Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Apparatus – Rotary drums or receptacles
Patent
1996-06-21
1997-12-30
Bennett, Henry A.
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Apparatus
Rotary drums or receptacles
34 82, 34 85, F26B 1102
Patent
active
057016844
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to clothes driers, in particular to the collection and removal of lint during the drying process.
BACKGROUND ART
In clothes driers of the type having a rotatable drum through which heated or unheated air is forced to flow to dry clothes, lint removal systems usually comprise a filter located in or adjacent to an air outlet from the drum. In New Zealand Patent No. 218568 the lint filter is provided in a duct through which air from the rotatable drum exits the clothes drier cabinet. The lint filter is removable so that it can be emptied by a user and replaced when required.
The disadvantages of the construction disclosed in New Zealand Patent No. 218568 are that the filter needs to be emptied and cleaned of lint regularly because it does not have a large capacity for lint collection. A reduced airflow may lead to heat build ups which can damage the clothes or the heating element.
A laundry drying machine having a serf cleaning lint filter is disclosed in EP 0045288A1 to MEA. This laundry drying machine has a main filter adjacent to an air outlet from the rotatable drum, the outlet being located about the circumference of the doorway of the machine. The main filter is in use cleaned of lint by the action of the clothes being dried in the machine. The lint removed by the action of the clothes is then disposed in an auxiliary filter located in a position which cannot be accessed by the laundry. The drier disclosed in EP 0045288A1 is unlikely to have problems with reduced airflow due to the filter being covered with lint. However, there is a likelihood of clothes in the machine being covered with some lint, particularly as the auxiliary filter has a small capacity. Also, the auxiliary filter stores the lint in the path of at least some of the airflow through the drier.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a clothes drier which will go some way towards overcoming the above disadvantages, or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.
Accordingly, in one aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a clothes drying machine comprising a rotatable drum for receiving clothes to be dried, said drum having an air inlet and an air outlet, air movement means to cause air flow into said air inlet and through said drum and out said air outlet, a lint filter adjacent to said air outlet having a lint receiving surface for receiving lint entrained in said airflow from said clothes, a container for containing lint removed from said surface, a lint removal member provided in a passageway leading to said container adjacent to or in contact with a part of said lint receiving surface, said lint removal member and said lint receiving surface being moveable relative to each other by rotation of said drum for removing lint from said surface by a scraping or peeling action, the removed lint then being collected in said container for manual disposal.
In a further aspect the invention may broadly be said to consist in a clothes drying machine having a drum, rotated by a motor, for receiving clothes to be dried wherein a heated airflow is passed through said drum characterised in that said airflow leaving said drum is passed through a lint filter having a surface on which lint entrained in said airflow is received, the lint is scraped or peeled from said filter surface and the lint scraped from said surface is collected for subsequent removal.
The invention consists in the foregoing and also envisages constructions of which the following gives examples.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
One preferred form of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which;
FIG. 1 is an elevation in cross section according to the present invention,
FIG. 2 is an enlargement elevation in cross section of that portion of FIG. 1 within area "A",
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic front elevation of a clothes drying machine in accordance with the present invention, and
FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of that p
REFERENCES:
patent: 2925664 (1960-02-01), Cobb et al.
patent: 3648381 (1972-03-01), Fox
patent: 3966441 (1976-06-01), Freze
patent: 4314409 (1982-02-01), Cartier et al.
patent: 4462170 (1984-07-01), Burkall et al.
patent: 4557058 (1985-12-01), Ozawa et al.
patent: 4673502 (1987-06-01), Fox
patent: 4700492 (1987-10-01), Werner et al.
PCT Search Report.
Bennett Henry A.
Doster Dinnatia
Fisher & Paykel Limited
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