Basket for dish-washing machine with improved capacity

Abstract

 The present invention concerns a basket for dish-washing machines, comprising a body (11) of metal wire in which four vertical walls (A, B, C, D) and a horizontal bottom (E) are defined, and in which a first plurality of rounded projections (13, 14) is defined on at least one of said vertical walls, which projections are directed towards the basket interior, are intended to hold the plates and cooperate with as many rounded projections (15, 16, 17 and 18) on the basket bottom (E).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a basket for dish-washing machine with improved capacity.

[0002] Dish-washing machines for domestic use, as produced at present, generally have a pair of baskets for containing the dishes to be submitted to the washing cycle.

[0003] According to the known technique, the baskets for dish-washing machines are made of steel wire, coated with plastic material preventing wire corrosion, and they have a drawer-like shape.

[0004] Indeed said baskets are arranged inside the chamber of the dish-washing machine on suitable guides, so as to be slidable towards the outside of the dish-washing machine to allow dish loading and unloading.

[0005] Conventionally, especially but not only in dish-washing machines for domestic use, the two baskets are differentiated so as to allow loading into the machine a great number of dishes with different shapes and sizes.

[0006] More particularly, in the conventional machines, there are provided an upper basket with closer meshes for containing cups, glasses and other items of small size, and a lower basket with wider meshes intended to contain pans and other dishes of greater size.

[0007] Moreover, both baskets generally have metal points or combs made of the same wire as the baskets and also coated to prevent corrosion, which are to hold the plates in substantially upright position within the basket.

[0008] In conventional dish-washing machines for domestic use, the combs are arranged so as to allow loading in the whole dishes for twelve into the machine.

[0009] According to the above construction principle, wherein the upper and lower baskets are differentiated, also the above-mentioned points have different sizes and are arranged with different relative spacing depending on whether the upper or the lower basket is concerned, in order to contain small plates in the upper basket and larger plates in the lower basket, respectively.

[0010] The presence of the points in the baskets of dish-washing machines has eventually shown itself to be a drawback, mainly for three kind of reasons.

[0011] The first drawback is that said points are an encumbrance inside the basket, preventing full exploitation of the basket plane to contain large objects.

[0012] The second drawback is that said points can cause excoriation to the hands of a user contacting them during the basket loading and unloading operations.

[0013] The third drawback is instead that said points are particularly exposed to impact with the dishes being loaded into the basket, and therefore they are subjected to scratches and abrasion of the corrosion-protecting coating. Hence said points generally are the basket areas where most frequently corrosion starts.

[0014] According to the invention a basket for dish-washing machines is provided that obviates said drawbacks and is of easy and cheap construction.

[0015] Another object of the invention is to allow putting dishes for more covers into the machine, thereby improving the machine capacity while keeping the washing quality unchanged.

[0016] The above objects of the invention are achieved by the basket for dish-washing machine as claimed in the appended claims.

[0017] Advantageously, the basket according to the invention has no point-like projections, has the surface of its bottom plane substantially free from projections, whereby that surface can be wholly exploited, and it includes a novel arrangement for the cutlery container, which has moreover projections or tips arranged to cooperate with as many projections in the basket to keep the plates in upright position.

[0018] Even though the basket according to the invention has been conceived for use as lower basket in a conventional dish-washing machine, it could be used with advantage even as upper basket.

[0019] The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, concerning a preferred and non-limiting embodiment, in which:

• Fig. 1 is a plan view of the basket;
• Fig. 2 is a side view of the basket shown in Fig. 1.

[0020] Referring to the accompanying drawings, the basket of the invention comprises a body 11 made of welded steel metal wire, suitably coated for protection against corrosion and shaped so as to define four vertical walls A, B, C, D and a bottom E.

[0021] Walls A and C are the front and rear wall of the basket, respectively, whereas walls B and D are the side walls or sides of the basket.

[0022] As better shown in Fig. 2, according to the invention walls A and C have a respective set of rounded projections 13 and 14. Those projections are directed towards the basket interior and are substantially perpendicular to the planes defined by walls A and C, respectively.

[0023] Preferably, said projections 13 and 14 are formed by bending the metal wire defining the vertical portions of the same basket walls A and C.

[0024] Also basket bottom E has a set of projections 15, 16, 17 and 18, perpendicular to the plane of bottom E and formed by bending the metal wire defining the longitudinal portions of basket bottom E.

[0025] All said projections 13 to 18 have a rounded shape without sharp corners.

[0026] Referring to Fig. 2, where the plates have been schematically shown by dashed curved lines, front wall A comprises a vertical upper portion A₁, where projections 13 are formed, and a substantially planar vertical lower portion A₂.

[0027] Similarly, rear wall C comprises a vertical upper portion C₁, where projections 14 are formed, and a substantially planar vertical lower portion C₂.

[0028] The profile of bottom E presents, from wall A towards wall C, a first substantially horizontal portion defining a first portion E₁ of bottom E.

[0029] Thereafter, basket bottom E includes a shaped portion E₂ having first triangular projections 15 directed towards the basket interior, and second projections 16, also directed towards the basket interior and higher than projections 15.

[0030] Said projections 15 and 16 of portion E₂ cooperate with projections 13 on front wall A to keep the plates in upright position.

[0031] Thereafter, bottom E comprises a second planar horizontal portion E₃ connected to a second shaped portion E₄ defined by third projections 17, directed towards the interior of basket body 11, and by fourth projections 18, also directed towards the basket interior.

