US2257932A - Washing machine agitator - Google Patents

Description

OCL 7, 194-1. BAsLER 2,257,932

WASHING MACHINE AGITATOR Filed Nov. 14, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l I INVENTOR.

AZBEIP? a 3/15! 2 ATTORNEYS Oct. 7,1951.

A. H; BASLER- 2,257,932

WASHING- MACHINE AG'ITATOR Filed iqov. 14, 1958 v 2 Sheets-Shet 2 x I INVENTOR. A185??? [7! 3454s Patented Oct. 7, 1941 WASHING moms AGIIATOB Albert E. Basler, East Cleveland, 01110 Application November 14, 1938, Serial No. 240,235

' 3 Claims. o]. 684134) present time consist of metallic castings and of necessity such agitators have hard surfaces which have an abrasive eiIect on the clothes being washed, resulting in rapid wear oi the clothes during the washing operation Initially, washing .machine agitators ordinarily have highly polished surfaces. but with continued use, these surfaces-become scratched and pitted, increasing the abrasive action on the clothes.- Some agi-. tator designs include'vanes having a'number of holes drilled therethrough, the purpose of the holes being to improve the circulation of the iiuid and to give a better washing action. The

.holes in such agitators must be drilled, reamed and chamfered with great care, otherwise the holes will present sharp edges which will rapidly wear the fabrics being washed.

It has been previously proposed to cover washing machine agitators by vulcanizing rubber thereto, ,or by coating with various synthetic resins such as phenol condensation products.

. However, such proposals have not met with any considerable success for the following reasons, among others: the operation of vulcanizing rubber to an agitator of complicated form is so expensive that it is. prohibitive;. the rubber so vu1- canized may not adhere permanently to the base material forming the agitator and does not have a soft smooth surface; and it is impossible to vulcanize rubber to agitators having perforated vanes. The synthetic resin coatings generally speaking are thin and hard, are subjected to wear, are apt to become scratched or to crack and chip in severe service, and do not provide a soft, resilient and smooth surface. Such coatings are so thin that they follow almost exactly the contour of the base on which they are deposited, and therefore the base material must be carefully polished before the coating is applied and must be formed with just as great a degree care as in the case or uncoated metallic agitators. I

According to my invention I apply to the agitators a smooth, resilient coating of rubber or rubber-like material by depositing the material from a solution or dispersion thereof in which the agitator frame or base is immersed. Thus I am able economically to provide washing maposited. Preferably adhesion oi the coating or openings to' key the rubber UNITED STATES PATIENT OFF-lC-E chine agitators of practically any desirable form witha smooth resilient coating of deposited rubher which, while it is soft, resilient and flexible to the. touch, is very tough and adheres perms nently to the base or frame of the agitator. The coatings can be of almost any desired color, the colors being bright and permanent. Such at,- tractively colored agitators greatly improve the I salability of the washing machines in which they are installed.

By depositing the rubber or rubber-like material from. a solution, smooth, continuous. coatings can be deposited on frames or supports of practically any-desired shape, without the necessity of providing expensive molds or other equip- 'ment which would be-necess ary i; the vulca process were employed. Further, the process of depositing the coating material from a solution produces acoating which, for all practical pur poses. does not deteriorate withage, which is resistant to wear, and which ,is not adversely afiected by the soaps or other solutions employed in washing machines even if they be strongly alkaline or corrosive in character.

I have discovered that deposited rubber coatings can be caused toadhere firmly and perms-'- neatly,- provided certain precautions are taken in the'design and construction of the support or Irame on which the rubber coating is dethe frame or support is formed of metal. Aluminum or alloys of aluminum are especially suitable, for such metals are a light and strong. do not react with the deposited coating and are resistant to corrosion. The denser the structure of the metal the better the thereto. Therefore I preferably form the frames of the agitators from rolled aluminum sheets. from forsinaaor from;

