Patent Application
20240011345
The application claims the priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202221730009.4, 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 mounting structure of an ejection mechanism of a dishwasher, and a dishwasher.
With the improvement of life quality of people, dishwashers are becoming more and more popular. In related arts, some dishwashers are usually provided with an ejection mechanism on an inner container of the dishwashers to realize an automatic door opening function. However, the ejection mechanism and the inner container are only simply fixed by screws, and therefore a pre-positioned mounting cannot be realized. The ejection mechanism is prone to deviation and loosening after being subject to repeated stress, and therefore a mounting reliability is low.
A main purpose of the present disclosure is to propose a mounting structure of an ejection mechanism of a dishwasher, to be at least capable of realizing a pre-positioned mounting of the ejection mechanism and further improving a mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism.
In accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure, a mounting structure of an ejection mechanism of a dishwasher is provided which may include: an inner container having an open side for mounting a door body, the inner container being provided with a positioning rib; and an ejection mechanism including a drive assembly and an ejector drivingly connected to the drive assembly, the drive assembly being used to drive the ejector to perform a protruding and/or retracting movement between the open side and the door body, the drive assembly being arranged on the positioning rib and fixedly connected to the inner container, the drive assembly being further provided with a support foot extending toward the positioning rib, the support foot abutting against a side of the positioning rib which is adjacent to the door body.
In some embodiments, the drive assembly may be fixed on a top of the inner container, a bottom of the drive assembly being provided with the support foot, the top of the inner container being provided with the positioning rib.
In some embodiments, the support foot may include: an abutting part, which abuts against and fits with the positioning rib; and a reinforcement part, which is arranged on a side of the abutting part away from the positioning rib.
In some embodiments, the drive assembly may include a housing and a drive unit disposed in the housing, an end of the ejector being drivingly connected to the drive unit, another end of the ejector passing out of the housing, the support foot being arranged on a surface of the housing.
In some embodiments, the housing may have a support surface abutting against a top of the positioning rib, the support surface being provided with a plurality of support feet at intervals thereon, each support foot abutting and fitting with a corresponding positioning rib on the inner container.
In some embodiments, the plurality of support feet may be arranged in multiple rows at intervals in a protruding and/or retracting direction of the ejector, a plurality of positioning ribs corresponding to a plurality of support feet in a same row being connected to one another to form a transverse rib strip.
In some embodiments, the inner container may be further provided with a longitudinal rib strip which intersects with the transverse rib strip, the longitudinal rib strip connecting multiple rows of the transverse rib strips to one another.
In some embodiments, two opposite sides of the housing may be respectively provided with a mounting lug, the inner container being provided with a fixing column corresponding to the mounting lug, the mounting lug being overlapped on a top surface of the fixing column, the mounting lug and the fixing column each being correspondingly provided with assembling holes for fasteners to pass through for connecting.
In some embodiments, an outer periphery of the open side may be provided with a reinforcement rib.
In accordance with another embodiment of the disclosure, a dishwasher is provided, which may include the mounting structure of the ejection mechanism of the dishwasher as described above.
In some technical solutions according the embodiments of the present disclosure, the inner container is provided with the positioning rib, and the drive assembly is provided with the support foot extending toward the positioning rib. During the assembly process, the drive assembly is arranged on the positioning rib, and the support foot is abutted against a side of the positioning rib adjacent to the door body. Thus, a pre-positioning of the ejection mechanism can be realized. Then the drive assembly is fixedly connected to the inner container by a fastener. As such, a simple and convenient assembly can be achieved. When the door body needs to be opened, the drive assembly drives the ejector to protrude toward the door body. The ejector abuts against the door body to apply an acting force to the door body, and the door body will produce a reverse acting force to the ejector. Since the support foot abuts against a side of the positioning rib adjacent to the door body, the support foot can bear the reverse acting force of the door body on the ejection mechanism to avoid the ejection mechanism from shifting and loosening after being repeatedly stressed, which can effectively improve the mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism. The above-described mounting structure of the ejection mechanism of the dishwasher can realize the pre-positioned mounting of the ejection mechanism, and can also improve the mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism.
