JP7785286B2 - Cleaning body and rotating cleaning body - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a cleaning element and a rotating cleaning element.

A brush is known that includes a strip-shaped fluff body in which multiple brush threads are arranged in parallel and held by holding threads, a strip-shaped body that extends in the longitudinal direction of the fluff body and is overlapped with the fluff body, and a substrate that extends in the longitudinal direction of the fluff body and has a pair of clamping parts that are joined together and clamp one end of the fluff body in a width direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction and one end of the strip-shaped body in a width direction (Patent Document 1).

In an electric vacuum cleaner comprising a vacuum cleaner body, a hose with a handle grip connected to the vacuum cleaner body, an extension pipe detachably connected at one end to the hose, and a floor suction tool detachably connected to a floor connector at the end of the extension pipe, there is also known a floor suction tool for an electric vacuum cleaner in which a portion of the nap from the base to the tip of the rotating brush of the floor suction tool, which has a built-in brush and is rotated by a motor, is welded together, creating a horizontal connection in the nap (Patent Document 2).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2019-13728 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-131305

The present invention provides a cleaning element and a rotating cleaning element that can reduce noise when they come into contact with the object to be cleaned and prevent fibrous objects from becoming entangled.

In order to solve the above problem, the cleaning element according to claim 1 is
The base and
The yarn is folded in two along the center of the short side in a zigzag weave so that it folds back, and the folded ends are joined in a state where they are offset in the longitudinal direction, so that the brush extends continuously in an arch shape in the longitudinal direction of the base , and the brush is raised so that the front and back surfaces of the arch are inclined in different directions, crossing and overlapping without any gaps .
It is characterized by:

The invention described in claim 2 is the cleaning element described in claim 1,
The angle at which the arch is inclined is in the range of 15 degrees to 75 degrees with respect to the longitudinal direction of the cleaning body.
It is characterized by:

The invention described in claim 3 is the cleaning element described in claim 1 or 2 ,
The base end of the brush is clamped by the base in the longitudinal direction and fixed to the base by sewing.
It is characterized by:

In order to solve the above problem, the rotary cleaning body according to claim 4 is
a rotor having a groove formed on its outer circumferential surface;
The cleaning element according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the base is fitted into the groove and attached.
It is characterized by:

According to the invention described in claim 1, noise generated when contacting the object to be cleaned can be reduced, and entanglement of fibrous objects to be cleaned can be prevented.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the scraped dust can be moved in the longitudinal direction of the cleaning element.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the thread from coming loose.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the function of the cleaning element can be exerted on the object to be cleaned.

1 is a schematic bottom view showing a cleaner head of an electric vacuum cleaner to which the rotary cleaning element according to the present embodiment is attached. FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the cleaner head of the electric vacuum cleaner in use. FIG. FIG. 2 is an enlarged schematic cross-sectional view of a rotary cleaning body. 1A is a perspective view showing a partial cross section of the cleaning element, and FIG. 1B is a side view showing a partial side surface of the cleaning element. 5A to 5C are schematic plan views showing a manufacturing process of the brush of the cleaning element. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing the configurations of a cleaning element of an example and a cleaning element of a comparative example. FIG. 1 shows the results of a hair tangling test. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the results of a pickup test. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the results of a noise test.

Next, the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the drawings, showing embodiments and specific examples, but the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and specific examples.
Furthermore, in the following explanation using the drawings, it should be noted that the drawings are schematic and the ratios of the dimensions, etc. may differ from those of the actual product, and in order to facilitate understanding, illustrations of components other than those necessary for the explanation have been omitted as appropriate.

(1) Suction head of electric vacuum cleaner Figure 1 is a schematic bottom view showing the cleaner head 10 of an electric vacuum cleaner to which the rotary cleaning body 20 of this embodiment is attached, Figure 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the cleaner head 10 of the electric vacuum cleaner in use, Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the rotary cleaning body 20, and Figure 4 is an enlarged schematic cross-sectional view of the rotary cleaning body 20.
The cleaner head and the rotary cleaning element will now be described with reference to the drawings.

