U.S. patent application number 11/225545 was filed with the patent office on 2006-04-20 for front-loading clothes washing machine with a gutter arrangement on top.
This patent application is currently assigned to Electrolux Home Products Corporation N.V.. Invention is credited to Remo Cassan, Giovanni Colombera, Pietro Rizzetto.
Application Number | 20060081015 11/225545 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34929702 |
Filed Date | 2006-04-20 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060081015 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Rizzetto; Pietro ; et
al. |
April 20, 2006 |
Front-loading clothes washing machine with a gutter arrangement on
top
Abstract
Front-loading clothes washing or drying machine comprising an
outer casing, a worktop delimiting said outer casing at the top, a
facia or control panel arranged on the upper front portion of said
outer casing, in which said worktop and said control panel
delimitate each other along respective edges that define a
juncture, under which there are arranged gutter-like means having
an upward open convexity facing said juncture extending thereabove,
said gutter-like means extending in turn substantially over the
whole length of said juncture. Said gutter-like means are provided
as a unitary piece, i.e. integral with said worktop or,
alternatively, as a unitary piece, i.e. integral with said control
panel, or they may be provided by suitably forming an internal
upper front crosspiece of the machine into a corresponding
shape.
Inventors: |
Rizzetto; Pietro; (Venezia,
IT) ; Colombera; Giovanni; (Pordenone, IT) ;
Cassan; Remo; (Pordenone, IT) |
Correspondence
Address: |
PEARNE & GORDON LLP
1801 EAST 9TH STREET
SUITE 1200
CLEVELAND
OH
44114-3108
US
|
Assignee: |
Electrolux Home Products
Corporation N.V.
Zaventem
BE
|
Family ID: |
34929702 |
Appl. No.: |
11/225545 |
Filed: |
September 13, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
68/3R ; 68/139;
68/30 |
Current CPC
Class: |
D06F 34/28 20200201;
D06F 39/12 20130101; D06F 34/34 20200201 |
Class at
Publication: |
068/003.00R ;
068/030; 068/139 |
International
Class: |
D06F 37/00 20060101
D06F037/00; D06F 21/00 20060101 D06F021/00; D06F 25/00 20060101
D06F025/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Oct 14, 2004 |
EP |
04 105 038.6 |
Claims
1. Front-loading clothes washing or drying machine comprising: an
outer casing (1), a worktop (2) delimiting said outer casing at the
top, a facia or control panel (4) arranged on the upper front
portion of said outer casing, in which said worktop and said
control panel delimitate each other along respective edges (7, 8),
which define a juncture (6, 16) extending vertically or
horizontally, characterized in that underneath the inner end
portion of said juncture there are arranged gutter-like means (20,
21) having an upward open convexity facing said juncture and, in
particular, said inner end portion of said juncture, said
gutter-like means extending substantially over the whole length of
said juncture.
2. Machine according to claim 1, characterized in that said
gutter-like means (20) are provided as a unitary piece, i.e.
integral with said worktop (2) or, alternatively, as a unitary
piece, i.e. integral with said control panel (4).
3. Machine according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises
an upper front crosspiece (30, 31) that is arranged between said
control panel and said worktop, and that said gutter-like means
(20, 21) are provided by suitably forming said upper front
crosspiece into a corresponding shape.
4. Machine according to any of the preceding claims, characterized
in that it is provided with a bottom pan (10) arranged so as to be
able to collect any possible leakage from parts of the
water-carrying circuit of the machine, and that there is provided a
suitable conduit (11) allowing for the liquid collected in said
gutter-like means to flow off by gravity therefrom to be let out
above and fall right into said bottom pan.
5. Machine according to claim 1, characterized in that said
gutter-like means (20, 21) are given a preferably continuous
inclination (i) relative to a horizontal plane (H), so that an end
portion (24) thereof comes to lie at a level (1) that is lower than
the level (L) of the opposite end portion (25) thereof.
Description
[0001] The present invention refers to an improved kind of
front-loading clothes washing machine, or combined laundry machine
for both washing and drying clothes, which is particularly
effective in ensuring full protection against water or other
liquids being possibly capable of seeping through anywhere along
the upper front portion of the machine, i.e. where the facia or
control panel joins with the worktop of the machine.
