CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
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The present application claims priority from Chinese patent application No.
CN202310710322.4 filed on June 14, 2023 , the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
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The present disclosure relates to the technical field of clothing treatment apparatuses, and specifically provides a control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, and a clothing treatment apparatus.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
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Existing washing machines typically have a drying function, but after clothing made of special care materials such as wool or silk is cleaned, the adjustment of drying temperature often lags behind the actual temperature of inner cylinder, resulting in damage to the clothing caused by excessively high drying temperature. Moreover, long time drying will also cause significant electrical energy consumption.
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Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a new control method for a clothing treatment apparatus to solve the problem that the clothing is easily damaged when existing washing machines are drying the clothing made of special care materials.
SUMMARY
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The present disclosure aims to solve the above technical problem, that is, to solve the problem that the clothing is easily damaged when existing washing machines are drying the clothing made of special care materials.
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In a first aspect, the present disclosure provides a control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, which is configured to be capable of delivering external low-temperature air into a clothing treatment cylinder;
- the control method includes: obtaining the material of clothing inside the clothing treatment cylinder; and
- selectively running a low-temperature dehumidification mode according to the material of clothing, where the low-temperature dehumidification mode includes delivering external low-temperature air into the clothing treatment cylinder.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, the step of "selectively running a low-temperature dehumidification mode according to the material of clothing" further includes:
running the low-temperature dehumidification mode for a preset duration when the material of clothing is a special care material.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, before the step of "obtaining the material of clothing inside the clothing treatment cylinder", the control method includes:
- obtaining the weight of clothing; and
- running a fresh air mode for a preset duration when the weight of clothing is larger than a first preset weight.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, the step of "obtaining the material of clothing inside the clothing treatment cylinder" further includes:
obtaining the material of clothing inside the clothing treatment cylinder when the weight of clothing is smaller than or equal to the first preset weight.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, before the step of "obtaining the weight of clothing", the control method includes:
making the clothing treatment apparatus run a conventional clothing treatment program.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, the low-temperature dehumidification mode further includes:
controlling an outflow wind speed to a first preset wind speed, and making the clothing treatment cylinder rotate at a first preset rotational speed.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, the fresh air mode further includes:
controlling the outflow wind speed to a second preset wind speed, and making the clothing treatment cylinder rotate at a second preset rotational speed, where the first preset rotational speed is larger than the second preset rotational speed, and the first preset wind speed is larger than the second preset wind speed.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, the step of "selectively running a low-temperature dehumidification mode according to the material of clothing" further includes:
running a fresh air mode when the material of clothing is a conventional care material.
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In a preferred technical solution of the above control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, the control method further includes:
- making the clothing treatment apparatus run a special clothing treatment program; and
- running the low-temperature dehumidification mode directly after spinning the clothing.
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The present disclosure also provides a clothing treatment apparatus, which includes a controller and a memory, where the memory is adapted to store multiple program codes, and the program codes are adapted to be loaded and run by the controller to execute the control method for a clothing treatment apparatus according to any one of the above technical solutions.
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It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the control method for a clothing treatment apparatus of the present disclosure includes: obtaining the material of clothing; and selectively running a low-temperature dehumidification mode according to the material of clothing, where the low-temperature dehumidification mode includes delivering low-temperature air in the outside natural world into the clothing treatment cylinder.
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In a case where the above technical solutions are adopted, when the material of clothing is a material that requires special care, such as silk and wool that require special care, the clothing can be directly dried by low-temperature air in the natural world without heating the air, which can protect the clothing from damage and improve the care effect on the clothing, while also saving electrical energy. At the same time, the external air can also blow the debris such as lint on the clothing out of the clothing treatment cylinder, and the water vapor can also be directly blown out of the clothing treatment cylinder without the need to set a condenser to condense the circulating water vapor, which greatly reduces the cost of the drying and care module and correspondingly reduces the cost of the overall machine. In addition, if the user has not taken the clothing out for air drying long time after washing, mold or bacteria may grow on the clothing. By delivering fresh air into the clothing treatment cylinder, the above problems can be prevented and the user experience in use can be improved.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
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Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
- FIG. 1 is a flowchart of main steps of the control method for a clothing treatment apparatus of the present disclosure; and
- FIG. 2 is a flowchart of specific steps of the control method for a clothing treatment apparatus of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
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Preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that these embodiments are only used to explain the technical principles of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art can adjust them as required so as to adapt to specific application scenarios. For example, although the present application is described in connection with a washing machine, this is not limiting. The control method for a clothing treatment apparatus of the present disclosure can obviously also be applied to other apparatuses used for clothing treatment, such as sock washing machines, shoe washing machines, clothing care machines, etc.
