DD295683A5 - clothes dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a laundry dryer (30) and has a drum (32) which can be driven in rotation about an axis (33) for receiving laundry (36). An air flow (46) is guided through an interior of the drum (32). The air flow (46) enters the drum (32) via at least one first opening (41). In the drum (32) one or more drivers (35) are arranged. In order to be able to keep the installation depth (t) of the laundry dryer (30) low, the air flow (46) is guided from the first opening (41) into the driver (s) (35) and from there over the second, into the carriers (35 ) arranged openings (45) in the interior of the drum * Fig. 2 {Waeschetrockner; Drum; carrier; LUFTFUEHRUNG}

Description

For this 3 pages drawings

Field of application of the invention

The invention relates to a tumble dryer having a drum for receiving laundry that can be driven in rotation about an axis, with an air flow guided through an interior of the drum and entering the drum via at least one first opening, and with at least one driver arranged in the drum. The invention relates in particular to measures with which the flow through the wet laundry with warm air is improved.

Characteristic of the known state of the art

In tumble dryers, a distinction is made between so-called exhaust air dryers and so-called recirculating air or condensation dryers. In the first type of clothes dryers, a dry stream of air from the environment of the clothes dryer is sucked in, heated and blown into the drum of the clothes dryer. The emerging from the drum. Steam and lint laden air is then passed through a lint filter back into the outer space. In the second-mentioned type of tumble driers, however, a closed air circuit is used, in which the air emerging from the drum and loaded with steam and lint is passed through a condenser after passing a lint filter through which the steam is condensed to water.

In known laundry dryers of one or the other type, a cylindrical drum for receiving the laundry is used, which is arranged rotatably about a horizontal axis in the rule. The warm air flow is usually introduced or discharged via the radial end walls of the drum. It is also known to provide entrainment in drums of tumble driers in order to put the laundry on rotation of the drum in motion and to achieve that the hot air flow can better flow through the laundry. The drivers are usually web-like and extend along generatrices on the inside of the cylindrical drum.

As long as clothes dryers are to be used as auxiliary equipment to other large household appliances, the required depth of usually 60 cm is sufficient to despite the axial, i. arranged in the depth direction of the tumble dryer air supply and discharge to allow a sufficiently large depth even for the drum in the tumble dryer housing. On the other hand, there is a need for a clothes dryer in many households, but without, for example, in the kitchen enough space for a relatively large device with a depth of, for example, 60cm available. Especially in small homes there is a need for dryers with small outside dimensions to attach the tumble dryer in relatively cramped bathrooms or adjoining rooms can. The depth dimension of the tumble dryer plays an essential role.

However, it is not possible to reduce known dryer in their depth by the fact that the dimensions of the components and units is reduced in the dryer because z. B. for the air supply in front of and behind the drum a certain minimum size is required, because otherwise would result in small air duct cross-sections and thus the air resistance would be too large. However, on the other hand reduces the axial length of the drum in the tumble dryer, so there is the disadvantage that the distance between the two radial walls of the drum is getting smaller, so that the drum axially traversing air flow is more and more shorted and less and less suitable is to drain moisture from the laundry.

Object of the invention

The invention is intended to achieve the goal that the wet laundry is better flowed through by hot air.

Explanation of the essence of the invention

The invention has the object of developing a clothes dryer of the type mentioned in that a small depth of the dryer is achieved without the efficiency of the air cycle is reduced.

This object is achieved in that the air flow is guided by the first opening in the driver and passes from there via at least a second, arranged in the driver opening into the interior.

The object underlying the invention is completely solved in this way, because the air flow in the interior of the drum is no longer, as in the prior art, in the axial direction, but rather at least initially performed in the radial direction. The air therefore passes directly from the driver or in the entrained by these laundry and flows through this laundry first in the radial direction, before then deflected in the center of the drum in an axial direction and in a conventional manner via the lint filter axially from the drum is dissipated.

It is obvious that in this way a much more intense contact of the wet laundry is achieved with the warm air flow, so that the efficiency of the air circulation not only not diminished, but can even be increased, although the axial length of the drum considerably can be reduced.

