Patent 7140068 was granted and assigned to Bissell Homecare, Inc. on November, 2006 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A cyclone outlet assembly with a frusto-conical dirt blocking plate minimizes clogging at the outlet of the cyclone separator. An upright vacuum cleaner with a cyclone separator is mounted on and in fluid communication with an elongated rigid tube that forms part of a working air conduit and also forms part of an upright handle that is pivotally mounted to a base module with a suction nozzle upstream from a conventional bag filter in a dirty air or clean air dust collection vacuum cleaner.