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In addition, terms "first" and "second" are only used for descriptive purposes, and should not be understood as indicating or implying relative importance.
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In addition, it should also be noted that in the description of the present disclosure, unless otherwise clearly specified and defined, term "communication" should be understood in a broad sense; for example, the communication may be direct internal communication between two elements, or indirect communication implemented through an intermediate medium. For those skilled in the art, the specific meaning of the above term in the present disclosure can be interpreted according to specific situations.
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In order to solve the problem that the clothing is easily damaged when existing washing machines are drying the clothing made of special materials such as wool or silk, the present disclosure provides a control method for a clothing treatment apparatus, where the clothing treatment apparatus is configured to be capable of delivering external low-temperature air into a clothing treatment cylinder. Specifically, the clothing treatment apparatus includes a first air duct, one end of which is communicated with of the exterior of the clothing treatment apparatus, and the other end of which is communicated with the interior of the clothing treatment cylinder; a fan is provided inside the first air duct, so that when the fan is turned on, the external air can be transported into the clothing treatment cylinder. However, it should be noted that the clothing treatment apparatus may not be provided with a first air duct; instead, a fan can directly deliver air into the clothing treatment cylinder. Those skilled in the art can set the structure of the clothing treatment apparatus by themselves as needed. The present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on the specific structure of the clothing treatment apparatus, as long as the clothing treatment apparatus can deliver external air into the clothing treatment cylinder.
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Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, the control method for a clothing treatment apparatus mainly includes the following steps:
- Step S100: obtaining the material of clothing; and
- Step S200: selectively running a low-temperature dehumidification mode according to the material of clothing.
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The low-temperature dehumidification mode includes turning on the fan and delivering low-temperature air from the outside natural world into the clothing treatment cylinder through the first air duct. Therefore, when the material of clothing is a material that requires special care, such as silk and wool that require special care, the clothing can be directly dried by low-temperature air in the natural world without heating the air, which can protect the clothing from damage and improve the care effect on the clothing, while also saving electrical energy. At the same time, the external air can also blow the debris such as lint on the clothing out of the clothing treatment cylinder, and the water vapor can also be directly blown out of the clothing treatment cylinder without the need to set a condenser to condense the circulating water vapor, which greatly reduces the cost of the drying and care module and correspondingly reduces the cost of the overall machine. In addition, if the user has not taken the clothing out for air drying long time after washing, mold or bacteria may grow on the clothing. By delivering fresh air into the clothing treatment cylinder, the above problems can be prevented and the user experience in use can be improved.
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The material of clothing can be obtained by setting a sensor inside the clothing treatment cylinder to detect the clothing, or data of the material of clothing can be pre-stored in the clothing treatment apparatus. Users can set the material of clothing through buttons or terminals such as cell phone APPs during use. Therefore, the present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on the way of obtaining the material of clothing. Those skilled in the art can set it by themselves as needed, all of which should fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.
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As shown in FIG. 2, a possible embodiment of the control method for a washing machine of the present disclosure will be introduced below.
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Specifically, the control method includes the following steps.
- Step S301: receiving an instruction from the washing machine to run a conventional clothing treatment program;
- Step S302: controlling the washing machine to run a washing program;
- Step S303: controlling the washing machine to run a spinning program;
- Step S304: obtaining the weight of clothing after spinning;
- Step S305: directly running a fresh air mode when the weight of clothing is larger than a first preset weight.
