Laundry processor having a first pipeline and a second pipeline

Abstract

 The invention related to a laundry processor having a first pipeline and a second pipeline, wherein the first pipeline 10 and the second pipeline 9 are connected to each other and communicate with each other spatially; the first pipeline 10 comprises a first pipeline wall 101 and a second pipeline wall 102; a first sealing strip 13a is disposed between the first pipeline wall 101 and the second pipeline wall 102; the second pipeline 9 comprises a third pipeline wall 91 and a fourth pipeline wall 92; a second sealing strip 13b is disposed between the third pipeline wall 91 and the fourth pipeline wall 92. A third sealing strip 13c is disposed at a connection place of the first pipeline 10 and the second pipeline 9, and end portions 14,15 of the first sealing strip 13a and the second sealing strip 13b connect the third sealing strip 13c. In particular the laundry processor is a clothes dryer or a washing machine.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a laundry processor especially clothes dryer or washing machine having a first pipeline and a second pipeline, wherein the first pipeline and the second pipeline are connected to each other and communicate with each other spatially; the first pipeline comprises a first pipeline wall and a second pipeline wall; a first sealing strip is disposed between the first pipeline wall and the second pipeline wall; the second pipeline comprises a third pipeline wall and a fourth pipeline wall; a second sealing strip is disposed between the third pipeline wall and the fourth pipeline wall.

[0002] In various clothes dryers, the relatively common one includes an air circulation channel. The air circulation channel includes a drying channel that heats the air, a fan channel that facilitates the air to flow in the circulation channel, and a condensation channel that condensates wet hot air from the clothes drying drum. The air is forced into the clothes drying drum by a fan in the fan channel after being heated in the drying channel by a heating device, and the hot air takes away part of moisture after contacting wet clothes in the drum, and then enters the condensation channel connected to the drum. The moisture in the air is separated from the air in the condensation channel. The air from which the moisture is separated re-enters the drying channel under driving of the fan, which is repeated so over and over again, to gradually dry the clothes in the drum.

[0003] The thermal efficiency of the heating device in the drying channel is directly related to energy consumption and the drying speed of the clothes dryer. Therefore, the sealing performance of the drying channel is often very important. Meanwhile, as the fan channel is directly connected to the drying channel, its sealing performance is equally important.

[0004] Currently, a common way of constructing the drying channel and the fan channel is that the drying channel consists of a drying channel cover plate and a drying channel pedestal, the fan channel consists of a fan room cover plate and a fan room pedestal, and the four means are jointed to one another. As the joint place is a staggered structure, it is relatively difficult to set a solid seal ring; in order to seal the joint place, the current practice is to dispose a rubber seal ring between the drying channel cover plate and the drying channel pedestal as well as the fan channel cover plate and the fan channel pedestal, but a liquid sealant is used between the drying channel and the fan channel to achieve seal.

[0005] However, application of the sealant requires a special coating device, resulting in poor assembly accuracy and consistency. The sealant needs to take time to achieve curing. Besides, as the drying channel is usually in high-temperature environments, the sealant easily gives off unhealthy gases.

[0006] It is an objective of the present invention to provide a further development of the state of the art. One objective of the present invention is to avoid using a liquid sealant in a circulation channel of a laundry processor.

[0007] This objective is solved by a laundry processor according to claim1.

[0008] According to the invention a laundry processor having a first pipeline and a second pipeline, wherein the first pipeline and the second pipeline are connected to each other and communicate with each other spatially; the first pipeline comprises a first pipeline wall and a second pipeline wall; a first sealing strip is disposed between the first pipeline wall and the second pipeline wall; the second pipeline comprises a third pipeline wall and a fourth pipeline wall; a second sealing strip is disposed between the third pipeline wall and the fourth pipeline wall, characterized in that: a third sealing strip is disposed at a connection place of the first pipeline and the second pipeline, and end portions of the first sealing strip and the second sealing strip connect the third sealing strip.

[0009] In a preferred embodiment, it is provided that grooves for accommodating the end portions of the first sealing strip and the second sealing strip are disposed on the third sealing strip.

