JP2008279120A - Drum type washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a drum type washing machine, having favorable usability for a user, in which the number of times of executing correction steps is not uselessly increased. <P>SOLUTION: The drum type washing machine 1 includes an imbalance detection means to detect imbalanced rotation of a drum 19 in a dehydration step, a bubble abnormality detection means to detect occurrence of abnormality of bubbles in the drum in the dehydration step, and a control means 50 to execute a weight correction step when imbalanced rotation is detected by the imbalance detection means for a first specified number of times in the same dehydration step, and execute a bubble correcting step when occurrence of abnormality of bubbles is detected by the bubble abnormality detection means for a second specified number of times in the same dehydration step. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a drum-type washing machine provided with a drum rotatably provided in a water tank and a motor for rotating the drum.

  In a drum-type washing machine, laundry (dehydrated material) is stuck to the inner peripheral surface of the drum at the time of dehydration. If the laundry is unevenly distributed on a part of the inner peripheral surface of the drum, the drum is unloaded. There may be cases where balance spins and sufficient dehydration is not possible. Also, during dehydration, the detergent component is stirred together with moisture between the drum and the water tank surrounding it to produce cream-like foam, and if this foam fills between the drum and the water tank, the rotation of the drum is hindered. In some cases, sufficient dehydration may not be possible.

In view of this, Patent Documents 1 and 2 below disclose that a correction process for correcting the rotation failure of the drum by detecting the occurrence of the unbalanced rotation of the drum or the occurrence of the bubble abnormality during dehydration is disclosed.
JP-A-9-56970 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-120881

  However, in the conventional drum type washing machine, the correction process is performed when the total number of occurrences of rotation failure reaches a predetermined number regardless of whether it is due to the occurrence of unbalanced rotation or the occurrence of bubbles. It has become. For this reason, the correction process is executed without distinguishing the rotation failure of the drum due to different causes, and there is a possibility that an appropriate correction process cannot be performed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a drum-type washing machine that is easy for the user to use without unnecessarily increasing the number of executions of the correction process.

  The drum type washing machine of the present invention comprises a drum rotatably provided in a water tub and a motor for rotating the drum, and a washing step for rotating the drum storing laundry together with detergent and washing water. An unbalance detecting means for detecting unbalance rotation of the drum during the dewatering process, and a dehydrating process for dewatering the laundry in the drum by rotating the drum. A foam abnormality detection means for detecting the occurrence of foam abnormality in the drum during the stroke and a weight correction process when the unbalance rotation is detected by the unbalance detection means for the first predetermined number of times in the same dehydration process. Control means for executing a foam correction process when the foam abnormality detection means detects the occurrence of foam abnormality for a second predetermined number of times in the same dehydration process; Characterized in that it comprises a.

  In the drum type washing machine of the present invention, the number of occurrences of the rotation failure of the drum due to the unbalanced rotation and the number of occurrences of the rotation failure of the drum due to the occurrence of the bubble abnormality are accumulated separately, thereby causing the rotation failure of the drum. Since a suitable correction process can be executed at an appropriate timing, an unnecessary correction process can be prevented from being performed, and a drum-type washing machine that is easy to use can be obtained.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a drum-type washing machine 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the washing machine 1, and FIG. 3 is a dehydration process of the washing machine 1. 4 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the first weight correction process, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the foam correction process, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are provided in the washing machine 1. FIG. 6 is a plan view of the operation panel 5 displayed.

  A drum-type washing machine 1 according to this embodiment is a drum-type washing machine having an inclined drum as shown in FIG. 1, and is a circular shape for putting laundry into and out of the front central portion of a housing 3 that forms an outer shell. The inlet 7 is open. The insertion port 7 is closed so as to be freely opened and closed by a door 9 having a transparent window. When the door is closed, the front surface of the door 9 is substantially flush with the front surface of the housing 3.

  Inside the housing 3, a cylindrical water tank 11 that is inclined upward toward the front is disposed in a state of being elastically supported by a suspension 12, and an opening 11 a provided on the front surface and an inlet 7. Are connected so as to communicate in a watertight manner by a bellows 13 made of an elastic material such as rubber which forms a tubular shape as a whole.

  The water tank 11 is connected to a water supply connection pipe 15 via a water supply valve 14 and a detergent case 18 at an upper portion thereof, and water and a detergent stored in the detergent case are supplied to the inside from a water supply source such as a water supply. A drain hose 17 is connected to the lower side of the side through a drain valve 16 so as to discharge the washing water inside.