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After washing and spinning the clothing, the washing machine weighs the clothing. If the weight of wet clothing exceeds the first preset weight, it indicates that there is more clothing, exceeding the threshold of the weight of clothing that the low-temperature dehumidification mode can handle. Therefore, users can take out all the clothing for natural air drying or perform low-temperature dehumidification in batches; alternatively, other drying methods can also be adopted. Moreover, in order to avoid bacteria growth caused by the clothing staying in the clothing treatment cylinder for a long time, a small amount of external fresh air is delivered into the inner cylinder by running the fresh air mode to reduce bacteria growth or mold.
- Step S306: obtaining the material of clothing when the weight of clothing is smaller than or equal to the first preset weight;
- Step S307: running the low-temperature dehumidification mode for a preset duration when the material of clothing is a special care material;
- Step S308: running the fresh air mode for a preset duration when the material of clothing is a conventional care material;
- Step S309: running the low-temperature dehumidification mode for a preset duration after the user has taken out all the clothing.
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Users can send instructions to run washing machine programs by pressing washing machine buttons or through terminal devices such as cell phone APPs. The washing program of the washing machine is specifically to supply water into the clothing treatment cylinder, and then control the clothing treatment cylinder to rotate according to preset parameters, so that the clothing is washed. The spinning program is specifically to rotate the clothing treatment cylinder to spin the clothing and reduce humidity. However, those skilled in the art can set the washing program and spinning program as needed, and the present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on this, all of which should fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.
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Next, if the weight of wet clothing is smaller than or equal to the first preset weight, it indicates that there is less clothing, and the threshold of the weight of clothing that the low-temperature dehumidification mode can handle has not been exceeded. Then, the material of clothing is obtained. If the material of clothing is a special care material, the low-temperature dehumidification mode is run. If the material of clothing is a conventional care material, such as cotton, polyester, acrylic fiber, etc., the user can take out the clothing for air drying, or other drying methods can be used to dry the clothing. In order to avoid bacteria growth caused by the clothing staying in the clothing treatment cylinder for a long time, a small amount of external fresh air is delivered into the inner cylinder by running the fresh air mode to reduce bacteria growth or mold. In addition, after the user takes out all the clothing, the running of the low-temperature dehumidification mode continues for a period of time, so as to dry the clothing treatment cylinder and water storage tank, and prevent the washing machine from becoming moldy due to long-time disuse. Of course, the special care materials and conventional care materials can be set by those skilled in the art themselves as needed. The present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on the specific types of the special care materials and conventional care materials, all of which should be defined within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.
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The low-temperature dehumidification mode specifically includes:
- Step: controlling the fan to turn on;
- Step: controlling an outflow wind speed to a first preset wind speed, and making the clothing treatment cylinder rotate at a first preset rotational speed.
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The fresh air mode specifically includes:
- Step: controlling the fan to turn on;
- Step: controlling the outflow wind speed to a second preset wind speed, and making the clothing treatment cylinder rotate at a second preset rotational speed, where the first preset wind speed is larger than the second preset wind speed, and the first preset rotational speed is larger than the second preset rotational speed.
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Since the fresh air mode mainly involves delivering fresh air into the cylinder to prevent bacteria growth on the clothing, while the low-temperature dehumidification mode has to dry the clothing, in order to save electrical energy, the outflow wind speed in the fresh air mode is lower than that in the low-temperature dehumidification mode, and the rotational speed of the clothing treatment cylinder in the fresh air mode is also lower than the rotational speed of the clothing treatment cylinder in the low-temperature dehumidification mode, or the rotational speed of the clothing treatment cylinder in the fresh air mode can be zero, that is, the clothing treatment cylinder is stationary, which can further save energy consumption. However, it should be noted that those skilled in the art can set specific parameters of the fresh air mode and the low-temperature dehumidification mode as needed, and the present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on this.
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In another possible embodiment, the control method further includes:
- Step S401: receiving an instruction from the washing machine to run a special clothing treatment program;
- Step S402: controlling the washing machine to run a washing program;
- Step S403: controlling the washing machine to run a spinning program;
- Step S404: obtaining the weight of clothing after spinning;
- Step S405: running the fresh air mode when the weight of clothing is larger than the first preset weight; and
- Step S406: running the low-temperature dehumidification mode when the weight of clothing is smaller than or equal to the first preset weight.
