Drum-type washing machine

Abstract

A drum-type washing machine is provided, by which a rotational speed of a drum is stably and accurately controlled during washing and dewatering by adopting a simple induction motor and a set of unidirectional bearings acing as a clutch. The drum-type washing machine, which has a motor having a stator and a rotor for rotating a drum to perform washing and dewatering, includes an outer housing fixed to the stator of the motor; a gear shaft, extending from a center of the rotor of the motor, for transferring a rotational force of the motor; a drum shaft, extending from a center of the drum, for receiving the rotational force of the motor; a gear-reduction mechanism, interposed between and coupled respectively to the gear shaft and the drum shaft, for reducing a rotational speed of the gear shaft and transferring the reduced rotational speed to the drum shaft, the gear-reduction mechanism having an outer surface enabling rotation with respect to the outer housing; a first set of bearings for supporting the gear-reduction mechanism in the outer housing, at least one of the first set of bearings enabling rotation in a first direction while checking rotation in a second direction; and a second set of bearings for supporting the gear shaft and drum shaft in the gear-reduction mechanism, at least one of the second set of bearings enabling rotation in the second direction while checking rotation in the first direction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.