Patent Application
20240360607
The disclosure relates to a washing machine, and more particularly, to a washing machine that can perform a drying function using a drying device disposed at the top thereof.
Conventionally, a washing machine for washing laundry and a dryer for drying laundry are formed as separate devices. However, when the washing machine and the dryer formed as separate devices, there is an inconvenience in that the user has to wait for washing to be completed and then move the washed laundry to the dryer.
To solve this inconvenience, washing machines with a drying function have been developed in recent years.
In order to assemble a drying device to perform the drying function on the top of the tub, the drying device must be lifted to the top of the tub. However, when the drying device needs to be moved using external equipment depending on the weight of the drying device, the drying device needs a structure that can be connected to the external equipment.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, a washing machine includes: a main body; a tub arrangeable inside the main body; a drum rotatable inside the tub; and a drying device arrangeable above the tub and including an evaporator and a condenser, such that while the drying device is arranged above the tub, the drying device removes moisture from air discharged from the tub and supplies heated air to the tub. The drying device includes: a housing accommodating the evaporator and the condenser; and a holder member formed to protrude from the housing and capable of being connected to an external equipment.
The drying device may be insertable into and placed in an inner space of the main body.
A gap formed between an inner surface of the main body and the housing may be less than or equal to a predetermined gap.
The holder member may be formed in a ring shape.
The holder member may be formed to protrude from at least one of an upper surface or side surface of the housing.
The holder member may be formed integrally with the housing.
The holder member includes a first holder member, a second holder member, and a third holder member. The first holder member may be arranged at a position corresponding to a front surface of the main body, the second holder member may be arranged at a position corresponding to a side surface of the main body, and the third holder member may be arranged at a position corresponding to a rear surface of the main body.
The housing may include a first side wall, a second side wall, a third side wall to fourth side wall surrounding the evaporator and the condenser. The first holder member may be arrangeable on an upper surface of the first side wall facing the front surface of the main body, the second holder member may be arrangeable on an upper surface of the second side wall facing the side surface of the main body, and the third holder member may be arrangeable on an upper surface of the third side wall facing the rear surface of the main body.
The tub includes a front opening and a rear opening. The drying device may further include: an inflow duct through which air discharged from the rear opening of the tub flows; a heat exchange duct connected to inflow duct; and a discharge duct connecting the heat exchange duct and the tub and formed to discharge air discharged from the heat exchange duct to the front opening of the tub.
The inflow duct, the heat exchange duct, and the discharge duct may be disposed inside the housing, and the holder member may be disposed in a remaining area of the housing except for an area where the inflow duct, the heat exchange duct, and the discharge duct are disposed.
The housing may include a first side wall, a second side wall, a third side wall to a fourth side wall surrounding the evaporator and the condenser. The holder member may include: a first holder member arrangeable on an upper surface of the first side wall facing a front surface of the main body; a second holder member arrangeable on an upper surface of the second side wall facing a side surface of the main body; and a third holder member arrangeable on an upper surface of the third side wall facing a rear surface of the main body.
The drying device further includes a compressor arrangeable closer to the third side wall than the first side wall. The second holder member may be arrangeable between the compressor and the discharge duct.
The embodiments described below are shown as examples to aid understanding of the disclosure, and it should be understood that the disclosure can be implemented with various modifications, different from the embodiments described herein. However, in the following description, well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail if they would obscure the disclosure in unnecessary detail. Further, dimensions of various elements in the accompanying drawings may be arbitrarily selected for assisting in a comprehensive understanding.
The terms used in the disclosure and the claims may be general terms selected in consideration of the functions of the various example embodiments of the disclosure. However, such terms may vary depending on an intention of those skilled in the art, a legal or technical interpretation, an emergence of a new technology, or the like. Also, there may be some terms arbitrarily selected by an applicant. Such terms may be construed according to meanings defined in the disclosure, and may also be construed based on general contents of the disclosure and a typical technical concept in the art unless the terms are not specifically defined.
In the description of the disclosure, the order of each step should be understood as non-limiting unless a preceding step is to be logically and temporally performed before a subsequent step. In other words, except for exceptional cases described above, even if the process described as a subsequent step is performed before the process described as the preceding step, an essence of the disclosure is not affected, and the scope of the disclosure should also be defined regardless of the order of the steps.
The terms “have”, “may have”, “include”, and “may include” used in the exemplary embodiments of the disclosure indicate the presence of corresponding features (for example, elements such as numerical values, functions, operations, or parts), and do not preclude the presence of additional features.
The terms such as “first,” “second,” and so on may be used to describe a variety of elements, but the elements should not be limited by these terms. The terms are only used to differentiate one component from other components. For example, the ‘first’ component may be named the ‘second’ component, and vice versa, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
In addition, terms such as ‘front’, ‘rear’, ‘top’, ‘bottom’, ‘side’, ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ used in the disclosure are defined based on the drawings, and the shape and location of each component are not limited by these terms.
In the disclosure, components necessary for the description of each embodiment of the disclosure are described, and thus the disclosure is not necessarily limited thereto. Accordingly, some components may be changed or omitted, and the other components may be added. In addition, they may be distributed and arranged in different independent devices.
