (6) includes crowns teeth (7), which engage with toothed crowns (9) coupled to secondary filament rollers or the like (11) which rotate in a direction opposite to the associated rotating main roller (2), such that the end of each rotating main roller (2) ) is linked to a filament roller or similar secondary (11), said secondary filament rollers or similar (11) adopting a substantially "X" shaped configuration in a horizontal plane, such that they are arranged on the outside of the housing cavity (3).

In the present embodiment, the secondary filament rollers (11) or the like are of smaller dimensions with respect to the rotating main rollers (2).

The driving wheel (4) is protected by side walls, forming an individual space in the housing (3), such that said driving wheel (4) is protected from possible shocks.

As a preferred embodiment, the driving wheel (4) may include a plurality of second wheels (14), as shown in Figure 4, made of rubber material or the like. Said second wheels (14) are arranged radially and at the edge of the body of the driving wheel (4) and rotate freely with respect to their axes of rotation (19), which are perpendicular to the main axis (5). Such second wheels (14) are arranged in independent housings (18), radially distributed around the driving wheel (4). Additionally, on the opposite side of the driving wheel (4) a displacement wheel (13) is provided which rotates with respect to an axle independently and multidirectionally.

Returning again to the main shaft (5) of the gear mechanism, as shown in the enlarged detail of Figure 1, said main shaft (5) has an elongated body of circular section except a section of non-circular section (such as for example, in the form of an oval) on which a central wheel (15) movable on said non-circular section is coupled and rotating in solidarity with the main axis (5), in which said central wheel (15) is delimited by a first and second bounding wheel (16, 17) which in turn are mounted on the main axis (5) by the section of circular section, freely rotating on said main axis, the central wheel and the bounding wheels being alternately coupled to each other, of such that the bounding wheels (16, 17) and the main shaft (5) are capable of rotating in the same direction of rotation or in opposite directions.

The central wheel (15) consists of a wheel with a non-cylindrical axle with a cross section equal to the section of the non-circular section of the main axle (5). Additionally, the central wheel (15) comprises on both surfaces of its faces, at least one concentric toothed crown (151, 152), relative to the non-cylindrical axis of the wheel and where each crown is formed by a plurality of teeth, the which allow the coupling / uncoupling of the central wheel (15) to the bounding wheels (16, 17). For this, each delimiting wheel (16, 17) comprises at the same time an additional toothed crown (161, 171) concentric with respect to its axles, and placed on the surface of the face facing the central wheel (15), of such so that the crowns (151, 152) of the central wheel (15) engage, respectively, with the crowns (161, 171) of both bounding wheels.

Likewise, the teeth that make up the toothed crowns (151, 152) and (161, 171) can have multiple shapes, such shape affecting the ease with which the central wheel (15) engages / disengages into the bounding wheels (16 , 17) when changing the direction of rotation.

Each time the main axle (5) changes its direction of rotation, it causes the central wheel (15) and the bounding wheel with which it is coupled, to rotate in opposite directions, forcing the central wheel (15) to disengage from the bounding wheel to which it is attached and be coupled to the other bounding wheel.

As shown in Figure 5, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the housing (3) in which the rotating main rollers (2) are housed is defined by side walls and an upper base, including the interior of the housing ( 3) an interior partition wall (33) and a lower base (34) that make up a storage area (30). In this case, two storage areas (30) are arranged, one on each side of the rotating rollers (2).

In the upper part of the housing (3) a handle or other handle part can be attached, the fastening of which can be any of known shapes, for example, by threading or clipping elements.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, in order to prevent the exit of the dirt particles collected by the rotating rollers (2), the storage area (30) may include retention means. Such retention means consist of two wall sections (31,32) inclined at opposite angles, at different height and in a downward direction, so that when the utensil is arranged in a condition of use, said retention means define a path in zig-zag that tries to avoid the easy exit of the dirt particles when the cleaning tool is turned (1). In a preferred embodiment of the invention, this section of wall (32) is the one that additionally performs the combing of the roller to help remove the dirt and that moves along the inclined wall towards the storage area, constituting the combing means ( 32a).

