JP2895453B2 - Control method of automatic door opening and closing device of washing machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of controlling an automatic door opening / closing device of a washing machine, and more particularly to an automatic door opening / closing operation of a washing machine for efficiently controlling an automatic door opening / closing operation during a spin-drying stage. The present invention relates to a method for controlling a door opening / closing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, the entire washing process of a fully automatic washing machine is performed by stirring a pulsator left and right at a low speed.
Washing process of separating dirt from clothes, rinsing process of supplying clean washing water to remove detergent and contaminants remaining in clothes, and dehydrating process of rotating washing tub at high speed to remove moisture remaining in clothes It is done in. The washing process is performed again at a water supply stage, a softening stage, and a main washing stage.
The rinsing process is again the drainage stage, intermittent dehydration stage, dehydration stage,
This includes a shutdown phase, a water supply phase and a rinsing phase.
Further, the number of times of the rinsing process performed in such a series of steps is adjusted according to the user's selection. Finally, the dewatering step is performed in a draining step, an intermittent dewatering step, a dewatering step and a stop step.

As described above, the dehydration step in the overall washing process is included in the rinsing step and the dehydration step.
During such a spin-drying step, the washing tub rotates at a high speed, which is extremely dangerous. Therefore, the conventional washing machine is provided with a sensor for detecting the closed state of the door, and at the starting point of opening the door to a certain extent, the driving of the washing motor is immediately stopped, and at the same time, the washing tub is controlled by an appropriate braking mechanism. The rotation of is stopped immediately.

On the other hand, recently, in accordance with the trend that consumers prefer large-capacity products, the door of a washing machine is becoming heavier every day. There was a problem to be solved that caused great inconvenience.

In order to solve such a problem, the present applicant has proposed a device for automatically opening and closing a door of a washing machine by a simple key operation (to be described in detail in an embodiment section of the invention hereinafter). Its main components are an open / close switch that issues a door open / close command, a sensor that senses whether the door can be opened, a sensor that senses whether the door can be closed, a door motor that supplies the door with open / close power, and a door open / close request. In some cases, a microprocessor that determines the current state of the door by combining information provided from the sensors and the like and controls the driving of the door motor based on the state is determined. Further, the door open sensor and the door close sensor are well implemented with a reed switch. In the automatic door opening and closing apparatus for a washing machine having the above-described configuration, there is a door opening / closing request, an opening detection sensor detects opening of the door, and a closing detection sensor can detect closing of the door. If not, the door motor is driven to close the door, and if not, the door motor is driven to open the door.

[0006]

However, in a washing machine provided with an automatic door opening and closing device as described above,
If the automatic opening and closing operation of the door is controlled as much as possible during each dehydration stage, the vibration of the dehydration may cause the contact of the sensor reed switch to become uneasy and generate noise. This may cause a problem that the microprocessor malfunctions. Eventually, the door will be opened slightly between the door opening start point and the time until the washing tub stops completely, but if the open / close switch is operated by foot, hands are free. become. If the user inserts his hand into the washing tub through the open gap in this state, there is a problem that a safety accident occurs.

The present invention has been devised to solve the above-mentioned problems. In a washing machine provided with an automatic door opening and closing device, automatic opening and closing of a door is not possible while a dehydration step is in progress. It is an object of the present invention to provide a control method of an automatic door opening / closing device of a washing machine, which is designed to prevent a safety accident from occurring and to enhance the reliability of the automatic opening / closing operation by making it possible. .

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling an automatic door opening / closing apparatus for a washing machine, the method comprising the steps of: If there is a step of determining whether the washing machine is currently performing the dehydration process, if the dehydration process is being performed, ignoring the opening / closing request and if the dehydration process is not being performed. A step of performing an automatic door opening / closing operation is provided.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view schematically showing an automatic door opening and closing device for a washing machine according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, in a washing machine to which the automatic door opening and closing device of the present invention is applied, a water tub 2 formed of a cylindrical body is disposed inside a main body 1, and inside the water tub 2. A washing tub 3 having a plurality of through holes 4 for communicating with the water tub 2 is rotatably installed. On the upper part of the main body 1, a door 20 is installed so as to be openable and closable. Such a door 20 is composed of two parts, a front half member 21 and a rear half member 22. The rear half member 22 is rotatably mounted by a first hinge 23 fixed to the rear of the main body 1. The rear end of the front half member 21 is at the front end of the rear half member 22,
It is connected by the second hinge 24 and is folded into the rear half member 22 when the door 20 is opened.

