WO2009040258A1

WO2009040258A1 - Rotating-drum clothes washing machine, or similar household appliance, provided with a fastening arrangement for an electric motor

Info

Publication number: WO2009040258A1
Application number: PCT/EP2008/062120
Authority: WO
Inventors: Daniele Cossalter
Original assignee: Appliances Components Companies S.P.A.
Priority date: 2007-09-27
Filing date: 2008-09-12
Publication date: 2009-04-02
Also published as: ITPN20070069A1

Abstract

The present invention refers to a clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, and in particular to a fastening arrangement provided for securing to a washing tub (10) an electric motor (20) intended to rotatably drive a drum (13) mounted within said washing tub (10), wherein a pair of removable mounting brackets (40, 60, 260) are adapted to be applied to the external supports conventionally provided on said washing tub (10) for the support of traditional driving motors, in order to support and connect the end portions (80, 82) of the shaft (26) of the electric motor (20), said shaft (26) being stationary relative to said washing tub (10).

Description

ROTATING-DRUM CLOTHES WASHING MACHINE, OR SIMILAR

HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE, PROVIDED WITH A FASTENING ARRANGEMENT

FOR AN ELECTRIC MOTOR

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to a clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, and in particular to a fastening arrangement provided for securing an electric motor intended to rotatably drive a drum.

Namely, a great number of rotating-drum clothes washing machines currently available on the market are largely known to be designed so that the rotation shaft of the rotating drum is driven either directly by an electric motor of the outer rotor kind or via a driving belt. In both cases, an electric motor of the outer rotor kind is secured to a washing tub containing the rotating drum of the household appliance under provision of a proper attachment interface. The attachment fittings provided on the washing tub for the electric motor to be fastened thereto are designed in view of enabling electric motors of a traditional kind, i.e. provided with a rotating motor shaft, to be secured thereto, so that it becomes in this case necessary for a special attachment interface to be provided duly interposed between the washing tub and the electric motor, in such manner as to enable these two component parts to be made homogeneous, i.e. compatible with each other, from the standpoint of the mechanical connection. A solution to this problem calls for use to be made of a support for the electric motor, which comprises standard attachment fittings; however, mounting the support to the electric motor and the arrangement thereof in the appliance so as to have it properly fitting with the attachment points of the washing tub, are such as to turn the installation of the fastening arrangement quite a labour-intensive, time-demanding and awkward one, altogether.

In an attempt to do away with all these problems, various solutions have been proposed hitherto, all of which are well exemplified by the one described in the European patent application no. 1707660. Disclosed in this document is a rotating- drum household appliance, in which a C-shaped attachment member is provided as a unitary single-piece construction, i.e. integrally with the washing tub, wherein such attachment member comprises two arms that are provided with respective securing means for the central shaft of the electric outer-rotor motor to be firmly fastened to the washing tub, and wherein the electric outer-rotor motor has been deprived of its support using standard attachment fittings.

A major drawback found to be existing with the above-described exemplary solution lies in the fact that the structure of the washing tub needs to be specially designed and adapted to the attachment of electric outer-rotor motors and, thus, cannot be used in conjunction with electric motors of a traditional kind.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to do away with the drawbacks and disadvantages of prior-art solutions, as they have been noted above, by providing a rotating-drum clothes washing machine, or any appliance of a similar kind, in which the washing tub keeps being provided with attachment fittings for traditional motors and is additionally provided with further special means allowing for an outer-rotor motor to be mounted thereto, as well. This enables a rotating- drum clothes washing machine, or any appliance of a similar kind, which proves quite versatile as far as the selection of the drum driving system is concerned.

It is a further purpose of the present invention to make use of the traditional attachment fittings of the washing tub to also mount electric motors of the outer rotor kind thereto.

Yet another purpose of the present invention is to provide a rotating-drum clothes washing machine, or any appliance of a similar kind, provided with an attachment arrangement for an electric drive motor, which is effective in attaining the above-noted object and purposes at fully competitive costs, and is capable of being manufactured with the use of readily available equipment, tools and techniques.

