JP2000300899A - Iron - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the convenience in ironing by applying light to a cloth to determining the degree of wrinkles and setting the amount of steam to an amount corresponding to the degree of wrinkles. SOLUTION: Light is applied to a cloth by a light emitting element 1 to receive light energy reflected on the cloth by a light receiving element 2. The output signal of the light receiving element 2 is A/D converted by an A/D converter 3. The A/D converted signal is subjected to a calculation for determining the degree of wrinkles by a wrinkle determining part 4 and an optimum steam amount is outputted to a control part 5. The control part 5 controls a steam generating part 9 to discharge the optimum amount of steam in accordance with the input of the wrinkle determining part 4. The control part 5 inputs the detected temperature signal of a temperature detecting part 7 for detecting the temperature of a base part to determine whether the temperature is higher or lower than set temperature set by a temperature setting part 8 and to control the supply of power to a heater part 6 for heating the base part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an iron for wrinkling clothes and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional iron generally has a structure as shown in FIGS. Hereinafter, the configuration will be described.

[0003] As shown in FIG.
Has a base 10 heated by the heater 6, and heats the base 10 by the heater 6. Then, the temperature of the base unit is detected by the temperature detection unit 7 and the detected temperature signal is sent to the control unit 5. The control unit 5 determines whether the received temperature signal corresponds to the set temperature set by the temperature setting unit 8. It is determined whether the power is high or low, and the power supply to the heater unit 6 is controlled. Thus, the temperature of the base is controlled to be constant. Further, the user has adjusted the amount of steam by using the steam button.

[0004]

However, in the conventional iron, the user can control the amount of steam regardless of whether the set temperature is high or low, so that a small amount of steam is produced even though the degree of wrinkles is large. However, there are problems that wrinkles do not grow and that the degree of wrinkles is small, but steam is excessively applied and it takes time.

[0005] The present invention solves the above-mentioned problem, and determines the degree of wrinkling by irradiating the cloth with light when ironing, and automatically sets the amount of steam according to the degree of wrinkling to improve usability. It is intended to be.

[0006]

According to the iron of the present invention, the cloth is irradiated with light by the light emitting element, and the light energy transmitted or reflected by the cloth is received by the light receiving element.
The output signal of the light receiving element is A / D converted by an A / D converter, the degree of wrinkling is determined from the signal converted by the wrinkle determination unit, and the amount of steam is automatically controlled based on the output of the wrinkle determination unit. It is like that.

[0007] Thereby, the degree of wrinkles can be determined when ironing, and the steam amount can be automatically set to the degree of wrinkles, so that usability can be improved.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a base, a heater for heating the base,
A temperature detecting unit for detecting the temperature of the base unit, a temperature setting unit for arbitrarily setting the temperature of the base unit, a steam generating unit for generating steam, a light emitting element for irradiating light to the cloth, and reflecting the cloth. Light receiving element for receiving the received light energy, an A / D converter for A / D converting the output signal of the light receiving element, and a wrinkle determining unit for determining the degree of wrinkles from the signal converted by the A / D converter. And a control unit that controls the heater unit based on the control of the steam generation unit by the input of the wrinkle determination unit and the input of the set temperature unit and the temperature detection unit. When the wrinkles are large, the amount of steam is increased, so that the wrinkles are easily spread. When the degree of the wrinkles is small, no extra steam is generated, so that the wrinkles can be spread in a short time.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the wavelength range of light used to determine the degree of wrinkles is determined from 800 to 1300 nm. By using this wavelength, the degree of wrinkles can be accurately determined.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) In FIG. 1, a light emitting element 1 for irradiating light to a cloth, a light receiving element 2 for receiving light energy reflected from the cloth, and an output signal of the light receiving element 2
An A / D converter 3 for performing A / D conversion, a wrinkle determining unit 4 for determining the degree of wrinkles from a signal converted by the A / D converter 3, a heater unit 6 for heating a base unit, and the heater unit 6. Temperature detecting section 7 for detecting the temperature of the base, a temperature setting section 8 for setting the temperature of the base section, a steam generating section 9 for generating steam injected from the iron body, and the steam generation by the input of the wrinkle determining section 4. The control unit 5 controls the heater unit 6 by controlling the unit 9 and inputting the detection unit 7 and the temperature setting unit 8.

