EP2342376B1

EP2342376B1 - Packing spacer for washing machines

Info

Publication number: EP2342376B1
Application number: EP09736878.1A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Carlo Perini; Enrico De Angelis
Original assignee: Vic - Viterie Italia Centrale Srl
Current assignee: Vic - Viterie Italia Centrale SpA
Priority date: 2008-10-10
Filing date: 2009-09-28
Publication date: 2017-06-21
Anticipated expiration: 2029-09-28
Also published as: PL2342376T3; WO2010040658A1; ITMC20080029U1; EP2342376A1

Description

This patent application relates to a packing spacer for washing machines suitable to hold the hoses and cables of the washing machine.
As it is known, washing machines are internally provided with a rotary drum, designed to be filled with dirty laundry, which is exactly housed inside a basically cylindrical oscillating assembly.
In particular, such a drum is provided on the bottom wall with a shaft that, after crossing the bottom wall of the oscillating assembly that contains it, is connected to an electrical motor designed to drive it into rotation.
Considering that the drum of all washing machines is subjected to quite high rotational speed (especially during the spin drier cycle), it appears evident that the rotations can generate significant mechanical stress for the oscillating assembly that contains the drum.
In order to prevent the said stress from damaging the structure, such an oscillating assembly is mounted inside the cabinet of the appliance with the interposition of suitable elastic connection elements that act as shock absorbers.
Because of the high intensity of the stress, the said elastic elements must be adjusted softly, in such a way to allow the oscillating assembly to be displaced inside the cabinet, including significantly.
Although it is true that the solution of mounting the oscillating assembly on the said elastic elements is able to preserve the structural integrity of the oscillating assembly during the operation of the washing machine, it must be noted that such a solution causes a different problem during the packing and transport operations of the appliance.
During the said operations, the oscillating assembly of a washing machine is exposed to such strong shaking that it can hit the internal walls of the cabinet of the appliance, causing serious damage.
In order to prevent this problem, when the assembly of the washing machine has been completed, a common practice consists in mounting devices designed to block the oscillations of the oscillating assembly inside the washing machine, which are able to neutralise the presence of the said shock absorbers.
Of course, the devices are designed to operate only during the packing and transport operations of the appliance, and are immediately removed before putting the appliance in operation, when the oscillating assembly is subject again to the shock-absorbing actions of the elastic elements fixed to the cabinet.
An especially popular type of the said devices is represented by a spacer that practically consists in a cylindrical pin made of rigid plastic material and provided with enlarged head.
Such a spacer is crossed by an axial hole in which a fixing screw is inserted, which is provided with suitable length to come out shortly from the front end of the same.
Such a spacer must be inserted horizontally inside one of the holes provided on the back wall of the cabinet of a washing machine, until the enlarged head touches the external side of the back wall, in such a way to prevent the uncontrolled insertion of the entire spacer inside the appliance.
Following to the said insertion, the tip of the screw inserted in the spacer can penetrate the hole obtained in corresponding position in the oscillating assembly contained inside the cabinet.
Then the screw of the spacer is screwed, in such a way that the front end of the spacer can energetically interfere with the surface of the oscillating assembly and the enlarged head can adhere energetically against the external side of the back wall of the cabinet of the appliance.
In such a situation it is easy to understand that such a spacer can realise a rigid connection between the cabinet of the washing machine and the oscillating assembly, thus preventing the dangerous shocks of the oscillating assembly during storage and transport operations.
Moreover, it must be noted that during the packing of a washing machine it is also necessary to hold securely the flexible water drain hose and the electrical power supply cable that normally protrude from the back of the appliance.
Currently, suitable fixing means, such as brackets, eyelets or similar elements are used in most cases, being directly applied on the back of the washing machine.
Alternatively, the aforementioned spacers have been also used to hold the hose and cables during packing.
Within such a technology, in particular, a spacer with a large head has been provided, being designed to touch the back wall of the washing machine cabinet, which is provided (being obtained from the same material during the same moulding operation) with a branch designed to hold the plastic or rubber water drain hose and/or a second branch designed to hold the electrical cable.
According to a version of these multifunctional spacers the two branches face the side opposite to the stem of the spacer, as shown in fig. 1.
It can be otherwise said that, while the stem of the spacer is faced towards the inside of the washing machine cabinet, the gripping concavities of the two branches that protrude from the enlarged head are faced towards the outside of the said cabinet.
When using this type of spacer, the operator responsible for packing the washing machine must tighten the various spacers towards the inside of the metal cabinet and then insert the rubber hose and the electrical cable in the said branches, which are faced towards the opposite side.
