WASHER-EXTRACTOR MACHINE
This invention is related to washer-extractor machines and in particular to drum type washing machines that provide saving from water, energy and time and at the same time increase washing and extraction efficiency. This invention is also related to a washing and rinsing process realized using this machine.
This invention is related to washer-extractor machines and in particular to drum type washing machines that provide saving from water, energy and time and at the same time increase washing and extraction efficiency. The machine according to this invention prevents the harm of the textile caused by the drum perforations and also during the high speed spinning stage. This invention is also related to a washing and rinsing process realized using this machine.
Washing machines are provided with various capacities for domestic and industrial applications in order to use for various processes that enable washing and/or chemical treatment of different materials, especially textile products. Besides washing machines for domestic use, there also exist several industrial types, providing physical and chemical treatments such as washing, stone-washing, dry-cleaning, bleaching, softening, and dyeing.
Horizontal drum washing machines that constitute the object of the present application comprise a cylindrical, either horizontal or inclined with horizontal liquid tub and a perforated basket drum arranged in a same position with tub placed in it and, rotating around a shaft-bearing unit and wherein material is/are loaded. Said washing machines are divided into two groups, front loading drums wherein the drum comprises a bearing on one side only and those wherein the drum is provided with bearings on two sides.
Aforementioned drums are in general constructed from stainless steel. Perforations provided over a drum surface enable the inflow of liquid such as water, solvents, chemicals and hot water that heated outside the drum, as well as the outflow of liquid to be discharged. Centrifugal force created by the rotation of a drum at high speed to separate a certain amount of liquid absorbed by the material and drain out through drum perforations.
In order to fill the drum with liquid such as water or, to heat water, to mix chemicals into water, to measure water temperature, to measure water level, to drain water, and to collect liquid draining out through the drum perforations during a spinning cycle, a tub is needed outside the drum, and in order to prevent said drum to contact said tub while spinning, a space is necessary in between. When washing liquid required for a washing process is taken inside a tub, the amount of liquid filling the space between said tub and the drum corresponds to nearly 15-35% of necessary liquid. Liquid draining from a limited permeability drum can be restrained and flow back is maintained therein by means of a pump which has a higher flow-rate than that permeated water, enabling therefore an evacuation of the volume between the drum and the tub while at the same time an adequate amount of liquid existing inside the drum. The drum, which constitutes the object of the invention, provides considerable savings of water, energy, chemicals, and time by means of emptying said exterior space during a washing process. Saving of water and chemicals is important as far as consumption is concerned and also it is vital to decrease the amount of waste water contaminated with chemicals, thus preventing environmental pollution.
During a washing process, the interaction of water and/or chemicals with washed materials inside a drum is achieved by lifting and falling movements of said materials, which obtained with the drum rotation. Conventional perforated drums contain lifter beaters which are called ribs in sizes proportional to the diameter of the drum. In washing machines using less water, rib heights varies approximately between 6 to 12% of the diameter of the drum, while this proportion reaches 12 to 20% in machines using more water. The size of said ribs should enable lifting a considerable amount of the laundry mass. In conventional washing machines, the number of ribs is limited to 6 or maximum 8. Washing is both a chemical and a physical process. One other important function of washing machines is to extract liquid from processed material by way of a centrifugal force produced from spinning of drum at high speeds. Due to centrifugal force, extracting pressure at high speeds may attain values up to 400-500 G; and in the case of high capacity machines, wherein laundry stretches very tightly over ribs, and spaces remain underneath between the ribs and drum sheet, such physical pressure may applied to said laundry to stretch towards the spaces and causes damages or tearing. On the other hand, laundry over the ribs, placed during distribution, is more close to the rotation axis, means it undergoes less centrifugal force, and more liquid remains thereon. If material is lifted by means of many small ribs or protrusions scattered in very short intervals and homogeneously over the cylindrical surface of a drum, said drum constituting the object of the invention, any damage caused to textile by normal size ribs can be prevented. Height of said small ribs and protrusions indicated here is approximately between 1 to 6% of the diameter of said drum.
