Extractor with twin, counterrotating agitators

Abstract

An extractor is provided for cleaning carpet or a like surface or material. The extractor includes a housing, a handle, a cleaning liquid delivery system and a cleaning liquid recovery system. The cleaning liquid delivery system includes a cleaning liquid supply tank, first and second aligned agitators preferably in the form of brushes and a gravity feed or pump for delivering cleaning liquid from the supply tank for cleaning. The cleaning liquid recovery system includes a recovery nozzle, a vacuum generator and a dirty cleaning liquid recovery tank. The extractor is further characterized by a manifold for receiving cleaning liquid from the pump and directing the cleaning liquid into a nip defined between the first and second agitators. A drive assembly counterrotates the agitators so that relative rotation of the agitators in the nip is generally away from the manifold and toward the carpet to be cleaned. In accordance with the method of the present invention, cleaning liquid is delivered into the nip defined between the pair of counterrotating agitators. The cleaning liquid is thereby propelled by the counterrotating agitators through the nip deep into the carpet to be cleaned. This is followed by the recovering of the cleaning liquid.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.