Cleaner

The present disclosure relates to a cleaner, and more specifically, to a cleaner that can be easily manipulated.

In general, a cleaner is a home appliance for suctioning small trash or dust in a manner of suctioning air using electricity and filling the same in a dust bin inside a product and is commonly called a vacuum cleaner.

The cleaner may be classified into a manual vacuum cleaner for allowing a user to directly perform cleaning while moving the cleaner, and an automatic vacuum cleaner for performing cleaning while traveling by itself. Depending on the type of the vacuum cleaner, the manual vacuum cleaner may be classified into a canister-type vacuum cleaner, an upright vacuum cleaner, a hand vacuum cleaner, a stick-type vacuum cleaner, etc.

In the past, the canister-type vacuum cleaner was widely used as the household vacuum cleaner, but recently, the hand vacuum cleaner and the stick-type vacuum cleaner, which provide improved convenience of use by providing a dust bin and a cleaner body, are increasingly being used.

The canister-type vacuum cleaner has a main body and a suction port connected by a rubber hose or a pipe and in some cases, may be used by inserting a brush into the suction port.

The hand vacuum cleaner is designed to maximize portability and has lightweight and a short length, and thus can have a limited cleaning area. Therefore, the hand vacuum cleaner is used to clean localized sites, such as on a desk, a sofa, or a vehicle interior. A user may use the hand vacuum cleaner while standing to enable cleaning without bending down. Therefore, it is advantageous for cleaning a wide area while moving.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,806,710 is presented as the related art document. The related art document relates to a cleaner head.

The related art document includes an agitator including a sole plate including a suction opening, and an agitator including a first agitating member for sweeping dust from a carpet and a second agitating member for sweeping dust from a hard surface. The second agitating member extends outward from the agitator behind the first agitating member and has a lower surface resistivity than the first agitating member. Various support members are rotatably mounted on the sole plate to support the cleaner head on a cleaning surface. The first agitating member does not protrude downward from a plane extending between lower ends of the support members. The second agitating member protrudes downward from the plane extending between the lower ends of the support members.

In the case of the related art document, the first agitating member is disposed to be spaced apart from an inner surface of a housing to form a gap, and the second agitating member reaches the inner surface of the housing. When an end portion of the second agitating member is worn or deformed into a spiral shape due to rotational inertia, a gap may be formed between the end portion of the second agitating member and the inner surface of the housing. In this case, a suction air flows separately below and above the agitator, and the air flowing above the agitator serves as resistance and becomes a factor that degrades cleaning performance.

The present disclosure is directed to solving the problems of the related art. Specifically, the related art document has a problem that air flows separately above (upper flow) and below (lower flow) an agitator, and the upper flow among them degrades cleaning performance, and the present disclosure is directed to providing a cleaner for removing an upper flow to improve cleaning performance.

The present disclosure is also directed to providing a cleaner capable of effectively sweeping dust by sweeping dust adsorbed on a cleaning area at least one time.

The objects of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-described objects, and other objects that are not described will be able to be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the following description.

To achieve the objects, a cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a cleaning module including an agitator configured to suction external air and sweep a cleaning area, and a main body configured to provide a suction force to the cleaning module. The agitator includes an agitator bar configured to rotate about a rotational axis, a plurality of bristles disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the agitator bar and extending outward in a radial direction, and a blade disposed on the outer circumferential surface of the agitator bar and disposed in a circumferential direction of the agitator from the bristle. The blade includes an extension part extending outward from the agitator bar in the radial direction of the agitator, and a blocking part extending from one side of the extension part toward the bristle.

The blade may be spaced apart from a housing of the cleaning module when the agitator does not rotate, and may be in close contact with the housing of the cleaning module when the agitator rotates.

The bristle and the blade may be alternately disposed in the circumferential direction of the agitator.

The blocking part may extend in the circumferential direction of the agitator.

The blocking part may extend in a direction opposite to a rotational direction of the agitator.

The blade may be connected by curving a connection part between the extension part and the blocking part. Alternatively, the blade may be connected by bending a connection part between the extension part and the blocking part.

The blocking part may extend from an end portion of the extension part. Alternatively, the blocking part may extend from an inside more than an end portion of the extension part.

To achieve the objects, a cleaner according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a cleaning module including an agitator configured to suction external air and sweep a cleaning area, and a main body configured to provide a suction force to the cleaning module. The agitator includes an agitator bar configured to rotate about a rotational axis, a plurality of bristles disposed on an outer circumferential surface of the agitator bar and disposed in a circumferential direction of the agitator, and a blocking member disposed on the outer circumferential surface of the agitator and isolating one bristle from the other bristle.

