WO2017108092A1

WO2017108092A1 - A washer

Info

Publication number: WO2017108092A1
Application number: PCT/EP2015/080931
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hasret GURSOY; Erol TOGAY; Caglar KOC; Aytekin ONAR
Original assignee: Arcelik Anonim Sirketi
Priority date: 2015-12-22
Filing date: 2015-12-22
Publication date: 2017-06-29

Abstract

The present invention relates to a washer comprising a body having at least one wall (1) delimiting a housing and provided with an aperture (2) and a softening system having a salt container (3) placed in the housing and comprising a neck (4), arranged through the aperture (2) on the wall (1 ) of the body and having an opening through which salt can be introduced in the salt container (3), and a cap (5) for closing the opening on the neck (4).

Description

A WASHER

The present invention relates to a washer, such as a dishwasher or a washing machine, comprising an ion exchanger that provides the generation of soft water and a salt container used in the regeneration process of the ion exchanger.

In dishwashers and washing machines, water softening systems are used for decreasing the hardness of the washing water and for providing an effective washing. The water softening system comprises an ion exchanger and a salt container wherein the salt used in the regeneration process of the resin inside the ion exchanger is kept. In order to decrease the hardness of the water, the water received from an external source is passed through the ion exchanger and is delivered to the tub to be used in the washing process. Brine is generally present in the salt container that is activated in the regeneration processes of the ion exchanger. As the amount of salt in the container decreases in the course of time, the user is requested to regularly add salt into the salt container. The salt container is generally placed at the bottom of the washer and, in particular in the dishwashers, is provided with a neck extending into the tub through an aperture on the bottom wall or a lateral wall delimiting the tub and having an opening which is accessible through the inside of the tub and which is closed by a cap, such as for instance the one disclosed in the patent application n. DE2607088A1 or the one disclosed in the patent application n. GB2009717A. In order to render easier for the user to remove and rearrange the cap when refilling the salt container, such cap has generally dimensions that are significantly bigger than the transversal dimensions of the neck and of the aperture on the bottom or lateral wall.

It is sometimes necessary to replace the salt container, for instance when problems are encountered in the regeneration processes of the ion exchanger. The salt container is generally removable from the bottom of the washer, extracting its neck through the aperture on the bottom or lateral wall of the tub. In order to do so, the cap has to be removed, so that some of the brine or salt can spill from the salt container onto the wall of the tub, thus entailing corrosion problems that can lead to the need of substituting the entire washer since the corroded wall or walls of the tub cannot be replaced.

At the moment no solution has been provided for overcoming such technical problem.

The aim of the present invention is the realization of a washer, such as a dishwasher or a washing machine, which allows maintenance interventions on the salt container of the softening system, and in particular the replacement of such salt container, without incurring the risk of generating corrosion problems in the washer.

The washer realized in order to attain the aim of the present invention, explicated in the first claim and the respective claims thereof, comprises a salt container having a cap, which comprises an inner lid and an outer cover engaged to each other. The outer cover is graspable by the user for removing the whole cap, i.e. the outer cover and the inner lid together, whenever the refill of salt in the salt container is required. The inner lid is aimed to be maintained secured to the neck of the salt container during the maintenance interventions, while the outer cover is removed, and it has, to this aim, transversal dimensions smaller than the dimensions of the aperture through which the neck is inserted so that it can be extracted through the aperture together with the neck.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the outer cover is engaged to the inner lid by means of engaging means provided on the outer cover and on the inner lid and designed to reversibly interlock with each other, which engaging means, according to a version of this embodiment, comprises projections and recesses fitting together, so that, in a further embodiment, the outer cover is disengageable from the inner lid by pulling it apart from the inner lid.

In an embodiment, the neck of the salt container is threaded and the inner lid is counterthreaded so that it is rotatably engageable and disengageable to the neck.

According to a further embodiment, the salt container comprises a gasket mounted around its neck and a sealing ring aimed to engage with the neck to press the gasket mounted around it against the wall of the body of the washer through an aperture of which the neck is inserted.

In an embodiment, the neck of the salt container comprises a second thread and the sealing ring comprises a second counterthread rotatably engageable to the second thread of the neck.

