GB832654A - Method and apparatus for washing and extracting fluid from clothes or fabric articles - Google Patents

Abstract

832,654. Washing-machines; wringers. INTERNATIONAL LAUNDRY MACHINERY CO. Jan. 27, 1958, No. 2608/58. Class 138 (2). In a machine for washing and extracting fluid from clothes or fabric articles, the articles are tumbled in a drum having a closed access opening at one end while they are simultaneously mechanically compacted into a confined space of substantially reduced volume at that end to remove a substantial portion of the fluid therefrom, a fluidpressurized diaphragm is then expanded against the articles to further compact them at substantially higher pressure to extract additional fluid therefrom, and finally the access opening is opened and the articles forcibly ejected from the drum, preferably by means of the mechanical compacting force. The volume of the confined space may be substantially increased whilst tumbling the articles to relatively loose fluffy condition. In the form shown, a horizontal rotary drum 12 is sealed at 16 to a fixed end 14 and is attached by vanes 25 to a cylindrical hub 24 which is slip-sealed at 26 in the end 14 and is supported by rear rollers 21 carried by an upright 23. A closure 34 for the front access opening is rotatably mounted by a bearing 35 on a support 36 which is rotatable about a vertical axis 39 (not shown), the closure 34 being lockable to the drum by means of radially separable semicircular locking members 43. The end 14 carries a water outlet 58 controlled by a valve 57 which is operated by a fluid-pressure cylinder 59, and the drum is fitted with perforated hollow clothes-agitating ribs 62. A non-rotatable perforated water-extracting plunger 65 is reciprocated within the drum by means of a fluid-containing cylinder 68 slidable within the hub 24 and over a piston 69 connected to a fixed sleeve 70 carried by a bracket 72, pressure fluid being supplied by conduits 75, 76. The plunger 65 is held in its forward position by means of pins 77 passed through bushes on the plunger and moved by a fluid-pressure-operated T-ring 83 (not shown). The additional compacting is effected by a diaphragm 108 operated by pressure-fluid supplied by a conduit 110, and pinching of the clothes between the periphery of the diaphragm and adjacent portions of the drum is prevented by an annular flexible flapper 114 secured to an annular ring carried by peripherally-spaced rods 117 acting against compression springs 120. In a modification the diaphragm 108 forms part of a readily removable self-contained unit.