Dust container for a vacuum cleaner
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing dust containers for vacuum cleaners are not optimized for efficient use with compact vacuum cleaners, which can lead to inefficient dust collection and potential damage due to incorrect installation.
Innovation Solution
A dust container with a connector plate featuring a central portion and an extending portion with lower bending stiffness, allowing for curved insertion into the vacuum cleaner holder, providing reliable sealing and efficient space utilization, and incorporating living hinges, material differences, or perforations to achieve the necessary flexibility.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the connector plate is made rigid to ensure reliable sealing, then sealing reliability is improved, but the ability to follow curved holder contours is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The connector plate is divided into two distinct portions: a central portion with high bending stiffness for reliable sealing, and an extending portion with low bending stiffness for following curved contours. This segmentation allows each part to fulfill its specific function without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the connector plate are given different mechanical properties. The central portion maintains high rigidity for sealing, while the extending portion has reduced rigidity for flexibility. This local differentiation of material properties resolves the contradiction between overall rigidity and local flexibility.
2Volume of moving object
If the holder is designed to follow the inner wall of the vacuum cleaner canister, then space utilization is improved, but the connector plate installation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The extending portion of the connector plate is designed to be dynamically flexible, allowing it to adapt to the curved holder contours during installation. This dynamic flexibility simplifies the installation process while maintaining the space-efficient curved holder design.
3Ease of operation
If the connector plate is made completely flexible to ease installation, then ease of installation is improved, but sealing reliability is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The connector plate is segmented into a rigid central portion for sealing and a flexible extending portion for ease of installation. This segmentation ensures that flexibility is provided only where needed for installation, while the sealing area maintains its rigidity.
Solution Approach 2:
The connector plate exhibits local quality differences in rigidity: the central portion remains rigid for reliable sealing, while the extending portion is made flexible to ease installation. This localized property distribution resolves the contradiction between overall flexibility and local rigidity.
Data Source
AI summary
A vacuum cleaner dust container having a dust bag, made of an air permeable material, and a connector plate, surrounding an opening in the dust bag. The connector plate is configured by the connector plate being slid into a holder of a vacuum cleaner to correctly position the opening therein. The connector plate has a central portion surrounding the opening, and an extending portion projecting from the central portion. The extending portion has a lower bending stiffness than the central portion about an axis perpendicular to the direction in which it is inserted. Thereby extending portion can be bent out of the plane of the central portion and into a curvature without bending the central portion, which facilitates fitting the connector plate in a vacuum cleaner canister with curved inner walls.