Patent Application
20170342643
This application claims priority to and benefits of Chinese Patent Application Serial No. 201620517104.4 and Chinese Patent Application Serial No. 201610377460.5, filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of P. R. China on May 31, 2016, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a technical field of a washing machine, and particularly to a clothes dryer or washer-dryer.
In the related art, a clothes dryer or washer-dryer has a separated type heat pump drying system, that is a compressor and both of an evaporator and a condenser are arranged at an upper portion and a lower portion of a cabinet respectively and connected through pipes. The clothes dryer or washer-dryer having the above arrangement is complex in structure, hard to assemble and disassemble, and is disadvantageous to production and maintenance.
The present disclosure seeks to solve at least one of the problems existing in the related art to at least some extent. Therefore, the present disclosure provides a clothes dryer or washer-dryer having an integral heat pump module mounted to a cabinet, and the clothes dryer or washer-dryer is simple in structure, convenient to assemble and disassemble, and low in costs of production and maintenance.
The clothes dryer or washer-dryer according to embodiments of the present disclosure includes: a cabinet; an inner drum rotatably disposed in the cabinet and having an air inlet and an air outlet; and a heat pump module disposed to an upper end of the cabinet and including: a casing connected with the cabinet and defining a heat exchange chamber therein, the heat exchange chamber having a heat exchange inlet and a heat exchange outlet; a condenser disposed in the heat exchange chamber, a compressor disposed to the casing; an evaporator disposed to the casing; a throttling device disposed to the casing and sequentially connected with the condenser, the compressor and the evaporator to form a heat pump circuit; and a fan assembly disposed to the casing and having an inlet and an outlet, the inlet communicating with the heat exchange outlet, and the outlet communicating with the air inlet.
In the clothes dryer or washer-dryer according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the condenser, the compressor, the evaporator, the throttling device and the fan assembly and the like are disposed to the casing, and the casing is connected with the cabinet, such that the heat pump module can be integrally mounted to the cabinet. The clothes dryer or washer-dryer is simple and compact in structure, convenient to assemble and disassemble, and low in costs of production and maintenance.
In addition, the clothes dryer or washer-dryer according to embodiments of the present disclosure further may have the following additional features:
According to some embodiments, the heat pump module may further include a filter, the filter is disposed to the casing and has a filtering inlet and a filtering outlet, the filtering inlet communicates with the air outlet, and the filtering outlet communicates with the heat exchange inlet.
According to some embodiments, the cabinet has an upper end face configured as an annular supporting face, and the casing has a lower surface provided with a supporting fitting face which is be supported on the annular supporting face.
Optionally, the casing is fixedly connected with the cabinet through a threaded fastener.
Optionally, the supporting fitting face is provided with a supporting groove recessed upwards, and at least a portion of the annular supporting face is inserted in the supporting groove.
Optionally, an upper end of a front surface of the cabinet is provided with a control panel, the control panel has a control region for controlling the clothes dryer or washer-dryer to operate, and the control panel extends upwards beyond the upper end face of the cabinet, abuts against and shields the casing.
According to some embodiments, the heat pump module further includes a damping device, and the damping device is disposed on the compressor.
According to some embodiments, the casing is detachably connected with the cabinet.
According to some embodiments, the casing includes: a base disposed on the cabinet, the condenser, the compressor, the evaporator, the throttling device and the fan assembly being disposed to the base, at least one of the condenser, the compressor, the evaporator, the throttling device and the fan assembly being supported on the base, and an outlet end of the fan assembly stretching downwards out of the base and being connected with the inner drum through an air intake pipe; and a cover body covering on the base and shielding at least one of the compressor, the evaporator, the throttling device and the fan assembly.
Optionally, the clothes dryer or washer-dryer further includes an outer cover, the outer cover detachably covers on the casing, and the cover body is detachably connected with the base.
Additional aspects and advantages of embodiments of present disclosure will be given in part in the following descriptions, become apparent in part from the following descriptions, or be learned from the practice of the embodiments of the present disclosure.
Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail and examples of the embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings. The embodiments described herein with reference to drawings are explanatory, which are used to illustrate the present disclosure, but shall not be construed to limit the present disclosure.
In the following, a clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 according to the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to
As shown in
Specifically, the casing 1 may be connected with the cabinet 100 and define a heat exchange chamber 10a, the condenser 2 may be disposed in the heat exchange chamber 10a that has a heat exchange inlet and a heat exchange outlet, the heat exchange outlet communicates with the air inlet, and air after heat exchange in the heat exchange chamber 10a may flow out through the heat exchange outlet and enter the inner drum through the air inlet. The compressor 3, the evaporator 4 and the throttling device 5 may be disposed to the casing 1, and the throttling device 5 is sequentially connected with the condenser 2, the compressor 3 and the evaporator 4 to form a heat pump circuit. A refrigerant may flow in the heat pump circuit and exchange heat with air in the heat exchange chamber 10a, such that the heat pump circuit can provide heat energy for drying the clothes in the inner drum. The condenser 2, the compressor 3, the evaporator 4 and the throttling device 5 may be connected together through connecting pipes.