In this way, it is within the meaning of the desired objective of the invention possible to build tumble dryer with small depth dimensions, so that the tumble dryer can be accommodated even in tight spaces and, for example, can be hung on a wall.

In a first preferred embodiment of the laundry dryer according to the invention, the first opening is arranged in a known manner in a radial wall, preferably a rear wall of the drum and the driver extends in a conventional manner substantially on the drum shell in the axial direction, but is on the radial wall extends beyond the first opening, preferably as a segment-shaped cover.

This measure has the advantage that the air duct outside the drum need not be changed compared to the prior art, because as before, the air flow in the axial direction on the radial drum walls and is discharged. Only in the interior of the drum, a modification of the or the driver is required, which now extend into the region of the radial wall to take over the hot air at this point.

In a preferred embodiment of this embodiment, the driver extends away from the radial wall to an opposite radial wall.

This measure has the advantage that the largest possible driver length is provided in the axial direction, so that the hot air to escape numerous openings in the driver surface and can be introduced evenly into the laundry.

In further embodiments of the invention, the driver or carriers are at least partially permeable to thermal radiation, in particular infrared radiation, and a heat radiator, in particular an infrared radiator, is arranged in the driver or carriers.

These measures have the advantage that the tumble dryer according to the invention on a novel concept of laundry drying, namely that with direct heat radiation, can be used, but at the same time the advantages of known drying methods with circulating air or exhaust air can be exploited. This results in the additional advantage that the introduced into the drum air flow does not need to be heated or only slightly, because he passes the heat radiator in the driver and thus not only cools the heat radiator, which benefits their life, but beyond the Dissipates transferred contact heat in the laundry.

In a further preferred group of embodiments of the invention, with a rotating drum only one in each case located below the axis driver is connected via the first opening to the air flow.

In particular, for this purpose, a mouth of a channel abuts a radial wall of the drum below the axis, the first openings of the drum are arranged in the radial wall and move with rotation of the drum past the mouth, and the first openings are provided with check valves.

In particular, alternatively, the first openings radially a space-solid, cup-shaped plate be preset, which rests pressure-tight with its edge on the drum and below the axis has an opening through which the air flow is guided.

These measures have the advantage that the warm air is introduced only via the respectively located in the lower layer driver on which the laundry due to gravity, especially as long as the laundry is still very humid. It is thus ensured in this way that the entire warm air is introduced directly into the wet laundry, so that the efficiency of the air duct can be further increased.

Furthermore, an embodiment of the invention is particularly preferred in which the air flow is divided into partial air streams, wherein a first partial air flow through the second openings in the driver and a second partial air flow through a central further opening in a radial wall of the drum is passed by the driver.

This measure has the advantage that the moving in the drum laundry is acted upon both "from below" as well as "from above" from the air flow, so that an advantageous combination of the above-described Ausfü tion examples with the known from the prior art air duct results in tumble driers.

Further advantages will become apparent from the description and the accompanying drawings.

It is understood that the features mentioned above and those yet to be explained not only in the combination given, but also in other combinations or alone, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

embodiment

Embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and are explained in more detail in the following description. Show it

Fig. 1: a side view, in section and greatly simplified, by a clothes dryer according to the prior art; FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but for an exemplary embodiment of a tumble dryer according to the invention; FIG. 3 shows on an enlarged scale a section of a drum of a further embodiment of a

tumble dryer according to the invention; 4 shows a further illustration, similar to FIG. 3, for a further exemplary embodiment of a device according to the invention

clothes dryer; Fig. 5; a further illustration, similar to Figure 3, for a further embodiment of an inventive

clothes dryer; 6 shows yet another illustration, similar to FIG. 3, for a further embodiment of a tumble dryer according to the invention.

In Fig. 1, 10 generally indicates a clothes dryer of the prior art. The tumble dryer 10 has a substantially cuboid housing 11, in which a drum 12 is arranged.

