ES2725685T3 - Control panel for household appliances and appliances that has such a control panel - Google Patents

Abstract

A control panel (7) connectable to an appliance (1) such as a washing machine, a dishwasher, a dryer, a combined dryer, a refrigerator or the like, said control panel (7) comprising a wall (8) that forms a compartment (12) and having a surface (13) that is turned towards the inside of the compartment (12) and a front surface (14) exposed to the outside, having an on-off control (24, 29) to turn on / off said appliance, as well as the controls (25, 26, 27 and 28) to activate the operating functions of said appliance (1) after switching on, said control panel (7) comprising a sign (24) formed on said front surface (14) of said wall (8) and located close to the position of the on-off icon so that such position is detectable even when the appliance is off, wherein said on / off controls (24, 29) and controls for the performance of the operating functions (25, 26, 27 and 28) are in the form of respective illuminated icons that symbolically represent the functions performed by them, said actions being capable of being operated by the user touching the respective icons, said icons being illuminated visible after the activation of the machine power control (24, 29) and being made invisible after switching off, said icons being illuminated (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29), when formed, visible from the exterior through said wall (8) of the control panel (7) on said front surface (14), said wall (8) in said illuminated icons (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29) having a thickness reduced compared to the general thickness of said wall (8).

Description

DESCRIPTION

Control panel for household appliances and appliances that has such a control panel

Technical field

The present invention relates to a control panel for household appliances and an appliance having such a control panel, as defined in the preamble of claim 1.

In particular, but without limitation, the appliance is a washing machine, a dishwasher, a dryer, a combined dryer washer, a refrigerator or the like, and the control panel is of the type that has a wall that defines a surface that is turned towards the inside and an exposed front surface, which can be seen from the outside by the user, and it has the on-off control to turn on / off the appliance, as well as the controls to activate the operating functions of the appliance after its activation Background of the invention

In the prior art, the on-off controls and the function selection controls after activation are arranged on the front surface of the control panel of an appliance, that is on the exterior or exposed surface that can be seen from the exterior by the user during the typical operation of the appliance.

On-off controls as mentioned above, typically consist of mechanical devices operated by a button or switch. The controls for selecting the functions after activation, such as temperature selection, washing program selection, etc., are operated by mechanical buttons or by rotary knobs, or by physical displacement of a mechanical member.

In other embodiments of the prior art, the controls for selecting the functions after activation can be activated by pressing icons on a liquid crystal display (LCD).

The configurations of the controls described above require access from the outside to the front wall of the control panel, whereby openings or grooves must be formed in the front wall of the control panel. This will also require that special molds be formed to manufacture the control panel, as well as the buttons, switches and knobs that must be associated with the control panel.

This arrangement is described, for example, in EP1970479.

These technological requirements imply costs both for the manufacture of the molds and for the management of the stock, also considering the changes of style for the increasingly frequent appliances.

In addition, the configurations described above restrict the freedom of the design of the visible parts of the control panel and the coordination of its front wall with that of the appliance, for example, with the loading door. Compendium of the invention

In this context, the objective of the invention is to avoid the aforementioned disadvantages by providing a technical solution for the provision of controls on the control panel of the appliances as mentioned above, without requiring slots or openings to be formed through the front wall of the control panel.

The aforementioned technical purpose and the objective are substantially achieved by a control panel for household appliances and by an appliance comprising such a control panel having the technical characteristics as set forth in one or more of the appended claims.

Advantages

The present invention avoids the need to provide control panels with slots or openings that extend through its front wall.

Therefore, the present invention finally avoids the need to provide all the molds required to form the buttons, switches and knobs.

List of drawings

Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be further clarified from the illustrative, non-limiting description of a preferred, non-exclusive embodiment of a control panel for household appliances as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic front view of an appliance, namely a washing machine, which has a control panel of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic side view of the appliance of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a schematic top view of the appliance of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a front view of the appliance of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the V / V line of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is an exploded perspective view, schematic of the control panel of the appliance of Fig. 1 and its parts;

Fig. 7 is a front view of the control panel of the appliance of Fig. 1, in the off state of the latter;

Fig. 8 is a front view of the control panel of Fig. 7 in the on state of the latter, that is when the on / off button of the appliance is on.

Detailed description

Even when this is not expressly stated, the individual features as described with reference to the particular embodiments are intended to be auxiliary and / or interchangeable with other features described with reference to other exemplary embodiments.

Referring to the previous figures and in particular to Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the number 1 generally designates an appliance such as a washing machine, of the type of appliances that are included in the scope of the present invention.

Other appliances that may fall within the scope of the present invention may be, for example, a dishwasher, a dryer, a combined dryer, a refrigerator or similar appliances.