(1) Suction head of electric vacuum cleaner Figure 1 is a schematic bottom view showing the cleaner head 10 of an electric vacuum cleaner to which the rotary cleaning body 20 of this embodiment is attached, Figure 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the cleaner head 10 of the electric vacuum cleaner in use, Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the rotary cleaning body 20, and Figure 4 is an enlarged schematic cross-sectional view of the rotary cleaning body 20.
The cleaner head and the rotary cleaning element will now be described with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2, a cleaner head 10 of a vacuum cleaner for sucking up debris such as hair and dust on a floor surface FL comprises a case 11 having a generally T-shaped overall shape and a connecting pipe 12 rotatably connected to the rear end of the case 11. A rectangular suction port 13 that is long in the left-right direction is formed in the bottom wall of the case 11 near the front end.

A rectangular frame-shaped partition plate 14 is erected on the inner bottom surface of the case 11, surrounding the suction port 13, and an air suction port 15 is formed in the center of the rear wall 14a that constitutes the partition plate 14, penetrating the rear wall 14a. A motor bearing 16 is provided on the left inner surface of the case 11, and the motor bearing 16 rotatably supports the tip of a motor shaft 17a extending from a motor 17 located behind the partition plate 14 inside the case 11.

Rotary supports 18 are provided on both the left and right side walls 14b of the partition plate 14, and the rotary supports 18 are rotatably supported by bearings 19 provided on the left and right inner surfaces of the case 11. A rotary cleaning body 20 with a rotation axis c1 extending in the left-right direction is housed inside the partition plate 14, and both ends of the rotary cleaning body 20 are supported by the rotary supports 18.

A timing belt TB is wound around the left-side rotary support 18 and the pulley 17b attached to the motor shaft 17a. When the motor 17 is driven, its rotational driving force is transmitted to the rotary cleaning body 20 via the motor shaft 17a, pulley 17b, timing belt TB, and left-side rotary support 18.

(1.2) Configuration of Rotary Cleaning Body As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 , the rotary cleaning body 20 includes a rotating body 21 and four cleaning bodies 100 provided in the longitudinal direction (axial direction) of the rotating body 21.
The rotating body 21 is an approximately round bar-shaped shaft with grooves 22 formed at equal intervals around its periphery, and each groove 22 is twisted approximately 180 degrees circumferentially and extends longitudinally from one end face of the rotating body 21 to the other end face.

The cleaning element 100 is attached by fitting its base 110 into the recessed groove 22 from one end face of the rotating element 21. In the rotating cleaning element 20, the brush 120 comes into contact with the floor surface FL, which is the object to be cleaned, as the rotating element 21 rotates (indicated by arrow R in the figure), allowing the brush 120 to scrape off fibrous debris and dust while also suppressing an increase in noise when it comes into contact with the floor surface FL.

(2) Cleaning Element Fig. 5(a) is a perspective view showing a partial cross section of the cleaning element 100, (b) is a side view showing a partial side surface of the cleaning element 100, and Fig. 6 is a schematic plan view showing the manufacturing process of the brush 120 of the cleaning element 100. The configuration and manufacturing method of the cleaning element 100 will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in Figure 5, the cleaning element 100 comprises a base 110 and a brush 120 in which threads 121 extend in a continuous, arched shape in the longitudinal direction (X direction) of the base 110, with the brush 120 raised so that the threads intersect and overlap at an angle in different directions on the front and back surfaces of the arch. The base end of the brush 120 is clamped to the base 110 in the longitudinal direction and sewn to the base 110 for fixation.

(2.1) Base The base 110 is made of synthetic resin and includes a locking portion 111 having a rectangular cross section for fitting into and fixing in the groove portion 22 (see Figure 4) of the rotating body 21, and a pair of L-shaped plate-shaped clamping portions 112 formed on the locking portion 111.
The pair of clamping portions 112 are erected on the locking portion 111 so as to face each other in the width direction of the locking portion 111 .
The tip ends 112a of the pair of clamping parts 112 are bent at a right angle to the base end and extend parallel to the locking part 111. The base ends 112b of the pair of clamping parts 112 are sewn to the brush 120 by a single sewing thread 113 in a state in which they clamp one end of the brush 120 in the width direction Y.

The base 110 is formed by extrusion molding of a thermoplastic synthetic resin. Examples of thermoplastic synthetic resins include flexible olefin-based elastomers with a durometer hardness of D40 to D50 measured in accordance with JIS K7215. Because the base 110 is flexible, it can be bent flexibly, and as shown in Figure 3, the cleaning element 100 can be easily attached by inserting it into the groove 22 formed by twisting it approximately 180 degrees circumferentially around the rotating body 21.

