JP2018093951A - Washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress color fading without applying a load on fibers with respect to sebum stain attached to a collar and sleeves, mud, food oil stain and the like, as dirt on clothing which is hard to wash off.SOLUTION: A washing machine includes an outer tub for storing water inside and an inner tub arranged inside the outer tub and capable of rotating in the outer tub, and has driving means for rotating the inner tub. The washing machine has a deaeration mechanism for deaerating water inside or outside of the washing machine, and after pouring deaeration water in a washing step, water which does not go through the deaeration mechanism is poured and clothes are washed.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

  The present invention relates to a washing machine.

  Conventionally, techniques for improving washing power by a washing machine include washing processes that give mechanical power to clothes, washing with a high-temperature washing liquid, and spraying of a high-concentration detergent with a small amount of water supply. The present invention relates to a cleaning process using deaerated water as washing water in order to further improve the cleaning power by these techniques. There are various types of dirt such as sebum dirt adhering to the collar and sleeve, dirt that is difficult to remove, such as mud and food oil dirt. For these stains, it is important to further suppress discoloration without placing a burden on the fibers. In addition, clothes that are difficult to penetrate water have a portion where the washing process ends without being in contact with the washing water, and dirt on this portion may not be washed. Examples of clothing fibers that do not easily penetrate water include chemical fibers such as polyester and rayon, and wool yarn.

JP 2003-230794 A JP-A-5-277286

  Alkaline electrolyzed water or antibacterial water is used as a washing technique that prevents sebum dirt, mud, food oil stains, etc. adhering to the collars and sleeves as a difficult to remove stain, and does not place a burden on the fibers and suppress discoloration. The cleaning technology that had been developed. In addition to these, Patent Document 1 discloses a cleaning technique using deaerated water as a cleaning technique that focuses on washing water. Further, Patent Document 2 discloses that cleaning using deaerated water is effective in improving the cleaning power for clothes (such as polyester, rayon or other synthetic fibers or yarn) that are difficult to penetrate water. These documents disclose that the detergency improves the detergency in the rinsing step as well as the washing step. However, a washing machine with higher detergency is desired.

  Therefore, in order to solve the above-described problems, an outer tub that stores water therein, an inner tub that is disposed in the outer tub and is rotatable in the outer tub, and has a driving unit that rotates the inner tub. A washing machine having a deaeration mechanism for degassing water inside or outside the washing dry, and after injecting the deaerated water in a washing process, water is injected without passing through the deaeration mechanism, and clothes are washed To do.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the washing machine which has the high washing | cleaning power with respect to the clothes stain | pollution | contamination which is hard to remove | eliminate, and the stain | pollution | contamination of water which cannot permeate | transmit water easily can be provided, suppressing the burden and discoloration to clothing fiber.

It is a side view which shows roughly the internal structure of the housing | casing of a drum type washing machine. It is a side view which shows roughly the internal structure of the housing | casing of a vertical washing machine. It is a figure which shows one form of the deaeration mechanism using a deaeration filter. It is a figure which shows one form of the deaeration mechanism using a heater. It is the figure which compared normal water and deaerated water. It is a figure explaining washing | cleaning using deaeration water. It is a figure which shows the comparison of a cleaning effect. It is a figure which shows the driving process of a washing machine.

  A washing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings as appropriate. The washing machine having the function of pouring deaerated water of the present invention may be either a drum type or a vertical washing machine.

  FIG. 1 is an example of a drum-type washing machine having a deaeration mechanism for degassing water inside or outside the washing machine. The pH of the deaerated water generated by the deaeration mechanism is, for example, 7.00 to 9.60.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the housing 1 constitutes an outer shell. The water supply port 11 of the drum type laundry 15 of the present embodiment has a valve 14 for switching use of deaerated water and normal tap water. The pipe 12 is connected to a deaeration mechanism 30 (described in FIG. 3 or 4), and the hose 13 is connected to a tap water faucet. The deaerated water generated by the deaeration mechanism 30 passes through the pipe 12, passes through the mechanism for dissolving the introduced detergent, and is supplied from the bottom of the outer tub 2.

