JP2002035491A - Clothes drier - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely remove dust such as lint by preventing the electrification of laundry in a drum. SOLUTION: Electrodes 41, 42 for generating ions are arranged in the downstream side of a HEPA filter 40 inside an intake path 11 connected with a drying chamber 2 fitted with a drum 3 inside. A pulse-like high voltage is applied to the electrodes 41, 42 by a high-voltage generating part, and corona discharge is generated to ionize high-temperature air. High-temperature air flow containing large quantities of ions flows into the drum 3 through a vent hole 4 to take away moisture from laundry at the time of progressing forward from the rear and also neutralize electrified electric charges through the exchange of electric charges with the ion having the reverse polarity to the electrified electric charge of the laundry. Thereby, the dust coming out from the laundry is easily separated from the laundry, and it is conveyed by the air flow to be collected by a lint filter 18 in an exhaust path 14 or discharged as it is. Since dust does not remain on the laundry, the dust does not diffuse in a clean room 50 at the time of opening a door 5 to take out the laundry.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a clothes dryer,
In particular, the present invention relates to a clothes dryer suitable for drying dust-proof clothes used in a clean room or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a clean room such as a semiconductor manufacturing factory, it is important to minimize dust introduced from outside. Conventionally, in order to clean dustproof clothes used in such a clean room or the like, a door for putting clothes is opened facing the inside of the clean room, and an intake port and an exhaust port for drying are provided in a clean room. Clothes dryers installed facing the outside are used.

An example of a cleaning procedure is as follows. Dustproof clothing is washed with a washing machine installed outside the clean room. Then, store the fully dehydrated laundry in a dust-free bag and bring it to the clean room.
Put it in the drum of the clothes dryer. After the laundry is sufficiently dried with a clothes dryer, it is taken out of the drum and stored in a clean room. When the laundry is put into the clothes dryer, the laundry comes into contact with the clean air in the clean room. However, even if dust is attached, the laundry is less likely to fly up and spread because of the moistness.

[0004] In the above-mentioned clothes dryer, a dust filter is provided in an intake passage extending from an intake port to a drying chamber in which a drum is installed, so that even very fine dust is removed. Therefore, the amount of dust carried into the drying room by the outside air is almost negligible. However, even if it is formed of a special fiber, it is not possible to avoid generation of dust from the laundry itself with drying. As described above, most of the dust coming out of clothes is carried away by the air circulating in the drum, is collected by a lint filter, and fine particles are discharged to the outside of the clean room as they are.

[0005]

However, when the laundry is stirred, it generates static electricity due to friction and is charged.
Part of the dust is strongly absorbed by the laundry due to the electric charge. For this reason, even if the laundry is exposed to the airflow, it does not separate from the laundry, and is likely to be taken into a clean room when the laundry is taken out.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a clothes dryer capable of effectively removing dust adhering to laundry by static electricity. To provide.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems, Embodiments and Effects of the Invention A clothes dryer according to the present invention, which has been made to solve the above problems, supplies high-temperature air to the inside of a rotating drum. A clothes dryer for drying laundry stored in a drum is characterized by comprising an ion generating means for ionizing air supplied into the drum.

In the clothes dryer according to the present invention, high-temperature air containing a large amount of positive ions and / or negative ions is sent into the drum by the ion generating means. When such air comes into contact with or near the laundry in the drum,
When the laundry is positively or negatively charged, electrons are exchanged between ions having a polarity opposite to that of the accumulated charge, and the charged potential is neutralized. As a result, the electric charge accumulated in the laundry becomes close to zero, so that the suction action of dust and lint is weakened and the laundry is easily detached from the laundry. As a result, it is easily removed on the air flow.

