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(11) | EP 0 080 770 A2 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Door for a laundry washing and/or drying machine |
| (57) A door for a washing and/or drying machine comprises a structural foam moulding 1,
for example of foamed polystyrene, which is provided with an annular recess 7, arranged
to accommodate at least part of the projecting laundry- loading door of an associated
washing machine, and stiffening ribs 8 to 12 extending from the recess towards the
thickened edges 3 to 6 of the moulding. An additional cross-rib 30 is provided which
has a surface 41 which can be used as a guide to cutting away the portion of the moulding
below the rib 30 if required. A decorative front panel may be secured over the front
face of the moulding by means of L-shaped strips around the edges of the moulding. |
[0001] This invention relates to a door for a laundry washing and/or drying machine and more particularly, but not exclusively, relates to a door for such a machine which is intended to form part of a range of built-in kitchen units.
[0002] It has generally been the custom for the front panel and loading door of such machines to be exposed to view - that is to say that an additional door which covers the whole front panel has not been considered necessary even when the machine is to form part of a range of built-in units which have standard overall dimensions and often have a pleasing decorative appearance.
[0003] Some types of built-in cupboard units are known which are provided with pressed sheet steel doors. Such doors have many disadvantages. Even when provided with front and back shells secured together around a lipped edge, steel doors still tend to lack rigidity. In some cases, there is so much "whip" that the press catch which secures the door in the closed position has to be fixed close to the door handle, or other point where pressure is applied in order to close the door, in order to apply sufficient pressure to operate the catch. Further, steel doors are very expensive to manufacture, not only because of the cost of the steel used, but also because several expensive high quality forming tools are required, because additional means such as seaming are required to join the two shells together in a neat manner, and because the steel has to be protected against rust and be provided with a decorative coating such as a sprayed coat of enamel.
[0004] Also, steel doors have a cold "feel" when touched and produce an unpleasant metallic sound when closed.
[0005] As an alternative to steel doors, it is known to use doors for cupboard units comprising wood chip board provided with a decorative surface by, for example, a sheet of plastics material. In order to reduce the above-described "whip", these doors have to be relatively thick and are hence expensive.
[0007] The invention accordingly provides a door for a laundry washing and/or drying machine, characterised in that the door comprises a structural foam moulding in the form of a sheet having a thickened peripheral edge, the sheet being dished to provide a recess in one of its major surfaces, into which recess a projecting portion of a said machine may, in use of the door, project; the moulding having integral stiffening ribs which extend from the recess towards the peripheral edge, the arrangement being such that the moulding lies wholly between two imaginary parallel planes which sandwich the peripheral edge and extend parallel to the general plane of the sheet, the door further comprising means for securing to the moulding a decorative panel facing the other major surface of the moulding.
[0008] The term "structural foam moulding" is known per se and relates to a moulding produced by injecting into a mould a plastics material containing a foaming, or "blowi.n.g"; agent which causes the moulding to have a cellular structure within an outer skin.
[0009] The use of a structural foam door, for example of foamed polystyrene or polypropylene, overcomes all the above problems. Not only is it very light in'weight, it can be formed in a single mould which, because of the low injection pressures used, may be a cast aluminium mould which is relatively inexpensive. The quantity of material used is relatively small and the material can be given any required colour, thus eliminating the need for painting. The material is corrosion-resistant and also is "warm" to the touch due to its low thermal conductivity. The door is relatively silent in use compared with a metal door.
[0010] In addition to the above advantages, the use of a structural foam door enables the thickness of the door to be reduced quite considerably in the case of washing and/or drying machines, where the laundry loading door projects outwardly fron the front panel of the machine. This projection is at least partly accommodated in the recess in the door without the need to make the door unduly thick, since the thickness of the sheet need be only a few (e.g. 6) millimetres. The rest of the door is thicker and enables stiffening ribs to be provided extending outwardly from the recess towards the edges of the door.
[0011] The door is arranged to accommodate a thin decorative panel which can be shaped and/or decorated to match the doors of associated built-in cupboard units. Such panels can therefore provide a wide variety of matching doors merely by stocking the appropriate panels.
[0012] Another advantage accruing from the use of a structural foam moulding is that the door can be very easily cut or sawn, and drilled by a purchaser. In built-in cupboard units, there are two conventional standard heights for the plinth, or "kicking panel", secured below the door adjacent the floor, namely 100 mm and 150 mm. This means that doors having two different lengths have hitherto had to be manufactured and stocked to meet these different requirements. In contradistinction thereto, the door according to the invention may be provided with a guide groove or edge surface so that a portion of the door may readily be cut or sawn away along the groove or edge surface in order to reduce the door height by a predetermined fixed amount. Thus only the larger door needs to be manufactured and stocked, since the purchaser can readily reduce the size to that of the smaller door.