  The drum (inner tub) 16 is a cylindrical washing and dewatering tub that is rotatably supported, and has a large number of through holes (not shown) for water flow and ventilation on its outer peripheral wall and bottom wall. The front end face is provided with an opening for putting clothes in and out. A fluid balancer that rotates integrally with the drum 16 is provided on the outer peripheral side of the opening. The rotation center axis of the drum 16 is inclined so that the horizontal or opening side is higher.

  The outer tub 2 has a cylindrical shape, includes a drum (washing tub) 16 coaxially, has an open front surface, and a drum motor 4 attached to the outer center of the rear end surface. The rotating shaft of the drum motor 4 passes through the outer tub 2 and is coupled to the drum 16. The amount of deaerated water injected is sensed by the water amount sensor 17 and the required amount is injected. The door 18 has a packing structure that maintains hermeticity. In the drum type washing machine 15 of this embodiment, the washing liquid containing the above-described deaerated water is injected from the bottom of the washing tub 16 in the initial washing step of allowing the washing water to penetrate into the clothing, and after running for a predetermined time, It is characterized by having a process of pouring and washing. This washing process can be selected by, for example, a touch panel of a drum type washing machine. Such a washing process is executed under the control of the control device 38.

  FIG. 2 is an example of a vertical washing and drying machine having a deaeration mechanism for degassing water inside or outside the washing machine. The pH of the deaerated water produced by the deaeration mechanism is 7.00 to 9.60. As shown in FIG. 2, the water supply port 21 of the vertical washing machine 25 of the present embodiment has a valve 24 for switching the use of deaerated water and normal tap water, and the pipe 22 is a deaeration mechanism (FIG. 3). Or it connects to 4) and the hose 23 is connected to the tap water tap. The deaerated water generated by the deaeration mechanism passes through the pipe 22, passes through the mechanism for dissolving the introduced detergent, and is supplied from the bottom of the vertical washing tub 26, which is an outer tub. The inner tub is inside the vertical washing tub 26. The amount of deaerated water injected is sensed by the water amount sensor 27, and the required amount is injected. The tank cover 28 has a packing structure that maintains airtightness. The vertical washing machine 25 according to the present embodiment injects the cleaning liquid containing the deaerated water described above from the bottom of the washing tub in the initial washing step of infiltrating the washing water into the clothes, and injects normal water after the operation for a predetermined time. And having a process of washing. The description and the washing process can be selected by a touch panel of a vertical washing dryer. Such a washing process is executed under the control of the control device 38.

  In the initial washing process, the inventors efficiently infiltrated the washing liquid into clothing using a smaller amount of deaerated water than that used in the normal washing process. It has been found that a higher detergency can be obtained as compared with cleaning using only water.

  The washing machine of the present embodiment is characterized in that the deaeration mechanism is a mechanism having a deaeration filter including a hollow fiber membrane, a decompression mechanism, a heating mechanism, or a mechanism for ionizing carbonic acid in water. Examples of the method for degassing water include a method using a degassing filter including a hollow fiber membrane, a method using reduced pressure, a method using heating, and a method of ionizing carbonic acid in water. Any method can be used for degassing water, and water degassed by methods other than those described above can also be applied to washing.

  FIG. 3 is an example of a deaeration mechanism 30 having a deaeration filter 32 including a hollow fiber membrane. The tap water pressurized by the pressurizing pump 31 passes through the deaeration filter 32 and is supplied to the deaeration water tank 34. If necessary, the deaeration water injection valve 35 opens and closes to supply the deaeration water to the washing machine. To do.

  FIG. 4 is an example of the deaeration mechanism 30 having the heating mechanism 42. As the heating mechanism 42, for example, a PCT heater can be applied. Hot water heated through the heating mechanism 42 is supplied to the water tank 44. The water tank 44 is provided with a decompression pump 41, and deaerated water can be generated more efficiently by decompressing the water supply tank 44. If necessary, the deaerated water injection valve 45 opens and closes to supply deaerated water to the washing machine.

  As shown in FIG. 5B, the deaerated water generated by the deaeration mechanism 30 provided in the washing machine of the present embodiment is in a state where the dissolved gas concentration that is saturated in the atmosphere is lowered. is there. The main dissolved gases are oxygen and carbon dioxide. Deaerated water is unsteady in the atmosphere. The deaerated water can always dissolve again the gas amount degassed from the dissolved gas amount of the original tap water. For this reason, deaerated water has the property of easily absorbing gas so as to replenish the lowered dissolved gas at atmospheric pressure.