Protrusive cylindrical surface of a drum also provides other advantages besides the facility of lifting washing material. Such protrusive structure, augments the physical effect while washing, helps to rotate the material in more homogeneous and more regular manner, enables better distribution of laundry inside the drum at the start of extraction and orients extracted water towards the perforations. During extraction phase, textile dispersed over a usual perforated cylindrical surface gets more and more squeezed as centrifugal force increases pressure thereon, which restrains not only water passage through the textile fibers, but also drainage ways through the drum perforations. Water drainage from a drum can be accelerated by employing adequately elevated and dense protrusions that are provided in the present invention, in which situation laundry will stretch towards the spaces between the protrusions but will not reach to block the perforations. Draining more extracted water at an equal spinning speed and equal time is provided and in return improved extraction efficiency without any change in the energy consumption is obtained.
Many solutions have been suggested to achieve water and energy savings in washing machines. The system described in the US Patent Application No 20070028654 is unable to provide solutions to problems such as water drainage from a drum obtained only during an extraction phase and out of one particular area, water having to pass through washed fabrics before attaining the perforations during an extraction and causing therefore insoluble particles to deposit inside said fabrics, impossibility re-heating if necessary, and the drain difficulties. Explanations recommended in the US Patent Application No 20050015892 and the US Patent Application No 20050028298 do not supply solutions to problems such as the backward slanting position of a drum, necessity to have said drum to spin at high speed for evacuation, water level inside said drum considerably altering the amount of water drained there from, limited amount of drainage out of said drum during both drain and extraction cycles, water passing through washed fabrics during drain and therefore depositing particles which should normally be carried away with water. Both systems suggested are difficult to put into practice because the amount of water that will pass through drum into the tub is exceed the capacity of pumps used in domestic washing machines in the case when material and water exceed the drum mouth level. Even the features of such a drum, neither placed horizontally nor cylindrically shaped as in standard and common drums, may create problems in practice. However, in order to apply all types of washing machines and washing operations, a drum should be designed so as to allow dry fabrics to be fully loaded therein and enabling water level to exceed the half level of the drum.
The invention disclosed in the present application provides savings from water, energy, chemicals and time consumption as attempted by the foregoing references, through limiting water use by the strictly necessary amount for the inner drum, enabling implementation in all types of perforated drums horizontal or inclined with the horizontal, independent from water level or the amount of fabrics loaded therein. Moreover, as explained below in several embodiments, the application of methods, corresponding to the purpose of the present invention, has been reduced to such basic essentials that no alteration is required in the production techniques of conventional and commonly used horizontal washing machines. Providing the cylindrical surface of a drum with perforations as in ordinary drums, and enabling water drainage through said perforations during both drain and extraction cycles prevent not only efficiency loss in washing and extraction but also the creation of new problems.
The invention shall be explained in detail here below with references to the attached figures, where:
In below descriptions the term “water” is to be understood to cover “liquids and chemical solvents” using in any kind of washing and dry-cleaning machines.
The object of the present invention is to provide a drum washing machine that enables;
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- during wet or dry washing processes through the use of a pump that evacuates the water in the space between a drum and a tub by pumping water from tub into the drum, said drum with reduced water permeability and said pump flow-rate capacity of which is higher than that of drained water from the drum to maintain said drum constantly with adequate water level, therefore limiting total water usage in the machine with the required amount of water within the drum, results savings from water to fill the space between the drum and the tub and the empty space of ribs and the balance cells, as well as savings in energy consumption that is required to heat such amount of water and to rotate the drum,
- to enable same material/water ratio to use water for any loading quantity independently from machine capacities to be able to use the machine for loads smaller than usual capacities under same economic conditions.
