GB573674A - Improvements to washing and hydro-extracting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

573,674. Washing and drying machines. CRANNY, J. E. Oct. 27, 1943, Nos. 17705/43 and 3724/44. [Class 138 (ii)] [Also in Group II] In a washing and drying machine of the kind in which a cylindrical perforated drum 6 is rotated or oscillated in a container 9 adapted to contain washing liquor, a removable clothes divider 40 is adapted to be inserted in the drum when the latter is to be rotated at a high speed for drying the clothes, this divider comprising a number of vanes 40, 41 radiating from an axle 39 removably supported within the drum. In the construction shown the vanes comprise inner parts 40 fixed to the axle 39, and outer parts 41 sliding within the inner parts and pressed outwards by springs (not shown), the extremities of the outer parts having clips 42 adapted to engage steps or beaters 10 fixed or the drum 6. The drum axle 11, 12 is mounted in bearings 13 in standards 14, and is driven by an electric motor 35 either (1) with a lowspeed oscillatory motion through two belts 17, 18 and a clutch 16 for washing purposes, or (2) with continuous high-speed rotation through a belt 52 and clutch 49. The clutches 16, 49 are simultaneously controlled by a bar 45 slidable in and rotating with the drum axle 11, this bar being normally pressed to the left, as shown in Fig. 3, to keep the clutch 49 disengaged and the clutch 16 engaged. When the clothes divider 40 is inserted in the drum its axle 39 engages a fixed pin 43 at one end and at the other end pushes in a pin 44 fixed to the bar 45 so that the latter is moved to the right to engage the high-speed clutch 49 and disengage the oscillatory clutch 16. Thus the highspeed drive can only be engaged when the clothes-divider is in place. The oscillatory drive is obtained from the motor shaft 34 through bevel gearing 31 and worm gearing 27, the worm wheel having fixed thereto a toothed sector 25 which during the first part of each revolution gears with a pinion 23 driving a double belt-pulley 15 through a belt 18 in one direction, and during the remainder of each revolution gears with a pinion 26 which drives the pulley 15 in the opposite direction through a second pinion 21 and a belt 17. As a safety measure 'the motor circuit may be interrupted by the opening of a lid 59 of the machine casing 60. The'lid 59 may be locked automatically when the drum is rotating, by means of a centrifugal governor 61 acting on a locking bar 68. The drum axle bearings 13 may be mounted in rubber'or other resilient rings 64 in order to reduce vibration. When articles have been washed they are divided into equal lots of the same number as the divisions of the clothes-divider, so that the high-speed rotation does not cause lack of balance. Large articles, such as sheets and blankets, can be laid inside the periphery of the drum and held against the beater steps 10 by the resilient pressure of the vane clips 42. The drum is provided with a door 7. The liquid in the container 9 is heated by electric heating elements or by gas burners 37 enclosed in a casing 38.