  As a result, as shown in FIG. 5B, the apparent wettability is improved and the permeability is improved. Due to this property, the deaerated water absorbs the gas (air) in the gaps in the clothing fibers when coming into contact with the clothing, so that the cleaning liquid using the deaerated water penetrates to the back of the fibers.

  Next, the cleaning effect of the washing machine of this embodiment using deaerated water will be described with reference to FIG. The washing machine of the present embodiment is characterized by using a cleaning solution in which a detergent is dissolved in deaerated water in an initial washing process in which washing water is infiltrated into clothing. Since the cleaning liquid adjusted by the deaerated water has a property of easily absorbing gas, it penetrates into the fibers so as to pursue air between the fibers of the clothing.

  For this reason, the washing | cleaning liquid adjusted with deaeration water can osmose | permeate a clothing to clothing efficiently in a short time compared with normal water. In the case of wool (including chemical fibers) clothing, it is possible to reduce the cleaning liquid used. Dirt dissolves in the cleaning solution that has penetrated into the fibers efficiently. In the washing machine of the present invention, the cleaning liquid adjusted with deaerated water is poured from the bottom of the washing tub. Since deaerated water is in an unsteady state, it returns to normal water when it comes into contact with the atmosphere. Therefore, it is important to inject water while reducing the time of contact with the atmosphere as much as possible.

  The washing machine of the present embodiment is characterized by having a process of pouring normal water and washing after running for a predetermined time. During the cleaning operation for a predetermined time, the dirt in the fiber dissolves in the cleaning liquid adjusted with deaerated water. Thereafter, when normal tap water is poured, the cleaning liquid adjusted by the deaerated water containing dirt present in the fibers diffuses at once into the normal water containing air so as to pursue air. Due to the diffusion effect of the deaerated water, the detergency against the dirt behind the fibers is improved. When only deaerated water is used as the cleaning liquid, the cleaning power cannot be improved due to the diffusion effect of the deaerated water in this embodiment. In the rinsing step after the cleaning step, either degassed water or normal water may be used.

  Although the standard value of the pH of the tap water used for washing is 5.8 to 8.6, the degassed tap water has a lower carbonate ion concentration because the dissolved carbon dioxide concentration decreases. The pH changes to 7.0-9.6. When the pH changes to weak alkalinity of about 8.0 to 9.6, in addition to the effect of penetrating clothes, the cleaning liquid also improves the cleaning ability against oily and fat stains and protein stains. Under mildly alkaline conditions, the oil stain becomes soap, dissolves in the cleaning solution, and brings about a synergistic effect of cleaning. Protein stains are susceptible to degradation under weak alkaline conditions due to dissociation of hydrogen bonds.

  Hereinafter, the effect of improving the detergency by the combined use of deaerated water and normal water will be described using Examples and Comparative Examples.

Preparation of deaerated water 300 mL of tap water (dissolved oxygen amount at 8.degree. C. at 8.68 ppm, saturation value) was put into a 500 mL glass eggplant flask and treated with an evaporator under a reduced pressure of 200 mPa · s for 1 hour. The amount of dissolved oxygen at 20 ° C. of the treated water was 3 ppm. In addition, the measurement of the amount of dissolved oxygen is performed by measuring the amount of dissolved oxygen after 5 minutes with a diaphragm electrode (water quality checker, U-10 type, manufactured by HORIBA, Ltd.) directly placed in an eggplant flask. I went there.

Cleaning water adjustment The cleaning liquid was adjusted at a rate shown in FIG. 7 using a lion liquid detergent top clear liquid.

Cleaning Method The amount of deaerated water in the cleaning liquid is shown in FIG. As the contaminated cloth, a JIS standard artificially contaminated cloth was used. For one artificially contaminated cloth, the cleaning liquid shown in Table 1 was put into a 100 ml plastic bottle and rotated at 1000 rpm using a magnetic stirrer for cleaning. In Example 1, one artificially contaminated cloth, a detergent, and 30 g of degassed water were put in a plastic bottle, and the mixture was stirred with a magnetic stirrer for 5 minutes assuming the initial stage of washing. The detergent was quickly dissolved in deaerated water so that the high concentration detergent did not penetrate locally into the contaminated fabric. Thereafter, 30 g of normal tap water was poured, stirred for 10 minutes, and washed. After washing for a total of 15 minutes, the contaminated cloth was rinsed with normal running tap water for 30 seconds and dried at room temperature for 24 hours. After drying, the cocoons were stretched with an iron. Examples 2 and 3 were also washed and dried in the same manner.