The sealing ring, in another embodiment, has a through hole having dimensions bigger than the transversal dimensions of the inner lid so that it can be removed from the neck of the salt container without requiring the removal of the inner lid.

In an embodiment, the washer is a washing machine.

In an alternative embodiment, the washer is a dishwasher and in a version of this embodiment the wall delimiting the housing where the salt container is placed is a wall delimiting the tub wherein the dish washing process is performed and the cap is accessible to the user from the inside of the tub.

In the washer of the present invention, the user is provided with convenience in the salt adding process by means of the outer cover of the cap which is easy to handle, while the maintenance interventions can be performed in a secure manner, avoiding the risk of subsequent corrosion phenomena due to the spilling of brine or salt from the salt container, by means of the inner lid, which remains engaged to the salt container, keeping closed its opening, during the whole maintenance intervention.

A washer realized in order to attain the aim of the present invention is illustrated in the attached figures, where:

Figure 1 – is a perspective view of a bottom wall of a tub of a dishwasher according to the invention with a salt container mounted below it.

Figure 2 – is a perspective view of the salt container of a washer according to the present invention.

Figure 3 – is the perspective view of the salt container of Figure 2 with an exploded view of the cap and of a sealing ring.

Figure 4 – is a perspective view of the cap of a salt container of a washer according to the invention.

Figure 5 – is an exploded perspective view of the cap of Figure 4.

The elements illustrated in the figures are numbered as follows:

Wall
Aperture
Salt container
Neck
Cap
Inner lid
Outer cover
Engaging means
Projections
Recesses
First counterthread
Sealing ring
Second thread
Second counterthread
Through hole

The washer, such as a washing machine or a dishwasher, comprises a body having at least one wall 1 delimiting a housing and provided with an aperture 2 and a softening system having a salt container 3 placed in the housing and comprising a neck 4 having an opening (not illustrated) through which salt can be introduced in the salt container 3 and arranged through the aperture 2 on the wall 1 of the body, so as to emerge with its opening on the other side of the wall 1 with respect to the housing. To this aim, the transversal section of the neck has smaller dimensions than the dimensions of the aperture 2 on the wall 1. The salt container 3 further comprises a cap 5 for closing the opening on the neck 4.

In particular the salt container 3 is removable from the washer, for instance for maintenance purposes or for its replacement, by accessing the housing from an access placed on a delimiting wall of the housing different than the wall 1 provided with the aperture 2 and pulling out the salt container 3 by extracting its neck 4 through the aperture 2 on the wall 1.

According to the present invention, the cap 5 comprises an inner lid 6 and an outer cover 7. The inner lid 6 is suitable to be placed on the opening of the neck 4 for closing it and it has maximum transversal dimensions smaller than the dimensions of the aperture 2 on the wall 1 of the body of the washer, so that it can pass through it. The outer cover 7 has transversal dimensions bigger than the dimensions of the neck 4 of the salt container 3 and bigger than the dimensions of the aperture 2 on the wall 1 of the body of the washer to be comfortably grasped by a user and it is designed to be engaged to the inner lid 6 so that the user can remove the whole cap 5 by acting only on the outer cover 7. More in detail, the inner lid 6 is advantageously nested in the outer cover 7.

The fact that the cap 5 comprises an inner lid 6 and an outer cover 7 ensures both a comfortable use for the user, thanks to the outer cover 7, and secure maintenance interventions preventing the possibility of spilling of brine and salt, thanks to the inner lid 6 that remains in place when the salt container 3 is removed from the washer.

When the user needs to remove the cap 5 from the neck 4 of the salt container 3 to refill it with salt, in fact, it is sufficient for him/her to act only on the outer cover 7 for contemporarily removing the outer cover 7 together with the inner lid 6. This operation is rendered easier by the bigger dimensions of the outer cover 7 which allow the user to easily and firmly grasp the cap 5.

When a maintenance operator needs to remove the salt container 3 from the washer, it is sufficient for him/her firstly to remove only the outer cover 7, leaving the inner lid 6 in place, and then to remove the salt container 3 by extracting its neck 4, with the inner lid 6 still closing its opening, through the aperture 2 on the wall of the washer. In this manner the salt container 3 is maintained closed also during the maintenance interventions, thus avoiding the brine or salt contained in it to accidentally spill in the washer, giving raised to adverse corrosion processes.

