Cleaner head assembly for a vacuum cleaner

Abstract

A cleaner head assembly for a vacuum cleaner includes a cleaner head body pivotably attachable to a main body of a vacuum cleaner and a brush housing pivotably mounted on the cleaner head body, the brush housing having a suction opening, a brush bar mounted therein and a resilient member provided to bias the brush housing in a pivoting direction so as to urge a rear portion of the brush housing in an upward direction with respect to the cleaner head body. This configuration allows the brush housing to be doubly articulated with respect to the main body of the vacuum cleaner as it is biased by the resilient member in the pivoting direction such that the rear portion of the brush housing is urged in an upward direction with respect to the cleaner head body and the suction opening remains in a horizontal plane.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a national stage application under 35 USC 371 of International Application No. PCT / GB2007 / 002701, filed Jul. 16, 2007, which claims the priority of United Kingdom Application No. 0615683.0, filed Aug. 8, 2006, the contents of which prior applications are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a cleaner head assembly for a vacuum cleaner.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]An upright vacuum cleaner normally comprises a main body containing dirt and dust separating apparatus, a cleaner head rotatably mounted on the main body and having a dirty air inlet, and a motor and fan unit for drawing dirty air into the dirt and dust separating apparatus via the dirty air inlet so that dirt and dust can be separated from the airflow before the clean air is expelled to the atmosphere. The dirty-air inlet or suction opening through which dirty air is sucked into the vacuum cleaner is dire...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaner head which maintains the suction opening of the dirty air inlet in contact with the surface to be cleaned throughout cleaning. A further object of the invention is to maintain the dirty air inlet in a substantially horizontal plane, irrespective of the type of carpet being cleaned, the direction of movement of the cleaner head, the weight of any motor mounted on the brush housing and the angle of inclination of the handle to the vertical. The maintenance of the dirty air inlet in a horizontal plane ensures a good, even distribution of airflow through the inlet and around the brush bar. This in turn improves the pick-up performance of the cleaner head assembly. A still further object of the invention is a cleaner head for a vacuum cleaner which has improved pick-up capabilities.

[0011]The suction opening in the brush housing thus remains essentially in the optimum configuration, i.e. horizontal, and the pick-up performance of the cleaner is thereby improved. The brush housing is biased into the surface to be cleaned, against the force or weight of the brush housing and any motor for the brush bar which will tend to lift the front of the brush housing away from the surface to be cleaned during the normal forwards and backwards movement of the vacuum cleaner.

[0012]The preferred arrangement of the brush housing being pivotable with respect to the cleaner head body about an axis coincident with that of the brush bar is a convenient and easily manufactured construction.

[0013]The resilient member is preferably provided between the brush housing and the cleaner head body to counteract any lifting force acting on the brush housing. Preferably the resilient member acts between the cleaner head and the brush housing to pull the rear brush housing upwardly. More preferably the resilient member is provided between the cleaner head body and a rear portion of the brush housing and ensures that the suction opening of the dirty air inlet is maintained in contact with the surface to be cleaned at all times. This ensures reliable operation of the mechanism. The resilient member is preferably a tension spring.

[0015]Preferably a flicker strip is provided to improve sealing of the suction opening with the surface to be cleaned and more preferably, a support strip or carpet strips are provided to improve the ability of the cleaner head assembly to pick up debris from carpet.

Problems solved by technology

In most cases the cleaner head will be acted upon in different ways by the carpet when it is travelling in different directions and will not maintain good contact on all sides of the dirty air inlet in both directions.

Furthermore, the action of the user can result in the angle of inclination of the handle to the vertical being varied quite significantly during normal use and this can cause the plane of the dirty air inlet to be lifted, either at the front or the back, away from the optimum configuration.

The weight and the mounting arrangement of a separate brush bar motor on the cleaner head may also contribute to the cleaner head not maintaining good contact with the surface to be cleaned and moving away from the optimum configuration of the dirty air inlet.

Any and all of these things can result in a reduction in the effectiveness of the suction of the cleaner head which can lead to a loss in the maximum level of pick-up and then to customer dissatisfaction.

However, these mechanisms only lift and lower the cleaner head by pivoting about the axis about which the cleaner head is connected to the main body of the cleaner.

They do not address the problem of the dirty air inlet becoming inclined to the optimum configuration and thereby allowing the inlet suction to become less effective.

The difficulty associated with this arrangement is that the cradle must be sealed with respect to the cleaner head and this can be difficult to achieve.

However, the constant movement and, in some cases, the weight of a motor on the brush bar can cause the brush housing to be lifted away from the floor surface.

This is undesirable as the inlet suction becomes less effective.

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