Classifications

• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06F—LAUNDERING, DRYING, IRONING, PRESSING OR FOLDING TEXTILE ARTICLES
  • D06F58/00—Domestic laundry dryers
  • D06F58/10—Drying cabinets or drying chambers having heating or ventilating means

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a drying cabinet according to the preamble to the following Patent Claim 1.
• the drying cabinets for laundry and clothes which are commonly found on the market are based on a simple flow principle with a blow-down of heated air perpendicularly from the roof down into the drying chamber of the cabinet, only to turn round in the bottom of the cabinet and be blown out close to the roof.
• This principle is simple and cost-saving, but the result is dependent on the hanging of the laundry, which can adversely affect the air flow through the drying chamber.
• the reversal of the air flow in the cabinet bottom also produces a risk of overdrying at the bottom, at the same time as the laundry gets less dry at the top, i.e. uneven drying is obtained.
• the drying method is usually based on deaerator technology, in which the air is heated to a high temperature, preferably by electrical means, and evacuated, which calls for an outlet duct from the cabinet and the premises concerned out into the environment.
• the warm and moist air can be condensed by cooling in a heat exchanger, which in more advanced solutions possibly forms part of a heat pump system, and can be reheated in a closed circuit.
• the object of the present invention is to provide a drying cabinet which works effectively in drying various types of laundry and in different hanging situations.
• Fig. 1 is a front view of the drying cabinet according to the invention, in which the door is not shown,
• Figs. 2 and 3 are vertical sections through the drying cabinet along the line A-A and B-B respectively in Fig. 1 , in which the door is shown,
• Fig. 4 shows a horizontal section through the drying cabinet along the line C- C in Fig. 1 , in the form of a perspective view
• Fig. 5 shows the vertical section A-A, in the form of a perspective view of the lower portion of the drying cabinet
• Fig. 6 shows the vertical section B-B, in the form of a perspective view of the lower portion of the drying cabinet
• Figs. 7, 8 and 9 show the section A-A in the form of schematic views of the drying cabinet
• Figs. 10, 11 and 12 show the section B-B in the form of schematic views of the drying cabinet
• Fig. 13 shows the section B-B in the form of a schematic view of the drying cabinet in an alternative embodiment having a filter on the outlet side.
• the drying cabinet according to the invention is primarily intended for, in a household, drying laundry, wet articles of clothing, shoes, etc. in households, day nurseries, institutions, etc. and utilize condenser technology for the dehumidification.
• the drying cabinet is box-shaped and is delimited by two mutually opposite side wall portions 1 , 2, a back wall portion 3, a roof portion 4 and a front portion 5, which is intended to normally be closed off by a door 6, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3.
• This door is conventionally pivotably hung at the front edge of one side wall portion by means of a butt hinge, for switching between the closed and the open position.
• a bottom portion 7 delimits the interior of the drying cabinet downwards towards a fan/condenser assembly 8 in a lower chamber 9, which expediently is outwardly shielded.
• the drying cabinet 10 is provided with devices which can support the articles, for example hinged rods or cradles, grid shelves, wire baskets, or the like.
• the inner chamber can have standard measurements and its side walls 1 , 2 can be provided internally with standard fastening facilities for standard fittings for wardrobes.
• the articles which for the sake of simplicity shall hereinafter be referred to as the drying ware, can hence to the greatest possible extent be distributed over the volume of the drying chamber 10, but can also, in the case of lower moisture content, lie in baskets.
• FIG. 1 offers a view straight into the drying chamber, from which it can be seen that a plurality of inlet openings are disposed in the back wall portion 3, in the shown example 15 slit-shaped openings comprising an uppermost and a lowermost opening 14, 28.
• the inlet openings extend horizontally and symmetrically over the width of the back wall and occupy, for example, half of the width of the back wall.
• the inlet openings 14, 28 are distributed over substantially the entire height of the back wall portion 3, i.e. with the uppermost inlet opening 28 in the top of and the lowermost inlet opening 14 in the bottom of the back wall portion.
• the inlet openings 14, 28 are realized with guide members 29, for example configured as so-called gills, which are most simply configured by form pressing of the wall plate 30 in which the openings are situated.
• the guide members are advantageously arranged to guide the air flow obliquely forwards and downwards into the drying chamber 10, which shall be described in greater detail below.
• an inlet duct 31 which extends along substantially the entire height of the drying chamber 10 from the lower chamber 9 below the bottom portion 7 and emerges at a plurality of locations in the drying chamber via the inlet openings 14, 28.
• the outlet from the drying chamber 10 is arranged with a number of, in the example two, outlet openings 12, 13 in the top of the back wall, i.e. in substantially the same plane as the inlet openings 14, 28.
• the outlet openings are constituted by holes, for example individual grilled holes or hole clusters with a plurality of tiny holes, and lead directly into their respective outlet ducts 32, 33, which run on one side each of the inlet ducts 31 down over substantially the entire height of the drying chamber 10 down to the bottom portion 7.
• the holes are preferably situated at the upper end of the outlet ducts 32, 33. More precisely, the outlet openings 12, 13 are therefore exclusively orientated to an upper portion of the back wall, i.e. the outlet openings are absent in the back wall below the upper portion of the back wall.
• the inlet duct 31 and the outlet ducts 32, 33 are integrated in the back wall portion 3 and are formed by the back wall portion being made up of an outer, whole back wall 34, which forms the back of the drying cabinet, and an inner back wall 36, which is situated with a gap 35 to the said outer back wall and which simultaneously forms the back wall of the drying chamber and is provided with inlet openings 14, 28, on the one hand, and outlet openings 12, 13, on the other hand.
