Lg Electronics Inc.

Hyuntae Lee

Soowon Park

Incheol Kang

Kihyuk Kim

Jaeseok Kim

Hyeokjong Lee

Inho Hwang

Changheon Lee

Aram Lee

A laundry treating apparatus comprises a cabinet forming a profile, provided with a laundry opening; a door having an inner frame arranged toward the laundry opening and an outer frame coupled to the inner frame and arranged toward the outside of the cabinet, and opening and closing the laundry opening; a hinge part having a first pivot rotating the door along a first rotational direction and a second pivot rotating the door along a second rotational direction different from the first rotational direction; a pivot switching member movable to rotatably fix the door to any one of the first pivot and the second pivot; and a pressing piece provided in the door and pressed by a user to move the pivot switching member, wherein the pressing piece includes a pressing point pressed by the user, and the pressing point is provided at an upper end of the pressing piece.

Laundry treating apparatus

A laundry treating apparatus includes a cabinet, a door, a first hinge including a first shaft and a first shaft receiving unit, a second hinge including a second shaft and a third shaft configured to rotatably fix the second shaft to the cabinet and to define a second rotational axis of the door, a third hinge including a fourth shaft and a fourth shaft receiving unit such that the fourth shaft is detachably received in the fourth shaft receiving unit, a first switching unit provided in the door, a second switching unit provided in the door, the second switching unit being configured to close the fourth shaft receiving unit, and a withdrawal prevention unit configured to detachably couple second switching unit to the third hinge when the second switching unit closes the fourth shaft receiving unit.

The laundry treating apparatus includes a door to open and close the introduction port about a first rotational or a second rotational axis which is different from first rotational axis. A first switching unit is provided in the door to allow rotation of door about the first rotational axis, and a second switching unit is provided in the door to allow rotation of the door about the second rotational axis. A lock fixes a position of at least one of the first switching unit or second switching unit when the door opens the introduction port. As can be appreciated, the mechanism used for the laundry apparatus may be applicable to other home appliances or non-home appliances where two different rotational axes may be needed to open and close a door.

Growing community of inventors

Seoul, South Korea

Hyuntae Lee