Surface Cleaning Apparatus

This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/884,954, which is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/378,418, filed on Oct. 10, 2023, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 12,121,198 on Oct. 22, 2024, which is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/351,943, filed on Jun. 18, 2021, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,950,745 on Apr. 9, 2024, which is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/590,972 filed on Oct. 2, 2019, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,389,038 on Jul. 19, 2019, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/156,006 filed on Oct. 10, 2018, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,478,030 on Nov. 19, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/088,876 filed on Apr. 1, 2016, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,219,662 on Mar. 5, 2019, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/822,211, filed Aug. 10, 2015, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,888,817 on Feb. 13, 2018, which claimed priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/093,189, filed Dec. 17, 2014, the entirety of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

This disclosure relates to the field of surface cleaning apparatus. In some aspects, this disclosure relates to a type of stick vacuum cleaner wherein a hand vacuum cleaner is removably mounted to a drive handle and provides motive power to draw dirty air into the surface cleaning head. This disclosure also relates to other types of surface cleaning apparatus such as an upright vacuum cleaner or extractor.

The following is not an admission that anything discussed below is part of the prior art or part of the common general knowledge of a person skilled in the art.

Various types of surface cleaning apparatus are known. These include upright vacuum cleaner, stick vacuum cleaners, hand vacuum cleaners and canister vacuum cleaners. Stick vacuum cleaners and hand vacuum cleaners are popular as they tend to be smaller and may be used to clean a small area or when a spill has to be cleaned up. Hand vacuum cleaners or handvacs are advantageous as they are lightweight and permit above floor cleaning and cleaning in hard to reach locations. However, they have a limited dirt collection capacity. Upright vacuum cleaners enable a user to clean a floor and may have a pod that is removably attached for above floor cleaning. In such cases, the pod comprises, e.g., a cyclone, a dirt collection chamber and the suction motor for the upright vacuum cleaner. However, such the pods tend to be bulky since they comprise the total dirt collection capacity for the upright vacuum cleaner.

This summary is intended to introduce the reader to the more detailed description that follows and not to limit or define any claimed or as yet unclaimed invention. One or more inventions may reside in any combination or sub-combination of the components disclosed in any part of this document including its claims and figures.

In accordance with one aspect of this disclosure, there is provided a surface cleaner comprising:

In some embodiments, the cyclone air outlet may be provided at the first end.

In some embodiments, the cyclone air outlet may include a vortex finder and the ramped surface may be mounted to the vortex finder.

In some embodiments, air rotates in the cyclone chamber in a direction of rotation and the ramped surface may be curved in the direction of rotation from the proximal end to the distal end.

In some embodiments, the proximal end of the ramped surface may be angularly positioned with respect to the cyclone air inlet and axially positioned with respect to the first end of the cyclone chamber such that air entering the cyclone chamber may rotate in the direction of rotation at least twice around the cyclone axis of rotation prior to contacting the ramped surface adjacent the proximal end.

In some embodiments, air entering the cyclone chamber may rotate in the direction of rotation between 2 and 3 times around the cyclone axis of rotation prior to contacting the ramped surface adjacent the proximal end.

In some embodiments, the ramped surface may have a landing portion that is positioned, in the direction of rotation, from the proximal end to a location that is up to 180° around the cyclone chamber from the proximal end.

In some embodiments, the ramped surface may have a landing portion that is positioned, in the direction of rotation, from the proximal end to a location that is up to 90° around the cyclone chamber from the proximal end.

In some embodiments, air entering the cyclone chamber may rotate in the direction of rotation between 2 and 2.5 times around the cyclone axis of rotation prior to contacting the ramped surface adjacent the proximal end.

In some embodiments, the ramped surface may be a spiral surface.

In some embodiments, the ramped surface may extend radially outwardly to the cyclone sidewall.

In some embodiments, the ramped surface may extend radially outwardly towards the cyclone sidewall and an annular gap may be provided between the radial outer side of the ramped surface and the cyclone sidewall.