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When using the washing machine, users can directly choose to run the special clothing treatment program. When the washing machine directly starts running the special clothing treatment program, there is no need to detect the material of clothing, and the material of clothing is the special care material by default. The washing program and spinning program in the special clothing treatment program can be the same as or different from those in the conventional clothing treatment program. For example, compared to the conventional clothing treatment program, in the special clothing treatment program, the rotational speed of the clothing treatment cylinder is slower during washing and spinning, so the damage to the clothing is less during washing and spinning. When the weight of wet clothing does not exceed the threshold, the low-temperature dehumidification mode is directly run to improve the care effect on the clothing and reduce damage to the clothing. Of course, after spinning the clothing, it is also possible not to detect the weight of clothing, but the low-temperature dehumidification mode is directly run after spinning. Those skilled in the art can make a choice by themselves as needed, all of which will fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.
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In addition, the way of obtaining the weight of clothing can be arranging a sensor on the clothing treatment cylinder so that the weight of clothing is obtained by measuring an electrical signal of the sensor; alternatively, the weight of clothing can be obtained through a weighing device. However, it should be noted that the way of obtaining the weight of clothing can be set by those skilled in the art by themselves as needed. The present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on the way of obtaining the weight of clothing, as long as the weight of clothing can be accurately obtained, all of which should fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.
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In another possible embodiment, the washing machine is further configured to be capable of delivering dry and hot air into the clothing treatment cylinder. Specifically, the washing machine also includes a second air duct, in which a warm air blower is provided. The second air duct is communicated with the clothing treatment cylinder so that the washing machine has a high-temperature dehumidification mode. The high-temperature dehumidification mode specifically includes turning on the warm air blower and controlling the clothing treatment cylinder to rotate at a preset rotational speed. However, the specific steps of the high-temperature dehumidification mode can be set by those skilled in the art by themselves as needed, and the present disclosure does not impose any restrictions on this, as long as the high-temperature dehumidification mode can deliver dry and hot air into the clothing treatment cylinder.
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The control method also includes:
- Step: after spinning the clothing, if the material of clothing is the conventional care material, or if the material of clothing is the special care material and the weight of clothing is larger than the first preset weight, then running the high-temperature dehumidification mode;
- Step: obtaining the humidity of clothing;
- Step: shutting down the high-temperature dehumidification mode when the humidity of clothing is lower than or equal to a first preset humidity, and running the low-temperature dehumidification mode;
- Step: shutting down the low-temperature dehumidification mode when the humidity of clothing is lower than or equal to a second preset humidity, and running the fresh air mode.
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The second preset humidity is lower than the first preset humidity.
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When users are eager to wear the clothing, they can use the high-temperature dehumidification mode to accelerate the drying speed of clothing. Specifically, when the material of clothing is the conventional care material, its requirements for drying temperature are not high. The high-temperature dehumidification function can be used for dehumidification, that is, the warm air blower is turned on, so as to dry the clothing by delivering dry and hot air into the clothing treatment cylinder, thereby improving the drying efficiency of the clothing. When the humidity of clothing in the clothing treatment cylinder drops below the first preset humidity, it indicates that the clothing is in a semi-wet and semi-dry state. At this time, continuing high-temperature dehumidification will cause significant damage to the clothing. Therefore, the high-temperature dehumidification mode is shut down, and the low-temperature dehumidification mode is run, that is, the low-temperature air is delivered from the outside into the clothing treatment cylinder, which can dry the clothing without damage. Since the low-temperature dehumidification mode does not require heating the air, it can save electrical energy. After a period of low-temperature dehumidification, when the clothing reaches a target dryness level, that is, when the humidity of clothing is lower than the second preset humidity, the low-temperature dehumidification mode is shut down and the fresh air mode is run to prevent the problem of users forgetting to take out the clothing and leaving it in the clothing treatment cylinder for a long time to breed bacteria.
