US2278769A - Cleaning machine - Google Patents

Description

A ril 7, 1942. o. J. CHAYIE 2,278,759

CLEANING MACHINE Filed Nov. 30, 1938 '5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig. 2

' INVENTQR. OLA El? J CHEF/E BY WQ AQ QM ATTORNEY.

April 7, 1942.

Filed Nov. 30, 1938 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Fig.3

a I T Q /Z2 INVENTOR. OLIVER J CHHV/E ma pam m ATTORNEYS.

April 7, 1942. J YIE 2,278,769

CLEANING MACHINE Filed Nov. 50, 1938 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 i /00 p |1 I Fl 6' II F 151. INVESITOR ATTORN EYS.

April 9 o. J. CHAYIE 2,278,769

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Patented Apr. 7, 1942 CLEANING MACHINE Oliver .1. Chayie, South Bend, Ind., minor, by mesne assignments, to American Machine and Metals, 1nc., East Moline, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Application November 30, 1938, Serial No. 243,137

4 Claims. (CI. 68-17) The present invention relates to cleaning machines, and is illustrated as embodied in a machine for automatically washing and drying clothes.

An object of the invention is to provide machines of this character with means for automatically injecting soap or other detergent in amounts suflicient to bring the suds to a predetermined level, regardless of variations due to water hardness or varying loads of clothes, etc. Preferably the machine is provided with selective means for automatically giving either a high or a low suds level.

An important feature of the invention relates to actuating a control device for such a detergent-injecting means by the pressure of the rising suds. This is particularly advantageous since an ordinary float mechanism cannot be used, no float being light enough to be raised by a suds such as is formed in a washing machine.

I prefer to provide the machine with a selector which is manually operable to give either hot water and a high suds level (for cottons, etc.), or warm water and a low suds level (for woolens, etc.).

Various features of the invention relate to the arrangement of the control circuits for machines embodying my novel detergent injecting means, to an arrangement of the injecting means so that it can be driven by the same motor that drives the washing mechanism but for only a, part of the machine cycle, and to other novel combinations of parts and desirable particular constructions which will be apparent from the following description of the illustrative constructions shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a vertical section through an automatic washing machine embodying my invention, in a vertical plane intersecting the tub just inside the front wall;

Figure 2 is a side elevation of this machine with the outer cabinet removed;

Figure 3 is a partial top plan view;

Figure 4 is a partial rear elevation;

Figure 5 is a partial section on the line 55 of Figure 3, showing the detergent injecting mechanism;

Figure 6 is a partial vertical section on the line 6-6 of Figure 2, showing one construction of control device;

Figure 7 is a partial section corresponding to Figure 6, but showing a different form of control device;

Figure 8 is a top plan view of a third form of control device and Figure 9 is a partial section therethrough on the line 9-9 of Figure 8;

Figures 10 and 11 are partial elevational views showing a fourth form of control device;

Figure 12 is a top plan view of the control device of Figures 10 and 11;

Figure 13 is a vertical section through a fifth form of control device;

Figure 14 is a wiring diagram; and

Figure 15 is a diagram of the cycle of the machine.

The particular machine illustrated includes a chassis comprising a base I ll provided with saddles i2 rigidly supporting a tub i4 arranged with its axis'horizontal and having in its front wall an opening for the introduction of clothes, which opening is closed by a suitable glazed door (not shown). The machine is preferably provided with a removable cabinet l6, formed of suitable side and top panels, shown in Figure 1 but removed in the other figures.

The tub It contains a rotatable open-ended horizontal perforated washing drum or cylinder l8, formed with ribs or baflles 20 in its side wall, and supported only by a short shaft 22 provided with a pulley 24 driven by a belt 26 from a twospeed transmission 28 arranged in a rigid unit with an electric motor 30 by which it is driven. The motor-transmission unit 28-3ll has lateral arms 32 pivoted on the saddles i2, and its weight serves to tension the belt 26.

The machine briefly described above is more fully described, and certain structural features are claimed, in Patent No. 2,173,603 of Adiel Y. Dodge. The cycle of the machine described below, and its general organization, are claimed in Patent No. 2,165,884 of Rex Earl Bassett Jr. and John W. Chamberlin.

The tub I! is provided with a drain 36 controiled by a valve 38 actuated by a solenoid 40. The water drained from the machine when the valve 38 is open is ejected by a pump 42 (driven by the motor 30) through a suitable flexible conduit It.

