JP3229783B2 - Clothes drying 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 dry cleaning apparatus, and more particularly to a clothes drying and finishing machine for performing both drying and finishing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A dry cleaning process mainly comprises washing, draining, drying and finishing. Conventionally, a tumbler dryer using a rotating drum, a box-shaped stationary dryer, and the like have been used in the drying process. The tumbler dryer dries by supplying hot air while rocking and stirring the clothes in a rotating drum. In addition, the stationary dryer is configured to perform drying by supplying hot air into the box in a state in which clothes are placed on a shelf provided in the box or in a state in which clothes hung on a hanger are suspended. is there.

[0003] The finishing step is a step of pressing and pressing the wrinkles of the clothes after drying. In order to remove fine wrinkles of the clothes before pressing, a steam box finishing machine, a steam tunnel finishing machine or the like is used. A steam box finishing machine performs a so-called steaming process by injecting steam into the box in a state where clothes are placed on a shelf provided in the box or clothes hung on a hanger are suspended. Things. The steam tunnel finishing machine finishes by injecting steam in a process in which clothes hung on a hanger are conveyed by a conveyor.

[0004]

As described above, conventionally, the drying and finishing steps are performed using independent devices, so that it takes time and effort to transfer clothes, and the time required for dry finishing is long. . Further, in recent years, as chlorine-based synthetic solvents such as chlorofluorocarbons have become difficult to use due to environmental destruction and adverse effects on the human body, petroleum-based solvents have been reviewed as dry cleaning solvents. Since the boiling point is very high, there is a disadvantage that it takes much time to completely remove the solvent remaining in the clothes. Therefore, the drying finish of the cleaning using the petroleum-based solvent is further lengthened and the cleaning productivity is deteriorated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and it is an object of the present invention to efficiently perform drying and finishing steps in the same apparatus, and particularly to perform cleaning using a petroleum-based solvent. An object of the present invention is to provide a clothes drying / finishing machine which can perform the finished drying of the clothes in a short time.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a clothes drying and finishing machine which can perform safe drying with a low risk of ignition in cleaning using a highly flammable petroleum solvent.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems, Embodiments and Effects The clothes drying and finishing machine according to the present invention, which has been made to solve the above problems, dries clothes washed by a dry cleaner and wrinkles the clothes. A box-type clothes drying and finishing machine that performs a finish that extends: a) a drying and finishing chamber formed inside a box-shaped housing; b) an outside air intake; and c) outside air taken from the outside air intake. Heat the chick
The drying and chromatography data, the outside air heated by d) the heater as hot air
Blowing means for feeding into the finishing chamber ; e ) an exhaust port for discharging gas in the drying finishing chamber to the outside; f ) a steam injection port for injecting steam into the drying finishing chamber; and g ) steam. A) a steam control valve for controlling the supply of air; h ) a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature in the drying finish chamber; and i ) a temperature control for controlling the blowing means and the steam control valve, respectively. A first step of simultaneously supplying hot air and steam and maintaining the temperature in the drying finishing chamber within a predetermined range based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor, and supplying steam for a predetermined time in a state in which the blowing is stopped, and then injecting the steam. A second step of stopping and temporarily maintaining the state, and a third step of controlling the blowing means to supply hot air into the drying finish chamber and keeping the temperature inside the drying finish chamber within a predetermined range are sequentially performed. Operation control means for performing the operation.

[0008] In the clothes drying and finishing machine according to the present invention, the operation control means controls the opening and closing of the steam control valve and the driving of the air blowing means in accordance with a predetermined program, and performs the processing from the first step to the third step. Execute sequentially.

That is, in the first step, while the steam and the hot air are continuously supplied to the drying and finishing chamber, the intake amount of the outside air is adjusted so that the temperature in the drying and finishing chamber falls within a predetermined range. Next, in the second step, first, only steam is supplied to the drying finish chamber in a state where hot air is stopped so that the steam sufficiently fills the drying finish chamber. After that, the steam is stopped and the clothes are kept in a steamed state for a while.

In the subsequent third step, the amount of outside air taken in is adjusted so that the temperature inside the drying and finishing chamber falls within a predetermined range while only hot air is continuously supplied to the drying and finishing chamber. Third
After the end of the process, the drying finish chamber is opened and low-temperature outside air is supplied. In the clothes drying / finishing machine according to the present invention, the drying and finishing, which are conventionally separate processes, are simultaneously completed by this series of process steps.