In some embodiments, the dirt collection chamber may be spaced axially from the second end of the cyclone chamber and the dirt collection chamber may have an openable end wall that is spaced from and faces the ramped surface.

In some embodiments, the surface cleaner may be an upright vacuum cleaner and, in operation to clean a floor, the first end of the cyclone chamber is an upper end of the cyclone chamber, and the dirt collection chamber may underlie the cyclone chamber.

These and other aspects and features of various embodiments will be described in greater detail below.

The drawings included herewith are for illustrating various examples of apparatuses of the teaching of the present specification and are not intended to limit the scope of what is taught in any way.

Numerous embodiments are described in this application, and are presented for illustrative purposes only. The described embodiments are not intended to be limiting in any sense. The invention is widely applicable to numerous embodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure herein. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention may be practiced with modification and alteration without departing from the teachings disclosed herein. Although particular features of the present invention may be described with reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures, it should be understood that such features are not limited to usage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures with reference to which they are described.

The terms “an embodiment,” “embodiment,” “embodiments,” “the embodiment,” “the embodiments,” “one or more embodiments,” “some embodiments,” and “one embodiment” mean “one or more (but not all) embodiments of the present invention(s),” unless expressly specified otherwise.

The terms “including,” “comprising” and variations thereof mean “including but not limited to,” unless expressly specified otherwise. A listing of items does not imply that any or all of the items are mutually exclusive, unless expressly specified otherwise. The terms “a,” “an” and “the” mean “one or more,” unless expressly specified otherwise.

As used herein and in the claims, two or more parts are said to be “coupled”, “connected”, “attached”, or “fastened” where the parts are joined or operate together either directly or indirectly (i.e., through one or more intermediate parts), so long as a link occurs. As used herein and in the claims, two or more parts are said to be “directly coupled”, “directly connected”, “directly attached”, or “directly fastened” where the parts are connected directly in physical contact with each other. As used herein, two or more parts are said to be “rigidly coupled”, “rigidly connected”, “rigidly attached”, or “rigidly fastened” where the parts are coupled so as to move as one while maintaining a constant orientation relative to each other. None of the terms “coupled”, “connected”, “attached”, and “fastened” distinguish the manner in which two or more parts are joined together.

Referring to, a surface cleaning apparatusis shown in accordance with a first embodiment. In the embodiment shown, the surface cleaning apparatusis a type of upright vacuum cleaner which is referred to as a stick vacuum cleaner. As illustrated, surface cleaning apparatusincludes a surface cleaning head, an upright section, and a hand-carriable vacuum cleaner(also referred to as handvac or hand vacuum cleaner). It will be appreciated that the surface cleaning apparatus may be any other type of vacuum cleaner or extractor including an upright vacuum cleaner, a stick vacuum cleaner and a hand vacuum cleaner and any one or more aspects disclosed herein may be used in any type of surface cleaning apparatus.

Upright sectionmay be movably and drivingly connected to surface cleaning head. For example, upright sectionmay be permanently or removably connected to surface cleaning headand moveably mounted thereto for movement from a storage position to an in use position, such as by a pivotable joint. Jointmay permit upright sectionto pivot (i.e., rotate) with respect to surface cleaning headabout a horizontal axis. Accordingly, upright sectionmay be rotatable rearwardly so as to be positionable in a plurality of reclined floor cleaning positions (see for example).

Upright sectionmay also be steeringly connected to surface cleaning headfor maneuvering surface cleaning head. For example, jointmay be a swivel joint.

Handvacmay be removably connected to upright section. When mounted to upright section, a user may grasp handvacto manipulate upright sectionto steer surface cleaning headacross a surface to be cleaned. Accordingly, when handvacis mounted to upright section, handleis the drive handle of surface cleaning apparatus.

