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:
Apr. 14, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 11, 1996
Hiroshi Nishimura, Seto, JP;
Masaru Koshimizu, Komaki, JP;
Masahiro Imai, Tajimi, JP;
Koichi Hosomi, Seto, JP;
Yutaka Inagaki, Fuji, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kanagawa-Ken, JP;
Abstract
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.