Low pressure laundry treating appliance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10816266-B2
Application number	US-201916288665-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 28, 2019
Priority date	Aug 30, 2018
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

An apparatus and method for a low pressure laundry treating appliance having a cabinet defining an interior, and a drum provided within the interior, the drum including at least an inner wall and an outer wall. Pressure differentiations and flash evaporation can enable drying without excess use of conventional heating methods.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating appliance for treating laundry according to an automatic cycle of operation, the laundry treating appliance comprising:
a drum assembly comprising an outer drum defining an outer drum interior, an inner drum located within the outer drum interior, the inner drum at least partially defining a low pressure treating chamber fluidly sealable from ambient, the low pressure treating chamber having an access opening, and the inner drum spaced from the outer drum to define an interstitial space;
a closure selectively closing the access opening;
a compressor fluidly coupling the low pressure treating chamber to the interstitial space; and
a pump having an inlet and an outlet, with the inlet fluidly coupled to the low pressure treating chamber and the outlet fluidly coupled to ambient air.

2. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the pump is a vacuum pump.

3. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 further comprising a tub defining a tub interior where the drum assembly is located within the tub interior and defining an external containment cavity between the tub and outer drum capable of reaching a low pressure state.

4. The laundry treating appliance of claim 3 wherein the low pressure treating chamber extends between a front and rear wall and the front wall includes perforations fluidly connecting the low pressure treating chamber to the external containment cavity.

5. The laundry treating appliance of claim 3 further comprising a process tank fluidly coupled to the external containment cavity.

6. The laundry treating appliance of claim 3 wherein the external containment cavity is fluidly coupled to the pump and compressor.

7. The laundry treating appliance of claim 6 wherein the compressor is capable of bringing the external containment cavity to a first low pressure and the pump is capable of providing an additional pressure decrease required to reach the low pressure state.

8. The laundry treating appliance of claim 7 wherein the compressor is a turbo compressor.

9. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 further comprising a reuse tank fluidly coupled to the interstitial space.

10. The laundry treating appliance of claim 9 further comprising a vent and drain system disposed within the interstitial space and fluidly coupled to the reuse tank.

11. The laundry treating appliance of claim 10 wherein the vent and drain system includes a plurality of collection conduits, a plurality of drain conduits, and a drain channel fluidly coupling the plurality of collection conduits to the plurality of drain conduits.

12. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 further comprising a coupling ring circumscribing at least a portion of the outer drum and defining the drain channel.

13. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the inner drum further comprises integral lifts forming at least a portion of circumferentially disposed collection channels.

14. The laundry treating appliance of claim 13 wherein the outer drum further comprises drain ribs along an interior surface of the outer drum forming at least a portion of the circumferentially disposed collection channels.

15. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 further comprising a flash evaporation starter fluidly coupled to the low pressure treating chamber.

16. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 further comprising a heater in heat exchange with the treating chamber.

17. A method of treating laundry items in a laundry treating appliance having a drum assembly comprising an outer drum and an inner drum with an interstitial space defined between the outer and inner drums, and where the inner drum defines at least a portion of a low pressure treating chamber, the method comprising:
establishing a low pressure in the low pressure treating chamber with respect to atmospheric pressure;
flash evaporating fluids in the low pressure treating chamber to phase change the fluids to gas;
removing the gas from the low pressure treating chamber to compress and heat the gas with a compressor;
releasing the compressed and heated gas into the interstitial space to produce condensate and heat the treating chamber; and
collecting the condensate from the interstitial space.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising rotating the drum assembly.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising draining the fluids into at least one drain channel circumscribing the outer drum.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising lifting the fluids with at least one lift wall disposed within the drain channel.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Welch Rodney M

Classifications

• F26B5/042 Primary

  for drying articles or discrete batches of material in a continuous or semi-continuous operation, e.g. with locks or other air tight arrangements for charging/discharging · CPC title

• D06F58/00 Primary

  Domestic laundry dryers · CPC title

• D06F39/085

  Arrangements or adaptations of pumps · CPC title

• D06F58/24

  Condensing arrangements · CPC title

• D06F58/206

  Heat pump arrangements · CPC title