Therefore, according to the clothes dryer of the present invention, dust, lint and the like remaining on the laundry are extremely reduced. For example, if the clothes dryer dries dust-proof clothes for clean work, the number of solid suspended matters such as dust brought into the clean room can be reduced, and the cleanness of the clean room can be maintained. For the purpose of removing the static electricity from the laundry, for example, a method of spraying an antistatic agent into a drum can be considered, but since the antistatic agent is a chemical substance, it is preferable that the antistatic agent is diffused in a clean room. Absent. In the clothes dryer according to the present invention, such undesired substances are not brought into the clean room, so that the clothes dryer is particularly suitable for drying clothes for a clean room.

The clothes dryer according to the present invention can be used for drying laundry using water at the time of washing and drying laundry by so-called dry cleaning using an organic solvent or a petroleum solvent at the time of washing. Can be applied.
In the latter case, in addition to the above-described effects, since discharge due to static electricity generated in the drum can be prevented, it contributes to improvement of safety such as prevention of ignition of the solvent.

As one embodiment of the clothes dryer according to the present invention, there is provided a drying chamber in which the drum is disposed, and an air intake passage communicating the drying chamber with an air inlet opened to the outside.
An exhaust path communicating the drying chamber and an exhaust port opened toward the outside, and in either the intake path or the exhaust path,
An air supply means for sucking outside air from the intake port and discharging the air from the exhaust port through an intake path, a drying chamber, and an exhaust path; and a heating means in the intake path for heating the air; It is possible to adopt a configuration in which the ion generating means is provided.

In this configuration, the outside air sucked from the air inlet by the air sending means is heated by the heating means and ionized by the ion generating means. In this way, high-temperature air containing a large amount of ions is supplied to the drying chamber, flows into the drum through the air holes formed in the drum, comes into contact with the laundry, removes moisture, and releases the charged charge. Sum up.
Then, the humid air flows out of the drum and is discharged to the outside through the exhaust path.

At this time, in order for the air supplied to the drying chamber to efficiently flow into the drum, the outlet of the suction passage on the drying chamber side and the inlet of the exhaust passage on the drying chamber side are connected to the front and rear of the drum. The space between the drum outer peripheral surface and the inner surface of the drying chamber may be narrowed between them. Specifically, it is preferable to provide a partition wall that protrudes or swells from the inner surface of the drying chamber toward the peripheral wall surface of the drum. According to such a configuration, the amount of airflow that passes through the drying chamber without flowing into the drum is reduced, and heat and ions are used without waste.

Further, in the clothes dryer according to the present invention, it is desirable to reduce dust contained in the air introduced into the drying chamber as much as possible. The generating means is H
The configuration may be provided downstream of the EPA filter.

Further, in the clothes dryer according to the present invention, the drying chamber is formed in a housing, and a door for opening and closing a clothes input port for taking clothes in and out of the drum is provided on a front surface of the housing. In the exhaust passage, a detachable collecting means for collecting solid matter coming out of the laundry is provided, and the detachable opening of the collecting means, the intake port and the exhaust port are all provided on the front surface of the housing. It is possible to adopt a configuration provided at a location other than the above. According to this configuration, only the front surface of the housing faces the clean room, and the installation / detachment opening, the intake port and the exhaust port can be easily installed so as to be located outside the clean room, and the washing into the drum can be performed. Work other than taking in and out of objects can be performed outside the clean room.

The ion generating means can employ various methods. As an embodiment, the ion generating means can include a discharge electrode and a high voltage generating means for applying a pulsed high voltage to the electrode. . In this configuration, a corona discharge can be generated by generating a positive or negative pulsed voltage by the high voltage generating means and applying the voltage to the electrode, thereby generating a positive ion or a negative ion near the electrode.
Therefore, the configuration is simple and the cost is relatively low. However, when this clothes dryer is used for drying laundry using a solvent, it is necessary to take care that the volatilized solvent does not reach the corona discharge location.

Further, in the clothes dryer according to the present invention, since the heating means is not preferable because it may mix dust in the process of heating the circulating air, the heating means may be an electric heater or a steam heater using steam. Good.