The number 2 designates the clothing loading door that can be opened or closed by means of a handle, generally designated 3.

The door of a housing for a conventional filter is generally designated 4 in Fig. 1.

Numbers 5 and 6 designate the bottom and top of appliance 1, respectively.

The appliance 1 comprises a control panel for operating the controls, generally designated 7, which is directly located above the front door 2 and below the upper part 6 in the illustrated embodiment.

According to the invention and referring to Figs. 4, 5 and 6, the control panel 7 comprises a wall 8 which, together with an upper wall 9 and sides 10 and 11, forms a compartment 12 behind it.

Therefore, the control panel 7 has substantially a box-like shape.

In particular, the wall 8 of the control panel 7 has a surface 13 that is turned towards the inside of the compartment 12 and a front surface 14.

In other words, the wall 8 defines a surface 13 that is turned inwards, for example, the interior of the appliance 1 when the control panel 7 is associated with the appliance 1, and the front surface 14 can be seen by the user from the outside, for example from the outside of the appliance 1, during normal operation of the appliance.

The front surface 14, that is to say the surface exposed to the user, also referring to Fig. 8, has on it the on-off control for turning on / off the appliance 1, as well as the controls for activating the various functions of operation 25, 26, 27 and 28 of the appliance 1 once the appliance has been turned on, that is after the activation of the on-off control.

It should be noted that the on-off control 24, 29 for turning on / off the appliance 1, as well as the controls 25, 26, 27 and 28 for operating the various functions of the appliance 1 are formed, or obtained, generating respective illuminated icons, as described in more detail below.

In particular, the implementation of the on-off control 24, 29 and the controls 25, 26, 27 and 28 to actuate the various functions of the appliance 1 in the control panel 7 does not require that the control panel 7 use mechanically operated devices with a button or switch or screens, such as LCD.

In a peculiar aspect, the front surface 14 of the wall 8 of the control panel 7 and the wall 8 itself are formed in one piece, that is, the wall 8 does not require that openings or grooves be formed therein to house the mechanical devices operated with the above-mentioned button or switch or that screens or cutouts or the like are formed on said wall 8.

In one embodiment, the control panel 7, or at least the front wall 8 thereof, is obtained by injection molding of a thermoplastic material having an appropriate degree of light transmission (TA).

In a preferred embodiment, the thermoplastic material in use is known under the trade name "STYROLUX" ®. The general thickness S of the wall 8 of the control panel is preferably 2.5 mm.

According to a preferred embodiment, also referring to Fig. 5, the wall 8, next to the side 11 of the control panel 7, has a recess 15 formed therein that reduces the thickness of the wall 8 to a value S1 comprised that between 25% and 50% of the general thickness S of the wall 8, preferably at a thickness S1 that is comprised between 0.6 mm and 1.2 mm.

The reduction of the general thickness S of the wall 8 in the recess 15 provides an improved light transmission through this area of the wall 8, so that the icons corresponding to the operating controls of the appliance 1 can appear outside the same area , and its functionality can be improved by a touch control, as will be better explained later.

In particular, with reference now to Fig. 6, the number 16 designates a support plate for electronic devices that emit light, such as LEDs, designated 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 respectively, which are conveniently designed to form illuminated icons corresponding to the respective controls for the appliance 1, or to particular operating functions thereof.

The plate 16, with the electronic devices that emit light 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 arranged therein, for example, in a row, is attached to the smaller thickness part S1 of the wall 8 in the recess 15, for example, through a framework 22.

Advantageously, the wall 8 of the control panel 7 has optical qualities that imply a light permeability that allows the passage of visible light emitted by the LED devices without significant degradation of such visible LED light.

A pressure sensitive film 23, also known as a touch sensitive film, is located on the front of the electronic devices that emit light 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 mounted on the plate 16, between such devices and the part of reduced thickness S of the wall 8.

This film 23 is made of a material that is known per se and will not be described further.

In particular, the film 23 is configured to be in signal communication with a CPU control and processing unit that is part of the appliance 1.

In one aspect, a touch on the area of the illuminated icon causes the film 23 to interact electrically with the CPU of the appliance 1, thereby activating the corresponding control or function of the appliance.

According to the invention, the electronic devices that emit light 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 that form the respective illuminated icons, are only actuated by first activating the on-off control 24, 29 of the appliance 1 with which, when the appliance is in the off state, the icon is not visible on the control panel 7 through its wall 8.

Access to the on-off function of the machine and the creation of icons for the operating functions is provided by forming the outer surface 14 of the wall with a sign, a projection or a screenprint 24 at the relevant point of such surface.

Namely, this sign 24 is located on the surface 14 in the same location as the electronic device 17 to create an on-off control icon and as part 23a of the film 23.

