Patent Application
20120124755
The present disclosure is directed toward a laundry appliance or washing machine including an integral basket and agitator assembly and, more specifically, to an appliance capable of oscillating and rotating the integral basket and agitator assembly in unison.
Prior domestic laundry appliances relied upon a shiftable member to selectively actuate oscillation/agitation of an agitator relative to the basket and rotation of the basket and agitator together to centrifugally extract water from the laundry items and basket. In a first position of the shiftable member, the agitator would oscillate/agitate to assist in cleaning laundry items or articles received in the basket. In a second position of the shiftable member, the basket and agitator would spin or rotate together to remove water from the basket and laundry items through openings or perforations in the wall of the basket. The washer typically employed a motor, a clutch, and a transmission to provide oscillation of the agitator in the basket at a relatively low speed. The agitator usually included a vane arrangement or sets of vanes spaced about the agitator to circulate or move the laundry items through the basket in a desired fashion (e.g., in a toroidal flow). When wash and rinse water after each wash and rinse cycle was to be removed from the tub, the motor, clutch, and transmission would then operate in a second mode at a high speed of rotation. The centrifugal force directed the water outwardly through the perforated basket and into a largely stationary outer tub where the water was collected and drained from the appliance.
As will be appreciated, the cost of the appliance can be significantly reduced if the coupling/decoupling mechanism of a typical washer can be eliminated. Coupling or locking the agitator and the basket together during the spin cycle and uncoupling these components to allow the agitator to oscillate relative to the basket in the agitator mode requires more complex, expensive drive arrangements.
This disclosure is directed to a washer which uses the basket to wash the clothes by moving the basket in an oscillatory manner with respect to the clothes, water, and detergent. This washer does not have a separate agitator. The basket provides the motion and scrubbing action to wash the clothes.
In one exemplary embodiment, the washer or laundry appliance includes a housing, a basket received in the housing, and an agitator integrally coupled to the basket. A drive assembly is operatively associated with the integrated agitator and the basket assembly for actuating movement of the integrated agitator and the basket assembly in unison.
The appliance further includes a drive mechanism for oscillatory movement of the basket. A controller selectively controls both a water supply to the basket, a drain pump, and activation of the drive mechanism. The controller is operative to control at least one of direction, movement, and duration of rotation of the basket.
An exemplary method of the present disclosure is directed toward a method of washing fabric-containing articles with a washer or laundry appliance containing a basket received in a housing. The method includes filling a basket with water, oscillating the basket and an integrally coupled agitator for a first duration, draining the water from the basket, and spinning the basket for a second duration to remove remaining water from the basket.
A primary benefit of the present disclosure relates to an assembly including an agitator integrally connected to a basket to eliminate repeated coupling and decoupling of the agitator component to and from the basket during wash cycles.
Another advantage associated with the present disclosure includes eliminating the various mechanisms and constructions required to repeatedly couple and decouple the agitator from the basket in known designs.
A further advantage associated with the disclosure is that wash performance, and more specifically turnover of the laundry items, is not adversely affected by moving the agitator and the basket in unison.
Yet another benefit resides in the reduced cost and complexity of the integrated agitator and basket assembly.
Still other benefits and advantages will be found upon reading and understanding the following detailed description.
The present disclosure is directed toward a laundry appliance, washing machine, or washer 10 capable of washing articles or laundry items such as fabrics, clothing, etc. One embodiment of the appliance 10 illustrated in
The basket assembly 14 further includes an agitator 28 extending from and integrally connected to the first wall 22, i.e., the agitator does not move relative to the bottom wall 22 or sidewall 24. The auger or screw feature 50 included on cap 52 that is received on the top of the agitator (
In one embodiment, at least one basket vane 46 protrudes generally radially inward from an inner surface of the sidewall 24 toward the centrally extending agitator 28. The basket vane 46 can take the form of a helical, continuous vane that wraps along an axial and circumferential extent of the inner surface of the sidewall 24. The basket vane 46 can alternatively take the form of a series of generally parallel vanes spaced apart along the inner surface of sidewall 24. The basket vane 46 may taper along its length (i.e., has an altering width and depth). More specifically, the width of the vane 46 (or fin) is preferably greatest toward the top, open end of the agitator/basket assembly and is reduced toward the bottom wall 22 of the basket. In this manner, the basket vane functions to urge articles downward toward a bottom of the cavity 26. In other embodiments, fins and vanes can take different shapes, thicknesses, and extend from different regions of the basket surface 20 so long as the same urging function is achieved.
