FR2734003A1 - WASHING AND DRYING MACHINE PERFECTED LAUNDRY - Google Patents

Abstract

Combined machine for washing and drying laundry comprising a device (1) for condensing the humidity of said air circulating in said duct, this device being arranged in the vicinity of a vertical wall of the cabinet of said machine and being able to be inserted. The cabinet has in correspondence of said device, an access opening (3) thereto. Another possibility is to place a filter to intercept the fibers inside a portion of said condensing device, this filter being insertable from the outside. In machines fitted with a filter for the drain liquid which can be inserted and accessible from the front side of the machine, said condenser is connected to a duct which opens into the tank and also passes through said drain filter.

Description

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  WASHING AND DRYING MACHINE PERFECTED LAUNDRY

  The invention relates to an improved type of combined machine for washing and drying laundry, in which the drying process is carried out by condensation of the moisture contained in the hot air ventilated through the laundry, and which is equipped with means that make the cleaning of its capacitor particularly fast. Washing and drying machines are known to work by condensing a flow of hot air blown inside the basket and which

  take away the moisture contained in the laundry.

  It is known that these machines are made by installing a ventilation system, generally a fan consisting of a helix and its electric motor, which circulates the air in a closed cycle via a conduit, warms it and breath

  inside the basket containing the laundry to be dried.

  Inside said duct is installed a heating element, which, activated at the appropriate time, heats the air which is blown by said fan and comes into contact with it, whereby a sufficiently hot air is inserted into the air. basket to produce Evaporation from

The moisture contained in the linen.

  The hot air so impregnated with moisture is then sucked outside the basket, and is passed through a condenser constituted, in this case, by a fresh water jet from the water supply network, which creates a cold barrier against which said air

hot and humid is blown.

  By the effect of the temperature difference, the moisture present in the air is condensed, and the result of the condensation is sent into the bottom of the

  vat, from which it is easily removed.

  All this is well known in the current state of the art and is only recalled in order to facilitate the

  understanding of the features of this patent.

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  Said washing and drying machines are fairly simple machines, economical and whose operation is sOr, but, as is well known, they have the disadvantage that the fibers and fabric particles that detach from the laundry during drying are transported by the drying air inside the capacitor and are deposited on the walls thereof, in particular in its upper zone. As the number of drying cycles increases, the gradual accumulation of these fibers in this area creates a waterlogging that reduces the passage section of the dried air, thus reducing

  corresponding speed and efficiency of drying.

  Since the Italian patent application N 'PN91AOOO00007, it is known a washing machine and dryer condensation, in which the cleaning of the lower part of the capacitor is carried out by bringing back inside the water sucked into the tank, and using for this suction the same air circulation fan. However, this process requires modifications of the programmer, but especially the washing of the sucked water is limited to the lower portion of the capacitor, leaving the upper portion

totally engorged.

  As a result, the use of these machines is

  normally limited by this maintenance issue.

  To solve this problem, it is necessary to provide the cleaning of the capacitor which is fixedly mounted inside the machine and is inaccessible from the outside. This operation therefore requires the intervention of a specialized technician, with

  the cost and inconvenience this entails.

  It would therefore be desirable, and it is the object of the present invention, to provide a machine for washing and drying the laundry, which is capable of allowing rapid and simple cleaning of the entire capacitor, by a fast operation, simple and

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  performed easily by the user himself, at the cost of minor changes to the machine,

  achievable without undue expense.

  These goals are achieved by the invention which will be

  better understood by reading the following description,

  given solely as a non-limiting example, a combined condensing machine for washing and drying laundry, comprising a circulation duct, condensing and heating the air which is taken from a suction zone disposed on the wall of said tank and is blown into a delivery zone inside the tank chamber, said duct comprising a motorized propeller, at least one heating resistance of the air flowing inside said duct, and a device for condensing the moisture of said air circulating in said duct and placed in the vicinity of a

  vertical wall of the furniture of said machine. According to the

  vention, said condensation device is applied to the conduit so as to be removable via suitable locking means, and in that said piece of furniture has, in correspondence of said device, an access opening that can be closed by a respective door . Reference will be made to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows schematically a first embodiment of a machine according to the invention; Figure 2 shows a diagram of a first variant of a machine according to the invention; Figure 3 shows a detail of the machine of Figure 2, taken from it; FIG. 4 shows a second variant of a machine according to the invention; Figure 5 shows a detail of the solution of the

figure 4.

  The design solution is based on the observation that the safest and easiest way to clean the capacitor, especially its upper part, from

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  all the fibers that are deposited there, would simply be removed and proceed to its manual cleaning, for example using a jet of water oriented towards its interior. This is currently impossible, on the one hand because the current capacitors are not removable for normal maintenance operations, and secondly because they are not accessible without having disassembled part of the machine, which puts the operation all

  whole beyond the possibilities of the user.

  These obstacles are overcome by the present invention, by means of corresponding and contextual solutions (see FIG. 1). The first solution consists in producing a capacitor 1 which can be assembled in an easily dismountable and reassemblable manner, by means of known and safe techniques, such as, for example, with snap-on and pressure-engaging elements 2 or hooks which can be lifted off and hung up, etc. The second solution consists in arranging said capacitor in the immediate vicinity of a vertical wall of the machine, which may be a side wall as well as the facade, and that the portion of said wall facing said removable capacitor has an access opening. 3, which can be closed by a door

appropriate 4.

  It is obvious that the position as well as the size of the opening must be such as to allow, once the door is open, easy access to the capacitor, the unlocking of the respective fixing means 2, and the removal of the together and its extraction from the machine. A variant of these solutions assumes that instead of letting the fibers settle on the capacitor and then remove them, it is better to prevent these

  fibers remain in circulation. For this purpose, and in

  FIG. 3 is inserted a filter 6 with a sufficiently narrow mesh.

