Patent ID: 8857225

Claim:
A washing machine with a direct drive motor system comprising: a tub, a drum rotatably mounted inside the tub, the drum defining a longitudinal axis, a shaft connected to the drum, and a direct drive motor comprising a rotor assembly fastened to the shaft and including magnets positioned in a circumferential direction, and a stator assembly comprising: (i) a plurality of magnetic cores of stacked laminations, (ii) a plurality of insulators, at least one of the plurality of insulators surrounding each of the plurality of magnetic cores, (iii) a number of coils wound on an outer surface of each of the plurality of insulators, and (iv) a disc-shaped element including a plurality of elongated plates extending outwardly in a radial direction away from the longitudinal axis, at least one of the elongated plates having one of the plurality of magnetic cores secured thereto, wherein each of the elongated plates has (i) a first dimension defined along the longitudinal axis of the drum and (ii) a second dimension defined in a radial direction that is greater than the first dimension.