JP2000061197A - Clothing drier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce a burden for operation, to lower the cost of a product and to save using power by providing an opening part with an openable/closable opening/closing lid capable of exhausting circulation air to the inside or the outside of a device and automatically opening this opening and closing lid by detecting the variation of humidity in the circulating air. SOLUTION: At the time of drying operation, heat generated by a heater is guided as hot air into a drum by a thermally exchanging fan to heat matter to be dried to evaporate moisture. In a drier like this, an exhausting lid 17 which can be opened and closed to a part of a circulating air duct is provided on the front surface of a clothing drier. The lid 17 is provided in the state of being freely rotatable with a rotation supporting point 17a as a center and is normally kept in a closed state by a coil spring. However, in the case that humidity detected by a humidity sensor, etc., provided in the circulation air duct becomes a prescribed value, an electromagnetic solenoid 19 is energized to open the lid 17 through an arm 20. Thus, humid air is exhausted from the circulation air duct at the time of entering the decreasing rate of drying, thereby the deterioration of drying efficiency is prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a clothes dryer,
Particularly, it relates to a drying method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A rotary drum type clothes dryer in Japan used to be an exhaust type that had a simple structure and good drying efficiency a while ago, but the exhaust type wets all the water contained in clothes to the room. Since it is exhausted as air, it has drawbacks such as dampness in the room, discomfort, and mold irritation on the wall.Currently, damp air is returned to water with a heat exchanger for draining and does not release moisture to the room. The dehumidifying type is the mainstream.

However, according to the dehumidifying type, although the humidity in the room is eliminated, the heat exchanger mounted on the rotary drum type clothes dryer has a limit in terms of price and space, and the heat exchanger of a period ago. There are problems that the drying efficiency is inferior to the exhaust type, the drying time is long, and the drying cost is high.

In recent years, there has been a system in which an opening / closing lid is provided in a part of the circulation air passage to partially exhaust the air. However, when the opening and closing operations of the opening / closing lid are all manually performed, the work can be performed correspondingly. This imposes an operational burden on the person.

On the other hand, when the opening / closing lid is automatically opened / closed by a motor drive, a large-scale opening / closing drive device is required,
This leads to an increase in cost.

Although an automatic opening / closing lid using an electromagnetic solenoid has been previously proposed, in order to move the electromagnetic solenoid to either side at a certain timing, the electrical power of the opening / closing lid is changed during that time. It is necessary to keep the system continuously turned on, which causes a problem of increasing the electricity bill.

Examples of this type of device include JP-A-9-75594 and JP-A-9-313786.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to reduce the operational burden on the operator as compared with the case where all the opening / closing operations of the opening / closing lid in the case of performing partial exhaust drying are reduced, while the opening / closing operation is performed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a clothes dryer capable of reducing the product cost and saving the power consumption as compared with the case where the lid is automatically opened and closed.

[0009]

Means for Solving the Problems The above-mentioned objects are: a drying chamber for containing an object to be dried; a heater for heating the drying chamber; a blowing means for letting the hot air heated by the heater flow into the drying chamber; It has a heat exchanger for condensing the deprived moisture and has an opening with an opening / closing lid that can open and close the circulating air to the inside or outside of the machine.The opening / closing lid automatically detects the humidity change of the circulating air. The opening operation of the opening / closing lid is automatic and the closing operation is manual.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a clothes dryer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing the overall structure of the clothes dryer, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the clothes dryer shown in FIG.

A drum 4 provided in the outer frame 1 has a form as a clothes drying chamber, and clothes are loaded from a door 2 which can be opened and closed through a clothes loading port 3. The front side of the drum 4 is supported by a drum support 5 provided on the front inner surface of the outer frame 1, and the rear side of the drum 4 is a heat exchange fan having both functions of circulation and a heat exchanger for dehumidifying moisture. It is rotatably supported by a fan casing 8 having a holding function.

Power is transmitted to the drum 4 via a drum belt 9 by an electric motor 10 arranged on the lower right rear side when viewed from the front door 2 side, and is rotationally driven. Similarly, the heat exchange fan 6 is rotationally driven by the electric power transmitted from the electric motor 10 via the fan belt 13.

Regarding the circulating air passage for drying clothes,
The heat generated by the heater 7 arranged on the front side of the drum 4 is
The heat exchange fan 6 guides hot air into the drum 4,
Clothing to be dried is heated to evaporate water. The moisture evaporated from the clothes passes through the lint collecting device 11 together with the circulation wind of the arrow, passes through the drum exhaust port 4a on the rear wall of the drum 4, and flows into the circulation side of the fan casing 8. The moist air that flows into the circulation side of the fan casing 8 uses the cooling air sucked from the back plate 14 to hold the heat exchange fan 6 and passes through the fan casing 8 that forms an air blowing path to the front side. By returning to the heater 7 via the circulation duct 12 installed on the lower left side as viewed from above, the air circulates once to form a circulation air passage.

