Patent Application
20240008710
The application claims the priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202221730177.3, filed on Jul. 6, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. No new matter has been introduced.
The present disclosure relates to the technical field of kitchen appliances, and in particular to a dishwasher.
With the improvement of life quality of people, dishwashers are becoming more and more popular. A dishwasher generally has washing and drying functions. After washing, a tableware in a washing chamber of the dishwasher is dried at a high temperature. The higher the temperature, the better the drying effect. But this operation also brings about a problem of increased energy consumption. Moreover, since the washing chamber, during the entire drying process, is always in a closed environment, the water vapor cannot be discharged in time. After the temperature drops, the water vapor will condense, resulting in secondary humidity in the washing chamber, and the drying effect is thus affected.
The present disclosure is intended to propose a dishwasher to at least improve drying effect of a dishwasher and to reduce energy consumption.
In accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure, a dishwasher is provided, which may include: an inner container having a washing chamber and an opening which is in communication with the washing chamber; a door body rotatably connected to the inner container by a hinge and used to open or close the opening; a door lock mechanism used to lock the door body to the inner container; an ejection mechanism disposed on the inner container and used to exert an acting force on the door body, to cause the door body to be unlocked from the inner container; and an auxiliary door opening mechanism, disposed on the inner container and used to exert an acting force on the hinge, to cause the door body to exhibit a tendency to rotate and open relative to the inner container.
In some embodiments, a bottom of the door body may be rotatably connected to the inner container by the hinge. The ejection mechanism may be disposed on a top of the inner container. The auxiliary door opening mechanism may be disposed at a bottom of the inner container.
In some embodiments, the auxiliary door opening mechanism may include a bracket, an abutting member and an elastic member. The bracket may be fixed to the inner container. The abutting member may be movably mounted on the bracket. The elastic member is disposed between the bracket and the abutting member, and used to provide a maintaining force for the abutting member to abut against the hinge.
In some embodiments, the bracket may include a first baffle plate and a second baffle plate that are oppositely disposed and spaced apart. The abutting member may include a push rod and a limiting flange which is disposed on an outer periphery of the push rod. The first baffle plate and the second baffle plate are respectively and correspondingly provided with a first through hole and a second through hole. The push rod is slidably penetrated into the first through hole and the second through hole. An end of the push rod passes through the first baffle plate and abuts against the hinge. The limiting flange is located between the first baffle plate and the second baffle plate. An end of the elastic member elastically abuts against the second baffle plate, and another end of the elastic member elastically abuts against the limiting flange.
In some embodiments, an end of the push rod passing out of the first baffle plate may be provided with a push head that abuts against and fits with the hinge. The cross sectional area of the push head may be larger than that of the push rod.
In some embodiments, the inner container may be fixed with a hinge support piece. The hinge may be rotatably connected to the hinge support piece. The bracket may be fixedly connected to the hinge support piece member.
In some embodiments, the bracket may include a fixing plate and a fixing foot. The fixing plate may be arranged opposite to the hinge support piece. The fixing foot may be bent relative to the fixing plate toward the hinge support piece. The fixing plate may be provided with a first connection hole for a first fastener to pass through. The hinge support piece may be provided with a second connection hole corresponding to the first connection hole. The hinge support piece may be also provided with a fixing hole for the fixing foot to be inserted in and placed on.
In some embodiments, a snap hook may be provided at a bottom of the fixing foot. The snap hook may be snapped with a side wall of the fixing hole.
In some embodiments, the dishwasher may further include a positioning mechanism disposed between the inner container and the door body. The positioning mechanism may be used to enable the door body to be maintained a preset open position relative to the inner container.
In some embodiments, the positioning mechanism may include a tension spring, a first pull cord, a second pull cord, a positioning piece and a positioning fitting piece. The positioning piece may be fixed between the first pull cord and the second pull cord. An end of the first pull cord far away from the positioning member is connected to the inner container by the tension spring. An end of the second pull cord far away from the positioning member is connected to the hinge. The positioning fitting piece is fixed to the inner container, and the positioning fitting piece is limitedly abutted against a side of the positioning fitting piece that is away from the door body.