Some advantageous developments of the particular solution proposed in accordance with the present invention are set forth in the appended claims, wherein it may in particular be appropriate to put the emphasis on the fact that the vibration-damping means used in conjunction with the washing tub are allowed to be kept unaltered with respect to the traditional design thereof; in other words, the same vibration-damping means as those used in conjunction with drive motors of the traditional kind can be further used.

According to the present invention, the above-indicated aims, features and advantages, along with further ones that will become apparent from the following disclosure, are reached in a rotating-drum clothes washing machine, or any appliance of a similar kind, provided with an attachment arrangement for an electric drive motor incorporating the characteristics as defined and recited in the appended claims.

Features and advantages of the present invention will anyway be more readily understood from the description of an exemplary embodiment thereof that is given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 is a schematic side view of a rotating-drum clothes washing machine, or any appliance of a similar kind, illustrating the feature depicting the attachment arrangement of the electric motor of the outer rotor kind according to the present invention;

- Figure 2 is a schematical view of a detail of the illustration in Figure 1 , illustrating the connection of a first end portion of the shaft of the electric motor of the outer rotor kind;

- Figure 3 is a schematical view of a detail of the illustration in Figure 1 , illustrating the connection of a second end portion of the shaft of the electric motor of the outer rotor kind;

- Figure 4 is a schematical view of a modification in the preferred embodiment concerning the connection of the second end portion of the shaft of the electric motor of the outer rotor kind;

- Figure 5 is a schematical view of a detail of the illustration in Figure 4, illustrating the connection of the second end portion of the shaft of the electric motor of the outer rotor kind; and

- Figure 6 is a perspective schematical view of the detail referring to the connection of the first end portion of the shaft of the electric motor of the outer rotor kind.

With reference to Figure 1 , a rotating-drum clothes washing machine, or any appliance of a similar kind, comprises an electric motor 20, a washing tub 10 containing a rotating drum 13, and an attachment arrangement for securing the electric motor 20 to the washing tub. The electric motor 20 is of the kind featuring an outer rotor, and it includes a central shaft 26, which the torque generated by said electric motor 20 is not applied to, so that it is stationary relative to the frame of the same motor. A rotor 22 of the electric motor 20 is provided externally with respect to the stator of the same motor in a rotatably free manner, and it is connected via a driving belt 24 to a pulley (not shown) that is firmly joined to the rotating drum 13 of the household appliance, so that the torque generated by the electric motor 20 is integrally transferred to the shaft of the rotating drum 13. The attachment arrangement for securing the electric motor 20 comprises a first mounting bracket 40 and a second mounting bracket 60.

With reference to Figures 1 , 2 and 6, the first mounting bracket 40 includes a central body 42, which is preferably in the shape of a cylinder featuring a central insertion bore 44, which preferably extends coaxially with the axis of the central body 42 and is open longitudinally. Preferably, the surface of the central body 42 delineating the central insertion bore 44 is assigned a knurled or, anyway, wrinkled texture so as to ensure a more effective grip when tightening. The central body 42 is open sideways, i.e. laterally with a longitudinal slot extending along the axis thereof, thereby defining two end portions that extend radially outwards to thereby form two polyhedhcally contoured jaws 46, 48. These jaws 46, 48 are provided with a bore 47, 49, respectively, in which there is fitted a detachable connection member 50 that closes up with a coupling element 52 in the proximity of an end portion of the connecting member 50 protruding from a bore of one of said jaws, so as to reduce the diameter of the central insertion bore in accordance with, i.e. in the way of a vice-like clamping mechanism. From the central body 52 there protrude radially outwards a plurality of arms, e.g. two such arms 54, 56 according to a V-shaped plan-view configuration of the mounting bracket 40, which - with reference to the mounting bracket 40 in the assembled state thereof - curve sideways along the central shaft 26 in the opposite direction with respect to the location where the driving belt 24 is positioned (see Figure 1 ). At the end portions of the arms 54, 56 lying farthermost from the central body 42 there are formed a pair of coupling boxes 57, 58, respectively.

