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US 8,756,829 B2Granted
Roller assembly for a laundry treating appliance
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorsJoli A. Lorion-Fytczyk, Dengke Shen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A roller assembly for a laundry treating appliance, such as a clothes dryer, may have an axle, a wheel having a hub defining an axle opening, a tire coupled with the wheel and having an outer surface in contact with the drum, and a lubricant reservoir configured to communicate with the axle opening such that lubricant in the reservoir may lubricate the axle.
Claims11
A laundry treating appliance comprising:
- a cabinet defining an interior;
- a drum located within the interior and rotatable about an axis of rotation;
- a motor operably coupled to the drum to rotate the drum about the axis of rotation;
- and
- a roller assembly supporting an exterior surface of the drum and comprising:
- a non-rotating axle;
- a wheel comprising a hub having a circumferential bearing surface defining a circular axle opening in which the axle is received to rotably mount the wheel to the axle;
- a tire coupled with the wheel and having an outer surface in contact with the drum;
- and
- a lubricant reservoir located within the hub and having an outlet located on the bearing surface to be in communication with the axle opening such that at least some of a lubricant retained in the reservoir may exit the outlet and lubricate the axle, wherein rotation of the wheel about the axle results in a corresponding rotation of the outlet about the axle to deliver lubricant from the lubricant reservoir about the axle.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.