JP2834859B2 - Washing machine - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a washing machine.

(B) Conventional technology From the prior art, the outer tank was supported in a frame, the horizontal axis type drum was rotatably supported in the outer tank, and the drum was rotated to be thrown into the drum. Although a washing machine for washing clothes is well known, in such a washing machine, a predetermined amount or more of foam may be generated in an outer tub when a drum is rotated.

As described above, when the foam is generated, not only does the foam hinder the rotation of the drum, but also the foam adheres to the wall surface of the outer tub, and there is a problem that the next step, particularly the washing water, is soiled.

Therefore, an apparatus which issues an alarm and prompts a user to dilute the washing water when detecting foaming of a predetermined amount or more generated in the tub is disclosed in JP-A-59-118195 (D06F33 / 02). I have.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the conventional example, since the foam must be eliminated by the user himself, it is troublesome.

Further, it is conceivable that the washing water is automatically diluted when foaming is detected, but if the foaming is executed every time foaming is detected, the total washing time becomes longer. There is concern.

The present invention relates to an improvement in a washing machine and solves such a problem.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention comprises a washing step in which a washing tub is provided in an outer tub, and a washing step of washing clothes in the washing tub and a rinsing step of performing a water supply operation to rinse clothes. Foaming detecting means for performing intermediate dehydration operation by high-speed rotation of the washing tub between the washing step and the rinsing step, and detecting foaming of a predetermined amount or more generated in the outer tub; A control means for stopping the dewatering operation immediately when detecting foaming of a predetermined amount or more during the dewatering operation based on the input from the foaming detecting means, and shifting to a rinsing step to perform a water supply operation. It is a thing.

(E) Action That is, when foaming is detected during an intermediate dehydration operation between the washing process and the rinsing process, the process is immediately shifted to the rinsing process, and the foam disappears due to the water supply operation for rinsing. .

(F) Example An example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 is a frame made of sheet metal, 2 is an outer tank formed of a synthetic resin in the shape of a horizontal axis drum, 3 is a horizontal support surface formed on the lower surface of the outer tank 2, and 4 is fixed to the support surface 3 It is an iron mounting plate.

5 are upper supports for elastically suspending and supporting the outer tub 2 from the upper four corners of the frame 1, and 6 are disposed between the mounting plate 4 of the outer tub 2 and the bottom of the frame 1. The provided lower support 7 is a tubular body integrally formed by protruding the upper portion of the outer tub 2 upward in a square tubular shape, thereby forming a clothing input port B8 at the upper portion of the outer tub 2. ing. Reference numeral 9 denotes an upper surface plate made of synthetic resin fixed to the upper end of the frame 1. An operation portion 9a for housing electronic components and the like at a front edge portion, and a housing portion 9b for housing a water supply device and the like at a rear edge portion. A bulge is formed, and a rectangular clothing inlet A10 is formed in the center.
Has been established. Reference numerals 11 denote various operation keys provided on the upper surface of the operation section 9a. Reference numeral 12 denotes a bellows-shaped rubber packing, by which the clothes input port A10 and the input port B8 are connected in a watertight manner. Reference numeral 13 denotes a safety cover that opens and closes the clothing slot A10, and reference numeral 14 denotes an upper lid that opens and closes the upper surface of the safety cover 13.

The outer tub 2 is formed separately from only a rear wall 2a, and the rear wall 2a is fixed to the outer tub 2 after a washing drum, which will be described later, is housed through a rear opening of the outer tub 2. 15 is the rear wall
2a, an introduction opening integrally formed at the center of
Is a blower duct integrally formed on the outer surface of the rear wall 2a, and is formed from the upper center to the introduction opening 15. Reference numeral 17 denotes a drum rear bearing fixed in the air duct 16. In addition, a heater casing 18 is formed at an upper portion of the blower duct 16, and a sheathed heater is formed here.
A19 is installed inside. Reference numeral 20 denotes an iron plate surrounding the heater A19, so that even if dust or the like is ignited, it is not transferred to the resin material.

Reference numeral 21 denotes an overflow port opened at half the height of the rear wall 2a, 22 denotes an overflow chamber formed integrally with the rear wall 2a, and an overflow chamber for leading overflow from the overflow port 21, 23, 24. Is a pair of electrodes arranged in the overflow chamber 22 to detect abnormal foaming,
Reference numeral 24 denotes an air trap formed integrally with the lower portion of the rear wall 2a, and is connected via a pressure hose 26 to a water level sensor 25 provided in the housing 9b. 27 is the rear wall
It is a circulation duct integrally formed at a position above the overflow level of 2a, and communicates with the inside of the outer tank 2 via a circulation port. Reference numeral 29 denotes a blower fan provided in the circulation duct 27, and reference numeral 30 denotes a connection pipe connecting the circulation duct 27 and the blower duct 16.

