JP6484461B2 - Washing machine - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a washing machine, and more particularly to a vibration isolator that suppresses vibration of an outer tub.

  A general washing machine includes an inner tub having rotating wings at the bottom, an outer tub containing the inner tub, an outer frame for housing the outer tub, and a vibration isolator for supporting the outer tub suspended from the outer frame. The washing shaft is provided with a rotating blade and a motor that drives the washing shaft. In the washing machine having such a configuration, when the inner tub is rotated at a high speed for the centrifugal dehydration process while the clothes in the inner tub are offset after the washing and rinsing process, Due to this resonance, vibration is generated in the outer tub, and large vibration and noise are generated in the washing machine. Therefore, the vibration isolator is held so as to reduce the vibration of the outer tank and to reduce the vibration generated in the outer tank from being transmitted to the outer frame. As such an anti-vibration device, for example, there is one disclosed in JP-A-8-10489 (Patent Document 1).

  The vibration preventing device has a long guide rod, a through-hole through which the guide rod passes, a rubber body that slides and displaces along the guide rod when a load is received from the water tank, and the guide rod. A coil spring that is expanded and contracted by a rubber body that is displaced; a lubricant that is interposed between the guide rod and the rubber body; and a rubber body and a guide rod that are tightened according to the displacement of the rubber body. The rubber body has a recess for storing a lubricant on the inner surface of the through hole through which the guide rod is inserted. It is described that the concave portion includes an annular concave groove extending in the inner peripheral direction of the through hole, a concave groove extending in the axial direction of the through hole, and a large number of fine concave portions.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-10489

  However, the technology disclosed in Patent Document 1 does not consider productivity and reliability. For example, when the concave portion provided in the rubber body is an annular groove or many fine concave portions, the groove portion of the rubber body is arranged on the outer peripheral side from the inner peripheral surface of the through hole. A portion for forming the concave portion (which has a convex shape in the mold) is present on the outer peripheral side from the inner peripheral surface of the through hole of the rubber body. For this reason, when the mold is pulled out in the axial direction of the guide rod, it is forcibly pulled out while the mold is in the recess of the rubber body. Since the material is rubber, it can be forcibly pulled out, but there is a problem that the dimensional accuracy is deteriorated and the life of the mold is shortened because a load is applied to the rubber body and the mold.

  In addition, when the concave portion provided in the rubber body is a concave groove extending in the axial direction of the through hole, the rigidity of the rubber body varies depending on the presence or absence of the concave groove, and the deformation amount varies even if the pressing force is the same. In other words, when the guide rod is pressed in the direction of the groove in the rubber body, the groove cannot receive force, so only the corner of the sliding surface on the side of the groove (where the sliding surface and the groove intersect) Will receive power. For this reason, since the area which receives force from the other direction which receives force in the whole sliding surface decreases, the stress of the sliding surface corner | angular part of a rubber body becomes large. As a result, there is a problem that local plastic deformation (sagging) and wear are likely to occur at the corners of the sliding surface of the rubber body.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a vibration isolator that generates a damping force by sliding between a suspension rod and a sliding member, without forcibly removing the sliding member from the mold when the sliding member is molded. Another object of the present invention is to provide a washing machine having a vibration isolator capable of suppressing local plastic deformation (sagging) and having high productivity and reliability.

In order to achieve the above object, as an example, the present invention provides an inner tank having a rotor blade at the bottom, an outer tank containing the inner tank, an outer frame containing the outer tank, and a vibration isolator. In the washing machine that suspends and supports the outer tub on the outer frame, the vibration isolator is supported at one end by the outer frame and at the other end by a suspension rod that supports a compression spring via a spring seat, the suspension rod and the slide. includes a sliding member for moving, and the intervening lubricant between the suspension rod and said sliding member, said sliding member has a through hole through which the suspension rod extends, before Kinuki hole At least the upper surface or the lower surface is configured to be polygonal.
Further, in the washing machine which supports the outer tub on the casing by means of a vibration-proof spring and a vibration-proof damper, the outer tank containing the rotating drum, the casing containing the outer tub, A support rod that supports the outer tub at the end of the housing, a support member that supports the lower surface of the housing, a sliding member that slides relative to the support rod, and between the support rod and the sliding member The sliding member has a through-hole through which the support rod penetrates, and at least an upper surface or a lower surface of the through-hole has a polygonal shape.

