Electric household appliance door locking device

Abstract

An electric household appliance having a casing (2); a compartment (3) housed inside the casing (2) and facing an opening (4); a door (5) fitted to the casing (2) and movable between an open position and a closed position; and a locking device (6); the locking device (6) having a box body (7) fixed to the casing (2), alongside the door (5); latch means (8, 13) fitted to the box body (7) to move between a lock position locking the door (5), and a release position releasing the door (5); and an actuating device (11) for selectively moving the latch means (8, 13) between the lock position and the release position, and which has at least an electrically conducting resistance wire (16) made of a shape-memory alloy and designed to vary in length alongside a variation in temperature, and electric power devices (18) for powering the resistance wire (16) and producing a controlled Joule-effect variation in temperature.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a door lock device of a household electrical appliance. [0002] More specifically, the present invention relates to a device designed to lock a door or a drawer in a closed position closing an opening in the housing of an electrical household appliance such as a washing machine, dryer, A washer-dryer combination, a dishwasher or an oven, etc., to which the following description refers by way of example only. Background technique [0003] As is well known, a household electrical appliance of the above-mentioned type, such as a washing machine, comprises: a casing; a laundry compartment, such as a drum, mounted inside the casing in a position facing a laundry loading / unloading opening in the casing; and a door hinged to the casing to rotate between open and closed positions that respectively open and close the opening. [0004] Appliances of the above type, such as washing machines, also include door locking means designed to ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0009] The main disadvantage of door locking devices of the type described above is the high power consumption of the positive temperature coefficient components, which, although reducing their resistance when heated, still maintain power during operation of the appliance, thus resulting in an overall power consumption of the locking device The increase in volume is far from negligible

[0010] In addition to being rather complex and thus expensive to manufacture, locking devices of the type described above also have the disadvantage of being rather slow to release, depending on the time it takes for the safety device PTC attenuator to cool down

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