Laundry treating appliance with indexing tang clutch

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10087566-B2
Application number	US-201615065184-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2016
Priority date	Mar 9, 2016
Publication date	Oct 2, 2018
Grant date	Oct 2, 2018

Abstract

A laundry treating appliance having a tub defining an interior, a basket located within the interior and rotatably mounted within the tub, a clothes mover rotatably mounted within the basket, a motor drivingly coupled to the clothes mover to selectively oscillate or rotate the clothes mover, and a loss motion device having a clutch configured to move among a set of indexed positions in response to rotation of the clothes mover, with the loss motion device being configured to rotationally couple the clothes mover and the basket after the clutch moves through the set of indexed positions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating appliance, comprising:
a tub defining an interior;
a basket located within the interior and rotatably mounted within the tub;
a clothes mover rotatably mounted within the basket;
a motor drivingly coupled to the clothes mover to selectively oscillate or rotate the clothes mover; and
a loss motion device having a rotatable clutch configured to rotate among a successive set of indexed positions and a clutch pin;
wherein the clutch pin moves the rotatable clutch through the successive set of indexed positions in response to successive rotations of the clothes mover until the rotatable clutch reaches a last of the indexed positions and engagement between the clutch pin and the rotatable clutch when the rotatable clutch occupies the last indexed position causes rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

2. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the loss motion device is configured to enable oscillatory movement by the clothes mover by an amount up to 720 degrees prior to rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

3. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the loss motion device is configured to enable oscillatory movement by the clothes mover by an amount up to 1080 degrees prior to rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

4. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein at least one of the rotatable clutch or the clutch pin includes a sound deadening material.

5. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , further comprising:
a planetary drive mechanism having a sun gear;
a plurality of planet gears driven by the sun gear; and
a planet carrier and a ring gear driven by the sun gear;
wherein the motor is operably connected to the sun gear, the clothes mover is operably connected to the planet carrier driven by the plurality of planet gears, and the basket is operably connected to the ring gear.

6. The laundry treating appliance of claim 5 wherein the rotatable clutch is rotatably mounted to the planet carrier and connected to move with the clothes mover, and the clutch pin is carried on the ring gear and connected to move with the basket.

7. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the rotatable clutch is a rotatable tang clutch with an L-shape having two indexed positions.

8. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the rotatable clutch is a rotatable tang clutch with a T-shape having three indexed positions.

9. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the rotatable clutch is a rotatable tang clutch with a clover shape having three indexed positions.

10. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the rotatable clutch is a rotatable tang clutch operably coupled to a base of the basket.

11. A laundry treating appliance, comprising:
a tub defining an interior;
a basket located within the interior and rotatably mounted within the tub;
a clothes mover rotatably mounted within the basket;
a motor drivingly coupled to the clothes mover to selectively oscillate or rotate the clothes mover; and
a tang clutch assembly having a rotatable tang clutch operably coupled to one of the clothes mover or the basket and a clutch pin operably coupled to the other of the clothes mover or the basket;
wherein the tang clutch assembly is rotatable among a set of successive indexed positions; and
wherein the clutch pin is configured to contact the tang clutch assembly to rotate the tang clutch assembly through the set of successive indexed positions in response to successive rotations of the clothes mover until the clutch reaches a last indexed position of the set of successive indexed positions and engagement between the clutch pin and the tang clutch when the tang clutch occupies the last indexed position causes rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

12. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 , wherein the tang clutch assembly moves from one indexed position to a next indexed position in response to the clothes mover completing a full rotation.

13. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 wherein the rotatable tang clutch is L-shaped.

14. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 wherein the rotatable tang clutch is operably coupled to the basket and the clutch pin is operably coupled to the clothes mover.

15. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 wherein the tang clutch assembly permits oscillatory motion of the clothes mover having a stroke angle up to 720 degrees.

16. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 wherein the tang clutch assembly permits oscillatory motion of the clothes mover having a stroke angle up to 1080 degrees.

17. A laundry treating appliance, comprising:
a tub defining an interior;
a basket located within the interior and rotatably mounted within the tub;
a clothes mover rotatably mounted within the basket;
a motor drivingly coupled to the clothes mover to selectively oscillate or rotate the clothes mover; and
a planetary drive mechanism having:
a sun gear operably connected with the motor;
a plurality of planet gears;
a planet carrier connected to the plurality of planet gears and operably connected with the clothes mover; and
a ring gear operably connected with the basket; and

a tang clutch rotatably mounted on the planet carrier and configured to rotate among a set of indexed positions to permit oscillatory motion of the clothes mover and rotary motion of the clothes mover and the basket;
wherein the tang clutch permits oscillatory motion of the clothes mover by an amount greater than 360 degrees before the tang clutch occupies a last indexed position of the set of indexed positions and causes rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

18. The laundry treating appliance of claim 17 wherein the tang clutch permits oscillatory motion of the clothes mover having a stroke angle up to 1080 degrees.

19. The laundry treating appliance of claim 17 , further comprising a clutch pin mounted on the ring gear and configured to move the tang clutch through the set of indexed positions in response to successive rotations of the clothes mover until the tang clutch reaches a last of the set of indexed positions and engagement between the clutch pin and the tang clutch when the tang clutch occupies the last of the set of indexed position causes rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Carr David
• Farrington Eric
• Goshgarian David
• Kanagaraj Vetrivel
• Kapure Narendra
• Nalawade Abhijeet
• Vastrad Kartik
• Wamhoff Bret

Classifications

• D06F39/045

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F39/003

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F39/028

  Arrangements for selectively supplying water to detergent compartments · CPC title

• D06F39/088

  Liquid supply arrangements · CPC title

• D06F37/30

  Driving arrangements  (control circuits or arrangements D06F34/08) · CPC title