Stand for home appliance

This application claims the benefit of the Korean Application Nos. P2003-0042956 filed on Jun. 28, 2003, and P2003-0046032 filed on Jul. 8, 2003, which are hereby incorporated by reference.

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to stands for supporting objects at a required height, and more particularly, to a stand for a home appliance in which things can be kept.

2. Background of the Related Art

In general, a drum type washing machine washes laundry by using friction between a drum rotated by a motor and the laundry, and chemical action of detergent in a state the detergent, washing water, and the laundry are introduced into the drum, shows no entangling of the laundry, and has a washing effect of pounding and rubbing the laundry.

The drum type washing machine is provided with a cabinet having an opening in a front for introduction/taking out the laundry. The cabinet, substantially hexahedral, forms an exterior of the drum type washing machine, and has a control panel, and a door for opening/closing the opening for introduction/taking out the laundry therethrough on the front.

Meanwhile, since opening for introduction/taking out the laundry of the drum washing machine is positioned low, the user is required to bend for introduction or taking out the laundry of the drum type washing machine. For eliminating the inconvenience of bending, a stand for the washing machine is developed for supporting the drum type washing machine at a predetermined height.

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a related art drum type washing machine, and a related art washing machine stand under the drum type washing machine for supporting the drum type washing machine at a predetermined height, schematically.

Referring to FIG. 1, the related art washing machine stand 20 is provided with a front panel, side panels connected to opposite edges of the front panel at right angles, and a rear panel having opposite edges connected to rear edges of the side panels, respectively.

A horizontal area of the washing machine stand is similar to a bottom area of the drum type washing machine, and has a supporting plate 21 at a top of each corner where adjacent panels are connected to each other, for placing a leg 11 of the drum type washing machine. There is a stand leg 22 on an underside of the stand 20, in more detail, on a bottom of each corner where adjacent panels are connected to each other, having a height adjustable bolt structure.

However, the related art washing machine stand has the following problems.

First, the related art washing machine stand simply supports the underside of the drum type washing machine at a predetermined height, but fails to use an inside space thereof.

Second, for supporting a drum type washing machine or a laundry dryer having different positions of legs, the related art washing machine stand is required to have different positions of the supporting plates for seating the legs.

Third, since the supporting plate of the related art washing machine just seats, but not holds the leg of the drum type washing machine, the leg of the drum type washing machine is liable to come off the supporting plate from vibration occurred during operation of the drum type washing machine.

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a stand for a home appliance that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a stand for supporting an object at a height, and having a drawer for using an inside space.

Other object of the present invention is to provide a stand which can be used in supporting one of objects with different leg positions, such as a drum type washing machine, or a laundry dryer.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a stand which automatically locks a drawer if the drawer is inserted more than a depth into an inside of the stand, and prevents slipping out of the drawer even if the stand is tilted.

Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the stand includes a stand body of a predetermined height having an opening in one side, and a drawer for pushing in or pulling out through the opening in the stand body to open/close the opening.

The drawer includes a drawer body having a receiving space formed therein, a front cover that is a front of the drawer body for covering the opening of the stand body when the drawer body is pushed in, and a handle provided to the front cover.