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Vacuum cleaner

  • US 4,041,568 A
  • Filed: 09/13/1976
  • Issued: 08/16/1977
  • Est. Priority Date: 05/05/1975
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In a vacuum cleaner:

  • a housing having a motor mounted thereon having a motor shaft extending into said housing;

    a centrifugal impeller rotatably mounted on said motor shaft;

    said housing having an outlet and a circular inlet opening;

    said impeller adapted to create an air stream into said housing through said inlet and outwardly through said outlet;

    said impeller having a flexible flapper portion extending outwardly through said inlet opening beyond said housing;

    whereby during rotation and centrifugal air pumping operations of said impeller said flexible flapper portion may contact foreign matter on a surface being cleaned to thereby loosen said foreign matter into the air stream entering said inlet opening;

    said flapper portion extending radially away from the axis of said motor shaft a distance substantially equal to the radius of said housing inlet opening;

    said impeller being a single blade structure and provided with a radially extending flexible extremity spaced from and adjacent to the inside of said housing to allow lint to be rolled into a ball between the extremity of said impeller and the inner surrounding wall of said housing;

    whereby said ball may subsequently be dropped from said housing through said inlet opening after the motor is deenergized and the impeller has come to rest.

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