Cleaning Tool for Floor Surfaces Having an Illumination Element for a Working Area

Abstract

A vacuum cleaning tool for a vacuum cleaning device has a housing with a working chamber that has a bottom plate provided with a suction slot extending transversely to a working direction of the vacuum cleaning tool. The housing has a housing front wall facing in the working direction. The housing front wall has a receptacle, and an illumination element is arranged in the receptacle for illuminating a working surface of the vacuum cleaning tool. A light-permeable cover closes off the receptacle and covers the illumination element. The illumination element is a cold light lamp emitting cold light.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] The invention relates to a cleaning tool for floor surfaces, upholstery surfaces or the like, in particular, a vacuum cleaning tool for vacuum cleaning devices such as a vacuum cleaner. The cleaning tool is comprised of a housing having a working chamber whose bottom plate comprises a suction slot that extends transversely to the working direction of the cleaning tool and is designed for taking up dirt. The cleaning tool further comprises a forwardly facing housing end wall provided with a receptacle for an illumination element for illuminating the surface to be cleaned, wherein the illumination element is arranged behind a light-permeable cover. [0002] Such a vacuum cleaning tool is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,618. This patent proposes to arrange a rod-shaped incandescent lamp at the housing end face of the cleaning tool for providing a sufficient illumination of the working area. The rod-shaped incandescent lamp is exposed to high mechanical...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0003] It is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning tool for floor surfaces with a working area illumination that, on the one hand, ensures a bright uniform illumination of the working area and, on the other hand, provides high mechanical load resistance.

[0005] The illumination element is a cold light lamp that emits cold light and therefore has only minimal heat development. In this way, it becomes possible to arrange the cold light lamp in a substantially closed housing so that soiling by means of dirt particles or dust particles entrained in the sucked-in vacuum flow is prevented. The cold light lamp is resistant to strong mechanical impacts because no filament is present. Despite of this, it provides a bright glistening light that ensures a uniform strong illumination of the working area.

[0007] In a preferred embodiment, the cold light lamp is arranged on a printed circuit board support and the printed circuit board support together with a casing and a cover that is advantageously embodied as a lens form a module. In this way, when mounting the lamp as well as in a maintenance situation, a simply exchange of the defective cold light lamp can be realized. For this purpose, the module is secured expediently by locking (snap) elements in the receptacle and the electrical connection is provided in particular by contact elements that extend expediently through the back wall of the receptacle and contact in the housing an electrical voltage connector. In this connection, the contact elements and the voltage connector are advantageously designed as a plug connection wherein one part of the plug connection is provided at the printed circuit board support and the other part of the plug connection is arranged behind the back wall in the housing. The illumination module is therefore secured mechanically safely within the receptacle of the housing by means of the snap connection as well as by means of the plug connection.

[0010] In a preferred embodiment, the bearing plate is comprised of an elastic material, preferably of a soft-elastic material, particularly rubber, so that the manufacturing and mounting tolerances can be compensated easily without this having an effect on the support action of the brush roller.

[0011] In order to ensure a safe securing action of the support plate in the bearing receptacle, it can be advantageous to match the bottom of the bearing receptacle to the circumferential geometry of the support plate. A simple electrical cable routing is achieved in that the vacuum connector is provided with a housing section through which an electrical connecting cable can be supplied. The connecting cable is in particular guided in the pivot axis of the vacuum connector for which purpose bearing pins of the vacuum connector are hollow, in particular, they are configured as tubular pins. The cable can thus be guided through the bearing pins directly into the housing or the motor chamber of the housing in order to be connected to a connector module.

Problems solved by technology

The rod-shaped incandescent lamp is exposed to high mechanical loads because it is provided on the end face of the housing that is exposed to mechanical loads by impact so that the lamp filament has the tendency to break.

In this connection, it cannot be prevented that the illumination body (incandescent lamp) will become soiled.

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