JP2010017217A - Washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce vibration during dewatering by enhancing unbalance correcting force of a fluid balancer without worsening the vibration during resonance. <P>SOLUTION: A hollow ringlike fluid balancer 16 is arranged in an opening portion 6a of a cylindrical drum 6 rotatably arranged in an outer tank 2, the fluid balancer 16 is constituted such that an annular elastic thin film body 18 is arranged so as to divide the hollow portion of the same in an concentric circle shape and define an inside hollow portion 20 and an outside hollow portion 21 with a liquid 19 incorporated into the inside hollow portion 20 divided by the elastic thin film body 18. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a washing machine for washing clothes and the like.

  Conventionally, this type of washing machine is provided with a fluid balancer for correcting an eccentric load caused by clothes on a drum (for example, see Patent Document 1). FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the washing machine described in the publication.

As shown in FIG. 8, the washing machine main body 51, a water tank 54 supported by a suspension 52 and a damper 53 in the washing machine main body 51 and provided with a bearing on the bottom surface, and a rotating shaft on the bottom surface. And a motor 57 that drives the drum 55 via a belt 56. A plurality of radially separated fluid balancers 58 and 59 are provided on the peripheral edge of the end of the drum 55 in the central axis direction. Inside the fluid balancers 58 and 59, communication holes 60 having different areas are provided on the outer peripheral side. The partition plate 61 is formed, and the flow resistance of the internal fluid is different.
JP-A-4-240488

  However, in the conventional configuration, when washing and rinsing are performed and dehydration is performed, the fluid in the fluid balancer is distributed on the side of the eccentric load of the garment until resonance, and the eccentric load is increased. The vibration of was increased. In order to improve the unbalance correction force of the fluid balancer, it is particularly effective to increase the volume of the fluid balancer or to increase the number of layers in the radial direction. There was a problem of letting it.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described conventional problems, and to improve an unbalance correction force of a fluid balancer and reduce vibration during dehydration without deteriorating vibration during resonance.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the washing machine of the present invention is provided with a hollow ring-shaped fluid balancer at the opening of a cylindrical drum rotatably provided in the outer tub, and the fluid balancer The hollow portion is divided into concentric circles, an annular elastic thin film body is provided so as to define an inner hollow portion and an outer hollow portion, and a liquid is built in the inner hollow portion divided by the elastic thin film body.

  As a result, when the rotational speed of the drum increases during the dehydration operation and the centrifugal force increases, the elastic thin film elastically deforms so as to swell in the outer peripheral direction of the fluid balancer, and the liquid contained in the inner hollow portion of the fluid balancer However, it becomes more biased toward the outer circumference as the rotational speed increases. That is, when the rotational speed at resonance is low and the centrifugal force is small, the elastic thin film body is not elastically deformed, but when the rotational speed at steady state is high, the elastic thin film body is elastically deformed in the outer peripheral direction, and the fluid balancer Since the built-in fluid is more biased toward the outer peripheral side, it is possible to improve the unbalance correction force in the steady state without deteriorating vibration at the time of resonance.

  The washing machine of the present invention can improve the unbalance correction force of the fluid balancer and reduce the vibration during dehydration without deteriorating the vibration during resonance.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an outer frame, an outer tub elastically supported in the outer frame, a cylindrical drum provided with an opening on the front surface side and rotatably provided in the outer tub, and the drum And a driving means for rotationally driving, a support spring for elastically supporting the outer tub, a damper for suppressing vibration of the outer tub, and a hollow ring-shaped fluid balancer provided at an opening of the drum, The balancer is provided with an annular elastic thin film body so that the hollow part is concentrically divided into an inner hollow part and an outer hollow part, and a liquid is contained in the inner hollow part divided by the elastic thin film body. As a result, the degree of elastic deformation of the elastic thin film body toward the outer periphery of the fluid balancer changes according to the number of rotations of the drum during the dehydration operation. More perimeter of the position facing the balance This improves the unbalance correction force during steady operation and reduces vibration during dehydration operation without deteriorating the vibration caused by the fluid contained in the fluid balancer being unbalanced during resonance. It can be effectively reduced.