- to prevent drum perforations damaging delicate textile by means of coating said perforations with a woven fabric,
- to prevent textile being harmed during washing and especially during high speed spinning by a few number of elevated ribs that are applied in large drums, by means of substituting several low and small ribs or protrusions in various shapes for lifting said material,
- to increase physical effect on washed material and to increase water passage through perforation during extraction either through providing the interior surface of a drum with protrusive construction or coating with protrusive material or through attaching pieces so as to obtain protrusions over the perforated surface of said drum,
- to maintain a more homogeneous and balanced distribution of laundry over a cylindrical perforated drum surface during extraction by means of small ribs or protrusions dispersed homogenously thereon and uplifting said material while said drum rotates,
- to prevent damaging of delicate textile during washing by means of permeating the water through said textile while rotating same speed with drum which are spread over several small ribs or protrusions that are provided on the perforated surface during spinning of approximately at distribution speed.
- to increase rubbing effect during a washing by using of storage volume provided in said tub wherein to accumulate water by reducing water level in said drum by means of pausing pump circulation intermittently so augmenting friction between the fabrics and between said fabrics with drum protrusions.
- to provide draining big dirt pieces or dirt pellets especially occurred during washing of materials such as carpet, door/dust mat or mop; through drum perforations, by means of adequate size big holes placed between said protrusions that prevent damages on said materials by said holes.
Water passes through drum perforations and also through drum mouth in front-loading drum washing machines. In a drum of the present invention, water flow through the perforation and drum entrance mouth is restrained in various techniques. Water with limited flow rate draining from said drum into a tub is sucked from underneath the tub by a pump, flow capacity of which is higher than the flow rate of draining water, and flow back into said drum by any way such as from the door or through the interior of the drum shaft or by way of an elastic mouth bellow situated between the tub and the drum, thus enabling a complete evacuation of the water in the space between said drum and said tub even when the drum is full with adequate water for washing. In conventionally designed drums, water passage from a drum is limited by way of reducing the diameter and/or diminishing the number of perforations or by lining with a material which has limited permeability onto the perforated drum surfaces. Said sheeting can be produced from metal, plastic, rubber or a similar substance, or a fabric or a material which although has a homogeneous structure that enables a certain amount of water oozing through its structural pores. The present invention enables to make savings from water, where conventional washing machines fill the volume between a drum and a tub, providing also savings from energy consumption to heat said water and from time to heat such water. Also, since during a washing cycle, there is no water contained inside the external tub, transmission of conduction heat loss from outer surface of the tub decreases. Absence of water outside the drum during washing results energy savings that consumed is in order to rotate the drum. Besides, reducing environmental pollution is another benefit, as savings of water lessens the amount of wastewater contaminated with chemicals.
Various techniques can be employed to provide a protrusive configuration on the surface of perforated sheeting to coat the perforated surface of a drum. There is also the possibility of covering the cylindrical surface of a drum with a lot of pieces made of metal, plastic or rubber by assembling said pieces, so as to provide said surface with a protrusive shape. A configuration which is applied onto a drum surface so as to form a bulge thereon which facilitates water drainage through drum perforations while spinning, a protrusive configuration with protrusions in adequate heights and forms, will also augment physical impact effect on the laundry and provide rubbing effect during a washing cycle. Using small protrusions instead of normal size ribs causes higher drum rotation per same time during washing in order to rotate washing material on the same moving route. More rotation per same time means more physical effect and increase in washing efficiency. Stone washing provides special worn out process on denim fabric products. During stone washing, abrasive material used for said stone effect also abrades drum surfaces. Removable plastic protrusions protect perforated drum surface from said abrasive effect, increase physical friction and rubbing effects thus provide better and more homogeneous washing.
Extraction process begins by distribution; fabrics which spin together with the drum stuck thereon spread onto the protrusions over the surface; as centrifuge force rises, fabrics stretch towards the space in between the protrusions and cause the fibers draw apart, which facilitates the water flow through. Lifted up by said protrusions, fabrics do not block perforations and water extracted from said fabrics can easily reach to said perforations. To prevent damaging of delicate textile during washing, protrusions in smaller size have to be applied. In this case, said protrusions can be made of elastic material. Protrusive pieces may also used to hide drum perforations completely.