Reference numeral 31 denotes a drain port provided at the bottom of the outer tub 2; 32, a drain hose for leading drainage from the drain port 31 to the outside of the machine; The bottom is connected via an overflow hose 33. Reference numeral 34 denotes a drainage electric valve that opens and closes the drainage port 31. As is well known, the valve is opened by winding a wire with the rotational force of a drainage motor 35, and the valve is opened by cutting off the rotational force of the motor. It returns to the closed state by the urging of the spring that does not.

Numeral 36 is a double water supply solenoid valve device provided in the housing portion 9b, and one water supply valve A36a is connected to a connection port 38 formed in the cylindrical body 7 via a water supply hose A37, The other water supply valve B36b is connected to the upper front corner of the outer tub 2 via a water supply hose B39. That is, the water supply hose
The water supplied from B39 falls along the inner surface of the front wall of the outer tub 2 and reaches the drain port 31.

Numeral 40 denotes a sheath heater B disposed on the inner bottom of the outer tub 2, and 41 denotes a drum front bearing fixed to the center of the front wall of the outer tub 2.

Reference numeral 42 denotes a horizontal axis washing / dewatering / drying drum made of a synthetic resin rotatably supported in the outer tub 2 and attached to a rear open body 43 and a rear surface of the body 43. Fluid balancer 44, and a rear plate fixed to the rear side of the balancer 44
It is composed of 45.

Reference numerals 46, 47, and 48 denote baffles having a triangular cross section formed by bulging at intervals of 120 degrees along the inner peripheral surface of the trunk 43.
A plurality of through-holes 50, 50 formed around the periphery of 45 are horizontal ribs A, which are integrally formed along the inner peripheral surface of the body 43. The horizontal rib A50 is also formed on the upper surface of the baffle.

At the center of the rear plate 45, a suction port 51 facing the introduction opening 15 is formed so as to protrude, and a support shaft 52 is fixed to the center of the suction port 51. An axial fan also serving as a filter is formed integrally with the suction port 51. 53 is a support shaft fixed to the center of the front plate of the body 43. That is, at the time of drying, the drying air is blown by the blowing fan.
29-Connection pipe 30-Heater A19-Blow duct 16-Suction port 51
-Inside the drum 42-circulation port 28-circulation duct 27-blower fan 29
-Circulates. During this drying, the water supply valve B3
6b is driven to supply water along the inner surface of the outer tub 2, and the supplied water cools the drying air and dehumidifies it.

Reference numeral 54 denotes a recess formed by reducing the diameter of an arc portion having a central angle of about 120 degrees in the body 43, and reference numeral 58 denotes a rectangular clothing inlet C provided at the bottom of the recess 54. , Is provided near one end of the bottom surface 57 of the recess 54, and its size is approximately 1 / the size of the bottom of the recess 54.
Occupies 2 areas. Reference numerals 59 and 60 denote slide grooves formed at the front and rear edges of the bottom of the recess 54, and the rear 59 is formed by attaching a separate slide cover 61.

Reference numeral 62 denotes a synthetic resin lid for opening and closing the inlet C58, and slides in the recess 54 by being supported in the slide grooves 59 and 60. 63 is an engagement / disengagement mechanism formed between one side edge of the lid 62 and the edge of the input port C58, and 64 and 65 are storages integrally recessed at the center of the upper surface of the lid 62. This section stores laundry treatment agents such as detergents, bleaching agents and milk softening agents in advance.

The drum 42 has its support shafts 52 and 53,
The drum rear bearing 17 and the drum front bearing 41 are rotatably supported. At this time, at the same time, the support shaft 53 projects from the front wall 2b of the outer tub 2 and the drive pulley 67
Has been fixed.

Now, reference numeral 68 denotes a washing motor fixed to the mounting plate 4 via a mounting bracket A69, 70 denotes a dehydration motor fixed to the mounting plate 4 via a mounting bracket B71,
The washing motor 68 and the spin-drying motor 70
And a drive pulley 67 are connected via a pulley and a belt, respectively.

72 is a magnet attached to the drive pulley 67, 73 is a reed switch arranged at a position closest to the magnet 72 in the outer tank 2, and the magnet is attached to the drive pulley 67 as the drive pulley 67 rotates. Closes when 72 approaches and opens when separated. That is, if the reed switch 73 opens and closes once, the drum 42 has made one rotation.

74 is a first negative characteristic thermistor for temperature detection provided in the heater casing 18, and 75 is a second negative characteristic thermistor for temperature detection provided near the bottom of the outer tub 2.

