Laundry treatment apparatus

This applicationNotice: More than one reissue applications have been filed for the reissue of U.S. Pat. No. 9,359,717, and these reissue applications include U.S. Reissue patent application Ser. No. 16/002,610 that was filed on Jun. 7, 2018 (and is now issued as U.S. Pat. No. RE48,255), U.S. Reissue patent application Ser. No. 16/129,098 that was filed on Sep. 12, 2018 (and is now issued as U.S. Pat. No. RE49,100), U.S. Reissue patent application Ser. No. 17/832,877 that was filed on Jun. 6, 2022, and the present application of U.S. Reissue patent application Ser. No. 18/640,962 that was filed on Apr. 19, 2024. The present application is a continuation reissue application of U.S. Reissue patent application Ser. No. 17/832,877, which is a continuation reissue application of U.S. Reissue patent application Ser. No. 16/129,098, which is a continuation reissue application of U.S. Reissue patent application Ser. No. 16/002,610, which is a reissue application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/559,753 (filed on Dec. 3, 2014 and that issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,359,717 on Jun. 7, 2016), whichclaims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Korean Application No. 10-2013-0150441 filed on Dec. 5, 2013, whose entire disclosure is hereby incorporated by reference.

1. Field

The present disclosure relates to laundry treatment apparatuses.

2. Background

Generally, laundry treatment apparatuses refer to apparatuses that perform a variety of operations related to laundry (washing, drying, deodorization, wrinkle removal, and the like). Examples of laundry treatment apparatuses include washing machines that wash laundry, drying machines that dry wet laundry, and refreshers for deodorization and removal of wrinkles of laundry.

In recent years, laundry treatment apparatuses have been developed to allow a single apparatus to perform all of washing, drying, deodorization, and removal of wrinkles. However, these laundry treatment apparatuses, which include a drum in which laundry is received and a drive device to rotate the drum, do not provide satisfactory deodorization and removal of wrinkles.

Most laundry treatment apparatuses have limits on deodorization or removal of wrinkles because they generally perform deodorization or removal of wrinkles during rotation of a drum and laundry introduced into the drum is not spread, but wrinkled.

In addition, most laundry treatment apparatuses have no means to put a crease in laundry (e.g., the straight line in the front and back of trousers), which causes a user to inconveniently use a crease making means, such as an iron, after completion of washing or drying when desired to put a crease in laundry.

As shown in, a laundry treatment apparatus according to the present disclosure, designated by reference numeral, includes a cabinetdefining an external appearance of the laundry treatment apparatus, a laundry receiverdefined within the cabinetto provide a laundry receiving space, a feeder to feed at least one of air or moisture to the laundry receiver, and a presserplaced within the laundry receiver, the presserserving to smooth out the wrinkles in laundry or to put a crease in laundry (e.g., the straight line in the front and back of trousers).

The laundry receiverincludes a receiving spacein which laundry is received, the receiving spacebeing defined within the cabinet. The receiving spaceis opened or closed by a doorcoupled to the cabinet.

The cabinetmay accommodate laundry support members configured to support laundry. The laundry support members may include a first laundry support memberinstalled in the receiving spaceand a second laundry support memberaffixed to the door.

The first laundry support membermay take the form of a bar that extends in the width direction of the receiving space(i.e. in a width direction of the dooror along the Y-axis) or in the depth direction of the receiving space(i.e. along the X-axis).shows the case in which the first laundry support memberextends in the width direction of the receiving spaceby way of example.

In this case, laundry may be supported by the first laundry support membervia a hook H of a hangeror without the hanger. In either case, laundry may be kept spread within the receiving space.

The second laundry support memberis affixed to the doorto allow laundry to be placed within the receiving spacewhile being kept spread. More specifically, the second laundry support member, as exemplarily shown in, may include a baseaffixed to the door, and two or more support pieces or hooks,andprotruding from the baseand arranged in the height direction of the door(i.e. along the Z-axis).

The support pieces of the second laundry support membermay include a first support piece, a second support piecethat is located above the first support pieceand has a greater length than a length of the first support piece, and a third support piecethat is located above the second support pieceand has a greater length than a length of the second support piece.

The reason why length of the support pieces increases from the first support pieceto the third support pieceis to allow the second laundry support memberto support a number of laundries. As laundry is hung on hangersand hooks H of the hangersare supported by the respective support pieces,and, the laundry is kept spread within the receiving space.

Meanwhile, the cabinetmay further include a machine roomisolated from the receiving space. In this case, the feeder may be mounted in the machine room.

As exemplarily shown in, the machine roommay be located under the receiving spaceand may be opened and closed by a machine room door.

When air fed into the receiving spaceby the feeder is heated air and moisture fed into the receiving spaceby the feeder is steam, positioning the machine roomunder the receiving spaceensures that the heated air or steam is evenly fed into the receiving spacewithout a separate blowing device.

The feeder may include at least one of an air feederthat feeds air (heated air or unheated air) into the receiving spaceand a moisture feederthat feeds moisture (steam or mist) into the receiving space.

Hereinafter, for convenience of description, it is assumed that the feeder includes both the air feederand the moisture feeder, the air feederfeeds hot air into the receiving space, and the moisture feederfeeds steam into the receiving space.

The air feedermay include a circulation ductfor circulation of interior air of the receiving space, a heat exchangerfor heat exchange with air moving through the circulation duct, and a blowerfor movement of interior air of the receiving spacethrough the circulation duct.

The circulation ductcommunicates with the interior of the receiving spacethrough an air discharge portand an air suction portof the receiving space.

