Cuff and laundry treatment device
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Solution Overview
Problem
Front-loading laundry treatment machines face challenges in achieving a reliable and reproducible door opening function, with existing sealing lips exerting unpredictable retaining forces that can damage laundry or the cuff during loading errors.
Innovation Solution
A cuff with a surface structure featuring circumferential elevations on the sealing lip, which reduces the retaining force while maintaining sealing functionality by creating defined contact zones, allowing precise adjustment of the sealing force, especially when the loading door has a glass porthole, and potentially reducing manufacturing complexity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a flat contact surface is used on the sealing lip, then the sealing function is maintained, but the retaining force is unpredictable and may damage laundry or the cuff
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing lip is designed with circumferential elevations that create localized contact zones on the door surface. Instead of a uniform flat surface, the elevations concentrate the sealing function at specific locations, allowing the contact surface to have non-uniform pressure distribution. This localizes the sealing action while reducing overall retaining force on the door.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact surface of the sealing lip is segmented into multiple discrete contact zones created by the circumferential elevations. These elevations divide the continuous contact surface into separate segments, each contributing to the sealing function. This segmentation reduces the total contact area and distributes the sealing force more evenly, preventing concentration of force that could damage laundry or the cuff.
2Ease of operation
If the contact area is reduced to lower retaining force, then door opening function becomes reliable, but sealing reliability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the geometric parameters of the contact surface by introducing circumferential elevations with specific heights, widths, and spacing. These parameter changes create an optimal balance where the reduced contact area lowers retaining force to enable reliable door opening, while the elevated structures maintain sufficient sealing pressure at the contact zones to ensure sealing reliability.
Data Source
Figure 1
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AI summary
The invention relates to a cuff for a laundry treatment machine 1 and to a laundry treatment machine 1 comprising a housing 2 and a tub 4 arranged therein. The cuff 9 forms a loading channel 10 between a front housing opening 3 and a tub opening 8 facing the housing and has at least one circumferentially U-shaped, inwardly extending sealing lip 16 with a contact surface 18. In order to achieve a reliable door opening function, particularly in so-called front-loading laundry treatment machines, and to make the retaining force exerted by the sealing lip against the loading door reproducible and as low as possible, the contact surface 18 has a surface structure 20 comprising at least one circumferentially U-shaped projection 21 or 22.Preferably, the plant side 18 has a surface structure 20 comprising at least two circumferential projections 21, 22 which are spaced apart in the radial direction R by at least one depression 24.