[0010] In a further preferred embodiment, it is provided that the groove of the third sealing strip has a tilted side wall opening in a trumpet shape from inside to outside, and end portions of the first sealing strip and the second sealing strip each have a mounting portion in a shape corresponding to that of the groove, so that the end portions coincide with the grooves.

[0011] In a further preferred embodiment, it is provided that the mounting portions respectively go beyond a connection face of the first pipeline and opposite to the second pipeline.

[0012] In a further preferred embodiment, it is provided that the first sealing strip and the second sealing strip are located on an extending line of each other.

[0013] In a further preferred embodiment, it is provided that the pipeline is an air flow pipeline.

[0014] In a further preferred embodiment, it is provided that the first pipeline wall and the second pipeline wall form an air heating channel including a heater, and the third pipeline wall and the fourth pipeline wall form a blowing channel including a fan.

[0015] In a further preferred embodiment, it is provided that the laundry processor is a clothes dryer or a washing machine, the first pipeline includes a drying channel and the second pipeline includes a blowing channel.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, the present invention does not use a liquid sealant between the drying channel and the fan channel of the clothes dryer, which thus avoids the shortcomings in the prior art, has good sealing effects between respective means of the drying channel and the fan channel, and also improves assembly stability and accuracy.

[0017] The invention is described in more detail below on the basis of a preferred embodiment by taking a clothes dryer as an example and with reference to the attached drawing. It should be clarified that, the present invention is not only applicable to the clothes dryer, but also applicable to any other appropriate laundry processing devices such as washing machine. Moreover, the present invention is not only applicable to connection between the air heating channel and the blowing channel, but also applicable to various other appropriate channels in the laundry processing device.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a clothes dryer;

FIG. 2 is a schematic partial view of a drying channel and a fan room of the clothes dryer;

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural view of A in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an exploded view of FIG. 3.

[0018] As shown in FIG. 1, a clothes dryer 1 has a case 2. An outer drum 3 is suspended in the case 2 through a damping device 4. An inner drum 5 is located in the outer drum 3 and is rotatable under driving of a motor 6. A number of through holes (not shown in the drawing) are distributed on the inner drum 5, and then the inner drum 5 is in communication with the outer drum 3 spatially. The head and the tail of an air flow channel 7 are respectively connected to the outer drum 3, and then the air flow channel 7 forms an air circulation flow system together with the outer drum 3. Along an air flow direction, the air flow channel 7 sequentially includes a condensation channel 8, a fan channel 9, and a drying channel 10 which are connected to one another and spatially communicate with one another. The fan channel 9 is provided with a fan 11 that promotes air circulation, and the drying channel 10 is provided with a heater 12 that heats the air.

[0019] The air enters the outer drum 3 and the inner drum 5 under promotion of the fan 11 after being heated by the heater 12. The hot air takes away part of moisture after contacting wet clothes in the inner drum 5, and then enters the condensation channel 8 connected to the outer drum 3. In the condensation channel 8, the temperature of the wet hot air decreases, and the moisture in the air is separated from the air. The air from which the moisture is separated re-enters the drying channel 10 under driving of the fan 11, which is repeated so over and over again, to gradually dry the clothes in the inner drum 5.

[0020] It can be seen from FIG. 2 that, the drying channel 10 includes a drying channel cover plate 101 and a drying channel pedestal 102, the fan channel 9 includes a fan channel cover plate 91 and a fan channel pedestal 92. The first pipeline can be or includes the drying channel 10, the first pipeline wall can be the drying channel cover plate 101 and the second pipeline wall can be the drying channel pedestal 102. The second pipeline can be or includes the fan channel 9, the third pipeline wall can be the fan channel cover plate 91 and the fourth pipeline wall can be the fan channel pedestal 92. A cross-shaped seam is formed at a connection place of the drying channel cover plate 101, the drying channel pedestal 102, the fan channel cover plate 91, and the fan channel pedestal 92. As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, a first sealing strip 13a is disposed between the drying channel cover plate 101 and the drying channel pedestal 102, a second sealing strip 13b is disposed between the fan channel cover plate 91 and the fan channel pedestal 92, and a third sealing strip 13c is disposed at a connection place of the drying channel 10 and the fan channel 9.

