JP7573150B2 - Drum washing machine - Google Patents

Description

This disclosure relates to a drum-type washing machine.

Patent Document 1 discloses a drum-type washing machine that prevents large water leaks caused by dislodging a packing member. This drum-type washing machine is equipped with a water tub that is elastically supported within the main body so that it can swing freely and has an opening on the front side, a front panel that is provided on the inside of the front side of the main body and has an opening, a lid that covers the opening of the front panel so that it can be opened and closed freely, an inner lid that is provided on the lid and protrudes inward from the opening of the front panel, and a packing member made of an elastic material that connects the opening of the front panel and the opening of the water tub, and the packing member has a lip that abuts against the inner lid to form a seal when the lid is closed.

JP 2014-90778 A

This disclosure provides a drum-type washing machine that can prevent water from leaking outside the body.

The drum type washing machine according to the present disclosure includes a main body, a water tub supported within the main body, a rotating drum rotatably provided within the water tub, a main body opening provided in the main body for loading laundry into the rotating drum, a lid body for opening and closing the main body opening, a water tub opening provided in the water tub facing the main body opening, and a packing member provided between the main body opening and the water tub opening, the lid body having an inner lid that bulges inwardly from the main body, the packing member having an annular seal portion that seals a gap between the main body opening and the water tub opening, a seal inner surface provided in the annular seal portion between the main body opening and the water tub opening, the seal inner surface facing the central axis of the rotating drum, and a seal member that is provided when the lid body is closed. and an annular lip portion formed so as to extend from the body opening side of the inner peripheral surface of the seal as a root toward the central axis of the rotating drum, the annular lip portion including a lip front surface constituting the front surface of the annular lip portion and a lip inner peripheral surface constituting a tip of the annular lip portion and facing the central axis of the rotating drum, in a cross section of the packing member including the central axis, the annular lip portion gradually increases in thickness from the root to the tip , and when the lid is closed, an end of the lip front surface abuts against the inner lid, and in a cross section including the packing member and the inner lid, the angle on the central axis side of the angle formed by the lip inner peripheral surface and the inner lid is an obtuse angle .

The drum-type washing machine disclosed herein can prevent water from leaking outside the main body.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a drum-type washing machine according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a drum-type washing machine according to a first embodiment. FIG. 1 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a portion around a packing member of a drum-type washing machine according to a first embodiment; FIG. 1 is a front view of a packing member of a drum-type washing machine according to a first embodiment; 1 is a cross-sectional view of an annular lip portion of a drum type washing machine according to a first embodiment; FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an inner lid and an annular lip portion when the lid body of the drum type washing machine in the first embodiment is closed;

(Embodiment 1)
Hereinafter, the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

[1-1. Configuration]
[1-1-1. Overall configuration]
1 and 2, the drum-type washing machine 100 has a main body 1. The main body 1 includes side panels 2 constituting the left and right side surfaces of the main body 1, a removable back panel 3 constituting the back surface of the main body 1, a plurality of metal connecting plates (not shown) connecting the side panels 2, a synthetic resin top panel 4 constituting the top surface of the main body 1, and a front panel member 5 constituting the front surface of the main body 1. Provided above the front panel member 5 is an operation panel 8 on which are arranged a switch operation section 6 for performing various settings and a display section 7 for displaying the settings.

Inside the main body 1, a water tank 9 is provided that is cylindrical and has a bottom. The water tank 9 is positioned so that the water tank opening 9a that forms the opening faces forward.

The water tank 9 is elastically supported by a suspension structure (not shown) so that it can swing freely. A water supply line 13 and a drainage line 14 are connected to the water tank 9, and water is supplied to and drained from the water tank 9 by controlling a water supply valve (not shown) and a drainage valve (not shown).

Inside the water tank 9, a rotating drum 10 is provided, which is cylindrical and has a bottom. The rotating drum 10 is arranged so that the drum opening 10b, which forms an opening, faces forward. The drum opening 10b faces the water tank opening 9a.

The rotating drum 10 is supported for free rotation around the rotation axis X as its central axis. The rotation axis X is inclined downward from the front side to the rear side of the main body 1. The rotating drum 10 has holes 10a in its wall surface that allow water to pass between the inside and outside of the rotating drum 10, and has multiple baffles 11 protruding from the inner wall to promote mixing. The rotating drum 10 is driven to rotate in forward and reverse directions by a motor 12 attached to the rear side of the water tank 9.