While this operation is quick and easy for the operator in charge, it must be said that the aforementioned multifunctional spacer is impaired by a serious drawback that is especially suffered during the installation of the washing machine by the final user.
In fact, the final user often believes that the only operation to be performed before starting the washing machine is to remove the rubber hose and the electrical cable from the branches that protrude from the back of the cabinet.
Being convinced of this, the final user will not remove the spacers that block the oscillating assembly and will expose the appliance to possible (if not certain) structural damage during the operation of the appliance until spinning is performed.
After examining such an inconvenience, a different multifunctional spacer has been designed, in which the gripping concavities of the branches used to hold the flexible hose and the electrical cable are arranged in such a way that they interfere with the back wall of the appliance when the rigid stem has been completely tightened, as shown in fig. 2.
In this way the two branches "trap" the hose and cable rigidly against the back wall of the appliance, making it necessary to unscrew and remove the entire spacer to "free" them.
Because of this, the final user who wants to start the washing machine will never forget to remove the spacer from its typical operating position.
Obviously, this eliminates the possibility of structural damage for the appliance and must be considered as a positive result.
However, it must be noted that this type of spacers originates great difficulty, with considerable loss of time for the personnel in charge of packing the washing machine at the end of the assembly line.
The critical operation is when the flexible hose and electrical cable must be held between the back wall of the appliance and the two branches that are faced towards the same wall, after tightening the spacer.
For the execution of this operation, the operator must pay great attention to place the hose and cable in the correct position, on the back of the appliance, before inserting and tightening the spacer.
This is a delicate and complicated operation that, as mentioned earlier, tends to slow down the production speed of the assembly line of the appliances and requires the simultaneous assembly of the spacer with the cabinet of the washing machine and of the cables/hoses with the spacer.
Starting from a critical evaluation of the prior technique, the specific purpose of the present invention is to devise a multifunctional spacer (capable of holding the flexible hose and electrical cable), which is able to eliminate the drawbacks of the two types of spacer as illustrated above.
EP 1 939 346 ; DE 102007009511 and WO2007/039594 disclose a packaging spacer according to the preamble of claim 1.
The spacer of the invention allows the operator in charge of packing the washing machine to hold the flexible hose and electrical cable on the back of the washing machine in a very rapid and simple way, without relation to the assembly of the locking system of the oscillating assembly.
On the other side, the spacer of the invention eliminates the risk for the final user, when starting the washing machine he has just purchased, to forget to remove the spacer from the internal structure of the appliance.
In order to obtain these two results, the head of the spacer is provided on opposite sides with a first semirigid foldable strap, which is designed to surround the flexible hose and a second identical strap, which is designed to surround the electrical cable; it being provided that the opening of the straps, designed to receive the flexible hose and electrical cable, respectively, is basically faced towards the back wall of the cabinet of the washing machine.
Until the new spacer is tightened inside the cabinet, the two straps are maintained in completely open position.
In this way the operator can tighten the spacer completely - until the enlarged head is energetically engaged against the back wall of the washing machine - without having to arrange the flexible hole and electrical cable in a useful position to be "intercepted" by the straps.
Only after tightening the spacer completely, the operator can easily arrange the flexible hose and the electrical cable in the corresponding straps that are still in "open" position, leaving a large passage between the straps and the back wall of the appliance.
After arranging the hose and cable in the straps, the operator can close the straps by means of a snap-in system. In this way the flexible hose and electrical cable are completely surrounded and firmly held against the back wall of the appliance.
The snap-in closing system of the two straps makes it impossible to open them and remove the flexible hose and electrical cable.
Such a result can only be obtained after loosening the entire spacer, moving the enlarged head of the spacer (and consequently the two lateral straps) backwards with respect to the back wall of the cabinet of the washing machine.
The movement of the two straps away from the back wall of the cabinet is the necessary condition to open the straps and extract the hose and cable that have been previously tightened inside the straps.
This is to say that the "release" of the electrical cable and flexible hose (necessary to start operating the appliance) can be obtained only after removing the spacer from the appliance.
This prevents the risk of operating the washing machine, which has already been connected to the electrical mains and water delivery system, without having removed the packing spacers that hold the oscillating assembly.
For major clarity the description of the invention continues with reference to the enclosed drawings, which only have an illustrative, not limitative value, wherein figures 3 to 6 are top views of the spacer of the invention in four consecutive operating steps.