  In the second invention, in particular, the fluid balancer according to the first invention forms an annular wall concentrically defining the hollow portion into an inner hollow portion and an outer hollow portion, and an opening is provided in the wall. By providing an annular elastic thin film body so that it can swell from the inside of the wall through the opening to the outer hollow portion of the wall, the elastic thin film body passes through the opening of the wall during steady dehydration, and the outer circumference direction of the fluid balancer Therefore, the built-in fluid can be more biased toward the outer peripheral side, and the correction force for unbalance caused by clothing can be further improved.

  In the third invention, in particular, the fluid balancer of the first or second invention has a hollow ring-shaped bag body containing a liquid, and the bag body is disposed inside the elastic thin film body. Even if the elastic thin film body is damaged due to aging, etc., the imbalance correction force can be improved by the hollow ring-shaped bag body whose outer peripheral side is protected by the elastic thin film body, and vibration during dehydration operation is reduced. be able to.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a washing machine according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the fluid balancer, and FIG. 3 is an operation diagram of the fluid balancer.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a cylindrical outer tub 2 having an opening 1 a on the front side is provided inside the outer frame 1, and the outer tub 2 is provided from below by a damper 3. It is elastically supported to absorb the vibration of the outer tub 2 during the washing and dehydration process. Further, the outer tub 2 is supported by the two support springs 4 so that the outer tub 2 does not fall down.

  A cylindrical drum 6 that accommodates the clothes 5 is rotatably provided inside the outer tub 2 and is rotationally driven by a motor 7 as a driving means. In the outer frame 1, the outer tub 2 and the drum 6 are provided with the front surface licked upward so that the user can easily take out clothes, and the rotation axis direction of the drum 6 is raised 10 to 30 degrees forward from the horizontal direction. Inclined.

  On the front surface of the outer frame 1, there are provided an opening 1a through which clothes 5 are taken in and out and a door 8 for opening and closing the opening 1a. Similar openings 2a, 6a are also provided on the front side of the outer tub 2 and the drum 6, and the opening 2a of the outer tub 2 is water-tightly connected to the opening 1a of the outer frame 1 by a bellows 9. The bottom of the outer tub 2 has a drain port 10 for discharging washing water, and is connected to a drain valve 11. An overflow port 12 is provided in the outer tub 2, and when the water is supplied above a predetermined water level, the overflowed water flows to the drain hose 14 via the overflow hose 13 and is discharged outside the apparatus. The control means 15 controls the washing and dehydrating processes by driving the motor 7 and the drain valve 11 and the like.

  A hollow ring-shaped fluid balancer 16 is provided in the opening 6 a on the front side of the drum 6. The fluid balancer 16 is fixed to the drum 6 and rotates together with the drum 6. The fluid balancer 16 includes a sealed hollow ring-shaped balancer container 17, an elastic thin film body 18 formed in a thin film shape with an annular rubber or the like, and a liquid 19.

  The elastic thin film body 18 is provided so as to be concentrically divided into the inner hollow portion 20 and the outer hollow portion 21 of the balancer container 17, and the liquid 19 is applied to the inner peripheral hollow portion 20 divided by the elastic thin film body 18. Built-in. The liquid 19 is injected in an amount of 30 to 70% of the volume of the inner hollow portion 20, and an aqueous solution of sodium chloride or calcium chloride is used in consideration of freezing prevention and a correction effect. The upper end portion 18 a and the lower end portion 18 b of the elastic thin film body 18 are fixed to the inner surface of the balancer container 17 so that the liquid 19 in the inner hollow portion 20 does not move to the outer hollow portion 21.

  Here, the principle of unbalance correction by the fluid balancer will be described with reference to FIG. (A) shows the biased state of the internal fluid before resonance, and (b) shows the biased state of the internal fluid after resonance (at steady state).

  In general, in the forced vibration of a spring or damper system, the external force and displacement are in the same phase before resonance, and the phase difference is 90 degrees at the time of resonance. After resonance, the phase difference of 180 degrees, that is, the external force and displacement is , Each in the opposite direction. Also in the fluid balancer, due to this action, the internal fluid gathers in the same direction as the external force due to the unbalance before resonance, and the fluid gathers at a position opposite to the unbalance in the steady state after resonance.

