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US 7,866,191 B2Granted
Clothes washer with clothing trap
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorsGeorge L. Turner, Eric E. Chang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic clothes washer having a clothes trap for reducing the likelihood that an article of clothing can escape from a wash basket during the spinning of the basket.
Claims19
An automatic clothes washer comprising:
- a cabinet defining an interior and having a top defining a loading opening providing access to the cabinet interior;
- a tub located within the cabinet interior, the tub comprising a bottom wall and a peripheral wall extending upwardly from the bottom wall, with the peripheral wall terminating in an upper edge to define an open top for the tub;
- a basket located within the tub, the basket comprising a bottom wall and a peripheral wall extending upwardly from the bottom wall, with the peripheral wall terminating in an upper edge to define an open top for the basket;
- a balancing ring mounted to the upper edge of the basket;
- a shroud overlying the balancing ring and terminating in a peripheral edge that extends radially inwardly of the balancing ring such that the peripheral edge axially overlaps the balancing ring to define a radial gap between the peripheral edge and the balancing ring;
- and
- a clothes trap mounted to the balancing ring and having a barrier flange that extends into the radial gap, wherein the barrier flange effectively reduces the radial gap and stops articles of clothing from passing through the radial gap during a spinning operation of the basket.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.