Various example embodiments of the disclosure will be described in greater detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and contents described in the accompanying drawings, but the disclosure is not restricted or limited by the embodiments.
The disclosure has been developed in order to overcome the above drawbacks and other problems associated with the conventional arrangement. An aspect of the disclosure is to provide a washing machine that includes a holder member for assisting the operation of lifting a drying device disposed on the upper portion of the washing machine.
Hereinafter, the disclosure will be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The main body 10 forms the exterior of the washing machine 1 and may be formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape. The main body 10 may include a front cover 11, a rear cover 12, a left cover 13 (see ’ shape, and the lower cover 16 may be integrally coupled to lower
edges of the left cover 13, the rear cover 12, and the right cover 14.
The front side of the main body 10 is provided with a laundry inlet 18 through which laundry may be placed and taken out from the inside of the main body 10. That is, the laundry inlet 18 is provided on the front cover 11 of the main body 10. A door 17 is disposed in the laundry inlet 18 to be able to open and close.
A control panel 19 configured to control the washing machine 1 may be provided on the upper portion of the front cover 11 of the main body 10. The control panel 19 may include a plurality of buttons for controlling the washing machine 1, a display for showing information related to the washing machine 1 and the washing process, and a processor for controlling the washing machine 1.
The tub 20 is disposed inside the main body 10 of the washing machine 1 and is formed in a hollow cylindrical shape with a front opening facing the laundry inlet 18 of the front cover 11. The front opening of the tub 20 is connected to the laundry inlet 18. The tub 20 includes a rear opening provided at the rear side of the tub 20.
The tub 20 may accommodate a predetermined amount of water required for washing. The tub 20 is supported and fixed on the inner surface of the main body 10 by a tension spring, an oil damper, etc.
A diaphragm 25 may be disposed between the tub 20 and the front cover 11 of the main body 10. The diaphragm 25 is formed in a substantially annular shape. One end of the diaphragm 25 is fixed to the front surface 21 of the tub 20 with the front opening, and the other end of the diaphragm 25 is fixed to the inner circumference of the laundry inlet 18 of the front cover 11 of the main body 10. In other words, the diaphragm 25 connects the laundry inlet 18 of the main body 10 and the front opening of the tub 20.
The diaphragm 25 prevents the water contained in the tub 20 from leaking to the outside of the tub 20 and forms a passage through which the laundry passes. In addition, the diaphragm 25 may reduce vibration generated when the drum 30 rotates from being transmitted to the front cover 11 of the main body 10 through the tub 20.
The drum 30 is rotatably disposed inside the tub 20 and is formed in a substantially hollow cylindrical shape. A drum opening 31a corresponding to the laundry inlet 18 of the main body 10 is provided at the front surface 31 of the drum 30. A rear plate 32 is provided at the rear end of the drum 30.
The side surface 33 of the drum 30 is provided with a plurality of through holes 33a through which water may pass. A plurality of through holes 32a may be provided in the rear plate 32 of the drum 30. Therefore, the air inside the drum 30 may be discharged into a space between the drum 30 and the tub 20 through the plurality of through holes 33a formed on the side surface 33 of the drum 30 and the plurality of through holes 32a formed on the rear plate 32.
In addition, a plurality of lifts 34 that may lift laundry are provided on the inner circumferential surface of the drum 30. The drum 30 may rotate about its central axis by a driving device including a drive motor 35 disposed on the rear plate 32.
A water supply device for supplying water to the tub 20 is provided above the tub 20. A drainage device for draining water from the tub 20 to the outside is provided below the tub 20.
The water supply device may include a water supply pipe connected to an external water supply source and a water supply valve that opens and closes the water supply pipe. The water supply pipe may be provided with a detergent mixing part.
The drainage device is configured to discharge the water contained in the tub 20 to the outside of the washing machine 1. The drainage device is disposed below the tub 20 and may include a pump and a drain pipe. When the pump operates, the water contained in the tub 20 is discharged to the outside of the washing machine 1 through the drain pipe.
The drying device 40 may be disposed above the tub 20 to dry laundry washed by rotation of the drum 30. The drying device 40 heats and dries the air discharged from the tub 20 to generate heated air, and circulates the heated air inside the tub 20 to dry the laundry located inside the drum 30.
The drying device 40 may be arranged to be spaced apart from the tub 20 by a predetermined distance.
The drying device 40 may be arranged to be located in the space surrounded by the left cover 13, the rear cover 12, and the right cover 14 of the main body 10. In order to assemble the washing machine 1 by inserting the drying device 40 into the main body 10, the drying device 40 is required to be lifted above the covers. On the other hand, when the size of the drying device 40 is designed to fit properly into the inside of the main body 10, for example, when the gap between the drying device 40 and the inner surface of the main body 10 is less than or equal to a predetermined gap, the drying device 40 is required to be placed above the main body 10 and then lowered in the vertical direction to be disposed inside the main body 10. To assist this operation, the drying device 40 may include a holder member 100 that may be connected to an external equipment 200 (see
Hereinafter, the main configuration of the washing machine 1 according to an embodiment of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to
Referring to
The heat pump 60 is configured to remove moisture from the air flowing along the flow path formed inside the drying device 40 and heat the air to make high-temperature dry air. The heat pump 60 may include a compressor 61, a condenser 62, an evaporator 63, and an expansion valve 64. In addition, the heat pump 60 may include a refrigerant pipe 65 that connects the compressor 61, the condenser 62, the evaporator 63, and the expansion valve 64 to circulate the refrigerant.
