Whirlpool Corporation

Bradley D Morrow

Nicholas C Fugal

Christine L Strain

Brian P Janke

Erol D Sumer

Donald E Erickson

Brenner Martin Sharp

Stephen L Keres

Eric W Merrow

Benjamin D Lowell

Prabhath Kv

Robert C Williams

Jason S Sabel

Meredith A Wagner

Kenneth L McCONNELL

Joseph C O'Connor

Ran Zhao

Sayer J Murphy

Benjamin E Alexander

Philip J Czarnecki

John M Hunnell

Steven Fricke

Eric J Walsh

Dean L Tietz

James Jeffery

Kenneth L McConnell

David P Goshgarian

Yingqin Yuan

Peter Wagoner

Adam Gary

Kartik Sadanand Vastrad

David Scharich, Iii

Emmanuel F Gonzaga

Lauren M Lalonde

Marcos H Herrmann

Anup Sudhir Bhavsar

Jonathan A Andrejczuk

Vetrivel Kanagaraj

Bret Wamhoff

Maurilio Fabio Rodriques Catharino

Derek R Andreen

Jesse De Freitas Goncalves

Thomas R Scott

Kevin Peralta

Corinne M Gorenchan

Jason S Burnette

Rafael Cabral Melo

Fernando Elias De Oliveira

A suspension mount assembly for a laundry appliance with a wash unit tub disposed inside an appliance housing and a drum that is rotatably supported within the wash unit tub. A laundry compartment is provided inside the drum and the drum is rotatable about a substantially vertical axis. The wash unit tub is hung from and supported by a plurality of suspension rods. A plurality of upper suspension mount assemblies pivotally couple the suspension rods to an upper frame of the laundry appliance and a plurality of lower suspension mount assemblies couple the suspension rods to the wash unit tub. Each of the upper and lower suspension mount assemblies includes a resilient bushing that permits relative movement between the suspension rods, the upper frame, and the wash unit tub while reducing/dampening the vibrations the suspension rods transmit from the wash unit tub to the upper frame.

Suspension mount for a top load washing machine

An agitator is configured to be removably mounted to an impeller mount as a clothes mover. The agitator includes a post having a first end and an opposing second end. A connector is disposed at the first end of the post, the connector being configured to removably attach to a corresponding connector of the impeller mount. A dispenser cap assembly is configured to hold a dispenser cup and to control a lock from the second end of the post. The lock is configured to be adjusted between a locked position in which the agitator is secured to the impeller mount and an unlocked position allowing movement of the agitator with respect to the impeller mount.

Removable agitator with fabric softener dispenser

A hub for an overmolded basket base assembly of a laundry appliance is provided. The hub includes a central core defining an opening along an axis configured to receive a drive shaft. The hub further includes a disc, extending radially outwardly from the core about the axis, the disc configured to be overmolded in polymeric material that forms an overmolded plastic base, the disc including a plurality of posts arranged around the core and extending upward from a top surface of the disc to form a circumferentially-extending array to align the hub when applying torque to the hub.

Overmolded basket base assembly

A laundry treating appliance for treating laundry items according to an automatic cycle of operation can include a cabinet defining an interior and having an access opening providing access to the interior. A tub can be located within the interior and can at least partially define a liquid chamber. A drum is rotatably mounted within the liquid chamber and at least partially defines a treating chamber. A clothes mover is located within the treating chamber and rotatable about a vertical axis. The clothes mover can include a base and a barrel.

Laundry treating appliance having a removable clothes mover

A laundry appliance includes a rotating drum that receives laundry to be treated. A motor rotates a drive shaft about a vertical axis and engages the rotating drum at a base. A coupler is disposed within an upper portion of the base and that rests upon the drive shaft to transfer rotational forces from the drive shaft to the drum. A lower portion of the base engages an outer surface of the shaft to resist moment forces that are exerted against the drive shaft in an off-axis direction relative to the vertical axis.

Structural block for supporting a rotating drum within a laundry appliance

A laundry treating appliance comprises a rotatable basket with a spin tube, a rotatable clothes mover located within the rotatable basket, a motor having a drive shaft extending through the spin tube and operably coupled to the clothes mover, and a drive system selectively rotatably coupling the spin tube and the drive shaft and comprising a first threaded ring located about the spin tube, a second threaded ring threaded about the first threaded ring wherein at least one of the first threaded ring and the second threaded ring is axially movable relative to the other, and a gear assembly rotationally coupled to the drive shaft.

Laundry treating appliance with helical clutch

Methods of reducing a likelihood of contact between a rotating laundry-container, such as a basket or drum, located within a tub of a laundry treating appliance where the method includes accelerating a rotational speed of the rotating laundry-container during an extraction cycle speed ramp, monitoring the friction associated with the rotating laundry-container during the speed ramp and comparing to a threshold and altering the accelerating of the rotational speed of the rotating laundry-container when the comparing indicates the threshold is satisfied.

Laundry treating appliance and methods of reducing tub contact therein

A method of detecting high friction events in a laundry treating appliance includes rotating the drum, determining, during the rotation, a torque of the motor, an acceleration of the drum, a speed of the drum, and/or an angular position of the drum at each of multiple speeds, and repeatedly estimating with a parameter estimator, during the rotation, viscous friction, coulomb friction, and total friction based on the torque, acceleration, speed, and/or angular position of the drum. A high friction even is determined based on the estimated viscous friction, coulomb friction and/or total friction.

Laundry treating appliance and methods of operation

An embodiment of a method of determining inertia of a laundry load may comprise an extraction stabilization phase, where liquid is extracted from the laundry load by rotating the basket at first rotational speed, and a sensing phase. The sensing phase may include a deceleration phase, where the basket speed decreases to a second rotational speed, followed by an acceleration phase, where the basket speed increases back toward the first rotational speed. The inertia of the laundry load may be determined from data sensed during the deceleration and acceleration phases.

Method of determining inertia in a laundry treating appliance

A method of estimating a water extraction profile in a laundry treating appliance includes accelerating rotation of the drum during a water extraction cycle, determining, during the accelerating rotation, a torque of the motor, an acceleration of the drum, a speed of the drum, and/or an angular position of the drum, and estimating with a parameter estimator, at multiple times during the accelerating rotation, inertia of a laundry load, based on the torque, acceleration, speed, and/or angular position of the drum to establish multiple inertia values. A water extraction profile is then estimated based on the inertia values.

A laundry treating appliance having a cabinet, a static wash tub fixed in position relative to the cabinet, a wash basket mounted within the wash tub for rotation about a vertical axis and having at least one drain hole, a drive motor within the cabinet for rotating the wash basket, a catch basin fixed to the wash tub and spaced from the drive motor, a recirculation pump, and a closure between the drive motor and the catch basin.

Laundry treating appliance with a static tub

A laundry treating appliance having a cabinet, a wash tub located within the cabinet and defining an interior, a wash basket mounted within the wash tub and defining a laundry treating chamber, and at least one suspension assembly operably coupled to a portion of the cabinet and a portion of the tub such that the tub is suspended from the cabinet and where the suspension assembly includes a suspension rod for attaching to a portion of the tub in a lower part of the cabinet.

Laundry treating appliance with a suspension assembly and a suspension assembly

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Stevensville, MI, United States of America

Bradley D Morrow