  According to the present invention, in the vibration isolator that generates a damping force by sliding between the suspension rod and the sliding member, the through hole through which the suspension rod of the sliding member is searched is formed in a polygon when viewed from the axial direction. This facilitates removal of the sliding member from the mold when the sliding member is molded. And since it slides with the suspension rod at the polygonal side of the through-hole, there is no lack of the area that receives the force as in the concave groove described above, so a portion with locally low rigidity like the concave groove There is no high local stress. In addition, since the pressing force increases and the amount of deformation increases due to the contact between the flat surface and the round bar, the contact area also increases and the area that receives the force increases, which can alleviate the local increase in stress. . For this reason, it is difficult to generate locally high stress even when it is pressed in the direction of the side of the through-hole and receives pressing force on one side, or when it is pressed in the direction of the corner of the through-hole and receives pressing force on two sides. It becomes. Thereby, local plastic deformation (sagging) and wear can be prevented. In addition, since the polygonal side of the through-hole is the sliding part and the corner is the lubricant reservoir, the sliding part and the lubricant abut over the axial length of the suspension rod of the sliding member. It is possible to prevent the sliding portion from running out of lubricant. Thereby, a washing machine having a vibration isolator having high productivity and reliability can be provided.

1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a washing machine according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a vibration isolator according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a schematic sectional drawing about the AA line of FIG. 2 of the vibration isolator which concerns on Example 1. FIG. It is a schematic longitudinal cross-sectional view of the vibration isolator which concerns on Example 2. FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the vibration isolator according to Example 2 taken along line BB in FIG. 4. 6 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a washing machine according to Embodiment 3. FIG. It is a schematic longitudinal cross-sectional view of the vibration isolator which concerns on Example 3. FIG. It is a schematic sectional drawing about CC line of FIG. 7 of the vibration isolator which concerns on Example 3. FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings as appropriate.

  FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view for explaining the outline of a washing machine according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In this figure, only basic components of the washing machine are described, and other elements such as a panel switch are omitted and not shown. The main components are an outer frame 1, a synthetic resin outer tub 3 elastically supported on the outer frame 1 via a vibration isolator 2, and an inner rotator 4 within the outer tub 3, and clothes and the like. An inner tank 5 made of SUS for mounting a fluid balancer 10 for canceling the unbalance of the laundry, an aluminum flange 6 for fixing the inner tank 5 to the dehydrating shaft 12, and a dehydrating shaft 12 for supporting the flange 6 And a reduction mechanism 7 that decelerates with a gear when driving the washing shaft 11 constituting the inner / outer double structure, a motor 8 provided on the same axis as the reduction mechanism 7, and the motor 8 and the reduction mechanism 7 are supported. The mounting plate 9 is held in the outer tub 3. In the above configuration, the motor 8 rotates only the rotating blade 4 via the washing shaft 11 via the speed reduction mechanism 7 during the washing and rinsing process, and rotates both the inner tub 5 and the rotating blade 4 at high speed via the dehydrating shaft 12 during the dehydrating process. Centrifuge dehydration. Here, since many water flow holes 5a are provided in the outer peripheral part of the inner tub 5, the water contained in the laundry is squeezed out along with the high-speed rotation. If the laundry in the inner tub 5 is displaced at this time, the inner tub 5 and the outer tub 3 vibrate, and particularly vibrate greatly due to resonance at the start of the spin-drying rotation. While being provided with a damping force for suppressing this vibration, it is held by the vibration isolator 2 so that the vibration of the outer tub 3 is not transmitted to the outer frame 1.

  A vibration isolator 2 according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3. FIG. 2 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the lower part of the vibration isolator 2. FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view taken along line AA shown in FIG. The vibration isolator 2 includes a slider 13 having a spherical surface for swingably supporting the outer tub 3 on the outer frame 1, one end held by the slider 13, and the other tub 3 attached to the other end via a spring seat 19. A suspension rod 14 for supporting an anti-vibration spring 18 for elastic support, a sliding body 15 that passes through the suspension rod 14 and contacts the outer tub 3, and is disposed on the lower side of the sliding body 15 and contacts with the anti-vibration spring 18. The upper part in contact with the bottomed cylindrical body 16, the sliding member 17 enclosed in the cylindrical body 16 and sliding on the outer peripheral surface of the suspension bar 14, and interposed between the sliding member 17 and the suspension bar 14. It is composed of a lubricant (not shown). The sliding member 17 is made of an elastic body such as deformable rubber, and a semi-solid grease or the like is generally used as the lubricant.