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, during a washing process of the dishwasher 100, the door body 20 may close the opening of the inner container 10, and the door lock mechanism 50 locks the door body 20 with the inner container 10 to ensure safety of the washing process of the dishwasher 100. When the door body 20 needs to be opened, the ejection mechanism 30 may exert an acting force on the door body 20 to unlock the door body 20 from the inner container 10, and then the door body 20 can be opened. In some embodiments, the door lock mechanism 50 may include a locking piece arranged on the inner container 10 and a locking fitting piece arranged 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 ejection mechanism 30 may include a drive assembly 31 and an ejector 32 drivingly connected to the drive assembly 31. The drive assembly 31 may drive the ejector 32 to approach or move away from the door body 20. As shown in
After the door body 20 and the inner container 10 are unlocked, in order to enable the door body 20 to be further automatically opened to a preset open position, in some embodiments, the dishwasher 100 also includes an auxiliary door opening mechanism 60. The auxiliary door opening mechanism 60 may be used to apply an acting force to the door body 20 or a hinge on the door body 20, to enable the door body 20 to rotate and open relative to the inner container 10. In some embodiments, a bottom of the door body 20 is rotatably connected to the inner container 10 by a hinge. The auxiliary door opening mechanism 60 may be used to apply the acting force to the hinge, to cause that the door body 20 may exhibit a tendency to rotate and open relative to the inner container 10. In some embodiments, the auxiliary door opening mechanism 60 may include a bracket, an abutting member and an elastic member. The bracket may be fixed to the inner container 10. 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, in order to enable the door body 20 to be automatically opened and maintained at a preset open position, the dishwasher 100 may further include a positioning mechanism 70. The positioning mechanism 70 may be used to enable the door body 20 to be in the preset open position relative to the inner container 10. In some embodiments, when the ejection mechanism 30 unlocks the door body 20 from the inner container 10, the auxiliary door opening mechanism 60 may drive the door body 20 to rotate and open relative to the inner container 10. When the door body 20 rotates and opens to a certain angle relative to the inner container 10, the positioning mechanism 70 may exert an acting force on the door body 20 to enable the door body 20 to suspend at the preset open position. In some embodiments, the positioning mechanism 70 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 10 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 10, and the positioning fitting piece is limitedly abutted against a side of the positioning fitting piece that is away from the door body 20.
Since the dishwasher 100 will frequently be opened or closed during daily use, the ejection mechanism 30 will frequently exert an acting force on the door body 20, and the ejection mechanism 30 will also be subject to a reverse acting force from the door body 20. The reverse acting force from the door body 20 to the ejection mechanism 30 will have a certain impact on the ejection mechanism 30. The ejection mechanism 30, if not mounted stably, may be deflected and loosened under the action of external force, which will lead to a failure of realizing an automatic door opening function. Therefore, a mounting stability of the ejection mechanism 30 is very important. Based on this, the present application proposes a mounting structure of the ejection mechanism of the dishwasher, which can improve the mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism 30 and can also realize a rapid pre-positioned mounting of the ejection mechanism 30.
The present disclosure proposes the mounting structure of the ejection mechanism of the dishwasher.
As shown in
In some embodiments, the dishwasher 100 may include an inner container 10 and a door body 20. The inner container 10 may have a washing chamber and an opening which is in communication with the washing chamber, and a side of the inner container 10 provided with the opening is the open side 101. The door body 20 may be mounted at the open side 101 of the inner container 10 in an openable and/or closable manner, and used for opening or closing the opening of the inner container 10. The ejection mechanism 30 may include the drive assembly 31 and the ejector 32. The drive assembly 31 may be mounted on the inner container 10. An end of the ejector 32 may be drivingly connected to the drive assembly 31, and another end of the ejector may extend from the open side 101 of the inner container 10 toward the door body 20. The ejector 32 can be driven to perform the protruding and/or retracting movement between the open side 101 of the inner container 10 and the door body 20 by the drive assembly 31. When the door body 20 is closed, the ejector 32 is in a retracted position, and may not interfere with the normal closing of the door body 20. When the door body 20 needs to be opened, the drive assembly 31 may drive the ejector 32 to protrude from the open side 101 toward the door body 20, and the ejector 32 may be caused to exert the acting force on the door body 20 to realize an automatic opening of door.