  As a result, when the fluid balancer is used in the washing machine, the unbalance force caused by the clothes can be corrected in the steady state after the resonance, but conversely, until the resonance, the fluid inside the fluid balancer is also unbalanced. Acts on the contrary and worsens the vibration. When trying to improve the unbalance correction force of the fluid balancer, it is conceivable to increase the outer diameter of the fluid balancer container in order to increase the centrifugal force of the correction, but this worsens the vibration before resonance. It will also let you.

  The fluid balancer of the present invention eliminates this phenomenon, improves the unbalance correction force at the steady state after passing through the resonance, and reduces the vibration during the dehydrating operation without deteriorating the vibration before the resonance. Yes, the operation will be described with reference to FIG. (A) shows the biased state of the liquid 19 that is the internal fluid before resonance, and (b) shows the biased state after resonance.

  During the dehydration operation, as the rotational speed of the drum 6 increases, the liquid 19 gathers on the unbalanced side before resonance, but at this time, the liquid 19 is formed inside the elastic thin film body 18 provided inside the balancer container 17. Since the liquid 19 is located in the inner hollow portion 20, the liquid 19 does not collect in the outer hollow portion 21 and the centrifugal force by the liquid 19 is reduced. That is, the degree to which the unbalance force is increased by the liquid 19 is reduced. This is because the centrifugal force is still small and the load applied to the elastic thin film 18 is small and hardly deforms in a state where the rotational speed before resonance is low.

  Then, after passing through resonance, as the number of rotations of the drum 6 increases, the liquid 19 gathers on the side opposite to the unbalance, and the centrifugal force due to the liquid 19 also increases, so that the load applied to the elastic thin film body 18 increases. Accordingly, the elastic thin film body 18 is elastically deformed so as to swell in the outer peripheral side hollow portion 21, and the liquid 19 also gathers on the outer peripheral side as the elastic thin film body 18 is deformed. Therefore, in a steady state after passing through the resonance, an unbalance correction force equivalent to the case without the elastic thin film body 18 can be exhibited.

  Next, the operation of the washing machine with the above configuration will be described. In the washing process, water is supplied until the water level reaches a predetermined water level in the outer tub 2 with the drain valve 11 closed, and the clothes 5 are washed by rotating the clothes 5 and the drum 6 containing the washing water by the motor 7. .

  After the washing process, the rinsing process is started. In the rinsing step, water is supplied into the outer tub 2 as in the washing step, and the garment 5 is rinsed by rotating the drum 6. In the dehydration step, the drain valve 11 is opened to drain water to the outside of the machine, and then the drum 6 containing the clothing 5 is rotated at high speed by the motor 7 for dehydration. When the clothes 5 are biased to a part of the drum 6 during the washing process, that is, when the clothes 5 are in an unbalanced state, the vibration frequency due to the rotation of the drum 6 approaches the resonance frequency of the outer tub 2. The vibration of the outer tub 2 increases and the outer tub 2 collides with the outer frame 1 when the unbalanced state is large. Further, in a state where the unbalance is large, the outer tub 2 vibrates considerably even before entering resonance, and may collide with the outer frame 1.

  According to the present invention, the annular elastic thin film body 18 is provided so that the hollow portion of the fluid balancer 16 is concentrically divided into the inner hollow portion 20 and the outer hollow portion 21. By incorporating the liquid 19 in the inner hollow portion 20 that has been made, it is possible to reduce only the steady-state vibration of the outer tub 2 without increasing the vibration of the outer tub 2 before resonance. When performing the dehydration operation, the rotation speed of the drum 5 is rotating in a steady state. Therefore, it is possible to effectively reduce the noise caused by the vibration sound during the dehydration by reducing the vibration during the dehydration steady state. .