In an embodiment, illustrated in the attached drawings, the aperture 2 on the wall 1 of the washer is circular and at least the inner lid 6 of the cap 5 has a substantially cylindrical shape. In this case, the maximum diameter d of the inner lid 6 is smaller than the diameter of the aperture 2. In a version of this embodiment, also the outer cover 7 has a substantially cylindrical shape, having a maximum diameter D bigger than the diameter of the aperture 2 on the wall.

In a further embodiment illustrated in the attached figures, the outer cover 7 has ergonomic shape and contour, for the user to more easily and firmly grasp it and act on it to remove the cap 5 from the neck 4 of the salt container 3.

According to an embodiment, the outer cover 7 is engaged to the inner lid 6 by means of engaging means 8 provided on the outer cover 7 and on the inner lid 6 and designed to reversibly interlock with each other. The engaging means 8 allows the inner lid 6 to be removed together with the outer cover 7 when the user act on the latter to open and remove the cap 5.

In a version of this embodiment the engaging means 8 comprises projections 9 and recesses 10 fitting together and provided on the surfaces of the outer cover 7 and of the inner lid 6 intended to fit on each other. More in detail, the projections 9 are provided either on the outer surface of the inner lid 6, as illustrated in the attached figures, or on the inner surface of the outer cover 7 and the recesses 10 are consequently provided respectively either on the inner surface of the outer cover 7, as illustrated in the attached figures, or on the outer surface of the inner lid 6.

Preferably, when the inner lid 6 and the outer cover 7 have a substantially cylindrical shape, the projections 9 and the recesses 10 extend along radial directions.

Such engaging means 8 is simple to be realized, thus allowing to maintain the productions costs of the cap 5 low, and ensures a secure although removable engagement between the inner lid 6 and the outer cover 7.

In a further version of this embodiment, the outer cover 7 is disengageable from the inner lid 6 by simply pulling it apart from the inner lid 6. In particular, the projections 9 and recesses 10 are designed not to be too loose, so as to avoid the outer cover 7 and the inner lid 6 to be accidentally separated from each other when the user act on the outer cover 7 to remove the whole cap 5, and at the same time to be disengageable by simply applying a pulling force, preferably manually, on the outer cover 7.

According to an embodiment, the neck 4 of the salt container 3 has a first thread and the inner lid 6 has a first counterthread 11 rotatably engageable to the first thread of the neck 4. Therefore, the inner lid 6 is engageable and removable to/from the neck 4 by rotation. Consequently, by acting on the outer cover 7 to rotate it, the user forces the rotation of the inner lid 6 engaged to the outer cover 7, thus allowing the removal of the whole cap 5.

In particular, in the embodiment illustrated in the attached figures in which the outer cover 7 and the inner lid 6 comprise projections 9 and recesses 10 for the reciprocal engagement, the reciprocal rotation of the outer cover 7 and of the inner lid 6 is prevented by the presence of the projections 9 and of the recesses 10 so that the rotation force applied on the outer cover 7 by the user is transferred to the inner lid 6 through the projections 9 and recesses 10.

In an embodiment, the salt container 3 further comprises a gasket mounted around its neck 4 and a sealing ring 12 aimed to engage with the neck 4 to press the gasket mounted around it against the wall 1 of the body of the washer, thus keeping the salt container 3 firmly sealed in relation to the wall 1. In particular the gasket and the sealing ring 12 are placed on the opposite sides of the wall 1, with the sealing ring 12 abutting the wall 1 and being interposed between the wall 1 and the outer cover 7.

In a further embodiment, the neck 4 of the salt container 3 comprises a second thread 13 and the sealing ring 12 comprises a second counterthread 14 rotatably engageable to the second thread 13 of the neck 4. In particular the sealing ring 12 is rotatably engageable to a first portion of the neck 4, which remains closer to the wall 1 when the salt container 3 is placed with its neck 4 through the aperture 2 on the wall 1, while the inner lid 6 is rotatably engageable to a second portion of the neck 4, in correspondence to the free end of the latter provided with the opening for the salt refilling. The second thread 13 and the second counterthread 14 allow an easy and secure engagement of the sealing ring 12 on the neck 4 of the salt container 3.

