JPH0546234B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention comprises a washing tub having a peripheral wall composed of a fixed peripheral wall portion and a movable peripheral wall portion, and the cleaning action is mainly achieved through frictional contact between these two peripheral walls and the laundry. About the washing machine you get.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Among conventional washing machines, those with rotary vanes that generate a water flow using rotary vanes to achieve the cleaning action essentially use a water flow to move the laundry, so they require a large washing tank volume relative to the amount of laundry. need,
This means that the amount that can be washed at one time is small. Furthermore, when the amount of cloth is small, the water flow becomes extremely strong, resulting in excessive cleaning, while when the amount of cloth increases, the water flow rate decreases and the cleaning effect tends to decrease rapidly. Furthermore, since the laundry and the rotating blade come into contact only incidentally and only partially, it is not possible to expect a scrubbing effect over the entire laundry, and on the contrary, the laundry may be partially damaged.

On the other hand, a new method has recently been developed in which the rotating blades have been removed, in which the entire washing tank is intermittently rotated while containing water and laundry, and the cleaning effect is obtained by the speed difference between the water and the laundry. Although this method has the advantage of not damaging the laundry, it has the disadvantage that the speed difference between the laundry and water is small and the movement is simple, resulting in low cleaning effectiveness. .

[Purpose of the invention]

Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to be able to expect better cleaning effects and prevention of fabric damage than conventional ones without using conventional rotary blades or the rotation of the entire washing tank, as well as to wash a large amount of clothes at one time, and to have an appropriate cleaning effect. To provide a washing machine that can maintain a wide range of laundry amounts.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides a washing tank in which the peripheral wall of the washing tank is formed by a rectangular cylindrical fixed peripheral wall located above and a cylindrical movable peripheral wall located below. A sloped wall section is provided between the movable circumferential wall section and the movable circumferential wall section, and the laundry is stored together with water in such a washing tub, and the movable circumferential wall section is rotated in the forward and reverse directions. The washing is made to flow due to the contact friction force of the laundry, and the washing is carried out by a synergistic effect with the friction force received from the fixed circumferential wall section in the upper part, thereby reducing the friction between the fixed circumferential wall section and the movable circumferential wall section of the laundry. Also, it is possible to expect a scrubbing effect due to the friction between the laundry items and a so-called massaging effect due to the laundry being rolled by receiving forces in different directions from the fixed peripheral wall portion and the movable peripheral wall portion.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

Reference numeral 1 indicates an outer box fixed on the base 2, and 3 indicates a washing tank disposed inside the outer box 1. This washing tank 3 essentially has its peripheral wall divided into a fixed peripheral wall part and a fixed peripheral wall part. In this embodiment, this is achieved by a combination of a fixed tank 4 fixed to the outer box 1 and an agitator 5 in the form of a shallow container. . To explain this in detail below, the fixed tank 4 has an upper half formed in the shape of a square cylinder, and a lower half formed in the shape of a bottomed cylinder with a diameter that is approximately inscribed in the square cylinder wall 4a. The cylindrical wall 4b and the upper rectangular cylindrical wall 4a are connected by a tapered wall 4c serving as an inclined wall. The fixing tank 4 is integrally formed of plastic with a dehydration receiving tank (not shown) that encloses the dehydration basket, and the flange 5 at the upper end is placed on the upper end of the outer box 1 and fixed with screws or the like. The container-shaped agitator 5 is disposed in the lower part of the fixed tank 4, that is, inside the cylindrical wall 4b, and its bottom is connected to a washing shaft 7 supported by a bearing mechanism 6 at the bottom of the fixed tank 4. At this time, the height of the peripheral wall of the container-shaped stirring body 5 is set to be slightly smaller than the height of the peripheral wall of the cylindrical wall 4b of the fixed tank 4, that is, the depth, and the diameter is set to a size within a range in which it can rotate within the cylindrical wall 4b. Therefore, the tapered wall portion 4c of the fixed tank 4 is located between the container-shaped stirring body 5, which is a movable peripheral wall portion, and the rectangular cylindrical wall 4a, which is a fixed peripheral wall portion. The container-shaped stirring body 5 is made of plastic, and has protrusions 5a and 5b having different heights and lengths formed on its inner bottom and inner peripheral surface in order to improve the stirring performance for water or cloth. Reference numeral 8 denotes a washing motor disposed on the base 2, and a driven pulley 9 directly connected to the washing motor and a driving pulley 10 directly connected to the washing shaft 7 are connected by a belt 11. Reference numeral 12 denotes a drain valve that allows water in the washing tank 3 to be discharged from the bottom of the fixed tank 4 to the outside of the machine via a drain hose 13.

