Frigidaire Combo PAT 1/17/05--Solid-Tub FL Idea

[westytoploader]

After reading this patent and the previous posts about the various Frigidaire Combos, I did come up with a solid-tub FL idea. The machine would have to be a slant-front design, except with no suspension to tilt the tub back as it filled like the Keymatic has. The fill flume would be located in the door (since the tub has no perforations) and the detergent would be injected into the incoming water the first few seconds of fill. The fill cycle would have to be timed, however, or trip a pressure switch in the outer tub after a certain amount of water enters (since it is a slant-front the water level in the washtub would remain the same as the lowest level of perforations carries the excess water off towards the pressure switch). After the wash operation is carried out, a separate electric pump would activate and the tub would be tilted forward via a separate rack & pinion mechanism, emptying the tub through the holes located at the front. When most of the water is drained, the tub would tilt to a horizontal position (not slanted this time), and the clothes would be tumbled in one direction to re-distribute. When distribution is complete, the tub would ramp up to full spin speed, spin for 10 seconds to hold the clothes against the tub, then brake. The tilt mechanism would swing the tub forward so that the water would drain out (remember that this is a solid tub), and the spin would resume. Since the clothes are already against the tub, they would not move forward and cause the machine to go off-balance.

Any other ideas?

--Austin

 

[retromom]

Correction

I said that the tub would swing forward to drain the water out, and the spin would resume. The tub would have to move back to the slanted position so that the remaining water would be carried off during spin; this wouldn't happen if the tub was tilted forward.

--Austin

 

[westytoploader]

Oops...wrong user name again...sorry!!!

I have to remember to log-out!!

 

[jasonl]

AHA!

Now we know who retromom is. Wow. Retro runs inthe family.

I like it.

 

[jasonl]

My solid tub FL idea

I too came up with a solid tub front loader. the tub would be tilted 45deg and the water would be injected via a fill flume by the door.

The tub would have spring loaded flaps that would open when the tub went into spin to drain the water. Of course, there's a major problem with that. The springs could loosen up or break and the tub couldn't hold any water. By that was my idea for a solid tub.

 

[Designgeek]

Another really interesting topic I want to come back to tomorrow and think about in depth.

Spring-loaded flaps are a clever idea for dealing with the spin function. I was trying to come up with a solution for that issue myself; you got there first and it sounds pretty elegant. There is probably a way to make them durable enough to last. You've got me thinking about using angular momentum to operate this function, so I'll give it some more thought and see if I can contribute an idea.

Re. rack & pinion devices: would it be worthwhile to use a worm gear instead of a pinion in some of those cases? If I'm not mistaken this also came up in Jason's design topic.

It's exciting to see people thinking of new designs here. More tomorrow...

 

[hoovermatic]

Why solid tub?

What is the benefit of a solid tub? I think that Philips had a solid tub FL in the 1980's here in the UK but it didn't tilt as there were some holes/vents at the very front of the drum