[0002] While reference is made in the following description to a
front-loading clothes washing machine of a single-duty type, i.e.
designed to only wash and spin-dry clothes, it will be readily
appreciated that what is disclosed and explained below in
connection therewith may equally be applied to, and is therefore
suitable for, a combined clothes washing and drying machine, i.e. a
so-called washer-drier, or even a single-duty clothes drying
machine, as far as it is of the front-loading kind.
[0003] Front-loading clothes washing machines are generally known
in the art to be provided at the top with a so-called horizontal
worktop made in the form of a continuous flat surface; they are
also generally known to be provided on the front side with a facia
or control panel that carries the control devices needed to operate
the machine, which are in turn connected electrically or
mechanically to respective electric, electronic or
electromechanical component parts arranged on the inner side of the
control panel itself, such as wire harnesses, connectors,
printed-circuit boards supporting various components, discrete
components, and the like.
[0004] When assembling the machine, said worktop is installed in
such a manner as to enable the front portion thereof to fit against
a corresponding upper or front side of said control panel, thereby
closing the machine along the upper front portion thereof and
preventing foreign matters from being able to slip into the
machine, as well as preventing an incautious or rather careless
user, such as for instance a child, from possibly gaining access
into the machine with his/her fingers and touching live parts.
[0005] Frequently, in view of increasing the structural strength of
the machine, the provision is taken to place, between said worktop
and the upper edge of the control panel, a usually planar support
member, i.e. a so-called front bracket, which is arranged
thereacross to be rigidly connected, at the two opposite sides
thereof, to corresponding portions of the upper front edge of the
side walls of the outer casing of the machine.
[0006] This solution is certainly effective in enhancing the
stability and strength of the machine, as well as improving the
effectiveness of the machine in positively ensuring that the
internal parts thereof cannot be reached, i.e. acceded to from the
control panel thereabove or any gap that may possibly exist between
the control panel and the worktop connected thereto.
[0007] However, this type of construction does by no means ensure
that water or other liquids that may be possibly spilled onto the
worktop, or even over the control panel itself, are safely
prevented from being able to seep through the juncture between the
worktop and the control panel, i.e. a circumstance that would give
rise to a highly risky situation as far as both the safety of the
user and the proper operation of the machine are concerned.
[0008] Just for the sake of a better understanding of this issue,
it should be reminded here that standard regulations for the
certification of the safety of these machines call for a so-called
dripping test to be in all cases carried out, which consists of a
pre-determined amount of a liquid having a low surface tension
being poured onto said junctures or fissures, while then checking
for said liquid not to have seeped into the machine to any
unacceptable extent.
[0009] However, the risk of liquids being able to undesirably seep
from above into the machine can by no means be safely excluded in a
permanent manner; in view of eliminating such drawback, a solution
is known in the art, which calls for suitable sealing gaskets to be
provided within said junctures or fissures so as to ensure the
required water-tight property.
[0010] However, even such solution has a number of drawbacks of its
own: [0011] in the first place, considering the rather heavy
environmental conditions in which a washing machine is generally
due to operate, the hot water, detergent products, and other more
or less aggressive liquids that may possibly be inadvertently
spilled over there, will eventually contaminate, and damage, said
sealing means; [0012] in the second place, such gaskets imply a
specific cost to be sustained to both purchase and install
them.
[0013] Conclusively, it may be stated that no really safe and
effective method has been found up to this time, which is able to
prevent liquids from seeping through these junctures and fissures
and, above all, is inherently or positively safe in doing this,
i.e. is reliably and fully unaffected by deteriorating or
downgrading materials, a not so robust assembly and similar
occurrences, further to anyway being stable in the long-run.
[0014] It would therefore be desirable, and it is actually a main
object of the present invention, to provide a clothes washing
and/or drying machine, which is provided with means adapted to
prevent in a stable, safe and low-cost manner liquids from possibly
seeping through any juncture or fissure existing between the
worktop of the machine above and the control panel arranged
therebelow, even in the case that said control panel extends for a
short length along the upper front edge of the machine, so that the
related portion comes in this way to be practically aligned with
said worktop on the horizontal plane.