In the above configuration, in the washing operation, the washing motor 8 rotates the container-shaped stirring body 5 in forward and reverse directions, so that the rectangular cylindrical wall 4a of the fixed tank 4 exposed upward from the peripheral wall of the container-shaped stirring body 5 is connected to the peripheral wall of the washing tank 3. The surrounding wall of the container-shaped stirring body 5 is made to function as a movable surrounding wall.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained. During washing, approximately the same amount of water as in the case of a conventional rotary blade type washing machine is supplied into the washing tub 3, and the laundry is thrown in. The washing operation is performed by driving the container-shaped agitator 5 to rotate in forward and reverse directions by the washing motor 8. In this embodiment, the rotational speed of the container-shaped stirring body 5 is within the range of 120 to 180 rotations per minute, and the direction of rotation is reversed approximately every 2 to 3 rotations.

In such a washing operation, since the laundry comes into contact with the peripheral wall of the container-shaped agitator 5 and the rectangular tube wall 4a, rotational force is applied from the container-shaped agitator 5 to the lower part due to frictional contact therewith. The upper part receives a restraining force due to frictional contact with the square cylinder wall 4a, and by simultaneously receiving such frictional forces in different directions, it gives a twisting or compressing effect to the laundry, and this also reverses the direction of rotation of the container-shaped agitator 5. At the same time, the laundry is pushed toward the circumferential wall of the container-like agitator 5 by the centrifugal force accompanying the rotation of the container-like agitator 5, and the reaction is received inward from the upper rectangular cylinder wall 4a. This also produces the effect of vertically flipping, giving complex movements. Furthermore, the square tube wall 4
a Especially since the four corners of the container-shaped agitator 5 protrude outward from the peripheral wall of the container-shaped agitator 5, when the laundry moves upward from the container-shaped agitator 5 to the rectangular cylindrical wall 4a, the movement of the laundry is This is different from the case where the laundry is located at the bottom, and the peripheral wall of the rectangular cylinder wall 4a is moving away from the peripheral wall of the container-shaped agitator 5 toward the corner. When rotating in the circumferential direction, the friction force received from the square tube wall 4a gradually decreases when moving toward a corner, and conversely, the friction force received from the square tube wall 4a when moving away from the corner. The force gradually increases, and the change in movement when the laundry moves upward into the square tube wall 4a and the frictional force when it moves circumferentially along the square tube wall 4a. Due to these changes, the laundry makes even more complex movements. Such laundry comes into contact with the peripheral wall of the container-shaped agitator 5 and the rectangular tube wall 4a, and receives rotational force from the container-shaped agitator 5, but there is no contact between the container-shaped agitator 5 and the rectangular tube wall 4a. Since the laundry is formed by a tapered wall portion 4c instead of a horizontal stepped portion, the laundry is easily distributed vertically without being divided into two halves. Therefore, the rotational force applied from the container-shaped agitator 5 to the laundry in the lower part is well transmitted to the laundry in the upper part without being interrupted midway, and the rotational force applied to the laundry in the lower part from the container-shaped agitator 5 is well transmitted to the laundry in the upper part. This provides an opportunity for the laundry that extends over the wall 4a to come into effective frictional contact with the peripheral wall of the container-shaped agitator 5 and the rectangular cylinder wall 4a. Furthermore, due to the presence of the tapered wall portion 4c, the laundry within the rectangular tube wall 4a tends to fall smoothly into the container-shaped agitator 5 due to the inclination of the tapered wall portion 4c. A better vertical reversal effect can be obtained. Therefore, while the laundry is subjected to the scrubbing action due to the large friction between the cloths due to the above-mentioned complicated movements and the large friction with the square tube wall 4a and the peripheral wall of the container-shaped agitator 5, the laundry is not twisted or compressed. The cleaning effect is shown in Figure 3 as an example of the results of a comparative experiment.
Curve A shows the cleaning ratio characteristics according to the present invention, B shows the cleaning ratio characteristics when using the conventional rotating blade method, and curve C shows the cleaning ratio characteristics when using the washing tank rotating method considered prior to this invention, and the cleaning performance according to the present invention is superior. It can be seen that