With reference to Figures 1 and 3, the second mounting bracket 60 includes a central body 62, which is preferably in the shape of a cylinder featuring a central insertion bore 65, which preferably extends coaxially with the axis of the central body 62 and is open longitudinally. Preferably, the surface of the central body 62 delineating the central insertion bore 65 is assigned a knurled or, anyway, wrinkled texture so as to ensure a more effective grip when tightening. The central body 62 is open sideways, i.e. laterally with a longitudinal slot extending along the axis thereof, thereby defining two end portions that extend radially outwards to thereby form two polyhedrically contoured jaws 66, 68. Bores are formed in these jaws 66, 68, and fitted in these bores there is a detachable connection member 70 that closes up with a coupling element 72, so as to reduce the diameter of the central insertion bore 65 in accordance with, i.e. in the way of a vice-like clamping mechanism. From the central body 62 there protrude radially outwards a plurality of arms, e.g. two such arms 63, 64 that extend radially and diametrically opposed to each other along a first length thereof, and then bend at a right angle to thereby create an overall U-shaped plan-view configuration of the mounting bracket 60 (see Figure 3). With reference to the mounting bracket 60 in the as-mounted condition thereof, the arms 63, 64 extend from the central body 62 along the central shaft 26 in the direction of the motor body (see Figure 1 ), so that the driving belt 24 does not intersect any portion of the mounting bracket 60. At the end portions of the arms 63, 64 lying farthermost from the central body 62 there are formed a pair of coupling boxes 77, 78, respectively. The way in which the inventive attachment arrangement for the electric motor

20 works is as follows: with reference to Figures 1 , 2 and 3, the first mounting bracket 40 is removably connected to a first end portion 80 of the central shaft 26 lying in the opposite position with respect to the rotor 22. Securing is done by fitting the first end portion 80 of the central shaft 26 into the central insertion bore

44 and closing the coupling element 52 with the connection member 50. Moreover, the coupling boxes 57, 58 are connected in a removable manner to corresponding fastening pins 84, 86 provided on the washing tub 10, thereby achieving a fixed and stable coupling. In this way, the first end portion 80 of the central shaft 26 is removably secured to the washing tub 10.

The second mounting bracket 60 is removably connected to a second end portion 82 of the central shaft 26 near the rotor 22. Securing is done by fitting the second end portion 82 of the central shaft 26 into the central insertion bore 65 and closing the coupling element 72 with the connection member 70. Moreover, the coupling boxes 77, 78 are connected in a removable manner to corresponding fastening pins 88, 90 provided on the washing tub 10, thereby achieving a fixed and stable coupling. In this way, the second end portion 82 of the central shaft 26 is removably secured to the washing tub 10. Thus, by mounting the brackets 40, 60 as described above, the electric motor 20 is removably secured to the attachment fittings 84, 86, 88, 90 as they are provided in the usual manner on the washing tub 10 to accommodate for traditional electric motors. Moreover, the vibration-damping means used in conjunction with the washing tub 10 in view of the use of traditional electric motors can be kept unaltered, notwithstanding the use of an electric motor of the outer rotor type; in other words, they do not require any adaptation to cater for the use of an electric motor of the outer rotor type instead of a motor of a traditional kind.

Figures 4 and 5 are schematical views of a modification in the above-described preferred embodiment concerning the connection of the second end portion of the shaft 26 of the electric motor of the outer rotor kind.

The second mounting bracket 260 includes a preferably cylindhcally shaped central body 262, which has a central insertion bore 265 that preferably extends coaxially with the axis of the central body 262, is open longitudinally and comprises a similar vice-like clamping mechanism as the one described afore in conjunction with the preferred embodiment, wherein a connection member 270 fitted into the bores of the respective jaws 266 and 268 closes up with a coupling element 272. Extending radially outwards from the central body 262 there is an arm 263 that bifurcates in opposite directions until it joins two connection boxes 267 and 269, thereby assigning a star-shaped plan-view configuration to the bracket 260. With reference to the mounting bracket 260 in an as-mounted condition thereof, this bracket bends along the central shaft in the direction of the motor body (see Figure 4). The bracket 260 is mounted by inserting the second end portion 82 of the central shaft 26 into the central insertion bore 265 and closing the coupling element 272 with the connection member 270. Moreover, the coupling boxes 267, 269 are connected in a removable manner to corresponding fastening pins 288, 290 provided on the washing tub 10, thereby achieving a fixed and stable coupling. In this way, the second end portion 82 of the central shaft 26 is removably secured to the washing tub 10.

