JP2880838B2 - Drum type washer / dryer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drum type washing / drying machine configured to sequentially perform washing, rinsing, spin-drying and drying steps while rotating a drum.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a drum type washing and drying machine of this kind,
When the drying step is performed after the completion of the dehydration step, the laundry in the drum is dried by supplying warm air into the drum while rotating the drum at a constant rotation speed. In this case, the laundry is lifted upward by the rotation of the drum, and peels off from the inner peripheral surface of the drum and falls downward.

However, in the above configuration, when the drying process proceeds and the drying rate of the laundry increases, the laundry adheres to the inner peripheral surface of the drum. There was a drawback that it hardly moved and wrinkled dry laundry. As a configuration for preventing this defect, there is a configuration described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-81385.

In this configuration, during the drying process, the drum is kept at 27
The intermittent operation in which the operation is stopped for 3 seconds and the operation is stopped for 3 seconds is repeated, and the rotation direction of the drum is reversed. As a result, the laundry does not stick to the inner peripheral surface of the drum,
Wrinkling of dry laundry can be prevented.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional construction, there is a problem that the time required for completing the drying of the laundry is long, that is, the drying efficiency is not good. The present inventor has investigated the cause and found that the entanglement of the laundry generated during washing or the like is not loosened during the drying process. That is, it was found that the tangling of the laundry was not sufficiently loosened only by intermittently operating the drum and rotating the drum forward and backward.

Even if the drum is operated intermittently, the drum is rotated at a substantially constant rotation speed during the operation (for 27 seconds), so that the rotation speed hardly changes, and the entanglement of the laundry is not easily loosened. When the drum is rotated in the normal or reverse direction, the rotation speed changes rapidly, and it is considered that the change is too rapid and the entanglement of the laundry is hard to be loosened. Therefore, since the laundry is dried while being entangled, the laundry becomes difficult to dry, and the drying efficiency is deteriorated.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a drum type washing and drying machine which can prevent wrinkles on laundry and can improve drying efficiency.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A drum type washing and drying machine according to the present invention is constructed so that washing, rinsing, dehydrating and drying steps are sequentially performed while rotating a drum. In the above, the rotational speed of the drum at the start of the drying process is set to be substantially the same as the rotational speed at the time of the washing process, and the rotational speed of the drum is controlled to gradually decrease in accordance with the progress of the drying process. This is characterized in that an operation control means is provided.

[0009]

The present inventor has conducted various experiments focusing on the rotational speed of the drum in order to smoothly loosen the entanglement of the laundry generated during washing or the like. As a result of these experiments, it was found that the tangling of the laundry can be loosened smoothly by gradually decreasing the rotation speed of the drum from the rotation speed during the washing process. This is presumed to be because the rotation speed of the drum is slowly reduced from the rotation speed during the washing process, so that the force such as tangling and twisting applied to the laundry during the washing process can be smoothly reduced. Is done. The present invention has been made focusing on this point.

That is, according to the above means, the rotational speed of the drum at the start of the drying process is set to be substantially the same as the rotational speed at the time of the washing process, and the rotational speed of the drum is gradually reduced in accordance with the progress of the drying process. Control so that
The entanglement of the laundry generated at the time of washing or the like is sufficiently loosened, and the drying efficiency is improved.

[0011] Generally, when the drying of the laundry proceeds,
The apparent volume of the laundry increases, and the laundry tends to stick to the inside of the drum and not drop. On the other hand, since the rotation speed of the drum is gradually reduced in accordance with the progress of the drying process, the centrifugal force acting on the laundry is gradually reduced in accordance with the progress of the drying process. As a result, even if the laundry easily adheres to the inside of the drum in accordance with the progress of the drying process, the centrifugal force gradually decreases, so that the laundry falls without adhering to the inside of the drum. Therefore, since the laundry is dried while being moved in the drum, it is possible to prevent the dried laundry from wrinkling.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, in FIG. 2 showing the entire configuration of a drum type washing and drying machine, a water tub 2 is provided in an outer box 1 and supported via an elastic support mechanism 3. In the tub 2, a drum 4 is disposed so as to be supported in a horizontal axis by a shaft 5 and a bearing 6. This drum 4
A dewatering hole 7 is formed on the peripheral surface, and a baffle 8 is protruded inward. A vent 9 is formed on one end and a vent 10 is formed on the other end.

