Abstract:
A wash plate for a clothes washer having upwardly extending fins and triangular shaped protrusions spaced between the fins. A hub extends upwardly from the center of the wash plate to keep clothes separated. The wash plate has holes provided on the surface to allow mixing of wash liquid and draining of water from clothing. The fins assist in pushing clothing in a circular motion around the hub and the triangular protrusions open the clothes. Opening the clothes keeps them from tangling and allows wash liquid and water to be more evenly dispersed on the clothing.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a clothes washing machine, and more specifically to a wash plate therefor having fins and triangular protrusions positioned along its surface to distribute wash liquid and clothes evenly and enhance washability. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     The general construction of clothes washers is well known in the art. A common type of washing machine is the vertical axis washer having an agitator and incorporating a submersion process. An imperforate tub is mounted in a perforated wash basket for receiving clothing and the tub is filled with a wash liquid of detergent and water. An oscillating agitator imparts mechanical energy to the submerged clothing. 
     There have been advances in agitator washers improving the overall energy efficiency such as the vertical axis washer described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,627 (Cur et al.) that uses less energy and water through an improved wash process. 
     Additionally, since a relatively large amount of water is used to submerge the clothes in an agitator washer, alternate clothes washers have been developed that do not require a conventional agitator. One type of agitatorless washer that does not require complete submersion of clothes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,955 (Mueller). The washer in this patent has a wash basket disposed within a tub and rotatable about a vertical axis. A bottom plate is disposed within the lower portion of the wash basket and is mounted for a wobbling motion. This wobbly motion within the tub agitates and distributes the clothes during washing. 
     Furthermore, clothes washers range from those not having a wash plate to those having a wash plate that enhances washability. For example, the washer described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,802,356 (Kirby) does not have a wash plate or agitator. Instead, the wash basket is mounted for providing a wobbly motion within the tub. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,380 (Lim et al.), the pulsator, or wash plate, is designed with a plurality of radial ribs to cause a vortex flow within the rotatable tub. The ribs have axial holes to pass air bubbles to the tub. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,167 (Wyatt et al.), a wash plate having a clothes deflector is described. This wash plate is designed to seal the wash plate against the wash basket. 
     For clothes washers having a wash plate, it is desirable to have one that increases washability and reduces twisting and damaging of the clothes. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is directed to a wash plate for an automatic clothes washer. Typically the washer has an imperforate wash tub, a rotatable wash basket provided within the tub and a wobble/nutate wash plate within the wash basket. The clothes washer has a drive system for rotating the wash basket and wobbling/nutating the wash plate. 
     It is an object of the invention to provide a wash plate with a center area and a surrounding skirt area having a substantially circular outer perimeter. There is a hub extending upwardly from the center of the wash plate and fins and protrusions encircling the hub and extending upwardly from the wash plate. The hub is at a height greater than that of the fins and the fins are at a height greater than that of the protrusions. 
     It is an object of the invention to provide a wash plate having at least three fins extending upwardly from the skirt so as to divide the skirt area into at least three substantially equal sections. A plurality of protrusions extend upwardly from the skirt area and are provided within each of the sections. 
     It is a further object of the invention to provide at least three fins on the wash plate. Each fin has a left and a right planar side and a top and a bottom edge. Each fin is connected to the skirt area along its bottom edge and extends radially away from the hub toward the skirt perimeter. The top edge of each fin is positioned further from the skirt near the hub than near the skirt perimeter. The fins are integrally molded to the wash plate. 
     Another object of the invention is to provide protrusions that are polygonal in shape and are integrally molded to the wash plate. The protrusions have three planar faces, each face being substantially triangularly shaped. Each face has three angles and one angle of each face meets at a common point making each protrusion substantially a three-sided pyramid. 
     It is an object of the invention to provide three protrusions within each of the sections. Therefore, there are fins defining equal sections, and three protrusions are positioned within each of the three sections. 
