The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 21, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 19, 1998
Michael L Loveless, Price, UT (US);
Colleen G Loveless, Price, UT (US);
Other;
Abstract
A wet and dry vacuum that includes a housing that is open across its top end and is arranged to be covered by a removable lid wherein is mounted a vacuum source. The housing includes an inlet port to receive a vacuum hose connected therein to pull in wet or dry materials and is formed to direct such materials towards the housing inner wall, which inlet port enters the housing above a filter system that is a lower portion of an intermediate cover that connects to the lid undersurface, which intermediate cover includes an opening into the filter cage that functions as a valve seat. The filter system includes a float ball contained in a cage to float on water as is pulled into the housing during wet operations, with the float ball, when a liquid level of a certain height is present in the housing, is pulled by the vacuum source into the open seat, closing off an air flow pulled though the housing. The cage and ball are located upstream from a filter system that include primary and secondary filters with the cage formed from spaced apart vertical members that include water deflection structures secured to each rib outer surface that are, respectively, one or more straight vertical baffles or a straight vertical groove, that engage to separate water in a vacuum flow prior to its passage through the cage, and with the structure of the inlet port and including straight vertical ribs secured at spaced vertical intervals to a housing inner surface to direct water as is passed into the housing away from the cage and ball, prohibiting water from being pulled through the cage and ball into the intermediate housing as could wet the filters. This arrangement allows for the use of a same fabric material as is suitable for use in a dry vacuum for forming both the primary and secondary filters. Draining of the housing is provided through a drain assembly arranged in the housing wall that is operated to pass a controlled volume of flow that is a half tubular drain section formed in the housing bottom to drain through a valve in the housing wall.