At a position adjacent to the first hinge 23 on the rear side of the main body 1, a driving rotation means 3 for rotating the door 20 forward and backward is provided.
0, the driving rotation means 30 comprises a door motor 31 for providing opening and closing power to the door 20 and a rotation member 33 axially connected to a rotation shaft 32 of the door motor 31. The rotating member 33 is again a fan-shaped rotating plate 34 and the rotating plate 34.
The first and second projections 35 and 36 are formed on the front surface of the first and second projections along an arc. On the other hand, the second half member 2 of the door 20
2 behind the cam member 50 adjacent to the first hinge 23.
The cam member 50 has first to third teeth 51.
−53 is formed. Such first to third teeth 5
1-53 appropriately engages with the first and second projections 35 and 36 when the rotating member 33 rotates in accordance with the forward and reverse rotations of the door motor 31 (the rotation direction at the time of opening is defined as forward rotation), and the rotational force is reduced. Receive communication.

At an appropriate position behind the main body 1, a door 20 is further provided.
Sensor, preferably a lead piece 2
8 is mounted while being sealed by a moisture permeation preventing member (not shown), and a permanent magnet 27 is mounted on a lever 26 extended from the rear half member 22. When the door 20 is opened to an extent corresponding to the fully open state by such a configuration, the magnetic force of the permanent magnet 27 closes the contact of the lead piece 28. A sensor for detecting the closing of the door 20, preferably, a lead contact piece 65 is mounted on the front upper portion of the main body 1 while being sealed with a moisture penetration preventing member (not shown). Permanent magnets 66 are mounted at opposing positions. With such a configuration, when the door 20 is closed to an extent corresponding to the complete closing,
The lead contact piece 65 is closed by the magnetic force of the permanent magnet 66.

A foot switch for issuing a command to open and close the door 20, preferably a lead contact 61, is attached to a lower portion in front of the main body 1 while being sealed to a moisture penetration preventing member (not shown). The contact of the lead contact piece 61 is interrupted by the magnetic force of a permanent magnet 62 attached to the pedal 60, which is normally maintained in a state of being pulled by the expansion force of the leaf spring 63. That is, if the user presses the pedal 60 with his / her foot, the permanent magnet 62 approaches the lead contact piece 61 and closes the contact of the lead contact piece 61 accordingly.

Reference numeral 25 denotes a handle used when the door 20 is manually opened and closed, reference numeral 80 denotes a roller for smoothly opening and closing the door 20, and reference numeral 6 denotes a washing motor.
In the above-described configuration, the installation positions and structures of the door opening detection sensor 28, the door closing detection sensor 65, and the open / close switch 61 are not limited to the present embodiment, and can be freely changed. That is, the open / close switch 61 can be arranged at a position that can be operated by hand, not at a position where the switch is pressed by foot. In this case, it can be arranged together with other operation keys on an operation panel (not shown) which is usually arranged on the upper front surface of the main body 1.

Further, in this embodiment, taking into account the characteristics of the washing machine which is friendly to moisture, the door opening detecting sensor 2 is provided.
8. Although the door closing sensor 65 and the open / close switch 61 are embodied by reed contacts that can easily prevent the penetration of moisture, they are embodied by ordinary switches whose contacts are opened and closed by mechanical contact. It can be done. FIGS. 2A to 2E are operation state diagrams for explaining a door opening / closing operation of the washing machine of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2A, first, when the door 20 is completely closed, the first and second protrusions 35 and 36 are all set to the radius of rotation of the first to third teeth 51-53. The door 20 is released, and the door 20 can be opened and closed manually.

In this state, if there is an automatic release request,
That is, if the user presses the pedal 60 with his / her foot, the door motor 31
Is driven, and the rotating plate 34 rotates forward. According to this, after a certain period of time, as shown in FIG.
Become bite. In this state, if the door motor 31 continuously rotates forward, the rear half member 22 of the door 20
Gradually rises, and continuously C and D in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the second protrusion 36 is provided with the second tooth 52.
And it comes to rotate. Thus, the second tooth 5
When the door 20 is completely opened by rotating the second protrusion 36, the second protrusion 36 comes off the second tooth 52. Further, before and after this, the driving of the door motor 31 is stopped. However, as shown in FIG. 2E, the rotating plate 34 stops after rotating for a certain period of time due to the inertia of the door motor 31. As a result, even when the door 20 is completely opened, the user can manually close the door 20.

