Washing Machine Agitator

Abstract

A domestic clothes washer has a tub with a top opening. An agitator is adapted to reciprocate vertically within the tub and includes a frustoconically shaped, single cone providing clothes immersion and turnover.

Description

This invention relates to a domestic clothes washer and more particularly to an improved vertically reciprocable agitator thereof.

Vertical agitation has been used for years in domestic clothes washers. With such agitation greater washing energy may be imparted to the water than with horizontal agitation. For this reason tubs in clothes washers designed for vertical agitation are generally smaller. This makes the agitator appear larger.

The washing results are not impaired by the smallness of the tub, but those using the washer and seeing the smaller tub in relation to agitator size tend to restrict the size of their clothes load below that recommended by the manufacturer. Accordingly, this invention is directed to a clothes washer which provides the advantage of vertical agitation without losing the apparent spaciousness of the tub.

The agitator of this invention is an improvement over my U.S. Pat. No. 3,132,502 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,132,500 both patents issued May 12, 1964, and assigned to the same assignee. One of the clothes actuator rings has been eliminated. The other has been formed into a taller, steeper sloped, single frustoconical member which appears smaller in the tub and yet, unexpectedly, gives better clothes turnover and immersion.

It is therefore a general object of this invention to provide an improved vertical agitator for use in a clothes washer.

It is another general object of this invention to provide a vertically reciprocable agitator for use in a clothes washer tub which presents a smaller appearance in relation to the tub than similar prior art agitators.

A more specific object is the provision in a clothes washer tub of an automatic vertically reciprocable agitator having improved dimensions which provide for a taller, steeper-sloped, single cone design to produce better clothes turnover and immersion.

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 embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a clothes washer with parts broken away to show the improved clothes agitator of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a clothes washer spin tub in combination with the agitator of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary top elevational view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the circulator column portion of the agitator with parts cut away to show its construction.

In accordance with this invention and with reference to FIG. 1, a clothes washer 20 is comprised of a control housing 22 and an outer cabinet or casing 24. The casing 24 is generally divided into a mechanism compartment 26 and a water container 28. A centrally located bulkhead 30 separates the mechanism compartment 26 from the water container 28. Within the water container 28 is a spin tub having a top opening 36 and a plurality of centrifuging outflow ports 38. The ports 38 are designed to permit egress of water from the tub when the tub is rotated at high speed. Conventional control means 42 are provided for supplying water to the tub 34 in a controlled fashion to provide a liquid surface level 44 in the tub 34. Within the tub 34 an agitator or pulsator 48 is adapted to reciprocate for producing toroidal circulation in the tub and for agitating clothes therein. Thus, clothes are washed as the agitator 48 forces surging currents of wash water and detergent through the fabric of the clothes.

The agitating and spinning system shown generally at 52 in the mechanism compartment 26 is adapted to selectively rotate the rub 34 and reciprocate the agitator 48. One agitating and spinning mechanism suitable for use with this invention is shown in the U.S. Pat. to Brucken, No. 3,087,321 issued on Apr. 30, 1963. Such mechanisms are designed for agitate speeds of 330 and 220 1.75-inch strokes per minute with spin speeds of 710 and 465 revolutions per minute.

Turning now to FIG. 2 the agitator 48 of this invention is shown installed in a spin tub 34 having the following dimensions. The overall height A is 12 23/32 inches and the distance B from the top of the ballast ring to the liquid surface level 44 in the tub is 2 35/64 inches. The outer dimension of the tub 34 at its greatest point, not counting the small out-turned flange adjacent the outflow ports 38, is 211/2 inches and the diameter C of the top opening 36 is 16 inches. For strengthening thereof the tub 34 is affixedly supported on an annular casting 58 which is affixed to the spin shaft portion 60 of the agitating and spinning mechanism 52. The vertically reciprocal agitate shaft 62 extends through the spin shaft 60 and the tub support casting 58 into the tub where it is adapted to receive the agitator 48. A suitable concentric bellows arrangement 64 interconnects the bottom of the tub 34 with the spin shaft in a manner to provide a water seal preventing water from reaching the mechanism. The length of the vertical stroke of the reciprocating agitator 48 is 1.75 inches.