In front of the front panel member 5, an opening member 15 having a main body opening 15a for loading laundry into the rotating drum 10 is provided. The main body opening 15a faces the water tub opening 9a.

The opening member 15 is provided with a lid 16 that can freely open and close the main body opening 15a. The lid 16 has an inner lid 16a made of a hard transparent material such as glass. The inner lid 16a is formed to bulge towards the rotating drum 10.

The front plate 17 located inside the front panel member 5 has a circular front plate opening 17a formed therein corresponding to the drum opening 10b of the rotating drum 10. The front of the front plate 17 is covered by the front panel member 5. The inner lid 16a protrudes further inwardly of the rotating drum 10 than the front plate opening 17a. The front plate opening 17a faces the water tank opening 9a and the main body opening 15a.

[1-1-2. Configuration of packing member]
2 to 4, a packing member 20 made of an elastic material such as rubber is provided between water tank opening 9a and main body opening 15a. Packing member 20 includes an annular seal portion 21 and an annular lip portion 25. As shown in Fig. 4, annular seal portion 21 and annular lip portion 25 are formed in an annular shape.

As shown in Fig. 3, the annular seal portion 21 watertightly seals the gap between the water tub opening 9a and the main body opening 15a. The annular seal portion 21 includes a ring-shaped cylindrical portion 21a extending rearward from the front panel opening 17a, and a bulging portion 21b that bulges outward from near the rear end of the cylindrical portion 21a and is fixed to the water tub opening 9a. The annular seal portion 21 has a seal inner peripheral surface 21e facing the rotation axis X between the water tub opening 9a and the main body opening 15a. The annular lip portion 25 extends from the seal inner peripheral surface 21e toward the rotation axis X.

Figure 5 shows an enlarged view of the annular lip portion 25 and its surroundings in a cross section of the drum-type washing machine 100 including the rotation axis X with the lid 16 open. As shown in Figure 5, the annular lip portion 25 has a lip front surface 25a that constitutes the front surface of the annular lip portion 25, a lip inner surface 25b that constitutes the tip of the annular lip portion 25 and faces the rotation axis X, and a lip back surface 25c that constitutes the back surface of the annular lip portion and faces the inside of the rotating drum 10.

In this embodiment, the portion of the annular lip portion 25 adjacent to the seal inner circumferential surface 21e is defined as the lip root portion 25f. The portion of the annular lip portion 25 adjacent to the lip inner circumferential surface 25b is defined as the lip tip portion 25g. The annular lip portion 25 is shaped so that its thickness gradually increases from the lip root portion 25f toward the lip tip portion 25g.

The annular lip portion 25 has a similar shape as long as the cross section includes the rotation axis X.

[1-2. Operation]
The operation and function of the drum type washing machine 100 configured as above will be described below.

[1-2-1. Washing operation]
The user opens the lid 16, places laundry inside the rotating drum 10 through the main body opening 15a, and closes the lid 16. The user then turns on the power to the drum type washing machine 100, sets a washing course using the operation panel 8, and starts the washing operation of the drum type washing machine 100. The washing operation basically involves a washing step, a rinsing step, and a spin-drying step, which are carried out in that order.

When the washing operation starts, washing water containing detergent is supplied into the water tub as the washing process, and the rotating drum 10 rotates to agitate and wash the laundry. When the washing process is completed, the dirty washing water in the water tub 9 is drained. Next, as the rinsing process, new tap water is supplied and the laundry is rinsed. When the rinsing process is completed, the water supplied during the rinsing process is drained. After the water is drained, the rotating drum 10 rotates at high speed as the spin-drying process, and the water contained in the laundry is blown off by centrifugal force, thereby spinning the laundry. When the spin-drying process is completed, the washing operation ends and the power to the drum washing machine 100 is automatically turned off.

[1-2-2. Movement of the annular lip part due to opening and closing of the lid body]
6 shows an enlarged view of the periphery of the annular lip portion 25 with the lid body 16 closed in a cross section of the drum type washing machine 100 including the rotation axis X. As shown in Fig. 6, when a user closes the lid body 16, the inner lid 16a abuts against a part of the lip front surface 25a and pushes the annular lip portion 25 inwardly into the rotating drum 10. The annular lip portion 25 in this embodiment is configured to abut against the inner lid 16a at the lip tip portion 25g.

