EP3111095A1

EP3111095A1 - Household appliance having a fan with a protective air passage device

Info

Publication number: EP3111095A1
Application number: EP14707394.4A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Volkan CERKEZ; Can Sar; Umit Gulbay; Onur Ozdemir
Original assignee: Arcelik AS
Current assignee: Arcelik AS
Priority date: 2014-02-28
Filing date: 2014-02-28
Publication date: 2017-01-04
Also published as: WO2015127989A1

Abstract

The present invention pertains to a grill assembly (4) fixable to a fan casing (3), along an axial direction of which a fan (2) is operable, the grill assembly (4) providing physical barrier to the passage of liquids by means of inclined lamellar elements extending in parallel so as to be delimited by a circumferential wall (12) to which the lamellar elements of the grill assembly (4) are connected in an integrally supported manner. The grill assembly (4) addresses problems such as moulding costs and maintenance problems and a grill assembly (4) having effective protection against liquid penetration as well as reduced manufacturing costs is obtained.

Description

HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE HAVING A FAN WITH A PROTECTIVE AIR PASSAGE DEVICE

The present invention relates to a foldable air passage device such as a grill or guard assembly for a fan in association with an electrical household appliance.
Fans are extensively employed in electrical household appliance for effecting cooling of the inner electromechanical components by way of blowing air into the interior of the appliance or sucking hot air out of the same.
A fan case is typically fixed in a slot of the household appliance, said case having an annular opening for accommodating the fan itself. An air passage device such as a guard or grill exposed to the outside is generally used to protect the fan from outer effects such as for instance penetration of liquids that might cause damage to the fan and/or electrical components.
Therefore a protective grill assembly is expected to provide a certain degree of physical barrier to the passage of liquids while allowing an efficient air passage for effecting cooling of the inner components of the household appliance. In this regard, a grill assembly having a plurality of inclined lamellar elements extending in parallel so as to be delimited by a circumferential wall of the grill assembly, should have a reduced opening between two neighbouring lamellar elements as seen from the outside in a direction perpendicular to the plane defined within the circumferential wall of the grill assembly. It is to be, however, noted that in order for manufacturing a protective grill having a substantially reduced opening between two neighbouring lamellar elements, one needs to first address other problems such as moulding costs and maintenance problems.
A grill assembly with reduced openings can be manufactured by injection moulding process using jiggle pins; such process requiring higher manufacturing costs and necessitating maintenance on a regular basis as the moveable jiggle pins are prone to damage in a more frequent manner.
Among others, a patent disclosure in the technical field of the present invention may be referred to as GB 2501725 disclosing a fan guard for mounting on an electrically-operated axial-flow fan. The fan guard comprises a plurality of fasteners for extending into a plurality of respective holes on the fan to secure the fan guard on the fan by a friction fit between the fasteners and the holes. Each fastener has a head and two spaced protruding portions each of semi-circular cross-section which are pressed towards each other as the fastener is pushed into a circular hole. The fan guard comprises an outer frame, a plurality of ribs and a central support. The guard has a projecting fin to be gripped by the user when mounting and removing the guard, and two arms to locate the guard.
The present invention proposes a foldably mountable grill assembly as an air passage device for a fan. The foldably mountable grill assembly provides the advantages that the openings in between two parallel neighbouring lamellar elements can be substantially reduced so as to provide an improved protection against penetration of liquids, while at the same enabling manufacturing of the grill assembly by conventional manufacturing techniques, i.e. by plastic injection moulding involving no movable jiggle pins, therefore cutting down mould costs as much as 50%.
The present invention provides a grill assembly for a fan in association with an electrical household appliance as defined in the characterizing portion of Claim 1.
Primary object of the present invention is to provide a grill assembly for a fan in association with an electrical household appliance, which can be manufactured in a cost efficient manner and providing effective protection against outer effects.
The present invention proposes a grill assembly in association with a cooling fan, said grill assembly preventing liquids from reaching the interior of an electrical household appliance in which said fan is operated.
The grill assembly is a two-part structure having a first frame means and a second frame means, the second frame means being closed over the first frame means to be covering the same. In this configuration, when the two frame means are positioned one over the other, the lamellar elements of the second frame means are aligned in a combined manner with the lamellar elements of the first frame means. A hinging structure can be used to connect the two frame means. Therefore the grilling assembly can be advantageously manufactured from a single mould as a single piece product eliminating the disadvantages discussed earlier.
When the two frame means are positioned one over the other, the combined lamellar elements of the two frame means are arranged such that an innermost end point of a first combined pair of aligned lamellar elements and an outermost end point of a second neighbouring combined pair of aligned lamellar element lie on the same line.
Accompanying drawings are given solely for the purpose of exemplifying a grill assembly for a fan in association with an electrical household appliance whose advantages were outlined above and will be explained hereinafter in brief.
The drawings are not meant to delimit the scope of protection as identified in the claims nor should they be referred to alone in an effort to interpret the scope identified in said claims without recourse to the technical disclosure in the description of the present invention.
Fig. 1 demonstrates a rear perspective view of an electrical household appliance with the grill assembly being exposed to the outside according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 demonstrates a general perspective view of a fan with the grill assembly being mounted to the fan casing according to the present invention.
Fig. 3a demonstrates a front view of the grill assembly being mounted to the fan casing according to the present invention. Fig 3b demonstrates a cross-sectional side view of the grill assembly taken along line A-A as indicated in Fig. 3a.
Fig. 4a demonstrates a front view of the grill assembly in unfolded condition according to the present invention. Fig 4b demonstrates a cross-sectional side view of the grill assembly taken along line A-A as indicated in Fig. 4a.
Fig. 5a demonstrates a front view of the grill assembly according to the present invention. Fig 5b demonstrates a cross-sectional side view of the grill assembly taken along line B-B as indicated in Fig. 5a.
Fig. 6 demonstrates various forms of the lamellar element air transition profiles according to the present invention.
Referring now to the figure outlined above, the present invention proposes a grill assembly as defined in Claim 1.
The following numerals are assigned to different parts demonstrated in the drawings:

Electrical household appliance
Fan
Fan casing
Grill assembly
First frame means
Second frame means
Hinging structure
First frame means lamellar element
Second frame means lamellar element
Fixation slots
Moulding opening
Circumferential wall
Protection opening

The present invention proposes a grill assembly (4) for an electrical household appliance such as a laundry treatment appliance, dishwasher, refrigerator etc. The grill assembly (4) is preferably fixed to a square-shaped fan casing (3), along axial direction of which a fan (2) is operable to effect cooling of the inner electromechanical components of the electrical household appliance by way of blowing air into the interior or sucking hot air out of the same.
The fan casing (3) and the grill assembly (4) can be connected to each other by fixation means at respective fixation slots (10).
The protective grill assembly (4) according to the invention constitutes an effective physical barrier to the passage of liquids by means of inclined lamellar elements extending in parallel so as to be delimited by a circumferential wall (12) of the grill assembly (4). The circumferential wall (12) is a circumferential edge to which the lamellar elements are connected in an integrally supported manner.
A grill assembly (4) with reduced protection openings (13) according to the present invention is manufactured by conventional injection moulding process, that is without using jiggle pins, which are movable mechanical elements used in cases where an intricate structure in terms of relative distances of individual parts with regard to each other are to be formed within the mould, by which a desired shape is given to the final product.
To this end, a grill assembly (4) having a moulding opening (11) which is large enough to produce the assembly (4) without using jiggle pins is designed in accordance with the invention. As seen in Fig. 4b, the moulding opening (11) is considerably larger than the protection openings shown in Fig. 5b.
According to the present invention, the protection openings (13) are defined by the distance between two pairs of neighbouring combined lamellar elements as seen from the outside in a direction perpendicular to the plane defined within the circumferential wall (12) of the grill assembly (4). The protection openings (13) are reduced by way of using a two-part grill assembly (4) having a first part and a second part in the form of a first frame means (5) and a second frame means (6). The first and second frame means (5, 6) are arranged such that the second frame means (6) is rotatable to be closed over said first frame means (5) by means of a hinging structure (7), upon which the lamellar elements of the second frame means (6) extend in an aligned manner with the lamellar elements of the first frame means (5). In this regard, a grill assembly (4) is obtained such that first frame means lamellar elements (8) and second frame means lamellar elements (9) are in alignment when the two frame means (5, 6) are positioned one over the other. Alternatively the first and second frame means (5, 6) can be independently produced by respective moulds without an in-between hinging structure (7). In this case, the fixation slots (10) will effect connection of the two parts in the same manner.
In this regard, the shortest distance between two neighbouring combined lamellar elements along the plane of the grill assembly (4) is configured such that the location of an innermost point of a first lamellar element of the first frame means (5) and the location of an outermost point of a second lamellar element of the second frame means (6), the two points being selected as the closest ones in respect to each other on said plane, lie on the same line C-C as shown in Fig. 5b. This adjustment especially provides an advantageous configuration against liquid penetration, whereby it is less likely that liquids spilling over the grill assembly (4) in parallel with the surface normal of the plane thereof reach the interior side of the assembly.
According to the present invention, Fig. 6 demonstrates various forms of the lamellar element air transition profiles. To this end, lamellar elements of the first and second frame means (5, 6) can be configured to obtain many different air transition profiles.
