Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Kenji Nakagawa

Tamotsu Kawamura

Yoshikazu Banba

Tadashi Nukaga

Kentaro Mochizuki

Kunioki Honda

Harumi Takeuchi

Koichi Yoshizaki

Satoshi Nakamura

Takashi Fukui

Yorihisa Funada

Makoto Takeuchi

Shigetaka Hattori

In a drum type washing machine, a drumis mounted to rotate about a horizontal axis extending in the lateral direction in a tubA tub openingwith a tub dooris formed in the tubunder the throw-in openingformed in the front part of the top of the housing. A drum openingwith a drum door composed of a double door opening frontward and backward is formed in the peripheral wall of the drumThe drumis stopped so that the drum openingcoincides with the tub opening. The drum door, forced into its opening direction, is held in a closed position by an engagement of a clawand an engagement holeWhen a user rotates a operation leverfor latching or unlatching the tub doorthe drum door open/close mechanismfunctions to make two rodsandproject or withdraw, whereby the drum dooris brought into an engaged or unengaged state. By this mechanism, the drum dooropens or closes with the opening or closing operation of the tub door. Thus, the operation of the doors is simplified, and the laundry loaded into or unloaded out of the drumby fewer working steps.

Drum type washing machine

A machine with vibration source includes a frame for carrying a vibration source such as a motor. A housing is attached to a bottom of the frame, in which a sphere made of a rigid material is housed rotation free in a manner that a portion of the sphere is projected from an opening at the bottom of the housing. The surface of a plate made of a rigid material contacts the portion of the sphere projecting from the housing and the plate is surrounded by a member of an elastic material. The elastic member has an upwardly extending portion which surrounds the housing, and therefore, the elastic member controls the relative position between the sphere and the plate, and resultingly, rolling of the machine can be suppressed. In addition, since the sphere can be rotated on the plate, horizontal vibration of the machine is absorbed to be suppressed. Furthermore, since the sphere is supported by the plate and the plate is supported by a floor via the elastic member, vertical vibration of the machine is also suppressed.

Machine having vibration source

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Kusatsu, Japan

Kenji Nakagawa