Cleaning appliance
AssigneeDyson Technology Limited
InventorsChristopher Graham Vincent, Robert Lawrence Tweedie, Jason Godfrey Jones, Robert Stefan Wronski, Philip Stephen Darling, Edward Michael Waugh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A pump assembly for a dental cleaning appliance includes a fluid chamber, a piston, and a drive. Magnets, connected respectively to the piston and the drive, enable the drive to couple to the piston and move it within the fluid chamber to draw fluid into the fluid chamber. A stop prevents the piston from being pulled beyond a stop position so that through continued actuation of the drive the magnets separate to allow a spring to push the piston away from the stop position to urge a burst of fluid from the fluid chamber.
Claims19
A pump assembly for a dental cleaning appliance, the pump assembly comprising:
- a positive displacement pump comprising a fluid chamber having a fluid inlet connectable to a source of fluid, a fluid outlet, and a fluid displacement member;
- a drive for actuating the positive displacement pump to move the fluid displacement member relative to the fluid chamber along a first linear path to draw fluid into the fluid chamber through the fluid inlet;
- an energy storer that converts kinetic energy generated during actuation of the positive displacement pump by the drive into potential energy, and stores the potential energy;
- a first coupling member connected to the fluid displacement member so that the first coupling member moves with the fluid displacement member and a second coupling member connected to the drive, the coupling members coupling together to enable the drive to actuate the positive displacement pump to draw fluid into the fluid chamber, and
- a decoupler for decoupling the coupling members to enable the energy storer to use stored potential energy to actuate the positive displacement pump in reverse to urge a burst of fluid from the fluid chamber through the fluid outlet;
- wherein the drive is configured to move the second coupling member reciprocally along a second linear path which is co-axially aligned with the first linear path;
- wherein the drive comprises a motor;
- wherein the coupling members couple magnetically;
- and wherein the decoupler is configered to decouple the coupling members so that the coupling members are spaced apart.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.