With reference to the figures, the spacer of the invention (D) normally has the structure of a plastic moulded cylindrical pin (1) with enlarged head (2).
The spacer (D) is designed to be inserted inside a circular hole (F) obtained on the back wall (P) of the cabinet of a washing machine, in such a way to be aligned with a corresponding hole obtained on the structure of the oscillating drum.
The spacer (D) is energetically pushed towards the inside of the washing machine, until the enlarged head (2) touches the back wall (P) of the appliance, as shown in fig. 4.
Then the spacer (D) is tightened by screwing the screw (V) that is axially inserted inside the hole obtained on the oscillating drum.
As shown in the aforementioned figures, the spacer (D) is provided at the sides of the enlarged head (2) with two foldable straps (3, 4) that are respectively designed to tighten a flexible hose and an electrical cable, which are oriented in such a way that their opening is faces towards the tip of the cylindrical pin (1).
The intrinsically flexible straps (3, 4) are obtained during the same phase and with the same material (although with suitably lower thickness) as the cylindrical pin (1) of the spacer (D).
In particular, each strap (3, 4) is attached to the enlarged head (2) of the spacer (D) by means of a short wing (3a, 4a) provided in the front with a backwards inclined profile ending with a retention tooth (3b, 4b).
Starting from the wing (3a, 4a) each flexible strap is provided with an intermediate section (3c, 4c) with curved profile that is connected with a basically rectilinear section (3d, 4d) ending with a sharp point, which basically consists in a hook (3e, 4e) compatible with the retention tooth (3b, 4b).
Each strap (3, 4) is also provided with a basically triangular outward-facing ear (3f, 4f) in intermediate position between the curved section (3c, 4c) and the rectilinear ending section (3d, 4d).
In order to explain the operation of the spacer (D), it must be noted that the spacer (D) must be first tightened against the back wall of the appliance, while maintaining the two straps open, as shown in fig. 4.
Further to tightening, the enlarged head (2) of the spacer (D) is normally engaged against the back wall (P) of the washing machine, while the two wings (3a, 4a) with backwards inclined profile are arranged at short distance from the wall (P).
It can be otherwise said that two narrow spaces (S3, S4) with basically triangular shape are formed between the wall (P) of the washing machine and the two wings (3a, 4a).
After this first operation the two straps (3, 4) can be additionally enlarged, using their intrinsic flexibility (as shown in fig. 3), to create a large passage in each strap (3, 4) for the insertion of the flexible hose (T) and the electrical cable (C).
Now the two straps (3, 4) can be closed, tightening the hose (T) and the cable (C), as shown in fig. 6.
In particular, the straps (3, 4) can be closed by energetically pushing the ears (3f, 4f), so that the rectilinear ending sections (3d, 4d) touch against the back wall (P) of the cabinet and the hooks (3e, 4e) are slightly forced and inserted in the narrow spaces (S3, S4) defined by the wings (3a, 4a) and then snapped in the retention teeth (3b, 4b).
The fixing of the hooks (3e, 4e) is favoured by the intrinsic flexibility of the retention teeth (3b, 4b) that tend to additionally back up with respect to the wall (P) of the washing machine, thus offering a larger passage for the same hooks (3e, 4e).
As shown in fig. 6, the elastic return of the retention teeth (3b, 4b), which is spontaneously determined when the two hooks (3e, 4e) have completed their snap-in coupling, presses the rectilinear sections (3d, 4d) of the two straps (3, 4) energetically against the back wall (P) of the washing machine.
Such a condition prevents the uncoupling between the hooks (3e, 4e) and the retention teeth (3b, 4b), and consequently prevents the opening of the two straps (3, 4).
Such a functional result has been obtained by providing that the closing points of the two straps (3, 4) - that is to say the points where the stable coupling between the teeth (3b, 4b) and the hooks (3e, 4e) is established - are basically aligned with the front side of the enlarged head (2).
Evidently the two straps (3, 4) can be reopened only after removing the entire spacer (D) from its operating position by means of the screw (V) in order to move the enlarged head (2), together with the straps (3, 4), away from the back wall (P) of the cabinet.
In view of the backward movement of the head (2) a space is formed in front of the rectilinear ending sections (3d, 4d) of the two straps (3, 4), which makes it possible to release the hooks (3e, 4e) from the retention teeth (3b, 4b).
Therefore, it can be said that the operation that is necessary to reopen the two straps (and "release" the flexible hose and electrical cable) is the same operation that is necessary to remove the entire spacer (D) from its operating position.
In view of the above, the operator who wants to "release" the flexible hose and electrical cable from the straps (3, 4) is simultaneously forced to unscrew the spacer (D) from the oscillating drum contained inside the washing machine.
In view of the above, the washing machine equipped with the packing spacer of the present invention (D) will be never subject to the risk of being accidentally operated before removing the spacer from the oscillating drum.
An alternative embodiment of the spacer of the invention is shown in figures 6 and 7.
This second constructive embodiment differs from the preceding one only in that it comprises a hook (5) obtained on the external side of the enlarged head (2).
The hook (5) provides the operator with a good grabbing point to extract the spacer (D) from the hole (F).
Another difference, which simply refers to a constructive detail, consists in the fact that the pin (1) of the spacer of figs. 6 and 7 is provided with grooved, rather than smooth, external surface.