[0032] Said projections 17 and 18 of portion E₄ cooperate with projections 14 on rear wall C to keep the plates in upright position.

[0033] Said portion E₄ is followed by a last substantially horizontal portion defining a third horizontal planar portion E₅ of bottom E.

[0034] It is to be appreciated that the described succession allows holding both soup plates and other plates, depending on the transversal distance between the projections (pitch of the wires of body 11), while keeping a limited vertical development of projections 15, 16, 17 and 18 formed on bottom E.

[0035] Turning again to Fig. 1, body 11 of the basket is preferably obtained by coupling two half-baskets 11a, 11b, which are separated along centre line B - D of bottom E. Thus, the basket according to the invention can be manufactured more cheaply and different basket combinations can be easily obtained from a lower number of standard members.

[0036] Referring still to Fig. 1, basket body 11 has a reduced pitch between the wires to allow loading dishes for more covers.

[0037] However, as it will be apparent form the following detailed description, the increased capacity of the basket according to the invention is obtained also thanks to a peculiar arrangement of the cutlery container.

[0038] Fig. 1 schematically shows the cutlery container, generally denoted 31, which is located adjacent to basket front wall A.

[0039] Cutlery container 31 is a removable parallelepiped body, preferably made of bored plastics, defining one or more upwardly-open wells for cutlery introduction.

[0040] Advantageously, bottom E of basket body 11 has the planar horizontal portion E₁, onto which cutlery container 31 is laid with its long side arranged parallel to basket wall A.

[0041] On the contrary, conventional baskets for dish washing machines have a centrally arranged cutlery container, having its short side parallel and adjacent to front wall A.

[0042] According to the invention, the peculiar arrangement of cutlery container 31 allows better exploiting the internal space of the basket and housing dishes for more covers, up to fourteen, in the same space as in conventional baskets for twelve.

[0043] As shown in Fig. 2, such result is achieved also thanks to the provision, on the internal wall 35 of cutlery container 31, of projections or tips 37 having the same function as projections 13 in front wall A.

[0044] Said tips 37 cooperate, similarly to projections 13 when no cutlery container is provided, with projections 15 and 16 in portion E₂ of basket bottom E to keep the plates in upright position, as it can be appreciated from the schematic illustration of the plates in Fig. 2.

[0045] Moreover, wall 39 of the cutlery container adjacent to front wall A will have slits through which projections 13 pass to keep cutlery container 31 in the proper position.

[0046] According to the invention, thanks to the provision of projections 13 and 14 on walls A, B of the basket, it has been possible to keep a limited vertical development of projections 15 and 16 formed on bottom E, while leaving the surface of bottom E substantially free from hindrances, to house items of great size.

[0047] Moreover, thanks to the peculiar arrangement of cutlery container 31 the basket according to the invention will be suitable for housing dishes for more covers, up to fourteen, in the same space as that occupied in conventional baskets for twelve covers.

[0048] Turning again to the accompanying drawings, it is to be appreciated that projections 13 to 18 in basket body 11 are obtained by bending the wire net defining body 11, without addition of further material.

[0049] Even if the invention has been disclosed with reference to an embodiment that is at present preferred, generally it can have other applications and undergo modifications, which are intended to be within the scope of the invention, as it will be apparent to the skilled in the art.

Claims

1. A basket for dish-washing machines, comprising a body (11) of metal wire in which four vertical walls (A, B, C, D) and a horizontal bottom (E) are defined, characterised in that a first plurality of rounded projections (13, 14) is defined on at least one of said vertical walls, which projections are directed towards the basket interior and cooperate with as many rounded projections (15, 16, 17, 18) projecting from the horizontal plane of the bottom (E) inside the basket so as to define corresponding means for holding the plates in a substantially upright position.

2. A basket as claimed in claim 1, wherein said bottom (E) has a substantially planar and horizontal portion (E₁) adjacent to said front wall (A) and housing a substantially parallelepiped container (31) for the cutlery, in which a vertical wall (35) facing the basket inside is equipped with projections or tips (37), perpendicular to said wall (35) and cooperating with the projections on the basket bottom (E) to keep the plates in upright position.

3. A basket as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said rounded projections (13 - 18) on the basket walls and bottom are formed by bending the metal wire of which the basket body (11) is made, and they have a substantially triangular shape with rounded corners, said first projections being arranged at 90° relative to the plane of the corresponding wall (A, C) from which they project, and said second projections being substantially perpendicular to said bottom (E).

4. A basket as claimed in claim 3, wherein the bottom (E) of the basket body (11) comprises, starting from the front wall (A), a first substantially horizontal planar portion (E₁), a shaped portion (E₂) having first and second rounded projections (15, 16), a second horizontal planar portion (E₃) connected with a second shaped portion (E₄) defined by third and fourth projections (17, 18), and a substantially horizontal portion defining a third horizontal planar portion (E₅) of the bottom (E).

5. A basket as claimed in claim 3, comprising a first set of projections (13) on the front wall (A), a second set of projections (14) on the rear wall (C), and two sets of projections (15, 18) on the bottom, each of the latter projections cooperating with a corresponding projection in one of the sets on said front and rear walls.

6. A dish-washing machine, characterised in that it includes at least one basket according to any of claims 1 to 5.

Drawing