US3645010A

US3645010A - Clothes drier

Info

Publication number: US3645010A
Application number: US60508A
Authority: US
Inventors: Takashi Korekawa
Original assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd
Current assignee: Panasonic Holdings Corp
Priority date: 1970-08-03
Filing date: 1970-08-03
Publication date: 1972-02-29
Anticipated expiration: 1989-02-28

Abstract

This invention relates to a drum-type clothes drier in which the wet clothes put into a rotating drum are stirred and dried in a hot blast supplied thereinto. The rotating drum is provided with a projection on the inner surface thereof for stirring the clothes put therein to accelerate the drying.

Description

United States Patent Korekawa 1 Feb. 29, 1972 [54] CLOTHES DRIER [72] Inventor: Takashi Korekawa, Osaka, Japan [56] Reerences Cited 73 Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., 1,111., UNITED STATES PATENTS Osaka. Japan 3,197,885 8/1965 Smith "34/133 X 1,655,514 1/1928 Seifert..... [22] 2,827,276 3/1958 Racheter ..34/133 x [21] Appl. No.: 60,508

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 0 Foreign Application Priority Data 234,642 10/1959 Australia ..34/l33 Aug. 1 l, 1969 Japan ..44/6494l Primary ExaminerCarroll B. Dority, J1. Aug. 11, 1969 Anomey--Stevens, Davis, Miller & Mosher Aug. 11, 1969 Aug. 11, 1969 [57] ABSTRACT g H This invention relates to a drum-type clothes drier in which the wet clothes put into a rotating drum are stirred and dried Aug. l1, Japan in a hot blast pp thereinto' The rotating drum is p vidcd with a projection on the inner surface thereof for stirring [52] US. Cl ..34/ 133, 34/134 the clothes put therein to accelerate the drying [51] Int. Cl ..F26b 11/02 [58] Field of Search ....34/133, 134 2 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures Patented Feb. 29, 1972 3,645,010

3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR BY 3 y a ATTORNEY! Patented Feb. 29, 1972 3,645,010

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Feb. 29, 1972 3,645,010

3 Sheets-$heet 5 0 F/G. a

CLOTHES DRIER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a clothes drier, and more particularly to a clothes drier for uniformly and quickly drying the wet clothes in a drum.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the front face thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing for stirring the clothes put thereinto by the rotation thereof, said rotary drum having a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rear wall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blast into and out of the drum, said drum further having protruded portions for stirring the clothes therein, a heater disposed adjacent to said front wall of the drum, and a fan disposed adjacent to said rear wall of the drum, said protruded portions having a hollow space therein and being provided with a number of small holes for introducing hot blast into the drum therethrough, respectively.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART In the conventional clothes drier of the above-described type, the clothes containing much water are brought up from the lowest position to the highest position in the drum by the rotation of the drum. The clothes brought up to the portion adjacent to the highest position in the drum are dropped down by gravity and on the way of dropping the wet clothes are exposed to the hot blast and the drying thereof is accelerated. As the drying operation proceeds, the clothes become lighter and it happens that the clothes are caught to the inner surface of the drum while rotation of the drum. Since hot air is not supplied where wet clothes are caught, which results in a decrease of an efficiency of drying effect. In order to overcome the above-described defect, a drum-type drier has been provided in which the drum is slowly rotated to reduce the centrifugal force so that the clothes may easily drop down from the portion adjacent to the highest portion of the drum. But such a type of the drier has suffered from the defect that the number of times of dropping of the clothes is reduced and, accordingly, the number of times of being supplied with the hot blast is reduced, which results in elongation in the drying time. Another disadvantage inherent in the use of conventional types of the clothes drier is that the wet clothes in the drum have not been dried uniformly. While the wet clothes in the vicinity of the hot blast intake of the drum have been quickly dried, the wet clothes apart from the intake of the hot blast have been slowly dried. Consequently, the clothes in the vicinity of the intake have become liable to be damaged when all the clothes in the drum have been completely dried up. Since the wet clothes in the vicinity of the hot blast intake have been heated to such a high temperature, it has been impossible to dry the clothes of synthetic fiber or it has taken so long time to dry the wet clothes by the drier of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the clothes drier of the present invention, the drying performance does not start from only the vicinity of the front wall of the drum as in the prior art, but spreads equally all through the drum. That is, since the hot blast intakes are provided not only on the front wall of the drum but also on the peripheral wall thereof, the wet clothes are dried effectively wherever the wet clothes are in the drum.

Therefore, the wet clothes in the drum are uniformly dried and the time taken for drying all the clothes in the drum is shortened. Besides, there is no fear of damaging the clothes fixed on the front wall of the drum due to excessive drying. Further, the defect of the prior art drier that the wet synthetic fiber clothes cannot be dried on an account of the partial excessive heat is completely eliminated by the present invention. Thus, the performance of the drier is remarkably improved by the present invention.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a clothes drier in which protruded portions are provided on the inner wall of the drum for stirring the wet clothes put therein and for uniformly drying the wet clothes in the hot blast introduced into the drum through the holes on the front wall and the protruded portions of the drum.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a clothes drier which shortens the time for drying the wet clothes.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a clothes drier having improved projections in the drum thereof for accelerating the drying efiect.