In some embodiments, the inner container may be provided with a mounting slot. The amounting slot may be formed with a mounting port on an outer surface of the inner container. The tension spring, the first pull cord, the positioning piece and a portion of the second pull cord may be all accommodated in the mounting slot. The positioning fitting piece may be fixed within in the mounting slot.
In some embodiments, the mounting slot may have a side groove wall disposed opposite to the mounting port, and a top groove wall and a bottom groove wall respectively disposed on two opposite sides of the side groove wall. The top groove wall and the bottom groove wall each are provided with a snap groove. The snap groove extends from the side groove wall toward the mounting port. An end of the snap groove close to the mounting port is formed with a socket for an insertion of the positioning fitting piece. Two opposite sides of the positioning fitting piece are snapped with a corresponding snap groove, respectively.
In some embodiments, the positioning fitting piece may include a fixing part which may be disposed opposite to the side groove wall. The fixing part is provided with a first mounting hole for fasteners to pass through for connecting. The side groove wall is provided with a second mounting hole corresponding to the first mounting hole.
In the technical solution according to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the door lock mechanism can lock the door body to the inner container to ensure a safety of a washing process of the dishwasher. When the dishwasher enters a drying stage, the ejection mechanism exerts an acting force on the door body to unlock the door body from the inner container; and the auxiliary door opening mechanism exerts an acting force on the hinge to cause that the door body have a tendency to rotate and open relative to the inner container. When the door body is unlocked, the automatic door opening function can be realized under an action of the auxiliary door opening mechanism. Since the door body, during the drying stage can be automatically opened to a preset open position relative to the inner container to enable the washing chamber of the inner container to be in communication with an external environment, a circulation of internal and external airflow can be realized, a water vapor in the washing chamber can be quickly discharged to improve drying effect. Moreover, since a drying process is implemented by using the circulation of internal and external airflow, a drying temperature in the washing chamber can be set low accordingly, to achieve reduced energy consumption.
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure or the related arts, the following will briefly introduce the accompanying drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments or the related arts. Obviously, the accompanying drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and those skilled in the art can also obtain other drawings according to the structures shown in these drawings without creative work.
Explanation of reference numbers shown in the figures is provided in the following table.
The realization of a purpose, functional characteristics and advantages of the present disclosure will be further described in conjunction with the embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts belong to the scope of protection of the present disclosure.
It should be noted that, if there are directional indications (such as up, down, left, right, front, back . . . ) in embodiments of the present disclosure, the directional indications are only used to explain a relative position relationship and/or a state of motion among various components in a specific posture. If the specific posture changes, the directional indication will also change accordingly.
In addition, if there are descriptions involving “first”, “second” etc. in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the descriptions of “first”, “second”, etc. are used only for a purpose of description and shall not be understood to indicate or imply their relative importance, or designate implicitly the number of technical features indicated. Therefore, the features defined with “first” and “second” may explicitly or implicitly include at least one of the features. In addition, if an expression of “and/or” or “as well as/or” appears throughout the text, its meaning includes three parallel schemes. The expression of “A and/or B” is taken as an example, which includes a scheme including A, or a scheme including B, or a scheme in which A and B are included at the same time. In addition, the technical solutions of the various embodiments can be combined with each other, but a technical solution combined by technical solutions of the various embodiments shall be capable of being realized by those skilled in the art. When a combination of technical solutions is contradictory or cannot be realized, it should be considered that the combination of technical solutions does not exist, and is not within a scope of protection sought for by the present disclosure.