[0013] Yet a further advantage is that some of the unavoidable noise generated by washing and drying machines is absorbed by the foamed plastics material of the door, since its cellular construction forms an ideal sound insulator.
[0014] A further advantage is that a magnetic catch can advantageously be used to retain the door in the closed position since the material of the door is non-magnetic. With steel doors, special care is needed in the design of the catch to prevent the magnetic field being shunted by the steel door itself. With the door according to the invention, however, a very simple magnetic strip may be used.
[0015] Yet a further advantage is that other components, such as hinge plates and handles, can very easily be secured to the structural foam moulding by means of self-tapping screws screwed into an appropriately sized bore hole in the foamed material. This facility not only reduces manufacturing costs but also considerably simplifies any problems involved when reducing the door height. After a portion of the door has been sawn or cut off, the person concerned merely has to drill appropriate fixing holes using the previously-removed hinge plate or edge trim as a drilling template. The tolerance on the size of the drilled holes is relatively large when using self-tapping screws and this further simplifies the task.
[0016] In order to conserve plastics material, the sheet of the moulding is made as thin as possible without loss of rigidity and is locally thickened where fixing holes are required.
[0017] Washing and/or drying machines of the built-in unit type almost exclusively have a control panel extending across the highest point of the front panel. In order to retain the visibility of such a panel during use, the door can be arranged to extend below this control panel, the panel being arranged to project from the machine so as to be flush with the front surface of the door. Alternatively, the moulding may be provided with fixing means whereby a larger decorative panel may be fitted which extends over the control panel so that, with the door closed, no part of the washing machine itself is visible. The panel may, for example, be of wood-faced chip-board, or may be of natural wood, in order to provide a perfect matching appearance with adjacent units.
[0018] In order to prevent the door from opening so wide that it might be possible to damage the doors of adjacent units, the door may be provided with one or more stop members to prevent excessive angular movement - for example more than 1300. Alternatively or additionally, the door may be mounted on hinge plates which are provided with suitable stop members.
[0019] Some users of washing and/or drying machines like to be able to see the clothes in the drum, during operation of the machine, through a transparent window in the loading door. In order to enable such use without having to have the door ajar the whole time - which could in some circumstances be dangerous as well as inconvenient - the arrangement may be such that the door can be removed completely and put in some convenient non-dangerous place when the machine is in use.
[0020] An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:-
Figure 1 shows a plan view of a structural foam moulding suitable for use in a door according to the invention,
Figures 2, 3, and 4 are sectional views taken along lines II-II, III-III, and IV-IV, respectively, of Figure 1,;
Figures 5 and 6 show details, on a larger scale, of a corner of the moulding,
Figure 7 shows an exploded sectional view of a vertical edge of the door, and
Figure 8 shows a suitable hinge pin arrangement for the door, and
Figure 9 shows a handle fixed to the door.
[0021] Referring now to Figures 1 to 4 of the drawings, a structural foam moulding 1 comprises a sheet 2, for example of foamed polystyrene or polypropylene, having on each side an integral respective thickened edge 3, 4, 5, and 6. Sheet 2 is dished to provide a generally annular recess in what is otherwise a substantially plane sheet. This recess 7 is shaped to conform approximately with the projecting circular rim of the loading door of the machine for which each particular door according to the invention is designed. The annular recess considerably increases the stiffness of the door and this is further increased by the provision of integral ribs 8 to 12 extending outwardly from the recess 7 towards the edges of the sheet. The arrangement is such that the moulding lies wholly between two imaginary parallel planes which sandwich the peripheral edges and extend parallel to the general plane of sheet 2.
[0022] In each corner of the sheet, respective groups of thickened sections, or bosses, are provided in the respective edges. These thickened sections are shown in more detail in Figure 5 and 6 which show the corner which includes edges 5 and 6, the edges having thickened sections 13, 14, and 15 provided with respective counterbored holes 16, 17, and 18, for receiving self-tapping screws. A further hole 19 serves to receive a hinge pin. Each of the holes 16, 17 and 19 opens into a shallow recess in the moulding in which a metal hinge plate 21 is secured by means of a counter-sunk self-tapping screw screwed into hole 17.