  Inside the aquarium 11, a bottomed cylindrical drum 19 that accommodates laundry is disposed coaxially with the aquarium 11. The drum 19 is supported in an inclined state along the water tank 11, and has a number of dewatering holes 19a on the peripheral wall of the trunk portion and a plurality of baffles 19b for scraping laundry on the inner peripheral surface thereof. The drum 19 has an annular drum cover 19c attached to the front opening side, and is disposed so as to face the charging port 7 together with the bellows 13. The drum 19 functions as a shared tank in the washing process and the dehydrating process.

  The drum 19 is pivotally supported on a closed back portion of the water tank 11 by a drum shaft 21 protruding rearward from the central portion of the back surface, and is driven to rotate by a motor 23 connected to the drum shaft 21. Yes.

  The motor 23 is, for example, an outer rotor type brushless motor, and includes a stator 27 fixed to a housing 25 disposed on the back surface of the water tank 11 and a rotor 29 disposed outside the stator 27. The rotor 29 is connected to the rear end of the drum shaft 21 so as to be integrally rotatable, and the drum 19 is directly driven to rotate via the drum shaft 21. The motor 23 is provided with a rotation sensor 24 having a plurality of Hall elements, and the rotation speed of the motor 23 corresponding to the position of the rotor 29 of the rotating motor 23 and the rotation speed of the drum 19 is determined. It comes to detect.

  On the upper front side of the housing 3, an operation panel 5 including various operation keys and a display unit 5 a for a user to perform various operations related to the operation of the washing machine 1 as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. Is provided. An operation panel control unit 33 including an operation circuit 31 is disposed on the back surface of the operation panel 5, and the operation circuit 31 outputs operation signals based on various operation keys of the operation panel 5 to the control circuit 50. ing.

  The control circuit 50 is configured to include a microcomputer, and is provided in the drive control unit 35 disposed in the lower front portion of the housing 3. As shown in FIG. 2, the operation from the operation circuit 31 described above is performed. In addition to the signal, a rotation speed signal related to the position of the rotor 29 and the rotation speed of the motor 23 from the rotation sensor 24, a water level detection signal from the water level sensor 37 that detects the stored water level of the water tank 11, and the like. Based on the input of the signal and the control program stored in the memory 52 in advance, the drive control signal is output to the drive circuit 60 that controls the drive of the motor 23, the display unit 5a of the operation panel 5, the water supply valve 14, and the drain valve 16. It has become.

  Further, the control circuit 50 outputs a drive control signal to the drive circuit 60 as described above, and functions as an unbalance detection unit and a bubble abnormality detection unit.

  The unbalance detecting means detects an unbalanced rotation of the drum 19 caused by the uneven distribution of the laundry on the inner peripheral surface of the drum 19 during the dehydration process, and the degree of change in the rotational speed in one rotation of the drum 19. And the occurrence of unbalanced rotation is detected based on the detected degree of change in rotational speed.

  Specifically, after starting the motor 23 and performing feedback control so as to rotate at a predetermined speed (for example, 100 rpm), open control for fixing the power supplied to the motor 23 to a predetermined constant value is performed. In this open control state, the rotation speed is measured in a plurality of rotation angle regions obtained by equally dividing one rotation into a plurality of sections, and deviations from the average values of the rotation speeds in the respective rotation angle regions are integrated. If the obtained integrated value is larger than a predetermined reference value, it is determined that unbalanced rotation has occurred.

  The abnormal bubble generation detection means generates abnormal bubbles in the drum 19 during the dehydration process, that is, the detergent is stirred with water remaining between the water tank 11 and the drum 19 to produce cream-like bubbles. Is a state in which the water tank 11 and the drum 19 are filled with each other, the rotational resistance increases, and the occurrence of a rotation failure in which the rotation speed of the drum 19 does not sufficiently increase is detected. The rotation speed of the drum 19 is detected by the rotation sensor 24. If the rotation speed does not reach the predetermined rotation speed, it is determined that the rotation failure of the drum 19 has occurred, and the occurrence of bubbles is detected.

