Adjustable baffle for appliance
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorsRobert A. Brenner, Victor W. Cuthbert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A baffle for an automatic clothes dryer of a rotating drum type is adjustable in height to compensate for differences in load characteristics and to provide optimum tumbling characteristics for different kinds of loads.
Claims11
A clothes dryer having a drum rotatable about an axis for tumbling clothes being dried and an adjustable baffle, said adjustable baffle comprising:
- a body portion attached to an interior wall of the drum parallel to said axis;
- a blade portion in said body portion and slidably movable with respect thereto;
- and
- resiliently biased detent means selectively releasable between said blade portion and said body portion and operative to lock said blade portion in either extended or retracted positions,
- whereby tumbling characteristics of clothes within the drum are affected by the position of the blade with respect to the body portion of the baffle.
A clothes dryer having a drum rotatable about an axis for tumbling clothes being dried and an adjustable baffle, said adjustable baffle comprising:
- a portion attached to an interior wall of the drum parallel to said axis;
- a blade portion held by said body portion and movable with respect thereto;
- and
- means for limiting the movement of said blade portion with respect to said body portion between extended and retracted positions,
- whereby tumbling characteristics of clothes within the drum are affected by the position of the blade with respect to the body portion of the baffle,
- said body including spring means for engaging said blade to prevent movement of said blade towards the center of said drum beyond said extended position.
For use in a clothes dryer, a baffle for accommodating differences in load characteristics comprising:
- a hollow body portion having side and end walls and forming an elongated slot in a top surface thereof;
- a movable blade slidably supported in said slot for in and out movement between a first retracted position and a second extended position relative to said body portion thereby to selectively adjust baffle height;
- and resiliently biased detent means releasably locking said blade in said first retracted position and said second extended position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.