dense castings. preferably die castings or permanent mold castings. The deposited rubber coatings will adhere permanently thereto provided either that sharp inside corners or acute angles are eliminated, or that the rubber coatingis keyed to the support in the region of the inside corners or acute base, which become filled with the deposited rubber and function to retain the coating in place thereon. In the case of dense castings, for example. permanent adhesion of the rubber coating to the base material can be obtained either by employing concave suriaces having radii of prererably'not less than about 96 of an inch in place of the comparatively sharp acute angles ordinarily encountered or by using holes to the base in the angles by drilling-holes in the- 2 corners, in which event the radius of the inside i to employ smaller by employing a single row corners can be greatly reduced. it being possible radii by increasing the num-, ber of holes formed in the region of the corners or angles. For example, a rubber coating with adequate adhesion can be deposited on a concave surface having a-radius of about of an inch of holes about inch in diameter and spaced 1 inch apart. For a corner which is substantially sharp or.which has only a small fillet, it may be necessary to employ three rows of holes spaced /2 inch apart. Larger radii can of course be employed satisfactorily. In castings of less dense materials I prefer to employ radii greater As stated above, by designing the base or frame with these limitations in view, it is possible'with slight modifications to cover satisfactorily any type ofwashing machine agitator of I which I am now aware. Inthe drawings I have illustrated the invention as applied to two particular types of agitators. Figure 1 is a perspective view of an agitator having a shape generally similarto a well known type and providedwith a rubber invention; Figure 2 is a section as indicated on line 2-2 of Figure. 1: Figure 3 is a section on large scale as indicated-byline 3-1 of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a section as indicated byline H on Figure 1: Figure 5 is a section as indicated by line 5--! on Figure 1; Figure 6 is a perspective view of a different type of agitator having a than those specified above.

covering in accordance with my ferred methods being described in detail in Patent No. 1,959,201,

dated May .15, 1934, and Re issue Patent N0. 19,155, reissued IMity- 8, 1934.

., Briefly, an adhesive is first appl ed to the frame or support, a coagulant is applied to the-adhesive, then the framehaving the coating of adlarge radii form generallysimilar to the agitator of a well known type and having a cover of rubberor rubher-like material provided in accordance with my invention: and Figures '1. 8; 9, and 10 are sections through such agitator as indicated by the lines 1-|, ll, l--I. and Ill-i0 OD'Flgllle' 6, respectively. Throughout the drawings, the

thickness of the coating material is exaggerated 40 for the sake of convenience in illustration.

The agitator shown in Figure 1 comprises a frame or support preferably in the form of a casting having a pase portion indicated generally at In, a vertical central portion or center post indicated at Ii and radial extending vanes II, II and II which are curved as shown to produce the desired action when the agitator is os-' cillated in a washing machine. The agitator may be oscillated by an angular shaft (not shown) projecting upwardly from the power unit of the washing machine and engaging the ana gular portion 1! of a recess withinthe center post II, and may be secured to the shaft by means of a bolt I (see Fig. 5) extending through the center post into engagement with .the shaft, the upper end of the bolt being provided with a nut II or screwhead so that the agitator maybe released and removed from the machine if desired. Preferably'the casting is of aluminum or alloy of aluminum in the form of a dense cast lng, such as a permanent mold or die casting.

The casting is provided in' accordance with my 'mg of the desired hesive material thereon is dipped into, for example, an aqueous dispersion of natural rubber or latex or various synthetic rubber-like mateallowed to remain fora sufllcient time for a coatthickness to be built up thereon. The preferred thickness canbe built up in a few minutes with only a single dip being required. Thereafter the frame or support is removed from the solution, the deposited material is permitted to dry and is finally cured under heat. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the processes, such as the intermittent dipping or electrolytic deposit process for example maybe employed to produce the coating.

In order to prevent the deposited rubber from pulling away from inside corners or concave surfaces of the frame or support. that is from areas thereon where two surfaces meet at an angle of less than 18!)", I preferably form all such inside corners or concave surfaces with comparatively as shown. For example the base portion it comprises a series of steps II, 21 and 23 connected by intermediate curved portions 2| and 25. Heretofore, metallic agitators of the same. general shape as these have had substantially cylindrical vertical surfaces between the steps; with sharp corners or very small-fillets in the inside corners. Contrary to this practice,-

and to insure adhesion of the rubber deposit. I employ sweeping curves, the radius of curvature of the concave portions 24 and It being preferably not less than of an inch with the materials specified. At the juncture between the base portion Ill and the center post II the casting is preferably provided with a similar large radius as indicated at ill. A similarly large radius is portions 35,-" and 31 which insures proper adinvention with a coating or deposit 2! of rubber which firmly adheres to the aluminum throughout the entire area thereof. or at least that portion that is adaptedto come into contact with the clothes when the agitator is incorporated in a washing machine. This material may be deposited to substantially any desired thickness but preferably is of about .035" to .04 as this thickness gives ample wearing qualities, has the desired resilience and softness and can bear:-

plied rapidly and economically. The rubber coating may be herenoe of the rubber-like material to the'base,

in these concave areas.

