Washing machine
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorsJaehyun Choi, Yohwan Kang, Hyunjae Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A washing machine includes a casing, a tub, a drum, a pump for circulating water from the tub, a gasket connecting an entry hole of the casing to an entrance hole of the tub and including nozzles for spraying water to the drum, and outlet ports for supplying water to the nozzles. The nozzles are arranged at an inner surface of the gasket at both lateral sides of the gasket in a vertical direction. The gasket includes port receiving pipes that receive the outlet ports, respectively, that are arranged in the vertical direction at an outer surface of the gasket, and that extend parallel to each other.
Claims20
A washing machine comprising:
- a casing that defines an entry hole at a front surface of the casing;
- a tub disposed in the casing and configured to receive wash water, the tub defining a tub opening at a front surface of the tub;
- a drum rotatably disposed in the tub;
- a gasket comprising:
- a gasket body that defines a passage connecting the entry hole to the tub opening, wherein the gasket body includes a first area and a second area that correspond to bilateral areas of the gasket body, and
- a plurality of port receiving pipes that protrude from an outer circumferential surface of the gasket body;
- a plurality of nozzles disposed at an inner circumference of the gasket body and configured to spray wash water into the drum, the plurality of nozzles being configured to communicate with the plurality of port receiving pipes, respectively;
- a plurality of outlet ports inserted into the plurality of port receiving pipes, respectively;
- and
- a pump configured to circulate wash water discharged from the tub to the plurality of outlet ports,
- wherein the plurality of nozzles comprise a plurality of first nozzles that are disposed at the first area of the gasket body, the plurality of first nozzles comprising:
- a first upper nozzle disposed above a horizontal line passing through a center of the gasket body, and
- a first lower nozzle disposed at a lowest position among the plurality of first nozzles,
- wherein the plurality of port receiving pipes comprise:
- a first port receiving pipe that is in fluid communication with the first upper nozzle, and
- a second port receiving pipe that is in fluid communication with the first lower nozzle,
- wherein a first horizontal distance between a first end of the first port receiving pipe and a vertical line passing through the center of the gasket body is less than a second horizontal distance between a second end of the second port receiving pipe and the vertical line, and
- wherein a length of the second port receiving pipe is less than a length of the first port receiving pipe.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.