In a nutshell, the present invention proposes a grill assembly (4) fixable to a fan casing (3), along axial direction of which a fan (2) is operable, said grill assembly (4) providing physical barrier to the passage of liquids by means of inclined lamellar elements extending in parallel so as to be delimited by a circumferential wall (12) to which said lamellar elements of the grill assembly (4) are connected in an integrally supported manner.
The grill assembly (4) is a two-part structure having a first part and a second part in the form of a first frame means (5) and a second frame means (6), the first and second frame means (5, 6) being arranged such that the second frame means (6) is closable over the first frame means (5) and that the lamellar elements of the second frame means (6) extend in an aligned manner with the lamellar elements of the first frame means (5). More precisely, the first frame means lamellar elements (8) and the second frame means lamellar elements (9) are in alignment when the two frame means (5, 6) are positioned one over the other.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the first and second frame means (5, 6) are connected to each other at fixation slots (10), the latter also connecting the grill assembly (4) to the fan casing (3).
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the second frame means (6) is rotatable to be closed over the first frame means (5) by means of a hinging structure (7).
In a still further embodiment of the present invention, when the two frame means are positioned one over the other, the shortest distance between two neighbouring combined lamellar elements along the plane of the grill assembly (4) is configured such that location of an innermost point of a first frame means lamellar elements (8) and location of an outermost point of a second frame means lamellar element (9) lie on the same line.
According to the present invention, inconveniences such as moulding costs and regular maintenance difficulties are addressed and a grill assembly (4) having effective protection as well as reduced manufacturing costs is obtained.

Claims

A grill assembly (4) fixable to a fan casing (3), along axial direction of which a fan (2) is operable, said grill assembly (4) providing physical barrier to the passage of liquids by means of inclined lamellar elements extending in parallel so as to be delimited by a circumferential wall (12) to which said lamellar elements of the grill assembly (4) are connected in an integrally supported manner characterized in that;

said grill assembly (4) is a two-part structure having a first part and a second part in the form of a first frame means (5) and a second frame means (6), the first and second frame means (5, 6) being arranged such that the second frame means (6) is closable over said first frame means (5) and that the lamellar elements of the second frame means (6) extend in an aligned manner with the lamellar elements of the first frame means (5).
A grill assembly (4) as in Claim 1 characterized in that the first frame means lamellar elements (8) and second frame means lamellar elements (9) are in alignment when the two frame means (5, 6) are positioned one over the other.
A grill assembly (4) as in Claim 1 or 2 characterized in that the first and second frame means (5, 6) are connected to each other at fixation slots (10), said fixation slots (10) also connecting the grill assembly (4) to the fan casing (3).
A grill assembly (4) as in Claim 1, 2 or 3 characterized in that the second frame means (5, 6) is rotatable to be closed over the first frame means (5) by means of a hinging structure (7).
A grill assembly (4) as in Claim 1 or 4 characterized in that the shortest distance between two neighbouring combined lamellar elements along the plane of the grill assembly (4) is configured such that location of an innermost point of a first frame means lamellar elements (8) and location of an outermost point of a second frame means lamellar element (9) lie on the same line.
A grill assembly (4) as in any previous Claims characterized in that the grill assembly (4) is connected to a fan (2) of an electrical household appliance.
A grill assembly (4) as in any previous Claims characterized in that the fan (2) has a square-shaped fan casing (3).