The entire under surface of the base ll need not be coated with rubber as this surface does not .come into contact with the clothes during the washing operation. Thus the When can be terminated on the under surface of "the base II at any convenient point. However, I preferably continue the coating throughout the under surface thereof to the region adjacent the opening ii, the edge of the rubber coating being indicated at 40. To assure the proper adherence .of

' the material to the under side of the base, .the

concave areas of the under side of the base preferably have radii of at least 56 of an inch as indicated particularly at H and II;

To prevent any possibility of fluid workingin between the rubber coating and the base'material at the edge of the coating I preferably employ a washer or ring II which may be secured to the metal of the base as by screwsf'l|.-.' '1he deposited on the washer firmly engages the rubber in the re ion casting from solutions by various methods, preadjacent the edge 4|, holding the edge portion in contact with the metallic base. Thus all possibility of fluid penetrating between the rubber coating and the underlying metal is prevented, and the edge of the coating is permanently retained in position.

At the top of the agitator, the coating terminates at the upper end of the central portion H as indicated at II in Figure 5. The rubber coating is held in firm engagement with the metallic base material at this point by the nut I] which, as pointed out above, also functions to hold the agitator onto the oscillating shaft of the washing machine. Thus it will be seen that the vanes, to improve the circulation of the washingfluid. As shown in Figure 3 the rubber is deposited on the inner surfaces of the perforations and forms a smooth resilient-locating which covers .the sharp edges 41 thereof as indicated particularly at II. The wines of agitators made accord ing to my invention can be provided with perfora-' tions with little additional expense, as it is only necessary to drill, punch, or otherwise form the openings. No reaming or chamfering operations are required for any sharp or rough edges that may be left by the operation of forming the holes will be completely covered by rubber, which will prevent any possibility ofdamage to the fabrics being washed caused by contact with the edges of the perforations. Thus with agitators made according to my invention, no particular care need be eiercised in the formation of the perforation'sfor' any roughness which may occur will only result in better adherence of the rubber to the base and cannotpossibly damage the clothes. Furthermore, the perforations function to key the rubber layers to the metallic base as the rubber extends continuously through the perforations, and the rubber within the perforations serves to hold the rubber coatings on bothsides of the vane in firm engagement with;

the opposite surfaces thereof.

Throughout th'e'rubber covered surfaces of the agitator all concave surfaces or inside corners" are preferably formed with inside corners having radii of curvature of at least of an inch. with such radii and with a frame or support of material of proper characteristics as to density, the coating will adhere firmly to all the concave surfaces without the necessity of employing holes or keys,

In Figures 6 to 10 I have illustrated the manner in which my invention may be applied to an agi-- tator,of another type. The agitator shown in these figures comprises a base portion 50 having formed thereon a number of horizontal ribs II. The agitator is provided with four equally spaced upwardly extending'vanes i2 having eurved portions .53 and there are smaller straight vanes 54 disposed between the ribs 82. The ribs 62 and BI extend radially from the central portion or center post 55 and at their upper portion the ribs are 'Joined to a radially extending disk .portlon knurled nut II which engages a threaded shaft within the center post and functions to hold the agitator in place in the washing machine.

As described in conjunction with the Figures 1 to 5, the frame or support preferably comprises an aluminum casting and all of the surfaces of the agitator, or at least those which are likely to .come into contact with the material being washed are provided with a coating, 59 of rubber deposited on the frame from a solution or dispersion as previously described. In order to as-. sure adhesion of'the rubber-to the ribs'll and the concave surfaces adjacent the ribs, 1 preferably drill a series of holes in each of the concave surfaces. These holes are of such diameter, about 1 of an inch for example, that when the base or frame is dipped into or otherwise coated with the rubber solution, the holes will be completely niled by the rubber deposited therein as shown at '2 which will be integral with the adjacent rubber coatings 59. Preferably the holes are about b of an inch in diameter and may be spaced about 1 inch apart longitudinally. The rubber deposited in the holes as shown particularly in Figure 8 serves to key the rubber to the concave surfaces II and thus prevents any possibility of the coat-.

ing being loosened in these areas. In. the embodiment shown the holes extend through the base II and thus function to additionally secure the rubber coating il on the under side 84 of the base. When this method of keying the coating to the base is employed ample adhesion can be obtained with radii of about 55 of an inch and in some instances it may be desirable to employ such.

smaller radii rather than to use larger radii and eliminate the holes if.

