GB1578717A - Washing machine dispensers - Google Patents

Description

PATENT SPECIFICATION

( 21) Application No 24983/78 ( 22) Filed 31 May 1978 ( 44) Complete Specification published 5 Nov 1980 ( 51) INT CL' DO 6 F 39/02 ( 52) Index at acceptance DIA B 17 N 3 B 1 N 3 B 2 Q 2 CX ( 72) Inventor PETER REY ( 11) 1 578 717 ( 9 ( 54) WASHING MACHINE DISPENSERS ( 71) We, EATON S A M, a corporate body organised and existing under the laws of Monaco of Boulevard du Bord de Mer, Monaco (pte) BP-84 do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly

described in and by the following statement: -

This invention relates to additive dispensers for washing machines The invention is particularly applicable to powder dispensers, for automatic washing machines, which have two compartments, one of which is opened to allow washing powder therein to be used in a "pre-wash" part of the washing machine cycle, and the other of which is opened at a later stage to allow the powder therein to be used in the "wash" part of the machine's cycle.

Automatic washing machines generally include a powder dispenser having two compartments in each of which a user of the machine deposits washing powder During the cycle of the machine, the powder in one of the compartments is used in a socalled "pre-wash" operation At a later stage, a mechanism is automatically operated to cause the powder in the other compartment to be dispensed so that it can be used in a "wash" operation.

In general, the cycle of the machine can be selectively altered to dispense with the "pre-wash" operation if desired In this case, only one of the compartments need be used.

In accordance with the invention, an additive dispenser for a washing machine comprises two compartments each having a door which can be opened to allow the contents of the compartments to be dispensed, an actuator having an operating member which is reciprocated in response to an operation of the actuator, and a common member movable by a first reciprocating movement of the operating member to open a first one of said doors and by a second reciprocating movement of the operating member to open the other door.

The dispenser of the invention has the advantage that only one actuator is required for opening both of the compartment doors.

Normally such an actuator takes the form of a solenoid, and the fact that only one such solenoid is required for the dispenser of the invention means that the dispenser can be simpler and cheaper than those of the prior art.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the common member forms a selector mechanism which is arranged to be moved to a first position, in which the actuator can open a first compartment door, in response to the closing of this first door, and to a second position in which the actuator can open the other door in response to the opening of the first compartment door.

Thus, if the pre-wash cycle of the machine is to be used, powder is deposited in the first compartment and the door thereof closed.

When powder is required, the actuator will open the first compartment door Then, during the wash part of the cycle, the actuator will be effective to open the second compartment door.

If the pre-wash operation is not required, no powder is deposited in the first compartment, and the door thereto is left open During the wash part of the cycle, the selector mechanism will be in its second position so that the actuator will be effective to open the second compartment door to allow the powder therein to be used.

Therefore, the operation of the actuator can be controlled in a simple manner simply by leaving the pre-wash compartment door open if the pre-wash part of the cycle is not required, and closing this door after depositing powder in the compartment if the pre-wash part of the cycle is required.

This avoids the requirement of providing switching arrangements to ensure the correct operation of the actuator.

An arrangement embodying the invention will now be described be way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:Figure 1 is a perspective view of a k_ "S 2 1,578,717 2 powder dispenser in accordance with the invention, Figure 2 is a perspective view of a selector mechanism of the dispenser of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a plan view of the selector mechanism of Figure 2, Figure 4 is a view similar to that of Figure 3, illustrating the operation of the selector mechanism when in its first position, and Figure 5 is a view similar to that of Figure 3, illustrating the operation of the selector mechanism when in its second position.

Referring to Figure 1, a dispenser 2 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention has a base 4 carrying two compartments, 6 and 8 The compartments 6 and 8 have lids or doors 10 and 12 respectively, each door being pivotally mounted for movement between the open position shown and a position in which its compartment is closed The doors 10 and 12 are biased to their open positions by springs 14 and 16 respectively.

It is to be understood that the term "door" as used herein is used in a broad sense, and the arrangement shown in the drawings can be modified by using, e g sliding gates, or indeed any form of openable closure, instead of the illustrated dooors 10 and 12.

A locking mechanism is provided to maintain the doors 10 and 12 in their closed positions The locking mechanism comprises a catch member 18 on the base 4 between the compartments 6 and 8, and stainless steel locking bars 20 and 22 on the doors 10 and 12 respectively.