The drum 12 is of a substantially horizontal-cylindrical shape and is rotatable about a horizontal axis 13 by means of drive means, not shown in FIG. 1, as indicated by an arrow 14.

On the inside of the drum 12 are drivers 15a, 15b, which extend along generatrices of the drum 12.

When laundry 16 is introduced into the drum 12, the wet and thus heavy laundry is initially on the lower driver 15b, but is more and more by rotation of the drum 12 and with increasing drying by the action of the driver 15 a, 15b uniformly Interior of the drum 12 moves.

To dry the laundry 16, an air circuit is provided. The air circuit comprises a fan 17 with a downstream heating register 18, which emits the warm air generated in it to a channel 19. Via an orifice 20 and an opening 21 in a radial wall 27 of the drum 12, the warm air enters the interior of the drum 12. At the radial wall 27 opposite wall, a lint filter 22 is arranged through which the warm and now with both steam as well as air laden with lint flows through to reach via a mouth 23 in a channel 24.

In so-called. Exhaust air dryers, the channel 24 leads into the open, while in so-called circulating air dryers, the channel 24 leads back to the blower 17 via a capacitor, not shown in Fig. 1.

As can be clearly seen from Fig. 1, the orifices 20,23 adjoin the radial walls 27 of the drum M2, so that an air flow 26 in the interior of the drum 12 extends substantially in the axial direction.

Due to the axial arrangement of the channels 19,24, the orifices 20,23 and the drum 12 is formed in the tumble dryer 10 has a certain depth dimension T.

In contrast, FIG. 2 shows a tumble dryer 30 as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The tumble dryer 30 in turn has a housing 31 and a drum 32 which is rotatable about an axis 33, as indicated by an arrow 34. Carrier 35 are also provided for moving laundry 36. An air circuit is represented by a fan 37 and a heater 38 via a channel 39 and an orifice 40 with openings 41 located on a radial wall 47 of the drum 32. A lint filter 42 is located on the radial wall 47 opposite radial wall and adjacent to an orifice 43 of a channel 44, which in turn may either be led to the outside or connected to a condenser, which in turn is connected to the blower 37.

In contrast to the tumble dryer 10 according to the prior art shown in FIG. 1, however, the tumble dryer 30 according to Figure 2, the driver 35a, 35b formed differently.

The drivers 35a, 35b are on the one hand formed on their surface like a sieve, because there numerous openings 45a, 45b are provided. In addition, the drivers 35a, 35b are pulled radially upward in the region of the radial wall 47, so that they cover the openings 41 in the radial wall 47 there.

In this way, results in an air guide, which first extends from the channel 39 via the mouth 40 through the openings 41 in the driver 35a, 35b. The warm air then leaves the drivers 35a, 35b through the openings 45a, 45b and flows directly through the laundry 36 in the radial direction, as indicated by arrows 46a, 46b in Figure 2 in this way, a much more intensive flow through the wet laundry 36 with reached the hot air, and you can also shorten the depth of the drum 32 considerably due to the first radial air guide, so that the total depth of the dryer 30 only makes an amount t, which is substantially smaller than the amount T in the tumble dryer 10 after the state of Technique according to FIG. 1. It can be seen for this purpose from Fig. 1 clearly that there any axial shortening of the drum 12 is not possible, because then between the openings 20,23 would cause a short circuit for the air flow 26 on the laundry 16 over.

Such a short circuit is not possible with the tumble dryer 30 according to the invention as shown in FIG. 2, because there the hot air from the right side in FIG. 2 is first introduced into the drivers 35 a, 35 b, in order then to pass them through the laundry 36 in the radial direction to leave.

In the alternative embodiment of a tumble dryer 50 shown in Figure 3, the drum 52 is in turn provided with dogs 55, which, however, initially over the entire axial length of the drum 52, in contrast to the embodiment shown in FIG. H. from a radial wall 67 on the right side of Figure 3 to the opposite radial wall 67 ', in which the lint filter 62 is located.

In a further modification to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2, the drivers 55 in the tumble dryer 50 of FIG. 3 are additionally provided with an infrared radiator 68 which emits infrared light beams 69.