Other object and a fuller understanding of the present invention will be had by referring to the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TI-IE DRAWINGS Some preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side sectional elevational view of the clothes drier in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a detailed sectional view of the upper portion of the drum employed in the drier in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary front view showing a part of the front portion of the drum in the drier of the present invention,

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary front view showing a part of the front portion of the drum in the drier in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a member incorporated into the drum of the drier in accordance with the embodiment shown in FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary front view showing a part of the front portion of the drum in the drier in accordance with still another embodiment of the present invention in which an auxiliary protruded portion is provided,

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a member incorporated into the drum of the drier in accordance with a further embodiment of the present invention, and

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view of the upper portion of the drum in accordance with a still further embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to the drawing, the reference numeral 1 indicates an outer frame of the drum-type drier with a front plate 2 fixed to the front end thereof. The front plate 2 is provided with a throw-in opening 3 defined by a flange 4. In front of the opening 3 is provided a door 5 which is opened when the clothes are to be thrown into and taken out of the drum l0 and closed when the drier is to be operated. The outer frame 1 is provided at the back end thereof with a backplate 6. The backplate 6 is provided with a fan casing 7 at the central portion thereof on the inner surface. The fan casing 7 is communicated to the outer air through a duct 9 and an exhaust port 8 at the end of the duct 9. The drum 10 is rotatably held by the flange 4 and the fan casing 7 at the front and back side of the drum 10. Thus, the drum 10 is rotatably supported in the frame I. A number of small holes 13 are provided on a projected portion 12 of a front wall 11 of the drum 10. A fan 15 is rotatably mounted to a backwall 14 of the drum 10. By this fan 15, the warm or hot air outside the drum 10 is introduced into the drum 10 through the small holes 13 provided on the front wall 11 thereof and through several small holes 25 provided on protruded portions 21 on the periphery of the drum. The warm air introduced into the drum 10 is discharged out of the exhaust port 8 through the duct (9) by way of a filter 16 provided on the backwall 14 of the drum and the small holes 18 provided on the projected portion 17 of the backwall 14 of the drum 10. A heater 19 is mounted on the inner surface of the front plate 2 through an insulating member 20 for raising the temperature of the air introduced into the drum 10. The drum and the fan are rotated by a motor 24 through

belts

22 and 23. The belt 23 runs on a pulley 32 mounted to the main shaft 31 of the motor 24 located under the drum 10 and a pulley 30 mounted to the main shaft 29 of the fan 15 so as to transmit the rotation of the motor 24 to the fan 15. The belt 22 for rotating the drum 10 runs on a pulley 33 mounted to the main shaft 31 of the motor 24 and the drum periphery. The belt 22 may be directly engaged with the drum periphery or may be engaged with a belt receiving means having a belt guiding groove (not shown) made of a proper heat insulating material fixed on the drum periphery. It will be understood that the fan 15 is rotated at a high speed and the drum 10 is rotated at a prescribed comparatively low speed both by the motor 24.

On the inner surface of the peripheral portion of the drum 10 are provided several projected portions 21 extending in the axial direction for stirring the clothes in the drum. Preferably, three or four projected portions 21 are provided at equal intervals on the inner periphery of the drum. The clothes thrown into the drum through the throw-in opening 3 of the drum are brought up to the top of the drum by the projected portions 21 as the drum rotates. The projected portions 21 are made hollow and provided with a number of small holes 25. The front wall 11 of the drum 10 is provided with a hole 26 at the portion connected with the hollow portion of the projected portions 21 so that the hot air outside the drum may be introduced into the drum through the hole 26 and the small holes 25.

Now referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 showing another embodiment of the drier of the invention in which the projected portions 21 are modified. The width (a) of the projected portion 21 at the front side thereof is small and the width (a') of the projected portion at the rear side thereof is made larger than the said width (0). As clearly shown in FIG. 4, the diameter of the drum 10 is partially made smaller which results in reduction in the centrifugal force made by the rotation of the drum. Owing to the reduction in centrifugal force, the clothes brought up to the top of the drum are made liable to drop down. Thus, the stirring operation and accordingly the drying operation of the drum are effectively improved.

Another embodiment of the drum employing some auxiliary projected portions 28 is shown in FIG. 6. Between the adjacent projected portions are provided some auxiliary projected portions 28 of smaller height. The auxiliary projected portions 28 serve to reduce the diameter of the drum. Therefore, the drum as shown in FIG. 6 also reduces the centrifugal force and accelerates the stirring operation.

