Structural elements for washing machines, dryers or the like, doped or coated with germicidal material

Abstract

A household appliance, particularly a clothes dryer or a washing machine with an air-conducting and/or a water-conducting system of individual structural elements, through which suds, a gas flow, or the like can be conducted. The disinfection of water-conducting or air-conducting elements is simply successful if the surface facing the suds-conducting area of at least one of the structural elements is anti-microbially or bacteriocidally coated and/or the surface is anti-microbially or bacteriocidally doped, or if the surface facing the air-conducting area of at least one of the structural elements is anti-microbially or bacteriocidally coated and/or the surface is anti-microbially or bacteriocidally doped.

1 . A household appliance, particularly a clothes dryer or a washing machine with at least one of an air-conducting system and a water-conducting system of individual structural elements, through which one of suds, a gas flow and the like can be conducted, the household appliance comprising: 
 a surface facing an area of one of the air-conducting and the water-conducting of at least one of the structural elements at least partially coated with one of a microbe-killing and a bacteria-killing substance, and the surface doped with the one of the microbe-killing and the bacteria-killing substance.    
   
   
       2 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the surface is at least one of coated and doped with at least one of organic substances and inorganic substances with at least one of bacteriocidal and anti-microbial properties.  
   
   
       3 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 2 , wherein a coating has at least one of a glass component and a glass frit which has at least partially at least one of anti-microbial and biocidal properties.  
   
   
       4 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 3 , wherein the structural element is formed at least in part from a plastic component, and one of an anti-microbially acting and a biocidally acting substance, particularly a glass powder, is added to a material of the plastic component.  
   
   
       5 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 4 , wherein one of the glass frit and the glass powder is at least partially made of one of a silicate, a phosphate and a borosilicate glass doped with at least one of Ag, Cu and Zn.  
   
   
       6 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 5 , wherein the structural element is at least partially made of one of the silicate, the phosphate and the borosilicate glass doped with the at least one of the Ag, the Cu and the Zn.  
   
   
       7 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 6 , wherein the structural element has at least in part a silver-filled zeolite as one of the coating material and the doping material.  
   
   
       8 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 7 , wherein the layer applied to one of the surface and the doped surface area has a concentration of 0.5 to 10 weight-% of one of the anti-microbial and the bacteriocidal active ingredients.  
   
   
       9 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein a coating has at least one of a glass component and a glass frit which has at least partially at least one of anti-microbial and biocidal properties.  
   
   
       10 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the structural element is formed at least in part from a plastic component, and one of an anti-microbially acting and a biocidally acting substance, particularly a glass powder, is added to a material of the plastic component.  
   
   
       11 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 10 , wherein one of the glass frit and the glass powder is at least partially made of one of a silicate, a phosphate and a borosilicate glass doped with at least one of Ag, Cu and Zn.  
   
   
       12 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the structural element is at least partially made of one of the silicate, the phosphate and the borosilicate glass doped with the at least one of the Ag, the Cu and the Zn.  
   
   
       13 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the structural element has at least in part a silver-filled zeolite as one of the coating material and the doping material.  
   
   
       14 . The household appliance in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein the layer applied to one of the surface and the doped surface area has a concentration of 0.5 to 10 weight-% of one of the anti-microbial and the bacteriocidal active ingredients.