When the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 works, first the clothes to be washed is washed in the inner drum 200, then the heat pump module 300 starts working, and the fan assembly 6 transports hot air generated after heat exchange into the inner drum 200 to dry the clothes. Specifically, the compressor 3 starts working to compress the refrigerant, a high-pressure refrigerant compressed by the compressor 3 is discharged from the compressor 3, flows into the condenser 2 through the connecting pipes and emits heat in the condenser 2 to raise a temperature of the air in the heat exchange chamber 10a, and the high-temperature high-pressure refrigerant is converted into a medium-temperature high-pressure refrigerant at the same time. High-temperature air in the heat exchange chamber 10a can flow out through the heat exchange outlet and flow into the inner drum 200 through the air inlet to dry the clothes in the inner drum 200.
Then the refrigerant flows out of the condenser 2 and flows into the throttling device 5 to be throttled and depressurized, the medium-temperature high-pressure refrigerant is throttled and depressurized to become a low-temperature low-pressure refrigerant which flows to the evaporator 4, and absorbs heat in the evaporator 4 to be vaporized. Finally, the refrigerant flows back to the compressor 3 to accomplish a circulation so as to dry the clothes.
In a drying process, the fan assembly 6 may accelerate flowing of the high-temperature air, such that the high-temperature air flowing out through the heat exchange outlet may quickly flow into the inner drum 200 through the air inlet, thus raising a drying speed.
In the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the condenser 2, the compressor 3, the evaporator 4, the throttling device 5 and the fan assembly 6 are disposed to the casing 1, and the casing 1 is connected with the cabinet 100, thereby integrally mounting the heat pump module 300 to the cabinet 100, so the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 is simple and compact in structure, convenient to assemble and disassemble, low in the costs of production and maintenance, and good in drying effect.
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In some embodiments, the supporting fitting face 100B may be provided with a supporting groove recessed upwards, and at least a portion of the annular supporting face is inserted in the supporting groove, to position the annular upper end face 10 and the supporting fitting face 100B, thus preventing malposition during assembling.
In some embodiments, the casing 1 is detachably connected with the cabinet 100, thus provide convenient assembling, disassembling and maintenance.
Optionally, the casing 1 is fixedly connected with the cabinet 100 through a threaded fastener. Specifically, the casing 1 is provided with a first mounting hole, the cabinet 100 may be provided with a second mounting hole for fitting with the threaded fastener, and the threaded fastener may pass through the first mounting hole and be fitted in the second mounting hole to fixedly connect the casing 1 and the cabinet 100, thus providing reliable positioning and connection, a high assembling efficiency with low mounting difficulty and a reduced cost, and facilitating processing and manufacturing.
According to some embodiment of the present disclosure, as shown in
Optionally, the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 may include an outer cover (not shown in figures), the outer cover may be detachably disposed to the casing 1 to protect the casing 1 and other components, and the outer cover may make the appearance of the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 better.
In the following, a specific structure of the heat pump module 300 is described with reference to drawings.
Referring to
According to some embodiments, the heat pump module 300 may further include a filter 7. As shown in
In order to reduce vibration, the heat pump module 300 may further include a damping device 8. As shown in
As shown in
In the following, the casing 1 of the heat pump module 300 in the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 according to the embodiments of the present disclosure is described with reference to the drawings.
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
For example, in an example shown in
Specifically, the cover body 12 may cooperate with the base 11 to define the heat exchange chamber 10a and the at least one mounting chamber, the condenser 2 may be mounted in the heat exchange chamber 10a, and at least one of the compressor 3, the evaporator 4, the throttling device 5 and the fan assembly 6 may be disposed in the corresponding at least one mounting chamber to improve stability during mounting.
As shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
Optionally, as shown in
Further, as shown in
As shown in
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
In a selectable embodiment, the base 11 may be connected with a cover plate through threaded fasteners, thus detachably mounting the base 11 and the cover plate, and providing a simple structure and convenient dismounting and mounting. Optionally, as shown in
In the following, a manner of positioning the condenser 2 and the evaporator 4 to the casing 1 in the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 according to the embodiments of the present disclosure is described with reference to
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, at least one of the heat exchange chamber 10a and the evaporator mounting chamber 102b may be provided with a slot 112, and at least one of the evaporator 4 and the condenser 2 may be provided with an inserting tongue 113 for inserting into the corresponding slot 112. The inserting tongue 113 is fitted in the slot 112 to position the condenser 2 and the evaporator 4 into the heat exchange chamber 10a or the evaporator mounting chamber 102b. On the one hand, the condenser 2 and the evaporator 4 can be positioned to prevent malposition caused by waggle during transportation; one the other hand, vibration generated during usage of the condenser 2 and the evaporator 4 can be reduced, thus improving stability and reducing noise.
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, referring to
Optionally, the heat exchanger and/or the evaporator 4 may be rectangular in shape, and two nonadjacent corners of the condenser 2 and/or those of the evaporator 4 may be individually provided with the inserting tongue 113, to position the condenser 2 or the evaporator 4 in the heat exchange chamber 10a or the evaporator mounting chamber 102b through cooperation between two slots 112 and two inserting tongues 113.
