Shaft assembly for use in a washing machine
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorHyeong-reol Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A shaft assembly used in a washing machine, which can prevent noise generated from a gear assembly therein. The shaft assembly has a speed reduction gear assembly including an internal gear, a sun gear, and planet gears. The sun gear is a helical gear made of plastic. An input shaft of the shaft assembly is inserted into the sun gear. Relative movement between the sun gear and the planet gears is prevented by a cover member. Since the sun gear is a helical gear made of plastic, noise is reduced. Furthermore, the movement of the gears caused by the thrust of the helical gear is prevented by the cover member, and therefore the noise is still more reduced.
Claims4
A shaft assembly having an input shaft being rotated by a motor and an output shaft being connected to a pulsator, said shaft assembly comprising:
- a speed reduction gear assembly including a helical internal gear, a helical sun gear assembled with said input shaft by insertion so as to be relatively fixed along a rotational direction thereof, said sun gear being made of plastic, and a plurality of helical planet gears engaged with said internal gear and said sun gear;
- an upper carrier for supporting respective ends of rotational shafts of said planet gears, said upper carrier fixedly assembled with said output shaft;
- a lower carrier for supporting respective other ends of rotational shafts of said planet gears;
- and
- means preventing movement of said sun gear toward said output shaft comprising a support shaft disposed between said sun gear and said output shaft coaxially therewith, said support shaft having two ends inserted into said sun gear and said output shaft, respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.