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  and in a suitable section of said capacitor, and means 7 are provided which are able to block and unblock said filter capable of intercepting the fibers in its normal operating position. In this case also, said means 7 must be operable in a simple manner, and facing said filter, the cabinet has a similar opening which closes with a door, said opening giving the possibility of access from outside said filter, so to be able to unlock it and

extract.

  The filter can be a mesh filter with a mesh tight enough to intercept the fibers, but large enough to avoid the risk of it being

  suffering from engorgement and occlusion.

  Of course, it is also possible to use a "labyrinth" fi lter, among the many models known in the present state of the art, which may however have an excessive pressure drop. Those skilled in the art are certainly able to correctly assess all the factors involved and to choose the solution best suited to the existing problems and the criteria sought. The solutions studied, although they meet the required criteria, however, have drawbacks, which can be summarized by: a) the need to normally have to work on one side of the machine, since the capacitor is almost always placed along a side wall; this induces the need for most of the time to extract the machine from its normal location, and b) the fact that the realization of what is necessary and described, that is to say an opening, a door , blocking and unlocking devices of the capacitor, induces a cost of production not

desirable, although modest.

  In response to these factors, and in particular in (a), it has been taken into consideration that

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  Combinations of this type, as washing machines, normally have a protection filter of the drain pump placed on the bottom of the facade and accessible by the user for periodic maintenance. The reason for being, the operation and the articulation of this fi lter are universally known and so, for the sake of brevity, we will not stop there.

Longer.

  Reflecting therefore on the presence of a filter for water, already available and perfectly accessible, and on the desirable presence of a filter for air, it has been found that these filters can advantageously be combined into a single filter, preferably in the already existing filter for the emptying liquid, which must

  however, be partially modified.

  The modification consists essentially in producing on said common filter 10, two other openings, one 11 insertion in the filter chamber 12, and the other 13 discharge from the same filter chamber, o the opening 11 is fed by a conduit 14 from the capacitor 1, and the discharge opening 13 opens into a conduit 15 which carries the air to be dried inside the vessel, preferably by passing through a plurality of resistors ( not illustrated)

  for its warming (see Figure 5).

  In fact, it has been experimentally verified that a normal washing liquid filter comprises a filter element, of various shapes, said filter chamber having good interception characteristics, including for fibers suspended in the water. air drying. This can be explained by the fact that the drying air, unlike the washing liquid which passes through the filter once, runs through the filter a high number of times and for a prolonged period of between one and two hours. , and during this period, it suffices that with each air circulation, the fieter intercepts even only a small

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  quantity of fibers or residues, so that at the end of drying, most of the fibers or fragments

  undesirable effects is globally blocked.

  For this reason, some filters, currently used as liquid filters, can be used without significant modification as filter elements for air. The advantage of this configuration is obvious: in fact, with a single filter element, already available and perfectly accessible, it is possible to obtain the double filtering action and to carry out the cleaning of the filter once to release it too. many residues intercepted during the filtering of the liquid as fibers. It is obvious that those skilled in the art can highlight other technical solutions and improvements in the use of the reservoir and associated organs, using the techniques and the normal knowledge of this field. Thus, although the invention has been described by means of a generally known terminology, it should not be construed as limited by the given examples, since those skilled in the art

  can make many variations and modifications.

  That is why it is understood that the claims

  attached include those obvious modifications which are clear to those skilled in the art, and fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims (4)

  1. Combined condensing machine for washing and drying laundry, comprising a circulation duct, condensing and heating air which is taken from a suction zone disposed on the wall of said tank and is blown into a sending zone inside said tank, said duct comprising a motorized propeller, at least one heating resistance of the air flowing inside said duct, and a condensation device (1) of the humidity said air flowing in said duct and placed in the vicinity of a vertical wall of the furniture of said machine, characterized in that said condensation device is applied to the duct so as to be removable via suitable locking means (2) , and in that said piece of furniture has, in correspondence of said device, an access opening (3) which can be closed by a door (4) respectively.   2. Combined condensing machine for washing and drying laundry, comprising a circulation duct, condensing and heating air which is taken from a suction zone disposed on the wall of said tank and is blown into a sending zone inside said tank, said duct comprising a motorized propeller, at least one heating resistance of the air flowing inside said duct, and a condensation device (1) of the humidity said air flowing in said duct and placed in the vicinity of a vertical wall of the furniture of said machine, characterized in that said condensation device comprises a filter (6) for the fibers, in that said filter is removable and insertable since outside without removing said capacitor, which are provided means (7) able to block and unblock said filter, and said furniture has in correspondence of said filter an access opening to it.   3. Combined condensing machine for washing and drying laundry, comprising a circulation duct, condensing and heating the air which is taken from a suction zone disposed on the wall of said tank and is blown into a sending zone inside said tank, said duct comprising a motorized propeller, at least one heating resistance of the air flowing inside said duct, and a condensation device (1) of the humidity said air flowing in said duct and placed in the vicinity of a vertical wall of the furniture of said machine, the machine being further provided with a filtering chamber (12) which houses a filter (10) of the drain liquid, said filter insertable and accessible from the front side of the machine, characterized in that the air outlet portion of said condensing device comprises a duct (14) which, via an opening (11), the wire chamber trage (12), in which is placed another opening (13), which, with a conduit (15) adapted, communicates said filter chamber with said vessel. 4. Machine according to claim 3, characterized in that said filter (10) is able to intercept both the fibers and impurities present in the drain liquid during the wash program, the fibers or other bodies present in the air flow downstream of the capacitor, during the drying phase.