The housing 12 further contains a drive mechanism 30. In the illustrated embodiment (
In the illustrated embodiment, the spoked driven pulley 38 is located in the housing in a region below the basket assembly 14. Hub 60 of the driven pulley is connected to elongated shaft 62 (
A standard inverter, identified by reference numeral 40 in
As noted, the agitator 28 is connected to the bottom wall 22 such that for all durations of a wash cycle, it cannot rotate or move relative to the bottom wall 22. Rather, the belt 36 of the drive assembly 30 imparts movement to the basket assembly 14 via the shaft 62 received in the agitator such that rotation of the basket 20 and the agitator 28 is always concurrent and in unison. In one embodiment, the basket 20 and the agitator 28 are integrally molded together during manufacture to form a one-piece, homogenous body. In another embodiment, the basket 20 and the agitator 28 can be manufactured as two or more separate components and the agitator 28 subsequently securely affixed to the basket 20 to form an integrated agitator/basket assembly 14.
The wash stage 202 starts with a first step including filling a basket with water s110. More specifically, the cavity of the basket is filled from an external water supply. A second step in the sequence includes oscillating the integrated agitator/basket assembly in alternating directions s112 for a first duration. The actions of oscillating the basket assembly s112 includes selectively activating the drive mechanism s114 by command of the controller. Imparting motion on the basket assembly is achieved by the drive mechanism s116. More specifically, the motion is imparted by the motor of the drive mechanism selectively driving the pulleys and shaft 62 in alternating directions s118. By way of example only, the oscillation step s112 includes alternating the direction s118 of the agitator/basket assembly approximately every second for a duration of approximately forty-five seconds.
A next step in the present method includes draining the water from the agitator/basket assembly s120. Water is drained from the agitator/basket assembly 14 through the plurality of drainage ports 48 included through the first or bottom wall 22. The drainage step s120 is followed by spinning (i/e/, rotating) the basket s122 for a second duration, which can be any time amount that functions to extract remaining water from the laundry items and the integrated agitator/basket assembly. The spinning step s122 includes rotating the basket and the integrally connected agitator in unison by driving the assembly in one direction.
After the water is removed from the integrated agitator/basket assembly in the spinning step s122, the rinse stage 204 initiates. The basket is refilled s126 with water until all the laundry articles contained in the agitator/basket assembly are preferably completely submerged or saturated. The next step in the sequence preferably includes oscillating the integrally coupled agitator/basket assembly in alternating directions s128 for a third duration. The action of oscillating the agitator/basket assembly s128 includes selectively activating the drive mechanism s130 by command of the controller which imparts oscillating motion on the basket assembly s132. More specifically, the motion is imparted by the motor of the drive mechanism selectively driving the pulleys and shaft 62 in alternating directions s134. In the preferred arrangement, this motion results from alternating directions of rotation of the pulleys s132 to achieve a general stroke profile, which includes alternating direction of the integrally coupled agitator/basket assembly 14
A next step in the present method includes draining the rinse water from the agitator/basket assembly s136. The rinse water is drained through the plurality of drainage ports 48 in the bottom wall 22 of the basket. The wash routine is concluded by spinning (i.e., rotating) the basket s138 for a fourth duration, which can be any time and speed combination that functions to remove the remaining rinse water from the basket. The spinning step s138 includes rotating the integrated agitator and basket in unison.
Although the method is illustrated and described herein in the form of a series of actions and stages, it will be appreciated that the various methods or processes of the present disclosure are not limited by the illustrated ordering of such actions or stages. In this regard, except as specifically provided hereinafter, some actions or stages may occur in different order, repeated, and/or concurrently with other actions or stages apart from those illustrated and described herein in accordance with the disclosure. It is further noted that not all illustrated actions may be required to implement a process or method in accordance with the present disclosure, and one or more such actions may be combined. The illustrated methods and other methods of the disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, or combinations thereof, in order to provide the control functionality described herein, and may be employed in any system including but not limited to the above illustrated appliance 10 wherein the disclosure is not limited to the specific applications and embodiments illustrated and described herein.
The disclosure has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. Obviously, modifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding detailed description. It is intended that the disclosure be construed as including all such modifications and alterations.