Since protrusions in various shapes and sizes dispersed along the entire surface effectuate a lifting function while washing, utilization of additional normal size ribs that are used in conventional machines, becomes unnecessary. In this embodiment, either by applying the lower sized ribs or the absence of normal size ribs in the drum also resolves the laundry damaging problems which arise due to the height of ribs during high speed extraction. By using small size ribs instead of normal usual size ribs, fabrics inside the drum are more homogeneously distributed during washing and extraction processes. Common type high ribs can also used together with small protrusions helping to rotate material. If said protrusions are in the shape of small sized ribs distributed whole drum surface and placed with an angle to the rotation axis or helically shaped they help to move laundry also to same direction with rotation axis, either from back to front or reverse. Said continuous position changing constitutes more homogenous washing process. Several protrusions of various heights as a non-homogenous surface may be used along with small protrusions to facilitate the moving of the material with the drum.
Water in the drum exerts a buffer function between washed materials and reduces the rubbing effect thereof. Washing efficiency can be increased by decreasing water amount, which augments friction and removes dirt from said materials; then increasing water level again, allows to remove dirt by mixing with water. Rubbing the fabrics during a washing process can be repeated several times by increasing and decreasing water amount. If the amount of water is to be decreased, the pump circulating water from the tub into the drum is paused, letting water to store inside the tub or a tank installed either within or outside the tub. When the pump starts running, the drum is refilled with water from the tank. For present invention volume of the space between drum and tub is not important anymore because said volume does not keep water anymore.
In order to control water drainage, the perforated surface of a cylindrical drum can also be coated with an adequate fabric. Another purpose of coating a perforated drum surface with fabric is to form a screen over the perforations to prevent any damage to delicate fabrics which may caused by burrs present inside the holes or the cutting edges thereof.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTIONA drum type wet or dry washing machine (1), wherein the characteristics that constitute the object of the present invention are implemented, comprises a perforated drum (5) inside a cylindrical tub (10), as illustrated in
In a washing machine (1) which is object of the invention, in order to prevent keeping any unnecessary water inside the tub, drained water from the drum (5) to the tub (10) is pumped back to the drum (5) during all wet processes by means of a pump (16) while required amount or level of water exists inside the said drum (5) for a particular process. The fulfillment of this condition is possible either by way of providing a pump (16) big enough to pump more water than water drained out from the drum or by implementing various methods to reduce water drainage from the drum so as to correspond to the capacity of the pump employed. If a selected pump (16) has a flow-rate more than water drain-rate from the drum (5), then said pump can evacuate the space (39) between the drum and the tub (10). However, considering the number of drum (5) perforations (8) and diameters of a conventional washer, pump (16) that can handle the drained water flows from drum must be oversized for practical use. Water drainage has to be restricted from the drum during wet processes so a pump (16) can be able to pump back the drained water from the drum (5). Water permeability of a drum (5) can be restrained by means of several methods. Selected method depends on the intended use of the washing machine. Same pump (16) can be used for circulation and evacuation (43); however, if a pump is employed solely for circulation purposes, then a separate pump (17) can be used for evacuation purposes.
The basic method of controlling drum (5) impermeability consists of diminishing permeability of drum perforations (8). If it is a perforated conventional drum, the number and/or diameter of the perforations (8) on the drum (5) have to be reduced. In order to realize the differences between standard perforations and reduced perforations in numbers and sizes are illustrated in
Another benefit of coating a perforated metal sheet (9 or 19) with a material (29) such as plastic or rubber is the prevention of damages that caused by perforations (8) to delicate laundry. Since the edges of perforations (42) of plastic or rubber material (29) cannot be as sharp as those of stainless metal sheet, laundry will not be damaged during rubbing.
One other method to achieve restrained water drainage from the drum (5) is applying a coating onto a perforated surface (9) with sheeting made by a lasting textile or compressed fibers or sheeting out of a porous rubber or plastic material or some similar substance (22-b), as illustrated in
When water drains out from a drum (5) just through a textile or water permeable material sheeting (22-b), particles that should be removed together with water may remain inside because said sheeting (22-b) functions like a filter that permits the flow of water only. This problem can be resolved through providing the drum (5), in addition to a water permeable textile coating (22-b), drum front (47-a) and/or back (47-b) cover surfaces are provided with small perforations (20-a), then particles suspended in water can be discharged from the drum (5) during all of the wet cycles; therefore, during extraction, particles do not cause a trouble when water pass through the textile (22-b) or through the fissured elastic coating (22-c) or through any other water permeable substance (22-b) covering the cylindrical surface (9). Selecting a method may vary by use purpose of a washing machine (1), and in some cases different methods can be combined in the same drum (5).
