Laundry treating appliance with helical clutch

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10364524-B2
Application number	US-201615094387-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2016
Priority date	Apr 8, 2016
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

A laundry treating appliance comprises a rotatable basket with a spin tube, a rotatable clothes mover located within the rotatable basket, a motor having a drive shaft extending through the spin tube and operably coupled to the clothes mover, and a drive system selectively rotatably coupling the spin tube and the drive shaft and comprising a first threaded ring located about the spin tube, a second threaded ring threaded about the first threaded ring wherein at least one of the first threaded ring and the second threaded ring is axially movable relative to the other, and a gear assembly rotationally coupled to the drive shaft.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating appliance comprising:
a rotatable basket with a spin tube;
a rotatable clothes mover located within the rotatable basket;
a motor having a drive shaft extending through the spin tube and operably coupled to the clothes mover;
a drive system selectively rotatably coupling the spin tube and the drive shaft and comprising:
a first threaded ring located about the spin tube;
a second threaded ring threaded about the first threaded ring wherein at least one of the first threaded ring or the second threaded ring is axially moveable relative to the other; and

a gear assembly rotationally coupled to the drive shaft;
wherein rotation of the drive shaft is configured to axially move the at least one of the first threaded ring or the second threaded ring and
when either the first threaded ring or the second threaded ring abuts a stop, continued rotation in a same direction results in the spin tube and drive shaft being locked together for coupled rotary motion of the clothes mover and the basket.

2. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , further comprising a carrier having multiple pins extending into openings in the second threaded ring, wherein the second threaded ring axially moves up and down along the pins in response to rotation of the drive shaft.

3. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 wherein the gear assembly is a planetary gear system having planetary gears that drive rotation of the carrier.

4. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 wherein the first threaded ring is mounted to the spin tube and the first threaded ring forms the stop configured to prevent further axial movement of the second threaded ring.

5. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 wherein the carrier is configured to stop axial movement of the second threaded ring in an axial direction.

6. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the first threaded ring is axially movable up and down along the spin tube.

7. The laundry treating appliance of claim 6 wherein the second threaded ring is configured to drive axial movement of the first threaded ring up and down while the second threaded ring remains in a same axial position.

8. A laundry treating appliance, comprising:
a tub defining an interior;
a basket with a spin tube located within the interior and rotatably mounted within the tub;
a clothes mover rotatably mounted within the basket;
a motor having a drive shaft extending through the spin tube and operably coupled to the clothes mover to selectively oscillate or rotate the clothes mover; and
a clutch assembly having a first threaded clutch ring mounted to the spin tube and a second threaded ring operably coupled to the drive shaft and threaded about the first threaded clutch ring;
wherein the second threaded ring moves axially about the first threaded clutch ring and the clutch assembly is configured to rotationally couple the clothes mover and the basket after the clothes mover has moved through a predetermined stroke angle.

9. The laundry treating appliance of claim 8 wherein the second threaded ring moves axially about the first threaded clutch ring in response to successive full rotations of the clothes mover until the second threaded ring reaches a stop on the first threaded clutch ring and engagement between the second threaded ring and the stop causes rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

10. The laundry treating appliance of claim 9 wherein the stop is at a top of the first threaded clutch ring.

11. The laundry treating appliance of claim 10 , further comprising a thread pattern at a bottom of the first threaded clutch ring that is configured to allow the second threaded ring to freely rotate, such that continued rotation does not result in coupling.

12. The laundry treating appliance of claim 10 , further comprising:
a second stop at a bottom of the first threaded clutch ring; wherein
the second threaded ring moves axially about the first threaded clutch ring in response to successive full rotations of the clothes mover in an opposite direction until the second threaded ring reaches the second stop on the first threaded clutch ring; and
engagement between the second threaded ring and the stop causes rotational coupling of the clothes mover and the basket.

13. The laundry treating appliance of claim 9 wherein the stop further comprises sound deadening material such that the second threaded ring engages the sound deadening material of the stop.

14. The laundry treating appliance of claim 8 , further comprising a planetary gear mechanism rotationally coupling the drive shaft to the second threaded ring.

15. The laundry treating appliance of claim 14 wherein the planetary gear mechanism comprises:
a sun gear;
a plurality of planet gears driven by the sun gear; and
a planet carrier driven by the plurality of planet gears; and
wherein the motor is operably connected to the sun gear and the second threaded ring is operably connected to the planet carrier.

16. The laundry treating appliance of claim 8 wherein the clothes mover is configured to oscillate through a stroke of more than 360 degrees before the clothes mover and the basket are rotationally coupled together.

17. The laundry treating appliance of claim 16 wherein the clothes mover is configured to oscillate through a stroke of more than 720 degrees before the clothes mover and the basket are rotationally coupled together.

18. The laundry treating appliance of claim 17 wherein the clothes mover is configured to oscillate through a stroke of more than 1080 degrees before the clothes mover and the basket are rotationally coupled together.

19. A laundry treating appliance, comprising:
a basket with a spin tube;
a clothes mover rotatably mounted within the basket;
a motor having a motor input drivingly coupled to the clothes mover, through the spin tube, to selectively oscillate or rotate the clothes mover;
a clutch assembly having a vertically moveable tang configured to move along an axial length; and
a drive mechanism comprising:
a sun gear operably connected with the motor;
a plurality of planet gears driven by the sun gear; and
a planet carrier rotatably driven by the plurality of planet gears and operably connected with the vertically moveable tang to move the vertically moveable tang along the axial length; and wherein:
the clutch assembly is configured to permit oscillatory motion of the clothes mover and rotary motion of the clothes mover and the basket; and
the clothes mover moves through an available oscillatory stroke angle before the clothes mover and the basket are locked together for rotary motion; and
the available oscillatory stroke angle of the clothes mover corresponds to the vertically moveable tang moving along the axial length before the clothes mover and the basket are locked together when the vertically moveable tang reaches an end of the axial length.

20. The laundry treating appliance of claim 19 wherein the available oscillatory stroke angle is based on a length of a threaded portion of the vertically moveable tang, a number of threads on the threaded portion of the vertically moveable tang, and a pitch angle of the threads on the threaded portion of the vertically moveable tang.

21. The laundry treating appliance of claim 19 wherein the clutch assembly further comprises a radially inner threaded ring and a radially outer threaded ring one of which defines the vertically moveable tang and the other of whic

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Goshgarian David
• Kanagaraj Vetrivel
• Morrow Bradley
• Vastrad Kartik
• Wamhoff Bret

Classifications

• D06F37/40 Primary

  for driving the receptacle and an agitator or impeller, e.g. alternatively {(D06F37/304, D06F37/308 take precedence)} · CPC title

• D06F2204/06

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F33/02

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F33/32

  Control of operational steps, e.g. optimisation or improvement of operational steps depending on the condition of the laundry · CPC title

• D06F25/00

  Washing machines with receptacles, e.g. perforated, having a rotary movement, e.g. oscillatory movement, the receptacle serving both for washing and for centrifugally separating water from the laundry and having further drying means, e.g. using hot air  (control of washing or of washing and drying D06F33/00, D06F34/00; domestic laundry dryers D06F58/00) · CPC title