An air supply port 1 is provided on one side wall of the tub 2.
1 is formed so as to face the ventilation hole 9, and an exhaust port 12 is formed in the other side wall portion so as to face the ventilation hole 10. A duct 13 is provided on the upper outside of the tub 2 so as to communicate between the air supply port 11 and the exhaust port 12. Inside the duct 13, a blower 14 (see FIG. 3), a heat exchanger (not shown), and a heater 15 are provided.

On the other hand, a motor 16 is mounted on the outer bottom surface of the tub 2.
A belt transmission mechanism 21 including pulleys 18, 19 and a belt 20 is provided between the shaft and the shaft 5 of the drum 4. The rotation of the motor 16 is transmitted to the drum 4 by the belt transmission mechanism 21. In this case, the reduction ratio of the belt transmission mechanism 21 is set to, for example, 10: 1. As the motor 16, for example, a DC brushless motor having a three-phase stator winding is used.

The upper part of the outer box 1 has an electromagnetic water supply valve 22
Is provided. The electromagnetic water supply valve 22 is of a switching type, and is configured to be able to switch between a case where water is supplied into the tub 2 through the detergent dispenser 23 and a case where water is supplied without passing through the detergent dispenser 23.

Further, a drainage channel 25 for guiding drainage from the drainage port 24 to the outside of the outer box 1 is provided at a lower portion of the outside of the tub 2, and an electromagnetic drainage valve 26 is provided in the drainage channel 25. ing. In the vicinity of the drain port 24 of the drain channel 25, the pressure guiding pipe 2
7 are connected and connected, and an air trap 28 is provided at the upper end of the pressure guiding tube 27. The air pressure in the air trap 28 is supplied to a water level sensor 30 via a pressure guiding tube 29. An operation unit 31 is provided on the upper surface of the outer box 1, and various switches 32 and a display unit 33 (all shown in FIG. 3) are arranged on the operation unit 31.

Next, the electrical configuration will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, for example, a control device 34 which is operation control means includes a microcomputer, and includes an operation for controlling operations of washing (washing and rinsing), dehydration and drying. A program is stored. The control device 34 is configured to control the rotational speed of the drum 4 by appropriately designating and controlling the rotational speed of the motor 16.

The control device 34 controls the rotation speed designation signal S
a to the three-phase logic control circuit 35. The three-phase logic control circuit 35 and the three-phase logic circuit 36 constitute a motor drive circuit 37. Thus, the control device 34 controls the rotation of the motor 16 via the motor drive circuit 37. Specifically, the three-phase logic control circuit 35 includes the control device 34
When receiving the rotation speed designation signal Sa from the controller, a PWM signal having a duty ratio corresponding to the rotation speed designation value is provided to the three-phase logic circuit. The three-phase logic circuit 36 includes a three-phase power transistor arm, and is a DC power supply circuit 3 for converting AC power of a commercial AC power supply 38 into DC.
9 to receive DC power.

The three-phase logic control circuit 35 has a Hall IC 4 which is a position detecting element inside the motor 16.
In response to the position detection signal output from 0, the energization timing of the stator winding is controlled based on the position detection signal. Then, the three-phase logic control circuit 35
Detects the rotation speed of the motor 16 based on the position detection signal from the Hall IC 40, and determines the actual rotation speed of the motor 16 based on the detected rotation speed.
It is configured to feedback-control the PWM signal so as to match the rotation speed designation value from.

The three-phase logic circuit 36 adjusts the input voltage from the DC power supply circuit 39 according to the PWM signal from the three-phase logic control circuit 35 and outputs the adjusted voltage to the motor 16. As a result, the rotation speed of the motor 16 is adjusted according to the voltage applied by the three-phase logic circuit 36.

On the other hand, the control device 34 receives a switch signal from the various switches 32 and a water level detection signal from the water level sensor 30, and controls the water supply valve 22, the drain valve 26, the blower 14, and the heater 15 to drive the drive circuit 41. The display unit 33 is configured to be driven and controlled via the display unit 33.

Next, the operation of the above configuration, that is, the control device 34
The details of the control of the operation according to will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 4, 5 and 6. FIG.

First, during the washing and rinsing steps, the drum 4 is rotationally driven at a rotational speed at which the rotational angular speed becomes ω0 defined by the following equation.

[0024]

(Equation 1) Here, r is the radius of the drum 4 and g is the gravitational acceleration.

In this case, the drum 4 is rotated at the rotational angular velocity ω0.
Is rotated, the centrifugal force F applied to the laundry in the drum 4
Is smaller than the gravity G and is, for example, about 80%. As a result, the laundry does not stick to the inner peripheral surface of the drum 4,
Since it is repeatedly lifted and then dropped, so-called slap washing and rinsing are performed, and washing and rinsing of the laundry are sufficiently performed. At the time of the washing and rinsing steps, as shown in FIG. 1, the drum 4 is intermittently driven and driven forward and reverse.

