Patent Application
20060164397
The present invention pertains to the art of appliances including laundry, dishwashing, cooking, and refrigeration appliances. More specifically, the present invention pertains to the incorporation of a membrane display overlay in appliances.
In an appliance, such as a clothes washer or dryer, it is necessary for a consumer to establish a certain operating cycle, as well as a desired operating time for the cycle. For example, in a washing machine, either before or after loading a tub of a machine with clothes to be laundered, the user must establish both a desired cycle and establish an operating time for the cycle. Typically, a rotatable control knob is provided with graphic symbols around the knob to signify different, selectable cycles.
For example, a conventional washing machine may incorporate a knob which can rotate through 360° for use in selecting between the washing of whites, delicates, or colors. The knob would have associated therewith an indicator which generally functions as a pointer to provide feedback of the selected operation to the user. The time needed to perform the selected operation depends on the positioning of a knob within a given cycle range. For example, the consumer can set the application to perform a light, normal or heavy washing operation, with each of these settings functioning to establish the length of time needed to perform the selected washing cycle. Additionally, the consumer could simply select a rinse mode, along with the time for the rinse mode.
In such a commonly known cycle and time setting arrangement utilizing a rotatable control knob, the knob can only be rotated in one direction. As the cycle for whites, delicates and colors are sequentially arranged about the knob, the knob often has to be rotated through a significant angular range to reach a desired position. In addition, since the knob can only be rotated in one direction, if the user even slightly over-rotates the knob, the user must then rotate the knob through slightly less than 360° to finally reach the desired setting. Obviously, this overall control setting arrangement is quite inefficient.
A similar rotatable control knob arrangement for use in selecting both cycle and operating times can also be found in many clothes dryers. That is, it is known to provide a rotatable knob on a clothes dryer wherein the knob is used to select both the drying cycle, generally based on the type of clothes article to be dried, and the drying time. Therefore, the same type of disadvantages discussed above with respect to the known washing machine control arrangements can also pertain to clothes dryers. In any event, there exists a need in the art of laundry appliances for an improved operating cycle and time setting control device wherein operation cycles and times can be easily and efficiently established.
Additionally, control knobs for washers and dryers in the prior art often incorporate a mechanical timer with the rotatable control knob such that it rotates through both the operation cycle and time settings. The control system may be improved upon by replacement of the mechanical timer with a rotary encoder which translates the position of the knob into a specific cycle selection and controls the cycle through a program executed by an intelligent controller.
A rotatable control knob arrangement provides feedback to the user often by including an arrow or marking on the outer rim of the knob that indicates the cycle and time position of the cycle (rinse, spin, off, etc.). The use of the rotary encoder does not typically use a mechanical timer and thus a display may be used to replace the traditional timer. The display may be an LED (light emitting diode) or other indicator light. Additionally, separate indicator lights may be used for the cycle selection and the time/mode setting.
Indicator lights have been used in the prior art but in most instances LEDs are attached to a control board and must be placed in line with light channeling or piping. The use of LEDs with light channels creates problems because the indicator lights must be inserted into the channels or aligned with light pipes. Additionally, this aligning creates a risk of board damage as board mounted LED's are more susceptible to breaking or bending during shipping or assembly. Furthermore, there is a concern for water entering the console through the light channel and creates a need for seal between a fascia of the control panel and the inserted light-channeling component. Therefore, an objective of the present invention is to utilize an improved indicator light arrangement such as one on a membrane overlay.
A further objective of the present invention is to eliminate unused indicator lights. With board mounted indicator lights, only some indicator lights would be used depending on the feature set and the unused indicator lights would be covered up with an overlay. Thus, an objective of the present invention is to provide only the required number of LED's for the specific model to therefore eliminate unused LED's.
Another problem associated with prior art laundry appliances is that service technicians do not have the ability to select special cycles necessary for troubleshooting the appliance. Therefore, an objective of the present invention is to include switches upon a membrane overlay that could activate special cycles such as continuous run, advertising mode, functional test, or to turn on diagnostic modes for service.