In the remaining portions of the agitator the radii are increased so that suflicient adhesion between the rubber coating and the casting is obtained at all points without the necessity of am ploying the holes or other keying devices. Thus the concave surfaces N between the vanes l2 and 56 all have radii of preferably not less than of an inch to insure the adhesion of the coat ing at this point. This construction is'illustrated particularly in Figure 'I. .As shown in Figure 9 the concave surfaces It formed at the intersection between the vanes and the disk portion II have a sufficiently great radius, preferably not less than /8 of an inch, to insure adherence of the rubber coating to the casting. Likewise as shown ous modification. Similarly the upper edge portion is of the coating is heldin firm engagement .with the top of the central Portion I! by the knurled nut 68, the nut functioning in the same manner as the nut is asshown inFigures 1 and 5.

If it is desired to increase the thickness of the coating in the regions particularly subject to wear such as the edges 'of the vanes, this can be easily accomplished by applying an additional 4 amount of the rubber solution or dispersion to positedv coating in the regions where the thicker deposit is desired.

It is to be understood that my invention can be applied to washing machine agitators of various different types without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. For example, some types of washing machine agitators have a shorter center post or central portion and do not employ a nut or any other similar device for retaining the agitator on the oscillating shaft of the washing .1

machine. In this type of agitator the base material is solid at the top of-the center post and the rubber covering is extended across the top of the center post thus eliminating the exposed edges at this point.

By my invention it is possible to provide agitators which will reduce the wear on the fabrics being washed and which have a more efllcient washing action than any agitators here-- .resilient coating, it is unnecessary-to polish the metalframes or bases before applying the'coating material thereto, and thus the expense of careful finishing operations, which are required with ordinary washing machine agitators, is elim- By the use of the term "rubber in the specincaticn and claims I intend to include various natural rubbers or-rubber-like substances. such as caoutchouc, balata, gutta-percha and also synthetic rubbers or rubber-like substances such as Chloroprene rubbers and materials such as Neoprene or- Buna or mixtures of these substances or similar substances. The solutions or dispersions of the materials employed may have any desired degree of concentration or viscosity to meet the requirements of the coating operation and while the process has been described herein as a dipping process the rubber may if desired be applied to the forms by other methods as by spraying or' by electro-deposition. upon the character of the material employed, the agitators having the deposited rubber thereon may be dried and cured at room temperature or slightly above, or, if desired, may in addition be cured at an elevated temperature.

Depending any des sn and that the methods and materials described herein can be varied without departing from the teachings of my invention. .It is therefore to be understood that the foregoing description is given by way of example only and that my invention is not limited to the preferred form described herein or in any manner other than by the scope of the appended claims when given the range of equivalents to which my patent may. be entitled.

I claim: I

1. A composite washing. machine agitator comprising a metal frame including a base, anupri ht central post, and-a plurality of generally radial vanes connected to the base and post, the surfaces at the Junctions of the vanes with the base and post being concave and formed by radii of at least in length, and a layer of deposited rubber on the surfaces of said frame which are to be exposed to articles being washed in a washing machine, said layer adhering firmly to substantially the entire surface of the frame covered thereby. I 2. A composite washing machine agitator comprising a metal frame including a base, an up right central .post and a plurality of generally radial vanes connected to said base and post and having a plurality of perforations extending therethrough, the surfaces at the junctions of the vanes with the base and post. being concave and formed by radiiof at least 7;" in length, and a-layer of deposited rubber on the surfaces of said base, post and -vanes and of the perforations 'of the latter, which surfaces are to be exposed to articles being washed in a washing machine, said layer adhering iirmly to substantially the entire surface of the frame covered thereby.

3. A composite washing machine agitator comprising a metal frame including a base, an upright central post having an axial opening therethrough and a plurality of vanes connected to said base and post and extending generally radially outward from the latter, the surfaces at the junctions of the vanes with the base and post being concave and formed by radii of at least in length, a layer of deposited rubber adhering firmly to all the surfaces of said frame covered thereby, said layerterminating adjacent the ends of the axial opening in the post, and means for clamping the coating to the frame adjacent to the ends of said opening.

' ALBERT H. BABLER.

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