Improvements to laundry machines

Abstract

 A laundry machine (100) comprises an external cabinet (105) provided with a laundry loading opening (115) for accessing a laundry treatment chamber and a loading door (125) associated with the laundry loading opening for selectively closing or opening the same. The cabinet further comprises a swivable door (140) hinged at one side (143) thereof and openable to allow access to an inner region of the machine behind the cabinet, and a lock (155) operable to keep the swivable door in a closed position. A stiffening means (315) is coupled to an inner side of the swivable door, the stiffening means exerting on the swivable door a flexural action towards the rear or the front of the machine in order to ensure that, when closed, the swivable door is essentially flush with the cabinet surface.

Description

Field of the invention

[0001] The present invention relates in general to household appliance for treating laundry, i.e. laundry machines like laundry washing and/or drying machines.

Overview of the related art

[0002] In laundry machines like laundry washer-dryers and dryers, one known solution calls for accommodating the drying air moisture condensing system in the bottom part of the appliance, below the tumbler or (in the case of washing and drying machines) the tub. The moisture condensing system may comprise an air-air heat exchanger where the moisture-laden drying air, which during the drying operation comes from the laundry treatment chamber, is cooled down by a flow of cooling air taken in from the outside environment, so as to cause condensation of the moisture.

[0003] The bottom part of the appliance cabinet (i.e. the plinth) is perforated so as to enable the cooling air to be taken in and expelled.

[0004] The plinth advantageously comprises an openable plinth door, typically hinged at one side to the remaining of the appliance cabinet or to the machine frame, for enabling the access to the inner region of the cabinet and, in particular, to the moisture condensing system, e.g. in order to empty the condense water collection tank, for cleaning the condensing system or generally for maintenance purposes. A lock device is provided, for keeping the plinth door closed, and operable to unlock the plinth door. Advantageously, the lock device (which is arranged inside the appliance cabinet) is operable by a user via a release member such as a slider or button or similar device, which is conveniently located in the rim of the machine laundry loading door (in this way, being the release member hidden when the loading door is closed, the appliance aesthetic is not impaired, and also it is ensured that when the loading door is closed and the appliance is operating, the user can not inadvertently open the plinth door and access the moisture condensing system); the release button actuates a locking element such as a tooth that engages/disengages a corresponding seat formed in the plinth door at the top thereof, proximate to the upper corner of the free side thereof (i.e., the side of the plinth door that is not hinged to the appliance cabinet).

Summary of the invention

[0005] The Applicant has noticed that due to the lock device being in such a location and the locking element seat being located at the top of the plinth door, the locking action is exerted only at the upper side of the plinth door. The lower part of the plinth door that is far from, opposite to the hinge is thus essentially free, unrestrained. The plinth door, which is generally made of plastic, is not particularly stiff, and it may happen that, when closed, the plinth door is not flush with the remaining of the appliance cabinet, and remains partially open.

[0006] This is disadvantageous under several respects: the aesthetic of the appliance is impaired; the user may beat against the protruding portion of the plinth door when cleaning the appliance cabinet, with the possibility of harms and/or breakage of the plinth door; from a functional viewpoint, the fact that the plinth door remains partially open may cause an intermixing of fresh cooling air being taken in with warmer cooling air being exhausted to the environment: this reduces the efficiency of the heat exchanger.

[0007] Thus, the Applicant has faced the problem of preventing the plinth door from not being perfectly closed.

[0008] According to an aspect of the present invention, a laundry machine is provided, comprising an external cabinet provided with a laundry loading opening for accessing a laundry treatment chamber and a loading door associated with the laundry loading opening for selectively closing or opening the same.

[0009] The cabinet advantageously comprises a swivable door hinged at one side thereof and openable to allow access to an inner region of the machine behind the cabinet. A lock is advantageously provided, operable to keep the swivable door in a closed position.

[0010] A stiffening means is advantageously coupled to an inner side of the swivable door. The stiffening means advantageously exerts on the swivable door a flexural action towards the rear or the front of the machine in order to ensure that, when closed, the swivable door is essentially flush with the cabinet surface.

[0011] In an embodiment of the invention, the stiffening means comprises a stiffening part shaped so as to be adapted to substantially adhere to a surface of the inner side of the sviwable door.

[0012] In an embodiment of the invention, the stiffening part has a first portion and a second portion, each one apt to be coupled to a corresponding, matching portion of the inner side surface of the swivable door. The second portion is for example farther from the swivable door hinge and from the lock than the first portion.