Although the clothes dryer according to the present invention has the effect of removing static electricity by the ion generating means, it is needless to say that it is desirable that the static electricity generated in the drum is smaller. Therefore, it is preferable that the drum is not made of synthetic resin but made of metal such as stainless steel. If the static electricity generated in the drum is large, the ion generating capability of the ion generating means must be increased, but if the drum is made of metal, the generation of static electricity can be suppressed originally, so the ion generating means It is not necessary to increase the ion generation capacity so much, which is advantageous in terms of cost.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a clothes dryer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side cross-sectional view of the clothes dryer of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of the vicinity of an intake passage at an upper portion of the clothes dryer.

Inside a drying chamber 2 formed substantially at the center of the casing 1 of the clothes dryer body, a cylindrical drum 3 having a number of ventilation holes 4 formed therearound is arranged. The front door 5 is opened and the clothes are thrown into the drum 3 from the clothes throw-in opening. The drum 3 is cantilevered by a main shaft 6, and a pulley 7 is attached to a tip of the main shaft 6. The pulley 7 is connected to a speed reducer 8 via a belt, and further connected to a drum drive motor 9 via a belt. That is, when the drum drive motor 9 rotates, the drum 3 is driven to rotate at a rotation speed corresponding to the reduction ratio determined by the speed reducer 8.

An air outlet 10 is provided at the rear upper surface of the drying chamber 2.
An intake unit 30 is provided above the intake unit. The intake unit 30 includes an intake passage 11 having the intake port 12 as an inlet and the air outlet 10 as an outlet. On the other hand, drying room 2
An air suction port 13 is disposed on the lower surface of the front part of the drying chamber 2.
In the lower part of the exhaust port 1, the air inlet 13 is used as an inlet.
An exhaust path 14 having an outlet 5 is formed. In the exhaust path 14, a lint filter 18 and a fan 16 for collecting lint and the like coming out of clothes are installed. When the fan 16 is driven to rotate in a predetermined direction by the blower motor 17, outside air is sucked from the intake port 12 and
→ The drying chamber 2 → the exhaust gas passes through the exhaust path 14 and is discharged to the outside from the exhaust port 15.

In the present clothes dryer, a partition wall 20 is provided between the air outlet 10 and the air inlet 13 on the inner wall of the drying chamber 2 so as to narrow the gap between the outer peripheral wall of the drum 3. As a result, at the front and rear of the drying chamber 2,
The flow of air in the gap between the drum 3 and the drying chamber 2 is restricted. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, the air that has entered the drying chamber 2 from the air outlet 10 efficiently flows into the drum 3 through the ventilation hole 4, advances from the rear to the front in the drum 3, and passes through the drum 3. The air exits through the pores 4 and flows to the air suction port 13.

The clothes dryer is installed in such a manner that the front surface of the housing 1 faces the clean room 50 and the rear side is installed in a dirty room 51 separated from the clean room 50 by a wall 52. Filter replacement door 19 for replacing lint filter 18, intake port 12, exhaust port 1
All 5 face the dirty room 51. Therefore, no dust is brought into the clean room 50 when the lint filter 18 is replaced.

The intake unit 30 is roughly divided into a pre-filter chamber 31, a medium-performance filter chamber 33, and a radiator chamber 35.
And a HEPA filter chamber 39. In the pre-filter chamber 31, a pre-filter 32 for collecting large particles having a collection efficiency of about 10 to 20% is provided. A medium-performance filter 34 having a trapping efficiency of about 60 to 90% is disposed in the medium-performance filter chamber 33. Inside the radiator chamber 35, a steam radiator 36 having a steam inlet 37 and a steam outlet 38 is provided outside, so that the flowing air can be heated without being polluted. In the HEPA filter chamber 39, an H such that fine particles of about 0.3 μm can be collected at an efficiency of 99.9% or more.
An EPA filter 40 is provided. In some cases, an ULPA filter capable of collecting even finer particles may be used.

