Liquid pick-up appliances for use in surface cleaning or drying

摘要

An appliance for picking up liquid comprising a suction head (50) which entrains the liquid in an air flow from said head to an air/liquid separator (200) and a collection container (350) for receiving liquid from said separator. The air/liquid separator (200) comprises an annular duct (I) formed by an intake chamber (210) having a substantially tangential (212) inlet from said suction head (50) in a circumferential wall (211) of the chamber (210). An annular outlet (260) opens in the axial direction relative to said circumferential wall (211) and a frusto-conical deflector (230) is axially spaced from said intake chamber (210) and in register with said annular outlet (260). An annular collection surface (312) is spaced radially outwardly from said deflector (230). An inner duct (II) forming a central suction passageway communicates between the space within said deflector (230) and a source of suction (100). The arrangement is such that air flow with entrained liquid therein enters the intake chamber (210) through the inlet (212) and is initially constrained into a circumferential flow with an axial component through the annular outlet (260) and towards the deflector (230) which imparts a radially outward component over the deflector whereby entrained droplets are thrown by centrifugal action onto the collection surface (312), the air being drawn inwardly around the periphery of the deflector (230) and into the central suction passageway.