Furthermore, as mentioned above, the laundry is moved by frictional contact with the rectangular tube wall 4a and the peripheral wall of the container-shaped agitator 5, so as the amount of laundry increases, the frictional force also increases, and the degree of movement of the laundry increases as the amount of laundry increases. There is little deterioration, and therefore the rate of deterioration of the cleaning effect is small. Moreover, when the amount of laundry is small, the frequency of contact between the container-shaped agitator 5 and the peripheral wall is low, and the contact friction force is extremely small, which is generated over almost the entire inside of the fixed tank 4 mainly due to the low-speed rotation of the container-shaped agitator 5. Since the water flow is washed by the water flow, the water flow does not become extremely strong unlike the conventional rotating blade method, so there is no excessive washing and an appropriate degree of washing can be ensured regardless of the amount of cloth used. . These facts mean that the range of cloth amounts that can maintain an appropriate cleaning effect is wider than in the case of the prior art described above (see FIG. 3).

Furthermore, since the upper half of the fixed tank 4 is made of a rectangular cylindrical wall 4a, the internal volume of the washing tank 3 is larger than that in a case where the entire fixed tank 4 is formed in a cylindrical shape, and the amount of laundry that can be washed at one time is increased. In other words, the fact that the upper half of the fixing tank 4 is made of the square cylindrical wall 4a matches the square outer box 1 in shape, so there is no unnecessary space between the outer box 1 and the fixing tank 4. This means that by minimizing the space required, the internal volume of the washing tank 3 and the amount of laundry that can be washed at one time are increased accordingly. As described above, even if the amount of laundry increases, the rate of decrease in the cleaning effect is small, so even if the amount of laundry to be washed at one time is large, a good cleaning effect can be obtained.

Note that this discussion is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings; for example, the square cylinder wall 4a may be made rectangular, and the cylinder wall 4b and therefore the container-shaped stirring body 5 may be made eccentric to the square cylinder wall 4a. Various modifications are possible, such as adding a filter to make the movement of the laundry even more complicated.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the laundry mainly comes into contact with the fixed peripheral wall and the movable peripheral wall and is moved by the synergistic effect of the respective frictional forces. Therefore, if the volume of the washing tank is the same, the amount of laundry that can be washed at one time is much larger than conventional methods.Moreover, it can be expected to have a better cleaning effect than conventional methods, and there is less damage to the fabric. Since there is a wide range of cloth amounts that can maintain a good cleaning effect, it is possible to avoid excessive or insufficient cleaning effects depending on the amount of cloth. In this case, since the inclined wall section is provided between the movable circumferential wall section and the fixed circumferential wall section, the rotational force applied from the movable circumferential wall section to the laundry at the lower section is not interrupted midway, and the rotational force is not interrupted midway through the laundry at the upper section. As a result, the laundry in the movable peripheral wall portion and the fixed peripheral wall portion is given an opportunity to come into effective frictional contact with both walls, and the laundry in the fixed peripheral wall portion is transferred to the inclined wall. Due to the inclination of the part, the laundry tends to fall smoothly into the movable peripheral wall part, and the laundry can be turned upside down, so the movement of the laundry necessary for washing as described above can be maintained even when the amount of cloth is large. It is something that can be secured. Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the fixed peripheral wall portion is formed into a rectangular tube shape, the unnecessary space created between the washing tank and the outer box for arranging the washing tank can be minimized. This has excellent effects such as increasing the internal volume of the washing tank and increasing the amount of laundry that can be washed at one time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the invention, and FIG.
A vertical cross-sectional view along the - line in the figure, Figure 2 is a plan view,
FIG. 3 is a cleaning ratio characteristic curve diagram. In the figure, 3 is a washing tank, 4 is a fixed tank, 4c is a tapered wall portion (slanted wall portion), and 5 is a container-shaped stirring body.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 The peripheral wall of the washing tank is composed of a fixed peripheral wall located above and a movable peripheral wall located below and driven to rotate in forward and reverse directions, and the laundry is accommodated together with water in the washing tank and the laundry is washed. , the movable peripheral wall part is made to flow mainly due to the contact friction force with the movable peripheral wall part, and is washed by a synergistic effect with the contact friction force received from the fixed peripheral wall part in the upper part, the movable peripheral wall part is formed into a cylindrical shape, the fixed peripheral wall part is formed into a rectangular cylinder shape, and an inclined wall part is provided between the cylindrical movable peripheral wall part and the rectangular cylinder-shaped fixed peripheral wall part. washing machine.