In this case, the carriers 55 are preferably formed from a material which is permeable to the infrared light beams 69, for example from a transparent plastic, so that the infrared light beams 69 can emerge from the drivers 55 over a large area, while the exit of the air flow 66 to the openings 65 is limited in the carriers 55.

The air entering through the openings 61 may in this embodiment have a relatively lower starting temperature, so that a heating coil may possibly even be omitted altogether. Namely, as shown in FIG. 3, the incoming air flows past the infrared radiator 68, so that its contact heat is dissipated. This increases on the one hand the life of the infrared radiator 68 and on the other hand has the advantage that the dissipated contact heat of the infrared radiator 68 also passes directly into the laundry 56, so that it is heated in two ways, namely once on the flowing through them Air flow 66 and the other via radiant heat from the infrared emitters 68th

Finally, FIG. 4 shows an exemplary embodiment with a further tumble dryer 70 and a drum 72 which is rotatable about a horizontal axis 73.

The drum 72 is provided with carriers 75 for laundry 76, as already described several times.

In contrast to the previously described embodiments, the tumble dryer 70 of Figure 4, however, provided that a channel 79 opens with an opening 80 below the axis 73 to an opening 81 b in a radial wall 87 of the drum 72.

In the radial wall 87, an opening 81 a, 81 b is provided for each driver 85a, 85b, such that upon rotation of the drum 72, the openings 81 a, 81 b pass successively at the mouth 80 of the channel 79.

Each of the openings 81 a, 81 b is provided with a check valve. The check valve may, for example, be represented by the flaps 88a and 88b shown in FIG. It is clearly evident from FIG. 4 that the lower opening 81b is located just in the region of the mouth 80. Since there is an overpressure in the channel 79, the flaps 88b open and the hot air can pass through the now released opening 81b in the lower driver 75b and there passes through the openings 85b of the driver 75b in the laundry 76.

In this way, inside the drum 72 also creates an overpressure, with the effect that the flaps 88 a of the opening 81 a of the upper driver 75 a close.

In this way it is achieved that only the respective lower driver 75b is acted upon by the air flow 86, while the or the respective top driver 75a do not participate in the air circulation.

It is therefore the entire air flow through the laundry 76 out. This is especially true when the laundry 76 is still very damp because it rests because of its own weight predominantly on the respective lower driver 75b, even if the drum 72 rotates.

In the further variant, shown in FIG. 5, of a tumble dryer 90 with drum 92, which in turn is rotatable about a horizontal axis 93, again only one of a plurality of drivers 95 is shown.

In deviation from the previously described embodiments, however, a channel 99 which has been brought in the radial direction extends with its mouth 100 over the region of the axis 93.

In a radial wall 107, in which the mouth 100 terminates, in addition to first openings 101 a of the type already described below the axis 93, a further first opening 101 b in height of the axis 93 is attached.

By suitable baffles or the like. In the channel 99 or the mouth 100 can now be separated from the incoming total air stream 106, an upper part-air flow 106a, the bin 92 at 106 b through the central first opening 101 enters.

A lower part-air flow 106c, however, enters via the lower first openings 101 a in the driver 95 and leaves it at 106d via the second openings 105, as already described above in detail.

In this way, the laundry 96 located in the drum 92 is flowed through by both partial air streams 106b and 106d both in the axial direction (106b) in a conventional manner and in the radial direction (106d) as in the above-described embodiments of the invention ,

In the further variant of a tumble dryer 110 shown in FIG. 6 with a housing 111 and a drum 112, which in turn is rotatable about a horizontal axis 113, one or more drivers 115a, 115b are again mounted in the already multiply described manner to laundry 116 to move.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 6, a channel 119 extends for the air flow 126 outside of the housing 111 in a corresponding channel attachment.

Of the channel or channel attachment 119 lead openings 120 a, 120 b in the housing 111, which are partially (120 a) above the axis 113 and partially (120 b) disposed below the axis 113.