A dishwasher 100 is provided according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
As shown in
In some embodiments, a washing chamber is formed inside the inner container 10, and can be used to place tableware. An opening, which is in communication with the washing chamber, is formed on a front side of the inner container 10, and the user can take and place the tableware through the opening. The door body 20 is rotatably mounted on the front side of the inner container 10 by the hinge 30. In order to ensure a reliability of a rotational connection between the door body 20 and the inner container 10, the door body 20 and the inner container 10 may be generally rotatably connected by at least two hinges 30. It should be noted that a connection between the door body 20 and the inner container 10 by the hinge 30 may be a direct connection or an indirect connection, as long as the door body 20 can be rotated relative to the inner container 10. In some embodiments, the door body 20 may be directly connected to the inner container 10 by the hinge 30, or the door body 20 may be connected by the hinge 30 to other components (such as, a hinge support piece 60) mounted on the inner container 10, and thus the connection between the door body 20 and the inner container 10 is realized. In some embodiments, a bottom of the door body 20 is rotatably connected to the inner container 10, and a top of the door body 20 can be rotatably opened and closed relative to the inner container 10. In some embodiments, it may be one of a left side, a right side or a top side of the door body 20 which is rotatably connected to the inner container 10.
The door lock mechanism 70 is used to lock the door body 20 to the inner container 10. In some embodiments, the door lock mechanism 70 may include a locking piece disposed on the inner container 10 and a locking fitting piece disposed on the door body 20. The locking piece and the locking fitting piece can be locked together by way of fastening, magnetic fixation, etc... In some embodiments, the locking piece may be a lock catch, and the locking fitting piece may be a lock hook. When the door body 20 is closed relative to the inner container 10, the locking between the door body 20 and the inner container 10 can be realized by snapping the lock catch with the lock hook. In some embodiments, both the locking piece and the locking fitting piece may adopt magnetic suction parts.
The ejection mechanism 40 is used to exert an acting force on the door body 20 to unlock the door body 20 from the inner container 10. In some embodiments, as shown in
The door body 20 is rotatably connected to the inner container 10 by the hinge 30. The auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 is disposed at a position of the inner container 10 close to the hinge 30.
With the technical solutions of the present disclosure, a door locking function and an automatic door opening function of the dishwasher 100 may be achieved by providing the door lock mechanism 70, the ejection mechanism 40 and the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50. In some embodiments, the door lock mechanism 70 can lock the door body 20 to the inner container 10 to ensure a safety of a washing process of the dishwasher 100. When the dishwasher 100 enters a drying stage, the ejection mechanism 40 exerts the acting force on the door body 20 to unlock the door body 20 from the inner container 10; and the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 exerts the acting force on the hinge 30 to cause that the door body 20 have a tendency to rotate and open relative to the inner container 10. When the door body 20 is unlocked, the automatic door opening function can be realized under an action of the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50. Since the door body 20, during the drying stage, can be automatically opened to a preset open position relative to the inner container 10, to enable the washing chamber of the inner container 10 to be in communication with an external environment, a circulation of internal and external airflows can be realized. Thus, water vapor in the washing chamber can be quickly discharged to improve the drying effect of the dishwasher. Moreover, since a drying process is implemented by using the circulation of internal and external airflows, a drying temperature in the washing chamber can be set lower accordingly, to enable a reduced energy consumption.
In some embodiments, in order to realize the automatic door opening function with less effort, a bottom of the door body 20 is rotatably connected to the inner container 10 by the hinge 30; the ejection mechanism 40 is disposed on a top of the inner container 10; and the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 is disposed at a bottom of the inner container 10.