Surface cleaning apparatushas at least one dirty air inlet, one clean air outlet, and an airflow path extending between the inlet and the outlet. In the illustrated example, lower endof surface cleaning headincludes a dirty air inlet, and a rear endof handvacincludes a clean air outlet. An airflow path extends from dirty air inletthrough surface cleaning head, upright section, and handvacto clean air outlet. As exemplified in, the handvacmay include a main bodyand a dirty air inlet, and an air flow path of the handvacmay extend from the dirty air inletto the clean air outletwith the suction motorpositioned in the air flow path.

As exemplified, at least one suction motor, and preferably the only suction motor, and one air treatment member, which may be the only air treatment member, is provided in the handvacto permit handvacto operate independently when disconnected from surface cleaning headand optionally from upright section. It will be appreciated that while at least one suction motor and at least one air treatment member are positioned in the airflow path to separate dirt and other debris from the airflow, that when used with other aspects disclosed herein, each of the suction motor and the air treatment member may be provided in the surface cleaning head, the upright section, and/or the handvac.

The air treatment member may be any suitable air treatment member, including, for example, one or more cyclones, filters, and bags. The air treatment member may be an air treatment chamber wherein air is redirected to assist dirt being removed from an incoming air stream and is optionally a cyclone chamber. Preferably, at least one air treatment member is provided upstream of the suction motor to clean the dirty air before the air passes through the suction motor. In the illustrated embodiment, handvacincludes a cyclone bin assemblyincluding a cyclone chamber and a dirt collection region. In some embodiments, the dirt collection region may be a portion (e.g., a lower portion) of the cyclone chamber. In other embodiments, the dirt collection region may be a dirt collection chamber that is separated from the cyclone chamber by a dirt outlet of the cyclone chamber. The following description utilizes the exemplified embodiments set out in the drawings, which utilize a cyclone chamber. It will be appreciated that the aspects disclosed herein may be used with an air treatment member as discussed previously and, optionally, an air treatment chamber. It will also be appreciated that if the air treatment member is an air treatment chamber, then the cyclone bin assemblymay be referred to as an air treatment assembly.

In accordance with one aspect of this disclosure, which may be used by itself or in combination with any one or more other aspects of this disclosure, a stick surface cleaning apparatus may have more than one dirt collection chamber. For example, the handvac may include a first dirt collection chamber, and the upright section may include a second dirt collection chamber. The second dirt collection chamber provides the surface cleaning apparatus with an enlarged dirt collection capacity in comparison with the dirt collection capacity of the handvac alone. Accordingly, the surface cleaning apparatus may operate for longer intervals before one or more of the dirt collection chambers needs to be emptied.

In accordance with this aspect, and as exemplified in, upright sectionmay have an auxiliary dirt collection assembly, which may comprise or consist of an auxiliary dirt collection chamber. For example, the auxiliary dirt collection chambermay be the only component provided in the auxiliary dirt collection assembly and therefore the auxiliary dirt collection chambermay be the auxiliary dirt collection assembly. Alternately, as disclosed in alternate embodiments, the auxiliary dirt collection assembly may also include one or more of a pre-motor filter, one or more cyclone chambers that may have one or more associated dirt collection chambers and a suction motor.

As illustrated, up flow duct(also referred to as a wand if removable for use, e.g., in an above floor cleaning mode as exemplified in) may define the airflow path between surface cleaning headand handvac. Auxiliary dirt collection chambermay be a supplemental dirt collection chamber that is selectively mounted to up flow ductand augments the dirt collection capacity of surface cleaning apparatuswhen mounted to upper section.

It will be appreciated that if up flow ductis the member that supports handvacwhen auxiliary dirt collection assemblyis removed, the up flow duct is designed to be load supporting and may be a rigid tube. Further if the up flow duct is removable to function as an above floor cleaning wand, then the up flow duct may also be a rigid tube. In other embodiments, e.g., the up flow duct is not a load supporting member, then all or a portion of up flow ductmay be flexible, such as a flexible hose.

