This invention relates to a dishwasher comprising a wash cabinet having a bottom, two opposite side walls, an upper and a rear wall and an opening that normally is covered by a front door the dishwasher being provided with at least one lower basket for the dish being cleaned, said basket being movable between a first position inside the cabinet and a second position mainly outside the cabinet, the dishwasher at each side of the opening being provided with a support arranged to move mainly vertically in or close to the side walls for raising the lower basket from a lower to an upper position and vice versa
Household dishwashers of the floor standing type having means for lifting the lower basket in order to make it easier to load or unload the basket are previously known in the art. The major part of such known devices are provided with torque link arrangements, see for instance U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,822, arrangements for lifting the door together with the basket, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,510,858, or manually operated swing arm systems, see JP 10-179495. These arrangements have however proved to be unsatisfactory with regard to stability and safety and moreover the arrangements are rather complicated and hence expensive. It is also previously known to provide a dishwasher with a height adjustment mechanism for an intermediate basket that is placed between a lower and an upper basket, see US 2003/0042825. This mechanism is provided with means at each side for supporting the guide rails on which the basket rests. The arrangement is primarily intended for adjusting the space above or below the intermediate basket in order to make it possible to wash details having different sizes and the arrangement has a limited vertical movement possibility.
The purpose of this invention is to create an ergonomic lifting arrangement for a lower dishwasher basket making it possible for the operator to easily pick out the dish from the basket without the need for bending his back. An additional purpose is to create an arrangement that is stable and safe to use as well as simple and reliable. This is achieved by means of an arrangement having the characteristics mentioned in the claims.
An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings on which
As appears from
The lower basket 13 which is prowided with several rolls 14 can be pulled out from the cabinet 10 by the operator such that the wheels are guided in elongated recesses 15 arranged on the inner side of the door 12 when the door is in a folded down, mainly horizontal position. The lower basket 13 is at its innermost end and at each side provided with a U-shaped catch portion 16 the purpose of which will be explained below.
Each side walls 11 is at its front part provided with a C-shaped rail 17 extending almost from the bottom of the cabinet to its top and in which a slider 18 is guided for vertical motion. The slider can be raised and lowered by means of a wire 19 that via pulleys (not shown) mounted in the side walls are connected to a an electric motor (not shown) that can be activated by a control means 20. At each end of at least one of the rails 17 there is a switch (not shown) stopping the upwards or downwards movement of the slider 18. The slider 18 is at its front side provided with a support such as spring loaded arm 21 that can be turned about an axis 22 and having a hook 23. The arm can be turned from an upright position, see the lower part of
The dishwasher is further provided with two wires 25 each having one end secured to one of the sliders 18 whereas the other end is secured to a spring (not shown) arranged within the door 12. The wires 25 run freely through an aperture 26 at the side edges of the door 12 and are under the influence of the spring but the pull out motion of the wires from the door is restricted by a separate stop member (not shown), secured to the wire inside the door, or the spring and engaging the door wall when the wires have been pulled out to their end positions.
The arrangement operates in the following manner. When picking out the dish from the lower basket the operator pulls out the lower basket 13 from the cabinet 10 and the rolls 14 are thus running in the elongated recesses 15 on the door 12. Then the operator pushes the control means 20 such that the electric motor of the winding arrangement is started which means that the wires 19 simultaneously lift the sliders 18 from their lower position illustrated in the bottom of
Simultaneously the wires 25 are gradually pulled out from the door 12 through the aperture depending on the wire interconnection with the sliders 18 until the stop member on the wire engages the inside wall of the door. Then the door starts to turn upwards at the same time as the front rollers 14 start to roll upwards in the recesses 15. Thus, continued raising of the sliders 18 means that the basket is gradually lifted. When the sliders reach the upper position of the rails the switches will stop the electric motor and hence the basket will now be in a lifted up position such that it is easy to pick out the dish. Lowering the basket will talce place in the reverse order after activating the control means 20.
Instead of supporting the basket at the front side by the door and at the rear side by the support arms it is also possible to use solely one support arm at each side of the basket. These support arms could for instance be hidden in the side walls of the dishwasher when not being activated and be folded out when being activated such that they come into engagement with the basket and lift the basket to an upper position.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0401122-7 | Apr 2004 | SE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/SE2005/000515 | 4/7/2005 | WO | 00 | 9/22/2008 |