The electric motor 10 and the heater 7 are drive-controlled by a controller 15 such as a microcomputer, and operation-controlled by an operation control unit 16.

In the above structure, an exhaust lid 17 that can be opened and closed is provided on the front of the clothes dryer as shown in FIG. The exhaust lid 17 is automatically opened in the direction of the arrow from the circulation air passage when the drying operation of the clothes is started and the moisture content of the latter half of the clothes evaporates and the drying efficiency deteriorates, so-called reduced rate drying. It is configured to discharge the damp air and take in the dry air outside for efficient drying.

Details of the structure of the exhaust cover 17 will be described with reference to FIGS.

The exhaust lid 17 is constructed so as to rotate about a rotation fulcrum 17a, and is fixed in a closed state by a coil spring 18 around the rotation fulcrum 17a.
Next, the humidity is detected by a humidity sensor (not shown) provided in the circulation air passage of the clothes dryer, and when the humidity reaches a predetermined value, the electromagnetic solenoid 19 causes the arm 20 to open the exhaust lid 17, that is, the direction of arrow A. Then, the exhaust lid 17 is opened by hitting the guide rib 17b of the exhaust lid 17. Here, a small rib 21 is provided at the fulcrum of the exhaust lid 17, and a stopper 23 elastically supported by a fixed spring 22 is pressed against the rib 21 on the main body side, and the arm 20 of the electromagnetic solenoid 19 is pushed. The rib 21 of the exhaust lid 17 is opened to a position B where it exceeds the dead center of the fixed spring 22 of the stopper 23. As a result, the exhaust lid 17 is fixed at the position B and remains open.

Next, when the drying operation is finished and the door 2 is opened to take out the clothes, the door 2 hits the tip of the exhaust cover 17,
It acts to push in the direction of arrow C. Contrary to the above, the exhaust lid 17 is pushed by the door to the position D where the rib 21 exceeds the dead center of the fixed spring of the stopper 23, and thereafter, is fixed in the closed state by the action of the coil spring 18.

With the above structure, clothes are dried,
When the humidity becomes constant, the exhaust drying is automatically performed and the most efficient drying mode is set, and the energy saving is about 10 to 20% compared to the case where the operation is performed as a complete dehumidifying and drying.

Further, the closing operation of the exhaust lid 17 is linked with the opening operation of the door, so that the automatic operation of the exhaust lid 17 is only the opening operation, and the drive source can be only a simple electromagnetic solenoid or the like, and the construction at a low cost is possible. Becomes

Furthermore, by forgetting to close the exhaust lid by interlocking the closing operation of the exhaust lid with the opening operation of the door, a large amount of moisture is released to the outside of the clothes dryer during the next drying operation, which may make the room uncomfortable. Absent.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, the operation load on the operator is reduced as compared with the case where all the opening / closing operations of the opening / closing lid in the case of performing partial exhaust drying are reduced, while the opening / closing lid is automatically operated. Product cost can be reduced and power consumption can be saved as compared with the case of opening and closing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an exhaust lid 17 for a clothes dryer and a related portion, showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing the overall structure of a clothes dryer.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the clothes dryer shown in FIG.

4 is a partially enlarged view showing a detailed configuration of a fulcrum portion of the exhaust lid 17 shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Outer frame, 2 ... Door, 3 ... Clothes inlet, 4 ... Drum, 5
... drum support, 6 ... heat exchange fan, 7 ... heater, 8 ...
Fan casing, 9 ... drum belt, 10 ... electric motor,
11 ... Filter part, 12 ... Circulation duct, 13 ... Fan belt, 14 ... Back plate, 15 ... Controller, 16 ... Operation control part, 17 ... Exhaust lid, 17a ... Rotation fulcrum, 17b ... Guide rib, 18 ... Coil spring, 19 ... electromagnetic solenoid,
20 ... Arm, 21 ... Rib, 22 ... Fixed spring, 23 ... Stopper.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A drying chamber for accommodating an object to be dried, a heater for heating the drying chamber, a blowing unit for introducing hot air heated by the heater into the drying chamber, and a heat exchange for condensing moisture taken from clothes. And an opening portion having an openable / closable lid capable of exhausting the circulating air to the inside or outside of the machine, the opening / closing lid having a function of automatically detecting the humidity change of the circulating air and opening it. A clothes dryer, wherein the opening operation of the opening / closing lid is automatic and the closing operation is manual. 2. The clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein the opening / closing lid of the opening is supported by a spring and passes through a dead point of the spring at an intermediate position between a closed state and an open state. . 3. An electric drive device such as an electromagnetic solenoid is used to open the opening / closing lid according to claim 1 or 2,
A clothes dryer characterized in that the closing operation is performed in conjunction with the opening operation of a door provided at the clothes inlet.