CN-121987087-A - Dust collector comprising means for protecting brush driving motor

Abstract

A vacuum cleaner includes a suction head (5), the suction head (5) including a rotating brush (18), a brush drive motor (21), the brush drive motor (21) configured to drive the rotating brush (18) to rotate, a suction motor configured to generate an air flow through the suction head (5), and an electronic control unit configured to control a stop or hold operation of the brush drive motor (21) in accordance with a first parameter indicative of an intensity of an electric current applied to the brush drive motor (21) and a second parameter indicative of a suction flow of the air flow generated by the suction motor.

Inventors

• Anais Muliki
• Frederick Sith
• Chris Taylor Philip

Assignees

• SEB公司

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20251105

Priority Date

20241106

Claims (10)

1. 1. A vacuum cleaner (2) comprising: -a suction head (5), the suction head (5) comprising a base plate (14), the base plate (14) being provided with a lower surface (15) and a suction opening (16), the lower surface (15) being configured to be oriented towards a surface to be cleaned, the suction opening (16) opening into the lower surface (15) of the base plate (14), and external air being suctionable by the vacuum cleaner (2) through the suction opening (16), the suction head (5) further comprising a suction chamber (17) and a rotating brush (18), the suction chamber (17) being fluidly connected to the suction opening, the rotating brush (18) being located in the suction chamber (17) and being mounted to be rotationally movable about a rotation axis (a); -a rotational drive mechanism (20), the rotational drive mechanism (20) being configured to drive the rotational brush (18) in rotation about the rotational axis (a), the rotational drive mechanism (20) comprising a brush drive motor (21), the brush drive motor (21) being located in the suction head (5) and being rotationally coupled to the rotational brush (18); -a suction motor (12), the suction motor (12) being configured to generate an air flow through the suction port (16), the air flow having a suction flow rate, and the brush drive motor (21) being capable of being conductively cooled by at least a portion of the air flow; -an intensity measuring device (27), the intensity measuring device (27) being configured to measure an intensity (I) of a current applied to the brush drive motor (21), and -An electronic control unit (32), the electronic control unit (32) being configured to control the operation of the vacuum cleaner (2); Characterized in that the electronic control unit (32) is further configured to control the stopping or maintaining operation of the brush drive motor (21) in dependence of a first parameter indicative of the intensity (I) of the current applied to the brush drive motor (21) and a second parameter indicative of the suction flow of the air flow generated by the suction motor.
2. 2. The vacuum cleaner (2) of claim 1, wherein the electronic control unit (32) is configured to estimate the temperature of the brush drive motor (21) from the first and second parameters, and to control a stop of the brush drive motor (21) if the estimated temperature reaches or exceeds a temperature threshold.
3. 3. A vacuum cleaner (2) according to claim 2, wherein the temperature threshold is between 70 ℃ and 90 ℃.
4. 4. A vacuum cleaner (2) according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the electronic control unit (32) is configured to estimate the temperature of the brush drive motor (21) from the first parameter and the second parameter and based on a graph stored in the electronic control unit (32) and representing the evolution of the temperature of the brush drive motor (21) over time for different values of the first and second parameters.
5. 5. The vacuum cleaner (2) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the electronic control unit (32) is configured to continuously determine parameter pairs each comprising a value of the first parameter and a value of the second parameter, and to estimate the temperature of the brush drive motor (21) from the continuously determined parameter pairs.
6. 6. A vacuum cleaner (2) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein each value of the first parameter is calculated based on an intensity value measured by the intensity measuring device (27) during a respective predetermined period of time.
7. 7. A vacuum cleaner (2) according to claim 6, wherein each predetermined period of time is between 20ms and 1 s.
8. 8. A vacuum cleaner (2) according to claim 6 or 7, wherein each value of the first parameter is an average of intensity values measured during the respective predetermined period of time.
9. 9. The vacuum cleaner (2) according to any one of claims 6 to 8 in combination with claim 5, wherein the electronic control unit (32) is configured to determine, for each predetermined period of time, a pair of parameters comprising the value of the first parameter and the value of the second parameter determined for the predetermined period of time.
10. 10. The vacuum cleaner (2) according to claim 9, wherein the electronic control unit (32) is configured to estimate the temperature value of the brush drive motor (21) for each predetermined time period from a pair of parameters determined for the predetermined time period, a duration of the predetermined time period and a temperature value estimated for a previous predetermined time period and taking into account a graph stored in the electronic control unit (32).

