GB2296018A

GB2296018A - Washing machines: sealing bellows

Info

Publication number: GB2296018A
Application number: GB9525331A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Giuseppe Cargnel
Original assignee: Electrolux Zanussi Elettrodomestici SpA
Current assignee: Electrolux Zanussi Elettrodomestici SpA
Priority date: 1994-12-13
Filing date: 1995-12-12
Publication date: 1996-06-19
Anticipated expiration: 2015-12-12
Also published as: IT235047Y1; DE29518631U1; ITPN940045V0; GB2296018B; ITPN940045U1; ES1032722U; GB9525331D0; ES1032722Y

Abstract

A clothes washing machine, in particular of domestic type, comprises an annular flexible sealing bellows fitted between a casing and a tub and provided towards the outward side with a first channel capable of engaging with the edge of the loading aperture and, towards the inside, with a second channel capable of engaging with the edge of the opening of said tub, and also provided with two substantially oppositely disposed portions 13, 14 which are connected by a bellows portion 10 disposed externally to the zone defined by said portions which are in contact with each other without being pressed against each other. Preferably said portions 13, 14 are shaped in relation to each other in such a way that one thereof is substantially convex and the other is substantially concave and is capable of accommodating the substantially convex portion. Portions 13, 14 prevent laundry items invading space 12. <IMAGE>

Description

WASHING MACHINES WITH IMPROVED BELLOWS The invention concerns washing appliances, in particular for domestic use, which are provided with a bellows that is particularly effective for preventing the risk of damage to the laundry contained in the drum.

Front-loading washing machines for domestic use are known, which are provided with an internal tub containing the washing bath and a perforated drum which rotates within the tub and into which the load of laundry to be washed is introduced.

In order to afford access to the drum which is inside the tub, the latter is provided with a loading opening which is disposed at the front thereof and to which access is gained by way of a suitable aperture provided in the front wall of the casing of the washing machine, the aperture being closeable by a particular type of door which is referred to by the slang term "porthole".

In order to ensure that the liquid contained in the tub does not overflow to the exterior by way of the gaps existing between the opening of the tub and the aperture in the casing, it is known to provide a resilient seal, referred to as the "bellows" which is of substantially cylindrical shape and which is hollow in the interior, being provided with two openings in corresponding relationship in the two opposite end portions, wherein a first opening of usually circular shape is fixed by known means onto the front aperture in the casing and the second opening is locked around the opening for access to the tub.

The bellows has a plurality of folds in its surface, and this is something which, combined with the characteristics in terms of flexibility and elasticity of the material of which the bellows is made, makes it capable of flexing and adapting at all times to the various positions that the tub may adopt with respect to the casing, without losing its own sealing function.

The foregoing is well known to any man skilled in the art and will not be further illustrated herein.

In order to ensure that, during the laundry washing or spin phase, the laundry does not penetrate into the space defined by the folds of the bellows, remaining there in a damaged condition, it is known for the bellow to be designed in such a way that it has two circular portions which are disposed at the front and which are spaced from each other by a few millimetres, to prevent the laundry from reaching the into that space.

One of the purposes of such spacing between the portions lies in the fact that, if they are in contact, particularly if under pressure, the wear and tear due to friction which results therefrom may rapidly cause them to rupture and thus give ruse to a loss of water; in addition, the fact that the vibration of the tub is transmitted to the casing in particular by way of the bellows and not by way of the suspension springs as would be more readily imagined contributed to the decision, which is normally adopted by all producers, to make the bellows as little transmissive as possible by virtue of the contrivance of spacing the oppositely disposed portions, however slight the spacing may be.

That spacing is modest but it is however sufficient to afford a slot into which, particularly in the spin phase, some articles of laundry can pass and become jammed therein and finally torn, with a phenomenon which is well known both to the man skilled in the art and also to the average user.

It would therefore be desirable, and this is the aim of the present invention, to provide a clothes washing machine, in particular for domestic use, which is fitted with a bellows which eliminates the above-described operational disadvantages and which is capable of normally performing the function of affording sealing integrity in relation to water and low vibration transmissibility without accelerated wear and tear and without imposing structural limitations and excessive burdens in terms of maintenance or construction.