The annular lip portion 25 is formed so that its thickness gradually increases from the lip root portion 25f toward the lip tip portion 25g. In other words, the annular lip portion 25 is formed so that its rigidity increases from the lip root portion 25f toward the lip tip portion 25g.

When the annular lip portion 25 is pushed inwardly of the rotating drum 10 by the inner lid 16a, the lip tip portion 25g at the contact position is not easily bent due to its high rigidity, and strongly contacts the inner lid 16a. On the other hand, the lip root portion 25f side of the annular lip portion 25 from the contact position is less rigid than the lip inner peripheral surface 25b side of the contact position, and therefore bends in a direction away from the inner lid 16a. As a result, the contact area between the inner lid 16a and the annular lip portion 25 becomes smaller, and the contact surface pressure acting at the contact position becomes larger. Therefore, the annular lip portion 25 can contact the inner lid 16a with a large contact surface pressure, so that the minute gap at the contact portion between the inner lid 16a and the annular lip portion 25 can be filled, and the washing water in the main body 1 can be prevented from leaking out of the main body 1. In addition, the annular lip portion 25 is formed so that its thickness gradually increases from the lip root portion 25f toward the lip tip portion 25g. Therefore, even if the abutment position deviates slightly from the predetermined position, the same effect can be obtained as when the abutment position is reached at a predetermined position.

When the lip tip 25g is pressed into the inner lid 16a, the lip base 25f has low rigidity and bends in a direction away from the inner lid 16a. This allows the user to use a small amount of force to push the annular lip 25 into the rotating drum 10 and close the lid 16.

As shown in FIG. 6, when the lid body 16 is closed, the angle δ between the lip inner surface 25b and the inner lid 16a, which is the angle on the rotation axis X side, is an obtuse angle. If the angle δ is an acute angle, water droplets stuck between the lip inner surface 25b and the inner lid 16a due to surface tension may enter the gap between the lip front surface 25a and the inner lid 16a and leak out of the main body 1. In the present embodiment, the annular lip portion 25 is provided so that the angle δ is an obtuse angle, so that water droplets are prevented from remaining due to surface tension and flow down along the lip inner surface 25b. This makes it possible to prevent water droplets from remaining between the inner lid 16a and the lip inner surface 25b. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the wash water in the main body from entering the abutting portion between the annular lip portion 25 and the inner lid 16a.

[1-3. Effects]
As described above, the drum type washing machine 100 in this embodiment includes the main body 1, the water tub 9 supported within the main body 1, the rotating drum 10 rotatably provided within the water tub 9, the main body opening 15a provided in the main body 1 for loading laundry into the rotating drum 10, the lid 16 for opening and closing and covering the main body opening 15a, the water tub opening 9a provided in the water tub 9 and facing the main body opening 15a, and the packing member 20 provided between the main body opening 15a and the water tub opening 9a. The lid 16 has an inner lid 16a that protrudes inwardly from the main body 1. Packing member 20 includes an annular seal portion 21 having a seal inner circumferential surface 21e and sealing the gap between main body opening 15a and water tub opening 9a, and an annular lip portion 25 having a lip front surface 25a that abuts against inner lid 16a when lid body 16 is closed and formed to extend from the main body opening 15a side of seal inner circumferential surface 21e toward rotation axis X of rotating drum 10. In a cross section of packing member 20 including rotation axis X, annular lip portion 25 gradually increases in thickness from seal inner circumferential surface 21e toward rotation axis X.

As a result, the annular lip portion 25 is configured so that its rigidity gradually increases from the seal inner surface 21e toward the rotation axis X. When the annular lip portion 25 is pressed toward the inside of the main body 1 by the inner lid 16a, it is difficult for it to bend at the position of contact with the inner lid 16a, but is prone to bend in a direction away from the inner lid 16a on the seal inner surface 21e side from the position of contact with the inner lid 16a. Therefore, when the lid body 16 is closed, the contact area of the annular lip portion 25 with the inner lid 16a is small.

Therefore, when the lid 16 is closed, the annular lip portion 25 provides a seal with the lid 16 with a large contact surface pressure, preventing water leakage outside the main body 1.

