Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to textile fluid cleaning machine and more particularly to vertical axis clothes washing machines. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, washing machine are meant to clean dirt off the fabrics by applying
mechanical energy of agitating element, generally supplemented with chemical action
supplied by the detergent. The cleaning action is sometimes enhanced by using thermal
energy to heat up the water for easy removal of oil and like dirt. Several designs have
emerged out for the sake of improving the washing efficiency by controlling the said
three washing parameters. In order to enhance mechanical cleaning action, numerous
impeller designs have come into existence since decades, for efficient transfer of
mechanical energy of the rotating agitator to water and finally to the clothes being
cleaned. In general, all the available designs can be categorized into two; blade/vane
type central post agitator and pulsator type low profile impeller. The extent of agitation/
turbulence and thereby, level of cleaning is found to be more in blade type agitators
than that in pulsators. However, the aggressive action of blades on the fabric which
results in entangling issue and damages the clothes, makes the design inferior. To serve
this problem, ultrasonic based washing is apparently a good alternative, however, the
cleaning action in ultrasonic washing is not satisfactorily efficient due to a very low
level of agitation produced inside the water which is insufficient to remove the dirt
laden micelles away from the clothes. *

Conventional trends of design do not seem to have attempted much satisfactorily in this regard except very few like those considered in patents US2927449 A and US 1745177 A, to mitigate the damage produced to clothes by the agitator blades. Hence, there is a need to provide a better arrangement in the washing machine that may prevent the agitator from damaging the clothes, and this is the main objective of the present invention. Another objective of the present invention is to keep the design simple to manufacture and easy assemble/ disassemble yet keeping high washing efficiency.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to prevent clothes from directly coming in contact with the agitator. This can be achieved by constructing a border between fabric and agitator which only allow transfer of mechanical energy and not the clothes. The mechanical energy of the moving agitator is first transferred to water which creates turbulence/ water current, responsible for gently removing the dirt from the clothes. Summary of the invention
The present invention consists of a washing machine having a centrally mounted agitator assembly, comprising an agitator that has radially projecting vertical or spiral or like shape blades, running circumferentially around the agitator central post. The agitator post runs downward through the wash basket by means of bearing or clutch mechanism and is coupled to splined shaft to receive rotational power from the transmission system. At bottom of the agitator, shoulder of agitator gives a seat for placement for collar of pulsator in a rotatable manner. The pulsator has a circular groove on its top base, with holes for fastening a cage through its lower rim with a bolt

or pin or in similar manner. At the top, the cage is rotatably secured to the agitator with
the help of the crown sitting inside the seat provided at the top of the agitator post. In
this manner, the cage is fastened to the low pulsator and the pulsator-cage system 71
can rotate freely on the agitator post.
The small sized and smooth contoured mesh of the cage allows only the water to pass
through and prevents any cloth from coming inside, in contact with the agitator. When
the laundry articles are charged from the top inside the annular wash chamber, the
clothes rest on the smooth and low profile pulsator base. The intermittent rotary motion
of the agitator and hence, the blades, creates turbulence in the water. The water current
then passes through the cage and reaches the clothes to be washed and creates agitation.
The clothes rotate along with the pulsator-cage system 71 against the water current
produced by the agitator. As there is no relative motion of clothes and cage, any rubbing
of the clothes with the cage is prevented. This, therefore, helps in mitigating the damage
caused to the clothes by the conventional blade type high efficiency agitators.
Brief description of drawings
Fig. 1 is a schematic view showing the general construction of vertical axis washing
machine.
Fig. 2 is a full sectional view of the centrally mounted caged-agitator assembly
according to the present invention.
Fig. 3.1 and fig. 3.2 is a front and perspective view of the agitator, respectively.
Fig. 4 represents the perspective view of the agitator- pulsator assembly, before
attachment of cage onto the pulsator.