Hot and cold water lines 46 supply water to inlet valves 48 controlled by solenoids 50 and 52, the water passing from the inlet valves to a mixing chamber 53 (Figure 2) and thence to a nozzle 55 discharging into the front opening of the tub.

The speed of the transmission 26 is controlled selectively by a lever 54 actuated by a solenoid 56, to give either a relatively low rotary washing speed (about R. P. M. if the drum I8 is 20 inches in diameter), or a much higher speed for centrifugally extracting the water from the clothes at the end of the cycle, to dry them sufiiciently to be hung out.

The drain 36 is connected by a conduit 60 to a float chamber 62 containing a float (not shown) which opens a switch 04 (Figure 14) to cut off the supply of water when a predetermined level is attained.

The machine is controlled to operate according to a predetermined cycle, as for example the cycle diagrammed in Figure 15, by means such as a multiple timer switch illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 14. This timer switch may com- Prise a shaft 60 driven by a small synchronous clock motor I0, and provided with cams I2 opening and permitting the closing of six sets of spring contacts 14 (indicated in Figure 15 as #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, and #6). These contacts 14 form switches opening and closing circuits between 110 volt alternating current supply lines 16 and 10.

Three of these circuits (80 through the speedcontrolling solenoid 00, 02 through the hot water solenoid 60, and 04 through the cold water solenoid 02) pass from their switch contacts 14 to the line 16 through the float switch 04, thus opening the water supply circuits when a predetermined water level is attained in the tub I4, and also insuring that the drum I6 cannot be driven at high or extracting speed until the water has drained out of the tub.

There is a thermostatic switch 06 in the circuit 04, so that when both circuits 02 and 04 are closed the machine is supplied with warm water of predetermined temperature. Normally the machine is supplied with hot water only for the washing operation (for washing cottons, etc.) the cam 12 for circuit 04 being formed to leave this circuit open at that time. If it is desired to wash with warm water (for washing woolens), a two-position switch 06 is manually moved from its normal position in contact with I30 to the position in contact with to close the circuit 04, whereupon the cold water will come on (under the control of the thermostatic switch 86) whenever the hot water comes on.

The described circuits cause the machine to operate automatically according to the cycle diagrammed in Figure 15, as follows: (1) soak, (2) off; then, after being manually started again by advancing the shaft 60 slightly, (3) wash, (4) drain and flush rinse, (5) distribute clothes uniformly in drum I0 by rotation without water in .the tub, (6) extract, ('7) rinse, (8) drain and flush rinse, (9) distribute, (l0) extract, and (11) stop. This cycle is more fully described, and is claimed, in the above identified Bassett and Chamberlin patent.

The present invention relates to supplying soap, or other detergent or cleaning agent, to cleaning machines, whether or not the machines are of the above-described exact construction or operate exactly according to the above-described cycle. In domestic washing machines it has previously not been possible to provide automatic feeding means for such detergents,'because the quantity varies not only with the hardness of the water (which varies tremendously in different localities), but also with the weight and character/of the load, etc., and according to whether hotor warm water is used. It has therefore been necessary to adjust the quantity of detergent added, each time the machine is used, by adding it slowly while watching the suds formation.

The automatic feeding means, in the form illustrated in Figures 1-6, comprises a hopper I00,

for soap chips or the like, mounted adjacent the tub I8, and in the lower part of which is a rotary screw or worm type feeding element I02 emptying into the tub I0 just behind a protective baiiie I04 which keeps water from being thrown directly into the discharge opening of the feeding device during the high-speed extraction step of the machine cycle. The cabinet I0 may be provided with a soap door I00 (Figure 1) over the top of the hopper I00.

The feeder screw I02 is driven by a shaft I00 having a pulley I I0 driven by a belt H2. The belt I I2 passes over idler pulleys II4, which carry it around to the back of the machine, where it passes over a drive pulley II6 carried by, and shown as "a stamping welded to, a friction drive disk H0. The pulley H6 and disk II8 are rotatably mounted on a spring mounting consisting of a suitable bearing bracket carried on the free end of a leaf spring I20 having its opposite end anchored to a bracket I22 welded to the tub wall. A stop pin I24 determines the upper position of disk IIO Just high enough to clear the upper surface of the belt 26 where it passes over the pulley 24. When the disk III! is drawn downwardly, against the resistance of the spring I20, it engages and is frictionally driven by the belt 26, thereby operating the feeder I02.

The free end of the spring I20, and therefore the movable bearing for the disk IIO, has secured thereto the core of a solenoid I26 mounted on the back wall of the tub I4. The energization of this solenoid therefore causes feeding of the soap or other detergent into the tub. The solenoid I26 is connected in a circuit I28 (Figure 14) controlled by a special pair #6 of the spring contacts I4 and a corresponding cam I2.