The width of the locking portion 111 in the direction intersecting (orthogonal to) the longitudinal direction of the base 110 is slightly larger than the width of the opening 22a of the groove portion 22 of the rotor 21. When attaching the cleaning body 100 to the rotor 21, the base 110 is inserted and slid from one end of the rotor 21 into each groove portion 22 so that the brush 120 protrudes outward from the opening 22a of the groove portion 22. This causes the base 110 to be inserted in a spirally twisted state along each groove portion 22, completing the attachment of the cleaning body 100 to the rotor 21.

(2.2) Brush As shown in Fig. 5(b) , the brush 120 has threads 121 that extend continuously in an arch shape, and are raised so that the threads cross and overlap at an angle inclined in different directions (indicated by arrows R1 and R2 in Fig. 5(b) ) on a front surface 120A and a back surface 120B of the arch. The angle Θ at which the arch is obliquely inclined is in the range of 15 to 75 degrees with respect to the longitudinal direction of the cleaning element 100. As the arches are obliquely inclined, crossing and overlapping, there are fewer gaps between the threads, which prevents the scraped fibrous material to be cleaned from entering the brush 120 and preventing the threads from wrapping around the brush 120.

Specifically, as shown in Figure 6(a), the brush 120 is folded in half (see the dashed arrow in the figure) along the central part C in the short direction (indicated by the dashed line C-C in Figure 6(a)) with the thread 121 woven in a zigzag pattern so that it folds back on itself. As shown in Figure 6(b), the folded ends are joined in a state where they are offset in the longitudinal direction (indicated by the arrows X1 and X2 in Figure 6(b)), forming arches that are inclined in different directions on the front and back surfaces, and which overlap without any gaps.

That is, the brush 120 is formed as a knitted fabric by integrally holding the base ends (on the curved portion 123 side) of multiple parallel-arranged U-shaped threads 121 together with two holding threads 122 that extend straight and parallel to each other in the direction in which the multiple threads 121 are arranged. As shown in Fig. 5, in the cleaning element 100, the two holding threads 122 are arranged between a pair of clamping portions 112.
The holding thread 122 is made of a fiber that is highly durable and flexible. Examples of fibers that satisfy these conditions include rayon fiber, cupra fiber, polyester fiber, polyamide fiber, acrylic fiber, and polypropylene fiber. The holding thread 122 may be made of polyester fiber and may include a heat-melting fiber that melts when heated.

The thread 121 constituting the brush 120 preferably has a wire diameter of 0.05 mm to 0.5 mm. In particular, by using polyamide or polypropylene filament threads with a wire diameter of 0.05 mm to 0.2 mm, the cleaning element 100 has a certain degree of flexibility and can suppress noise when it comes into contact with the object to be cleaned.
In this embodiment, a polyamide multifilament yarn (with a diameter of 0.09 mm per fiber) having a cotton count of 1900T (decitex)/24F (filament) is used for the yarn 121. Polyamide fiber has excellent abrasion resistance and recovery properties, making it suitable for use in the cleaning element 100.

The threads 121 constituting the brush 120 may be made of conductive fibers such as carbon fibers or synthetic resin fibers mixed with carbon.
Static electricity does not easily accumulate in the conductive yarn, and dust scraped or wiped off by the brush 120 is prevented from adhering to the brush 120 due to static electricity. This makes it easier for dust scraped or wiped off by the brush 120 to be released from the brush 120 when it is sucked up with a vacuum cleaner, for example.

(2.3) Formation of the cleaning body When forming the cleaning body 100, first, the brush 120 is folded in half along the central part C of the short side with the thread 121 zigzag woven so that it folds back, and the folded ends are joined while being shifted in the longitudinal direction between a pair of clamping parts 112 of the base 110, and the base end on the holding thread 122 side is inserted, so that the base end of the brush 120 is clamped by the clamping parts 112.
In this state, for example, an industrial sewing machine (not shown) is used to sew the clamping portion 112 and the base end of the brush 120 including the holding thread 122 together with sewing thread 113, thereby joining the clamping portion 112 to the brush 120 at the portion where the holding thread 122 is located. This results in the cleaning element 100 shown in FIG. 5 .