In some embodiments, a bottom of the door body 20 is rotatably connected to the inner container 10 by the hinge 30, and a top of the door body 20 can be rotatably opened and closed relative to the inner container 10. The ejection mechanism 40 is disposed on a top of the inner container 10, and the door lock mechanism 70 is disposed adjacent to the ejection mechanism 40. After the door body 20 is unlocked by the ejection mechanism 40, only a small acting force is needed to be exerted by the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 on the hinge 30, to cause the door body 20 to be turned outward by a certain angle relative to the inner container 10, followed by that the door body 20 can continue to turn outward under the effect of its own gravity to the preset open position. In some embodiments, by arranging the ejection mechanism 40 on the top of the inner container 10, an arm of force between a point where the ejector 42 of the ejection mechanism 40 exerts the acting force on the door body 20 and a rotation axis of the door body 20 is relatively long according to the lever principle, and thus the door body 20 can be pushed to rotate by only a small driving force which is required to be output by the ejection mechanism 40. In this way, the door body 20 can be unlocked in a more labor-saving manner, and a driving requirement for the ejection mechanism 40 can be reduced, and thus a cost can be reduced. In some embodiments, the ejection mechanism 40 can also be disposed on a left or right side of the inner container 10. The auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 may be disposed at the bottom of the inner container 10 and below the hinge 30. The door body 20 can be continuously kept in a tendency of opening relative to the inner container 10 by the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 upwardly abutting against the hinge 30. In some embodiments, two opposite sides of a bottom of the door body 20 are rotatably connected to the inner container 10 by the hinge 30 respectively; two opposite sides of a bottom of the inner container 10 are respectively provided with the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50; and each auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 respectively abuts against a corresponding hinge 30. In this way, forces on both sides of the door body 20 are more balanced, and thus the door body 20 can be opened more easily.
In some embodiments, as shown in
In some embodiments, the bracket 51 can be directly fixedly connected to the inner container 10, or the bracket 51 can be connected to other components on the inner container 10. In some embodiments, the inner container 10 is fixed with a hinge support piece 60, and the bracket 51 and the hinge support piece 60 can be connected and fixed by means of fasteners or welding or the like. In order to ensure an overall structural strength of the auxiliary door opening mechanism 50, the bracket 51 can be made of sheet metal. A flexible connection between the abutting member 52 and the bracket 51 can be realized by a way of sliding or rotating, as long as the abutting member 52 can be driven by the elastic member 53 to move, to cause the abutting member 52 to abut against the hinge continuously during the door body 20 is opened. In some embodiments, the bottom of the door body 20 is rotatably connected to the inner container 10 by the hinge 30. The auxiliary door opening mechanism 50 is provided at the bottom of the inner container 10 and below the hinge 30. The abutting member 52 can slide up and down relative to the bracket 51, and the elastic member 53 can be stretched-compressed and deformed vertically. As shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
In some embodiments, both the first baffle plate 511 and the second baffle plate 512 are disposed horizontally. The first baffle plate 511 and the second baffle plate 512 are vertically disposed at intervals below the hinge 30 in turn. The first baffle plate 511 and the second baffle plate 512 are connected through a connecting plate 513. The first baffle plate 511, the second baffle plate 512 and the connecting plate 513 are joined together to enclose a “”-shaped structure, which is simple and easy to shape, and has a reliable strength. The abutting member 52 may include the push rod 521 vertically extending. A lower end of the push rod 521 passes through the second through hole 5121. An upper end of the push rod 521 passes out of the first through hole 5111 and abuts against the hinge 30. The limiting flange 522 is provided on an outer peripheral edge of a middle part of the push rod 521. An end of the elastic member 53 elastically abuts against the second baffle plate, and another end of the elastic member 53 elastically abuts against the limiting flange 522. When the door body 20 is in the closed state, the elastic member 53 is in a compressed state, and there is a certain distance between the limiting flange 522 and the first baffle plate 511. During an opening process of the door body 20, the elastic member 53 gradually stretches and abuts against the limiting flange 522, and then drives the push rod to move upwards to abut against the hinge 30 until the limiting flange 522 is limited by and abutted against the first baffle plate 511. In some embodiments, the elastic member 53 is sleeved on a periphery of the push rod 521. The elastic member 53 may be a spring or an elastic column of rubber sleeved on the periphery of the push rod 521. The elastic member 53 can be positioned through the push rod 521, and the stretch-compression and deformation of the elastic member 53 also can be guided by the push rod 521. In order to facilitate abutting against an end of the elastic member 53, the limiting flange 522 may be configured as an annular flange surrounding the outer circumference of the push rod 521. In some embodiments, the limiting flange 522 can be integrally formed with the push rod 521, or the limiting flange 522 and the push rod 521 can be formed separately, and then be assembled together. In some embodiments, an external thread can be provided on an outer peripheral surface of the push rod 521 and an internal thread can be provided on an inner peripheral surface of the limiting flange 522, to threadedly connect the limiting flange 522 to the push rod 521. A movement stroke of the push rod 521 can also be adjusted by regulating a fixed position of the limiting flange 522 along an axial direction of the push rod 521.
