US2931687A - Domestic appliance - Google Patents

Description

Aprilv 5, 1960 L. q. Mlm-:R 2,931,687

DOMESTIC APPLIANCE g INV ENTOR.

H/.S` ATTORNEY April 5, 1960 L. J. MITTER 2,931,687

DOMESTIC APPLIANCE Filed July l0, 1957 3 Sheets-Sheefc 2 A' 'im I I H I.' g: 5* i H E: :l f6 i is i5 ii P I s: Vp/f if "Il Z/ I V'H w gf :a :l ii I g7`. T l, H? v 1.1:.. i

INVENTOR.

HIJ:` ATTOR NE V April 5, 1960 l.. J. Mrr'rER 2,931,687

DOMESTIC APPLIANCE Filed July 10, 1957 s sheets-sheet s a INVENTOR.

laurence d. Ziffer way;y i

HIS ATTRN Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application July 1li, 1957, Serial No. 671,0i1 i cnam. (ci. sia-323) This invention relates to a` domestic appliance and more particularly to a clothes dryer.

An object of the invention is to provide a clothes dryer having a rotatable tumbling drum formed with a rear perforated wall with gas heating apparatus for supplying heated air to the tumbling drum, the gas heating apparatus inculding a combustion chamber that extends lengthwise of the clothes dryer and which supplies heated air to an air manifold located adjacent the rear perforated wall of the tumbling drum which, in turn, supplies heated air to the interior of the tumbling drum through the rear perforated wall thereof.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a clothes dryer including a rotatable tumbling drum with a gas-fired combustion chamber for supplying heated air tothe drum, the combustion chamber having an outer housing and an air directing member disposed therein which partially encloses a gas burner, the housing yand air directing member being spaced apart to form an air iiow passage that is located between the gas burner and the outer housing.

A further object of this invention is to provide a clothes dryer including a cabinet with a top cover member that may be pivoted to a position wherein the top end of the cabinet is open for access to the interior of the cabinet.

Further objects and `advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description,

reference being had to the accompanying drawings,`

wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side view of a clothes dryer made in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is a side view of the clothes dryer of this invention showing the structure for slidably and pivotally supporting the top cover member of the clothes dryer; t

Figure 3 is a top view of the clothes dryer of this invention with the top cover member removed', taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 4--4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a side view, with parts broken away, of the gas heating apparatus of this invention;

Figure 6 is a sectional view taken along line 6 6 of Figure 5; and

Figure 7 is a plan view of the rear preforated Wall of the clothes dryer tumbling drum.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to Figs. l and 3, the clothes dryer of this invention includes a cabinet generally designated by reference numeral 10. The cabinet is formed by -a rear wall 12, sidewalls 14 and 16, and by a front wall 18. The upper open end of the cabinet is Vcovered by a top cover or panelmember 20. The top cover or panel member 20 is slidably and rotatably supported by the cabinet of the clothes dryer in order that the cover member may be pivoted to a substantially vertical position, as-shown in Fig. 2. To this end a pair of channel-shaped track members 22 are respectively secured to opposite sidewalls of the cabinet lll. Each track member has a substan- Y 2,931,687 Patented Apr. 5, 1960 tially horizontally extending portion 23, and an upwardly extending portion 24 th'at merges into a relatively short horizontally extending portion 25. The top panel member 20 is provided with lug members 26 that are secured to the panel and which slide in tracks 22. The panel 20 has a keeper slot 28 that cooperates with a spring-biased bolt 30 to hold the panel 20 in a lixed position when the top panel is resting on the dryer cabinet. The bolt 3l) normally projects into the keeper slot 28 to prevent sliding movement of the top panel 20 relative to the cabinet 1t). When it is desired to pivot the panel 2l) to the position shown in Fig. 2, the bolt 3l) is grasped at 32 and pulled downwardly against the spring-bias of spring 34 to release the top panel member Sil for sliding movement. The panel 2t) may then be slid forwardly with the lug members 26 riding in the tracks 22. When the lug members ride up onto the horizontal portions 2S of tracks 22, the panel 2li may be pivoted to the vertical position, thus providing complete access to the interior of the cabinet 10. in this way the control housing 21 for the dryer, which is attached to the top panel 20, does not interfere with pivoting of the top panel to a vertical position. With the pivotal and slidable arrangement for the panel 20, the dryer may be placed in a room with the rear wall of the dryer llush with the rear wall of the room, without the room rear wall interfering with the movement of the panel to the vertical position shown in Fig. 2.

