Ok....What's a 'beam deasign' machine?

[nasadowsk]

When the Speed Queen and Hotpoint discussions come up, I'm always seeing references to a 'beam design' or 'beam machine'. What exactly does this mean? I gather it's a transmission design - was beam the guy who created it, or the manufacturer, or was it a description od how they worked?

Further - were early Hotpoint and Speed Queens the same, mechanically? They sure look it...

Oh yeah, when did Speed Queen drop solid tubs and fluid drive? I'm trying to date the now (sadly, I thought it was neat) gone one my grandma had. Were all solid tubs fluid drive?

 

[gansky1]

Beam Design

Beam Manufacturing Co. made lots of parts for quite a few brands in the late 40's and early 50's. Pumps, transmissions, fluid drives, bearing housings, seals, and much more. Some of the brands were; Hotpoint, Speed Queen, AMC/Coronado, Easy, Firestone, Laundry Queen, One Minute, Marquette, Western-Auto Wizard. Sometime in the late 50's, Beam was bought out by Franklin Ind. which took over some of the designs and manufacturing from Beam. There is some murky history during this time as to whether Speed Queen owned by McGraw Edison bought the designs and manufacturing facilities from Beam or Franklin, but SQ continued with much of the orginal Beam designed machine (including the Fluid Drive) for years after the Beam-Franklin merger. Franklin continued to be a source for machines for some time until the early to mid 60's when it was merged with White Industries (White Sewing Machines) which Became White Consolidated Industries and continued to absorb brand names like Hupp Corp.(1967), Gibson, Kelvinator(1968), Westinghouse Appliance Div.(1975), Philco Appliance Div. (from Ford 1977) and Frigidaire (1979). WCI was bought out by Electrolux Home Products which is the company we know today.


I'm estimating some of the merger dates based on what I've been able to find in company historical summaries and literature from this time, the White-Franklin merger could have happened as early as the late 50's as White Sewing Machine Co. began to diversify in 1956. If anyone can clear up some of the murky areas, please chime in!

Speed Queen continued with the basic solid-tub, fluid drive design until 1979 and in 1980, completely redesigned their washers to the perforated-tub design.

 

[alr2903]

Greg would you elaborate on Fluid drive please

to me it conjures up images of a hydraulic type system, but ive seen the drive belts posted hundreds of times. what is fluid drive, noticed that on the hotpoint thread,too. If not fluid drive then its belt drive?. Now i am an ole novice thats lurked here for years and i am still confused. and would fluid drive only run the spin? and belts for the agitation? Gosh i got get my a## up there to meet you good people and LEARN,We have some clever folks in this group. arthur

 

[gansky1]

Here is a larger version of the Hotpoint Fluid Drive. It is simply a clutching mechanism to reduce the strain on the motor when trying to spin a heavy load of clothes and water in the tub. Most automatic washers have some sort of mechanism or system to "absorb" the power from the motor and gradually transmit it to the tub, as the water is drained out and begins to be removed from the clothes load, the strain on motor is less and the clutch will allow the tub to spin faster and faster until it reaches top speed.

For another example of a clutch system, you probably have seen or heard Maytag's claims over the years that they have no clutch. They have their motors mounted on a sliding carriage and use special fabric-coated belts that "slip" on the motor pulley. When they begin to spin with a full tub of water, the motor pulls forward under the load which gives the drive belt slack and allows it to slip a little bit. As the water load is reduced, the motor pulls back taking up the slack on the belt causing the tub to spin faster.

 

[tolivac]

Fliud drives were used in industrial applications besides laundry equipment-they are useful when large loads have to be started-reduces loads on motors or engines.some vehicles use them as well.Also saw one on a small Parker Caurosel-was on the motor and the pulley system on it like the washers-would give a gradual acceleration of the merry go round.I even rode it.

 

[alr2903]

Thanks Greg

Your description enhanced, that picture, thats worth a thousand words. Thanks for taking the time to find the pic and explain this to me. arthur

 

[rinso]

Chrysler used fluid drive in their vehicle transmissions in the post WWII 1940's along with a manual clutch. This smoothed out the engaging of the clutch, making it easier for some to drive standard transmissions.

A modern torque converter in an automatic transmission, is really just a fluid drive with stationary blades on disks between the driving and driven members. The oil passing thru the blades picks up force due to the venturi effect, turning it into a torque multiplying turbine.