Method for operating a vacuum cleaner

• US 7,740,707 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Miele & CIE KG (The Miele Group)
• Original Assignee: Miele & CIE KG (The Miele Group)
• Inventors: Druecker, Markus, Buller, Kai, Kornberger, Martin, Bertram, Andre, Ennen, Guenther, Wegener, Dirk, Koch, Stephan, Wolf, Cornelius, Tiekoetter, Stefan, Kara, Seyfettin
• Primary Examiner(s): Barr; Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chaudhry; Saeed T
• Application Number:
  US11/468,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20070044821A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,393 Days
• Field of Search: 134/18, 134/21, 153/001, 151/19, 153/39, 153/19, 153/45
• US Class Current: 134/18
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/108 Dust compression means
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/1472 combined with security means, e.g. for preventing use, e.g. in case of absence of the bag
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 9/2894 Details related to signal transmission in suction cleaners

Abstract

A method for operating a vacuum cleaner having a fan, an electronic control system for the fan and/or another load, and a dust chamber for receiving an air-permeable dust bag, includes providing the dust bag with an identifier, and providing the vacuum cleaner with an identifying device associated with the electronic control system and configured to identify the identifier. When the identifier fails to be identified, at least one of the fan and the other load is controlled using the electronic control system so as to reduce at least one parameter associated with an intake of dust into the dust bag.

Claims

1. A method for operating a vacuum cleaner including a fan, an electronic control system for controlling at least one of the fan and at least one other load, and a dust chamber for receiving an air-permeable dust bag, the method comprising:

providing the dust bag with an identifier;

providing the vacuum cleaner with an identifying device associated with the electronic control system and configured to identify the identifier; and

when the identifying device fails to identify the identifier, controlling at least one of the fan and the at least one other load using the electronic control system so as to operate the vacuum cleaner with at least one parameter associated with an intake of dust into the dust bag being reduced.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one other load includes a display device of the vacuum cleaner.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one parameter includes a parameter that determines the intake of dust into the dust bag.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one parameter includes a parameter dependent on a parameter that determines the intake of dust into the dust bag.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the controlling at least one of the fan and the at least one other load is performed so as to reduce a power of the fan.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein the vacuum cleaner includes a power selecting device configured to select the power of the fan, and wherein the controlling at least one of the fan and the at least one other load is performed so as to reduce the power of the fan independently of a selected power.

7. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein the vacuum cleaner includes a power selecting device configured to select the power of the fan, and wherein the controlling at least one of the fan and the at least one other load is performed so as to reduce the power of the fan to a fraction of a selected power.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the vacuum cleaner includes at least one of a first replacement indicator for the dust bag and a second replacement indicator for a motor or exhaust filter disposed downstream of the dust bag, and further comprising, when the identifier fails to be identified, prematurely activating at least one of the first and second indicators.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the vacuum cleaner includes a compressing device disposed in the dust chamber and configured to compress the dust-bag, and further comprising, when the identifier fails to be identified, deactivating or reducing the performance of the compressing device.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising storing, in a non-volatile memory associated with the electronic control system, information about an identifying or non-identifying of the identifier.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identifier includes a transponder and the identifying device includes a transmitter/receiver device configured to activate the transponder.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identifier includes a visual mark disposed on the dust bag and the identifying device includes a visual pattern recognition device.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 wherein the visual mark is disposed on a collar of the dust bag.

14. The method as recited in claim 12 wherein the visual mark includes a hologram.

15. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the dust bag is made of paper or nonwoven fabric.

16. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the electronic control system is configured to control at least one of a rotational speed and a power of a driving motor of the fan.