Electric vacuum cleaner with suction power responsive to nozzle conditions

• US 5,276,939 A
• Filed: 02/12/1992
• Issued: 01/11/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Uenishi, Tomoaki
• Primary Examiner(s): MOORE, CHRISTOPHER K
• Application Number:
  US07/834,593
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• Field of Search: 15/319, 15/339
• US Class Current: 15/319
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2831 Motor parameters, e.g. motor load or speed
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2842 Suction motors or blowers
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2857 User input or output elements for control, e.g. buttons, switches or displays

Abstract

An electric vacuum cleaner has a main body with a blower and a dust-collecting chamber, a triac that controls the blower, a floor nozzle coupled to the main body, a sensor that senses the current in a motor in the floor nozzle that drives its rotary brush, and a microcomputer. At a predetermined interval, the sensor sends a representative value of the current for that interval, which may be the maximum value, to the microcomputer. The microcomputer determines the duty cycle of the triac by performing a fuzzy interference procedure on the values that sent. Thus the supply of current to the blower can be varied automatically according to the conditions of use of the floor nozzle and the kind of floor surface cleaned.

Claims

1. An electric vacuum cleaner, comprising:

a main body having an electric blower and a dust collecting chamber;

a floor nozzle coupled to said main body and having a rotary brush and a brush driving motor for driving said rotary brush;

electric current detecting means for measuring an amount of an electric current flowing in said brush driving motor;

means for determining a loading period of said motor wherein said loading period is found from comparison of amount of said electric current;

means for performing a predetermined mathematical operation on a value of said loading period as an input and having a power level value as an output; and

means for controlling a supply of electric power to said electric blower responsive to said power level value.

2. The electric vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein said means for performing said predetermined mathematical operation includes means for performing a fuzzy inference procedure in which said loading period is an input variable and said power level value is a conclusion part.

3. The electric vacuum cleaner according to claim 1, wherein said electric current detecting means includes a peak hold circuit for holding a peak value of said electric current occurring during a predetermined period, and said peak value represents said amount of said electric current.

4. An electric vacuum cleaner, comprising:

a main body having an electric blower and a dust collecting chamber;

a floor nozzle coupled to said main body and having a rotary brush and a brush driving motor for driving said rotary brush;

electric current detecting means for measuring amounts of an electric current flowing in said brush driving motor;

means for determining a loading period of said motor by comparing said amounts of said electric current;

means for determining a maximum representative value of said electric current for said loading period from said amounts of electric current;

means for performing a predetermined mathematical operation on a value of said loading period and said representative value of said electric current as input variables and having a power level value as an output; and

means for controlling a supply of electric power to said electric blower responsive to said power level value.

5. The electric vacuum cleaner according to claim 4, wherein said means for performing said predetermined mathematical operation includes means for performing a fuzzy interference procedure in which said loading period and said representative value are input variables and said electric power level value is a conclusion part.

6. The electric vacuum cleaner according to claim 4, wherein said electric current detecting means includes a peak hold circuit for holding a peak value of said electric current occurring during a predetermined period, and said peak value represents said amount of said electric current.