Therefore, not only is it unnecessary to transfer clothes from the dryer to the finisher, but also the time for drying and finishing can be reduced. In particular, the temperature of the garment rises faster due to the hot air hitting the garment while the steam is being sprayed on the garment, and the petroleum-based solvent having a high boiling point is also easily volatilized from the garment, so that the drying time is greatly reduced. Further, since hot air drying is performed while supplying steam almost constantly, the humidity in the drying finish room is extremely high, and there is almost no generation of static electricity due to friction between clothes. Therefore, the danger of ignition of petroleum solvents is extremely low.

The clothes drying / finishing machine includes a hanger hook for hanging the laundry in the interior of the drying / finishing chamber and a swinging means for swinging the hanger hook, and at least one of the first to third steps. In this case, it is preferable to swing the clothes hung on the hanger. According to this, the steam and the hot air impinge on the clothes evenly, so that the drying and finishing are performed more efficiently.

Further, by providing the steam injection ports at the upper portion and the lower portion of the inner surface of the drying finish chamber, the finishing effect can be improved. In particular, by performing steam injection from the upper part, an effect of removing the solvent odor of a relatively thick portion such as a shoulder pad of a suit can be obtained.

[0014]

[0015]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a clothes finishing dryer according to one embodiment of the present invention. An upper steam outlet 11 and an upper hot air outlet 13 are provided on the upper surface of the drying finishing chamber 10, a side hot air outlet 14 is provided on a side surface, and a lower steam outlet 12 is provided on a lower portion.
And a lower hot air discharge port 15. The gas in the drying room 10 is exhausted to the back through a suction port 16 provided on the rear surface of the drying room 10. On the upper side surface of the drying finish chamber 10, hanger receiver holding portions 18 for holding hanger receivers 17 for hanging clothes hangers are provided on both sides. Drying finish room 10 has doors 1 that open to both sides
9 completely closes, and the hanger receiver 17 slides forward and backward by opening and closing the door 19.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the clothes drying and finishing machine of FIG. Steam is supplied from a steam inlet 20 at the upper rear part of the housing via a strainer (filter) 21. The heater 22 in the upper part of the housing is for heating the outside air taken in from the outside air inlet 23 opened forward by the high heat of the steam.
The hot air heated by the heater 22 is supplied from the upper hot air outlet 13, the side hot air outlet 14, and the lower hot air outlet 15 into the drying finish chamber 10. A fan 25 driven by a fan motor 24 is provided on the back of the housing,
The gas in the dry finishing chamber 10 sucked out through the suction port 16 by the rotation of the fan 25 is discharged to the rear outside through the exhaust duct 26. The inlet opening / closing valve 44 is connected to the heater 2
Opening / closing the outside air direct intake port 45 opened from the upper side to the rear side. When the outside air direct suction port 45 is opened, the outside air flows into the dry finishing chamber 10 while being cold, and the outside air inflow path through the heater 22 is closed. On the other hand, the outside air direct inlet 45
Is closed, the hot air (outside air) heated by the heater 22 enters the drying finish chamber 10. In FIG. 2, the supply path of hot air and the discharge path of gas are indicated by solid arrows, and the supply path of steam is indicated by dashed arrows. A vibration motor 27 is disposed above the rear surface of the housing, and the rotation of the vibration motor 27 is converted into vibration by a conversion mechanism (not shown) and transmitted to the hanger receiver 17, whereby the hanger receiver 17 is swung back and forth. You.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a steam piping system in the above-mentioned clothes drying and finishing machine. The steam supplied from the steam inlet 20 branches into two systems after passing through a strainer 21, and one of the two passes through a heater 22, and then passes through a main body drain vaporization unit 3.
0, the steam outlet 32 through the steam generation chamber drain vaporization section 31
Is discharged to the outside. In the main body drain vaporization section 30 and the vapor generation chamber drain vaporization section 31, the water drops that have been cooled and dropped are heated by the high-temperature steam and evaporated again. In the other branch of the steam pipe, the steam flow rate is adjusted by the control valve 33, and the dry finishing chamber 1 is adjusted by the steam solenoid valve 34.
Injection into 0 or stop is controlled.

