Table top dishwasher

Abstract

A dishwasher comprises: (a) a washing chamber for accommodating articles to be cleaned, and comprising in its lower portion a water-collecting sump floor (12); (b) a spray arm (22) rotatably supported at the sump floor; in accordance with the present invention the dishwasher further comprises (c) a sump member (28) which comprises an insert in the sump floor (12) and which comprises an integral spray arm support (24) which rotatably supports the spray arm (22).

Claims

1. A dishwasher comprising: (a) a washing chamber for accommodating articles to be cleaned, and comprising in its lower portion a water-collecting sump floor; (b) a spray arm rotatably supported at the sump floor; and (c) a sump member inserted into the sump floor and sealed to the sump floor about a perimeter of the sump member, wherein the sump member comprises a spray arm support which rotatably supports the spray arm, and wherein the spray arm support is an integral portion of the sump member, such that the sump member, including the spray arm support, forms a single, contiguous piece of material.

2. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the sump member is made of a low friction material.

3. The dishwasher of claim 2, wherein the sump member is made of a polymer material.

4. The dishwasher of claim 3, wherein the sump member is made of polyoxymethylene (POM), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polypropylene (PP), or mixtures thereof.

5. The dishwasher of claim 3, wherein the sump member is made of a polymer material comprising an admixture of reinforcing additive.

6. The dishwasher of claim 5, wherein the reinforcing additive comprises glass fibers, carbon fibers, or a polymer material that is different from the base material of the sump member.

7. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the spray arm is made of a polymer material.

8. The dishwasher of claim 7, wherein the spray arm is made of polypropylene (PP) comprising a reinforcing additive, such as glass fibers, carbon fibers, or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), or a friction reducing additive, such as talc.

9. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the sump member comprises a drain aperture for withdrawing water from the sump.

10. The dishwasher of claim 9, wherein the sump member comprises a funnel shaped section which merges into the drain aperture.

11. The dishwasher of claim 9, wherein the water-collecting sump floor cooperates with the sump member to form a flow chamber via which water from the drain aperture can be passed to a drain conduit, and wherein the flow chamber is bonded and defined by both the sump member and sump floor.

12. The dishwasher of claim 11, wherein the water-collecting sump floor cooperates with the sump member to form at least a portion of the drain conduit, and wherein the at least a portion of the drain conduit is bounded and defined by both the sump member and sump floor.

13. The dishwasher of claim 11, wherein the water-collecting sump floor cooperates with the sump member to form a generally annular inlet to said flow chamber, wherein the generally annular inlet is bounded and defined between a circumferential edge of the drain aperture of the sump member and the sump floor.

14. The dishwasher of claim 13, wherein a flow section of the annular inlet varies about the circumference of the annular inlet, such that the flow rate through the annular inlet varies as a function of angular position along the circumference of the annular inlet.

15. The dishwasher of claim 14, comprising a plurality of spacers which are provided between the sump floor and the sump member in proximity to the annular inlet, wherein the height of the spacers differs about the circumference of the annular inlet, such that the height of the respective spacers varies as a function of angular position along the circumference of the annular inlet, and wherein the spacers are configured to maintain the flow section of the annular inlet.

16. The dishwasher of claim 11, further comprising an integral drain line fitting for connecting the drain conduit to a hydraulic component of the dishwasher, such as a circulation pump, a drain pump or a drain port.

17. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the sump member, at the interface of the sump member and the sump floor, comprises a sealing element.

18. The dishwasher of claim 17, wherein the sealing element comprises a sealing lip which is integrally formed at the perimeter of the sump member.

19. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the sump member comprises an integral supply line fitting for connection of a water supply conduit for feeding pressurized water to the spray arm.

20. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the spray arm support comprises a hollow cylinder integrally connected to a remainder of the sump member at one end of the cylinder.

Description

(1) Preferred embodiments are described in further detail below by reference to the drawings in which:

(2) FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the sump of a dishwasher made in accordance with the present invention;

(3) FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the dishwasher of FIG. 1 along line A-A; and

(4) FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the sump of FIG. 1 along a line B-B.