     It is a further object of the invention to provide protrusions on the skirt at different radial lengths from the hub. Each section has a middle protrusion and two outer protrusions. The middle protrusion is positioned at a first length from the hub and the outer two protrusions are positioned at a second length from the hub. 
     An object of the invention is to provide a wash plate having a substantially circular center area with a hub extending upwardly therefrom. A skirt area surrounds the center area and has an outer perimeter. Three fins are spaced equidistantly on and extend upwardly from the skirt area. The fins extend substantially radially away from the center area and define three equal sections. Two outside and one inside multi-faced protrusions extend upwardly from the skirt within each section. 
     Further, it is an object of the invention to provide a wash plate having a skirt that defines an upwardly sloping surface from the outer perimeter toward the hub. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of an automatic washer incorporating a wash plate with fins and protrusions according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a planar view of the wash plate. 
     FIG. 3 is a side view of the wash plate. 
     FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the wash plate taken along line  4 — 4  of FIG.  2 . 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The present invention may be used with an impeller action or wobble action washer. The wash plate works particularly well in a washer that imparts a wobbling or nutating action to the wash plate similar to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,018 (Werner et is al.) issued Oct. 24, 1995, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     FIG. 1 illustrates a clothes washing machine  10  providing the environment of the invention. The washer comprises a frame  12  supporting a cabinet  14 . An imperforate wash tub  16  is supported within the cabinet  14  by multiple struts  18  extending from the frame  12 . A wash basket  20  is positioned within the wash tub  16  and a wash plate  22  is positioned within the wash basket near its bottom. The detailed internal structure of a washer that might contain the wash plate herein is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,018. 
     FIGS. 2-4 illustrate the wash plate  22  in greater detail. The wash plate is generally circular and comprises a substantially circular center area  24  having a midpoint  28  and a surrounding skirt area  26 . There is a raised hub  30  having a generally circular perimeter  29  positioned at the center area of the wash plate. The hub has a generally cylindrical body with a dome shaped top to facilitate separation of clothes without damaging them, as shown in FIG.  3 . However, there are many different possible ornamental appearances for the hub, for example, the hub  30  could have ribs extending across the top and down the cylindrical body or the hub could consist of multiple fins extending from the top downwards to form the body. The hub is at a height Hi to facilitate separation of clothes; not too low so that clothes just slide unaffected over it, but not too high that it impedes the movement of clothes. To increase the clothes capacity within the washer, a preferred height range for the hub could be anywhere from 4 to 10 inches from the skirt area nearest the hub, or the hub&#39;s circular perimeter  29 . The hub  30  may be integrally molded with the wash plate  22  or it may be a separate member that is attached to the wash plate  22 . 
     The skirt area  26  of the wash plate extends from the hub&#39;s perimeter  29  in a generally downward slope to the perimeter of the skirt or periphery lip  32 . It is found that the sloped skirt helps keep clothes from tangling during the wash process and the slope of the skirt  26  might be between 150° to 35°. The slope of the described embodiment is approximately 25°, as shown in FIG.  4 . The periphery lip  32  is substantially circular and might have a clothes deflector  34  to seal the wash plate  22  with respect to the wash basket  20  as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,167. The skirt area  26  may have multiple perforations  35  as shown in FIG. 3 to allow mixing of a detergent and draining of wash liquid from the clothes and the area above the wash plate  22 . 
     Fins  36  are positioned on the wash plate  22  and extend upwardly therefrom. As can be seen in FIGS. 2-4, the fins  36  have a left planar side  38  and a right planar side  40 . Each fin has a top edge  42  and a bottom edge  44 . The fin is positioned on the skirt  26  along its bottom edge  44  and may be integrally molded with the wash plate  22 . Each fin has a front end  46  and a back end  48  whereby the front end  46  is positioned near the hub  30  and the fin  36  extends radially therefrom with the back end  48  positioned toward the periphery lip  32 . The front end  46  of the fin  36  shown in FIG. 2 is positioned at the circular perimeter  29  of the hub and the back end  48  is positioned a distance from the periphery lip  32  of the wash plate  22 . The top edge  42  of the fin is generally smooth without any sharp angles to avoid damage to the clothes and the top edge  42  of the fin is at a greater distance from the skirt area toward the periphery lip than toward the hub. 