Fully apparent from the above description is therefore the ability of the clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, featuring a fastening arrangement provided for securing an electric motor intended to rotatably drive the drum 13 according to present invention to effectively reach the aims and advantages cited afore by in fact providing a clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, wherein securing the central shaft 26 of the electric motor 20 to the washing tub 10 is allowed, i.e. can be done without any need arising for the structure of the washing tub 10 to be modified to any extent with respect to the traditional design thereof based on the use of drive motors of the traditional kind. The same applies to the vibration-damping means provided in conjunction with the washing tub 10, the traditional design of which can in fact be kept unaltered, regardless of the type of drive motor used, actually. As a result, a clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, according to present invention is such as to allow for a really wide range of electric motor types to be accommodated therein for driving the rotating drum 13. It shall be appreciated that the invention, as described above, is subject to a number of modifications and may be embodied in a number of different manners, or can be used in a number of different applications, without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, any embodiment whatsoever of the mounting brackets 40, 60; 260 as provided to secure the central shaft 26 of the electric motor 20, which is an outer-rotor motor, to the external supports or attachment fittings 84, 86, 88, 90; 288, 290 provided on the washing tub 10 for the attachment of traditional motors thereto, shall be understood as falling within the scope of the present invention.

It shall further be appreciated that the materials used, as well as the shape and the sizing of the various parts, may each time be selected so as to more appropriately meet particular requirements or suit the particular application.

Claims

1. Clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, comprising a washing tub (10), within which said rotating drum (13) is rotatably driven by an electric motor (20) mounted on supports (84, 86, 88, 90; 288, 290) provided on the exterior of said washing tub (10), characterized in that a pair of removable mounting brackets (40, 60; 260) are adapted to be attached to said supports (84, 86, 88, 90; 288, 290) in order to support and connect the end portions (80, 82) of the shaft (26) of an electric motor (20) of the outer-rotor kind, said shaft (26) being stationary relative to said washing tub (10) of the appliance.

2. Clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, according to claim 1 , wherein each mounting bracket (40, 60, 260) is provided at an end portion thereof with a vice-like clamping mechanism adapted to removably clamp and secure the end portions (80, 82) of the shaft (26) of the electric motor (20).

3. Clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, according to claim 2, wherein said vice-like clamping mechanism comprises: a central body (42, 62; 262) having an axially extending bore (44, 65; 265) and open longitudinally with two end portions that extend radially outwards to thereby form two jaws (46, 48; 66, 68; 266, 268) comprising each a bore, a connection member (50, 70; 270) and a coupling element (52, 72; 272), said connection member being fitted into said bores in the jaws to close up with said coupling element, said vice-like clamping mechanism being adapted to reduce the diameter of the bore (44, 65; 265).

4. Clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, according to claim 3, wherein the surface of the central body (42, 62; 262) delimiting said bore (44, 65; 265) is given a knurled or, anyway, corrugated texture so as to ensure a more effective grip when tightening.

5. Clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, according to any of the preceding claims, wherein each bracket (40, 60; 260) further comprises at least another end portion provided with a respective coupling box (57, 58; 77, 78; 267, 269) adapted to fit onto a corresponding support (84, 86; 88, 90; 288, 290) on the washing tub (10), said supports being conventionally designed in view of the use of electric motors including a rotating rotor shaft.

6. Clothes washing machine of the rotating-drum kind, or any household appliance of a similar kind, according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the rotary motion of the motor (20) is transmitted to the drum (13) via a driving belt (24) and related pulley, wherein the plane containing the belt (24) is located between a first plane extending parallel thereto, and containing the end portion (82) of the shaft (26), and a second plane that extends parallel to said plane containing the belt (24) and contains the supports (88, 90; 288, 290) on the washing tub (10).