Segmented Sealing Lip for Vacuum Suction to Improve Dust Mobilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing suction mechanisms in vacuum cleaners, particularly in robotic vacuum cleaners, face challenges in effectively mobilizing and removing dust particles from high-pile floor coverings due to the negative influence of sealing lips on suction flow, which fail to engage properly with uneven or rough surfaces, leading to reduced cleaning performance.
Innovation Solution
A suction mechanism with a sealing lip that has incisions dividing it into segments, allowing for adaptation to specific floor characteristics, enabling deep engagement and maintaining open-flow characteristics to enhance dust mobilization and removal, featuring incisions that are strategically designed to ensure flexibility and permeability for effective dust collection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a sealing lip is arranged between the suction opening and brush roller to engage with floor covering fibers, then dust mobilization from deep layers is improved, but suction flow is interrupted and dust removal through the suction opening is prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing lip is divided into multiple sealing segments arranged side by side, creating gaps between them. This segmentation allows the sealing lip to engage with floor covering fibers for dust mobilization while the gaps maintain suction flow continuity, preventing complete flow interruption.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the sealing lip structure serve different functions: the sealing segments engage with the floor covering to mobilize dust, while the gaps between segments allow suction flow to pass through. This local differentiation of function resolves the contradiction between sealing and flow maintenance.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If flow-open segments are introduced in the sealing lip to maintain suction flow, then dust removal through the suction opening is improved, but engagement with floor covering fibers is reduced and dust mobilization is significantly reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing lip is segmented into multiple sealing segments with controlled gaps between them. This segmentation provides both engagement capability with floor fibers and flow passage, resolving the trade-off between complete sealing and complete flow openness.
Solution Approach 2:
The width of the sealing segments and gaps is optimized to specific parameter ranges. The sealing segments are wide enough to engage with floor covering fibers but narrow enough to allow sufficient flow through the gaps, balancing engagement and flow requirements.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If a profiled surface is used on flexible lips to increase permeability, then dust removal is improved, but adaptation to specific floor surface characteristics is lost and cleaning performance on uneven surfaces is unsatisfactory
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing lip is divided into multiple independent sealing segments that can move and adapt individually to floor surface variations. This segmentation provides both permeability for dust removal and adaptability to uneven surfaces, unlike rigid profiled surfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing segments are designed to be flexible and capable of independent movement, allowing the sealing lip structure to dynamically adapt to different floor surface characteristics while maintaining dust removal capability through the gaps between segments.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The segmented sealing lip design significantly increases dust mobilization and removal by ensuring deep engagement with floor fibers and maintaining open-flow characteristics, even on uneven surfaces, thereby improving cleaning performance on high-pile floor coverings with low blower output.
Implementation Method 1
The particles mechanically loosened by the brush roller are transported away through the suction air flow through the incisions in the sealing lip to the suction opening (12)
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~6
AI summary
The invention relates to a suction unit, particularly for vacuum cleaners, comprising a suction opening, a brush roller arranged in front of the suction opening, and a sealing lip arranged between the suction opening and the brush roller. The present invention further relates to a robotic vacuum cleaner with such a suction unit.