The drum type washing machine 1 having such a configuration automatically executes the washing, rinsing, and dehydrating function processes by selecting and setting them. after closing the, in more washing line, the drum 19 rotating at low speed in a state in which opening the water supply valve 14 a detergent and wash water was supplied into the water tub 11, laundry stirring is scraped up by the baffle 19b is falling motion Execute washing by. In the dewatering process, the drain valve 16 is opened and the washing water after the washing process or the rinsing process is discharged from the drain hose 17 to the outside of the machine. Centrifugal dehydration is performed from the hole 19a.

Specifically, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 3, the dehydration process first sets detection numbers n ₁ and m ₁ and execution times n ₂ and m ₂ described later in step S100 to 0, and then in step S101. As described above, the unbalance detection means detects the degree of change in the rotation speed at one rotation of the drum 19 to determine whether or not the unbalance rotation has occurred. It advances to (step S102) step S103 after counting the number of detection times _{n 1,} if the occurrence of the unbalanced rotation is not the flow proceeds to step S105.

In step S103, it is determined whether detection frequency n ₁ of the unbalanced rotation that is detected during the same dehydration step is not more than 4 times, the flow proceeds to step S107 if the following number n ₁ is 4 times the number If n ₁ is greater than 4, the process proceeds to step S109.

  In step S107, after executing the second weight correction process in which the motor 23 rotating at a predetermined speed (for example, 100 rpm) for detecting the unbalanced rotation in step S101 is decelerated for a predetermined time (for example, 80 rpm), the step is again performed. Return to S101.

In step S109, the same whether the execution number n ₂ of the first weight modification process which is performed during the dehydration step is zero, i.e., determines whether or not to execute the first first weight modification step, If the number of executions n ₂ is 0 or less, the process proceeds to step S111. If the number of executions n ₂ is greater than 0 when the first weight correction process has already been performed, the process proceeds to step S113.

At step S111, after performing the first weight modification step for supplying water to the drum 19 to stop the rotation of the motor 23, detects the number of unbalanced rotating with counting the number of execution times n ₂ performing the first weight modified stroke n ₁ is reset to 0 (step S112), and the process returns to step S101 again.

  In the first weight correction process, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, with the drain valve 16 closed, the water supply valve 14 is opened for a predetermined time to supply water to the drum 19 (step S201). Then, with the water supply valve 14 closed, the motor 23 is driven to rotate the drum 19 for a predetermined time (step S203), and the first weight correction process is completed.

  In step S113, it is determined that it is difficult to improve the unbalanced rotation state of the drum by the first and second weight correction processes, and an error has occurred in the display unit 5a of the operation panel 5 as shown in FIG. Then, it is displayed that the cause of the dehydration error is near the cloth piece (laundry), and the dehydration process is terminated.

On the other hand, if the occurrence of unbalanced rotation is not detected in step S101, in step S105, the rotation sensor 24 detects the rotation speed of the drum 19 after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of dehydration by the bubble detection means as described above. determining the presence or absence of the abnormality, after the case of detecting an abnormality occurrence of bubbles was counted detection number m ₁ of abnormal formation of bubbles proceeds to (step S114) the step S115, if the abnormality of bubbles is not step S117 Proceed to

In step 115, the detection number m ₁ of abnormal formation of bubbles detected during the same dehydration step is equal to or less than a once again to step S105 if detection frequency m ₁ is less than one returning to determine the presence or absence of abnormality of foam by bubble detection means, detecting the number m ₁ advances to step S119 the more than once. That is, in step S115, if it is detected that the bubble abnormality has occurred twice in succession in step S105, the process proceeds to step S119.

In step S119, it is determined whether or not the number of executions m ₂ of the bubble correction process executed during the same dehydration process is 2 or less. If the number of executions m ₂ is 2 or less, the process proceeds to step S121. if execution count _{m 2} is greater than 2 times the flow proceeds to step S123.

In step S121, after performing the foam modification step for supplying water to the drum 19 to stop the rotation of the motor 23, the abnormality generation of bubbles detected in step S105 with counting the number of execution times m ₂ running the foam modified stroke the detection number _{m 1} is reset to 0 (step S122), it returns to step S101.

  As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, the bubble correction process is different from the first weight correction process in the operation content. Specifically, the water supply valve 14 is opened for a predetermined time with the drain valve 16 opened. Then, the water is discharged while supplying water to the drum 19 (step S301), and then the water supply valve 14 is closed for a predetermined time and only the water is discharged (step S303). The draining process with water supply and the process of draining only are repeated (steps S305 and S307), then the motor 23 is driven with the water supply valve 14 closed and the drainage valve 16 opened, and the drum 19 is rotated for a predetermined time (step) (S309) After that, after the driving of the motor 23 is stopped and the drum 19 is stopped, the draining process with water supply and the draining-only process similar to steps S301 and S303 are each repeated twice (step S311). To S317), the bubble correction process is terminated.