The cloth is irradiated with light from the light emitting element 1 composed of an LED. The light reflected from the cloth is incident on the light receiving element 2. The light energy incident on the light receiving element 2 is converted into an A / D converter 3
And is input to the wrinkle determination unit 4. The wrinkle determining section 4 executes an arithmetic program for determining the degree of wrinkles from the input signal, determines the degree of wrinkles, and outputs an optimal steam amount to the control section 5. The control section 5 receives the output of the wrinkle determination section 4 and controls the steam generation section 9 so as to output an optimal amount of steam. Further, the control unit 5 receives a detected temperature signal of the temperature detecting unit 7 for detecting the temperature of the base unit, determines whether the temperature is higher or lower than the set temperature set by the temperature setting unit 8, and sets the base unit. The power supply to the heater 6 to be heated is controlled.

The structure for detecting wrinkles will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. As shown in FIG. 2, the light emitting element 1 and the light receiving element 2 are arranged to face each other, and the light emitting element 1 side is inward. The cover 13 is covered with a hemispherical cover 13 which is plated to allow total reflection, so that a gap is formed between the cover 13 and the cloth, and the light receiving element 2 is located at the center of the cover 13. 13 is arranged.

When there are almost no wrinkles as shown in FIG. 3A, the light emitted from the light emitting element 1
Then, the light is reflected by the cloth and received by the light receiving element 2.

When the degree of wrinkles is large as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the light emitted from the light emitting element 1 is reflected by the cover 13 and then irregularly reflected by the cloth. And is not received by the light receiving element 2.

Therefore, by comparing the output of the light emitting element 1 and the input of the light receiving element 2, the degree of wrinkles can be detected.

Hereinafter, an algorithm for determining the amount of steam, which is an example of the processing performed by the wrinkle determination unit 4, will be described with reference to FIG.

In step 1, a wrinkle judgment value W is calculated using a judgment formula as shown in (Equation 1).

W = I0 / It (Equation 1) Here, I0 in (Equation 1) represents the output intensity in the light emitting element 1, and It represents the input intensity in the light receiving element 2.

If the calculated wrinkle judgment value W is larger than the judgment value W1 in step 2, the process proceeds to step 3 to increase the steam amount to "large", and the algorithm ends. If it is smaller than the determination value W1, the process proceeds to step 4 to reduce the steam amount to "small", and terminates the algorithm.
The determination value W1 is for experimentally determining an optimum value in advance.

(Embodiment 2) In this embodiment, a configuration is used in which the wavelength of light used is from 800 to 1300 nm, and the other configurations can be made in the same manner as in the second embodiment. .

Generally, when the wavelength of light is in the visible light wavelength range of 400 to 800 nm, the wavelength corresponding to the color of the cloth is reflected more strongly, and the wavelength of light is 130.
In the case of 0 nm or more, the reason is that the cloth strongly absorbs light of a specific wavelength depending on the material. Therefore, when the light wavelength is in the range of 400 to 800 nm, the color of the cloth is affected, and when it is 1300 nm or more, the material of the cloth is affected. Therefore, avoiding these wavelength bands, 800 to 13
If the wavelength range of 00 nm is used, the degree of wrinkles can be accurately determined regardless of the color or material of the cloth.

[0023]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the cloth is exposed to light to determine the degree of wrinkles.
If the wrinkles are larger than a predetermined value, the amount of steam is increased to make it easier to spread the wrinkles of the clothes, and if the wrinkles are small, the wrinkles can be spread in a short time without generating extra steam.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, the
By using light in the wavelength range of 00 to 1300 nm, the degree of wrinkles can be accurately determined regardless of the color or material of the cloth.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an iron according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the iron for detecting wrinkles.

FIG. 3A is a state diagram showing an operation state of wrinkle detection of the iron. FIG. 3B is a state diagram showing an operation state of wrinkle detection of the iron.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing contents in a wrinkle determining unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional iron.

FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway side view of the iron.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 light emitting element 2 light receiving element 3 A / D converter 4 wrinkle determination section 5 control section 6 heater section 7 temperature detection section 8 temperature setting section 9 steam generation section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A base section, a heater section for heating the base section, a temperature detecting section for detecting the temperature of the base section, a temperature setting section for arbitrarily setting the temperature of the base section, and generating steam. A steam generator, a light emitting element for irradiating the cloth with light, a light receiving element for receiving light energy reflected from the cloth, an A / D converter for A / D converting an output signal of the light receiving element, A wrinkle determination unit that determines the degree of wrinkle from the signal converted by the / D converter, controls the steam generation unit based on the input of the wrinkle determination unit, and controls the heater unit based on the input of the set temperature unit and the temperature detection unit. An iron configured to have a control unit for controlling. 2. The iron according to claim 1, wherein the wavelength range of the light used to determine the degree of wrinkles is determined from 800 to 1300 nm.