Claims

Packing spacer (D) for washing machines, of the type provided with a plastic moulded monolithic structure composed of a cylindrical pin (1) with enlarged head (2) centrally provided with an axial hole for insertion of a screw (V), said packing spacer (D) incorporating at least one basically C-shaped flexible strap (3, 4) at the sides of the enlarged head (2), with opening towards the tip of the pin (1), designed to be closed to hold a rubber hose (T) and/or electrical cable (C); said at least one strap (3, 4) being provided with closing points basically aligned with the front side of the enlarged head (2),
characterised in that
the closing point of each strap (3, 4) is situated at the end of a corresponding wing (3a, 4a) that protrudes laterally from the enlarged head (2), said wing (3a, 4a) being provided with a retention tooth (3b, 4b) designed to be firmly coupled with a corresponding fixing means (3e, 4e) provided at the free end of the strap (3, 4).
Packing spacer (D) as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that each wing (3a, 4a) is provided with a slightly backward-inclined profile with respect to the head (2) and each retention tooth (3b, 4b) is intrinsically flexible and able to be snapped-in with a corresponding hook (3e, 4e) obtained at the free end of each strap (3, 4).
Packing spacer (D) according to anyone of the preceding claims, characterised in that each strap (3, 4) is composed of a curved section (3c, 4c) that originates from the end of the wing (3a, 4a) and a basically rectilinear adjacent section (3d, 4d) with a sharp end provided with the hook (3e, 4e).
Packing spacer (D) as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it comprises an extraction hook (5) obtained on the external side of the enlarged head (2).