• each partition wall is advantageously double- walled, with an intervening air gap, whereby reduced energy losses, caused by heat transfer from the air flow of the inlet with higher air temperature to the air flow of the outlet with lower temperature, are achieved.
• the fan/condenser assembly 8 is connected on its pressure side to the lower end of the inlet duct 31 , in the example by a pipe coupling 41.
• the fan/condenser assembly is parallel-connected to the outlet ducts 32, 33, which therefore, at their lower end, converge into a common duct.
• this convergence is achieved by the configuration of the bottom portion 7 as a double bottom, i.e. double-walled with an upper bottom wall 42, which constitutes the bottom of the drying chamber 10, and a lower bottom wall 43, which partitions off the lower chamber 9.
• the double bottom forms, more precisely, an outlet box 44, which is closed to the sides and forwards and also against the inlet duct 31 , but is therefore open to the rear towards the lower end 45 of each of the outlet ducts 32, 33, by virtue of the fact that this lower end extends downwards to and meets the lower bottom wall 43 of the bottom portion 7.
• an outlet opening 47 In the lower bottom wall of the outlet box, close to the front edge 46 of the box, there is disposed an outlet opening 47, to which connects an outlet pipe 48 leading to the suction side of the fan/condenser assembly 8, see Figs. 5 and 6.
• the outlet opening 47 extends over a large part of the width of the bottom portion 7, whereby the air flow in the formed bottom duct in the outlet box is spread over the entire depth of the bottom.
• a line 49 for the evacuation of condensation water leads to either a collecting vessel or directly to the central drainage system.
• the drying cabinet also incorporates a heating device 50 for heating the inlet air, so that the moisture in the drying ware evaporates and can be transported away from the drying chamber 10.
• This heating device is placed somewhere on the inlet side, in the shown example in the form of a heating element at the lower end of the inlet duct 31.
• the element can be driven with direct electricity, can constitute a coiled tube with waterbome heat, which can be electrically driven, gas-driven or driven from some other power source.
• Figs. 7 and 10 show the inlet and outlet flow in a case involving hanging cloths 51 , 52, 53, i.e. relatively thin objects covering a wide area, in which each shown cloth can represent a plurality of cloths which hang parallel in each "storey" on rods or cradles, for example, advantageously such that they are directed out from the back wall.
• the inlet air is heated in the heating element 50 and flows upwards through the inlet duct 31 in the direction of the arrow 54 and flows obliquely downwards and inwards through the inlet openings 14, 28, see the flow arrows 55.
• the respective opening area of the inlet nozzles can be adjusted such that an even flow and desired flow direction is obtained in each part of the cabinet.
• Figs. 8 and 11 correspondingly show another load scenario involving more three-dimensional objects such as shoes 60-63, which are placed at greater or lesser intervals, so that the flow loops can sweep around the objects and subsequently flow out in the top of the back wall through the outlet openings 12 and the outlet ducts 32.
• Figs. 9 and 12 correspondingly show a further load scenario involving objects lying on shelves 64, 65 or baskets, so-called wire baskets, i.e. open-work object carriers through which the air can flow, so-called flat-drying, i.e. in which the drying ware is supported horizontally.
• wire baskets i.e. open-work object carriers through which the air can flow
• flat-drying i.e. in which the drying ware is supported horizontally.
• the air currents are spread through the large number of air loops running in a U-shape through the drying chamber, before the air flows out in the top of the back wall through the outlet openings 12 and the outlet ducts 32.
• the outlet box 66 is larger, more precisely taller, so that it accommodates a filter unit 67, expediently in the form of a filter cassette, which is easily removable through a front opening 68 which normally is closed.
• a filter unit 67 expediently in the form of a filter cassette, which is easily removable through a front opening 68 which normally is closed.
• a number of different filter types can be placed in the outlet box individually or in combinations.
• Various examples are fluff and dust filters of a type similar to that used in tumble driers, filters with active carbon for treatment of odours, electrostatic/ionizing filters for treatment of odours and for air purification, HEPA filters for air purification and UV filters/photocatalytic filters for air purification.
• the invention is not limited to the examples which are described above and shown in the drawing.
• the inlet duct and the outlet ducts can, for example, change place, so that a centrally placed outlet duct having, for example, a single outlet opening is obtained, the outlet duct being surrounded by two inlet ducts each having rows of inlet openings.
• the invention is largely tailored to drying cabinets using condenser technology, it is conceivable that it can be used for drying cabinets employing deaerator technology, in which the outlet air is evacuated to the external air.
• deaerator technology in which the outlet air is evacuated to the external air.
• a more advanced, yet still more energy-saving condenser technology involving a heat pump system may also be used.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Textile Engineering (AREA)
• Drying Of Solid Materials (AREA)
• Washing And Drying Of Tableware (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=39511976

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Families Citing this family (7)

Family Cites Families (3)

• 2006
  • 2006-12-15 SE SE0602705A patent/SE531708C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2007
  • 2007-12-14 EP EP07852268A patent/EP2094897A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2007-12-14 WO PCT/SE2007/050997 patent/WO2008073051A1/en active Application Filing

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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