A radial wall of the drum 112 is in turn provided with first openings 121 a, 121 b. In order to seal the space between the radial wall and the housing 111, a sealing ring 122 is provided, which is preferably fixed to the housing 111 and slidably abuts against an end face of the drum 112.

The drum 112 is mounted with a stub shaft 123 on the housing 111. In the space between the drum 112 and the housing 111, a pot-shaped plate 124 is mounted on the stub shaft 123, which is arranged rotationally rigid, so does not rotate with the drum 112. The plate 124 rests with its in Fig. 6 left edge on the front side of the drum 112 so that a trapped by the plate 124 with the end face of the drum 112 cavity is completed as pressure-tight.

The plate 124 is provided in a position below the axis 113 with an opening 127, the z. B. may have the shape of a circular ring section.

The channel 119 flowing through the air flow 126, which can divide 126b and 126c through the openings 120a, 120b in the housing 111, passes in the space between the drum 112 and the housing 111 on the plate 124th

Since the plate 124 is provided only in the region below the axis 113 with the opening 127, passes substantially the partial air flow 126b in the interior between the plate 124 and drum 112. He enters there at 12Od in the driver 115bein and only iη this , and exits the catch 115b at 126e via the second openings 125, as already described several times.

As the drum 112 rotates about the axis 113, the followers 115a and 115b pass successively into the region of the openings 127 of the plate 124 so that the airflow 126 is essentially always guided by the driver 115 just below.

Claims (11)

A tumble dryer having a tumble drum rotatably driven about an axis for receiving laundry, having an air flow passing through an interior of the drum and entering the drum via at least one first opening, and having at least one driver disposed in the drum, characterized in that the air flow (46; 66; 86; 106; 126) is guided from the first opening (41; 61; 81; 101; 121) into the driver (35; 55; 75; 95; 115) and from there over at least a second, in the driver (35; 55; 75; 95; 115) arranged opening (45; 65; 85; 105; 125) enters the interior. 2. A tumble dryer according to claim 1, characterized in that the first opening (41; 61; 81; 101; 121) in a radial wall (47; 67; 87; 107) of the drum (32; 52; 72; 92; 112 ) is arranged so that the driver (35; 55; 75; 95; 115) substantially in the axial direction on the drum shell and on the radial wall (47; 67; 87; 107) via the first opening (41; 81, 101, 121). A clothes dryer according to claim 2, characterized in that the radial wall (47; 67; 87) is a rear wall of the drum (32; 52; 72). 4. Dryer according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the driver (35; 55; 75) is extended as a segmental cover over the first opening (41; 61; 81) away. 5. Dryer according to one or more of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that the driver (55) extends from the radial wall (67) away up to an opposite radial wall (67 ') out. 6. Dryer according to one or more of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the driver (55) is at least partially permeable to heat radiation and that a heat radiator in the driver (55) is arranged. 7. Dryer according to claim 6, characterized in that the heat radiator is an infrared radiator (68). 8. Dryer according to one or more of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that with rotating drum (72; 112) only one respectively below the axis (73; 113) befindlicher carrier (75b, 115b) via the first opening (81 b 121 b) is connected to the air stream (86; 126). 9. Dryer according to claim 8, characterized in that below the axis (73) an orifice (80) of a channel (79) to a radial wall (87) of the drum (72) abuts that the first opening (81 a, 81 b) of the drum (72) in the radial wall (87) is arranged and on rotation of the drum (72) at the mouth (80) moves past, and that the first openings (81 a, 81 b) is provided with check valves , 10. A tumble dryer according to claim 8, characterized in that the first openings (121 a, 121 b) radially a space-fixed, cup-shaped plate (124) is preset, the pressure-tight with its edge against the drum (112) and below the axis (113 ) has an opening (127) through which the air flow (126) is guided. 11. A tumble dryer according to one or more of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the air flow (106) is divided into partial air streams (106 a to 106 d), wherein a first partial air flow (106 d) through the second openings (105). in the driver (95) and a second partial air flow (106b) through a central further opening (101 b) in a radial wall (107) of the drum (92) past the drivers (95) over.