Textiles: fluid treating apparatus – Machines – Combined
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-25
2002-11-05
Coe, Philip (Department: 1746)
Textiles: fluid treating apparatus
Machines
Combined
Reexamination Certificate
active
06474113
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a full automatic washing machine, and more particularly, to a damper for a full automatic washing machine, which is fitted between a housing and an outer tub of the full automatic washing machine for absorbing, and damping vibration from the outer tub.
2. Background of the Related Art
A related art full automatic washing machine, which carries out all cycles starting from washing to rinsing and spinning automatically, will be explained with reference to
FIGS. 1 and 2
.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, the related art full automatic washing machine is provided with a housing
1
having an upper hanger
11
on an upper inside portion, an outer tub
2
having a lower hanger
21
on an outside lower portion and fastened to an inside of the housing
1
for storing washing water, an inner tub
3
rotatably mounted in the outer tub
2
and having a pulsator(not shown) on a bottom for circulating washing water to wash laundry, and a damper
4
fitted between the lower hanger
21
on the outer tub
2
and the upper hanger
11
on the housing
1
for absorbing, and damping vibration and impact from the outer tub
2
.
In the meantime, referring to
FIG. 2
, the damper
4
is provided with a damper bar
41
having upper and lower holders
41
a
and
41
b
at upper and lower ends and a caulking part
41
c
on an upper portion, an upper buffering member
42
caught at the upper hanger
11
on the housing
1
having a through hole
42
a
at a center for pass through of the damper bar
41
, a lower buffering member
43
caught at the lower hanger
21
on the outer tub
2
having an operating hole
43
a
at a center for pass through of the damper bar
41
, and a longitudinal cut-away slot
43
c
for permitting radial contraction to bring the operating hole
43
a
into frictional contact with the damper bar
41
, a support plate
46
fitted to a lower end of the damper bar
41
such that fall off of the support plate
45
is prevented by the lower holder
41
b
, a compression coil spring
44
fitted between the support plate
46
and the lower buffering member
43
as an elastic member for elastic supporting of the lower buffering member
43
so that the coil spring is compressed and expanded against vibration and impact transmitted from the outer tub
2
for absorbing the vibration and impact, and a buffer tube
45
fitted to surround the compression coil spring
44
for generating friction force during the compression and expansion of the compression coil spring
44
. Therefore, if there is vibration occurred in the washing machine during washing, the vibration is transmitted to the damper
4
through the outer tub
2
, and the damper
4
absorbs, and attenuates the vibration by the friction between the lower buffering member
43
and the damper bar
41
and compression and expansion of the compression coil spring
44
.
However, the related art damper having the foregoing action has the following problems in view of the structure.
First, in assembly of the damper
4
to the housing
1
, under a state a driving device(not shown) and the inner tub
3
are assembled to the outer tub
2
, the lower buffering member
43
of the damper
4
is fixed to the lower hanger
21
, the housing
1
is covered on the outer tub
2
, and the upper buffering member
42
of the damper
4
is fixed to the upper hanger
11
, thereby fixing the outer tub
2
to the housing
1
. The fixing of the upper buffering member
42
of the damper
4
fixed to the outer tub
2
to the housing
1
is carried out by hand, wherein there are cases frequently occurred, in which the upper buffering member
42
is slipped down to a bottom side by its own weight in a state before the upper buffering member
42
of the damper
4
is fixed to the upper hanger
11
on the housing
1
because there is a slight gap between the through hole
42
a
in the upper buffering member
42
of the damper
4
and the damper bar
41
, with grease applied in the gap for prevention of wear. In this instance, the worker should put his hand through a narrow gap between the housing
1
and the outer tub
2
to reach to the bottom side of the washing machine, pull up the upper buffering member
42
, and fix to the upper hanger
11
of the housing
1
. In order to solve such a problem in the related art, though the caulking part
41
c
is formed on the upper portion of the damper bar
41
, for catching the upper buffering member
42
so that the upper buffering member
42
is prevented from coming down any more, the formation of the caulking part
41
c
on the damper bar
41
requires additional fabrication process.
In the meantime, in the full automatic washing machine, there are cases when the outer tub
2
hits inside of the housing
1
due to strong vibration caused by weight of the inner tub
3
itself and the washing water and laundry, if the washing machine is forcibly stopped suddenly. When the outer tub
2
thus hits inside of the housing
1
, the impact is transmitted to the lower hanger
21
as it is, to break the lower buffering member
43
as the lower buffering member
43
in a hole
21
a
of the lower hanger
21
hits onto an inside circumference of the hole
21
a
. Accordingly, in order to solve the foregoing problems in the related art, a thickness of the lower buffering member
43
is formed thicker, only to increase a possibility of breakage, though the lower buffering member
43
becomes the stronger, and to deteriorate an accuracy of the hole
43
a
to increase a probability of causing defects due to shrinkage in injection molding.
And, the related art damper has a problem in that there are cases when the lower buffering member comes out of the compression coil spring
44
. That is, an eccentric load occurred in the inner tub
3
increases an amplitude of up and down direction vibration of the inner tub
3
and the outer tub
2
, together with an amplitude increase of the damper
4
, wherein, as shown in
FIG. 3
, if the damper
4
vibrates excessively, the lower buffering member
43
comes out of the compression coil spring
44
, and sits on a top end of the compression coil spring
44
, coming down inside of the coil spring no more.
In the meantime, though there is grease applied in the gap between the hole
43
a
of the lower buffering member
43
and the damper bar
41
for prevention of wear of the hole
43
a
, the gap is made to be tight for providing an adequate friction between the lower buffering member
43
and the damper bar
41
, which can not contain a sufficient amount of grease. In addition to the lack of grease, the heat caused by friction between the lower buffering member
43
and the damper bar
41
drops viscosity of the grease, such that the grease flows down along the damper bar
41
, that causes to leave almost no grease in the gap in prolonged use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a damper for a full automatic washing machine that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a damper for a full automatic washing machine, which can prevent falling down of an upper buffering member of the damper from an upper end of the damper bar without addition of a member, such as the caulking part, for improving workability, and damage to a lower buffering member of the damper even if an excessive force caused by a sudden stop of the inner tub and the like is applied to the damper.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a damper for a full automatic washing machine, which can prevent the lower buffering member from coming out of the elastic member even if the inner tub and the outer tub vibrate excessively due to an eccentric force occurred in the inner tub.
Other object of the present invention is to provide a damper for a full automatic washing machine, which can hold the grease applied to the gap between the damper bar and the hole of the lower buffering member for a long time, ma
Coe Philip
Fleshner & Kim LLP
LG Electronics Inc.
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