The blocking member may have a hollow formed therein.

The blocking member may include a first extension part extending outward from the agitator bar in the radial direction of the agitator, a second extension part extending outward from the agitator bar in the radial direction of the agitator and extending from a location spaced apart from the first extension part, and a blocking part configured to connect the first extension part with the second extension part and extending in the circumferential direction of the agitator.

Detailed matters of other embodiments are included in a detailed description and accompanying drawings.

According to the cleaner of the present disclosure, there are one or more following effects.

First, according to the first embodiment, since the blocking part is deformed outward in the radial direction of the agitator due to a centrifugal force or a suction force generated by a suction motor, the blade may be more firmly in close contact with the inner surface of the housing to fill the gap between the agitator and the inner surface of the housing and remove the upper flow, thereby improving the performance of the cleaner.

Second, since the block part of the deformed blade may sweep the dust adsorbed on the cleaning area, the dust separated from the cleaning area can be more easily suctioned into the suction part.

The effects of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-described effects, and other effects that are not described will be able to be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the above detailed description.

Advantages and features of the present disclosure and methods for achieving them will become clear with reference to embodiments described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below but may be implemented in various different forms, the embodiments are merely provided to make the disclosure of the present disclosure complete and fully inform those skilled in the art to which the present disclosure pertains of the scope of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is only defined by the scope of the appended claims. The same reference number denotes the same components throughout the specification.

is a perspective view of a cleaning module of a cleaner according to the present disclosure,is a front view of the cleaning module according to the present disclosure,is a right view of the cleaning module according to the present disclosure,is a bottom view of the cleaning module according to the present disclosure,is a cross-sectional view of portion A in,is a perspective view of an agitator according to a first embodiment,is a right view of the agitator according to the first embodiment,is a state diagram schematically showing a state of the agitator while cleaning in,is a right view of an agitator according to a second embodiment,is a right view of an agitator according to a third embodiment,is a perspective view of an agitator according to a fourth embodiment,is a right view of the agitator according to the fourth embodiment, andis a state diagram schematically showing a state of the agitator while cleaning in.

Hereinafter, the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings to describe a cleaner according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

is a perspective view of a cleaning moduleaccording to the present disclosure.

The cleaner includes a main body (not shown), the cleaning module, and an extension pipe (not shown).

The main body (not shown) includes key components for operating the cleaner.

The main body provides a suction force to the cleaning module.

The main body includes a suction part (not shown) through which air containing dust may be suctioned. The suction part is connected to the cleaning moduleor an extension pipe to form a flow path.

The main body includes a suction motor (not shown). The suction motor is a component for driving an air flow so that air containing dust may be introduced into the suction part.

The main body includes a handle (not shown). The handle is a component for allowing a user to hold the handle and move the cleaner.

The main body includes a manipulation part (not shown). The manipulation part is a component for allowing the user to input commands to the cleaner.

The main body includes a dust bin (not shown). The dust bin is a component for storing dust separated from the air.

The main body includes a battery (not shown). The battery is a component for supplying power to the main body or the cleaning module.

The cleaning moduleis a component for suctioning external air. The cleaning modulemay be indirectly coupled to the main body through an extension pipe or directly coupled to the main body.

A detailed configuration of the cleaning modulewill be described below.

The extension pipe (not shown) is a component for connecting the cleaning modulewith the main body. A front end of the extension pipe is coupled to the cleaning moduleand connected to the cleaning module. A rear end of the extension pipe is connected to the suction part of the main body.

A direction is defined with reference to. In, a downward direction is a forward direction of the cleaning module. In, an upward direction is a rearward direction of the cleaning module. In, a left direction is an upward direction of the cleaning module. In, a right direction is a downward direction of the cleaning module. In, a left direction is a left direction of the cleaning module. In, a right direction is a right direction of the cleaning module.

A configuration of the cleaning modulewill be described with reference to.

The cleaning moduleincludes a housing. The housingis a component for forming the appearance of the cleaning module.

The housingforms the appearance of the cleaning moduleand forms a space in which other components may be disposed therein.

The housingis coupled to the main body and includes an opening for allowing an external space to communicate with an internal space in one side surface thereof.

The housingis coupled to the main body (not shown). Referring to, a rear end of the housingis directly coupled to the main body or indirectly coupled to the main body through the extension pipe.