  In step S123, it is determined that it is difficult to improve the unbalanced rotation state of the drum by the bubble correction process, and as shown in FIG. 7, an error has occurred in the display unit 5a of the operation panel 5, and a dehydration error has occurred. Display that the cause is the occurrence of abnormal bubbles, and terminate the dehydration process.

  If no bubble abnormality is detected in step S105, the rotational speed of the motor 23 is increased stepwise or continuously to the maximum rotational speed in step S117, and whether or not a preset dehydration time has elapsed in step S125. If it is within the dehydration time, the process returns to step S105 and continues to detect the presence or absence of bubble abnormality while increasing the rotational speed of the motor 23 until the dehydration time elapses. Exit.

  As described above, in the drum type washing machine according to the present invention, the number of occurrences of the rotation failure of the drum due to the unbalanced rotation and the number of occurrences of the rotation failure of the drum due to the occurrence of the abnormal bubble are separately accumulated, respectively. Since the correction process suitable for the cause of the rotation failure can be executed at an appropriate timing, the unnecessary correction process can be prevented from being executed, and a drum-type washing machine that is easy to use can be obtained.

  In particular, when a rotation failure of the drum due to an unbalanced rotation is detected, the first weight correction process in which the rotation speed of the drum 19 is decelerated before the first weight correction process for stopping the drum rotation and supplying water is performed. Since the minor second weight correction process is executed and the imbalance detection means detects the rotation failure of the drum 19 again, an appropriate correction process can be executed according to the degree of unbalance rotation. The unbalance rotation can be corrected while suppressing the correction time and the amount of water used.

  In addition, the number of executions of the first weight correction process and the number of executions of the bubble correction process are separately integrated, and the suspension of the dehydration process is determined based on the number of executions. It is possible to determine whether it is difficult to correct the rotation failure of the drum by the correction process at the timing, it is possible to prevent the unnecessary correction process from being performed, and a drum-type washing machine that is easy to use can get.

  In addition, when the dehydration process is stopped due to a rotation failure of the drum, the display unit 5a of the operation panel 5 displays the dehydration process due to any of the causes of unbalance rotation and abnormal bubble generation in addition to the error in the dehydration process. Since it is displayed whether or not to cancel, the user can know the cause of the dehydration error accurately, and can respond accurately and quickly.

It is sectional drawing which shows the internal structure of the washing machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the electric constitution of the washing machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the spin-drying | dehydration process of the washing machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the 1st weight correction process of the washing machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the foam correction process of the washing machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a top view of the operation panel provided in the washing machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a top view of the operation panel provided in the washing machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Washing machine, 11 ... Water tank, 14 ... Water supply valve, 16 ... Drain valve, 19 ... Drum, 21 ... Drum shaft, 23 ... Motor, 24 ... Rotation sensor, 50 ... Control circuit, 52 ... Memory

Claims (4)

A drum provided rotatably in the water tank; and a motor for rotating the drum; a washing step for rotating the drum storing laundry together with detergent and washing water; and the drum by rotating the drum In a drum-type washing machine capable of performing a dehydration process of dehydrating the laundry inside,
Unbalance detection means for detecting unbalance rotation of the drum during the dehydration process;
Bubble abnormality detection means for detecting the occurrence of bubbles in the drum during the dehydration process;
When the unbalance rotation is detected by the unbalance detection means for the first predetermined number of times in the same dehydration stroke, a weight correction stroke is executed, and the bubble abnormality detection means causes a second abnormality in the same dehydration stroke to occur. Control means for executing a foam correction process when detected a predetermined number of times;
A drum-type washing machine comprising:   The control means stops the dehydration process when the number of executions of the weight correction process reaches a third predetermined number in the same dehydration process, and the number of executions of the bubble correction process is the fourth in the same dehydration process. The drum type washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the dehydration process is stopped when the predetermined number of times is reached.   The drum according to claim 2, wherein different error notifications are issued when the third predetermined number of times is reached and the dehydration process is stopped, and when the fourth predetermined number of times is reached and the dehydration process is stopped. Type washing machine.   The drum type washing machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the weight correction step and the bubble correction step have different operation contents.