[0023] Figure 7 shows a section through the left hand edge 3 of the moulding through the axis of thickened portion 22 (see also Figure 1) provided with a counterbored hole 23. 'The edge is provided with a longitudinally-extending slot 24 and recess 25 into which an extruded flexible strip 26 is fitted as shown by the broken extension lines. The strip has two concertina- type walls 27 and 28 which support a box section in which an elongate magnetic strip 29 is held. At its extreme ends near the top and bottom of the door the box section is sealed off, for example by heat deformation, to retain the magnetic strip 29 securely in place in the box section.
[0024] An extruded aluminium strip 31, having an L-shaped cross section, is then secured to edge 3 by means of self-tapping screws screwed into hole 23 and holes in each corner corresponding to hole 18 (Figure 5). The strip 31 thus holds strip 26 firmly in place in the moulding and the lip 32 of the L-shaped strip is spaced from the surface of edge 3 by an adjustable distance D so that the lip can secure a decorative panel,not shown, extending over the whole major surface of the moulding. A corresponding metal strip to strip 31 is provided on each of edges 4, 5, and 6 in order to provide a metal frame which not only holds the decorative panel firmly in place but also serves to protect the edges of the moulding from accidental impact, for example by banging or kicking. The distance D is made adjustable by the provision of an elongated screw hole 33 in strip 31. The L-shaped metal strip which extends along the top and bottom edges of the door covers the hinge plate 21 and is secured by self-tapping screws screwed into hole 16 (Figure 5), into a corresponding hole at the other end, and a hole in a central thickened section 34 (Figure 1).
[0025] Each of the four corners is identical with respect to the thickened portions 13, 14, 15, the holes 16 to 19, and the shallow recess for the hinge plate 21. This enables hinge plates to be located at the top and bottom of the door on either the left hand or the right hand side of the door according to the preference of the user.
[0026] Referring again to Figure 1, edge 4 is provided with additional thickened sections, or bosses, 35 and 36 as well as a central section 37 corresponding to section 34. These thickened sections are counterbored to receive self-tapping screws and the holes 35 and 36 are used, in conjunction with a hole in the respective corners corresponding to hole 16 (Figures 5 and 6), to secure a handle to the top edge on either the left or the right hand side.
[0027] Figures 1 and 5 show a transverse rib 30 extending between edges 3 and 5 parallel to edge 6. It can be seen from Figure 5 that thickened sections, or bosses, 43, 44, and 45 are provided in the corner portion between rib 30 and edge 5 which precisely correspond to sections 13, 14, and 15, respectively, in the corner between edges 5 and 6. No counterbored holes are provided in sections 43 and 44, due to the increased moulding costs if such were provided, but section 45 is provided with a hole 38 (corresponding to hole 18) since holes in the outer edge are easily provided during the moulding process.
[0028] Foamed plastics materials can very easily be cut with a cutting tool such as a sharp blade or a saw. If the smaller sized door is required - i.e. when a 150 mm plinth is used - it is necessary to reduce the height of the door by removing a 50 mm horizontal strip from the bottom of the door. Some skill would normally be required to do this neatly and accurately, but the cutting operation is made very easy indeed by the provision of a flat lower edge 41 (Figures 2 and 5) on rib 30. This edge is at a distance of 50 mm from the bottom of the moulding (edge 6) and serves as a guide for a knife blade or saw when cutting off the lowermost portion of the moulding. This makes the cutting operation very simple yet very accurate.
[0029] If the user decides it is necessary to reduce the door size in this manner, this is effected as follows.
[0030] First, the handle (shown in Figure 9) and the L-shaped edge strips (e.g. 31) are removed by unscrewing the self-tapping fixing screws. This releases the front decorative panel. The two hinge plates are then removed by unscrewing the screws from their respective holes 17. The bottom 50 mm strip is then cut away as described above. In order to refit the lower hinge plate and L-shaped strip, it is necessary to drill holes in rib 30 corresponding to holes 16, 17, and 19 and also to drill a hole in thickened section 42 (Figure 1) corresponding to section 34.
