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:
Mar. 09, 2010
Filed:
Jul. 22, 2005
Nathan A. Gogel, Hustonville, KY (US);
Yasushi Kondo, Wade-Gun, JP;
Donald E. Proffitt, Richmond, KY (US);
Nathan A. Gogel, Hustonville, KY (US);
Yasushi Kondo, Wade-Gun, JP;
Donald E. Proffitt, Richmond, KY (US);
Panasonic Corporation of North America, Secaucus, NJ (US);
Abstract
A floor cleaning apparatus includes a dirt collection vessel and a suction generator carried on the housing. The dirt collection vessel includes a dirty air inlet, a dirt collection chamber and a clean air outlet. A filter is received in the dirt collection vessel. The filter includes multiple sections. Each section provides a discrete airflow pathway. In addition, the floor cleaning apparatus includes a flow control valve assembly including a clean air inlet. The flow control valve assembly is selectively displaceable between two positions. In the first position dirty air is serially moved by the suction generator through the dirty air inlet, the dirt collection chamber, the filter and the clean air outlet so that dirt is collected in the dirt collection chamber. In the second position clean air is moved by the suction generator through the clean air inlet, a selected one of the sections of the filter, back through the other sections of the filter and then through the clean air outlet. In this way dirt is cleaned from the selected filter of the filter.