Classifications

• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06F—LAUNDERING, DRYING, IRONING, PRESSING OR FOLDING TEXTILE ARTICLES
  • D06F37/00—Details specific to washing machines covered by groups D06F21/00 - D06F25/00
  • D06F37/20—Mountings, e.g. resilient mountings, for the rotary receptacle, motor, tub or casing; Preventing or damping vibrations
  • D06F37/206—Mounting of motor
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06F—LAUNDERING, DRYING, IRONING, PRESSING OR FOLDING TEXTILE ARTICLES
  • D06F37/00—Details specific to washing machines covered by groups D06F21/00 - D06F25/00
  • D06F37/26—Casings; Tubs
  • D06F37/261—Tubs made by a specially selected manufacturing process or characterised by their assembly from elements
  • D06F37/262—Tubs made by a specially selected manufacturing process or characterised by their assembly from elements made of plastic material, e.g. by injection moulding
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06F—LAUNDERING, DRYING, IRONING, PRESSING OR FOLDING TEXTILE ARTICLES
  • D06F37/00—Details specific to washing machines covered by groups D06F21/00 - D06F25/00
  • D06F37/26—Casings; Tubs
  • D06F37/267—Tubs specially adapted for mounting thereto components or devices not provided for in preceding subgroups
  • D06F37/269—Tubs specially adapted for mounting thereto components or devices not provided for in preceding subgroups for the bearing of the rotary receptacle

