Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Yutaka Inagaki

Hiroshi Nishimura

Masahiro Imai

Koichi Hosomi

Masaru Koshimizu

Kazunobu Nagai

Isamu Nitta

A washing machine includes a hollow tub shaft mounted on a first stationary portion of the machine for rotation, a rotatable tub rotatably mounted on an upper end of the tub shaft, an agitator shaft concentrically inserted in the tub shaft for rotation, an agitator mounted on the upper end of the agitator shaft, a stator fixed to a second stationary portion of the machine to be concentric with the agitator shaft to constitute an electric motor together with the stator, and a clutch including a holder mounted on the tub shaft for rotation with the tub shaft. The clutch further includes a first engagement portion formed in a third stationary portion of the machine, a second engagement portion formed in the rotor, a lever mounted on the holder to be selectively engaged with one of the first and second engagement portions, the lever operatively coupling the rotor to the agitator shaft when engaged with the first engagement portion, the lever operatively coupling the rotor to both of the agitator and tub shafts when engaged with the second engagement portion, and toggle type springs holding the lever in engagement with the first and second engagement portions respectively.

Washing machine with improved drive structure for rotatable tub and

A washing machine includes an outer tub, a rotatable tub rotatably mounted in the outer tub, an agitator mounted in the rotatable tub, a hollow tub shaft transmitting a rotating force to the rotatable tub, an agitator shaft inserted in the tub shaft for transmitting a rotating force to the agitator and having a lower end, an electric motor including a stator concentric with the agitator shaft and a rotor mounted on the lower end of the agitator shaft, a clutch for changing between a first mode in which the tub shaft is operatively coupled to the agitator shaft in a dehydration step so that the motor rotor, the agitator shaft and the tub shaft are rotated together and a second mode in which the tub shaft is decoupled from the agitator shaft in a wash step so that the tub shaft is prevented from being rotated with the motor rotor and the agitator shaft, and a mechanism housing mounted on an outer bottom of the outer tub. The tub shaft, the agitator shaft, the motor and the clutch are mounted on the mechanism housing to be composed into an integral mechanism unit.

Growing community of inventors

Fuji, Japan

Yutaka Inagaki