(5) FIG. 1 shows a sump module 10 of a dishwasher in which sump module 10 forms the lower section of a washing compartment. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, sump module 10 is made of a thermoplastic material and comprises a generally tub-shaped member the floor of which forms a sump floor 12. Along the upper edge of side walls 14 of sump module 10 there are provided a plurality of mounting lugs 16 with which sump module 10 can be attached to the upper section of the washing chamber. In the central section of sump floor 12 there is a depression 18 which along its upper edge is provided with a ledge 20 where in the assembled state of the dishwasher there is provided a flat filter. A spray arm 22 is rotatably supported at a spray arm support 24 which is located centrally with respect to the sump floor 12. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, spray arm 22 is the sun arm of a sun arm/satellite arm arrangement in which a spray arm having a plurality of spraying nozzles is rotatably supported at a bearing 26 which is provided at one of the free ends of sun arm 22, which itself also can be provided with spray nozzles such as spray nozzle 27 shown at the free end of sun arm 22 opposite bearing 26.

(6) Spray arm support 24 is an integral part of a sump member 28 which forms an insert in sump floor 12 and which is located within depression 18. Sump member 28 including spray arm support 24 is made of polyoxymethylene (POM) so as to provide for a particular low friction with spray arm 22, which preferably is made of polypropylene (PP). At the interface of sump member 28 and sump floor 12, there is provided a sealing element 29, which preferably is a sealing lip that is integrally formed at the perimeter of sump member 28, such as by overmoulding. The sealing element thus can comprise a sealing lip 29 which is provided about the perimeter of the sump member 28, or as shown in FIG. 3, comprises a sealing element 31 which is provided on a surface section of the sump floor 12 on which sump member 28 rests and which extends along the perimeter of the sump member 28.

(7) Sump member 28 comprises a funnel shaped section 30 in the center of which there is provided a tubular filter element 32 via which the cleaning liquid collected at the sump passes when flowing into a drain aperture 33, from which the cleaning liquid is passed to a circulation pump to again be supplied to spray arm 22 or from which the cleaning liquid is withdrawn from the dishwasher, such as by a drain pump or a hydrostatically operated drain port. At the upper end of tubular filter element 32 there is provided a handle 34 which facilitates removal of the filter element for cleaning purposes.

(8) FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the sump module 10 of FIG. 1 along line A′a. As is shown in FIG. 2, sump member 28 integrally comprises spray arm support 24 and the funnel shaped section 30 in which there is arranged a tubular filter element 36 which is held with its central support region 38 at a support 40 which constitutes the lower most section of sump member 10 further comprises a water supply line 42 which is connected with a fitting 44 which is integrally formed at the lower section of spray arm support 24.

(9) FIG. 3 is a sectional view of sump module 10 along line B-B shown in FIG. 1. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the funnel shaped section 30 of sump member 28 extends towards a floor portion 46 of sump floor 12 and thus forms an annular inlet 48 into a fluid chamber 50 which is formed by cooperation of sump floor 12 and sump member 28. Sump floor 12 and sump member 28 further cooperate to form a drain conduit 52 via which water from flow chamber 50 can be passed to a fitting 54 which is integrally formed at a section of the drain conduit which is formed completely by sump floor 12 from where the water can be passed via a connection tube 56 to the intake 58 of a circulation pump. Since a suction applied to drain conduit 52 will result in a suction at annular inlet 48 that is inhomogeneous about the circumference of the annular inlet, the flow section of annular inlet 48 is varied about its circumference. Thus, at the side facing away from drain conduit 52 annular inlet 48 has a larger flow section than at the side facing towards drain conduit 52. In order to maintain the lower end of funnel shaped section 30 at a desired distance from floor section 46 there are provided a plurality of spacers 60 about the circumference of the annular inlet, which spacers 60 vary in height.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

(10) 10 sump module 12 sump floor 14 side wall 16 mounting lug 18 depression 20 ledge 22 spray arm 24 spray arm support 26 bearing 27 spray nozzle 28 sump member 29 sealing lip 30 funnel shaped section 31 sealing element 32 filter element 33 drain aperture 34 handle 36 filter element 38 support region 40 support 42 supply line 44 supply line fitting 46 floor portion 48 annular inlet 50 flow chamber 52 drain conduit 54 drain line fitting 56 connecting tube 58 intake 60 spacer