Another problem with the prior art is that it may require two control boards, one for the encoder and LED's and the other for the power and relay components, two control boards may be large in size. Therefore, an objective of the present invention is to reduce the board size and/or the need for two boards. This objective may be achieved by eliminating the LED's on the control board and all the required traces for the LED's from the encoder board and then combining the two boards into one.
Other similar problems may be readily identified with regards to dishwashing, cooking, and refrigeration appliances.
These and other objectives will become evident after review of the specification and drawings.
The foregoing objectives may be achieved using an appliance having a console, a control member attached to the console manually shiftable through a predetermined range of travel for selecting a desired cycle, a membrane overlay upon the console having at least one embedded light indicating the desired cycle. According to another feature of the present invention the control member may be a rotary encoder.
A further feature of the present invention is a fascia (i.e. front face) upon the console that is designed to have a hollow with a back face and side edge that receives the membrane overlay. The membrane overlay may be approximately flush with the console fascia and/or provide a water resistant seal with the fascia to prevent water from entering the hollow.
A further feature of the present invention is the positioning of the membrane overlay around the control member and/or adjacent the control member.
A further feature of the present invention is a variety of control members that may be used with the membrane overlay including the rotary encoder, a rotary mechanical switch, a slider switch, a button array, etc.
A further feature of the present invention is the provision of a control board that may receive a ribbon cable from the control member and/or the membrane overlay.
A further feature of the present invention is the inclusion of an intelligent controller that receives input from the control member and controls illumination of the indicator light.
A further feature of the present invention is at least one embedded switch within the membrane overlay that may activate special cycles (continuous run, advertising mode, functional test, diagnostic modes for service, etc.).
The foregoing objectives may also be achieved utilizing a console with a control member that is moveable to select a desired cycle and a membrane overlay upon the console having at least one embedded switch to activate a special cycle. The appliance may additionally have a plurality of embedded indicator lights that may be used to display a desired cycle and/or a cycle status.
The foregoing objectives may also be achieved with a method of assembling a console including fitting the membrane overlay into a hollow of the console and placing a ribbon cable leading from the membrane overlay upon the control board and fitting the rotary encoder within an opening of the membrane and placing a ribbon cable from the rotary encoder upon the control board.
With initial reference to
As shown, laundry appliance 10 includes an outer cabinet 12 provided with an access opening 14 that can be selectively closed by means of a pivotable lid 16. In a manner widely known in the art, the lid 16 can be raised providing access to a rotatable basket (not shown) within the cabinet 12, with clothes to be laundered being adapted to be placed in the basket. It should be understood that the lid or door 16 may optionally be on the front of the cabinet 12 as in the case of a front loading laundry appliance.
At a rear portion of cabinet 12 is arranged a control panel 18 that includes various control units which can be used to program the desired laundering operations for appliance 10. As seen in
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The switches 62 may reside underneath an outer skirt 64 of the knob 26 to be hidden from the consumer but providing easy access for a technician.
During assembly, the membrane overlay 28 is fit in the hollow 52. A front face of the membrane overlay 28 may be approximately flush (i.e. within the same plane) with the fascia 51 and form a water resistant seal with the fascia. The switch 34 is in alignment with the opening 60 such that it may receive the knob 26. Both the membrane overlay 28 and the switch 34 are then electrically connected to a control board 42 via respective ribbon cables 46 and 38.
Although described with respect to a preferred embodiment of the invention, it should be readily understood that various changes and/or modifications can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit thereof. For instance, although the knob 26 is depicted as a rotatable member, it may be a slide switch, a button array, a rotary controller, etc. Also, although the knob 26 is depicted within the center of the membrane overlay it may be off-centered. Additionally, although the member overlay is depicted surrounding a control member 26, it may surround only a portion of a control member or be off to the side of the control member. In addition, such a control member and member overlay arrangement could be employed for use in connection with other parameters needing to be set for the appliance 10 such as water level, extra rinse, wash/rinse temp, those more particularly associated with dishwashing, cooking, and refrigeration appliances, etc. In any event, the invention is only intended to be limited by the scope of the following claims.