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In addition, when the material of clothing is the special care material and the weight of clothing is larger than the first preset weight, the high-temperature dehumidification mode can also be run. Due to the large amount of clothing, the dry and hot air quickly evaporates the moisture on the clothing during the early stage of high-temperature dehumidification, causing the temperature of clothing to rise slowly. This can improve the drying efficiency of the clothing while reducing damage to the clothing. However, as the humidity of clothing decreases, the temperature of clothing gradually rises. Therefore, when there is more clothing, the high-temperature dehumidification mode is run when the humidity of clothing is high in the early stage. After the humidity of clothing decreases slightly, the low-temperature dehumidification mode is run to dry the clothing at low temperature until the humidity of clothing reaches a target humidity, and then the fresh air mode is run. The combination of high-temperature dehumidification and low-temperature dehumidification can achieve maximum drying efficiency of the clothing with minimal damage and minimal energy consumption when users are eager to wear the clothing.
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In summary, in the present disclosure, the material of clothing is obtained. When the material of clothing is the special care material, the low-temperature dehumidification mode is run to dry the clothing, which can save electrical energy and also avoid damage to the clothing caused by high temperature. Further, when the material of clothing is the conventional care material or there is more clothing, the high-temperature dehumidification mode can be used for drying when the humidity is high in the early stage, and the low-temperature dehumidification mode can be used for drying when the humidity is low in the later stage. This can not only improve the drying efficiency, but also prevent damage to the clothing and reduce energy consumption. In addition, through the fresh air mode, the present disclosure can also prevent bacteria growth caused by the clothing staying in the clothing treatment cylinder for a long time. After the washing machine completes the clothing treatment, the user can take out the clothing and dehumidify the clothing treatment cylinder at low temperature for a period of time, so as to quickly dry the interior of the clothing treatment cylinder and prevent peculiar smell and mold, improving the user experience in use.
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As stated in the first paragraph of this section, the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the principles of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present disclosure. Without departing from the principles of the present disclosure, those skilled in the art can adjust the above structures so that the present disclosure can be applied to more specific application scenarios.
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In addition, the present disclosure also provides a clothing treatment apparatus, which includes a controller and a memory. The memory is adapted to store multiple program codes, and the program codes are adapted to be loaded and run by the controller to execute the control method for a clothing treatment apparatus according to any one of the above embodiments.
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It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the above-mentioned clothing treatment apparatus also includes some other well-known structures, such as a processor, a controller, a memory, etc. The memory includes but is not limited to random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, serial memory, parallel memory or register, etc. The processor includes but is not limited to CPLD/FPGA, DSP, ARM processor, MIPS processor, etc. In order not to unnecessarily obscure the embodiments of the present disclosure, these well-known structures are not shown in the accompanying drawings. It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the implementation of all or part of the process in the method of the above embodiments in the present disclosure can also be completed by instructing relevant hardware through a computer program. The computer program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed by a processor, the computer program can implement the steps of the above method embodiments. The computer program includes computer program codes, which can be in the form of source codes, object codes, executable files, or some intermediate forms. The computer-readable storage medium may include any entity or device capable of carrying the computer program codes, medium, USB flash drive, portable hard disk, magnetic disk, optical disk, computer memory, read-only memory, random access memory, electric carrier signal, telecommunication signal, and software distribution medium, etc. It should be noted that the content contained in the computer-readable storage medium can be appropriately added or deleted according to the requirements of legislation and patent practice within the jurisdiction. For example, in some jurisdictions, according to legislation and patent practice, the computer-readable storage medium does not include electric carrier signals and telecommunications signals.
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Further, it should be understood that since the setting of the control module is only for illustrating the functional units of the system of the present disclosure, the physical device corresponding to the control module can be the processor itself, or a part of the software, a part of the hardware, or a part of the combination of software and hardware in the processor. Therefore, the number of control modules can be set as needed.
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It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the control module can be adaptively split. The specific splitting of the control module will not cause the technical solutions to deviate from the principles of the present disclosure; therefore, the split technical solutions will all fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure. Although the various steps have been described in the above order in the above embodiment, it can be understood by those skilled in the art that in order to achieve the effect of the embodiment, different steps do not have to be executed in this order. They can be executed simultaneously (in parallel) or in reverse order.
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Hitherto, the technical solutions of the present disclosure have been described in connection with the preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings, but it is easily understood by those skilled in the art that the scope of protection of the present disclosure is obviously not limited to these specific embodiments. Without departing from the principles of the present disclosure, those skilled in the art can make equivalent changes or replacements to relevant technical features, and all the technical solutions after these changes or replacements will fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.