In some embodiments, an end of the push rod 521 passing out of the first baffle plate 511 is provided with a push head 523 that abuts against and fits with the hinge 30. A cross sectional area of the push head 523 is larger than that of the push rod 521. By providing the push head 523 at an end of the push rod 521, and the cross-sectional area of the push head 523 being larger than that of the push rod 5f21, the push rod 521, during the assembly process, can be prevented from disengaging from the bracket 51 in a direction from the first through hole 5111 to the second through hole 5121. The cross-sectional area of the push head 523 is relatively large, and thus the hinge 30 can be abutted more stably. In order to avoid that the push head 523 deviates from the hinge 30 and cannot play an abutting role during use or transportation, in some embodiments, an end surface of the push head 523 is provided with a groove, and a side edge of the hinge 30 is snapped into the groove.
In order to further ensure a connection reliability between the inner container 10 and the door body 20, as shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
In order to further improve a mounting reliability of the bracket 51 and the hinge support piece 60, in some embodiments, the fixing plate 514 is provided with a plurality of fixing feet 515, and the hinge support piece 60 is provided with fixing holes 62 the number of which matches with the number of fixing feet 515. In some embodiments, each fixing foot 515 is provided with the snap hook 516. As shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
downwards may also be disposed at a bottom side of the fixing foot 515. The snap hook 516 can be snapped with a side wall of a bottom of a vertical socket portion of the “L”-shaped socket. During the assembly process, the fixing foot 515 can be firstly inserted into the fixing hole 62 along a direction vertical to a body of the sheet metal of the hinge support piece 60, and then the fixing foot 515 can be buckled downwards along an extending direction of the vertical socket portion of the “L”-shaped socket, to cause the snap hook 516 of the fixing foot 515 to be snapped with the bottom side wall of the fixing hole 62. In this way, the bracket 51 can be pre-fixed with the hinge support piece 60 in five dimensions of front, rear, left, right, and bottom. Since the bracket 51 is pre-fixed with the hinge support piece 60 in the five dimensions of front, rear, left, right, and bottom, in some embodiments, a first connection hole 5141 on the fixing plate 514 and a second connection hole 61 on the hinge support piece 60 may both be through holes, and a diameter of the first connection hole 5141 may be larger than that of the second connection hole 61. During the assembly process, the first fastener in the form of a self-tapping screw passes through the first connection hole 5141 and taps a thread on the second connection hole 61 to fasten the bracket 51 with the hinge support piece 60 together, and thus assembling efficiency is greatly improved. In some embodiments, the first connection hole 5141 can be a through hole with a diameter larger than that of the second connection hole 61. The second connection hole 61, in the form of a through hole or a drawing hole, may be pre-provided with a thread on an inner wall thereof, to adapt strength needs of different specifications. Since a pre-fixed structure is formed by snapping the snap hook 516 with the bottom side wall of the vertical socket part of the “L”-shaped socket, the second connection hole 61 and the first fastener may adopt various forms and sizes according to actual usage conditions. In addition, the pre-fixed structure can bear a reaction force generated by the abutting member 52 which abuts against the hinge 30. Therefore, a failure of the first fastener due to repeated impact can be avoided, and the first fastener with a smaller size can be selected. The hinge support piece 60, the hinge 30 and the bracket 51 may all be made of a thinner sheet metal, and thus the space utilization greatly improves and the cost is greatly reduced.