In another preferred embodiment, the combing means (32a) protrude from the housing inwards, in the direction of the rotating main rollers (2), such that the filaments of these come into contact with the combing means (32a ), each time they pass through the region in which said combing means (32a) are located, removing the dirt collected by the filaments of the rotating main rollers (2) as shown in Figure 3.

The means described above, (30, 31, 32 and 32a) can be found in a preferred embodiment of the invention such as a broom and a crumb, as shown in Figures 2 and 5. In the case of a vacuum mouth, according to Figure 3, it would lack such means (30, 31 and 32), and instead would have the suction means known in the art.

The details, shapes, dimensions and other accessory elements, as well as the materials used in the manufacture of the cleaning tool of the invention may be conveniently substituted by others that are technically equivalent and do not depart from the essentiality of the invention or the scope defined by the claims included below.

Claims

1. Cleaning tool (1), for cleaning floors and similar surfaces comprising:

- two rotating main rollers (2) of filaments parallel to each other with secondary shafts (6), located inside a cavity of a housing (3), rotating said main rollers (2) in opposite directions to each other;

- a single driving wheel (4) that is in contact with the floor or surface to be cleaned and that is associated with a main axle (5), said main axle (5) being linked to the two rotating main rollers (2) a through the secondary axles (6) and a rotation conversion gear mechanism where said rotating main rollers (2) always rotate in the same direction, regardless of the direction of rotation of the driving wheel (4);

- the turning conversion mechanism being constituted by a main axis (5) which rotates in both directions of rotation and having an elongated body of circular section except a section of non-circular section on which a central wheel is coupled (15) movable on said non-circular section and rotating in solidarity with the main axle (5), in which the central wheel (15) is delimited by a first and a second bounding wheel (16, 17) which in turn are mounted on the axle main (5) along the section of circular section, freely rotating each of the bounding wheels (16, 17) on said axis main (5) in the same direction of rotation or in opposite directions, and where the central wheel (15) is alternately coupled with the bounding wheels (16, 17) each time the direction of rotation of the main axis (5) is changed through toothed crowns (151, 152) located on both sides of the central wheel (15) with the toothed crowns (161, 171) of the bounding wheels (16, 17); Y

- a freewheel (13) free and independent of the driving wheel, located in the housing (3) on the side opposite to the driving wheel (4),

characterized in that the driving wheel (4) rotates in solidarity with the main axle (5), the driving wheel (4) including a plurality of second wheels (14) arranged in independent housings (18), radially distributed around the driving wheel (4) and protruding from the flange of the body of said driving wheel (4), in which the second wheels (14) rotate freely with respect to rotation axes (19) that are perpendicular to the main axle (5).

2. Cleaning tool (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that each of the secondary shafts (6) have toothed crowns (7), which engage with toothed crowns (9) coupled to filament rollers or similar secondary (11) which rotate in the opposite direction to the associated rotating main rollers (2), such that the end of each rotating main roller (2) is linked to a secondary filament roller (11), said secondary filament rollers (11) adopting a substantially "X" shaped configuration in a horizontal plane, such that they are arranged on the outside of the housing cavity.

3. Cleaning tool (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the housing (3) is defined by side walls and an upper base, the interior of the housing (3) including an interior separation wall and a lower base (34) that make up a storage area (30).

4. Cleaning tool (1) according to claim 5, characterized in that the storage area (30) includes retaining means (31, 32) located in an area close to the entrance mouth of the storage area (30) that reduces the passage section.

5. Cleaning tool (1) according to claim 4, characterized in that the retention means (31,32) consist of a wall section with an inclination with respect to the horizontal plane in a downward direction when the utensil is arranged In a condition of use.

6. Cleaning tool (1) according to claim 4, characterized in that the retention means (31,32) are located at a different height from each other, so that they define a zig-zag path prior to the zone storage (30).

7. Cleaning tool (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the housing (3) protrudes towards the inside a section of wall (32a) that comes into contact with the filaments of the rotating main rollers (2).

8. Cleaning tool (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the central wheel (15) comprises a non-cylindrical axle with a cross section equal to the section of the non-circular section of the main shaft (5).