Fig. 5 represents an exploded view of pulsator- cage assembly. Fig. 6 shows perspective view of complete caged agitator assembly. Detailed description of drawings:
It is to be understood that the invention is in no manner limited to the specific construction shown in the following section. The specific details of the assembly shown herein fall in relation with the preferred embodiments and are for illustrative purposes only. Variations of the parts will be apparent to those skilled in the art as the description proceeds. Construction
Referring to the drawings, fig. 1 shows a general construction of vertical axis washing machine 10 with the inclusion of present invention of gentle action caged agitator assembly 30. The said vertical axis cloth washing machine 10 comprises a cabinet 11 which houses the wash tub 12 which in turn receives the wash basket 13 in a nested fashion. The cabinet 11 has a lid 14 at the top to receive dirty cloth articles or detergent into the wash basket 13. The wash basket 13 is permeable to water through provision of water communication holes 16 in its wall to ensure communication of water between the wash basket 13 and the wash tub 12. A caged agitator assembly 30 is centrally mounted inside the wash basket 13 for creating agitation inside the washing fluid and the clothes, in order to assist washing and rinsing actions. The rotational power of the agitator assembly 30 is received from power transmission system with the help of coupling between the agitator barrel 46 and the keyed drive shaft 17, which is connected next to the DC motor 18, in a method know in prior art. Supply water for

cleaning purpose is filled inside the wash basket 13 through an inlet valve 19. The used/ waste water is pumped by the drain pump 20 through the drain hole 22 in the wash tub 12, via a drain pipe 23. The foregoing portions of washing machine 10 are standard, and thus will not be further discussed. The present invention discloses a high efficiency, gentle action Caged Agitator system 30. A detailed description of the same is provided in the following section.
The gentle action caged agitator assembly 30 of the present invention as shown in Fig. 2 which comprises an agitator 40, a low and smooth profiled pulsator 50 and a blade conforming cage 60.
Referring to fig. 3 (a) and fig. 3 (b), the gentle action agitator is comprised of a central post 41 which carries a plurality of radially projecting vertical or spiral or like shape agitator blades 42, running circumferentially around the agitator central post 41. The agitator blades 42 generate high water current and form vortex in the wash chamber, required for clothes cleaning.
The agitator post runs 41 downward through the wash basket 12 by means of bearing or clutch mechanism (not shown) to barrel 46 which is coupled to splined drive shaft 17 to receive rotational power from the transmission system, placed exterior to wash basket 12. The agitator 40 has a shoulder 43 at its bottom inside the wash basket 12 to support collar 58 of the pulsator 50 in a rotatable manner. A plurality of ribs 45 extend between the barrel 46 and the shoulder 43 and provides strength and firm attachment to the hollow agitator post 41 at the barrel 46.

6
The pulsator 50 has a circular groove (not shown) on its top base, with a plurality of holes for fastening the cage 60 on its lower rim 53 with a bolt or pin or a similar fastener. At the top, the cage 60 is rotatably secured to the agitator 40 with the help of a crown 55 sitting inside the seat 44 provided at the top of the agitator 40. During assembly, the cage 60 is fastened to the pulsator 50 and the so formed pulsator-cage system 71 can rotate freely around the agitator post 41, on the shoulder 43 at bottom and seat 44 at top of the agitator 40.
In Fig. 4, a perspective view of agitator- pulsator assembly has been shown, before the attachment of the cage 60 onto the pulsator 50. The cage 60 is removable with respect to the base 61 for easy assembly and disassembly. During assembly, the cage system
60 is inserted from top of the wash basket 13 and then disposed onto the circular groove (not shown) on the pulsator base 61 and fastened there with lower cage rim 53 with the help of bolt/ pin or in a similar method known in prior art, thereby encasing the agitator 40. The top of the cage is then secured on the seat 44, provided at the top of the agitator 30, through the crown 55 in a way that the cage becomes integrated to the pulsator base
61 and rotates freely on the agitator post 41.
The most essential element of the present invention is a cage 60 as shown in fig. 5, comprising a smooth contoured mesh 59 extending between the lower cage rim 53 and the upper cage rim 54. The cage 60 conforms to the shape of agitator blades 42 and provide a restriction to clothes movement towards the blades 42 so as to prevent their entanglement and wear.

7
Working
Before starting the wash cycle, the water is filled inside the wash chamber 70 through the inlet valve 19 up to a level above the crown 55. Detergents are added and the dirty clothes are charged inside the wash basket 13. The wash selector setting is made at control panel 15 and the power is switched on to start the DC motor 18. The clutch mechanism of the transmission system engages with the caged agitator assembly 30. The power from the drive shaft 17 of the motor 18 is transmitted to the agitator 40 through a coupling at the agitator barrel 46. The intermittent alternate rotation that is, a repetitive clockwise-stop-counter clockwise motion of the agitator 40 relative to the wash tub 12 to agitate the washing fluid inside the wash chamber 70, assist cleaning action of the clothes. The giant action of the blades 42 which are nearly vertically inclined or have the like orientation create heavy turbulence inside the washing fluid, from which the energy is then communicated to the clothes in the wash chamber 70 to agitate them to clean off dirt. The base 61 of the pulsator 60 provides a platform for the clothes to rest on. The pulsator-cage system 71 rotates in the direction opposite to that of agitator 40. The centrifugal action of the rotating washing fluid will tend to push the clothes radially outward and will ensure that the clothes are moving apart from the cage and they do not enter the cage, thus providing protection against rotating blades 42. During the spinning process, the clutch is released from the caged agitator assembly 30 and is engaged to the wash tub to provide it rotation.
In this way, damage to the clothes with the agitator 40 is prevented, without much compromising with the cleaning efficiency. Moreover, as the cage is fastened to the

