Clothing treatment apparatus and damper for washing machine

Abstract

A clothing treatment apparatus including a cabinet, a tub to be disposed within the cabinet, and a damper configured to support the tub while the tub is disposed within the cabinet, a damper includes a housing, a piston configured to be movable within the housing, a core to be disposed within the housing and including a yoke and teeth extending from the yoke toward the piston, a coil wound on the core, and a magnetorheological elastomer to be disposed between the piston and the core whereby while the magnetorheological elastomer is between the piston and the core, stiffness of the magnetorheological elastomer is changeable by a magnetic field applied to control a movement of the piston within the housing.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.