Switched reluctance wash
A collaboration between Electrolux and CSIRO Industrial Physics has produced a washing machine with few moving parts and no gearbox.
Washing machines have been around for a long time, but there is room for technical advances in even the most familiar household equipment. A top-loading washing machine with a 9.5-kilogram capacity, that is efficient and quiet and operates with minimal vibration, will enter Australian stores after a long-running R&D venture between CSIRO and Electrolux.
The new machine will have one of the largest capacities, by a kilogram or more, of any domestic top-loading washing machine, but it is the inner technical developments that make the machine a step-change in washing machine technology.
The collaboration between Electrolux and CSIRO Industrial Physics at Lindfield, Sydney, has produced a washing machine with few moving parts and no gearbox – the Achilles heel of many conventional top-loading washing machines.
CSIRO team leader, physicist Dr. Stephen Collocott, says the new Westinghouse top-loader, being built by Electrolux, employs an electric motor very different to those commonly used in washing machines.
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