  When the outer tub 3 vibrates and the portion of the outer tub 3 that contacts the sliding body 15 vibrates in the vertical direction, the sliding body 15 and the cylindrical body 16 also vibrate in the axial direction (vertical direction) of the hanging rod 14. As a result, the suspension rod 14 that is supported swingably from the outer frame 1 and does not move up and down, the sliding body 15 and the cylindrical body 16 relatively reciprocate. For this reason, the sliding member 17 disposed on the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical body 16 also reciprocates relative to the suspension rod 14. As a result, the inscribed surface of the sliding member 17 slides with the outer peripheral surface of the suspension rod 14, and a Coulomb friction force is generated, which acts as a damping force and suppresses vibration. And if the force which presses the sliding member 17 against the suspension rod 14 is large, the damping force which generate | occur | produces will also become large. Further, the outer tank 3 is elastically suspended and supported by the outer frame 1 by the vibration isolation spring 18 of the vibration isolator 2, and the vibration of the outer tank 3 is difficult to be transmitted to the outer frame 1. In addition, when the lubricant on the sliding surface of the suspension rod 14 and the sliding member 17 is depleted, the wear of the sliding member 17 proceeds, and the initial damping force cannot be maintained, so the vibration of the outer tub 3 increases, It becomes impossible to maintain stable performance for a long time.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, the through-hole 17a through which the suspension rod 14 of the sliding member 17 is searched is formed in a polygon when viewed from the axial direction of the suspension rod 14, thereby forming the polygon of the through-hole 17a. Since the side portion 17b is a sliding portion and the corner portion 17c is a lubricant reservoir, the sliding portion and the lubricant can be in contact with each other over the axial length of the suspension rod 14 of the sliding member 17. Prevents running out of lubricant in moving parts. Further, since the through hole 17a has substantially the same shape over the axial length of the suspension bar 14, when the sliding member 17 is formed, the sliding member is moved from the mold in the axial direction of the suspension bar 14. Easy to pull out. For this reason, since the burden is not applied to the sliding member 17 or the metal mold | die, the fall of a dimensional accuracy and a metal mold | die lifetime can be prevented. Further, the shape of the through-hole 17a is substantially the same on the upper surface (upper end surface in the axial direction of the hanging rod 14 of the sliding member 17) and the lower surface (lower end surface in the axial direction of the hanging rod 14 of the sliding member 17). However, by making the shape of the lower surface of the through-hole 17a circular, the lower surface of the through-hole 17a and the suspension rod 14 can be in contact with the entire circumference. As a result, the lubricant can be easily stored in the through hole 17a, and even when the operation is not performed for a long time, the lubricant can be held in the through hole 17a, thereby further preventing the sliding portion from running out of the lubricant. The shape of the through hole 17a is not limited to a hexagon as shown in FIG. 3, but may be a triangle or more, and the side portion 17b and the corner portion 17c may be curved. And you may give inclination, such as chamfering, to the edge part of through-hole 17a. Further, the sliding body 15 and the cylindrical body 16 may be integrally molded products instead of separate parts.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the lower part of the vibration isolator 21 according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view taken along line BB shown in FIG. Since the whole structure of a washing machine is the same as that of Embodiment 1, description is abbreviate | omitted and only the vibration isolator 21 is demonstrated.

  As described in the first embodiment, the damping force for suppressing the vibration of the outer tub 3 is that the inscribed surface of the sliding member 25 slides with the outer peripheral surface of the suspension rod 22 to generate a Coulomb friction force. It works as a damping force. This damping force increases as the pressing force of the sliding member 25 increases. That is, the dimensional error in the radial direction of the sliding member 25 affects the increase / decrease in the damping force. In addition, when manufactured with hard rubber or the like which is not easily worn, the influence of dimensional errors becomes larger. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the through hole 25a through which the suspension rod 22 of the sliding member 25 is searched is formed in a polygon when viewed from the axial direction, and the through hole is formed on the outer peripheral side of the side portion 25b. By providing the small hole 25d smaller than 25a, the rigidity of the side portion 25b can be reduced, and the influence of the dimensional error in the radial direction can be reduced. Similarly to the through hole 25a, the small hole 25d has substantially the same shape over the axial length of the suspension rod 22, so when the sliding member 25 is formed, it slides from the mold in the axial direction. The structure is easy to remove the member. Thereby, since the burden is not applied to the sliding member 25 and the metal mold | die, the fall of a dimensional accuracy and a metal mold | die lifetime can be prevented. In addition, for the convenience of the mold at the time of manufacturing the sliding member 25, it is only necessary to reduce the rigidity of the sliding 25b even when the small hole 25d is partially filled. Further, the shape of the small hole 25d may not be an ellipse as shown in FIG. 5, but may be a circle, a rectangle, or a sector.

  FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view for explaining the outline of the washing machine according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, only basic components of the washing machine are described, and other elements such as a panel switch are omitted and not shown. This main structure is composed of a drum 43 that has a large number of water passage holes 43a on the outer periphery and rotates to wash and dehydrate laundry, an outer tub 42 that contains the drum 43, and a casing 41 that houses the outer tub 42. An anti-vibration spring 48 provided between the casing 41 and the outer tub 42 and receiving the load of the outer tub 42, and an anti-vibration damper provided between the outer tub 42 and the casing 41 for suppressing vibration of the outer tub 42. 49, a drum driving motor 44 for driving the drum 43, a rotating shaft 45 whose one end is fixed to the rotation center of the drum 43, and a laundry provided in the housing 41 are taken in and out, and water leakage and laundry jumping out are prevented. The bellows 46 elastically connects the door 47, the outer tub 42, and the opening of the housing 41. In the above configuration, the drum 43 is driven to rotate at a low speed by the drum driving motor 44 during the rinsing and rinsing process, and the laundry in the drum 43 is lifted and dropped onto the water surface for washing and rinsing. During the dehydration step, centrifugal dehydration is performed by rotating the drum 43 at a higher speed. At this time, when the laundry in the drum 43 is displaced, the drum 43 and the outer tub 42 vibrate, and particularly vibrate greatly due to the resonance of the outer tub 42 at the start of the spin-drying rotation. In order to suppress this vibration, a damping force is applied, and the vibration of the outer tub 42 is held by a vibration isolating damper 49 so as not to be transmitted to the housing 41.

  An anti-vibration damper 49 according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6, 7, and 8. FIG. 7 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of the vibration damping damper 49. FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along the line CC shown in FIG. The anti-vibration damper 49 has one end supported by the outer tub 42 via the support rod 50 and the other end supporting the lower surface of the housing 41 via the support member 51. A cylindrical body 52 which is disposed on the upper side of the support member 51 and penetrates the support bar 50 and is opened at the bottom and has a bottom, and a slide which is disposed on the inner peripheral part of the cylindrical body 52 and slides on the outer peripheral surface of the support bar 50. A member 53 and a lubricant (not shown) interposed between the sliding member 53 and the support bar 50 are configured. The sliding member 53 is made of an elastic body such as deformable rubber, and a semi-solid grease or the like is generally used as the lubricant.