[0015] According to the present invention, these aims as set forth
above, along with further ones that will become apparent from the
following description, are reached in a clothes washing and/or
drying machine made so as to incorporate the features and
characteristics as recited in the appended claims. Features and
advantages of the present invention will anyway be more readily
understood from the description that is given below by way of
non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings,
in which:
[0016] FIG. 1 is a diagonal perspective top view of a machine
according to the prior art;
[0017] FIGS. 2 and 3 are vertical-section and cross-sectional
views, respectively, of the upper front portion of two respective
embodiments of the machine according to the prior art;
[0018] FIG. 4 is a symbolical cut-away view of the main elements of
a machine according to the present invention;
[0019] FIG. 5 is a symbolical vertical cross-sectional view of the
front portion of the arrangement described by the present
invention;
[0020] FIGS. 6, 6A and 7, 7A are symbolical views of two respective
alternative embodiments of a machine according to the present
invention;
[0021] FIG. 8 is a perspective, partially see-through symbolical
view similar of a further improved alternative embodiment of a
machine according to the present invention;
[0022] FIG. 9 is a planar vertical and front cross-sectional view
of the zone comprising said worktop and the portion lying
therebelow, in a machine according to the present invention.
[0023] With reference to FIG. 1, a clothes washing machine
according to the prior art comprises an outer casing 1, which is
delimited on top by a horizontal worktop 2, while it is delimited
by a control panel 4 on the upper front portion thereof.
[0024] Said control panel may be arranged so as illustrated in FIG.
2, in which it is shown to substantially cover the whole upper
front surface of the front wall of the outer casing and to join
with the front edge of said worktop via a juncture 6 extending
vertically. It is readily apparent in this case that the two
mutually facing edges 7 and 8 of the worktop and the control panel,
respectively, are in a similar manner arranged along respective
parallel, vertical planes.
[0025] Or said worktop may itself be arranged so as to extend
frontally up to a point at which it covers the upper edge of the
control panel, so that the juncture 16 between the worktop and the
control panel comes in this case to lie horizontally, so as this is
shown in FIG. 3.
[0026] As already mentioned, in both cases it may anyway occur that
some liquid, such as typically the liquid dripping from wet clothes
placed on the worktop or, for the matter, even any other kind of
liquid being typically handled in the proximity of or in connection
with the use of a washing machine, including the special low
surface-tension liquid used to carry out the afore-mentioned
dripping test provided for by the safety standard regulations, and
sprayed with specially designed means onto the machine to that
purpose, is able to seep through said juncture 6 or 16, depending
on the particular case, and reach into the machine to drip onto the
live electric parts and circuits arranged on the back side of the
control panel.
[0027] According to the present invention, and with reference to
FIGS. 4 and 5, under the inner edge of said juncture 6 or 16 there
is arranged a gutter 20, which clearly has a liquid collecting
convexity facing, i.e. oriented upwards and aligned along the
vertical of the contour of said inner edge of said juncture.
[0028] Basically, said gutter 20 is so shaped and sized, and is so
positioned, as to ensure that any liquid that may possibly seep
through said juncture and drip down therefrom is reliably and
effectively intercepted by and collected in said gutter, for being
then removed or carried away in a manner that will be better
explained further on in this description.
[0029] This gutter 20 may be constituted by a specially provided,
i.e. dedicated additional part to be installed with a specific
assembly operation; however, given the fact that the material used
to make said gutter and the sizing thereof are not critical
factors, said gutter may also be made integral, i.e. as a unitary
piece with either said worktop, so as shown in FIG. 6, or said
control panel, so as shown in FIG. 7.
[0030] Or, anyway, even in the case that for any reason whatsoever
it is not made integral with said parts of the machine, said gutter
may be manufactured separately to be then applied in advance to the
appropriate edges of said parts so that, when the worktop and the
control panel are eventually assembled, the gutter itself is
automatically brought into its intended position.
