Method of estimating bending moment of a laundry treating appliance drum shaft using a proximity sensor
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorsDONALD E. ERICKSON, FARSHAD FARID
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a method of operating a laundry treating appliance having a tub, a rotatable drum within the tub, and a rotatable drive shaft supported in a bearing assembly and mounted to the drum, with the bending moment acting on the bearing assembly being determined and used as an input to control the operation of the appliance.
Claims22
A method of operating a laundry treating appliance comprising a tub, a rotatable drum provided within the tub, and a drive shaft rotationally supported in a bearing assembly and having one end extending through the tub and mounted to the drum, the method comprising:
- sensing a change in a distance between the tub and the drum while the drum is rotated;
- equating the change in the distance to a magnitude of a bending moment acting on the bearing assembly;
- and
- controlling the operation of the laundry treating appliance based on the magnitude of the bending moment.
A laundry treating appliance for treating laundry according to at least one cycle of operation, comprising:
- a tub having an open end and a closed end;
- a bearing assembly mounted to the closed end of the tub;
- a drum provided within the tub and having an open end and a closed end corresponding to the open end and closed end of the tub, respectively;
- a drive shaft rotatably mounted within the bearing assembly and coupled with the closed end of the drum;
- a motor operably coupled with the drive shaft to rotate the drive shaft and effect a rotation of the drum;
- at least one sensor mounted to the tub and outputting a distance signal indicative of the distance between the tub and the drum;
- and
- a controller having a memory in which is stored the at least one cycle of operation for execution, the controller providing a motor control signal to control the rotation of the drum, and receive the distance signal to control the execution of the cycle of operation, wherein the controller equates the distance signal from the rotation of the drum with a magnitude of a moment acting on the bearing assembly, and control the execution of the at least one cycle of operation in response to the magnitude of the moment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.