The clothes dryer of this invention includes a cylindrical tumbling drum generally designated by reference numeral 35. The tumbling drum has a front access opening 36, an imperforate peripheral wall 37 formed with tumbling vanes 38, and a rear perforated wall 39, as more particularly shown in Fig. 7. The tumbling drum is supported for rotation by a vertically extending bulkhead 40 that extends entirely across the dryer parallel to but spaced from the rear wall 12 of the dryer. The tumbling drum is preferably driven by an electric motor 41 through suitable pulley-and-belt mechanism, as shown. The tumbling drum is supplied with heated drying air by a gas-tired heating device generally designated by reference numeral 42. This heating device is located in the upper right corner of the dryer cabinet and extends axially of the cabinet, as is evident from the drawings. The heating device supplies air to a transversely extending sheet metal manifold member 43 that is secured to bulkhead 40. The sheet metal manifold member 43 and bulkhead 40 form a chamber 45. The bulkhead 40 has an opening at' t6 which is of a shape conforming to the cross-sectional shape of heating device 42 and which provides for communication between the heating device 42 and the chamber 45. The bulkhead 4t) has a second transversely extending opening at 47 to provide for communication between the chamber 45 and the space between the rear wall 39 of the tumbling drum and the bulkhead 40. This space is sealed off by a felt seal 48 which circumscribes the perforated area of the rear wall 39 of the tumbling drum and which is secured to bulkhead 40.

'Ihe front end of the tumbling drum is supported by a ring member (not shown), which is of the type shown and described in copending application Ser. No. 595,437, filed July 2, 1956. The dryer is also preferably provided with a door (not shown) that directs air from the access opening 36 of the tumbling drum into a vertically extending duct 49. This air directing arrangement is preferably like that shown in the above-mentioned copending application. The vertically extending duct 49 is connected with an air-box 50 that contains a lint filter element 51. The air-box 50 is connected with a blower 52 by a conduit 53, The blower may be driven by an electric motor 41 or may be driven by a separate elec* tric motor. .The outlet of blower 52 is connected to the exterior of the dryer cabinet by a conduit 54 that extends through bulkhead 4l) and rear cabinet wall i2. IInlet: air is supplied to the heating device 412 by openings S6 and 57 formed respectively in the rear wall 12. and in the top panel of the clothes dryer. The direction of air llow through the clothes dryer is depicted by the arrows in Fig. 1. Thus, air enters the front end of air heating device 42, flows through bulkhead di) into chamber 45, then ows through opening 47 in bulkhead 40, thence through the rear perforated wall oi tumbling drum 35, thence through access opening 36 into vertically extending duct 49, and then through blower 52 to a point exterior of the dryer cabinet. it can be seen that theV interior of heating device 42 is at a negative pressure due to the provision of the blower which constantly pulls air through the heating device and through the remainder of the clothes dryer.

The heating device 412 comprises a sheet metal outer housing 58 that is triangular in cross-section and which extends between points 59 and 6d. The terminal points 59 and 60 are connected by brackets 62 located at 0pposite ends of housing S. The housing is made triangular in cross-section so that it readily lits within the space formed by the tumbling drum, top wall and one sidewall of the cabinet. As shown, the housing 58 has a right triangular' cross-section with the legs of the triangle being located respectively parallel with the top thence through opening S0 into the space 83 where the heated air is conveyed through the heating device 42 into chamber `45. The air passing through space 82 serves to cool the outer housing 53, as does the air sweeping along the outside of the housing 58 and passing leftwardly in Fig. 1 from passages 56 and S7 to the open end 64 of the heating device 52. lt can thus be seen that a counter-ow of air is set up in that the air ows forwardly to the open end 64 of heating device 42 and thence rearwardly into chamber `d5. It can be seen that the products of combustion are supplied to the tumbling drum with the construction of this dryer.