The automatic closing operation of the door 20 is performed by the door 2 described above.
This is performed in the reverse process of the automatic opening operation of 0. That is, if the user presses the pedal 60 with a foot, the door motor 31 is driven,
The rotating plate 34 rotates in the reverse direction.
As shown in FIG. 2D, after some time has elapsed, the second protrusion 36 becomes engaged with the third tooth 53. If the door motor 31 continuously rotates in the reverse direction in this state, the rear half member 22 of the door 20 gradually descends, and the first protrusion 35 continues as shown in FIGS. 2C and 2B. Are engaged with the second teeth 52 and rotate. Thus, the second tooth 52 rotates,
When the door 20 is completely closed, the first protrusion 35 comes off the second tooth 52. Further, before and after this, the driving of the door motor 31 is stopped. However, as shown in FIG. 2A, the rotary plate 34 stops after being further rotated for a certain period of time due to the inertia of the door motor 31. As a result, the state is reduced to the state shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a general control block diagram of a washing machine provided with the automatic door opening and closing device of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the electrical configuration of the washing machine to which the present invention is applied includes a microprocessor 100 for controlling the overall operation of the washing machine including an automatic door opening / closing operation, and a door 20 for controlling the overall operation of the washing machine.
A function input unit 102 for selecting various functions related to washing including an automatic opening / closing function, a door opening detecting unit 104 for detecting whether the door 20 is open, and a door closing detecting unit for detecting whether the door 20 is closed. 106, a water level sensing unit 108 for sensing the water level of the washing water, a display unit 110 for visually displaying the operating state of the washing machine, a water supply valve driving unit 112 for driving a water supply valve 113, and a drain valve for driving a drain valve 115. The driving unit 114, the washing motor driving unit 116 for driving the washing motor 6, the door motor driving unit 118 for driving the door motor 31, the lamp driving unit 120 for driving the illumination lamp 145, and various abnormal states and washing related to the door opening / closing operation. This is performed by a buzzer driving unit 122 that alerts an abnormal state related to the operation of the machine. In the above-described configuration, the door opening detecting unit 104 includes the lead piece 28,
The door closing sensor 106 includes a lead contact 65.

Hereinafter, the control method of the automatic door opening / closing device of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling the automatic door opening and closing device of the washing machine according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating a control process of the washing motor during the spin-drying step in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, if power is applied to the washing machine,
In step S10, initialization is performed. Step S12
In, it is determined whether there is a request for automatically opening and closing the door 20, that is, whether the user has pressed the pedal 60 with his or her feet. However, the automatic opening and closing operation of the door 20 is possible regardless of the ON / OFF state of the power switch of the washing machine as long as the power cord is inserted into the outlet. If it is turned on,
It can be carried out for the first time. If there is no automatic opening / closing request for the door 20 in step S12, the program returns.

If there is an automatic door opening / closing request in step S12, the process proceeds to step S14 to determine whether the dehydration step is currently being performed. In this case, the "dehydration step (referred to as a dehydration step in the claims)" performs the high-speed rotation of the washing tub 3 included in the rinsing step and the dehydrating step as described above. The stage is specifically used in the concept including an intermittent dehydration stage b, a main dehydration stage c, and a stop stage d described later.
Further, the rinsing step and the dewatering step may be included in the entire washing process, or may be included during performing only one of the rinsing step and the dewatering step.

In such a dehydration stage, the washing motor 6
Is as shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the drainage valve 115 is opened immediately before the dehydration step, and the drainage step a for draining the water in the water tub 2 is performed. Is not driven. Further, the microprocessor 100 determines whether or not the drainage has been completed by comprehensively considering the sensing signal from the water level sensing unit 108 and the drainage time. That is, when a predetermined time has elapsed from the start point at which the water level sensing unit 108 sensed the predetermined minimum water level, it is determined that drainage has been completed. After the draining step a is completed, the intermittent dewatering step b is performed. This step b is performed when the washing motor 6 is driven at a high speed suddenly.
It is necessary to prevent the occurrence of excessive force. In the intermittent dehydration stage b, the speed is gradually increased while the washing motor 6 is intermittently driven.