     At least two fins  36  extend radially from the hub  30  to facilitate the movement of clothing in a circular direction around the hub. As shown in FIG. 3, the fins  36  are at a height H 2  less than the height Hi of the hub  30 , but at a height H 2  great enough to help push the clothes. There may be any number of fins  36 , however too many fins result in the clothing moving across the top of the fins and negates their purpose. It is found that three fins  36  work well to control the motion of the clothes by pushing them in a circular direction while allowing them to contact the skirt area  26  of the wash plate  22  during rotation and/or wobbling. 
     The fins  36  divide the wash plate and thus the skirt into substantially equal sections  50 . Thus, three fins divide the skirt area  26  into three substantially equal sections  50 . 
     Polygonal protrusions  52  are positioned on the wash plate  22  and extend upwardly therefrom, as shown in FIG.  3 . They are at a height H 3  less than the height of the fins H 2 . The protrusions  52  may have any number of faces  54 , but are preferably not round. Each face  54  is planar and has edges  56  and angles  58  defining the shape of the face. For example, the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 2 has three faces  54  and each face has three edges  56   a ,  56   b ,  56   c  and three angles  58   a ,  58   b ,  58   c  forming a triangular shaped face. Each face has a bottom edge  56   c  integrally formed on the wash plate  22  and a right edge  56   a  and a left edge  56   b  that extend upwardly from the wash plate. Right edge  56   a  and left edge  56   b  meet at an angle  58   a  and angle  58   a  of all three faces  54  meet at a common point  60 . Right edge  56   a  and bottom edge  56   c  of each face meet at right angle  58   b  and left edge  56   b  and bottom edge  56   c  of each face meet at left angle  58   c.    
     It can be seen in FIGS. 2 and 3 that left edge  56   b  of a first face is positioned along right edge  56   a  of a second face and right edge  56   a  of a first face is positioned along left edge  56   b  of a third face and right edge  56   a  of a third face is positioned along left edge  56   b  of a second face to form three edge junctures  62 . Left angle  58   c  of a first face abuts right angle  58   b  of a second face and right angle  58   b  of a first face abuts left angle  58   b  of a third face and right angle  58   b  of a third face abuts left angle  58   b  of a second face to form three points  64  that are positioned substantially on the wash plate  22 . It is preferable that the three edge junctures  62  do not form sharp edges and the common point  60  does not form a sharp point. The junctures and common point may be somewhat rounded or multi-faceted to prevent clothing from being damaged. As shown in FIG. 2, the protrusion  52  has three smooth, rounded junctures  62  and points  64  and one smooth, rounded common point  60 . 
     The protrusions  52  are positioned on the skirt within the sections and an equal number of protrusions may be provided within each section. The protrusions  52  act like “fingers” poking at the clothes to open them up. There should be enough protrusions to open the clothes and allow an even distribution of the wash liquid, but not too many protrusions so that the clothes slide across the top of the “fingers” resulting in twisting of the clothes. It is found that three protrusions  52   a ,  52   b ,  52   c  work well within each of the three sections  50  formed by the three fins  36 . 
     The three protrusions  52  consist of one inner protrusion  52   b  and two outer protrusions  52   a ,  52   c . Each of the protrusions is positioned a radial length L from the midpoint  28  of the center area. It is found that positioning the protrusions  52  at more than one length from the midpoint increases their effectiveness. The preferred wash plate embodiment provides a first length L 1  for the inner protrusion  54   b  and a second length L 2  for the outer protrusions  52   a ,  52   c.    
     While the present invention has been described with reference to the above described embodiment, those of skill in the art will recognize that changes may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.