[0013] In an embodiment of the invention, the stiffening part second portion is, in a rest, non-assembled condition, not coplanar with the matching portion of the swivable door, thereby being adapted to exert said flexural action when the stiffening part second portion is fixed to the matching portion of the swivable door.

[0014] The stiffening part may be coupled to the inner side of the swivable door by means of one or more among screws, snap-fit means, clamps, rivets, glue.

[0015] In an embodiment of the invention, the swivable door is located at a plinth of the cabinet.

[0016] The cabinet plinth may comprise said swivable door and a fixed plinth part, arranged one aside the other.

[0017] In an embodiment of the invention, the cabinet plinth is, at the bottom thereof, slanted towards the rear of the machine.

[0018] Said stiffening part second portion may be in correspondence of the portion of the swivable door that is slanted towards the rear of the machine.

[0019] Advantageously, said lock is located behind the cabinet. It may be actuatable through a device accessible at a rim of the laundry loading opening, and advantageously adapted to be hidden by the loading door when the latter is closed.

[0020] In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the swivable door is openable to enable access to a machine region where at least part of a laundry drying air moisture condensing system is arranged.

[0021] The cabinet plinth may preferably be provided with perforations for the intake/exhaust of the laundry drying air.

[0022] In embodiments of the invention, said stiffening means comprise a plastic part with stiffening ribs.

Brief description of the drawings

[0023] These and other features and advantages of the present invention will better appear from the reading of the following detailed description of an exemplary and non-limitative embodiment thereof, depicted in the annexed drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is an isometric view of a laundry machine according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is an isometric view of a plinth of the machine of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an isometric exploded view of the plinth of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a cross section of the plinth in a vertical plane.

Detailed description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention

[0024] Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 is an isometric view of a laundry machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. The laundry machine referred in the following description, globally denoted as 100, may be a laundry dryer or a laundry washer/dryer, but it should be understood that the invention may be applied to a laundry washing machine as well. The laundry machine 100 has an external casing or appliance cabinet 105, inside which structural and functional parts of the machine are accommodated, such as a tumbler 110 (or, in the case of a laundry washer/dryer, a drum rotatable within a tub), a moisture condensing system for demoisturizing the drying air, fans, pumps, valves, motors, vibration dampening devices, electronics. A load opening 115 is formed in a front panel 120 of the cabinet 105, for allowing access to the inner space of the tumbler (or drum) 110; a laundry loading door 125 is provided for closing the load opening 115.

[0025] Below the load opening 115, the front panel 120 terminates and the bottom region of the appliance cabinet 105 is formed by a plinth 130. The plinth 130 is a cover for a bottom part of the laundry machine 100 where the moisture condensing system is, at least partly, located, for example an air-air heat exchanger where the moisture-laden drying air, coming from the laundry treatment chamber, is cooled down by a flow of cooling air taken in from the outside environment, so as to cause condensation of the moisture.

[0026] The plinth 130 is for this purpose preferably perforated, so as to enable the cooling air to be taken in and expelled.

[0027] The plinth 130 is advantageously formed of two parts, one aside the other along the front of the machine; for example, a first part 135 of the plinth covers the right-hand part of the machine basement and a second part 140 of the plinth covers the remaining, left-hand part (right-hand and side-hand as seen looking the appliance frontally). The first plinth part 135 may be fixedly attached, for example by means of screws or clamps or snap-fit engagement means. Advantageously, the second plinth part 140 is swivably coupled to the appliance frame (or to the remaining of the appliance cabinet 105) so as to be openable and allow access to the area behind, and closable when the area behind is not to be accessed. For example, the second plinth part 140 is hinged, at its left-hand side 143, to the appliance frame or to the left side panel of the cabinet 105 and form a plinth door 140 that can be opened (by the user or by a repairer) for accessing the moisture condensing system, e.g. a tank for collecting the condense water released by the drying air in order to empty it. Both the first and the second plinth parts 135 and 140 are preferably perforated, at a bottom band thereof; cooling air for the moisture condensing system is for example taken in (by means of a fan, not visible in the drawings) though the perforations 150 in the first plinth part 135, and expelled through the perforations 145 in the plinth door 140.

[0028] As visible in Fig. 1, Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, a lock device 155 is provided for keeping the plinth door 140 closed and unlocking it for opening the plinth door 140 when desired. Advantageously, the lock device 155 is housed behind the cabinet front panel 120 and protrudes - for being accessible to a user/operator - from an opening in the lower part of the circumferential rim of the load opening 115, in such a way to be hidden when the loading door 125 is closed, being actuatable only when the loading door 125 is open. As better visible in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, the lock device 155 comprises a slider 205 coupled to a lock member, for example a tooth 305, which can engage a seat 310 formed in the plinth door 140, advantageously in a top border thereof, and by action on the slider 205 can be disengaged from the seat 310, enabling the opening of the plinth door 140.