[0031] From Figure 5 it can be seen that a recess 46 is provided in rib 41 such that, after the cutting operation, a shallow recess which precisely fits hinge plate 21 remains. The hinge plate is put in this recess and used as a template for drilling three holes which correspond to holes 16, 17, and 19. The hinge plate is then secured in its new position by refitting the screw removed from hole 17 in its new corresponding position. The bottom L-shaped strip is now fixed in position by refitting the screw removed from hole 16 in the corresponding new position. Using this L-shaped strip as a template, the remaining fixing holes are drilled - namely one in section 42 and one corresponding to hole 16. The two L-shaped strips removed from the side edges of the moulding are shortened by the required 50 mm and refitted with the decorative panel in place, the panel also having been shortened. These two side strips have holes therein aligned with holes 18 and 38 and will normally be fixed by a screw in hole 18 only. When refitting the strip, the screw from hole 18 is replaced in hole 38. Lastly, the handle and the top L-shaped strip are replaced.
[0032] It will of course be apparent that it is not essential to remove the handle, the uppermost L-shaped strip, and the upper hinge plate, in order to shorten the door. Also, it is possible, by using the edge 41 as a guide for a saw, to cut through the whole door (i.e. including the two L-shaped strips and the decorative panel) in one operation.
[0033] As explained in the preamble, the moulding can be given any required colour by including a colorant in the moulding material. Alternatively or additionally, the moulding may be painted if required - for example by a spraying technique. In this event, polystyrene is the preferred plastics.-material for the moulding because no painting problems are involved (in contradistinction to the use of polypropylene) and a single spray coat is usually sufficient.
[0034] Figure 8 shows one form of hinge pin plate suitable for fixing to a washing and/or drying machine in order to mount the above-described door on the machine. The plate comprises a steel angle bracket 51 having a vertical portion 52 provided with two holes 53, 54 for fixing screws for mounting the plate on the machine. The horizontal portion 55 carries a pivot pin 56 dimensioned to fit in the lower hinge pin hole 19 (Figure 5) in the hinge plate 21. A corresponding plate, which is a mirror image of plate 51, is provided for the upper corner of the door.
[0035] Figure 9 shows one possible form of handle 61 mounted on the upper left hand corner of the above-described door. The handle 61 is fixed to the upper edge of the door by two self-tapping screws 62, 63 which pass through holes in the top L-shaped strip 64 into respective bore holes provided in thickened sections 65 and 35 (Figure 1). The upright L-shaped strip 31 (also Figure 7) is secured to the moulding by means of a self-tapping screw 66 in a bore hole in thickened section 67 (Figure 1). The L-shaped strips are provided with elongate screw holes (e.g. 68) in order to enable the distance D in Figure 7 to be adjusted to suit the thickness of a decorative panel 69 such that the four L-shaped strips surrounding the moulding hold panel 69 securely in place on the moulding.
[0036] If required, a rigid decorative panel which extends above and/or below the moulding may be fitted to the moulding instead of the panel 69 and L-shaped strips 31. To this end, four bosses 71 (Figures 1 and 5) are provided, one in each corner of the moulding. Each boss is provided with a central bore 72 (Figure 5). To fit a rigid panel to the moulding, the bores 72 are used as a drill guide and a hole is drilled right through the moulding 2. The panel is then screwed to the moulding by screws which pass through the drilled holes. In this manner, the user can readily fit any panel of his own choosing to the moulding.
1. A door for a laundry washing and/or drying machine, characterised in that the door
comprises a structural foam moulding in the form of a sheet having a thickened peripheral
edge, the sheet being dished to provide a recess in one of its major surfaces, into
which recess a projecting portion of a said machine may, in use of the door, project;
the moulding having integral stiffening ribs which extend from the recess towards
the peripheral edge, the arrangement being such that the moulding lies wholly between
two imaginary parallel planes which sandwich the peripheral edge and extend parallel
to the general plane of the sheet, the door further comprising means for securing
to the moulding a decorative panel facing the other major surface of the moulding.
2. A door as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the moulding comprises foamed polystyrene.
3. A door as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 wherein the recess is annular.
4. A door as claimed in any previous Claim wherein the decorative panel is secured
to the moulding by L-shaped strips fixed around the edge of the moulding.
5. A door as claimed in Claim 5 wherein the fixing of the L-shaped strips is adjustable
in order to accommodate decorative panels of differing thicknesses.
6. A door as claimed in any previous Claim including means for enabling the door to
be hinged on either side.
7. A door as claimed in any previous Claim, wherein the moulding includes guide means
for guiding a cutting tool to facilitate the cutting off of a predetermined portion
of the door in order to reduce its height if required.
80 A door as claimed in Claim 7 wherein the guide means substantially comprises a
rib extending transversely across the moulding between the two vertical side edges
of the door and parallel to the horizontal sides.