Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02339915 2001-03-07
23443-722
1
Dish Rack for a Dishwasher
The invention relates to a dish rack for a dishwasher
with a wire frame coated with plastic.
Known dishwashers on the market have at least one
dish rack for arranging the goods to be rinsed. These racks
are customarily manufactured as frames made of steel wire. Due
to the risk of corrosion from the chemicals used in
dishwashers, they are coated with an anticorrosive made of
organic polymers, in which case a plastic coating, for example,
is used that is usually deposited by a coating process, such as
described in DE-OS 2050905. The color of the coating varies
according to the design of the machine equipped with the rack.
The color is generated by adding commercial pigments to the
plastic coating. Smooth surfaces are particularly preferred
and are therefore generally customary, because the user assumes
that no residual foreign matter will stick to these surfaces.
When the washing has finished, only drops that do not vaporize
easily will therefore remain on the contact points where the
washed dishes rest on the rack. The dishes therefore remain
wet. It is necessary to expend vaporization energy, which
affects power consumption, to vaporize these drops and dry the
dishes quickly.
It is therefore an object of the invention, to create
a dish rack with a surface that draws the drops of water away
from the contact points by distributing them uniformly as a
film across the entire coated surface, and to consequently
ensure that the water will vaporize quickly with little
addition of heat (residual heat). With this object in mind,
the present invention provides a dish rack for a dishwasher,
comprising a wire frame which is made up of structural steel
and is coated wit a plastic coating that distributes water used
for washing dishes over the surface in a thin film.
CA 02339915 2001-03-07
23443-722
2
Preferably, the plastic coating has an average
roughness Rz of at least 5 um and feels smooth nevertheless. A
peak-to-valley-height may be measured in accordance with DIN
4768 using the Rodenstock RM 600 laser profilometer. The
measurement may be performed by scanning the surface with a
laser beam. Mechanical detectors, such as the Perthometer*
M4P, display values that are too small. The average roughness
Rz may more preferably be from 5 um to 100 um.
The dish rack in accordance with the invention
creates, in a simple way and manner, a dish rack that ensures
that the water running off the dishes, which collects as drops
at the contact points between rack and dishes in conventional
dish racks, will distribute itself over the rack's surface and
consequently vaporize more easily.
The dish racks each consist of a wire frame coated
with plastic, in which case, in accordance with the invention,
the wire frame of the dish rack is manufactured of conventional
structural steel and coated with a coating that distributes
water in the manner described and that consists essentially of
plastic, preferably polyamide, especially preferably aliphatic
polyamide, such as polyamide 11 or polyamide 12, and is
deposited by a plastic coating process. With the dish rack in
accordance with the invention, a dishwasher rack can be
manufactured in a simple way and manner and without any extra
cost, that raises the overall appearance of a device and, by
means of the described characteristic, ensures that the dishes
will be dried without any noticeable energy expenditure.
*Trade-mark