(3) Action and Effect of Rotating Cleaning Body When using the vacuum cleaner, as shown in FIG. 2, when the vacuum cleaner is operated with the cleaner head 10 placed on the floor surface FL, the motor 17 is rotated and the air inside the partition plate 14 passes through the air suction port 15 and is sucked into the main body of the vacuum cleaner (not shown) via the connecting pipe 12 (see arrow S in the figure).

At this time, the rotating cleaning body 20 rotates counterclockwise in Figure 2 (the direction indicated by arrow R in Figure 2) in conjunction with the rotational drive of the motor 17, while the cleaning element 100 of the rotating cleaning body 20 comes into contact with the floor surface FL, and fibrous debris and dust on the floor surface FL are scraped off by the cleaning element 100 and sucked into the main body of the vacuum cleaner (not shown) together with air.

At this time, the rotating cleaning body 20 rotates in the direction of arrow R shown in Figure 4, and the tip of the brush 120 of the cleaning body 100 comes into contact with the floor surface FL, elastically deforming upstream in the rotation direction and causing part of the thread 121 of the brush 120 to come into contact.

If the floor surface FL is made of wood, the brush 120 can be used to sweep up dust on the floor, as well as fibrous debris such as hair and lint, which is then sucked into the air suction port 15.

When the floor surface FL is carpeted or matted, the brush 120 can be used to scrape away dust near the floor surface FL and pick up fibrous debris. At this time, some of the fibrous debris may not be sucked into the air suction port 15 and may wind around the rotating cleaning body 20. However, the brush 120 has threads 121 that extend in a continuous, arched shape, with the front surface 120A and back surface 120B of the arch crossing and overlapping at an angle in different directions. This reduces the gaps between the threads, making it difficult for scraped fibrous debris to penetrate into the brush 120, thereby preventing entanglement around the brush 120.

In addition, the brush 120 has threads 121 that extend in a continuous, arched shape, and the threads cross and overlap at an angle in different directions on the front surface 120A and the back surface 120B of the arch, making it possible to strengthen the stiffness of the threads 121 without connecting them themselves, thereby improving the dust pickup ability.
Furthermore, even if a relatively small thread 121 having a wire diameter of, for example, 0.1 mm is used, a certain level of pickup ability is maintained, and even if the tip of the brush 120 comes into contact with the floor surface FL, noise generation can be suppressed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configurations of the cleaning elements of the example and the comparative example, FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the results of the hair entanglement test, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the results of the pick-up test, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the results of the noise test.
The following describes performance evaluations of tangle prevention, pickup, and noise of examples that further embody the present embodiment, in comparison with comparative examples.

(Example)
The thread 121 is made of polyamide monofilament thread with a thickness of 0.09 mm, and extends in the longitudinal direction (X direction) in a continuous arch shape, with the front and back surfaces of the arch inclined at an angle in different directions, crossing and overlapping to form a brush 120 with a thread density of 480 F/cm, and a cleaning body 100 is produced in which, when used as a rotating cleaning body, the contact amount with the floor surface FL is 1.0 mm.
(Comparative Example 1)
A brush 130A was formed using a polyamide monofilament thread with a thickness of 0.2 mm, with the fibers raised to a thread density of 300 F/cm, and a cleaning body 100A was produced in which, when used as a rotating cleaning body, the contact amount with the floor surface FL is 0.5 mm.
In addition, a brush 130B was formed using carbon fiber with a thickness of 0.001 mm, with the fibers raised to a thread density of 60,000 F/cm, and a cleaning body 100B was produced in which, when used as a rotating cleaning body, the contact amount with the floor surface FL is 0.5 mm.
(Comparative Example 2)
A brush 130C was formed using a polyamide monofilament thread with a thickness of 0.2 mm, with the fibers raised to a thread density of 108 F/cm, and a cleaning body 100C was produced that, when used as a rotating cleaning body, has a contact amount with the floor surface FL of 0.5 mm.
Further, an extrusion blade 130D was formed using a thermoplastic elastomer, and a cleaning element 100D was manufactured in which, when made into a rotary cleaning element, the contact amount with the floor surface FL was 0.5 mm.
The cleaning elements of the example and comparative examples 1 to 4 were manufactured and mounted as rotary cleaning elements in a commercially available electric vacuum cleaner, and a hair entanglement test, a pick-up test, and a noise test were carried out.

