This invention relates to a dryer with a rotary drum for receiving laundry and a bearing for rotary mounting of the drum.
Dryers are known in which a drum is arranged horizontally for receiving laundry, and is pivoted by pivot bearings. The pivot bearings are subject to high thermal loads which negatively influence the reliability and life of the bearings, particularly when they are arranged adjacent to ducts conveying hot process air.
The object of the invention is to make available a dryer that operates reliably, with a drum that is swivelled by means of a bearing.
This object is achieved by the characteristics in claim 1. Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention are described in the dependent claims.
A dryer has a housing in which a drum for receiving laundry is swivelled by means of a bearing. To ensure that the bearing operates reliably at all times, a cooling device is provided for cooling the bearing. This enables the maximum thermal expansion of the drum bearing components to be reduced and hence also the mechanical load. Furthermore, the lubricant provided for the bearing is subjected to lower loads because of the cooling of the bearing if the bearing is operated at lower temperatures. Moreover, there is reduced risk of the lubricant in the bearing becoming fluid at low temperatures and escaping. This increases the life and reliability of the bearing, and hence of the dryer.
In an advantageous embodiment the cooling device comprises means for improving the radiation and/or convection of heat from the bearing or adjacent to the bearing. In particular, cooling faces may be provided which are connected thermally and conductively to the bearing. Such cooling faces may be formed by a suitably large surface design of the bearing bracket or by providing cooling ribs.
In an advantageous embodiment the cooling device has a device for conveying cooling air, preferably ambient air, to the bearing. This makes available active cooling with which defined thermal conditions can be created on the bearing.
In an advantageous embodiment a fan is provided for conveying process air through the drum and/or for conveying cooling air for a condenser, wherein the fan serves as a device for conveying cooling air to the bearing. This also makes it possible to make use of fans that are already installed in the dryer, either a fan for conveying process air or a fan for conveying cooling air to a condenser, as a cooling device for cooling the bearing.
In an advantageous embodiment a process air conduit is provided, wherein a section of the process air conduit and/or the drum is loaded with a vacuum due to the conveying action of the fan, and forms a vacuum space. Furthermore, a cooling conduit is provided between the vacuum space and the bearing so that air is sucked in adjacent to the bearing in the form of ambient air and conveyed by the cooling conduit as spent air to the process air.
In an advantageous embodiment the bearing has a bearing bracket which is secured to the housing, and a process air duct has an air distribution hood adjacent to the bearing which covers the process air inlet holes into the drum, wherein a cooling air conduit is formed between the air distribution hood and the bearing bracket, in the form of an annular gap, so that a cooling air flow is able to flow through the annular gap into the process air duct in the form of ambient air. The bearing is flushed on all sides with cooling air through the annular gap and is therefore effectively cooled.
In an advantageous embodiment a process air conduit is provided, wherein a section of the process air conduit and/or the drum is loaded with excess pressure by the conveying action of the fan, and forms an excess pressure space. Furthermore, a cooling conduit is provided between the excess pressure space and the bearing, so that some of the conveyed air is fed to the bearing in order to cool the bearing.
In an advantageous embodiment the process air conduit is provided as a circuit with a condenser which is cooled by a cooling air flow. Some of the cooling air flow is branched and fed via a cooling air conduit to the bearing in order to cool the bearing.
In an advantageous embodiment the cooling conduit is dimensioned so that the quantity of cooling air can be predetermined.
Further details, characteristics and advantages of the invention are evident from the following description of a preferred exemplary embodiment of a dryer according to the invention, with reference to the drawings,
in which:
as a modified first or second exemplary embodiment.
According to
Bearing 9 is shown in more detail in
Outer half-shell 30 and inner half-shell 31 are each manufactured from a steel sheet which is capable of transferring heat away from the bearing and discharging heat by thermal radiation and convection. However, since there is hot process air between rear wall 8 of the drum and air distribution hood 18, bearing 9 is subjected to considerable heating. Due to the provision of annular gap 33 between bracket 10 and air distribution hood 18, a cooling conduit is formed between the vacuum space in the drum 2 and bearing 9, wherein cool ambient air is sucked into the process air as so-called spent air passing through annular gap 33 on bearing 9. In particular, fan 22, which is responsible for building up the vacuum in drum 2, therefore serves as a conveying device. Because of the formation of the relatively long, parallel annular gap 33, a large surface is made available for heat transfer from the hot bearing to the cooling ambient air flowing through annular gap 33. A very simple device is therefore made available for cooling bearing 9 using the other devices, such as fan 22 of the dryer.
Alternatively to the embodiment shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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103 60 898 | Dec 2003 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2004/053689 | 12/23/2004 | WO | 00 | 2/21/2007 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2005/064069 | 7/14/2005 | WO | A |
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