pulsator base and is quite light in weight, its assembly and disassembly can be done manually by the operator, as and when required. The intention behind this is to serve in a condition where if in case the cloth article enters the cage, it can be later taken out by removing the cage. In addition to this, the present design also provides a method where by a slight alteration and minimal addition in the already available designs, the efficiency of agitator type top load washing machine can be exploited yet taking care of delicate fabrics.

Claims
It is anticipated that various modifications, substitutions or additions of the present invention may be undertaken without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. We claim:
1. A top load cloth washing machine, comprising:
A cabinet;
A wash tub supported within said cabinet;
A perforated wash basket nesting inside said wash tub;
A caged agitator assembly disposed at the center of said wash basket, the said
agitator assembly comprising an agitator post with radially projecting vertical
or spiral or the like shaped blades, the said agitator assembly extends through
the said wash basket by means of bearing or clutch mechanism to a barrel, the
said barrel is coupled to splined drive shaft connected to power transmission
system;
A cage encasing said agitator, the said cage system mounted onto said
pulsator at bottom and secured to the top of said agitator through a seat
provided therein.
2. A caged agitator assembly of claim 1 wherein, the said pulsator is supported
onto said agitator with the help of collar resting on the shoulder provided at
the bottom of said agitator inside the wash tub, in a rotatable manner.

3. A caged agitator assembly of claim 1 wherein, the said pulsator has a circular groove on its top base, with a plurality of holes for fastening said cage, the said cage is fastened onto the pulsator at its lower rim with a bolt or pin or a similar means, the said cage is secured at the top through its upper rim fastened to the crown, the said crown sits next into the seat provided at the top of the said agitator post in a rotatable fashion.
4. A caged agitator assembly of claim 1 wherein, the said cage is made up of smooth and small size mesh extending between the lower cage rim and the upper cage rim, said lower rim is fastened to the said pulsator groove with a bolt or pin or a similar means, the said cage is secured at the top through its upper rim fastened to the crown, the said crown sits next into the seat provided at the top of the said agitator post in a rotatable fashion.
5. A caged agitator assembly of claim 1 wherein, the said cage is made up of light material and is easy to assemble/ disassemble onto the said pulsator and said agitator post, by removal of the fasteners/ like means and can be easily inserted to already existing designs without much alterations.
6. A caged agitator assembly of claim 1 wherein, the said pulsator have a relative rotation in relation with the said agitator, the said pulsator is driven through a dedicated drive or connected to the said drive shaft with a idler gear for opposite rotation or with a gear of specific gear ratio for relative rotation

in same direction, in a manner known in prior art, thereby, creating high turbulence and agitation inside the wash water and efficient dirt removal.
7. A caged agitator assembly of claim 1 wherein, the said cage conforms longitudinally to the said agitator blades, ensuring high tub space capacity.
8. The top load washing machine of claim 1, wherein the said agitator assembly comprising pressure nozzles projecting outward therefrom said central agitator post in between the space of the said blades to splash out high pressure water or cleaning fluid from the pressure duct into the wash chamber over the surface of the submerged clothes, thereby pushing the said clothes away from the agitator blades, enhancing the turbulence and improving the wetting action, and inclined to radial direction of the said projecting blades, the said agitator assembly extends through the said wash basket by means of bearing or clutch mechanism, the extended barrel of said agitator mounted onto the drive shaft connected to power transmission gear drive or the like.
9. A top load washing machine of claim 1 further comprising a high-pressure fluid channels running outside the wall of said wash basket, thereby connecting with plurality of said holes therein the said wash basket, the pressure channels conducting high pressure water or cleaning fluid from pressure pump to wash basket to impact high pressure water or cleaning fluid jet into the wash chamber towards the center, thereby pushing the clothes from rubbing against the wash basket wall.

10. The agitator of claim 1, wherein the agitator and pulsator are rotatably integrated thereby possessing independent rotation.