Vibration damper assembly

Abstract

A damper assembly is disposed between a washing machine frame and a washing container suspended in the frame and housing a rotatable drum as a source of vibration. The damper assembly includes a damper having a cylinder filled with working oil, a piston slidably disposed in the cylinder and having a damping force generating mechanism, and a piston rod having an end coupled to the piston and an opposite end extending out of the cylinder, a vibration transmission cutoff mechanism activatable for disabling the damping force generating mechanism to substantially cut off the transmission of vibration between the washing container and the frame, and a selective actuator for selectively activating and inactivating the vibration transmission cutoff mechanism depending on the magnitude of vibration of the washing container. The vibration transmission cutoff mechanism comprises a support structure for supporting the washing container or the frame and the cylinder or the piston rod for relative movement with respect to each other, and a locking mechanism for unlockably locking the members supported by the support structure. The selective actuator actuates the locking mechanism to unlock the members supported by the support structure from each other thereby activating the vibration transmission cutoff mechanism when the magnitude of vibration of the washing container is smaller than a predetermined value.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.