Definitions

• the present invention refers to an improved kind of both front-loading and top-loading clothes washing machine that is provided with a washing tub and a drive motor for rotatably driving a rotating drum housed within said washing tub, wherein said clothes washing machine is particularly compact in the depth dimension, i.e. in the direction from the front side to the rear side thereof, and wherein said drive motor is adapted to be easily replaced or repaired.
• Clothes washing machines are generally known to have an inner drum, which is rotatably driven by means of the rotary drive shaft thereof that is caused to pass through a central aperture provided in the rear wall of the washing tub accommodating said drum, from which said shaft therefore protrudes.
• This rotary drive shaft of the drum is shrink- fitted onto a pulley, or driven pulley, that is connected to the motor or drive pulley by means of an appropriate belt engaging both of them.
• drive motors of the synchronous type fitted for use in household-type clothes washing machines wherein such motors are provided with a stator and a rotor that may be arranged either externally or internally relative to the stator which it is associated to.
• these synchronous motors are advantageously press-fitted or shrink- fitted directly on to said rotary drive shaft of the drum, i.e. exactly behind the rear side of the washing tub.
• This configuration is generally referred to as "direct-drive” system in the art .
• Direct drives of this kind actually bring about a number of advantages, especially of an economic and space-saving nature, since they do away with any need for an adequate space to be made available within the volume of the outer casing of a washing machine for the installation of a full-size motor and the pulley on the protruding rotary drive shaft of the drum.
• synchronous motors used in such direct-drive configurations have a further drawback in that they cannot be repaired in the machine, i.e. in the assembled condition thereof. Should they be repaired or replaced for any reason whatsoever, these motors must therefore be fully removed from the machine and replaced in their entirety. It can be readily appreciated that this entails costs that could be at least partly avoided in the case that a motor failure occurs either only in the rotor or only in the stator.
• Figure 1 is a view of a washing tub provided with a synchronous motor of a kind according to the prior art
• - Figure 2 is an exploded view of the washing tub, the drum, the hub supporting the drive shaft of the drum, the stator and the rotor of the motor according to a first embodiment of the present invention
• - Figure 3 is a median cross-sectional view, through the axis of the drum, of the washing tub shown in Figure 2, with the various component parts in the assembled state thereof
• - Figure 4 is an exploded view of the washing tub, the drum, the hub supporting the drive shaft of the drum, the stator and the rotor of the motor according to a second embodiment of the present invention
• - Figure 5 is a median cross-sectional view, through the axis of the drum, of the washing tub shown in Figure 4, with the various component parts in the assembled state thereof;
• - Figure 6 is an exploded view of the washing tub, the drum, the hub supporting the drive shaft of the drum, the stator and the rotor of the motor according to a third embodiment of the present invention;
• - Figure 7 is an enlarged median cross-sectional view, through the axis of the drum, of the washing tub shown in Figure 6, with the various component parts in the assembled state thereof .
• a clothes washing machine comprises a perforated rotating drum 1 for holding and handling the clothes to be washed, a loading door 2 ensuring access into said drum, a washing tub 3 mounted on - even in a suspended or oscillating manner - to the outer casing of said washing machine and accommodating said drum 1, which is therefore housed rotatably inside said tub.
• a synchronous motor comprising a stator 6 and a rotor 7, arranged coaxially with the axis of rotation X of said drum and mounted externally to said tub on the rear side thereof, wherein said rotor 7 is shrink-fitted on to the rotary drive shaft 8 of said drum, a hub 9 being applied axially on to a central rear portion of said tub and accommodating said rotary drive shaft of the drum thereinside.
• a synchronous motor comprising a stator 6 and a rotor 7, arranged coaxially with the axis of rotation X of said drum and mounted externally to said tub on the rear side thereof, wherein said rotor 7 is shrink-fitted on to the rotary drive shaft 8 of said drum, a hub 9 being applied axially on to a central rear portion of said tub and accommodating said rotary drive shaft of the drum thereinside.
• bearings 10, 11 are provided to support said drive shaft 8 there are two bearings 10, 11 arranged coaxially with said rotary drive shaft 8 and accommodated between said hub 9
• said motor is not positioned behind the rear wall of the tub, but rather within an appropriate cylindrical recess 13 provided in said rear wall 14 of the tub.
• the tub itself can be manufactured using any technique and material, or combination thereof, as are generally known as such and used in the art . It will however be most readily appreciated that the present invention can best be applied to a moulded plastic tub, since such tub is by itself provided with a significant thickness on its rear side enabling said recessed accommodation 13 to be conveniently provided there.
• FIGS. 2 and 3 these may be noticed to illustrate a first embodiment of the present invention, in which the stator 6 is arranged externally, i.e. adhering against the inner surface of said recessed accommodation, whereas the rotor 7 is arranged internally, i.e. inside the stator .
• FIGs 4 and 5 these may be noticed to illustrate a second embodiment of the present invention, in which the stator 6 is on the contrary arranged internally, whereas the rotor 7 is arranged externally, i.e. adhering against the inner surface of said recessed accommodation 13.
• the rotor and the stator are aligned with the outer bearing 11, in the sense that their symmetry or median plane m, which lies orthogonal to the axis X, passes through the median plane of the outer bearing 11 or quite close thereto.
• FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate a further improved embodiment of the present invention.
• This calls for the stator 6 to be mounted internally and the rotor 7 to be mounted externally, while the outer bearing 11, instead of being mounted inside the hub 9, is mounted directly inside the stator 6, the hub 9 terminating before reaching, i.e. in advance of the position of said outer bearing 11.
• This embodiment has in fact the advantage of enabling the stator to be assembled in an integrated manner with the rear wall of the tub in an operation that is fully independent of the assembly of the rotor, which can therefore be mounted separately in a subsequent, again fully independent operation.
• a further advantage of this particular embodiment lies in a clear improvement that can be achieved in terms of production standardization, since the possibility is given here for washing tubs provided with a same stator to be mass-produced, all of them duly provided with a same stator, to which different rotors may then be each time associated to cope with different functional or operating specifications which the various washing machine models are required to comply with.
• stator 6 is secured to the rear wall 14 of the tub with the help of fastening means that are largely known as such in the art, e.g. by means of bolts 17 extending axially through the stator to eventually engage the same rear wall 14 or, preferably, the annular rear wall 18 of the hub 9, as this is allowed for by the very circumstance that said hub does not reach out to the axial position occupied by the related stator 6.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Textile Engineering (AREA)
• Main Body Construction Of Washing Machines And Laundry Dryers (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=36809276

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (6)

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Citations (6)

Family Cites Families (7)

• 2005
  • 2005-12-06 EP EP05111751A patent/EP1795641A1/en not_active Withdrawn
• 2006
  • 2006-10-25 KR KR1020087015801A patent/KR20080081299A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2006-10-25 WO PCT/EP2006/010261 patent/WO2007065501A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2006-10-25 CN CNA2006800478869A patent/CN101341284A/zh active Pending
  • 2006-10-25 EP EP06806517A patent/EP1960580A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2006-10-25 US US12/095,941 patent/US20080271499A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2006-10-25 BR BRPI0619614-4A patent/BRPI0619614A2/pt not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (6)

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