Cyclone and dust filter vacuum cleaner

• US 6,613,129 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2001
• Issued: 09/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SharkNinja Operating LLC (JS Global Lifestyle Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Euro-Pro Corporation (JS Global Lifestyle Company Limited)
• Inventors: Gen, Ni Zu
• Primary Examiner(s): Hopkins, Robert A.
• Application Number:
  US09/887,525
• Publication Number:
  US 20020194993A1
• Time in Patent Office: 802 Days
• Field of Search: 553/18, 553/45, 554/24, 554/26, 554/57, 554/591, 55D/IG.3, 153/53, 952/69
• US Class Current: 95/269
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/1625 for series flow
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/1675 movable, revolving or rotary
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 50/20 Combinations of devices covered by groups B01D45/00 and B01D46/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 55/03 Vacuum cleaner

Abstract

A vacuum cleaner includes a container having an inlet for dirty air, an outlet for clean air, a coarse dust chamber and a fine dust chamber. The coarse dust chamber includes a filtering tube disposed within a rotary cylinder. The fine dust chamber includes a rotary cone. Air containing dust is drawn into the coarse dust chamber and supplied into the gap between the cylinder'"'"'s inner surface and the filtering tube'"'"'s outer surface. The air is rotated within the coarse dust chamber to force coarse dust to travel away from the chamber'"'"'s center and air containing only fine dust travels through the filtering tube. This air is supplied into the rotary cone within the fine dust chamber and is rotated to force fine dust away from the chamber'"'"'s center. Dust free air, which is travelling in the center of the rotary cone, is supplied out of the filter as clean air.

Claims

1. A cyclone vacuum cleaner, comprising:

a vacuum cleaner housing having an inlet for dirty air and an outlet for clean air, said housing having first and second chambers, said first chamber being a coarse dust removal chamber and said second chamber being a fine dust removal chamber;

a rotary cylinder disposed in an upper part of the coarse dust removal chamber;

a filtering tube disposed within said rotary cylinder, the inlet of said container being disposed above the coarse dust chamber, and at least a portion of the inlet being disposed between said rotary cylinder and said filtering tube;

a rotary cone having a partially open bottom disposed within the fine dust removal chamber, said partially open bottom being disposed above a bottom of said container by a predetermined distance, said outlet of said housing being disposed above said rotary cone; and

a guide duct extending from an upper part of said filtering tube to an upper part of said rotary cone, said guide duct being partially disposed within said rotary cone.

2. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein said housing includes a cover, a dust box, and a barricade disposed between the cover and the dust box;

the inlet, the, outlet and the guide duct being disposed in the cover;

the rotary cylinder and the rotary cone being disposed below the barricade; and

further including a sealing plate disposed below the inlet and the guide duct;

wherein said filtering tube is installed below the sealing plate.

3. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, further comprising a spiral guide blade disposed around an upper part of the filtering tube and adapted to cause air disposed within the rotary cylinder to rotate.

4. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein a depth of said filtering tube is substantially the same as a depth of said rotary cylinder;

and said filtering tube has a sealed bottom, said separated cyclone dust filter further comprising a bellmouthing disposed around the sealed bottom of the filtering tube and adapted to prevent dust from rising into the rotary cylinder from a bottom portion of the coarse dust chamber.

5. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein the partially open bottom of said rotary cone is comprised of a cylindrical boss connected to the rotary cone by at least one guide rib, said cylindrical boss being adapted to prevent dust from rising and entering into the rotary cone.

6. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, further comprising a discharge air tube extending from said outlet into said rotary cone, said discharge air tube being coaxial with said rotary cone.

7. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, further comprising an air volume protector adjacent to said guide duct.

8. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein said housing includes a cover, a dust box, and a barricade disposed between the cover and the dust box;

the dust box including the coarse dust chamber and the fine dust chamber;

the dust box further including an arc spacer between and defining the coarse dust chamber and the fine dust chamber; and

said housing further including a sealing sponge disposed between the arc spacer and the barricade.

9. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein the filtering tube includes a plurality of holes having diameters between about 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm.

10. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein the filtering tube has a wall thickness between about 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm.

11. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein a distance from the bottom of the rotary cone to a bottom of the fine dust chamber is between about 8 mm and 30 mm.

12. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein the rotary cone has a taper at an angle between about 10 and 20 degrees relative to a vertical axis;

a top of the rotary cone has a diameter that is greater than or equal to 60 mm; and

a bottom of the rotary cone has a diameter that is between about 15 mm and 36 mm.

13. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein the inlet has a diameter of about 35 mm.

14. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein a distance between the rotary cylinder and the filtering tube is between about 12 mm and 28 mm.

15. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, wherein the partially open bottom of said rotary cone is comprised of a cylindrical boss connected to the rotary cone by a guide rib, said cylindrical boss being adapted to prevent dust from rising and entering into the rotary cone, a height of the cylindrical boss is between about 10 mm and 20 mm;

and a distance between the cylindrical boss and an inner wall of the partially open bottom of the rotary cone is between about 3 mm and 10 mm.

16. The vacuum cleaner of claim 1, further comprising a discharge air tube extending from said outlet into said rotary cone, wherein a ratio between a diameter of the discharge air tube and a diameter of a top of the rotary cone is between about 1:

2 and 1;

4; and

a distance between a bottom of the discharge air tube and a top of the rotary cone is between about 5 mm and 25 mm.