As exemplified in, the dirt collection assemblyof the upright sectionmay collect at least a portion of the dirt separated from the dirty airflow by the handvac. Accordingly, the dirt collection assemblyof the upright sectionmay be in communication with the dirt collection chamber of handvacall or a portion of the time when the handvacis mounted to the upright section. For example, the dirt collection chamber of handvacmay have a door that automatically opens when handvacis mounted to the upright section. Accordingly, dirt separated by handvacmay travel to the supplemental dirt collection assembly. Alternately, the door may be manually operable by a user. Accordingly, dirt may only be transferred to the supplemental dirt collection assemblywhen a user elects to open the door. Alternately, the supplemental dirt collection assemblymay receive dirt from an auxiliary air treatment member, in which case the auxiliary dirt collection assembly may comprise a housing having both the auxiliary air treatment member and the auxiliary dirt collection chamber.

The dirt collection chamber of auxiliary dirt collection assemblyand handvac dirt collection chambermay be of any suitable volumetric sizes. Preferably, the volumetric storage capacity of the dirt collection chamber of auxiliary dirt collection assemblyis at least equal to the volumetric storage capacity of handvac dirt collection chamber, and more preferably larger than the volumetric storage capacity of handvac dirt collection chamber. For example, the volumetric storage capacity of the dirt collection chamber of auxiliary dirt collection assemblymay be 1-20 times the volumetric storage capacity of handvac dirt collection chamber, more preferably 1.5-10 times, and most preferably 3-5 times. In alternative embodiments, the volumetric storage capacity of the dirt collection chamber of auxiliary dirt collection assemblymay be less than that of handvac dirt collection chamber.

As exemplified in, handvacmay include a cyclone bin assemblyincluding one or more cyclone chambersand one or more dirt collection chambers. The cyclone chamber or chambers and the dirt collection chamber or chambers may be of any design. As exemplified, cyclone chamberincludes an air inletin fluid communication with wand, an air outletdownstream of air inlet, and a dirt outletin fluid communication with dirt collection chamber. Suction motoror another suction source may draw dirty air to enter air inletand travel cyclonically across cyclone chamberto dirt outletwhere dirt is ejected into dirt collection chamber. Afterwards, the air is discharged from cyclone chamberat air outlet.

As exemplified in, cyclone bin assemblymay include laterally opposed side walls, a top wall, a bottom wall, a first end wall, and a second end wall. As shown, a common interior wallmay divide cyclone chamberfrom dirt collection chamber. For example, cyclone chambermay be defined by top walland interior wallwhich extend between end wallsand. Top walland interior wallmay be curved to define a substantially cylindrical or frustroconical sidewall of cyclone chamber. In alternative embodiments, cyclone chambermay have a sidewall of any other suitable shape that is conducive to cyclonic flow. In some alternative embodiments, interior wallof cyclone chambermay be discrete from dirt collection chamberinstead of forming a common wall dividing cyclone chamberfrom dirt collection chamber.

Dirt collection chambermay be defined by bottom wall, side walls, and interior wall. In some embodiments, bottom wallmay be openable for fluidly connecting handvac dirt collection chamberto supplemental dirt collection assemblyof upright section. This may permit dirt separated by cyclone chamberand discharged through dirt outletto move through opened bottom walland collect in supplemental dirt collection assembly.

Optionally, when the auxiliary dirt collection assembly is mounted to upright section, dirt separated in the cyclone chamber is collectable in the dirt collection chamber of the auxiliary dirt collection assembly. The auxiliary dirt collection assembly may be selectively connectable in communication with the dirt collection region of the hand vacuum cleaner by, e.g., an openable door(also referred to as a dumping door). The door may be manually openable, such as by a handle, or automatically operated, such as when the auxiliary dirt collection assembly is mounted to upright section. In this case, dirt will collect in the handvacand will remain there until dooris openable so as to allow the collected dirt to transfer to supplemental dirt collection assembly. In the latter case, supplemental dirt collection assemblyis automatically connected in communication with a dirt outlet of the cyclone chamber when the auxiliary dirt collection assembly is mounted to upright section. In this case, dirt will collect in the supplemental dirt collection assemblywhen handvacis mounted to the upright section.