FIG. 4 is a main part of a block diagram of an electric system in the clothes drying and finishing machine. An operation control unit 40 mainly composed of a microcomputer is provided with an operation unit 4.
1 and an input signal from the temperature sensor 43 to the drying room 10
Is input. The operation control unit 40 has a memory in which an operation program is stored. The operation control unit 40 receives an input from the operation unit 41, and according to the corresponding operation program, operates the inlet opening / closing valve 44, the steam solenoid valve 34, and the fan motor driving unit 46.
And the vibration motor drive unit 47 is controlled. In addition, the operation control unit 40 displays on the display unit 42 a display corresponding to the input signal of the operation unit 41 and a display for monitoring the operation status.

The operation of the garment drying / finishing machine having the above configuration will be described below. The clothes wet with the petroleum solvent after the dry cleaning are hung on the hanger and hung on the hanger receiver 17, the door 19 is closed, and the operation is started. The operation control unit 40 sequentially executes the following steps according to the operation program, whereby the clothes are dried and finished.

(I) First Step (Hot Air Steam Drying Step) The hot air steam drying step is a step of evaporating a solvent permeating clothing by hot air while applying steam to the clothing. In this step, the steam solenoid valve 34 is opened, and steam is supplied from the upper steam injection port 11 and the lower steam injection port 12 into the drying finishing chamber 10 at the same time. Further, the fan 25 is started, and hot air is discharged from three hot air outlets 13, 14, 15.
From the drying finish chamber 10. At this time, the temperature inside the drying and finishing chamber 10 is detected by the temperature sensor 43, and the inlet opening / closing valve 44 is controlled so that the temperature is maintained at 60 to 70 ° C.
The amount of hot air is adjusted by controlling the opening and closing of. That is,
Hot air enters or outside air enters directly. The gas containing the solvent volatilized from the clothes is sucked out of the dry finishing chamber 10 through the suction port 16 and discharged from the exhaust duct 26 to the outside. The operation time of this hot air steam drying step is about several minutes.

(Ii) Second Step (Steam Finishing Step) The steam finishing step is a step of keeping the state in which steam is filled in the dry finishing chamber 10 for a while and evaporating the clothes to smooth out the wrinkles of the clothes. is there. In this step, first, the fan 25 is stopped, and the steam solenoid valve 34 is opened following the first step, and the upper steam injection port 11 and the lower steam injection port 12 are opened.
At the same time, steam is supplied into the drying finishing chamber 10. On the other hand, the inlet opening / closing valve 44 is closed. As a result, the inside of the dry finishing chamber 10 is filled with the steam. This steam injection is continued for about 30 seconds, and the steam solenoid valve 34 is closed in a state where the steam is filled in the dry finishing chamber 10. Thus, the steam retention state of the dry finishing chamber 10 is maintained for about 10 to 20 seconds.

(Iii) Third Step (Hot Air Finishing Step) The hot air finishing step is a step of performing finishing while performing final drying by applying hot air again to the clothes. In this step, the steam solenoid valve 34 is closed and no steam is injected. On the other hand, the fan 25 is operated and the
4 is opened, so that hot air is discharged from three hot air outlets 13,
It is supplied into the drying finishing chamber 10 from 14 and 15. However,
At this time, as in the first step, the temperature inside the drying and finishing chamber 10 is detected by the temperature sensor 43, and the amount of hot air is controlled by controlling the opening and closing of the inlet opening and closing valve 44 so that the temperature is maintained at 60 to 70 ° C. Is adjusted. The operation time of this hot air finishing process is 2 to
It takes about 4 minutes.

(Iv) Cooling Step When the above steps have been completed, the door 19 is opened and outside air is introduced into the drying and finishing chamber 10, and the temperature in the drying and finishing chamber 10 rapidly equilibrates with the outdoor temperature.

During each of the above steps, the vibration motor 27 is driven to rotate, and the rotation of the motor is transmitted to the hanger receiver 17 as front and rear vibrations, whereby the clothes hung on the hanger swing.

