Patent ID: 7900754

Claim:
A rotating tub washer, said washer comprised of a frame, a rotating tub, and an on-off binary damper system for damping a problematic movement between said frame and said rotating tub, said on-off binary damper system having a friction pad and a housing friction damper surface, said friction pad in contact with said housing friction damper surface, said on-off binary damper system having an electromagnetic coil core and a magnetic locking slide, said electromagnetic coil core disposed proximate said magnetic locking slide with a slide gap between said electromagnetic coil core and said magnetic locking slide to provide for relative sliding motion between said electromagnetic coil core and said magnetic locking slide, wherein a current supplied to said electromagnetic coil core removes said slide gap with a slide gap closing direction, said slide gap closing direction non-parallel with said relative sliding motion and electromagnetically locks the electromagnetic coil core and said magnetic locking slide together at any of a plurality of relative positions with said relative sliding motion transferred to said friction pad, with said friction pad rubbing against said housing friction damper surface in order to dampen said problematic movement between said frame and said rotating tub, and with said slide gap between said electromagnetic coil core and said magnetic locking slide said friction pad in contact with said housing friction damper surface does not rub against said housing friction damper surface.