In the illustrated example, bottom wallincludes a door, which may be a pivotally openable door. As shown, doormay be pivotally connected to dirt collection chamberby a hingefor rotation about a hinge axis. Doormay extend forwardly from a rear endto a front end. Preferably, hingeand hinge axisare positioned at rear endof door. In alternative embodiments, hingeand hinge axismay be positioned at front endor intermediate front and rear endsand.

Dooris preferably outwardly pivotal of dirt collection chamber. For example, doormay be movable between a closed position () in which doorcloses bottom wall, and an open position () in which dooris rotated away from dirt collection chamberfor opening bottom wallto permit dirt to move from handvac dirt collection chamberto supplemental dirt collection assembly. As shown, in the open position front endof doormay be moved away from handvac dirt collection chamber.

Hinge axismay have any suitable orientation. In the illustrated example, hinge axisextends laterally side-to-side of surface cleaning apparatus. Hinge axismay be transverse to one or more of cyclone axisof cyclone chamber, motor axisof suction motor, or downstream directionthrough air inlet. In the example shown, hinge axisis perpendicular to cyclone axis, motor axis, and downstream direction. In alternative embodiments, hinge axismay be substantially parallel to one or more of cyclone axis, motor axis, or downstream direction.

In some embodiments, doormay extend upwardly and forwardly between rear endand front end. For example, front endmay be positioned closer to cyclone chamberand cyclone axisthan rear end. When dooris opened (), this may provide a bottom openinghaving a transverse widthbetween cyclone chamberand bottom wall.

Optionally, the dirt collection region (the dirt collection chamber) of the hand vacuum cleaner is positioned above the supplemental dirt collection assembly. Accordingly, dirt that is received in the dirt collection chamber of the hand vacuum cleaner may be transferred by due to gravity to the supplemental dirt collection assembly. Accordingly, for example, dirt outletmay be positioned on a bottom endof cyclone chamberfor discharging dirt toward bottom walland openingto be delivered by gravity into supplemental dirt collection assemblyof upright section.

Reference is now made to. Preferably, when handvacis connected to upright section, openingis fluidly coupled to an inlet to dirt collection assembly. In the illustrated example, doorand openingof cyclone bin assemblyalign with an inletof dirt collection assembly. As shown, inletmay be formed as an opening in an upper portionof dirt collection assembly. In some embodiments, inletmay include a door (not shown) which opens automatically and concurrently with door. Optionally, the door of inletmay be biased (e.g., by a spring) to close inletand seal dirt collection assemblywhen dooris closed or handvacis disconnected from upright section.

Preferably, openingand inletof upper portionof dirt collection assemblyare sized and positioned to receive at least a portion of doorwhen dooris in the open position. This may permit doorto open outwardly into the open position as shown in.

If dooris moveable from the closed position to the open position automatically upon connecting handvacto upright section, then handvacmay include an actuator drivingly connected to doorto move door(e.g., pivot doorabout hinge axis) to the open position when handvacis connected to upright section. In the illustrated embodiment, doorincludes an armpivotally connected at hinge. As shown, armmay include a lever portionwhich extends rearwardly of hinge, and which may be depressed to pivot doorto the open position. Further, dirt collection assemblyis shown including an engaging memberpositioned to align with lever portionof arm. In use, engaging membermay depress lever portionof armupon connecting handvacto upright sectionto automatically pivot doorinto the open position, whereby openingmay be fluidly connected to inletof supplemental dirt collection assembly. In one aspect, this may permit a user, who has used handvacwhen disconnected from upright section, to automatically empty handvac dirt collection chamberby connecting handvacto upright section. Afterwards, handvacmay be disconnected from upright sectionwith an empty dirt collection chamber.