Self-cleaning washing machine and control method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9605368-B2
Application number	US-201414559679-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 3, 2014
Priority date	Jun 8, 2012
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed are a self-cleaning washing machine and a control method thereof. The washing machine includes inner and outer drums defining a chamber therebetween, a wave wheel, a water drainage apparatus, cleaning pellets provided in the chamber for cleaning drum walls between the inner and outer drums, and an isolating structure for preventing the cleaning pellets from escaping from the chamber. The isolating structure includes a filtration mechanism arranged in the water drainage apparatus to prevent the cleaning pellets from being flushed away when water is drained, and/or a grid mechanism arranged at the bottom of the inner drum to prevent the cleaning pellets from entering the inner drum. Operably, in the water-draining and/or spin-dry process, the inner drum is controlled to carry out different actions, making the cleaning pellets together with the water flow through a water drainage opening to be collected by a water drainage valve.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A self-cleaning washing machine, comprising:
an outer drum;
an inner drum;
a wave wheel;
a water drainage apparatus arranged under the outer drum;
cleaning pellets provided in a chamber defined between the inner drum and the outer drum for cleaning an inner wall of the outer drum and an outer wall of the inner drum; and
an isolating structure for preventing the cleaning pellets from escaping from the chamber, wherein the isolating structure comprises at least one of a filtration mechanism arranged in the water drainage apparatus to prevent the cleaning pellets from being flushed away when water is drained, and a grid mechanism arranged at the bottom part of the inner drum to prevent the cleaning pellets from entering the inner drum from the bottom of the inner drum,
wherein the water drainage apparatus comprises a water drainage chamber, a pellet receiving chamber for receiving the cleaning pellets during dewatering and floating, under the buoyant force during water feeding, the cleaning pellets to the chamber to clean the drum walls, and a through port, being in communication with a water drainage port at the bottom of the outer drum, formed on an upper wall of the pellet receiving chamber, wherein the upper wall of the pellet receiving chamber inclines upward from its periphery to the through port so as to enable the cleaning pellets to float with a water level in the pellet receiving chamber, flow to the through port, and enter the chamber between the inner and outer drums through the water drainage port;
wherein the filtration mechanism comprises multiple stopping ribs formed between the pellet receiving chamber and the water drainage chamber, wherein the stopping ribs are divided into two groups by a notch having a width smaller than the cleaning pellets, extension lines of the two groups of stopping ribs are alternate, a filtration gap smaller than the cleaning pellets is defined between the two adjacent stopping ribs in the same group, and one side of the two groups of the stopping ribs corresponding to the pellet receiving chamber forms a filtration surface that is a cambered surface towards the notch so that the filtration surface is of V-shaped with a bottom at the notch, such that the filtration mechanism enables to prevent the cleaning pellets from being discharged from the pellet receiving chamber, and enables lint twined on the stopping ribs to slide to tail ends of the stopping ribs and pass through the notch to the water drainage chamber, and enables sundries including sheet-like objects to pass through one of the filtration gap and the notch to the water drainage chamber.

2. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the two groups of stopping ribs are arranged oppositely in an up-down manner or a left-right manner, such that the notch is a horizontal notch or a vertical notch, and the extension lines of one group of stopping ribs are vertically alternate with those of the other group of stopping ribs, wherein the stopping ribs are parallel to each other, and the filtration gap between each two adjacent stopping ribs is the same.

3. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the grid mechanism comprises a stop cover that matches a flange plate for preventing the cleaning pellets from entering the inner drum from a hollow area defined in the bottom of the inner drum, and the stop cover is provided with water through holes capable of stopping the cleaning pellets.

4. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 3 , wherein the stop cover comprises a donut-like annular cover body defining a hollow region therein, the main body of the flange plate correspondingly blocks the hollow region of the stop cover, the diameter of the main body of the flange plate being d, the diameter of the hollow area of the bottom of the inner drum being D, the inner diameter of the stop cover being d1, the outer diameter of the stop cover being d2, satisfying d1≦d<D<d2, or d1≦d<d2<D, and wherein the difference between the diameter D of the hollow area of the bottom of the inner drum and the outer diameter d2 of the stop cover satisfying that the cleaning pellets are incapable of passing through a gap defined between the edge of the hollow area of the bottom of the inner drum and the periphery of the stop cover.

5. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 3 , wherein the stop cover is an independent structure clamped or adhered between the bottom of the inner drum and the flange plate, or is integrated with the bottom of the inner drum, or is integrated with the flange plate, or is integrated with the bottom of the inner drum and the flange plate.

6. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the bottom of the inner drum is externally provided with a pellet motion space so that when the cleaning pellets enter the pellet motion space, they move with water flow to obtain acceleration to collide with, rub and clean walls between the bottoms of the inner and outer drums, the pellet motion space being multiple grooves formed by reinforcing ribs outside the bottom of the inner drum, a space defined between the reinforcing ribs and the bottom of the outer drum satisfying that when the cleaning pellets enter the pellet motion space with water flow, a groove of the multiple grooves is capable of receiving at least two cleaning pellets.

7. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 1 ,
wherein the isolating structure further comprises a filtration grid arranged at a water overflow port of the outer drum at a top of the self-cleaning washing machine to prevent the cleaning pellets from flowing out with overflow water, and wherein the filtration grid and the outer drum are integrated by injection molding, or wherein the filtration grid and the outer drum are of a separable plug-and-pull structure, wherein slots are arranged at two sides of the water overflow port, and the filtration grid is inserted in the slots, or wherein the filtration grid and the outer drum are of a snap-on structure.

8. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 7 , wherein the filtration grid comprises a frame body that matches the water overflow port and stopping ribs arranged in the frame body, the stopping ribs being divided into two groups, wherein a partition gap smaller than the cleaning pellet is defined between the two groups of stopping ribs, a gap smaller than the cleaning pellet is defined between the two adjacent stopping ribs in the same group, and the two groups of stopping ribs correspond to a filtration surface formed at an inner side of the outer drum, which is a cambered surface towards, at a position of the partition gap, the other side along the direction of the stopping rib or an inclined surface.

9. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the isolating structure further comprises an outer drum cover arranged at the top part of the outer drum to cover an annular opening of the chamber, and corresponding to the annular opening, the outer drum cover is provided with a pellet inlet for supplementing cleaning pellets to the chamber, and wherein the pellet inlet is provided with a cover that can be opened or closed.

10. The self-cleaning washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the wave wheel is a self-cleaning wave wheel, and comprises a wave plate and a water stirring piece arranged on an upper surface of the wave plate, and the top part of the water stirring piece is provided with at least one water permeable hole, which corresponds to and communicates with the bottom part of the water stirring piece, and wherein multiple water permeable holes are distributed on the water stirring piece along a circum

Assignees

• Haier Group Corp
• Qingdao Haier Washing Mach Co

Inventors

• Shu Hai
• Lv Peishi
• Xu Sheng

Classifications

• D06F37/12

  adapted for rotation or oscillation about a vertical axis · CPC title

• D06F37/267

  Tubs specially adapted for mounting thereto components or devices not provided for in preceding subgroups (D06F37/206 takes precedence) · CPC title

• D06F39/083

  Liquid discharge or recirculation arrangements · CPC title

• D06F37/264

  Tubs provided with reinforcing structures, e.g. ribs, inserts, braces · CPC title

• D06F23/04

  and rotating or oscillating about a vertical axis · CPC title