Next, a specific circuit of the washing / dehydrating / drying machine of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

Reference numeral 76 denotes a microcomputer (for example, an LC6523 type manufactured by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., hereinafter referred to as a microcomputer) which is a control center, and its configuration is, as is well known, a CPU 77 (central process).
ing unit), RAM78 (random access memory), ROM79 (r
ead only memory), a timer 80, a system bus 81, and input / output devices 82 and 83.

The CPU 77 includes a control unit 84 and a calculation unit 85,
The control unit 84 fetches and executes an instruction, and the arithmetic unit 85 performs a binary addition, a logical addition on data given from an input device or a memory by a control signal from the control unit 84 in an instruction execution stage. Performs calculation processing such as calculation, increase / decrease, and comparison. The RAM 78 is for storing data relating to the device, and the ROM 79 is configured to read in advance the means for operating the device, the setting of conditions for determination, rules for processing various information, and the like. It is something to keep.

The microcomputer 76 includes the various operation keys 11.
Input key circuit 86 composed of groups, the water level sensor 2
5, a safety switch 8 that opens and closes in conjunction with opening and closing of the upper lid 14
7. Signals from the reed switch 73, the reference pulse generation circuit 88, the abnormal foam detection circuit 89 using the electrodes 23, 23, and the temperature detection circuit 90 are input, and the microcomputer 76 performs the washing based on these information. Forward and reverse rotation of the motor 68, the dehydration motor 70, the water supply solenoid valve A36a, the water supply solenoid valve B36b,
Driving signals are sent to the drain valve motor 35, the blower fan 29, the drying heater A19, the heater B40, the buzzer sounding circuit 91, and an LED driving circuit 92 composed of various light emitting diodes (LEDs). The microcomputer 76 and each load are connected via bidirectional thyristors 93 to 101, and the microcomputer 76 outputs signals from each of the bidirectional thyristors 93 to 101.
N, OFF signal is sent.

The water level sensor 25 detects a water level change in the outer tub 2 as a pressure change in the air trap 24, and moves the magnetic body in the coil in accordance with the pressure. As a result, the water level change changes the inductance of the coil. The change in the inductance is detected as a change in the oscillation frequency, and is input to the microcomputer 76. Thereby, the microcomputer 76 continuously and widely detects the water level in the outer tub 2 based on the change of the oscillation frequency.

FIG. 9 shows the abnormal foam detection circuit 89. That is, one electrode 223 is connected to the terminal PA of the microcomputer 76 via the resistors R1 and R2 and the transistor A102, and the other electrode 23 is connected to the terminal PB of the microcomputer 76 via the resistor R3 and the transistor B103. Have been. The resistors R2 and R3 are current limiting resistors, and the resistor RT is a resistor for surely turning on and off the transistor.

Then, the microcomputer 76 keeps the terminal PA grounded during the operation of the washing machine. Then, when the electrodes 23, 23 are turned on by the bubbles of a predetermined amount or more, the transistor B103 is turned on, and the terminal PB is grounded, so that the microcomputer 76 knows that the bubbles are generated.

FIG. 10 shows an equivalent circuit for determining the resistances R1 to R4 and RT, where Χ is the resistance of a bubble.

 In the figure, the potential at the point A can be calculated by RT × VCC / (R1 + Χ + R3 + RT) (a).

Then, in order for the transistor B103 to conduct,
Since the potential at point A needs to be about 0.7 V or more, the resistance of the bubble is about
Considering that it is 50kΩ, the specific value is R1 = R2 =
By determining 5.6kΩ, RT = 12kΩ, VCC = 5V,
According to the equation (a), the potential at the point A is about 0.82 V, and the bubbles can be detected by the electrodes 23, 23.

Since the resistance of water vapor in air is several MΩ or more,
If Χ = 1 MΩ is substituted into the equation (a), the potential at the point A becomes about 0.059 V, and the transistor B103 does not conduct. Therefore, the conduction of the electrodes 23, 23 due to the water vapor in the air is not detected.

Under the control of the microcomputer 76, the washing machine of this embodiment has a washing course including a washing step, an intermediate dehydrating step, a first rinsing step, an intermediate dehydrating step, a second rinsing step, a final dehydrating step and a drying step. Are executed sequentially.

The operations of the washing step and the rinsing step are as shown in FIG. 1 (of course, in the washing step, the detergent is put into the tank).

That is, first, at the same time as supplying water to the set water level, the heater B40 is energized to start heating the washing water (S-
1) to (S-4). Next, the washing motor 68 is turned on for 9 seconds.
Reversal within the set time is repeated with a cycle of 3 seconds OFF (S-
5) to (S-16). As a result, the drum 42 is inverted, and so-called tap washing in which the laundry is lifted by the baffles 46 to 48 and falls is performed in the drum 42.