A second passage from the drum towards the tub is through the drum mouth (14). As demonstrated in the detail frame (
As illustrated in
A spray nozzle (38-b) arranged on the circulation line (40) at the drum inlet, as shown in
As water amount is reduced inside a drum (5) during wet processes like washing and rinsing, physical friction increases between washed materials (48), providing a better rubbing thereof. To enable this, a volume (44) inside the tub (10) as shown in
As illustrated in
At the end of distribution, textile (48) settles on top of protrusions (45) as shown in
Claims
1. A washer and extractor machine (1) comprising a liquid tub (10) positioned either horizontal or inclined with horizontal where a perforated drum (5) rotates in the liquid tub around a shaft-bearing system (11);
- characterized in that a pump (16) is provided to be operated under control mounted onto the circulation line (40) while required level or amount of liquid for washing or rinsing is provided in the drum (5) enables to decrease the level of the tub liquid or to keep the level of the tub liquid at desired level or to evacuate the tub liquid completely when needed, tub liquid exists in the volume (39) between said drum (5) and tub (10) to suck the liquid from tub (10) that drains from the drum (5) into the tub in order to pump said liquid back to the drum.
2. A machine as in claim 1, characterized in that said pump (16) has a higher flow-rate capacity than drain rate of liquid from said drum (5) into the tub (10).
3. A machine as in claim 1, characterized in that said circulation line (40) is accessing into said drum (5) through a door (35) or a drum-tub mouth bellow (12) or a drum shaft (11).
4. A machine as in claim 1, characterized in that chemicals are added to the washing liquid before the circulation line (40) and before the pump (16) is operated; tub liquid is heated be means of steam injector or a heat exchanger on the circulation line (40) and the particulates in the circulation liquid are filtered through a filter (18).
5. A machine as in claim 1, characterized in that permeability of said drum (5) is restrained to enable the pump (16) to change the level or to keep the level of tub liquid in the volume (39) between the tub (10) and the drum (5) as desired or to evacuate said tub liquid completely when requested by the said pump (16).
6. A machine as in claim 5, characterized in that in said drum (5) number and/or sizes of liquid passage perforations (20) of the drum (5) permeability of which is restrained, are reduced compared to conventional drums.
7. A machine as in claim 5, characterized in that the quantities and sizes of said drum perforations (20) are provided in such a way that the drain rate of the liquid from said perforations is less than the flow rate of the pump (16) which is used to pump the liquid back into the drum (5).
8. A machine as in claim 5, characterized in that in order to restrain the permeability of said drum (5), perforated surfaces (9) of said drum are coated with a permanent or detachable material to limit water flow and that shapes, quantities and sizes of said coating (22) perforations (21) are provided in a way to provide the drain rate of the liquid from said perforations is less than the flow rate of the pump (16) which is used to pump the liquid back into the drum (5).
9. A machine as in claim 8, characterized in that said coating (22) is manufactured of various material like rubber, plastic, metal, woven or any other material having limited liquid permeability due to its porous structure.
10. A machine as in claim 9, characterized in that said rubber, plastic or similar surface coating (22-d) comprises bulgy parts (27) of various shapes and sizes in between said perforations (21).
11. A machine as in claim 9, characterized in that small slits (23) corresponding to drum perforations (8), without leaving any space there between are provided on the said rubber or plastic coating.
12. A machine as in claim 1, characterized in that in order to restrict liquid permeability of said drum (5) the passage (37) around the drum mouth (14) to the tub (10) is covered with a suitable sealing gasket (34).