On the downstream side of the HEPA filter 40,
A positive needle electrode 41 and a negative needle electrode 42 constituting the ion generator are provided to face each other. As shown in FIG. 3, the ion generator includes a positive high voltage power supply 43, a negative high voltage power supply 44, and a voltage control unit 45 in addition to the needle electrodes 41 and 42. 44
Then, a corona discharge is generated by applying a pulse-like voltage to the needle electrodes 41 and. Then, air molecules constituting the surrounding air are ionized, and positive ions and negative ions are generated, respectively.

The operation of the clothes dryer will be described. In the clean room 50, the washed clothes are stored in the drum 3 by opening the door 5 by an operator. When the operation is started, the drum drive motor 9 and the blower motor 17 are each driven, and steam is supplied to the steam radiator 36. When the fan 16 rotates, the intake port 1
Outside air is sucked in from 2. Dust of large particles mixed into the outside air is removed by the pre-filter 32, and finer dust is removed by the medium-performance filter 34. Thereafter, when passing through the vicinity of the steam radiator 36, it is heated by heat exchange and becomes high-temperature air.

Further, the heated air is removed to fine dust by the HEPA filter 40, and the positive needle electrode 41 is removed.
And the needle electrode 42 of the negative polarity. At that time,
As described above, a high voltage is applied to the needle electrodes 41 and 42, thereby generating positive ions and negative ions, and supplying high-temperature air containing a large amount of ions into the drying chamber 2. In the drying chamber 2, as described above, the air outlet 10
Most of the air that has flowed out flows into the drum 3 through the ventilation holes 4. When the laundry contained in the drum 3 is charged by static electricity, ions having a charge having a polarity opposite to that of the potential are attracted and electrons are exchanged to neutralize the charge of the laundry. (See FIG. 3).

The air travels in the drum 3 from the rear side to the front, and is located at the front of the drying chamber 2,
The air exits to the outside and proceeds from the air inlet 13 to the exhaust path 14. As described above, since the air surely passes through the inside of the drum 3 in the drying room 2, it is effective for drying, and it is very efficient to neutralize the static electricity of the laundry as described above. . When the static electricity disappears, the lint and other dust coming out of the laundry are easily separated from the laundry, and are carried to the outside of the drum 3 on the passing air. When the air passes through the exhaust path, these lint and other solids are collected by the lint filter 18.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an experimental result of a static elimination effect in the clothes dryer of this embodiment.
The initial static electricity of 050V was applied, and the potential change was monitored. As shown in FIG. 4, when the ion generator is operated, the potential attenuates to 100 V or less in about 8 seconds. If the charge is removed in this way, the dust coming out of the laundry is easily carried away by the airflow passing through the inside of the drum 3.

After the drying operation has been performed for a predetermined period of time, the laundry is sufficiently dried, and the laundry has little residue of lint or other dust. Even when the door 5 is opened and the laundry is taken out, dust does not diffuse into the clean room 50.

When the laundry is charged with static electricity, there are cases where the laundry is charged positively and cases where the laundry is charged negatively. It is effective to generate a large amount of ions having Therefore, in the above embodiment, a monitoring means may be provided for monitoring the state of ions, and the generation of ions may be controlled in accordance with the monitoring result.

Specifically, for example, a monitor is provided in the exhaust path or at the outlet. Now, before the laundry is put into the drum 3, the voltage applied to the needle electrodes 41 and 42 is adjusted so that the positive ions and the negative ions are generated in a substantially balanced manner based on the signal detected by the monitor means. Is set. In this state, start the drying operation of the laundry, and when the laundry is charged and the charge of the ions is lost due to the charge removal,
In the monitoring means, the potential is offset. That is, for example, when the laundry is positively charged, negative ions are used for neutralization, the number of positive ions relatively increases in the exhaust path, and the potential is biased toward the positive polarity. Therefore, when such deviation of the potential is detected by the monitoring means, the high voltage power supplies 43 and 44 are controlled so as to increase the number of generated negative ions. For example, the number of times of generation of the negative pulse-like high voltage is increased or the generation time is lengthened. As a result, the amount of negative ions increases, and there is no shortage of negative ions to remove the charge on the laundry, so that reliable static elimination can be achieved.