[0021] In order to ensure the sealing between the third sealing strip 13c and the first sealing strip 13a as well as the second sealing strip 13b, grooves 16, 17 are respectively disposed at positions, corresponding to an end portion 14 of the first sealing strip 13a and an end portion 15 of the second sealing strip 13b, on the third sealing strip 13c, and the grooves 16, 17 respectively have tilted side walls 18 opening in a trumpet shape from inside to outside. The end portion 14 of the first sealing strip 13a and the end portion 15 of the second sealing strip 13b respectively have mounting portions 19a, 19b in a shape corresponding to that of the grooves 16, 17, so that the end portions coincide with the grooves. The mounting portions 19a, 19b respectively go beyond connection faces 10a, 9a of the drying channel and opposite to the fan room, fall into the grooves 16, 17 on the third sealing strip 13c upon mounting, and tightly compress the third sealing strip 13c along extending directions of the first sealing strip 13a and the second sealing strip 13b respectively. The first sealing strip 13a and the second sealing strip 13b are located on an extending line of each other.

[0022] Various specific embodiments described above and shown in the accompanying drawings are merely used for describing the present invention, instead of being all of the present invention. In the scope of the basic technical idea of the present invention, variations in any forms made by persons of ordinary skill in the related art with respect to the present invention should fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0023] 

1, clothes dryer

2, case

3, outer drum

4, damping device

5, inner drum

6, motor

7, air flow channel

8, condensation channel

9, fan channel\the second pipeline

91, fan channel cover plate\the third pipeline wall

92, fan channel pedestal\the fourth pipeline wall

9a, connection face

10, drying channel\the first pipeline

101, drying channel cover plate\the first pipeline wall

102, drying channel pedestal\the second pipeline wall

10a, connection face

11, fan

12, heater

13a, the first sealing strip

13b, the second sealing strip

13c, the third sealing strip

14, end portion of the first sealing strip

15, end portion of the second sealing strip

16, the groove

17, the groove

18, tilted side wall

19a, mounting portion

19b, mounting portion

Claims

1. A laundry processor having a first pipeline and a second pipeline, wherein the first pipeline (10) and the second pipeline (9) are connected to each other and communicate with each other spatially; the first pipeline (10) comprises a first pipeline wall (101) and a second pipeline wall (102); a first sealing strip (13a) is disposed between the first pipeline wall (101) and the second pipeline wall (102); the second pipeline (9) comprises a third pipeline wall (91) and a fourth pipeline wall (92); a second sealing strip (13b) is disposed between the third pipeline wall (91) and the fourth pipeline wall (92), characterized in that: a third sealing strip (13c) is disposed at a connection place of the first pipeline (10) and the second pipeline (9), and end portions (14, 15) of the first sealing strip (13a) and the second sealing strip (13b) connect the third sealing strip (13c).

2. The laundry processor according to claim 1, characterized in that: grooves (16, 17) for accommodating the end portions (14, 15) of the first sealing strip (13a) and the second sealing strip (13b) are disposed on the third sealing strip (13c).

3. The laundry processor according to claim 2, characterized in that: the groove (16, 17) of the third sealing strip(13c) has a tilted side wall (16a, 17a) opening in a trumpet shape from inside to outside, and end portions (14, 15) of the first sealing strip (13a) and the second sealing strip (13b) each have a mounting portion (19a, 19b) in a shape corresponding to that of the groove (16, 17), so that the end portions coincide with the grooves.

4. The laundry processor according to claim 3, characterized in that: the mounting portions (19a, 19b) respectively go beyond a connection face (10a, 9a) of the first pipeline(10) and opposite to the second pipeline(9).

5. The laundry processor according to claim 1, characterized in that: the first sealing strip (13a) and the second sealing strip (13b) are located on an extending line of each other.

6. The laundry processor according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: the pipeline (9, 10) is an air flow pipeline.

7. The laundry processor according to claim 6, characterized in that: the first pipeline wall (101) and the second pipeline wall (102) form an air heating channel (10) including a heater(12), and the third pipeline wall (91) and the fourth pipeline wall (92) form a blowing channel (9) including a fan(11).

8. The laundry processor according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that: the laundry processor (1) is a clothes dryer or a washing machine, the first pipeline (10) includes a drying channel and the second pipeline (9) includes a blowing channel.

Drawing