As best shown in FIG. 2 the projected portion 21 is provided with larger number of small holes 25 at the rear portion thereof. This is for providing a uniform drying effect in the drum. The clothes in the drum apart from the hot blast introducing small holes 13 on the front wall are exposed to the hot blast introduced through the small holes 25 on the projected portions 21.

Another modification of the projected portion 21 is shown in FIG. 7. This modification of the projected portion is an improvement of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5. The projected portion 21 comprises an elongated member 21a having U- shaped section and width (a) and a laterally extending member 21b fixed to the side of the elongated member 21a. The laterally extending member 21b has a width (b) and length (a'). The elongated member 21a and the laterally extending member 21b are completely partitioned by the compartment 210. The elongated member 210 is provided with a number of small holes 25. The front wall 1 1 of the drum 10 is provided with a hole 26 at the portion connected with the elongated member 21a. Thus, the hot air outside the drum 10 is introduced into the drum through the hole 26 and the small holes 25 provided on the elongated member 21a as well as through the small holes 13 provided on the front wall 11 of the drum. The hot air introduced into the drum through the hollow elongated member 21a is never dispersed into the space defined by the laterally extending member 21b and the drum periphery. Since an excessive diffusion of heat is prevented, the clothes within the drum are evenly and effectively dried under the sufficient hot air having no reduction of its temperature. As the foregoing embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the width of the projected portion 21 is made larger in the rear side thereof than that in the front side.

The clothes drier having a drum provided with the projected portion as described above has such advantages as follows. Since the drum diameter is reduced by the laterally extending member 21b, the centrifugal force made by the rotation of the drum is reduced so that the clothes brought up to the top of the drum may be liable to drop down in the drum. When the clothes drop down in the drum, the clothes get loose and the area receiving the hot blast increases resulting in acceleration in the drying operation. At the same time, the clothes caught to the position in the drum where the centrifugal force is not reduced, that is, the clothes caught not on the laterally extending member 21b but on the periphery of the drum are subject to the hot blast introduced into the drum through the small holes 25. And by the hot blast locally introduced into the drum, the stirring operation is given variety which results in acceleration in drying performance.

The locally introduced hot blast can be provided also in the case of disposing the auxiliary projected portions on the inner periphery of the drum. For instance, by arranging the projections having small holes and the projections without small holes alternately on the inner periphery of the drum, the stirring operation is given the variety to accelerate the drying performance.

In FIG. 8, a still further modification of the auxiliary projections is shown. The length of the auxiliary projections 27 is made smaller than that of the other main protruded portions 21. And the shorter auxiliary projections 27 are located adjacent to the backwall 14 of the drum. In the conventional drier, the wet clothes nearer to the backwall have been ordinally dried slower than the clothes nearer to the front wall of the drum by the hot blast introduced into the drum through the small holes 13 on the front wall 11. However, by locating the shorter projections adjacent to the backwall of the drum all the wet clothes in the drum are made liable to drop down in the drum to be stirred effectively and results in a uniform drying performance.

While several embodiments of the present invention have been described in the foregoing specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent that various modifications and changes in the form may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the front face thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing for stirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drum having a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rear wall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blast into and out of the drum, at least one protruded portion provided on the inner peripheral portion of said drum for stirring the clothes in said drum, a heater disposed outside said front wall of the drum, and a fan disposed outside said rear wall of the drum, said protruded portion having a hollow space therein and being provided with a number of small holes for introducing hot blast into the drum therethrough, wherein said protruded portion defines a hot blast passage therein and is partially provided with a number of small holes only in the rear side thereof.

2. A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the front face thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing for stirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drum having a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rear wall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blast into and out of the blast into the drum therethrough wherein said protruded portion has partially different width and is comparted by a compartment into a portion having a smaller width with small holes and a portion having a larger width without small holes.

Claims

1. A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the front face thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing for stirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drum having a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rear wall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blast into and out of the drum, at least one protruded portion provided on the inner peripheral portion of said drum for stirring the clothes in said drum, a heater disposed outside said front wall of the drum, and a fan disposed outside said rear wall of the drum, said protruded portion having a hollow space therein and being provided with a number of small holes for introducing hot blast into the drum therethrough, wherein said protruded portion defines a hot blast passage therein and is partially provided with a number of small holes only in the rear side thereof.

2. A clothes drier comprising a drier housing having a door on the front face thereof, a rotary drum rotatably disposed in the housing for stirring the clothes therein by the rotation thereof, said rotary drum having a front wall with an opening at the center thereof and a rear wall, both said walls having a number of airholes for guiding hot blast into and out of the drum, at least one protruded portion provided on the inner peripheral portion of said drum for stirring the clothes in said drum, a heater disposed outside said front wall of the drum, and a fan disposed outside said rear wall of the drum, and said protruded portion having a hollow space therein and being provided with a number of small holes for introducing hot blast into the drum therethrough wherein said protruded portion has partially different width and is comparted by a compartment into a portion having a smaller width with small holes and a portion having a larger width without small holes.