The circuit I20 branches beyond the contacts I4 into two parallel sub-circuits. One of these sub-circuits I30, controlled as described below to give a low suds level in the machine (for washing woolens, etc., in warm water), passes through a switch I32 directly to the line I8. This switch is effective to interrupt feeding of soap only when the switch arm 00 is closed in engagement with contact in the cold water circuit, soap continuing to feed until switch I36 is opened when arm 00 is in engagement with contact I30.

The other subcircuit I34 passes through a switch I30 to a contact I30 which is engaged by the switch arm 00 whenever the contact at 00 is opened (1. e. whenever the machine is set to wash cottons, etc., with hot water). When the switch I36 is closed the circuit I20 for solenoid I26 is closed, from line I6, (regardless of whether the low-suds switch I32 is open or closed) through switch I36, line I34, contacts I30 and 00, the upper part of circuit 02, hot-water switch contact 14, to line I8.

One type of device, operated by the pressure of the rising suds, for actuating the switches I32 and I36 is shown in Figures 2 and 6. There are of course two of these devices, one opening from the tube at low suds level and the other at high suds level. The switches I32 and I36 themselves are illustrated as standard commercial snap-action push-button switches, and are therefore not shown in detail.

Each of the switch-actuating devices comprises an open-bottom chamber I40, the upper part of which may be a removable stamped cup-shaped cylinder I42 if desired, the chamber being secured to the tub wall at the proper level with its lower end opening from the tub behind a protective baflle I44 curved to deflect the rising suds into ppenihB ot'the switch I66 (it the chamber-I66. The cylinder I42 contains a pressure-operated piston I46 connected by a piston rod I66 to a pivotally-mounted bellcrank lever I50 arranged to actuate the corresponding switch I32 or I36. Switches I62 and I36 are normally closed, and are opened by levers I60 as the suds level rises. The idle or "on" position oi each lever I50 is determined by engagement with an adjustable stop pin I52.

Figure 7 shows a modification in which the piston rod I66 as it rises lifts a pivoted arm I66 to separate switch contacts 262 (corresponding to switch I62 or I66). In Figures 8 and 9, instead 01 a piston I60 there is an 'eccentrically pivoted disk I66 mounted on a shaft I60 carrying a mercury switch 662. In Figures 10, 11, and 12 the pivoted disk I66actuates a shaft I60, but instead of a mercury switch this shaft carries a cam I62 raising a lever I64 to separate switch contacts 662. In Figure 13, the piston rod I46 is universally jointed to. a lever I66 carrying a mercury switch 662. V

In all of these modifications, it is not the buoyant efiect of the rising suds which operates the switch, but the pressure of the suds rising in the chamber I40.

Switches I62 and I66 are closed throughout the cycle or the machine, except during the part of the washing cycle after the suds are formed. LThe circuit I26 through these switches, as shown at #6 in Figure 15, is open at contact 12' during the soak period, closed during at least the major part of the. .wash" period, and then open for the remainder of the cycle. Thus the soap is auto-- matically fed into the tub from the beginning of the wash" period until the opening of switch I62 (it contacts" and 90 are closed), or until the contacts 66 and I66 are closed).

, While illustrative constructions have been described inf detail, it isnot the intention to limit the invention to the particular constructions described otherwise than by the terms or the apfor introducing suds producing detergent into said tub, and pressure-responsive means actuated by the pressure of the suds rising in said tub and controlling the operation of the detergent-introducing means, said pressure-responsive means including a chamber in fluid communication with the tub in which the suds-rise, and 'a control member in the chamber lifted by the pressure of the rising suds.

4. A cleaning machine comprising motordriven washing mechanism, means for supplying hot water thereto, means cooperating with the hot-water supplying means for supplying; warm water thereto, a device for supplying suds producing detergent thereto, a multiple timer switch having circuits controlling said mechanism and said two water-supplying means and including a switch for selectively rendering said two watersupplying means operable as the timer switch operates, two control devices having switches and cperated automatically by the rising of the suds in the machine to different levels respectively to actuate said switches, and-a circuit for controlling said detergent device which is controlled by said timer switch and which has branches arranged in parallel and containing respectively said two control-device switches and which branches are selectively rendered operable to control the suds level by the actuation of said selective switch, in such a manner as to give a high suds level when hot water is being used and to give alower suds level when warm water is being used. I w OLIVER J. CHAYIE.

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