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a fluid balancer according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 and 5, the fluid balancer 22 includes a partition wall 24 that concentrically divides the hollow portion in the balancer container 23 into a plurality of concentric circles. The partition wall 24 is long in the center in the vertical direction over the entire circumference. A hole-like opening 25 is provided. The annular elastic thin film body 18 is provided in an inner hollow portion 26 formed inside the partition wall 24, and the upper end portion 18a and the lower end portion 18b of the elastic thin film body 18 are fixed to the inner surface of the balancer container 23, The liquid 19 in the inner hollow portion 26 is prevented from moving to the outer hollow portion 27. The liquid 19 is provided in each of the inner hollow portion 26 formed inside the partition wall 24 and the outer hollow portion 27 formed outside. Other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment, and the first embodiment is referred to for the detailed description.

  According to the above configuration, since the force applied to the elastic thin film body 18 is small due to the centrifugal force of the liquid 19 before resonance, the elastic thin film body 18 is not deformed and the vibration of the outer tub 2 is not deteriorated. In a steady state after passing through resonance, the centrifugal force by the liquid 19 increases, the elastic thin film body 18 elastically deforms to the outer peripheral side through the opening 25 of the partition wall 24, and the liquid 19 moves to the outer peripheral side to correct unbalance. The power can be improved. Therefore, the vibration during the dehydration operation can be more effectively reduced by the effect of the unbalance correction force due to the multilayered fluid balancer 22. If a plurality of elastic thin film bodies 18 are provided, the effect of multilayering can be further enhanced.

(Embodiment 3)
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a fluid balancer according to the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. The fluid balancer 28 according to the present embodiment is characterized in that a hollow ring-shaped bag body 29 containing a liquid 19 is provided in the inner hollow portion 20 of the balancer container 17 partitioned by the elastic thin film body 18. The bag body 29 is formed of a flexible material that can be elastically deformed, such as rubber, and the amount of the liquid 19 is 30 to 70% of the volume of the inner hollow portion 20. Other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment, and the first embodiment is referred to for the detailed description.

According to the above configuration, the liquid 19 inside the bag body 29 gathers on the opposite side to the unbalance due to the garment 5 during steady dehydration, and only during the steady dehydration after passing through resonance due to the deformation of the elastic thin film body 18. The liquid is biased toward the outer peripheral side. In the present embodiment, since the outer peripheral side of the bag body 29 containing the liquid 19, that is, the deformation side due to centrifugal force is in contact with and protected from the elastic thin film body 18, damage or the like is unlikely to occur, The function is maintained and the vibration preventing effect is obtained.

  As described above, the washing machine according to the present invention can improve the unbalance correction force of the fluid balancer without reducing the vibration at the time of resonance, and can reduce the vibration at the time of dehydration. Useful for applications.

Sectional drawing of the washing machine in Embodiment 1 of this invention (A) (b) Sectional view of the fluid balancer of the washing machine (A) (b) Action diagram of fluid balancer of the washing machine Sectional drawing of the fluid balancer of the washing machine in Embodiment 2 of this invention Action diagram of fluid balancer of the washing machine Sectional drawing of the fluid balancer of the washing machine in Embodiment 3 of this invention Action diagram of fluid balancer of the washing machine Cross section of the main part of a conventional washing machine (A) (b) Principle diagram of unbalance correction by fluid balancer

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Outer frame 2 Outer tank 3 Damper 4 Support spring 6 Drum 7 Motor 16 Fluid balancer 17 Balancer container 18 Elastic thin film 19 Liquid

Claims (3)

An outer frame, an outer tank elastically supported in the outer frame, a cylindrical drum provided with an opening on the front side so as to be rotatable in the outer tank, and a driving means for rotationally driving the drum A support spring that elastically supports the outer tub, a damper that suppresses vibration of the outer tub, and a hollow ring-shaped fluid balancer provided in the opening of the drum, the fluid balancer including the hollow portion A washing machine in which a circular elastic thin film body is provided so as to be divided into concentric circles so as to define an inner hollow portion and an outer hollow portion, and a liquid is built in the inner hollow portion divided by the elastic thin film body. The fluid balancer forms an annular wall concentrically defining the hollow portion into an inner hollow portion and an outer hollow portion, and has an opening in the wall, and the annular elastic thin film body is opened from the inside of the wall to the opening. The washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the washing machine is provided so as to be able to bulge through the outer hollow portion of the wall. The washing machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the fluid balancer has a hollow ring-shaped bag body containing liquid, and the bag body is disposed inside the elastic thin film body.