At the time of the dehydration step after the completion of the washing and rinsing steps, the drum 4 is set at 800 to 1000 [r.
pm] to rotate in one direction at a high speed. By the high-speed rotation of the drum 4, the laundry in the drum 4 is centrifugally dehydrated.

After completing the dehydration step, a drying step is performed. This drying step will be specifically described below. First, at the start of the drying process, the rotation speed of the drum 4 is set to be substantially the same as the rotation speed at the time of the washing process (that is, the rinsing process). In this case, as shown in FIG. 1, the rotation driving of the drum 4 is started at a rotational angular velocity ω1 substantially equal to the rotational angular velocity ω0 during the washing process. Then, the rotation speed of the drum 4 is controlled so as to gradually decrease in accordance with the progress of the drying process. Assuming that the rotational angular velocity of the drum 4 at the end of the drying process is ω2, the relationship of ω2 <ω1 is established.

In this case, during the execution of the drying process, the drum 4 is driven to rotate only in one direction, and is not stopped halfway. Also, by driving the blower 14 in the duct 13 and causing the heater 15 to generate heat, the drum 4
Hot air is supplied inside.

According to the present embodiment having such a configuration, the rotational speed of the drum 4 at the start of the drying process is set to be substantially the same as the rotational speed at the time of the washing process, and the drum is driven in accordance with the progress of the drying process. Since the rotation speed is controlled so as to gradually decrease, the entanglement of the laundry generated at the time of washing and the like can be sufficiently loosened during the execution of the drying process, so that the laundry is easily dried and the drying efficiency can be improved. .

When the drum 4 is rotated at substantially the same speed as that during the washing process at the start of the drying process, the laundry contains a considerable amount of moisture, as shown in FIG. The laundry 41 is peeled off from the inside of the drum 4 and falls, and the laundry 41 sufficiently moves in the drum 4.

Here, in the case of the configuration in which the drum 4 is kept rotating at the above-mentioned rotation speed until the end of the drying process, that is, in the conventional configuration, as the drying of the laundry 41 proceeds, as shown in FIG. The apparent volume of 41 increases, and the laundry 41
However, there is a tendency that it does not drop while sticking to the inside of the drum 4. In this case, since the laundry 41 hardly moves in the drum 4, the dried laundry 41 is wrinkled.

On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, the rotational speed of the drum 4 is gradually reduced in accordance with the progress of the drying process, so that the centrifugal force acting on the laundry 41 gradually increases in accordance with the progress of the drying process. Become smaller. As a result, even if the laundry 41 easily adheres to the inside of the drum 4 according to the progress of the drying process, the centrifugal force is gradually reduced.
1 falls without sticking to the inside of the drum 4. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
Because it will be dried while being moved enough in the
That is, since the moving amount of the laundry 41 is increased, it is possible to prevent the dried laundry 41 from wrinkling.

In the above embodiment, when the rotation speed of the drum is gradually reduced in accordance with the progress of the drying process, the rotation speed is reduced substantially linearly. Instead, the rotation speed is reduced stepwise. It is good.

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the rotation speed of the drum at the start of the drying process is set to be substantially the same as the rotation speed at the time of the washing process, and the speed of the drum is set in accordance with the progress of the drying process. Since the operation control means for controlling the rotation speed of the drum to be gradually reduced is provided, it is possible to prevent the laundry from wrinkling and to improve the drying efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, and is a time chart showing rotation of a drum.

FIG. 2 is an overall vertical side view.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram.

FIG. 4 is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view of a drum showing a state of laundry for explaining operation.

FIG. 5 is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view of a drum showing different states of laundry for explaining operation.

FIG. 6 is a schematic longitudinal sectional front view of a drum showing a further different state of laundry for explaining operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 is a tab, 4 is a drum, 14 is a blower, 15 is a heater,
16 is a motor, 34 is a control device (operation control means), 37
Denotes a motor drive circuit, and 41 denotes laundry.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A drum type washing / drying machine configured to sequentially perform washing, rinsing, dehydrating, and drying steps while rotating and driving the drum, wherein the rotation speed of the drum at the start of the drying step A drum type wherein the rotation speed at the time of the washing process is set to be substantially the same as that of the washing process, and operation control means for controlling the rotation speed of the drum to gradually decrease in accordance with the progress of the drying process is provided. Washing and drying machine.