[0029] The plinth 130, i.e. the first and second plinth parts 135 and 140 are for example in plastic material (although other materials can be used, such as sheet metal) and are so shaped that while an upper band thereof is essentially flush with the front panel 120, their lower band, where the perforations 145 and 150 are present, is slanted towards the rear of the machine.

[0030] According to the present invention, in order to avoid that the plinth door 140, even when closed, is not flush with the first plinth part 135, a stiffening means is coupled to the plinth door 140, advantageously on the inner side thereof so as not to be visible from the outside and not impair the aesthetic of the appliance.

[0031] Referring to Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, in an embodiment of the present invention, the stiffening means comprise a relatively flat stiffening part 315, shaped so as to be adapted to substantially adhere to the inner surface of the plinth door 140. The stiffening part 315 is for example made of plastic; the stiffening part 315 is preferably formed with stiffening ribs 320. The stiffening part 315 has a first portion 323 which is essentially co-extensive to the plinth door 140 in the longitudinal direction and is high as the upper (non-perforated) band of the plinth door 140; the stiffening part 140 has a second portion 325 (advantageously in one piece with the first portion 323) which extends from the first portion 323 downwards starting from an end of the stiffening part 315 that, when the latter is assembled to the plinth door 140 (as described in the following), is close to the free (i.e., not hinged) end of the plinth door 140. The second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315 is, compared to the first portion 323, slanted towards the rear of the machine, with a slightly greater slope compared to the slope of the lower, perforated band of the plinth door. In the shown exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315 is not longitudinally co-extensive to the plinth door 140, being instead limited to a terminal region of the plinth door 140 proximate to the free end thereof.

[0032] The stiffening part 315 is coupled to the inner side of the plinth door 140 by means of fastening means such as screws, as in the shown example. Through holes 330a, 330b are formed in the stiffening part 315 for the insertion of screws (the screws not being shown in the drawings). Preferably, at least some of the through holes are formed proximate to the end of the stiffening part 135 that, when the latter is assembled to the plinth door 140, is close to the free (i.e., not hinged) end of the plinth door 140. Preferably, at least one of the through holes, like the through hole 330a in the shown example, is formed in the second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315. Threaded holes for the engagement of the screws are formed on the inner side of the plinth door 140 in positions matching the through holes 330a, 330b formed in the stiffening part 315; one of such threaded holes, denoted 335, matching the through hole 330a is visible in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4.

[0033] At the opposite end of the stiffening part 315 (i.e., the end located in correspondence of the end 143 of the plinth door 140 that is hinged to the machine frame), the stiffening part 315 comprises a fork 340 (preferably formed in one piece with the first portion 323 of the stiffening part 315) for accommodating a bushing 345 formed in a hinge body 350 which is attached (for example, clamped, by means of a snap-fit hook 355 and fixed through a screw, not shown in the drawings, received into a seat 356 formed in the hinge body 350) to the machine frame (not shown); the stiffening part 315 and the plinth door 140 are pivotally mounted to the hinge body 350 by means of a pin 360 (shown only schematically).

[0034] In the assembling phase, the stiffening part 315 is placed with its first portion 323 in abutment against the inner side of the plinth door 140, and is secured to the plinth door 140 by screwing one or more of the screws into the threaded holes formed in the plinth door. Preferably, the second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315 is initially not tightened to the plinth door 140; this intermediate assembling condition is depicted in solid lines in Fig. 4: it can be seen that the second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315 remains slightly displaced towards the rear from the plinth door 140. Then, by slightly flexing the stiffening part second portion 325 towards the plinth door 140, the through hole 330a of the latter is brought into alignment with the threaded hole 335 in the plinth door, and a screw is inserted into the through hole 330a and screwed in the threaded hole 335. At the end, the second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315 is kept flexed with respect to its rest position (the flexed condition is depicted in dashed lines in Fig. 4). In this way, the second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315 is kept elastically pre-charged, so that it exerts onto the plinth door 140 a flexural action, particularly a pulling action towards the rear of the machine (when the assembly is mounted). It is this flexural action exerted by the stiffening part 315 that ensures that the plinth door 140, when closed, is flush with the first plinth portion 135, even in its region far from the top of the plinth door where the locking action is exerted, i.e. at the bottom.

