Patent ID: 7673369

Claim:
A floor cleaning apparatus, comprising: a housing; a dirt collection vessel held in said housing, said dirt collection vessel including a dirty air inlet, a clean air inlet, a dirt collection chamber and a clean air outlet; a filter received in said dirt collection vessel, said filter including multiple sections, each section providing a discrete airflow pathway; a suction generator carried on said housing; and a flow control valve assembly, said flow control valve assembly being selectively displaceable between (a) a first position wherein dirty air is serially moved by said suction generator through said dirty air inlet, said dirt collection chamber, said filter and said clean air outlet whereby dirt is collected in said dirt collection chamber and (b) a second position wherein clean air is moved by said suction generator through said clean air inlet, a selected one of said sections of said filter, back through other of said sections of said filter and then said clean air outlet whereby dirt is cleaned from said selected section of said filter; said flow control valve assembly further including (a) a first flow valve for selectively opening and closing said clean air inlet, (b) a second flow valve for selectively closing and opening said dirty air inlet, (c) a first valve cam, (d) an air guide, (e) a second valve cam on said air guide, (f) a first cam follower on said first flow valve and (g) a second cam follower connected to said second flow valve.