It should be noted that the above embodiment is merely an example, and it is obvious that modifications and modifications can be made within the spirit of the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side sectional view of a clothes dryer according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed configuration diagram of a suction unit of the clothes dryer of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an ion generator used in the clothes dryer of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a measurement result showing a static elimination effect of the clothes dryer of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Housing | casing 2 ... Drying room 3 ... Drum 4 ... Vent hole 5 ... Door 6 ... Main shaft 7 ... Pulley 8 ... Reduction gear 9 ... Drum drive motor 10 ... Air outlet 11 ... Intake path 12 ... Intake port 13 ... Air intake Port 14 ... Exhaust path 15 ... Exhaust port 16 ... Fan 17 ... Blower motor 18 ... Lint filter 19 ... Filter replacement door 20 ... Partition wall 30 ... Intake unit 31 ... Pre filter chamber 32 ... Pre filter 33 ... Medium performance filter chamber 34 ... Medium performance Filter 35: Radiator chamber 36: Steam radiator 37: Steam inlet 38: Steam outlet 39: HEPA filter chamber 40: HEPA filter 41, 42 ... Needle electrode 43, 44 ... High voltage power supply 45 ... Voltage control unit 50 ... Clean room 51 ... Dirty Room

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masahiro Fujiwara 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Sumio Yoshigi 2-chome Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka No. 5-5 Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Ryoji Murozumi 1-2-7 Ondacho, Ube-shi, Yamaguchi Pref. Murozumi Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masafumi Uchida 669, Tsukiji Arai, Showa-cho, Nakakoma-gun, Yamanashi Prefecture. 2 Techno Clean Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 4L019 AC02 AD02 AG01 AG02 AG03

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A clothes dryer for supplying high-temperature air to the inside of a rotating drum to dry laundry stored in the drum, comprising an ion generating means for ionizing the air supplied to the drum. A clothes dryer characterized in that: 2. A drying chamber in which the drum is disposed, and
An intake path communicating the drying chamber with an intake port opened to the outside, an exhaust path communicating the drying chamber with an exhaust port opened to the outside, and any one of the intake path and the exhaust path. In this case, an air supply means for sucking outside air from the intake port and discharging it from the exhaust port through the intake path, the drying chamber, and the exhaust path, and a heating means for heating the air in the intake path. 2. The clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein the ion generating means is provided in the intake path. 3. A drying chamber-side outlet of the intake passage and a drying chamber-side inlet of the exhaust passage are provided at positions separated in the front-rear direction of the drum. 3. The clothes dryer according to claim 2, wherein the gap is narrowed. 4. The clothes dryer according to claim 2, further comprising dust removing means including a HEPA filter in the intake path, and wherein the ion generating means is provided downstream of the HEPA filter. 5. A drying chamber is formed in a housing, a door is provided on a front surface of the housing for opening and closing a clothes inlet for taking clothes in and out of the drum, and laundry is provided in the exhaust path. Detachable collecting means for collecting solids coming out of the casing is provided, and the detachable opening of the collecting means, the intake port and the exhaust port are provided at locations other than the front surface of the housing. The clothes dryer according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the clothes dryer is formed. 6. The ion generating means includes: a discharge electrode;
The clothes dryer according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a high voltage generating means for applying a pulsed high voltage to the electrode. 7. The heating device according to claim 2, wherein the heating means is an electric heater or a steam heater using steam.
A clothes dryer according to any one of claims 1 to 6. 8. The clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein the drum is made of metal.