1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dust collecting apparatus, and more particularly, to a cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner, which allows air containing various dusts and foreign substances (hereinafter, called “dust”) to form a vortex current, thereby collecting the dust from the vortex current of air by centrifugal force.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a schematic example of a typical cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus for a vacuum cleaner.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus 100 for the vacuum cleaner generally comprises a cyclone body 10, a dust collecting container 20 and a grill 30.
The cyclone body 10 is provided with an air inlet port 11 and an air outlet port 12. The air inlet port 11 is formed at a side of the cyclone body 10 in a tangential direction, and the air outlet port 12 is formed at a center portion of an upper face of the cyclone body 10. Herein, when the cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus 100 is disposed in a dust chamber 230, the air inlet port 11 is connected to an air inlet path 210 which is disposed at a main body 200 of the vacuum cleaner so that an end of the air inlet path 210 is exposed to the dust chamber 230, and the air outlet port 12 is connected to an air outlet path 220 of the main body 200 of the vacuum cleaner. Therefore, the air introduced through a suction brush 300 and containing the dust is introduced through the air inlet path 210 of the main body 200 of the vacuum cleaner and the air inlet port 11 into the cyclone body 10 in the tangential direction. Thus, a vortex current of air is formed in the cyclone body 10, and the dust contained in the vortex current is separated by centrifugal force, and then the purified air is exhausted through the air outlet port 12, the air outlet path 220 of the main body 200 of the vacuum cleaner and a motor driving chamber 310.
The dust collecting container 20 is removably coupled to a lower portion of the cyclone body 10 so as to collect the dust separated from the air by the vortex current.
The grill 30 is disposed at an upstream portion of the air outlet port 12 in the cyclone body 10 so that the dust separated from the vortex current dose not flow backward through the air outlet port 12. The grill 30 is provided with a grill body 31 and a plurality of paths 32 formed at an outer surface of the grill body so as to be fluidly communicated with the air outlet port 12. Further, the grill 30 has a dust preventing member 33 disposed at a lower portion of the grill body 31.
The conventional cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus as described above is mounted in the dust chamber 230 of the main body 200 of the vacuum cleaner so that the air inlet port 11 and the air outlet port 12 of the cyclone body 10 are connected to the air inlet path 210 and the air outlet path 220 of the main body 200 of the vacuum cleaner.
When starting a cleaning operation, a suction force is generated at the suction brush 300 due to driving of a motor in the motor driving chamber 310. Then, the air containing the dust on a surface of an object to be cleaned is introduced through the suction brush 300, the air inlet path 210 and the air inlet port 11 into the cyclone body 10 due to the suction force. At this time, the introduced air is induced from the air inlet port 11 along an internal interference of the cyclone body 10 in an oblique direction, thereby forming the vortex current of air. Therefore, the dust contained in the air is separated by the centrifugal force and collected in the dust collecting container 20. Then, the purified air is exhausted through the path 32 of the grill 30, the air outlet port 12, the air outlet path 220 and the motor driving chamber 310 to the outside.
In the above mentioned cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus, the collecting and the preventing of the backflow of the dust separated from the vortex current are important factors that have great influence on a collecting efficiency. Therefore, there have been steady attempts and studies for efficiently collecting the dust and preventing of the backflow of the dust. However, it reaches a limit of the development due to a structure of the cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus.
That is, since the conventional cyclone-type dust collecting apparatus has a structure in which the dust collected in the dust collecting container 20 is ascended upward by an ascending air current reflected by a bottom surface of the dust collecting container 20, there are some problems that the collecting operation of the dust is inefficiently performed and also fine dust out of the ascending dust, which is smaller than a size of the path 32 of the grill 30, is exhausted through the path 32 of the grill 30 to the outside, thereby deteriorating the dust collecting efficiency.