As in this embodiment, the annular lip portion 25 has a lip inner surface 25b, and in a cross-section of the packing member 20 including the rotation axis X, the annular lip portion 25 gradually increases in thickness from the seal inner surface 21e toward the lip inner surface 25b, and when the lid body 16 is closed, an end portion 25h of the lip front surface 25a may abut against the inner lid 16a.

This allows the annular lip portion 25 to abut against the inner lid 16a with a smaller contact area, and makes it less likely to bend away from the inner lid 16a on the lip inner surface 25b side of the abutment position.

As a result, the annular lip portion 25 can seal with the lid body 16 with a greater contact surface pressure, and can prevent washing water from accumulating between the end 25h of the lip front surface 25a and the lid body 16.

As in this embodiment, in a cross section of the packing member 20 and the inner lid 16a including the rotation axis X when the lid body 16 is closed, the angle δ on the rotation axis X side of the angle between the lip inner surface 25b and the inner lid 16a may be an obtuse angle.

This prevents wash water from remaining between the lip inner surface 25b and the inner lid 16a due to surface tension.

This prevents the washing water in the main body 1 from entering the contact area between the annular lip portion 25 and the inner lid 16a.

Other Embodiments
As described above, the first and second embodiments have been described as examples of the technology disclosed in this application. However, the technology in this disclosure is not limited to these, and can be applied to embodiments in which modifications, substitutions, additions, omissions, etc. are made. In addition, it is also possible to combine the components described in the first and second embodiments to create new embodiments.

Therefore, other embodiments are given below as examples.

In the first embodiment, as an example of the annular lip portion, the annular lip portion 25 formed so as to gradually increase in thickness from the lip root portion 25f toward the lip tip portion 25g has been described. The annular lip portion is not limited to the shape of the annular lip portion 25 as long as the thickness gradually increases from the inner circumferential surface of the seal toward the central axis. For example, the annular lip portion does not need to gradually increase in thickness on the central axis side from the abutment position. This is because the abutment area between the annular lip portion and the inner lid is greatly influenced by the shape from the root portion of the annular lip portion to the abutment position, and is less influenced by the shape on the central axis side from the abutment position. The annular lip portion may have a constant thickness in part from the root portion of the annular lip portion to the abutment position. However, it is desirable that the portion with a constant thickness occupies a small proportion of the portion from the root portion of the annular lip portion to the abutment position.

This disclosure is applicable to drum-type washing machines.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Main body 2 Side plate 3 Back plate 4 Top plate 5 Front panel member 6 Switch operation section 7 Display section 8 Operation panel 9 Water tank 9a Water tank opening 10 Rotating drum 10a Hole 10b Drum opening 11 Baffle 12 Motor 13 Water supply line 14 Drain line 15 Opening member 15a Main body opening 16 Lid 16a Inner lid 17 Front plate 17a Front plate opening 20 Packing member 21 Annular seal section 21a Cylindrical section 21b Bulging section 21e Seal inner peripheral surface 25 Annular lip section 25a Lip front surface 25b Lip inner peripheral surface 25c Lip back surface 25f Lip base section 25g Lip tip section 25h End section X Rotation axis (central axis)

Claims (1)

The main body,
a water tank supported within the body;
A rotating drum rotatably provided within the water tank;
a main body opening provided in the main body for inserting laundry into the rotating drum;
A cover that covers the main body opening in an openable and closable manner;
A water tank opening portion provided in the water tank and facing the main body opening portion;
A packing member provided between the main body opening and the water tank opening;
Equipped with
The lid body has an inner lid that bulges inwardly from the main body,
The packing member is
an annular seal portion that seals a gap between the main body opening and the water tank opening;
In the annular seal portion, a seal inner circumferential surface is provided between the main body opening and the water tank opening, the seal inner circumferential surface facing the central axis of the rotating drum;
an annular lip portion formed on the inner circumferential surface of the seal so as to extend from the body opening side toward the central axis of the rotating drum;
Including,
The annular lip portion is
A lip front surface that constitutes a front surface of the annular lip portion;
a lip inner circumferential surface that constitutes a tip of the annular lip portion and faces a central axis of the rotating drum;
Including,
In a cross section of the packing member including the central axis, the annular lip portion has a thickness that gradually increases from the base to the tip ,
When the lid body is closed, an end of the lip front surface abuts against the inner lid, and in a cross section including the packing member and the inner lid, an angle formed between the lip inner circumferential surface and the inner lid on the central axis side is an obtuse angle .
Drum type washing machine.