The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 05, 1994
Filed:
Sep. 27, 1993
Thomas R Payne, Louisville, KY (US);
Steven A Rice, Louisville, KY (US);
Richard E McKnight, Jr, Louisville, KY (US);
William W Wead, Louisville, KY (US);
General Electric Company, Louisville, KY (US);
Abstract
A fabric washing machine includes a container to receive fabrics and washing fluid. An SRM is operatively connected to oscillate and rotate the container. Ribs formed on the center post of the container agitate the fabrics and fluid as the container is oscillated. Just prior to a spin extraction operation the container is oscillated with an asymmetric pattern that travels further in one direction than in the other. To minimize wrapping of the fabrics about the center post the asymmetric pattern is periodically reversed. Also, just prior to the spin operation the motor is operated at a constant torque and the time to accelerate the container from one speed to a higher speed is measured one or more times. The inertia of the load, and thus the size of the fabric load, is calculated from the time measurements. The motor then is operated at a constant torque to accelerate the container from a threshold speed for a predetermined period of time and the final speed of the container is measured. This speed measurement is compared to the predetermined terminal speed of a comparable balanced load to determine the degree of unbalance in the load of fabrics. The terminal speed of the spin operation is then set based upon the determined load size and degree of unbalance.