The heat pump 60 is configured to remove moisture contained in the air and heat the air through heat exchange with the air while the refrigerant circulates through the condenser 62, the expansion valve 64, and the evaporator 63 by the compressor 61.
The evaporator 63 and the condenser 62 may be disposed in the heat exchange duct 43. The evaporator 63 and the condenser 62 are disposed to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance, and the condenser 62 may be disposed downstream of the evaporator 63 in the circulation direction of airflow.
The evaporator 63 is connected to the inflow duct 42 through a filter assembly 70 (71, 72, 73) disposed inside the filter receiving part 45, and may remove moisture by cooling the humid air discharged from the tub 20.
The condenser 62 is connected to the blowing fan 50 and heats the air by emitting heat to the air discharged to the tub 20. Accordingly, the blowing fan 50 may discharge high-temperature dry air to the tub 20.
The compressor 61 may be disposed in the space provided between the discharge duct 44 and the rear cover 12 of the main body 10.
In the washing machine 1 with a drying function according to an embodiment of the disclosure having the above structure, when the blowing fan 50 operates, the air inside the drum 30 forms an airflow, passes through the inflow duct 42, the filter assembly 70, the heat exchange duct 43, and the discharge duct 44, and then again flows into the drum 30.
At this time, the heat pump 60 operates to remove moisture from the air discharged from the drum 30 and increases the temperature of the air. In other words, moisture in the air is removed by the evaporator 63 of the heat pump 60, and the temperature of the air is increased by the condenser 62. The high-temperature dry air is supplied to the drum 30 by the blowing fan 50 to dry the laundry inside the drum 30.
On the other hand, the drying device 40 may include the holder member 100 for lifting the drying device 40. Referring to
Referring to
The plurality of holder members 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 may be arranged to be distributed as widely as possible on the drying device 40 in order to stably move the drying device 40.
For example, the first to third holder members 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 may be disposed on the upper surfaces of the first to third side walls 41a, 41b, and 41c, respectively.
However, the position of the holder member is not limited to this, and the holder member may be disposed in various positions depending on the configuration of the drying device 40. For example, the housing 41 of the drying device 40 may be implemented without the side wall structure. In this case, the first to third holder members 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 may be formed to protrude from the bottom surface of the housing 41 or from the components disposed inside the drying device 40.
On the other hand, the holder members 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 may be disposed in the remaining area of the housing 41 excluding the area where the components of the drying device 40 are located.
For example, the holder members 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 may be disposed in areas other than the area in the housing 41 where the inflow duct 42, the filter receiving part 45, the heat exchange duct 43 where the condenser 62 and the evaporator 63 are accommodated, the discharge duct 44, and the compressor 61 are disposed.
On the other hand, the compressor 61 may be disposed closer to the third side wall 41c than the first side wall 41a, and the second holder member 100-2 may be disposed between the compressor 61 and the discharge duct 44.
However, the location of the compressor 61 is not limited to this, and the compressor 61 may be disposed in the lower area inside the washing machine 1.
The drying device 40 may be inserted into and placed in the inner space of the main body 10. In detail, the drying device 40 may be arranged to be inserted into the space surrounded by the front cover 11, the rear cover 12, the left cover 13, and the right cover 14 of the main body 10.
The gap formed between the housing 41 of the drying device 40 and the inner surface of the main body 10, that is, the inner surfaces of the front cover 11, rear cover 12, left cover 13, and right cover 14 may be less than or equal to a predetermined gap.
Referring to
In this case, the first to third holder members 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 may be disposed on the upper surfaces of the first to third side walls 41a, 41b, and 41c, respectively. In other words, the first holder member 100-1 may be disposed at a position corresponding to the front surface of the main body 10, the second holder member 100-2 may be disposed at a position corresponding to the side surface of the main body 10, and the third holder member 100-3 may be disposed at a position corresponding to the rear surface of the main body 10.
In the above, preferred embodiments of the disclosure have been shown and described, but the disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and may be used in the technical field to which the disclosure pertains without departing from the gist of the disclosure as claimed in the claims. Of course, various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, and these modifications should not be understood individually from the technical ideas or perspectives of the disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2022-0023154 | Feb 2022 | KR | national |
This application is a continuation application, under 35 U.S.C. § 111(a), of international application No. PCT/KR2023/002244, filed Feb. 16, 2023, which claims priority under 35 U. S. C. § 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2022-0023154, filed Feb. 22, 2022, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/KR2023/002244 | Feb 2023 | WO |
| Child | 18767398 | US |