In this embodiment, the DC braking is applied to the washing motor 68 and the spin-drying motor 70 for two seconds at the same time as the washing motor 68 is turned off. As a result, the drum 42 stops suddenly, so that the laundry is beaten against the inner wall of the drum 42 by the reaction, and the washing power is further improved.

In the spin-drying step, the spin-drying motor 70 is driven to rotate the drum 42 in one direction at high speed. Thus, the laundry in the drum 42 is dehydrated by centrifugal force.

Now, the washing machine of the present embodiment is provided with the abnormal foam detection circuit 89.
Is constantly checked for foaming in the outer tank 2 based on the signal from Hereinafter, an operation when abnormal foaming is detected in each of the washing and rinsing step, the intermediate dehydrating operation, and the final dehydrating step will be described.

(Washing and Rinsing Step) In FIG. 12, the microcomputer 76 is connected to the washing motor.
At the same time when power is supplied to the 68, the timer TA (second) starts (S-
20). At this time, depending on the detergent concentration of the washing water, the drum
Abnormal inversion occurs at the reversal of 42, and the bubbles penetrate into the overflow water 22 to make the electrodes 23, 23 conductive. Then, the microcomputer 76 measures a time TA until the electrodes 23, 23 are continuously conducted for 2 seconds, and compares the time TA with a reference value stored in the ROM 79 (S-21) to (S-23).

If 0 ≦ TA ≦ 10, the abnormal foaming degree is determined to be extremely high, and the set value TC during the next re-watering program is set to 30 seconds (S
−24), similarly, if 10 <TA ≦ 20, set TC to 20 seconds (S−
25), if 20 <TA ≦ 30, set TC to 10 seconds (S-26), 30 <TA
If so, set TC to 5 seconds (S-27).

In the re-watering program, clear the TA (S-28),
The washing (rinsing) operation is temporarily suspended (S-29). After draining for the set TC seconds (S-30) to (S-33),
Water is again supplied to the set water level (S-34) to (S-37), and the operation is restarted.

That is, in the above operation, when abnormal foaming occurs, since the degree of foaming increases as the detergent concentration increases, the washing water is diluted according to the degree of foaming.

(Intermediate dehydration operation) In FIG. 13, this intermediate dehydration is performed for one minute (S
-41). Then, when abnormal foaming is detected during this one minute, the intermediate dehydration is immediately stopped (S-42), and the process proceeds to the next rinsing step (S-43).

(Final dehydration step) In FIG. 14, when abnormal foaming is detected during dehydration, dehydration is temporarily stopped (S-51) to (S-53), and water is supplied to the drum.
42 rotations (about 30 rpm) are executed for 30 seconds (S-52)-(S
-57) After removing the foam by supplying water and rotating the drum, dehydration is resumed. Incidentally, since this is a dehydration step, during this time, it is of course in a drained state.

If no abnormal foaming occurs, the dehydration is completed in 5 minutes.

In the above embodiment, the washing motor 68 is used to rotate the drum 42 at a low speed, and the spin-drying motor 70 is used to rotate the drum 42 at a high speed. By changing the frequency applied to the motor, different rotation speeds can be obtained with one motor.

(G) Effects of the Invention In the washing machine of the present invention, when the foaming of the dehydration operation before the rinsing step is detected, the process immediately shifts to the rinsing step, and the foam disappears by the water supply operation for rinsing. Therefore, the time spent for the foam elimination operation can be omitted, and the total washing time can be shortened.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the washing machine of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the same, FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same, FIG. Front view, partly sectioned, sixth
The figure is an exploded perspective view of the body, FIG. 7 is an electric circuit diagram, FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a microcomputer, FIG.
Fig. 11 is an equivalent circuit diagram, Fig. 11 is a flowchart showing the operation of the washing and rinsing steps, and Figs. 12 to 14 are flowcharts showing the foam eliminating operation when abnormal foaming is detected in each step. 2 ... Outer tank, 42 ... Drum, 76 ... Microcomputer (control means), 89 ... Abnormal foam detection circuit (Bubble detection means).

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) D06F 33 / 02,41 / 00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A washing tub is provided in an outer tub, comprising a washing step of washing clothes in the washing tub, and a rinsing step of rinsing the clothes by performing a water supply operation. During which the washing tub performs an intermediate dehydration operation by high-speed rotation, wherein foaming detecting means for detecting foaming generated in the outer tub by a predetermined amount or more, and based on an input from the foaming detecting means. A washing unit provided with control means for immediately stopping the dehydrating operation when the foaming of a predetermined amount or more is detected during the dehydrating operation, shifting to a rinsing step, and performing a water supply operation.