[0031] With reference to FIG. 6A, the case is illustrated in which
a washing machine is provided with a front crosspiece 30, as this
occurs normally in the current practice whenever a clothes washing
machine has a control panel extending for a short distance towards
the worktop lying thereabove. In this case, it is a preferred
option to appropriately process, i.e. form said crosspiece so as to
shape its upper portion in the form of one of the above described
gutters 20.
[0032] Even in the case that the worktop extends to actually fully
cover the machine, as illustrated in FIG. 7A, the respective front
crosspiece 31, which most obviously cannot extend up to and within
the worktop, may then be still advantageously shaped so as to form
a respective upwards facing gutter 21 that comes to lie exactly
underneath the inner end portion of the respective juncture 16,
where--as it can be readily appreciated--liquid is most likely to
possibly seep and drip.
[0033] In any case, the techniques needed to fabricate and assemble
gutters of this kind are fully within the capabilities of those
skilled in the art, so that no need arises here, actually, for them
to be described and explained any further.
[0034] The above-discussed gutter must anyway be made and provided
so as to be able to be up to its task, which consists in preventing
any liquid that may possibly seep through the juncture from being
able to drip into and spread inside the washing machine. To such
purpose, said gutter must be capable of safely carrying away the
collected liquid for discharging it outside in a basically simple
and spontaneous manner.
[0035] This may of course be achieved in a number of ways. The
simplest manner to do this basically consists in allowing the
gutter to fill up, and therefore the level of the liquid collected
therein to reach up to such value as to cause said liquid to
overflow, for instance from the two opposite end portions of the
gutter.
[0036] As it flows over in this way, the liquid itself may be
diverted, i.e. conveyed in any desired direction to be collected by
or into any suitable means, provided that it is not conveyed or
directed towards the electric circuits and parts of the
machine.
[0037] In particular, from said gutter there may be advantageously
provided to depart appropriate drain channels, which are not
specially shown in the Figures owing to them not being relevant to
the purposes of the present invention, and which are adapted to
allow the liquid collecting in said gutter to safely flow out.
[0038] These drain channels may be such as to convey said liquid
directly onto the floor on which the machine is resting. However,
in order to avoid wetting or soiling the floor, the provision may
advantageously be taken to allow said liquid to appropriately flow
back into the same water-carrying circuit of the machine, which of
course lies therebelow and, therefore, can be easily reached in a
number of parts and/or fittings thereof.
[0039] In particular, a solution in this connection may consist in
allowing said liquid to be discharged into the lower drain sump of
the washing tub, so as to avoid contaminating the washing/rinsing
liquor contained in the same tub.
[0040] This solution, however, has a drawback in that the drain
conduit of said gutter must be water-tight at least along the lower
portion thereof, so as to prevent the liquid contained therein from
being able to again overflow and leak out into the machine owing to
the principle of communicating vessels, as it is in direct
communication with the washing/rinsing bath inside the tub.
[0041] In view of avoiding such occurrence, and with reference to
FIG. 8, in washing machines provided with a bottom pan 10 arranged
immediately above the floor to collect possible water leakages from
water-carrying parts and circuits located thereabove, use can be
advantageously made of this facility to enable the liquid to
directly flow from said gutter right down into said collecting pan
10 via an appropriate conduit 11. This solution would of course
enable the need for special water-tight conduits and fittings to be
done away with, while making it possible for a solution to be
implemented, which is extremely simple, low-cost and reliable in
its operation.
[0042] It may anyway still occur that, owing to the density of the
liquid spilled onto said worktop of the machine, or even an
insufficient amount of liquid actually dripping into the gutter,
this liquid ends up by stagnating in the gutter itself and, as a
result, cannot be discharged therefrom, thereby giving rise to
well-known problems, such as bad odours, fermentations, and the
like.
[0043] In order to avoid such risk, and with reference to FIG. 9,
said gutter may advantageously be made, or positioned, so as to
exhibit a downward inclination i relative to the horizontal plane
H, so that one 24 of the end portions thereof comes to be
positioned at a level l that is lower than the level L of the
remaining part of the gutter and/or the other end portion 25. This
would facilitate the liquid that may possibly collect in the gutter
to flow down by gravity towards said lower end portion 24, so that
it will not stagnate in the same gutter and will be discharged
rapidly therefrom.
* * * * *