  When the outer tank 42 vibrates and the support rod 50 mounting portion of the outer tank 42 vibrates in the vertical direction, the support bar 50 also vibrates in the axial direction (vertical direction). As a result, the support member 51 and the cylindrical body 52 that are attached to the housing 41 and do not move up and down reciprocate relative to the support bar 50. For this reason, the sliding member 53 disposed on the inner peripheral portion of the cylindrical body 52 also reciprocates relative to the support rod 50. As a result, the inscribed surface of the sliding member 53 slides with the outer peripheral surface of the support rod 50 to generate a Coulomb friction force, which acts as a damping force and suppresses vibration. In addition, when the force which presses the sliding member 53 against the support rod 50 is large, the generated damping force is also increased. When the lubricant on the sliding surfaces of the support rod 50 and the sliding member 53 is depleted, the wear of the sliding member 53 proceeds, and the initial damping force cannot be maintained, so the vibration of the outer tub 42 increases, It becomes impossible to maintain stable performance for a long time.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, the through hole 53a through which the support rod 50 of the sliding member 53 is searched is formed in a polygonal shape when viewed from the axial direction of the support rod 50, so that the polygon of the through hole 53a is formed. Since the side portion 53b serves as the sliding portion and the corner portion 53c serves as the lubricant reservoir, the sliding portion and the lubricant can be brought into contact with each other over the axial length of the sliding member 53. Cutting can be prevented. Further, since the through hole 53a has substantially the same shape over the axial length of the support bar 50, when the sliding member 53 is formed, the sliding member is moved from the mold in the axial direction of the support bar 50. Easy to pull out. For this reason, since the burden is not applied to the sliding member 53 and the metal mold | die, the fall of a dimensional accuracy and a metal mold | die lifetime can be prevented. Further, the shape of the through hole 53a is substantially the same on the upper surface (the upper end surface of the sliding member 53 in the axial direction of the support rod 50) and the lower surface (the lower end surface of the sliding member 53 in the axial direction of the support rod 50). However, by making the shape of the lower surface of the through-hole 53a circular, the lower surface of the through-hole 53a and the support rod 50 can come into contact with the entire circumference. As a result, the lubricant can be easily stored in the through-hole 53a, and the lubricant can be held in the through-hole 53a even when the operation is not performed for a long time, thereby further preventing the sliding portion from running out of the lubricant. The shape of the through hole 53a is not limited to a hexagon as shown in FIG. 8, but may be a triangle or more, and the side 53b and the corner 53c may be curved. And you may give inclination, such as chamfering, to the edge part of through-hole 53a. Further, the support member 51 and the cylindrical body 52 may be integrally molded products instead of separate components. Then, the sliding member 53 may be provided with a small hole penetrating on the outer peripheral side of the side portion 53b of the through hole 53a as in the second embodiment. Further, a vibration isolating damper 49 may be installed for the purpose of increasing the damping force together with the vibration isolating device 2 of the washing machine in which the drum (the inner tub 5 in FIG. 1) as in the first embodiment is substantially vertical.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Outer frame, 2 ... Vibration isolator, 3 ... Outer tank, 4 ... Rotor blade, 5 ... Inner tank, 5a ... Water passage hole, 6 ... Flange, 7 ... Deceleration mechanism, 8 ... Motor, 9 ... Mounting plate, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Fluid balancer, 11 ... Washing shaft, 12 ... Dehydration shaft, 13 ... Slider, 14 ... Suspension rod, 15 ... Sliding body, 16 ... Cylindrical body, 17 ... Sliding member, 17a ... Through-hole, 17b ... Side part, 17c ... Corner, 18 ... Anti-vibration spring, 19 ... Spring seat, 21 ... Anti-vibration device, 22 ... Suspension rod, 23 ... Sliding body, 24 ... Cylindrical body, 25 ... Sliding member, 25a ... Through hole, 25b ... Side part, 25c ... Corner part, 25d ... Small hole, 26 ... Anti-vibration spring, 27 ... Spring seat, 41 ... Housing, 42 ... Outer tank, 43 ... Drum, 43a ... Water passage hole, 44 ... Motor for driving drum , 45 ... Rotating shaft, 46 ... Bellows, 47 ... Door, 48 ... Anti-vibration spring, 49 ... Anti-vibration damper, 50 ... Support rod, 51 ... Support member, 52 Tubular body, 53 ... slide member, 53a ... through holes, 53b ... side portion, 53c ... corners.

Claims (3)

In the washing machine which suspends and supports the outer tub on the outer frame by a vibration isolator, an inner tub having a rotary blade at the bottom, an outer tub containing the inner tub, an outer frame for storing the outer tub, and a vibration isolator.
The vibration isolator has a suspension bar supported at one end by the outer frame and a compression spring supported at the other end by a spring seat, a sliding member that slides with the suspension bar, the suspension bar, and the slide. A lubricant interposed between the moving member,
The sliding member has a through-hole through which the suspension rod passes,
Washing machine at least an upper or lower surface of the front Kinuki hole is characterized in that it is a polygon. An outer tub containing a rotating drum, a housing for housing the outer tub, and a washing machine for supporting the outer tub on the housing by vibration proof springs and vibration proof dampers, wherein the vibration proof damper has one end. A support rod that supports the outer tub, a support member that supports the lower surface of the housing, a sliding member that slides relative to the support rod, and a support member that is interposed between the support rod and the sliding member. And a lubricant
The sliding member has a through hole through which the support rod passes,
Washing machine at least an upper or lower surface of the front Kinuki hole is characterized in that it is a polygon. In claim 1 or 2,
A washing machine having a plurality of small holes smaller than the through hole on the outer peripheral side of the through hole of the sliding member.

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