Patent ID: 7665172

Claim:
A sweeper comprising: a foot housing that forms a dust bin cavity and an agitator aperture in a bottom portion of the foot housing and that opens toward the surface to be cleaned; a dust bin mounted in the dust bin cavity and having a dust bin inlet in communication with the agitator aperture; an agitator rotatably mounted to the foot housing and positioned at least partially in the agitator aperture to throw dirt from the surface to be cleaned into the dust bin through the dust bin inlet; a motor mounted in the foot housing and coupled to the agitator to rotate the agitator; and a clutch assembly mounted to the agitator and comprising: a pulley coupled to the motor for rotation therewith; a clutch coupled to the agitator for rotation therewith, the clutch and the pulley having complementary surfaces, wherein the complementary surfaces comprise ramped slip clutch surfaces; and a biasing member positioned between the clutch and the agitator to bias the clutch towards the pulley to mate the complementary surfaces whereby, during normal operation conditions, rotation of the pulley by the motor rotates the clutch and the agitator as the complementary surfaces of the pulley and the clutch mate and rotate together and, during conditions where rotation of the agitator is prevented, the surface of the clutch slips relative to the complementary surface of the pulley while the motor rotates the pulley, the pulley pushes the clutch against the bias of the biasing member, and the biasing member continues to bias the clutch towards the pulley.