Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Sanyo Electric Techno Create Co., Ltd.

Kazushige Murakami

Masafumi Nishino

Mitsuru Naganawa

Katsuhito Nakagawa

Masahiko Kakuda

A laundry apparatus according to the present invention ensures an improved laundry drying efficiency. In the laundry apparatus, an air guide () is provided on an upper edge portion of an outer tub opening () as being opposed to an air inlet (). Drying air flowing downward from the air inlet () to be supplied to the outer tub opening () impinges on an inclined wall () of the air guide (). The drying air impinging on the inclined wall () is deflected into a drum () through a drum opening () (as indicated by a broken-line arrow). Thus, the drying air is prevented from further flowing downward in the outer tub opening () into a gap () defined between the outer tub () and the drum (), but supplied to laundry in the drum ().

Laundry apparatus

In a drum-type washing machine according to the present invention, a drum is inclined so that the opening of the drum is angled slightly upward. In the extracting process, a balancing operation is performed where the drum is rotated at a speed lower than a speed where the centrifugal force and the gravitational force acting on the laundry are balanced, whereby the laundry in the drum is moved toward the rear end and gathered there. Thus, even when there is an eccentric load due to an uneven distribution of the laundry around the rotation axis, it is highly probable that the position of the eccentric load along the axial direction is in the rear end of the drum . In this state, since the distance between the eccentric load and a bearing member for supporting the drum by a cantilevered structure is small, the shaking movement of the drum is relatively small, and the load working on the bearing member is also small. Thus, in the extracting process, abnormal vibration of the drum or a tub is assuredly prevented, and the load working on the bearing member is reduced.

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Osaka, Japan

Kazushige Murakami