A domestic sweepers is known as a surface cleaning apparatus which cleans the surface such as hard floor or carpet by means of a rotating brush bar. When the domestic sweeper is under normal use, the brush bar rotates and contacts the surface being cleaned, thus the dust or debris on the cleaning surface can be collected. The rotating brush bar is generally driven by friction means or electric means. The friction driven sweepers have at least one friction activator which contacts with the cleaning surface. A friction means sweeper is known, for example, from GB 1488852, in which a rotatable brush of the carpet sweeper is driven by drive means from a drive wheel. When the sweeper moves forward or backward, a friction activator engages with the cleaning surface, thereafter the brush bar rotates to clean the surface. A problem with this type of sweeper is that the sweeping power is highly dependent on the frictional force which is generated between the friction activator and the cleaning surface. The result is that the sweeping power decreases as the frictional force is reduced or the brush roller stops when there is no friction.
An improved sweeper is known, for example, from GB 1442587, and uses electricity to drive the brush bar by a motor. The major improvement is that the electricity driven sweeper can work on any surface independently of friction between the cleaning surfaces. In addition, the sweeping power can be increased easily by adjusting the motor speed. The motor is powered either by mains electricity supply or battery pack, which may be rechargeable. When the sweeper is powered by mains electricity supply, runtime can be relatively long, but the sweeping area is restricted by the power supply connection. In the purpose of increasing the mobility of sweeper, most of the portable sweepers use a rechargeable battery pack instead of mains electricity supply as the power source.
Most known sweepers provide handle means such that a user can control the movement of the sweeper through the handle means. The handle means typically connect with the main housing of a sweeper with a joint, which allows the user to control the sweeping movement manually. The distance between the handle means and the main housing is predetermined by the manufacturers or users in according to the cleaning purpose.
Generally, both friction means and electric means sweepers contain at least one dirt container, which functions to collect dust and debris when the sweeper is under normal use. The dirt container may be embodied as dust chamber or dirt tray, which is generally located inside the housing or forms as a portion of housing. When the sweeper is operating, dirt is generally collected nearby the brush bar. Therefore, the most efficient dirt tray location of sweeper is normally adjacent to the brush bar. For example, sweepers as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,775 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,012 are both equipped with a dirt tray adjacent to the brush bar in order to collect swept materials.
The second function of a dirt tray is to facilitate emptying of dirt from the sweeper. It is essential that the design of the dirt tray allows user to empty the swept materials, otherwise, the newly collected dust may leak out when the dirt tray is filled. For some historical sweepers, in order to reduce the manufacturing cost, the housing is used as the dirt tray for collecting. However, once this kind of dirt collector is filled, the whole sweeper needed to be cleaned, which is very inconvenient for the user.
The known dirt trays for sweepers, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 1,442,587 are designed to be movable or removable to extend the freedom of cleaning for the dirt tray. The drawback of this type is that user usually needs to contact the dirt tray by their hand in order to move or remove the dirt tray. The dirt may thus smear users hands, and thereafter cause hygiene problems. Furthermore, some moveable or removable dirt tray that are similar to U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,332, do not have any cover intended to seal the dirt collected therein, and thus dirt may spread and be dispersed around the surrounding area. It is undesirable that the typical dirt collector in sweeper always brings lots of functional problems and hygienic problems.
In accordance with the present invention of a dirt tray and designated dirt collector removal method, it intended to provide a more convenient and hygienic means to empty and clean the dirt tray.