The gas burner 75 is supplied with gas from an inlet y pipe 84 connected with a suitable supply of gas and is panel 2t) and `one sidewall 114 of the cabinet and with whichterminates at points 67 and 68, extends lengthwise of the housing 53. A third sheet metal member 69 is iixed to housing 58 and to a pair of end caps 71 and 72 that are secured to air directing member66. The front end cap 72 is provided with an opening 73 having a lower cylindrical cross-section, while the rear end cap 71 carries gas burner supports 714. A tubular gas burner 75 having the top ports 76 rests within the openingV 73 and on the supports 74. The gas burner may be of any conventional type having a longitudinal bore that is supplied with gas and primary air from its rear end and wherein the bore communicates with ports 7'6. The gas burner is located between sheet metal member 69 and one sidewall of air directing member 66. The air directing member '66 has openings 66a which aid in gas combustion when the blower 52 is not operating. The entire burner assembly 42 is supported in the upper righthand corner of the dryer cabinet between the tumbling drum of the dryer and the top panel 2li of thedryer. The burner assembly 42 is secured to one sidewall 14 by a bracket 78 that fits through a slot formed in a channelshaped portion of sidewall 14. The burner is spaced from the sidewall by a bump 7 8a. l

It should be noted that the particular construction `of the gas heating device 42 provides for a longitudinally extending opening at 79 that is disposed below burner 75. A longitudinally extending opening is also provided at `80, detined by the top edge of sheet metal member 69 and the top wall of air directing member 66. A longitudinally extending Iopening is also provided at 81 due to the fact that the air directing member 66 terminates at point 67.

By reference to Figs. l, 4 and 6 it can be seen that air entering the dryer cabinet through passages '56 and 57 will be supplied to the front open end 64 of heating device 42. This air flows longitudinally through space `82 4formed by outer housing '5S and air directing mem# ber 66 into chamber d5. Air will also flow through space 33 and will be heated by combustion of gas issuing from ports 76 and then passes into chamber 45. Air will also flow upwardly through opening 79, thence through' opening 51, then around gas burner 75 and supplied with primary air through openings in the rear end of burner 75. The inlet pipe 84 is connected with a shut-oli valve 85 and with a conventional pressure regulating valve 35. The pressure regulating valve is connected with a conventional solenoid valve structure S7 having an outlet connected with a pipe 38 that is directly connected with gas burner 75. It should be noted that the gas supply apparatus for the gas burner as well as the combustion chamber 42 are all located above the axis of the tumbling drum 39 and above a major portion of the tumbling drum. The gas supply apparatus and the gas heating device 42 are placed in this position in order that they may be easily serviced when the top panel 22 is moved to an open vertical position. Thus, when the top panel Ztl is moved to the position in Fig. 2, easy accessV to the gas supply apparatus 84, 85, 86 and S7 and to the gas heating device 42, is afforded.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that yother forms might be adopted, as may f come within the scope of the claim which follows.

What is claimed is as follows:

A hinged cover arrangement for a ilush-to-room wall mounted dryer cabinet having front, rear and side walls and an upwardly extending control housing on said cover comprising a channel shaped track member having a rst horizontally arranged portion fixed to an upper edge of one of said cabinet side walls and an upwardly 'extending cam portion at an angle with said upper edge and merging into a relatively short second horizontally arranged portion, said second horizontally arranged portion spaced from said first horizontally arranged portion, said track member extending from the rear wall of said cabinet to a point forwardly thereof with the second horizontal portion being forwardly disposed, and a lug member secured to said cover member and having a protuberance substantially in line with the rear of said control housing and slidable and rotatable in said track member, whereby when said cover member' is slidably moved forwardly of said room wall, said protuberance moves from said rst horizontally arranged portion to said second horizontally arranged portion to permit said cover member and said control housing to pivot without engaging said room wall.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,216,239 Haseltine Oct. 1, 1940 2,241,884 Noblegr. May 13, 1941 2,357,214 McDole Aug. 29, 1944 '2,590,028 Miller Mar. 18, 1952 2,682,351 Durand June 29, 1954 2,690,905 Smith Oct. 5, 1954 2,748,496 Hellyer June 5, 1956 2,776,826 Bennett et al. Jan. 8, 1957 2,797,567 Heien July 2, 1957 2,798,302 Reiter July 9, 1957 2,314,886 Fowler Dec. 3, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 144,204 Austria Jan. 10, 1936

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