13. A machine as in claim 12, characterized in that said gasket (34) is mounted onto the drum mouth (14) to rotate with said drum (5), and by touching either specific surface of the tub or the tub door (13) or a suitable surface (35) in order to restrain the liquid passage way and if desired said gasket (34) is provided with a weight protrusion (36) to decrease or totally eliminate pressure caused by centrifugal force exerted during extraction.
14. A washing-extraction machine (1) comprising a liquid tub (10) positioned either horizontal or inclined with horizontal where a perforated drum (5) rotates in the liquid tub around a shaft-bearing system (11), wherein the cylindrical surface (9) of a drum is provided with a ribbed constitution in order to obtain a surface with protrusions (45) and hollows (46) in various shapes and sizes and wherein said protrusions are in a greater number, smaller and lower than usual ribs (50) employed in horizontal drums (5) of conventional drum washing machines
15. A machine as in claim 14, characterized in that the height of said protrusions (45) is less than 6% of the diameter of said drum (5) and/or the number of said protrusions (45) are more than eight.
16. A machine as claimed in claim 14, characterized in that said protrusions (45) are solely sufficient enough to move the materials being washed along with the drum (5).
17. A machine as in claim 14, characterized in that a metal sheet which constitutes the cylindrical surface (9) of said drum (5) is undulated (33-a) with corrugated indents and protrusions (45-g).
18. A machine as in claim 14, characterized in that the cylindrical surface (9) of said drum (5) is manufactured of a plastic material (33-b) having undulated shape with indents and protrusions (45).
19. A machine as in claim 14, characterized in that the protrusions (45) on the cylindrical surface of said drum (5) are placed side by side to constitute hollows (46) in between thereof by known techniques.
20. A machine as in claim 14, characterized in that a coating (31) formed undulated on the cylindrical surface (9) of said drum (5) comprises of a single piece (31-a, b, c) or several pieces (31-b) fixed permanently or detachably on the surface.
21. A machine as in claims 14 to 20, characterized in that said protrusions (45) are provided on the cylindrical surface of said drum (5) either solely in lieu of normal size ribs (50) or in addition to conventional normal size ribs (50).
22. A machine as in claims 14 to 21, characterized in that said protrusions (45) are arranged over the entire interior surface of said drum (5) in the form of small ribs (45-a d, e, g, h, i, j).
23. A machine as in claim 22, characterized in that said small size ribs (45) are placed onto the said drum (5) surface with an angle with rotation axis or in helical form to move laundry in the same direction of rotation axis, either from back to front or reverse, during drum rotation.
24. A machine as in claim 22, characterized in that said small size ribs (45) are placed over the surface of said drum (5) to completely cover the drum perforations (8 or 20-b) however to allow the flow of liquid underneath gap to reach the drum perforations.
25. A machine as in claim 22, characterized in that said protrusions (45) are regionally elevated in various heights to form non-homogeneous surface shape that helps to lift up the material up.
26. A machine as in claims 14 to 25, characterized in that the drum perforations (21) provided on the cylindrical surface (9) of said drum (5) are arranged in the hollows (46) between said protrusions (45).
27. A machine as in claim 26, characterized in that wherein drum perforations (21) are sized so as to allow the large dirt pieces or pellets leave the drum.
28. A machine as in claim 26, characterized in that wherein drum perforations (21) are sized small enough to reduce liquid permeability of the drum.
29. A machine as claimed in above claims, characterized in that the parts (51-a) used over the perforated surface (9) of said drum are configured to constitute a profile (45-e) including protrusions (45) and also the hollow zone (46), said profile covering drum perforations (8) as well; and bores (21) in the hollow zone (46) matching with drum perforations, in less numbers and/or smaller in diameters than perforations of conventional drums for reducing liquid permeability of the drum.
30. A washing and rinsing process in a washing machine as claimed in claims 14 to 29, characterized in that in order to prevent any harm to delicate materials; while the drum rotates faster than its distribution speed, circulation liquid is transmitted throughout the textile which is spread onto the protrusions placed on the drum surface.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 12, 2008
Publication Date: May 5, 2011
Inventor: Tulga Simsek (Izmir)
Application Number: 12/742,646
International Classification: D06F 35/00 (20060101);