Hair tangle test
The sample used as the fibrous cleaning material in the entanglement test was 100% hair, with a sample weight of 0.283±0.005 g and a sample length of 20-45 cm. The test area on the floor surface FL was a 303 mm x 1818 mm wooden flooring board, and the sample samples were randomly arranged on the board. The recovery rate after all samples were recovered was evaluated as the entanglement rate. Here, the entanglement rate was calculated as the number of hairs (g) remaining in the vacuum cleaner head 10 after the test / the number of hairs (g) before the test × 100 (%).

Figure 8 shows the results of the hair entanglement test. According to this, the evaluation results showed that the hair entanglement rate for the cleaning element 100 of the example was 0.1%, the hair entanglement rate for the cleaning elements 100A and 100B of comparative example 1 was 49.0%, and the hair entanglement rate for the cleaning elements 100C and 100D of comparative example 2 was 0.8%. In other words, it was confirmed that the cleaning element 100 of the example experienced almost no hair entanglement.

Pick-up test
The pickup test was conducted in accordance with JIS C 9108 (2017). Sample samples shown in FIG. 9( a) were randomly placed on a wooden floor board measuring 303 mm × 1818 mm as the floor surface FL, and the number of sample samples in the dust box of the vacuum cleaner after the test was measured to evaluate the pickup performance.

The results of the pickup test are shown in Figure 9(b), which shows that for silica sand (small particle size dust), the pickup rate was 95% or more, with no significant difference.
Regarding resin pellets (large particle size dust), the pick-up rate was 88.9% for the example, 93.6% for comparative example 1, and 91.0% for comparative example 2, resulting in a slightly lower pick-up rate for the examples. Regarding lint, tangling of lint occurred in comparative example 1.

"Noise test"
The noise test was conducted in accordance with JIS C 9108 (2017), in which the cleaning body was placed against a wooden flooring board as the test surface and moved back and forth twice, and the peak value of the generated noise (3500 Hz - 5000 Hz) was taken to evaluate noise and quietness.
The results of the noise test are shown in Figure 10. According to this, in the range of 3500 Hz to 5000 Hz, the Example produced the lowest noise, followed by Comparative Example 1, which produced the next lowest noise. Comparative Example 2 produced a high level of noise when the blade came into contact with the floor (wooden flooring).

In this embodiment, the thread 121 constituting the brush 120 is a polyamide or polypropylene filament thread having a diameter of 0.05 mm to 0.5 mm, but the diameter, material, and thread density of the thread 121 may be selected appropriately depending on the intended use of the cleaning element 100. For example, if low noise is required, the diameter may be set to, for example, 0.05 mm to increase the flexibility of the brush 120.
In addition, when sewing the clamping portion 112 of the base 110 and the base end of the brush 120 together, the angle of inclination of the arch can be adjusted by changing the amount by which the folded ends are shifted longitudinally, thereby allowing for fine adjustment of the amount of contact (nip amount) with the floor surface FL.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10: Cleaner head 20: Rotating cleaning body 21: Rotating body, 22: Groove portion 100: Cleaning body 110: Base, 111: Locking portion, 112: Clamping portion, 113: Sewing thread 120: Brush, 121: Thread, 122: Holding thread

Claims (4)

The base and
The yarn is folded in two along the center of the short side in a zigzag weave so that it folds back, and the folded ends are joined in a state where they are offset in the longitudinal direction, so that the brush extends continuously in an arch shape in the longitudinal direction of the base , and the brush is raised so that the front and back surfaces of the arch are inclined in different directions, crossing and overlapping without any gaps .
A cleaning body characterized by: The angle at which the arch is inclined is in the range of 15 degrees to 75 degrees with respect to the longitudinal direction of the cleaning body.
2. The cleaning element according to claim 1. The base end of the brush is clamped by the base in the longitudinal direction and fixed to the base by sewing.
3. The cleaning element according to claim 1 or 2 . a rotor having a groove formed on its outer circumferential surface;
The cleaning element according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the base is fitted into the groove and attached.
A rotating cleaning body characterized by: