This application deals with clothes dryers. More particularly, this application deals with air flow through a clothes dryer during operation and an air grill portion of the dryer associated with an air duct used to exhaust air from the drying chamber.
Today, the majority of households in America, and many around the world, have clothes dryers. In general, people have come to expect a certain level of performance from their dryers. Air flow through the dryer plays an important role in meeting these performance expectations.
Laundry dryer performance parameters such as drying time, temperature, noise levels, etc. depend largely on the characteristics of the air flow through the dryer. The air grill, air duct and lint blade all can influence these characteristics. During operation of a laundry dryer, any obstructions within the air flow path, such as clothes lodged on the air grill, may prevent proper airflow. In such instances, surging of the dryer may occur causing high noise levels and excessive loading of the blower motor (which may also serve to drive rotation of a drum of the dryer). In addition, drying time may be extended due to the irregular air flow, reduced tumbling action because of clothing becoming lodged on the air grill, etc. Providing a more consistent air flow through the dryer by reducing or eliminating air flow obstructions can provide improved performance.
Typically, the inlet to the duct employed to exhaust air from a dryer drum, and the overlying air grill, are arranged on a vertical or steeply inclined wall surface of the front bulkhead, below the access opening. To provide the necessary space for the duct inlet and grill thus may require the access opening to be raised to a higher position than may be optimal. This issue becomes more critical as the size (e.g., diameter and depth) of the dryer drum increases, as the size and position of the access opening will have a significant impact on the ability of a user to reach into, and access clothing or other items of the laundry load located in, the lower and rear portions of the drum.
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure, a laundry dryer includes a front bulkhead and a rotatable drum mounted for rotation behind the front bulkhead. The front bulkhead includes an access port configured for providing access to the rotatable drum and having upwardly inclined side portions. The laundry dryer further includes an air duct for exhausting air from the rotatable drum and an air grill defining a plurality of apertures, arranged on the front bulkhead along a lower side of the access port and over an inlet of the air duct. The air duct inlet extends laterally along a lower side of the access port to a first lateral extent, and the air grill extends up at least one of the upwardly inclined side portions to a second lateral extent greater than the first lateral extent.
In another arrangement, the laundry dryer includes a rotatable drum. The housing includes a front bulkhead including an access port configured for providing access to the rotatable drum. An air duct for exhausting air from the rotatable drum is arranged within the access port and extends therealong to a first extent. The laundry dryer further includes an air grill arranged within the access port in overlying relation to the air duct and including an apertured surface. The air grill extends along the front bulkhead access port to a second extent exceeding the first extent in at least one dimension. Further, at least a portion of the apertured surface overlies a bulkhead surface defining the access port, in spaced relationship therewith, so as to form a gap between the apertured surface and the bulkhead surface to thereby provide a passage for air to flow from the drum to the air duct.
In yet another arrangement, the laundry dryer includes a rotatable drum and an air duct through which air flows to exit the dryer drum prior to being exhausted from the dryer. The laundry dryer further includes an air grill formed over the air duct. The air grill may include a first air grill portion forming a first plurality of air grill apertures positioned in overlying relationship with the air duct, and a second air grill portion forming a second plurality of air grill apertures positioned beyond the air duct in overlying relationship with a surface portion of the dryer which is directly exposed to an interior of the rotatable drum during dryer operation. In such an arrangement, a pathway for air flow from the drum to the air duct is formed between the second air grill portion and the surface portion such that an obstruction of the first plurality of air grill apertures does not prevent air from flowing from the drum through the second plurality of apertures to the air duct.
These and additional aspects, features and advantages of the invention disclosed herein will be further understood from the following detailed description.
The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are included by way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard to the claimed invention.
The following discussion and accompanying figures disclose a flow enhancing air duct and grill arrangement for use in a laundry dryer. The arrangement may be used with various types of laundry dryers that rely upon a flow of air to generate a drying action. This includes both gas heat dryers and electric heat dryers, open dryer systems that exhaust air from the dryer, as well as closed or air recirculating/condenser dryers.
An illustrative laundry dryer 100 is shown in
Housing 102 generally contains such electrical and mechanical systems for typical dryer function. For example, referring to
The housing 102 may include a front panel 107 that forms a face of the dryer. The front panel 107 generally covers a front bulkhead that provides, on its backside, a rotatable support for the dryer drum. Additionally, the bulkhead may incorporate components such as an air duct for receipt of exhaust air from the drum, an air grill covering an inlet of the air duct, and a lint trap or screen positioned within the air duct across the pathway. With reference now to
The front bulkhead 200 generally defines an access port 202 for providing access to the interior of rotatable drum 108. Front bulkhead 200 incorporates an air duct structure 206 through which air flows to exit the drum. The air duct 206 may include a lint trap or screen extending across the airflow pathway to catch lint or other particles in the airflow before the airflow reaches the blower and the exhaust tube or vent downstream therefrom. In
In the illustrated arrangement wherein the grill is mounted on a lower central portion of surface 205, primary grill surface 207 is elevated above the underlying portion of surface 205 to provide a gap (S in
The air grill 210 shown in
As previously described, the air grill 210 is arranged such that it extends laterally, i.e., circumferentially, well beyond the ends of the inlet of air duct 206 and up the arcuate sides 202a, 202b of the access port 202. While the air grill 210 and the associated air duct are shown positioned at a central, lower portion of the access port 202 and the air grill extends in both directions, up the sides 202a, 202b of the port 202, well beyond both ends of the air duct inlet, other arrangements could also be implemented, such as placement of the air grill and duct on the sides or possibly even the above the access port, and/or in an asymmetrical arrangement wherein the air grill extends beyond the air duct inlet on only one side (or more on one side than the other). In some arrangements, the air grill may extend to a point on each side of the access port 202 between 0° and 90° from a central, bottom point.
Benefits realizable with the inventive arrangement are now explained with reference to
During a typical dryer cycle, clothes are tumbled within the rotatable drum. As the clothes are tumbling, one or more articles of clothing 420 may land on the air grill, as shown in
On the other hand, the air grill 210 facilitates continuous unobstructed air flow. For instance, should an article of clothing 420 become lodged on the air grill 210, as shown in
In addition, the provision of airflow pathways that remain unobstructed can advantageously equalize the pressure on opposite sides of the grill to thereby reduce or eliminate a vacuum effect tending to adhere laundry items to the grill. Still further, the inventive air grill arrangement can provide improved air flow without requiring an increase in size of the air duct inlet, thus allowing better use to be made of the limited space in the front bulkhead through which the air duct extends. By arranging the air duct inlet and overlying grill within the depthwise extending cylindrical surface area of the bulkhead which defines the access port, rather than on a back side of the front bulkhead, below the access port, it is possible to arrange the access port lower in relation to the rotatable drum, to thus improve user access to lower and rearward portions of the drum that might otherwise be difficult to access (especially as the relative size of the drum is increased). For example, referring to
Referring to
In the illustrated embodiment, the spacing or gap formed between the portions of the air grill that extend beyond the air duct inlet form supplemental airflow channels or pathways for air to flow from the drum and into the air duct, not withstanding coverage of the duct inlet with laundry items. In lieu of an elevational spacing of the primary apertured surface portion of the grill with respect to the underlying bulkhead surface, other approaches for providing air flow pathways between these elements could be used, e.g. channels or recesses formed in the bulkhead surfaces underlying the grill.
In light of the foregoing disclosure and description of various arrangements, those skilled in this area of technology will readily understand that various modifications and adaptations can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. All such modifications and adaptations are intended to be covered by the following claims.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20090158617 A1 | Jun 2009 | US |