17. A method of filtering dust utilizing two dust removal chambers, comprising the steps of:

drawing air containing fine and coarse dust into a first dust chamber having a cylinder and a filtering tube disposed within the cylinder, the drawn air containing fine and coarse dust being supplied into a gap disposed between an inner surface of the cylinder and an outer surface of the filtering tube;

rotating the drawn air containing fine and coarse dust in the first dust chamber to cause the coarse dust to travel outwardly away from the filtering tube and to cause the drawn air and at least some of the fine dust to travel inwardly towards and into the filtering tube;

supplying the air and fine dust within the filtering tube to a second dust chamber having a funnel-shaped cone, the air and fine dust being supplied within the funnel-shaped cone;

rotating the air and fine dust within the funnel-shaped cone to cause the fine dust to travel outwardly towards an inner surface of the funnel-shaped cone and to cause the air to travel at a center of the funnel-shaped cone;

supplying the air travelling at the center of the funnel-shaped cone outside the second dust chamber as filtered air.

18. A cyclone dust filter for a vacuum cleaner, comprising:

a funnel-shaped cone having a smaller end and a larger end, the smaller end having an opening and the larger end having an inlet for receiving air tangentially along the inside of the cone;

a cylindrical boss disposed at the center of the opening of the smaller end of the cone and held in place by at least one guide rib coupled between the wall of the cone and the cylindrical boss, the cylindrical boss sized relative to the opening so that a gap exists around the cylindrical boss to allow dust travelling along an inner surface of the cone to travel past the cylindrical boss.

19. The cyclone dust filter of claim 18, wherein the cylindrical boss extends into the cone.

20. The cyclone dust filter of claim 18, wherein the cylindrical boss is coupled to the cone by a plurality of guide ribs disposed around the cylindrical boss.

21. The cyclone dust filter of claim 18, wherein the cylindrical boss is adapted to deflect air travelling along a center axis of the cone.

22. The cyclone dust filter of claim 21, wherein the larger end of the cone includes an outlet at its center, the outlet supplying air deflected by the cylindrical boss outside the cone as filtered air.

23. The cyclone dust filter of claim 18, wherein the cylindrical boss is adapted to prevent dust from entering into the cone through the opening at the smaller end of the cone.

24. The cyclone dust filter of claim 18, wherein said at least one guide rib is angled along a direction of air flow so as to not restrict a passage of dust through the gap.

25. A method of filtering dust, comprising the steps of:

supplying air having dust tangentially along an inside of a funnel-shaped cone;

rotating the air and dust within the cone to cause the dust to travel outwardly towards an inner surface of the cone and to cause air substantially without dust to travel along a center axis of the cone;

deflecting the air travelling along the center axis of the cone by a deflecting structure in the form of a cylindrical boss disposed at a center of one end of the cone;

supplying the deflected air outside the cone as filtered air;

allowing dust travelling along the inner surface of the cone to pass through a gap disposed between the deflecting structure and the surface of the cone; and

preventing by the cylindrical boss re-entry of dust into the cone that previously passed out of the cone through the gap.

26. A vacuum cleaner, comprising:

a vacuum cleaner housing having an inlet for dirty air and an outlet for clean air, said housing having first and second chambers, said first chamber being a coarse dust removal chamber and said second chamber being a fine dust removal chamber;

a rotary cylinder disposed in an upper part of the coarse dust removal chamber;

a filtering tube having a cylindrical sidewall disposed within said rotary cylinder, the inlet of said container being disposed above the coarse dust chamber, and at least a portion of the inlet being disposed between said rotary cylinder and said filtering tube;

a spiral guide blade disposed around an upper part of the filtering tube and adapted to cause air disposed within the rotary cylinder to rotate; and

a guide duct extending from an upper part of said filtering tube to an upper part of said fine dust removal chamber.

27. The vacuum cleaner of claim 26, further comprising a discharge air tube extending from said outlet into said fine dust removing chamber.

28. The vacuum cleaner of claim 26, wherein the filtering tube includes a plurality of holes having diameters between about 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm.

29. The vacuum cleaner of claim 26, wherein the filtering tube has a wall thickness between about 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm.

30. The vacuum cleaner of claim 26, wherein the inlet has a diameter of about 35 mm.

31. The vacuum cleaner of claim 26, wherein a distance between the rotary cylinder and the filtering tube is between about 12 mm and 28 mm.

32. The vacuum cleaner of claim 26, wherein the length of said filtering tube is substantially the same as the length of said rotary cylinder;

and said filtering tube has a sealed bottom and holes in the cylindrical sidewall and further includes a bellmouthing disposed around the sealed bottom of the filtering tube to prevent dust from rising into the rotary cylinder from the bottom portion of the coarse dust chamber.

33. The vacuum cleaner of claim 30, wherein A vacuum cleaner, comprising:

a vacuum cleaner housing having an inlet for dirty air and an outlet for clean air, said housing having first and second chambers, said first chamber being a coarse dust removal chamber and said second chamber being a fine dust removal chamber;

a rotary cylinder disposed in an upper part of the coarse dust removal chamber;

a filtering tube having a cylindrical sidewall disposed within said rotary cylinder, the inlet of said container being disposed above the coarse dust chamber, and at least a portion of the inlet being disposed between said rotary cylinder and said filtering tube;

the length of said filtering tube is being substantially the same as the length of said rotary cylinder, said filtering tube has having a sealed bottom and holes in the cylindrical sidewall and further including a bellmouthing disposed around the sealed bottom of the filtering tube to prevent dust from rising into the rotary cylinder from the bottom portion of the coarse dust chamber; and

a guide duct extending from an upper part of said filtering tube to an upper part of said fine dust removal chamber.

34. The vacuum cleaner of claim 33, further comprising a discharge air tube extending from said outlet into said fine dust removing chamber.