It is to be understood that the touch on the film 23, even through the thickness of the wall 8, reduced to the value S1, causes the CPU to activate the ignition control, giving rise to the appearance of all the controls of the appliance, including on-off control 24.

Fig. 7 shows the machine in the off state, with the sign 24 being only visible on the front surface 14. This sign 24 is indicative of the position in which the touch by the operator causes the appliance to be turned on.

In addition, still in Fig. 7, no control is shown to operate the various functions 25, 26, 27 and 28 of the appliance 1.

Conversely, Fig. 8 shows the state in which, once the machine has been turned on through the front surface 14 of the wall 8, in its part of reduced thickness S1, all the illuminated icons 25, 26 , 27, 28 and 29 formed by electronic devices 21, 20, 19, 18 and 17 and representing corresponding controls, appear and are visible from the outside to the user.

It should be noted that, in Fig. 8, the icon 29 representative of special functions of the appliance 1 may coincide with the icon 24, which is representative of the on-off control of the appliance 1.

The invention is capable of a certain number of variant embodiments, as regards, for example, the type of electronic devices that form the illuminated icons, the touch activation of the controls through the film 23, which may be of capacitive or resistive type, as well as the shape of the sign indicating the position in which the on-off control icon will appear, possibly with the same image as the corresponding icon.

Those skilled in the art will obviously appreciate that a certain number of changes and variants can be made in the configurations described above to meet the secondary and specific needs. All these variants and changes fall within the scope of the invention, as defined in the following claims.

Claims (10)

1. A control panel (7) connectable to an appliance (1) such as a washing machine, a dishwasher, a dryer, a combined dryer, a refrigerator or the like, said control panel (7) comprising a wall (8) which forms a compartment (12) and that has a surface (13) that is turned towards the inside of the compartment (12) and a front surface (14) exposed to the outside, having on it an on-off control (24, 29) to turn on / off said appliance, as well as the controls (25, 26, 27 and 28) to activate the operating functions of said appliance (1) after switching on, said control panel (7) comprising a sign (24 ) formed on said front surface (14) of said wall (8) and located close to the position of the on-off icon so that such position is detectable even when the appliance is off, wherein said on / off controls ( 24, 29) and controls for the performance of the operating functions (25, 26, 27 and 28) they are in the form of respective illuminated icons that symbolically represent the functions performed by them, said actions being capable of being operated by the user touching the respective icons, said said being Illuminated icons visible after the activation of the machine power control (24, 29) and being made invisible after switching off, said icons being illuminated (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29), when formed, visible from the outside through said wall (8) of the control panel (7) on said front surface (14), said wall (8) having said illuminated icons (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29) a reduced thickness compared to the general thickness of said wall (8). 2. A control panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thickness of said wall (8) in said illuminated icons (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29) is within the range of values between 25% and 50% of the general thickness of said wall (8). 3. A control panel as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said wall (8) is obtained by injection molding of a thermoplastic material. 4. A control panel as claimed in claim 1, wherein said front surface (14) and said wall (8) are formed in one piece. 5. A control panel as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein said general thickness (S) is 2.5 mm and said thickness (S1) in said illuminated icons is comprised between 0.6 mm and 1.20 mm 6. A control panel as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein said illuminated icons (25, 26, 27, 28, 29) are formed by respective electronic devices that emit light (17, 18, 19, 20 , 21) located on a support plate (16), said plate being attached to said wall (8) of the control panel (7) in a niche part (15) of the surface (13), which is turned towards the inside the control panel (7), said electronic devices (17, 18, 19, 20) forming the icons that are activated and deactivated by activating and deactivating said on-off control (24, 29). 7. A control panel as claimed in claim 6, wherein said niche part (15) having said plate (16) with the electronic light emitting devices (17, 18, 19, 20, 21) attached thereto, said thickness is smaller compared to said general thickness of said wall (8). 8. A control panel as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein a touch sensitive film (23) is located between said light emitting electronic devices (17, 18, 19, 20, 21) and said surface (13) which is turned towards the inside of said control panel (7). 9. A control panel as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said on-off controls (24, 29) and controls for operating the operating functions (25, 26, 27 and 28) do not protrude outside said front surface (14) or said surface (13) of said wall (8). 10. An appliance (1) such as a washer, a dishwasher, a dryer, a combined dryer washer, a refrigerator or the like, having a control panel (7) as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, comprising said appliance (1) an electronic control and processing unit (CPU), which is configured to manage the operation of the operating stages of said appliance, wherein said touch sensitive film (23) is configured to interact, when touched the icon on the front surface (14) of the wall (8), with the corresponding control represented by the icon, said film (23) being in signal communication with said electronic processing and control unit (CPU).