Evaluation of cleaning effect The reflectance of the contaminated cloth at 530 nm was measured, and the cleaning degree (%) was calculated using the following formula to evaluate the cleaning effect.

  Washing, drying and cleaning degree were evaluated according to the examples. The result is shown in FIG. From the results of Examples and Comparative Examples, the cleaning using only degassed water as a cleaning liquid (Comparative Example 1) has improved the degree of cleaning compared with the normal cleaning (Comparative Example 2), but Examples 1 to 3 Thus, it can be seen that the cleaning degree using deaerated water at the initial stage of cleaning is more improved. From the above results, it was shown that the washing process using the deaerated water of this example at the initial stage of washing is effective.

  Next, the operation process of the washing machine will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S100, the control device 38 receives an input of course selection for the operation process of the washing machine (course selection). In step S <b> 101, the control device 38 executes a step of detecting the weight (cloth amount) of the clothes put on the drum 16 (cloth amount sensing). In step S102, the control device 38 executes a process of calculating the amount of detergent and the operation time. In step S103, the control device 38 executes a detergent charging waiting process. In step S104, the control device 38 executes a detergent dissolving process.

  In step S105, the control apparatus 38 performs a pre-washing process. The control device 38 controls the deaeration mechanism 30 to generate deaerated water. The pre-washing process is executed by allowing the generated deaerated water to soak into the clothing together with the high-concentration detergent liquid generated in S104. This increases the cleaning power. At this time, the control device 38 may rotate the drum 16 by controlling the motor 4. As a result, the deaerated water can be uniformly permeated into the clothing.

  At this time, the clothes may be soaked using a circulation pump (not shown). In the present invention, it is not indispensable to soak clothes with high-concentration detergent liquid, and deaeration water may be soaked into clothes before spraying high-concentration detergent liquid. Moreover, it is not necessary to use a detergent liquid.

  In step S106 and step S107, the control device 38 executes a main washing process and a rinsing process. The control device 38 controls the valve 14 and the like to inject normal tap water into clothing. At this time, the main washing step and the rinsing step are executed using a larger amount of water than the amount of deaerated water used in step S105.

  In step S108, the control apparatus 38 performs a dehydration process, and complete | finishes a driving | operation.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to realize a high cleaning effect by executing a washing process in which the deaerated water is not used, for example, the normal tap water is used after the deaerated water is washed.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Water supply port 12 Pipe 13 Hose 14 Valve 15 Drum type washing machine 16 Drum washing tub 17 Water quantity sensor 18 Door 21 Water supply port 22 Pipe 23 Hose 24 Valve 25 Vertical type washing machine 26 Vertical washing tub 27 Water quantity sensor 28 Tank cover 31 Pressurization Pump 32 Deaeration filter including hollow fiber membrane 33 Valve 34 Deaeration water tank 35 Valve 41 Depressurization pump 42 Heating mechanism 43 Valve 44 Water supply tank 45 Valve 51 Normal water 52 Deaeration water 61 Air 62 Clothing fiber

Claims (4)

An outer tub that stores water therein, and a washing machine that is disposed in the outer tub, includes an inner tub that is rotatable in the outer tub, and has a driving unit that rotates the inner tub.
It has a deaeration mechanism that deaerates water inside or outside the washing dry, and after pouring the deaerated water in a washing step, water is injected without passing through the deaeration mechanism, and clothes are washed. Washing machine. The washing machine according to claim 1,
A washing machine, wherein the deaeration mechanism has a mechanism having a deaeration filter including a hollow fiber membrane, a pressure reduction mechanism, a heating mechanism, or a mechanism for ionizing carbonic acid in water. The washing machine according to claim 2,
A washing machine having a structure in which the deaerated water generated by the deaeration mechanism of the mechanism is poured from the bottom of the outer tub. The washing machine according to claim 1,
The amount of water that does not pass through the deaeration mechanism is greater than the amount of the deaeration water.

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