Textiles: fluid treating apparatus – Machines – Combined operations
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-07
2002-10-15
Coe, Philip (Department: 1746)
Textiles: fluid treating apparatus
Machines
Combined operations
Reexamination Certificate
active
06463767
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The invention lies in the field of appliances. The invention relates to a front-loadable washing machine having a rotatable laundry drum, of which the lowermost casing line in the operating position of the washing machine deviates from the horizontal such that it slopes upward in the forward direction. The laundry drum has hollow, elongate paddles that are disposed on the inside of the casing and, in the rear region of the laundry drum, have liquid inlets that, during rotation of the laundry drum, in the lowermost position, have quantities of liquid admitted to them and direct the quantities of liquid into the paddles. For their part, the paddles raise quantities of liquid contained in them and discharge the same, from a raised position, through openings into the laundry-drum interior.
In the case of washing machines, for a long time the prior art has involved the practices of wetting the laundry that is to be washed with washing liquid and moving the laundry mechanically to remove the soiling. In the case of drum-type washing machines, the function is performed by a laundry drum that is disposed essentially horizontally in a tub, is intended for receiving the laundry, is made to rotate and, in the process, moves the laundry in its interior. To assist this function, the prior art has included, for some time, to dispose, inside the laundry-drum casing, elongate, rib-like paddles that are aligned transversely to the movement direction of the laundry-drum casing. Such paddles fastened on the inside of the laundry drum are disclosed in German Patent Document DE C 8 347, from 1879, and have been used for sometime now, virtually without exception, for moving the laundry in drum-type washing machines.
A number of drum-type washing machines also exist that position the paddles obliquely and run essentially along a helical line on the inside of the laundry-drum casing. The paddles are positioned obliquely in all cases with the aim of influencing the movement of the laundry and/or the introduction of mechanical energy into the laundry. Such drum-type washing machines are disclosed, for example, from German Published Patent Document DE C 537 758, German Published Patent Document DE C 576 523, French Published Patent Document FR 1 136 981 and German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 44 12 718 A1. Also in the prior art are drum-type washing machines having oblique positioning of the paddles causing the laundry to be transported within the drum as the drum rotates. German Utility Model 88 04 246 has a drum-type washing machine is assisted in this way for the removal of the washing.
A method of washing textiles and a fully automatic washing machine having a rotatable laundry drum is also disclosed in German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 41 04 450 A1. Although, therein, the lowermost casing line is not located horizontally. The paddles scoop water in the lowermost region of the tub to raise the water as the laundry drum rotates and to spray the water, from a raised position, through openings onto the laundry located therebeneath. The configuration is such that the scooped quantity of liquid is discharged before the paddles have reached a position in which they are located essentially above the laundry. The configuration slows down the wetting process to a considerable extent because the quantities of liquid discharged only run down the inner wall of the drum casing and, thus, avoid the laundry. Moreover, the truncated-cylinder laundry drum conveys the laundry inside it in the rearward direction (away from the loading opening), where it may not be reached at all by quantities of sprayed liquid. Finally, it is also difficult for the user to reach the laundry in the rear drum region.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a front-loadable Washing machine having a rotatable laundry drum that overcomes the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type and that improve the wetting ability of the laundry and the ability to reach the laundry.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a front-loadable washing machine, including a laundry drum rotatably mounted about a rotation axis and having a casing with an interior and a lowermost casing line, a front region, and a rear region. The rotation axis slopes upward in a direction defined from the rear region to the front region. The lowermost casing line deviates from horizontal to slope upward in the direction in an operating position of the washing machine. The laundry drum has hollow, elongate paddles disposed on the interior of the casing and disposed obliquely with respect to a direction of rotation of the laundry drum. Each of the paddles have liquid inlets in the rear region of the laundry drum, the inlets fluidically communicating with the interior, discharge openings fluidically communicating with the interior for discharging scooped quantities of liquid, and a paddle interior fluidically connecting the inlets and the openings. Each of the paddles traverses over a raised position and a lowermost position during rotation of the laundry drum. The inlets admit and direct quantities of liquid into the paddles during rotation of the laundry drum while a respective one of the paddles is in the lowermost position. Each of the paddles raises the liquid contained therein and discharging the liquid through the openings into the interior while in the raised position.
The laundry drum of the invention is mounted about an axis of rotation, which slopes upward in the forward direction, and the paddles are disposed obliquely to the direction of rotation of the laundry drum. The axis of rotation of the drum, which slopes upward in the forward direction, requires the housing to be adapted correspondingly in the region of the loading opening to the effect that the loading-opening plane—oriented, as usual, perpendicularly to the axis of rotation—is likewise inclined obliquely toward the user. The configuration makes it easier to see into the laundry drum and to gain access to the laundry inside. Moreover, with a suitable direction of rotation, which may be determined by the obligatory control device of the washing machine, the paddles, which are disposed obliquely to the direction of rotation of the laundry drum, transport the laundry in the forward direction toward the loading opening. The obliquely disposed paddles likewise transport the scooped liquid in the forward direction in the same direction of rotation, with the result that, due to the axis of rotation sloping upward, the quantities of spraying liquid also descend onto items of laundry that are located further to the rear of the drum. Moreover, the paddles transport the quantities of liquid to a considerably higher level than straightforward, rectilinear paddles installed in the laundry drum. As a result, it is possible for all the quantities of liquid raised to spray over the laundry and for the wetting operation to be shortened to a considerable extent in comparison with the prior art.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, each of the paddles move, utilizing gravity, the liquid contained in the paddle interior in a direction transverse to the direction of rotation when a respective one of the paddles is raised.
Because, during the raising operation, utilizing the gravitational force, the paddles move quantities of liquid contained in their interior in a direction transverse to the direction of rotation of the laundry drum, the scooped quantities of liquid move upward to a great extent in the direction of rotation of the laundry drum, from where they reach all of the items of laundry located in the drum.
If, in accordance with a further feature of the invention, the liquid inlets are disposed in the base of the paddles, in that region of the laundry drum that extends furthest downward, most of the quantities of liquid may be scooped from a tub that encloses the laund
Heyder Reinhard
Schermuck Horst
Uzkureit Detlef
Wiesner Thomas
BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
Coe Philip
Mayback Gregory L.
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