The agitator 48 is comprised of a sheet metal circulator column portion 68 and a pump ring portion 70. The circulator column is formed with a cylinder 71 having a height D of 4,875 inches and a diameter E of 3.75 inches. At the lower end of the cylinder is an affixed central partition or base 72. The pump ring 70 at the bottom of the agitator is molded of neoprene into a rather outwardly flared bell. The top of the bell supports the partition 72 which has a central opening 74 through which the threaded end 76 of the agitate shaft extends. A column mounting nut 78 threads onto the top of the agitate shaft to lock the circulator column 68 in assembled relationship with the pump ring 70. A surge relief chamber 79 is formed therebetween. On the outside of cylinder 71 is a generally frustoconical clothes agitator ring 80 formed as a skirt surrounding the cylinder 71 and including extending tabs 82 at spaced quadrant points around the skirt which are attached as by welding or soldering at 84 to the cylinder. The attachment at 84 is a distance F of 0.438 inch below the top of the cylinder and the skirt extends downwardly to provide a clothes actuator ring having a height G of 6.562 inches and a diameter H of 8.75 inches. Thus, surge relief ports 86 are formed between the tabs to provide four openings with a vertical height J of 0.562 inch at the jointure of the actuator ring 80 and the cylinder 71. Moreover, such dimensions result in a taller, steeper, conical member, wherein the actuator ring 80 slopes away from the cylinder 71 at an angle of substantially 21.degree..

A plastic cap 90 is removably attached to the top of the cylinder 71. This forms a closed chamber 92 for receiving detergent which is then dispensed as the agitator reciprocates, through openings 94 at the bottom of the cylinder. The cap 90 has a diameter K of 4.75 inches forming outboard of the cylinder 71 a flat undersurface 96. The surface 96 overlies the surge relief ports 86.

In operation the pump ring 70, as it reciprocates, produces toroidal currents of water and detergent within the tub 34. The clothes actuator ring 80 ratchets the clothes in a smooth even turnover. The fabric of the clothes, first one portion and then another, is unfolded and exposed to the surging currents of the pump ring near the bottom of the tub. Pressures built up by the turbulence of the washing liquid between the pump ring and the clothes actuator ring are relieved through the ports 86. Pulsating spurts of liquid jet upwardly. Each of these upwardly directed spurts, however, hit the undersurface 96 of the cap and are diverted in an outwardly direction as an aid in immersing or wetting down the clothes. Improved immersion and clothes turnover result as shown in the following tables: ##SPC1## ##SPC2##

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

Claims

What I claim is as follows:

1. A clothes washer agitator in combination with a wash tub having a diameter of about 21 inches, and a top opening, said tub adapted to enclose liquid at a predetermined surface level, and said agitator comprising,

a. a pump ring adapted for automatic linear reciprocation to produce toroidal washing currents in said tub,

b. means forming a circular column including only a single clothes actuator ring, said column comprising a cylinder about 4 inches in diameter having a base connectable to said pump ring, said clothes actuator ring configured as a frustoconical skirt wrapped around said cylinder and having extended spaced tabs at the upper end thereof joining with said cylinder at the upper end thereof to form at the jointure therewith and between said spaced tabs spaced surge relief ports, said skirt including said tabs having a height of about 61/2 inches and a diameter of about 83/4 inches at the lower end thereof and forming with said cylinder at an angle of substantially 21.degree..

c. means for connecting said pump ring and said clothes actuator ring in assembled relationship whereby to form only a single surge relief chamber between said clothes actuator ring and said pump ring,

d. said surge relief ports connecting said surge relief chamber to atmosphere and positioned within said tub in a manner to be reciprocated above and below said predetermined surface level whereby to facilitate the relief of surge pressures in said surge relief chamber and to create spurts of liquid in an upward direction from said surge relief ports.

2. The combination of claim 1 including a cap removably attached to said cylinder at the upper end thereof, said cap having a downwardly facing substantially horizontal surface circumscribing said cylinder above said surge relief ports and sufficiently near thereto to divert said spurts of liquid from said upward direction to an outward direction whereby to wet down clothes above said predetermined surface level.