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US 11,859,325 B2Granted
Laundry washing machine with biased variable length agitator
AssigneeMidea Group Co., Ltd.
InventorBryan T. Snook
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A laundry washing machine includes a variable length agitator that is configurable in multiple configurations that provide different lengths for the agitator along its axis of rotation, and that is further biased to at least one of the configurations to facilitate user reconfiguration of the agitator.
Claims22
A laundry washing machine, comprising:
- a housing;
- a wash tub disposed within the housing;
- and
- a variable length agitator disposed within the wash tub and configured to rotate about an axis of rotation, the variable length agitator being configurable in at least first and second configurations that respectively provide first and second lengths for the variable length agitator along the axis of rotation, and the variable length agitator including a bias mechanism configured to bias the variable length agitator towards the first configuration,
- wherein the variable length agitator includes first and second members, the first member includes at least one fin configured to agitate a load during a wash cycle and is moveable relative to the second member along the axis of rotation to vary the length of the variable length agitator along the axis of rotation, and the second member includes a channel that receives at least a portion of the first member and at least a portion of the at least one fin when the variable length agitator is in one of the first and second configurations.
2 more elements
A variable length agitator configured to rotate about an axis of rotation in a wash tub of a laundry washing machine, comprising:
- first and second members, wherein the first member is moveable relative to the second member along the axis of rotation to selectively configure the variable length agitator in at least first and second configurations that respectively provide first and second lengths for the variable length agitator along the axis of rotation;
- and
- a bias mechanism configured to bias the variable length agitator towards the first configuration;
- wherein the first member includes at least one fin configured to agitate a load during a wash cycle, and the second member includes a channel that receives at least a portion of the first member and at least a portion of the at least one fin when the variable length agitator is in one of the first and second configurations.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.