Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification – Fluid treatment – Manipulation of liquid
Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-14
2001-04-24
Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)
Bleaching and dyeing; fluid treatment and chemical modification
Fluid treatment
Manipulation of liquid
C068S012030, C068S242000, C068S183000, C068S096000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06219871
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND—FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to washing clothes in the home, particularly to an automatic washing machine which operates in a seemingly paradoxical manner and which will automatically wash a full sized load in the home without a requirement for space dedicated to a laundry facility in the home and which, while drastically reducing the size and weight from that of a standard automatic washing machine, increases cleaning efficiency and reduces environmental pollution to a greater extent than heretofore possible.
BACKGROUND—DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
Ever since modern machines moved washday activities inside, there has been a long recognized and unfilled need to eliminate the requirement for a dedicated laundry room in living units while still having the capability to wash clothes without making an outside trip and without having to do it by hand.
Another long recognized and unfilled need is the lack of laundry facilities in a living unit such as an apartment or mobile home which does not have a designated laundry area set aside and dedicated to full time occupancy by laundry machines. This need has been recognized as is evidenced by many inventions of compact or portable machines. However, these inventions have such a greatly reduced capacity or increased inconvenience that it has not been commercially accepted as a solution to this problem. Thus, the commercial success of the local Laundromat.
Keeping clothes clean has been a problem since ancient times. Early in the history of this country pioneers washed their clothes by dipping them in the water of the river and rubbing them on rocks near the water. However, a trip outside the home to the local laundry facility was required.
The forerunner of the modern washing machine was a washboard. Using the washboard was somewhat like washing in the river. The user dipped the clothes in a tub of water and rubbed the clothes on the washboard. No longer was a trip to the river necessary. However, the drudgery and dedication of time remained.
The next major break through was the self powered washing machine eliminating the backbreaking work of rubbing the clothes by hand. However, added to the drudgery and dedication of time was the requirement for dedicated space in the home for the washing machine. Suddenly, the useful space in the home became less. The washing machine was always there and in the way.
After that came the automatic washing machine which eliminated the drudgery and the requirement of getting hands wet. However, the dedicated space requirement taking living space from the home remained a problem.
Not all homes have the luxury of extra space to dedicate to a washing machine. Even still, the residents of many homes that have no laundry facilities make the periodic outside trip to the public Laundromat. Still remaining is that long recognized and unfilled need, the need for full sized automatic laundry capability in the home without the requirement of space dedicated to laundry machines.
When people used the river for a Laundromat, wringing out the water was simply a matter of manually applying twisting pressure with the hands. However, that was manual labor.
With the early washing machine came the powered wringer, a device with rollers pressed against the clothes to squeeze the water from the clothes. However, still a human was required to feed each piece into the rollers, sometimes with much pain when long hair would get in with the clothes.
Automatic washing machines came with the advent of water extraction by centrifugal force in a spinning tub. No longer was it necessary to manually remove the clothes from the tub to remove the water from the clothes. The clothes rather than the water remained in the tub throughout the automatic cycle with the water coming and going in the same tub. The disadvantage of the centrifugal extraction machine is the requirement for a perforated washing and spinning tub inside a water containing tub. This results in two heavy metal tubs in addition to the heavy enclosure made of rigid metal surrounding all the other parts results in a big heavy machine that requires a permanent location. With the advent of centrifugal extraction the rollers were removed from the legs of the washing machine. Homemakers have been sharing their homes with the washing machine ever since. Other wringing methods were tried, but did not become popular. This loss of living space in the home has been the standard for decades.
Further, most clothes washing machines are inefficient energy wasters and environment polluters that wash the laundry by utilizing the mechanical force of an agitator and the surface active force of a chemical detergent. Accordingly, in order to improve the washing efficiency, many clothes washing machine makers have utilized various methods including such as improving the agitators ability to agitate the laundry, extending the operating time of the motor during a washing and/or rinsing time period and improving the quality and/or increasing the quantity of detergent used in the washing machine. However, there are limits to improvements in the washing efficiency by the aforementioned methods for the following reasons:
(a) The methods utilizing increased mechanical force to improve the washing efficiency may cause damage to the laundry or to efficiency of the clothes washing machine.
(b) In methods utilizing increased amounts of detergent, a relatively large amount of the detergent which does not react with the laundry is then discharged where it can later cause environmental pollution, and also the remaining detergent sticks to the laundry and thus the laundry is not effectively cleaned.
(c) Also, it is well known that if more than the recommended amount of detergent is used in the clothes washing machine, the washing efficiency of the washing machine is reduced.
Accordingly, inventors created several types of devices to generate surface tension reducing ions for the purpose of reducing the amount of detergent required:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,739 to Lee (1994) discloses a device which utilizes the generation of surface-tension-reducing hydroxyl ions for the purpose of reducing the amount of detergent required. However, this device is an add on to the standard automatic washing machine described above.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,393 to Morey and Dooley (1978) discloses a device which utilizes a cation exchange resin device to remove calcium and/or magnesium ions from the water for the purpose of reducing the amount of detergent required. However, this device requires a manual step in the washing process and it too is an add on to the standard automatic washing machine described above.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,617 to Ibbott (1994) discloses a water treatment devise to use in a standard automatic washing machine which utilizes electrically isolated electrodes of different electrochemical potential to ionize the wash water inside the washing machine for the purpose of reducing the amount of detergent required to little or none depending upon the amount of dissolved solids in the wash water. However, this device requires a standard automatic washing machine described above.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,870 to Serra (1961) discloses a washing machine which utilizes friction due to the motion of air, water, and an India rubber vessel in an electrostatic ionic process for the purpose of reducing the amount of detergent required. However, this washing machine is not automatic. It is an attempt to solve the problem of storage out of the way when not in use and has traded off the automatic feature for a more manual system with reduced capacity.
In the prior art there are many patents on collapsible, foldable, portable washing machines with an object to satisfy that long recognized and unfilled need to eliminate the requirement for a dedicated laundry room in living units:
U.S. Patent No. 4,305,265 to Burgas (1981) discloses a washing machine that is to be disassembled when not in use. However, it is not automatic, but hand powered, and complicated to set up.
Other examples of washing machine patents tha
Frederick Max B.
Guerrero Alberto
Maddux Joe T.
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