Preferably, as shown in
In some embodiments, the condenser 2 and/or the evaporator 4 may be rectangular in shape, and two ends of the condenser 2 and/or those of the evaporator 4 may be individually provided with an edge plate 13. The edge plate 13 may include a vertical plate segment 131 having at least one end extending outwards beyond the condenser 2 and/or the evaporator 4 to form the inserting tongue 113, which is simple in structure and convenient to process.
For example, as shown in
Similarly, the evaporator 4 is rectangular in shape, and the two ends of the evaporator 4 are individually provided with the edge plate 13 including the vertical plate segment 131, two ends of the vertical plate segment extend outwards beyond the evaporator 4 to form the inserting tongue 113, and the inserting tongue 113 is fitted in the slot 112 in the evaporator mounting chamber 102b to position the evaporator 4. After the inserting tongues 113 are aligned with the slots 112, the condenser 2 and the evaporator 4 can be pushed downwards to be mounted, which is low in mounting difficulty and high in efficiency.
Optionally, each inserting tongue 113 has a length of 3 mm to 8 mm, that is the length of each inserting tongue 113 may be chosen in a range from 3 mm to 8 mm, thus positioning and mounting the condenser 2 and the evaporator 4, avoiding interference, saving mounting spaces of the heat exchange chamber 10a and the evaporator mounting chamber 102b, and making the layout of the components more reasonable.
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, as shown in
Optionally, at least one column 111 with the threaded hole may be connected with the mounting plate pair 110, to improve strength of the column 111 with the threaded hole and the mounting plate pair 110 and the reliability thereof. For example, in an embodiment shown in
Further, as shown in
To sum up, in the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, the condenser 2, the compressor 3, the evaporator 4, the throttling device 5 and the fan assembly 6 and the like are mounted in the casing 1, and the casing 1 is connected with the cabinet 100, such that the heat pump module 300 can be integrally mounted to the cabinet 100; moreover, the compressor 3, the evaporator 4, the throttling device 5 and the fan assembly 6 are disposed in corresponding mounting chambers, which provides the reasonable layout and stable mounting of the components; and at the same time, the condenser 2 and the evaporator 4 can be reliably positioned in the heat exchange chamber 10a and the evaporator mounting chamber 102b through fitting of the inserting tongues 113 and the slots 112. The clothes dryer or washer-dryer 1000 is simple and compact in structure, high in integration level, convenient to assemble and disassemble, and low in costs of production and maintenance.
Other configurations and operation of the clothes dryer or washer-dryer 100 according to embodiments of the present disclosure are known for those skilled in the art, which will not be described in detail herein.
In the specification, it is to be understood that terms such as “central,” “longitudinal,” “transverse,” “length,” “width,” “thickness,” “upper,” “lower,” “front,” “rear,” “left,” “right,” “vertical,” “horizontal,” “top,” “bottom,” “inner,” “outer,” “clockwise,” “counterclockwise,” “axial,” “radial,” and “circumferential” should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawings under discussion. These relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the present disclosure be constructed or operated in a particular orientation.
In addition, terms such as “first” and “second” are used herein for purposes of description and are not intended to indicate or imply relative importance or significance or to imply the number of indicated technical features. Thus, the feature defined with “first” and “second” may include one or more of this feature. In the description of the present disclosure, “a plurality of” means at least two, e.g. two or three and etc., unless specified otherwise.
In the present disclosure, unless specified or limited otherwise, the terms “mounted,” “connected,” “coupled,” “fixed” and the like are used broadly, and may be, for example, fixed connections, detachable connections, or integral connections; may also be mechanical, or electrical connections, or communicate with each other; may also be direct connections or indirect connections via intervening structures; may also be inner communications or interaction of two elements, which can be understood by those skilled in the art according to specific situations.
In the present disclosure, unless specified or limited otherwise, a structure in which a first feature is “on” or “below” a second feature may include an embodiment in which the first feature is in direct contact with the second feature, and may also include an embodiment in which the first feature and the second feature are not in direct contact with each other, but are contacted via an additional feature formed therebetween. Furthermore, a first feature “on,” “above,” or “on top of” a second feature may include an embodiment in which the first feature is right or obliquely “on,” “above,” or “on top of” the second feature, or just means that the first feature is at a height higher than that of the second feature; while a first feature “below,” “under,” or “on bottom of” a second feature may include an embodiment in which the first feature is right or obliquely “below,” “under,” or “on bottom of” the second feature, or just means that the first feature is at a height lower than that of the second feature.
Reference throughout this specification to “an embodiment,” “some embodiments,” “an example,” “a specific example,” or “some examples,” means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the present disclosure. Thus, the appearances of the phrases in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment or example of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments or examples. Those skilled in the art can integrate and combine different embodiments or examples and the features in different embodiments or examples in the specification, in the condition without mutual contradiction.
Although explanatory embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above embodiments cannot be construed to limit the present disclosure, and changes, alternatives, and modifications can be made in the embodiments without departing from spirit, principles and scope of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201610377460.5 | May 2016 | CN | national |
| 201620517104.4 | May 2016 | CN | national |