According to an embodiment, the sealing ring 12 has a through hole 15 having dimensions bigger than the transversal dimensions of the inner lid 6 so that it is removable from the neck 4 of the salt container 3 without requiring the removal of the inner lid 6. This allows to perform the whole maintenance intervention without the need to remove the inner lid 6, so that spilling of brine or salt is more securely prevented. More in detail, in order to remove the salt container 3 from the housing, it is sufficient for the maintenance operator to first remove the outer cover 7, in particular by pulling it apart from the inner lid 6, to subsequently remove the sealing ring 12 by rotating it to unscrew it from the neck 4 of the salt container 3, and to finally remove the salt container 3 from the housing, extracting its neck 4 through the aperture 2 on the wall 1, without removing the inner lid 6.

According to an embodiment, the washer is a washing machine. In this embodiment the housing for the salt container 3 can be placed on the bottom part of the washing machine, under the tub wherein the rotating drum, where the items to be washed are placeable, is mounted. The wall 1 delimiting the housing is for instance a frontal wall, through the aperture 2 of which the neck 4 of the salt container 3, closed with the cap 5, projects, so as to be easily reachable by the user.

In another embodiment, the washer is a dishwasher. According to a preferred version of this embodiment, the wall 1 delimiting the housing where the salt container 3 is placed is a wall delimiting the tub wherein the dish washing process is performed and, preferably, is the bottom wall of the tub, as illustrated in Figure 1, and the cap 5 is accessible to the user from the inside of the tub.

By means of the present invention, a washer is realized that comprises a salt container 3 which provides salt to be filled into it by the user in an easy and secure manner and at the same time provides for the maintenance interventions to be performed as well in a easy and secure manner preventing possible spilling of brine or salt in the washer which could cause undesired corrosion phenomena.

Claims

A washer comprising a body having at least one wall (1) delimiting a housing and provided with an aperture (2) and a softening system having a salt container (3) placed in the housing and comprising a neck (4), arranged through the aperture (2) on the wall (1) of the body and having an opening through which salt can be introduced in the salt container (3), and a cap (5) for closing the opening on the neck (4), characterized in that the cap (5) comprises:

- an inner lid (6) suitable to be placed on the opening of the neck (4) for closing it and having transversal dimensions smaller than the dimensions of the aperture (2) on the wall (1) of the body of the washer, so that it can pass through it;

- an outer cover (7) having transversal dimensions bigger than the dimensions of the neck (4) of the salt container (3) and bigger than the dimension of the aperture (2) on the wall (1) of the body of the washer to be comfortably grasped by a user and designed to be engaged to the inner lid (6) so that the user can remove the whole cap (5) by acting only on the outer cover (7).
A washer as in Claim 1, characterized in that the outer cover (7) is engaged to the inner lid (6) by means of engaging means (8) provided on the outer cover (7) and on the inner lid (6) and designed to reversibly interlock with each other.
A washer as in Claim 2, characterized in that the engaging means (8) comprises projections (9) and recesses (10) fitting together.
A washer as in Claim 3, characterized in that the outer cover (7) is disengageable from the inner lid (6) by pulling it apart from the inner lid (6).
A washer as in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the neck (4) of the salt container (3) has a first thread and the inner lid (6) has a first counterthread (11) rotatably engageable to the first thread of the neck (4).
A washer as in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the salt container (3) further comprises a gasket mounted around its neck (4) and a sealing ring (12) aimed to engage with the neck (4) to press the gasket mounted around it against the wall (1) of the body of the washer.
A washer as in Claim 6, characterized in that the neck (4) of the salt container (3) comprises a second thread (13) and the sealing ring (12) comprises a second counterthread (14) rotatably engageable to the second thread (13) of the neck (4).
A washer as in Claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the sealing ring (12) has a through hole (15) having dimensions bigger than the transversal dimensions of the inner lid (6) so that it can be removed from the neck (4) of the salt container (3) without requiring the removal of the inner lid (6).
A washer as in any of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is a washing machine.
A washer as in any of the claims 1-9, characterized in that it is a dishwasher.
A washer as in Claim 10, characterized in that the wall (1) delimiting the housing where the salt container (3) is placed is a wall delimiting the tub wherein the dish washing process is performed and the cap (5) is accessible to the user from the inside of the tub.