[0035] If needed, the stiffening part 315 may be arranged such that, when it is not tightened to the plinth door 140, it remains slightly displaced towards the front from the plinth door 140. Then, when the stiffening part second portion 325 is slightly flexed towards the rear of the machine, through hole 330a of portion 325 is brought into alignment with the threaded hole 335 in the plinth door, and a screw is inserted into the through hole 330a and screwed in the threaded hole 335. In this way, the second portion 325 of the stiffening part 315 is kept elastically pre-charged, so that it exerts onto the plinth door 140 a flexural action, particularly a pushing action towards the front of the machine (when the assembly is mounted). This flexural, particularly pushing, action, exerted by the stiffening part 315 onto the plinth door 140, ensures that the plinth door 140, when closed, is flush with the first plinth portion 135, even in its region far from the top of the plinth door where the locking action is exerted, i.e. at the bottom. This arrangement of stiffening part 315 is useful when the misalignment between the first and the second plinth parts 135 and 140 consists in a part of the plinth door 140 being closer to the rear of the machine than the first plinth part 135.

[0036] In this way, the previously discussed drawbacks are overcome.

[0037] The exemplary invention embodiment described so far is susceptible of several modifications, readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0038] For example, the stiffening means may have a structure and/or shape different from the stiffening part 315 of the shown exemplary embodiment.

[0039] Also, the means for attaching the stiffening part 315 to the plinth door 140 may be different from screws, such as snap-fit means, clamps, rivets, glue.

[0040] The plinth door 140 may be located in other areas of the machine cabinet 105, not necessarily at the front thereof, not necessarily at the bottom of the appliance. The invention may also be applied to any door provided in a cabinet of a household appliance for treating laundry to allow access to the inner region of the cabinet, irrespective of the kind of treatment the machine is designed to carry out on laundry.

Claims

1. A laundry machine (100) comprising an external cabinet (105) provided with a laundry loading opening (115) for accessing a laundry treatment chamber and a loading door (125) associated with the laundry loading opening for selectively closing or opening the same, the cabinet further comprising a swivable door (140) hinged at one side (143) thereof and openable to allow access to an inner region of the machine behind the cabinet, and a lock (155) operable to keep the swivable door in a closed position,
characterized in that
a stiffening means (315) is coupled to an inner side of the swivable door, the stiffening means exerting on the swivable door a flexural action towards the rear or the front of the machine in order to ensure that, when closed, the swivable door is essentially flush with the cabinet surface.

2. The laundry machine of claim 1, wherein the stiffening means comprises a stiffening part (315) shaped so as to be adapted to substantially adhere to a surface of the inner side of the sviwable door.

3. The laundry machine of claim 2, wherein the stiffening part has a first portion (323) and a second portion (325), each one apt to be coupled to a corresponding, matching portion of the inner side surface of the swivable door, the second portion being farther from the swivable door hinge and from the lock than the first portion.

4. The laundry machine of claim 3, wherein the stiffening part second portion is, in a rest, non-assembled condition, not coplanar with the matching portion of the swivable door, thereby being adapted to exert said flexural action when the stiffening part second portion is fixed to the matching portion of the swivable door.

5. The laundry machine of any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the stiffening part is coupled to the inner side of the swivable door by means of one or more among screws, snap-fit means, clamps, rivets, glue.

6. The laundry machine of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the swivable door is located at a plinth (130) of the cabinet.

7. The laundry machine of claim 6, wherein said cabinet plinth comprises said swivable door and a fixed plinth part (135), arranged one aside the other.

8. The laundry machine of claim 6, wherein the cabinet plinth is, at the bottom thereof, slanted towards the rear of the machine.

9. The laundry machine of claim 8 when depending on claim 3, wherein said stiffening part second portion is in correspondence of the portion of the swivable door that is slanted towards the rear of the machine.

10. The laundry machine of any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein said lock is located behind the cabinet and actuatable through a device accessible at a rim of the laundry loading opening, and adapted to be hidden by the loading door when the latter is closed.

11. The laundry machine of claim 6, wherein the swivable door is openable to enable access to a machine region where at least part of a laundry drying air moisture condensing system is arranged.

12. The laundry machine of claim 11, wherein the cabinet plinth is provided with perforations (145,150) for the intake/exhaust of the laundry drying air.

13. The laundry machine of any one of the preceding claims, wherein said stiffening means comprise a plastic part with stiffening ribs (320).

Drawing