In the technical solution of the present disclosure, the inner container 10 is provided with the positioning rib 11, and the drive assembly 31 is provided with the support foot 311 extending toward the positioning rib 11. During the assembly process, the drive assembly 31 is arranged on the positioning rib 11, and the support foot 311 is abutted against a side of the positioning rib 11 adjacent to the door body 20. Thus, a pre-positioning of the ejection mechanism 30 can be realized. Then the drive assembly 31 is fixedly connected to the inner container 10 by fasteners. Thus, a simple and convenient assembly can be achieved. When the door body 20 needs to be opened, the drive assembly 31 may drive the ejector 32 to protrude toward the door body 20. The ejector 32 may be caused to abut against the door body 20 to apply the acting force to the door body 20, and the door body 20 will produce a reverse acting force to the ejector 32. Since the support foot 311 abuts against a side of the positioning rib 11 adjacent to the door body 20, the support foot 311 can bear the reverse acting force from the door body 20 on the ejection mechanism 30, to avoid the ejection mechanism 30 from shifting and loosening after being repeatedly stressed, which can effectively improve the mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism 30. The above-described mounting structure of the ejection mechanism 30 of the dishwasher 100 can realize the pre-positioned mounting of the ejection mechanism 30, and can also improve the mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism 30.
It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the specific number of support foot 311 can be set according to actual needs, and can be one, two or more, which is not specifically limited here. The number of the positioning ribs 11 on the inner container 10 may be set according to actual needs. It can be that each support foot 311 is correspondingly provided with one positioning rib 11, or it can also be that a plurality of support feet 311 jointly abut against one positioning rib 11, as long as it is guaranteed that the support foot 311 can abut against and fit with the positioning rib 11.
As shown in
In some embodiments, since a bottom of the door body 20 of the dishwasher 100 is rotatably connected to the inner container 10 by a hinge, a top of the door body 20 can be rotatably opened and closed relative to the inner container 10. By arranging the ejection mechanism 30 on the top of the inner container 10, according to the lever principle, an arm of force between a point where the ejector 32 of the ejection mechanism 30 exerts the acting force on the door body 20 and a rotation axis of the door body 20 is relatively long. 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 30. In this way, the door body 20 can be unlocked in a more labor-saving manner, and the driving requirements for the ejection mechanism 30 can be reduced. Thus, a cost can be reduced.
As shown in
As shown in
In some embodiments, the housing 312 can be formed by splicing two half-shells together. The two half-shells can be enclosed with each other to form a mounting cavity. The drive unit 313 is mounted in the mounting cavity of the housing 312. An end of the ejector 32 is drivingly connected to the drive unit 313, and another end of the ejector 32 passes out of the housing 312 and extends toward the door body 20. A bottom surface of the housing 312 is provided with the support foot 311. The specific number of the support feet 311 can be set according to actual needs, and may be one, two or more. In some embodiments, there are various structures of the drive unit 313. The drive unit 313 may include a wax motor and an elastic element. The wax motor is located between the ejector 32 and the elastic element. A driving end of the wax motor is connected to the ejector 32. An end of the elastic element is in elastic abutment with the wax motor, and another end of the elastic element is in elastic abutment with the housing 312. The wax motor, after energized, heated and expanded, can drive the ejector 32 to move. Another end of the ejector 32 can be caused to be able to protrude toward the door body 20 to apply a thrust to the door body 20, and therefore the door lock mechanism 50 is driven to be unlocked. In some embodiments, after the wax motor drives the ejector 32 to move to a limit position, the elastic element can be compressed, and the elastic element can play a role in buffering and adjusting deviation, ensuring the structural reliability of the ejection mechanism 30 and facilitating to reduce a production cost.
In order to further improve the mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism 30, as shown in
In order to further improve the mounting reliability of the ejection mechanism 30, as shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
As shown in
The inner container 10 is generally a plastic injection part, and thus the structural strength of an open side 101 of the inner container 10 is relatively weak. In order to improve the structural strength of the open side 101 of the inner container 10, in some embodiments, an outer periphery of the open side 101 is provided with a reinforcement rib 40. In some embodiments, as shown in
A dishwasher 100 is further provided according to some embodiments of the disclosure. The dishwasher 100 may include an inner container 10 and an ejection mechanism 30 mounted on the inner container 10. The mounting structure of the ejection mechanism 30 may refer to the above-mentioned embodiments. The dishwasher 100, adopting all the technical solutions of all the above-mentioned embodiments, at least has all beneficial effects brought by the technical solutions of the above-mentioned embodiments, which will not be repeated here.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202221730009.4 | Jul 2022 | CN | national |