Description

Dust collector comprising means for protecting brush driving motor Technical Field The present invention relates to the field of cleaners equipped with suction heads, also known as vacuum cleaner nozzles, which allow to suck dust and waste present on the surface to be cleaned. Background Suction heads are well known in the market place and allow cleaning of surfaces by suction to remove dust and waste that has fallen onto the surfaces. The surface to be sucked may for example be a hard floor, such as a tile floor, floor or laminate, or a soft floor, such as a mat or carpet. A suction head comprises in a known manner: -a head body comprising a sole plate provided with a lower surface and a suction opening leading to the lower surface of the sole plate, the lower surface of the sole plate being for positioning adjacent a surface to be sucked during use of the cleaner; A rotary brush which is accommodated in a receiving receptacle defined by the head body and which is rotationally movable about a rotational axis, and -A rotational drive mechanism configured to drive the rotational brush in rotation about a rotational axis, the rotational drive mechanism comprising a brush drive motor rotationally coupled to the rotational brush. Long-term operation of such a vacuum cleaner on thick and soft floors causes significant power consumption of the brush drive motor and thus a significant increase in the temperature of the brush drive motor. However, repeated or prolonged operation of the brush drive motor at high temperatures may compromise the integrity of the brush drive motor. In order to maintain the integrity of the brush drive motor, it is known to equip the brush drive motor with a measuring device configured to measure the intensity of the current applied to the brush drive motor and to control the stopping of the brush drive motor if the intensity of the current applied to the brush drive motor is greater than or equal to a first intensity threshold, for example equal to 3A, during a predetermined duration, for example during 5 seconds, or if the intensity of the current applied to the brush drive motor exceeds a second intensity threshold, which is greater than the first intensity threshold and which is for example equal to 5A. However, such a configuration of the above-described cleaner may cause a stop of the brush drive motor after only 5 seconds of cleaning a very thick carpet, and such a duration of operation may not itself compromise the integrity of the brush drive motor. Thus, the above-described specific configuration may cause wasteful repeated stopping of the brush driving motor, which impairs ergonomics of the above-described cleaner. Disclosure of Invention The present invention aims to overcome all or part of these disadvantages. The technical problem underlying the present invention is in particular to provide a vacuum cleaner which is simple, reliable and economical in construction, while avoiding repeated stops of the brush drive motor equipped with the vacuum cleaner. To this end, the invention relates to a vacuum cleaner comprising: -a suction head comprising a soleplate, the soleplate being provided with a lower surface configured to be oriented towards a surface to be cleaned and a suction opening which opens onto the lower surface of the soleplate and through which external air can be sucked by the vacuum cleaner, the suction head further comprising a suction chamber and a rotating brush, the suction chamber being fluidly connected to the suction opening, the rotating brush being located in the suction chamber and mounted for rotational movement about a rotational axis; -a rotational drive mechanism configured to drive the rotational brush in rotation about the rotational axis, the rotational drive mechanism comprising a brush drive motor located in the suction head and rotationally coupled to the rotational brush; -a suction motor configured to generate an air flow through the suction head, in particular through the suction port and the suction chamber, the air flow having a suction flow rate, and the brush drive motor being capable of being conductively cooled by at least a portion of the air flow; an intensity measuring device configured to measure an intensity of a current applied to the brush drive motor, and -An electronic control unit configured to control the operation of the vacuum cleaner, the electronic control unit being further configured to control the stopping or maintaining of the operation of the brush drive motor as a function of a first parameter representative of the intensity of the current applied to the brush drive motor and a second parameter representative of the suction flow of the air flow generated by the suction motor. This configuration of the electronic control unit allows to detect a long-term operation of the vacuum cleaner in an operation mode causing high consumption of electricity by the brush drive motor and thus a significant increase in the temper