As shown more clearly in Figure 3, the locking bar 20 comprises an elongate member having a transverse portion 24 at its rear end The bar extends through an aperture 26 in a support 28 which extends from the underside of the door 10, with the portion 24 located immediately behind the support 28 The portion 24 carries a forwardly projecting pin 30, which is aligned with a pin 32 extending rearwardly from a side extension 34 on the bar 20 The pins carry a spring 36, one end of which engages the rear of the extension 34 and the other end of which engages the front of the support 28 This arrangement allows the bar 24 to be pushed rearwardly in the direction of its length, and also pivoted slightly in the direction of the arrow A in Figure 4, against the bias of the spring 36.

The bar 20 also has, near its front end 38, a sideways-projecting extension 40 provided with an oblique cam surface 42, the purpose of which will be described later.

The locking bar 22 is identical to the bar 20, and is positioned inversely with respect thereto, i e, with the projections 24 of the bars extending in opposite directions.

The catch member 18 has an upper surface 44, and at each side thereof a downwardly sloping cam surface 46 and 48 The surfaces 46 and 48 form the upper surfaces of two sideways-projecting lips 56 and 58, respectively (see Figures 1 and 2) The member 18 also has two rearwardly sloping cam surfaces 50 and 52 at its front end.

The member 18 is supported at its front and rear ends, so that a transverse gap extends through the central portion of the member, under the top surface 44.

As the door 10 is moved to its closed position, the outer edge 54 of its locking bar 24 engages the sloping cam surface 46 on the catch member 18 Further movement of the door 10 causes the bar 20 to pivot at its rear end as the side 54 engaging the cam surface 46 is pushed inwardly As the door 10 reaches its closed position, the bar 20 is moved past the lower end of the surface 46, and is caused to locate under the sideways-projecting lip 56 of the catch member 18 by the resiliency of the spring The engagement of the locking bar 20 with the underside of the lip 56 locks the door 10 in its closed postion The door 12 can be locked in the same manner by the action of the locking bar 22 Each of the doors is cut away as indicated at 60 and 62 to allow sufficient room for the catch member 18 to be located under the edges of the doors when they are closed.

Referring to Figures 2 to 5, an actuator in the form of a solenoid 63 having an armature 64 is provided to open the doors and 12 The armature 64 is connected to a spring biased operating member in the form of a yoke 65, which is coupled to a selector mechanism formed by a shaft 66 The shaft 66 extends upwardly through the base 4 of the dispenser and into the central gap in the catch member 18.

The upper end of the shaft 66 is machined to provide a cam surface 68 The arrangement is such that rotation of the shaft 66 will cause the surface 68 to engage the side 54 of one of the locking bars 20 and 22, depending upon the direction of rotation of the shaft, and push the bar from under the lip 56 or 58 of the catch member 18.

This will release the bar and allow the associated door to open under the force of its spring 14 or 16.

Referring to Figure 2, the lower end of the shaft 66 is carried on a spring plate which is secured to the underside of the base 4 by a screw 72 The spring plate is operable to bias the shaft in an upward direction The shaft 66 carries at its lower end two arms 74 and 76 which extend 1,578,717 1,578,717 outwardly from the shaft in opposite directions and are vertically spaced from each other.

The member 65 has two arms 78 and which are respectively provided with recesses 82 and 84 arranged to receive the enlarged ends of the arms 74 and 76 respectively The upper end of the shaft is provided with a vertically extending pin 86 which extends into a hole 88 provided in the upper surface 44 of the catch member 18.

The operation of the dispenser is as follows.

With both doors 10 and 12 closed, a peg which extends downwardly in the centre of the cut-away portion 60 of the door 10, projects into the hole 88 in the catch member 18 The peg thus engages the pin 86 and pushes the shaft 66 downwardly against the bias of the spring plate 70 As shown in Figure 2, with the shaft in this position, the end of the arm 74 is engaged in the recess 82 of the arm 78.

When the door 10 is to be opened, a pulse of electricity is passed through the solenoid 63 Referring to Figure 4, this causes the armature 64 and operating member to move in such a manner that the shaft 66 is rotated in the direction indicated by arrow C This in turn causes a corner 94 of the cam surface 68 to hit the surface 54 on the locking bar 20 The locking bar is thus displaced from under the lip 56 The door 10 is thus released, and springs to its open position.