The air discharge portand the air suction portare perforated in the bottom of the receiving spaceto enable communication between the receiving spaceand the machine room. As such, when the circulation ductmounted in the machine roomis connected at one end thereof to the air suction portand at the other end thereof to the air discharge port, the circulation ductmay communicate with the interior of the receiving space.

The heat exchangerserves to dehumidify and heat air introduced into the circulation duct.shows a heat pump as one example of the heat exchanger.

When the heat exchangertakes the form of a heat pump, the heat exchangermay include an evaporator E located within the circulation duct, a condenser C located within the circulation duct, a compressor P located at the outside of the circulation duct, and an expander Ex located at the outside of the circulation duct.

The evaporator E, the compressor P, the condenser C, and the expander Ex are connected to one another via refrigerant tubes.

The compressor P serves to compress refrigerant to high pressure to allow the refrigerant to be circulated through the refrigerant tubes. The evaporator E serves to evaporate the refrigerant by absorbing heat from air within the circulation duct. The condenser C serves to condense the refrigerant by discharging heat to the air within the circulation duct.

The bloweris located within the circulation ductand serves to cause circulation of the interior air of the receiving spacethrough the circulation duct. The bloweris located between the condenser C and the air discharge port.

Accordingly, when the bloweris operated, the air within the circulation ductmoves into the receiving spacethrough the air discharge port, and the interior air of the receiving spacemoves into the circulation ductthrough the air suction port.

The air introduced into the circulation ductthrough the air suction portis cooled while passing through the evaporator E and, in turn, the air having passed through the evaporator E is heated while passing through the condenser C.

When the air is cooled while passing through the evaporator E, moisture contained in the air is removed (dehumidification), and the moisture removed from the air (condensate water) remains on a surface of the evaporator E or within the circulation duct.

Since the resultant condensate water remaining in the circulation ductcauses deterioration in the heat exchange efficiency of the heat exchanger, according to the present disclosure, a drain unit may be further provided to remove the condensate water generated by the evaporator E.

The drain unit may include a drain tankseparably coupled to the machine room door, and a drainpipeand a drain pumpwhich serve to direct the condensate water from the circulation ductto the drain tank.

The drain tankmay have any shape so long as it can provide a space for storage of liquid. Preferably, the drain tankmay include a drain tank lidfor discharge of liquid stored in the drain tankand an inlet holefor separable connection of the drainpipe.

The inlet holemay be provided with a check valve (not shown). This serves to allow the drainpipeto be separated from the inlet holewhen the machine room dooropens the machine roomand to allow the drainpipeto be inserted into the inlet holewhen the machine room doorcloses the machine room(in addition to preventing leakage of water out of the drain tankwhen the drain tankis separated from the machine room door).

Meanwhile, as shown in, the moisture feedermay include a reservoirplaced in the machine room, a heatermounted in the reservoir, and a moisture feed pipeto connect the reservoirto a moisture discharge port.

The reservoirserves to store water therein. The heaterserves to heat the water stored in the reservoirto change the water into steam. The moisture feed pipeserves to guide steam from the reservoirto the receiving space.

Accordingly, the heateris preferably located proximate to the bottom of the reservoir, and the moisture feed pipeis preferably located at the top (or an upper end) of the reservoir.

The reservoirreceives water via a water supply unit. The water supply unit may include a water supply tankseparably coupled to the machine room door.

In this case, the reservoirmay be provided with a connection pipethat is connected to the water supply tankwhen the machine room doorcloses the machine roomand is separated from the water supply tankwhen the machine room dooropens the machine room.

While the water supply tankmay have any shape so long as it can store liquid therein, preferably, the water supply tankmay include a water supply tank lidfor supply of liquid into the water supply tank, a discharge hole (not shown) for insertion of the connection pipe, and a check valveprovided at the discharge hole.

The reason why the water supply tankis separably coupled to the machine room dooris that the laundry treatment apparatusaccording to the present disclosure is installed at a position distant from a water supply source (not shown).

That is, when the laundry treatment apparatusis located proximate to a water supply source, the reservoirmay be controlled to receive water from the water supply source as needed. However, this control is impossible when the laundry treatment apparatusis installed at a position distant from the water supply source. The water supply tankserves to solve this problem.

Accordingly, differently from previous laundry treatment apparatuses that perform deodorization or removal of wrinkles by supplying hot air or steam into a drum during rotation of the drum, the laundry treatment apparatusaccording to the present disclosure is configured to feed hot air or steam while keeping laundry spread within the receiving space, thereby preventing the laundry from being wrinkled after steam or hot air is fed thereto.

Meanwhile, the presser (see reference numeral) shown inserves to remove wrinkles of laundry or to put a crease in laundry (e.g., the straight line in the front and back of trousers) using steam and hot air fed into the receiving space.

The presser, which is configured to direct at least one of steam and hot air fed into the receiving spaceto laundry, may be located at any position within the receiving space.shows the case in which the presseris affixed to an inner surface of the door(i.e. a surface of the doordefining one side of the receiving space) by way of example.

The presseraccording to the present disclosure may include a support structureformed in the inner surface of the doorto provide a laundry support space, and a press structurerotatably coupled to the support structureor the door, the press structureserving to apply pressure to laundry placed in the support structure.

The support structuremay be a surface of the doorfacing the receiving space, or may be a separate member affixed to the surface of the door.shows the case in which the support structureincludes a support bodyaffixed to the surface of the doorby way of example.

In this case, the support bodymay have a plane parallel to the surface of the door.