In the above embodiments, the ejection mechanism 40 may include a driving assembly 41 and an ejector 42. In some embodiments, there are various manners in which the driving assembly 41 drives the ejector 42 to move. The driving assembly 41 can drive the ejector 42 to perform a linear reciprocating motion to approach or move away from the door body 20, or drive the ejector 42 to perform a curvilinear reciprocating motion to approach or move away from the door body 20. In some embodiments, the ejector 42 is an ejector extending in a straight line. An end of the ejector is drivingly connected to the driving assembly 41, and another end of the ejector extends toward the door body 20. The driving assembly 41 drives the ejector to perform the linear reciprocating motion. There are many specific manners for the driving assembly 41 to realize the linear reciprocating motion of the ejector 42, including but not limited to a linear driver used to directly drive the ejector 42 to move, or a rotary driver cooperating with a transmission unit used to convert a rotational power into a linear driving force for realizing the movement of the ejector 42. In some embodiments, the transmission unit includes but is not limited to a rack and pinion transmission structure, a nut screw transmission structure, a crankshaft connecting rod transmission structure and the like.
As shown in
In some embodiments, the housing 411 can be formed by splicing two half-shells together. The two half-shells can be enclosed with each other to form a mounting cavity. In order to facilitate mounting and fixing of the housing 411, lugs are also provided on a side of the housing 411. The lugs are provided with penetrating holes for fasteners to pass through. During the assembly process, the lugs of the housing 411 are mounted and fixed with corresponding mounting positions on the inner container 10 through the fasteners. The wax motor 412 is mounted in the housing 411, and the elastic element can be a compression spring. The wax motor 412, after energized, heated and expanded, can drive the ejector 42 to move. Another end of the ejector 42 can be caused to be able to protrude toward the door body 20, to apply a thrust to the door body 20, therefore the door lock mechanism 70 is driven to be unlocked. In some embodiments, after the wax motor 412 drives the ejector 42 to move to a limit position, the elastic element 413 can be compressed, and the elastic element 413 can play a role in buffering and adjusting deviation, ensuring the structural reliability of the ejection mechanism 40 and facilitating to reduce a production cost.
As shown in
As shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
In some embodiments, the mounting slot 11 is provided at a lower position on the outer surface of the inner container 10, and extends from a rear side toward a front opening located at a front side of the inner container 10 along a horizontal direction. During the assembly process, the tension spring 81 and the positioning fitting piece 85 are firstly mounted in a predetermined position of the mounting slot 11 from the mounting port, respectively, and then an end of the first pull cord 82 is connected to the tension spring 81, and another end of the second pull cord 83 is connected to the hinge 30, to cause the positioning member 84 to be stopped by and fitted with the positioning fitting piece 85.
In order to facilitate the assembling of the positioning fitting piece 85, in some embodiments, the mounting slot 11 has a side groove wall disposed opposite to the mounting port, and a top groove wall and a bottom groove wall respectively disposed on two opposite sides of the side groove wall. The top groove wall and the bottom groove wall each are provided with a snap groove 12. The snap groove 12 extends from the side groove wall toward the mounting port. An end of the snap groove 12 close to the mounting port is formed with a socket for an insertion of the positioning fitting piece 85. Two opposite sides of the positioning fitting piece 85 are snapped with corresponding snap grooves 12, respectively. During the assembly process, the positioning fitting piece is aligned with the socket of the snap groove 12 and pushed inwardly, to snap the positioning fitting piece 85 into the snap groove 12, and thus a simple and convenient operation can be achieved. Moreover, both sides of the positioning fitting piece 85 are provided with the snap grooves 12 for snapping, and thus assembling reliability of the positioning fitting piece 85 can be ensured.
In order to further ensure the assembling reliability of the positioning fitting piece 85, as shown in FIG.6 and
The above is only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and does not therefore limit the scope of protection sought for by the present disclosure. Under the inventive concept of the present disclosure, any equivalent structural transformation made by using the description of the present disclosure and the contents of the accompanying drawings, or any direct/indirect application in other related technical fields is included in the scope of protection sought for by the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202221730177.3 | Jul 2022 | CN | national |