According to the present invention, there is provided a clothes washing machine, comprising a washing tub provided with a front-loading opening, a rotary drum, an external casing, an aperture provided in the front wall of said casing, a flexible and sealing bellows of annular configuration and fitted between said casing and said tub and provided towards the outward side with a first channel capable of engaging with the edge of said aperture and, towards the inside, with a second channel capable of engaging with the edge of the opening of said tub, and provided also with two substantially oppositely disposed portions which are connected by a bellows part disposed externally to the zone defined by said substantially oppositely disposed portions, wherein said substantially oppositely disposed portions are in contact with each other without being pressed against each other sufficiently hard as to cause deformation of those portions.

The invention will be better appreciated from the following description given solely by way of non-limiting example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a plan view in horizontal cross section of the centre of the porthole of the front wall of a clothes washing machine in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a view on an enlarged scale of an end portion of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a perspective view from the porthole of a detail of a bellows according to the invention.

Referring to the drawings, shown therein are the front wall 1 of the casing, the tub 2, the drum 3 and the porthole 4. Also indicated at 5 are the edge of the aperture for access to the drum and at 6 the edge of the opening for access to the tub. The annular bellows 7 is engaged by known means with the internal circular edge 8 thereof to the opening of the tub, while with its external edge 9 it is fitted to the edge of the aperture in the front wall.

The bellows has a plurality of folds 10 which permit movement of the tub relative to the casing during the movement of the former and which are disposed substantially along an external arc delimiting an internal, annular, zone 12 which is connected, besides by said folds, by two substantially oppositely disposed portions 13 and 14 of the bellows.

Normally and in the stable condition those portions are spaced from each other by about half a centimetre for the purpose of permitting greater mutual movement as between the tub and the casing, and it is precisely into that annular gap that the items of laundry penetrate and suffer damage therein.

The invention essentially involves moving the oppositely disposed portions towards each other until they are virtually in contact with each other, but without pressure being applied at the respective contact zones.

That makes it possible to close off the internal zone 12 in regard to the intrusion of items of laundry, thereby eliminating any possibility of damage.

It is found that the fact of not causing the oppositely disposed portions to press against each other, even if they may touch each other from time to time in the course of operation, does to significantly affect the respective wear, both because there is not a stable contact pressure, and because the movement of the tub is substantially circular and not in a backwards-and-forwards direction, for which reason also occasional contact between those portions never becomes prolonged and damaging friction.

Advantageously, in order in every case to guarantee displacement of the tub with respect to the casing, the remaining parts of the bellows must be of suitable dimensions, in particular in the direction of depth and in the zones which are at the back of said oppositely disposed portions.

It has also been observed that particularly advantageous results can be achieved both if the oppositely disposed portions are substantially flat in such a way as to present a certain degree of resistance to accidental penetration of the items of laundry, and if one of them is concave and the other convex, in particular as shown in Figure 2, in such a way that the concave portion is capable of accommodating the convex portion, and if the concave portion affords a concavity which is significantly fuller that the convex section in such a fashion that the latter can move freely through a certain clearance without touching or interfering with the convex portion.

That constructive configuration is found to be particularly advantageous if the concave portion is that which is disposed towards the outside while the convex portion is disposed towards the inside.

Obviously the arrangement described may be in the most appropriate form in regard to the limitations of space and requirements in terms of volume, and can thus also be designed in different shapes from that illustrated, without thereby departing from the scope of the protection of the present invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A clothes washing machine, comprising a washing tub provided with a front-loading opening, a rotary drum, an external casing, an aperture provided in the front wall of said casing, a flexible and sealing bellows of annular configuration and fitted between said casing and said tub and provided towards the outward side with a first channel capable of engaging with the edge of said aperture and, towards the inside, with a second channel capable of engaging with the edge of the opening of said tub, and provided also with two substantially oppositely disposed portions which are connected by a bellows part disposed externally to the zone defined by said substantially oppositely disposed portions, wherein said substantially oppositely disposed portions are in contact with each other without being pressed against each other sufficiently hard as to cause deformation of those portions.

2. A machine according to claim 1 wherein said substantially oppositely opposed portions are flat.

3. A machine according to claim 1 wherein one of said portions is substantially concave and the other of said portions is substantially convex, said concave portion being capable of accommodating said convex portion.

4. A machine according to claim 3 wherein the substantially concave portion has a concavity which is substantially fuller than the convex portion.

5. A machine according to claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the concave portion is disposed towards the outside of the machine.

6. A machine according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the bellows part which is disposed externally to the zone defined by said substantially oppositely disposed portions comprises a plurality of folds for permitting movement of said tub with respect to said casing.

7. A clothes washing machine constructed and arranged to operate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.