As this occurs, the peg 90 moves out of the hole 88, to allow the spring plate 70 to push the shaft 66 upwardly This movement is limited by the engagement of the end of the arm 76 with the underside of the arm 80 of the operating member 65, so that the end of the arm 74 stays in the recess 82 in the arm 78 When the member 65 returns to its original position, the end of the arm 76 moves under the recess 84 of the arm 80 The shaft 66 can thus move further upwardly, thus bringing the end of the arm 76 into the recess 84 and the end of the arm 74 out of the recess 82.

Thereafter, when the door 12 is to be opened, a second pulse of electricity is passed through the solenoid 63 This causes the shaft 66 to rotate as indicated by the arrow D in Figure 5 A second corner portion 96 of the cam surface 68 hits the side 54 of the locking bar 22 to displace this from under the lip 58 This allows the door 12 to open under the force of its spring 16.

The compartments 6 and 8 are used as respectively the pre-wash and the wash compartments of the dispenser Any washing additive in either of the compartments can be dispensed, when the door of the respective compartment is open, in any conventional manner For example, the dispenser may be sloped so that most of the additive falls out when the door is opened, and washing water can be arranged to enter the compartment and flush out the remainder of the additive It will be appreciated that, if both doors are closed, actuation of the solenoid will release the door 10 The second time the solenoid is actuated the door 12 will be released If, however, the pre-wash cycle is not used, and the door 10 is therefore left open, the first actuation of the solenoid will release the door 12.

Referring to Figure 3, it will be noted that the shaft 66 has been machined more at the right-hand side to produce the cam surface 68 than at the left-hand side This ensures that when the solenoid is actuated in the mode shown in Figure 4, the rear corner 98 of the surface 68 will not reach the side 54 of the locking bar 22 so that the latter will not be released.

Each of the doors can be unlocked manually, For this purpose, the front end 38 of each locking bar projects through an aperture in its associated door so that a user can, when the door is closed, push the locking bar rearwardly This causes the cam surface 42 on the locking bar to slide along the corresponding cam surface 50 or 52 on the catch member 18 The result of this is that a sideways movement is imparted to the locking bar so that the side 54 thereof is moved from under the lip 56 or 58 of the catch member 18.

Claims (9)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:-

1 An additive dispenser for a washing machine, comprising two compartments each having a door which can be opened to allow the contents of the compartment to be dis 105 pensed, an actuator having an operating member which is reciprocated in response to an operation of the actuator, and a common member movable by a first reciprocating movement of the operating member to open 110 a first one of said doors and by a second reciprocating movement of the operating member to open the other door.

2 A dispenser as claimed in claim 1, wherein said common member is selectively 115 locatable in one of two positions, in a first one of which the common member is effective on operation of the actuator to open said first door, and in a second one of which the common member is effective on operation 120 of the actuator to open said other door.

3 A dispenser as claimed in claim 2, wherein the common member is biased to its said second position, but is moved to its said first position in response to the first door 125 being closed.

4 A dispenser as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the common member is rotatably mounted and has two arms, and wherein said 1,578,717 operating member is arranged to engage one of said arms when said common member is in its first said position, and the other arm when said common member is in its said second position, the arrangement being such that a movement of the operating member imparts rotational movement in opposite directions to said common member depending upon the position of the latter.

5 A dispenser as claimed in claim 4, wherein said common member includes a cam surface which engages and displaces a locking member on one of said doors when said common member is rotated in one direction, and a locking member on the other said door when -said common member is rotated in the opposite direction.

6 A dispenser as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the actuator comprises a solenoid.

7 A dispenser as claimed in any preceding claim, including locking means for retaining said doors in their closed positions, said locking means being manually operable for selectively and individually releasing said doors.

8 An additive dipenser for a washing machine, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

9 An automatic washing machine including a dispenser as claimed in any preceding claim.

R G C JENKINS & CO, Chartered Patent Agents, Chancery House, 53-64 Chancery Lane, London, WC 2 A 1 QU.

Agents for the Applicants.

Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office by the Courier Press, Leamington Spa, 1980.

Published by the Patent Office, 25 Southampton Buildings, London, WC 2 A l AY, from which copies may be obtained.