Whirlpool Patents Fluid Delivery System For a Front-Loader

US PATENT 12,139,837 B2
(Marco Angelini, Matteo Carnevale, Massimiliano Daniele, Deepak Gupta, Mauro Mancini, and Vaclav Petracek, Whirlpool Corp.)
Whirlpool Corp. researchers patented a laundry appliance comprising: a tub having a structural hub; a drum that is rotationally operable within the tub; a drive shaft attached to the drum and extending through the structural hub; lifters that are disposed on an interior surface of the drum, wherein fluid is delivered to the drum via a fluid inlet that extends through the tub and in an axial direction parallel with the drive shaft and a rotational axis of the drum; and a plurality of bearings that extend between the drive shaft and the structural hub; wherein the plurality of bearings include corresponding seals that extend between the drive shaft and the structural hub; the fluid inlet extends axially through the drive shaft to a manifold that apportions the fluid among the lifters of the drum; and the fluid inlet is in communication with a fluid space defined between the drive shaft, the structural hub, and the corresponding seals of the plurality of bearings.