When the speed of the washing motor 6 reaches the normal speed after the intermittent spinning stage b, the main spinning stage c is performed. In this stage c, the washing motor 6 is maintained at a constant speed. Is done. This step c is entirely controlled by time. In this way, when the main dehydration step c is completed, the driving of the washing motor 6 is stopped, but the washing tub 3 is not immediately stopped but is stopped by an inertia and further stopped d.
After passing through, it finally stops. The end determination of the stop stage d is entirely made by time.
Such a time value may be adjusted in length according to the amount of laundry. If the dehydration step is being performed in step S14, even if an automatic opening / closing request for the door 20 is input, the process proceeds to step S16 and ignores this, and returns. The reason for this control is that the contact of the lead contact 65 of the door closing sensor 106 becomes unstable due to the vibration of the washing tub 3 caused by the high-speed rotation during the dehydration stage, and the microprocessor 100 This is because there is always a possibility that incorrect information is provided to the user, which may make it difficult to perform the opening / closing operation.

In addition, the door 20 is slightly opened between the start point of opening the door and the start point of the complete stop of the washing tub 3, but the hand is free because the automatic opening / closing request is operated by the foot. This is because, if the opened gap becomes accessible in this state, a safety accident may be induced. If the dehydration step cannot be performed in step S14, the process proceeds to step S18 to perform a normal door opening / closing operation. That is, the microprocessor 100 determines the current state of the door 20 based on the information provided from the door open sensor 104 and the door close sensor 106,
Based on this, the door motor 31 is rotated forward or backward to perform the automatic opening / closing operation of the door 20.

On the other hand, if the user manually opens the door 20 during the intermittent dehydration step b, the main dehydration step c, and the stop step d, the door closing sensor 10
6 senses this and sends relevant information to the microprocessor 10
0, the microprocessor 100 forcibly activates the braking mechanism and causes the washing tub 3 to stop immediately.

The control method of the automatic door opening and closing device of the washing machine according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but may be variously modified within the range permitted by the technical idea of the present invention. it can.

[0025]

According to the method for controlling a washing machine provided with the automatic door opening and closing device of the present invention as described above, even if the door opening and closing request is input while the spinning stage is being performed. Even if it is done, ignoring this has the effect of preventing the reliability of the product from deteriorating due to malfunction and the safety accident that might occur if it occurs.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view schematically illustrating an automatic door opening and closing device of a washing machine to which the present invention is applied.

2A to 2E are operation state diagrams for explaining a door opening / closing operation of the washing machine of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a general control block diagram of a washing machine provided with an automatic door opening / closing device to which the present invention operates.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a control method of the automatic door opening and closing device of the washing machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing a control process of a washing motor in a dehydration stage in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: body 2: water tub 3: washing tub 4: through hole 20: door 21: front half member 22: rear half member 23, 24: first and second hinge 25: handle 26: lever 27: permanent magnet 28: lead piece 30: drive rotating means 31: door motor 32: rotating shaft 33: rotating member 34: rotating plate 35: first projection 36: second projection 50: cam member 51-53: first to third teeth 60: pedal 61: lead Contact piece 62: Permanent magnet 63: Leaf spring 65: Lead contact piece 66: Permanent magnet 100: Control unit 102: Function input unit 104: Door open sensing unit 106: Door close sensing unit 108: Water level sensing unit 110: Display unit 112 : Water supply valve drive unit 113: Water supply valve 114: Drain valve drive unit 115: Drain valve 116: Wash motor drive unit 118: Door motor drive unit 122: Buzzer drive 145: Lighting lamps

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A washing machine capable of automatically opening and closing a door, comprising: a step of automatically opening and closing a door for a washing process; and a step of determining whether the washing machine is performing a dehydration process when a door opening request is made.
Judging whether or not to open the door automatically when a door opening request is made
A method for operating the door motor, the door automatically when it is determined that the is being Dehydration
Ignoring an opening request . A method for controlling an automatic door opening and closing device of a washing machine, comprising: 2. A washing machine capable of automatically opening and closing the door, the steps of the washing machine during opening request of the door to determine whether performing the dehydration process, a request for the door automatic opening Automatically opens the door when
Activating the door opening / closing motor as much as possible; and
Ignoring the request for opening and, if it is determined that the dehydration process is not being performed,
Enabling automatic door opening and automatically opening the door
And a method for controlling an automatic door opening / closing device for a washing machine. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the dehydration process includes an intermittent dehydration process, a main dehydration process, and a stop process. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the dehydrating step is a dehydrating step included in a rinsing step and a dehydrating step. 5. The stopping process is a process from when the driving of the washing motor is stopped to when the washing tub stops, and whether the stopping process is completed is determined by time. Item 5. The method for controlling an automatic door opening / closing device for a washing machine according to item 3 or 4. 6. The end determination time in the stop process is as follows:
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the control is performed according to the amount of the laundry.