An example of the specific operation time of the above-mentioned clothes drying and finishing machine is as follows. When drying the suit while hanging it on a hanger, the hot air steam drying process takes 7 minutes,
In a total of 10 minutes of 30 seconds of steam injection in the steam finishing step, 10 seconds of closed steaming, and 2 minutes and 20 seconds of hot air finishing step, the 13 suits hung on the hanger can be sufficiently dried and finished. In addition, when the sweater is placed on a shelf provided in the drying finishing chamber 10 without using a hanger, and the sweater is placed on the shelf (without swinging), the hot air steam drying step is 5 minutes, and the steam injection in the steam finishing step is performed. 30 seconds, closed steaming 10 seconds, hot air finishing process 1 minute 20 seconds, 7 minutes in total, 1 on each of 5 shelves
Sweaters placed point by point can be sufficiently dried. Of course, by appropriately modifying the operation time according to the amount of clothing and the steam pressure, it is possible to select a suitable drying finish condition.

By the way, in the case of the conventional tumbler dryer, it is necessary to perform cooling by sending cool air and gradually lowering the temperature after drying with hot air in order to reduce wrinkles of the clothes as much as possible, and usually requires about 20 minutes of drying time. Therefore, according to the clothes drying / finishing machine according to the present invention, not only drying but also finishing can be performed in about half or less time as compared with the conventional tumbler dryer.

It is to be noted that, before the gas in the dry finishing chamber 10 is discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 26, the gas is passed through a solvent recovery device to recover the solvent contained therein. In addition, the recovered solvent can be used again in the cleaning step, and the problem of environmental pollution due to exhaust gas is eliminated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a clothes drying and finishing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the clothes drying and finishing machine of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a steam piping system of the clothes drying and finishing machine of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an electric system of the clothes drying and finishing machine of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Dry finish room 11 ... Upper steam injection port 12 ... Lower steam injection port 13 ... Upper hot air discharge port 14 ... Side hot air discharge port 15 ... Lower hot air discharge port 17 ... Hanger receiver 22 ... Heater 23 ... Outside air suction port 24 ... Fan motor 25 ... Fan 26 ... Exhaust duct 27 ... Vibration motor 34 ... Steam solenoid valve 40 ... Operation control unit 43 ... Temperature sensor 44 ... Suction port opening / closing valve 45 ... Outside air direct suction port

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masahiko Suga 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Techno Clean Co., Ltd. (72) Ryoji Murozumi 1-2-2 Onda-cho, Ube-shi, Yamaguchi No. 7 Murozumi Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-63-177899 (JP, A) JP-A-6-335599 (JP, A) JP-A-5-200192 (JP, A) (58) Survey Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) D06F 58/10 D06F 58/28 D06F 95/00 D06F 43/08

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A box-shaped clothes drying and finishing machine for drying clothes washed by a dry cleaner and for smoothing wrinkles of the clothes, a) a drying and finishing chamber formed inside a box-shaped housing. and, b) outside air inlet and, c) the outside air taken in from the outer air-suction port heating Suruhi
The drying and chromatography data, the outside air heated by d) the heater as hot air
Blowing means for feeding into the finishing chamber ; e ) an exhaust port for discharging gas in the drying finishing chamber to the outside; f ) a steam injection port for injecting steam into the drying finishing chamber; and g ) steam. A) a steam control valve for controlling the supply of air; h ) a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature in the drying finish chamber; and i ) a temperature control for controlling the blowing means and the steam control valve, respectively. A first step of simultaneously supplying hot air and steam and maintaining the temperature in the drying finishing chamber within a predetermined range based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor, and supplying steam for a predetermined time in a state in which the blowing is stopped, and then injecting the steam. A second step of stopping and temporarily maintaining the state, and a third step of controlling the blowing means to supply hot air into the drying finish chamber and keeping the temperature inside the drying finish chamber within a predetermined range are sequentially performed. And an operation control unit for performing the operation. 2. The clothes drying and finishing machine according to claim 1,
A clothes drying / finishing machine comprising: a hanger hook for hanging clothes in the drying / finishing chamber; and a swinging means for swinging the hanger hook. 3. The clothes drying and finishing machine according to claim 1,
The clothes drying and finishing machine is characterized in that the steam injection ports are provided in an upper portion and a lower portion of the inner wall of the drying and finishing room.