Pool cleaner with a protracted filter

• US 9,909,334 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2016
• Issued: 03/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Maytronics Ltd (Kibbutz Yizreel)
• Original Assignee: Maytronics Limited
• Inventors: Maggeni, Yohanan, Golan, Oded
• Primary Examiner(s): Norris, Claire A
• Application Number:
  US15/134,407
• Publication Number:
  US 20160305144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 684 Days
• Field of Search: 210387, 210385, 210236, 210297, 210386, 210400
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 1/001 Processes for the treatment of water whereby the filtration technique is of importance C02F1/44 takes precedence; construction of filters in general B01D24/00 - B01D41/00
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 2103/42 from bathing facilities, e.g. swimming pools
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 4/1654 Self-propelled cleaners

Abstract

A pool cleaning robot that may include a fluid inlet, a filter; a winding mechanism and a holding mechanism; wherein the winding mechanism is configured to perform a winding of the filter thereby removing a filter portion that was positioned in a filtering position and placing another filter portion, that was previously stored by the holding mechanism, in the filtering position; wherein the filter portion, when positioned in the filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that enters through the fluid inlet; and wherein the holding mechanism is configured to hold the filter and to store folded and unused filter portions.

Claims

1. A pool cleaning robot that comprises a fluid inlet, a pump motor, an impeller, a filter, a driving motor for moving the pool cleaning robot,

a winding mechanism and a holding mechanism;

wherein the winding mechanism is configured to perform a winding of the filter thereby removing a filter portion that was positioned in a filtering position and placing another filter portion, that was previously stored by the holding mechanism, in the filtering position;

wherein the filter portion, when positioned in the filtering position, is configured to filter fluid that enters through the fluid inlet and is upstream to the pump motor; and

wherein the holding mechanism is configured to hold the filter and to store unused filter portions, wherein one or more unused filter portions are folded.

2. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the holding mechanism defines one or more openings through which the other filter portion passes when positioned to the filtering position.

3. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 2, wherein the one or more openings are formed in a part of the holding mechanism, wherein the part of the holding mechanism has a rectangular cross section.

4. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1, wherein the winding mechanism is configured to perform the winding of the filter by performing multiple winding iterations;

wherein each winding iteration results in a removal of one current filter portion from the filtering position and a placement of another filter portion in the filtering position;

wherein each winding iteration is followed by a filtering period during which the other filter portion is arranged to filter fluid.

5. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 4 wherein each winding iteration comprises a continuous winding of the filter.

6. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 4 wherein each winding iteration comprises a non-continuous winding of the filter.

7. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding of the filter extracts the other filter portion from the holding mechanism.

8. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the filter comprises multiple filter portions;

wherein at least two of the multiple filter portions differ from each other by at least one filtering parameter.

9. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the other filter portion, when positioned in the filtering position, has an opening that faces the fluid inlet and has a closed end that faces the winding mechanism.

10. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the winding mechanism is detachably coupled to a housing of the pool cleaning robot.

11. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 comprising a controller;

wherein the controller is configured to trigger the winding of the filter.

12. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 comprising a sensor that is configured to provide at least one of a filter replacement indication and a filter portion replacement indication.

13. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a fluid attribute sensor.

14. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a filter shape sensor.

15. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a wound filter sensor that is configured to sense attributes of filter portions that are wound by the winding mechanism.

16. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a load sensor that is configured to sense a tension of the filter.

17. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 12 wherein the sensor is a winding monitor that is configured to estimate a progress of the winding of the filter.

18. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding mechanism comprises a winding motor that is dedicated for winding the filter.

19. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding mechanism meshes with a transmission mechanism that mechanically couples an axle on which the filter is wound to a motor selected out of a pump motor and a drive motor.

20. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the winding mechanism is configured to compress debris trapped within the filter by performing the winding of the filter.

21. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the holding mechanism is configured to store multiple filter portions, before any of the multiple filter portions are positioned in the filtering position, in a compressed form.

22. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the holding mechanism surrounds a fluid path that starts at the fluid inlet.

23. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the holding mechanism is detachably coupled to a housing of the pool cleaning robot.

24. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the filter is made of an elastic fabric.

25. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the filter is made of a non-elastic fabric.

26. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the one or more unused filter portions are normal to a bottom of a housing of the pool cleaning robot.

27. The pool cleaning robot according to claim 1 wherein the one or more unused filter portions are parallel to a bottom of a housing of the pool cleaning robot.