JP4460326B2 - Control method of laundry dryer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for controlling a laundry dryer, and more particularly to a method for controlling a laundry dryer suitable for drying a dust control product such as a mop, mat, or waste cloth after washing.

  This kind of laundry dryer includes, for example, a rotating drum for storing laundry, a heater and a wind guide section for introducing air into the rotating drum, a wind exhaust fan, and discharges air in the rotating drum. An exhaust air unit, an exhaust air temperature sensor disposed in the exhaust air unit, and a controller for controlling the heater are provided. The exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor is input to the controller, and the heater is controlled. The laundry is dried by adjusting the exhaust air temperature to the set temperature (see Patent Document 1).

  In the case where the laundry is dried by the dryer, conventionally, the drying temperature is fixed to one set temperature over the entire period of the drying process. That is, the heater is on / off controlled from the start of drying to the end of drying so that the exhaust air temperature is maintained at 90 ° C., for example. And after completion | finish of a drying process, the heater is stopped and it cools to predetermined | prescribed cooling reached temperature by introduce | transducing outside air (cold air) from a laundry input port.

  FIG. 7 is a simple flowchart showing the conventional control method. In step S1, a dust control product such as mop or mat is put into a rotating drum, and in step S2, the exhaust air temperature is adjusted. The set temperature is set to 90 ° C. and the heater is operated, and at the same time, the timer count is started. In step S3, during the drying process, the exhaust air temperature is monitored by an exhaust air temperature sensor, the heater is turned off when the exhaust air temperature is 90 ° C. or higher, and the heater is turned on when the exhaust air temperature falls below 90 ° C. Maintain the wind temperature near 90 ° C (set temperature).

  When the timer count ends in step S4, the process proceeds to step S5, the heater is turned off, the laundry input port is opened, and external cold air is introduced to cool the laundry. At this time, the timer counter of the cooling process starts.

  When the exhaust air temperature reaches the cooling attainment temperature (for example, 60 ° C.), the laundry is discharged from the rotating drum in step S7.

  The temperature reached by cooling differs depending on the type of laundry, but the odor is hardly emitted from the dust control product, and is a temperature that does not hinder the handling of the operator. become.

  FIG. 8 shows changes in exhaust air temperature and changes in heater energy consumption in the conventional control method. The upper curve X2 shows the exhaust air temperature change, and the lower graph shows the energy consumption. In addition, since it is the example which uses the steam heating type heater as a heater, energy consumption becomes steam consumption.

  In FIG. 8, the period T0 is the entire period of the drying process, and the exhaust air set temperature is fixed at 90 ° C. during the entire drying period T0. T3 is a cooling period in which the heater is stopped and cold air is introduced from the outside. In the first half of the drying period T0, the exhaust air temperature rises rapidly from around 40 ° C. When the temperature reaches 90 ° C. at the point P1, the heater is turned off, and when the exhaust air temperature reaches 90 ° C. again at the point P2, the heater is turned on. Become. Thereafter, at points P3, P14, P15, P16 and P17, the heater is switched on and off at 90 ° C., and the exhaust air temperature is maintained at about 90 ° C.

In the cooling period T3 starting from the point P18, the exhaust air temperature rapidly decreases, and at the end of the cooling process P19, the temperature falls below the cooling reached temperature (60 ° C.).
JP-A-4-49934

  As described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8, if the set temperature is fixed over the entire drying period T0, the moisture on the surface of the laundry mainly evaporates in the first half of the drying process. In other words, efficient drying is achieved, and energy consumption is effectively used to dry laundry, but in the latter half of the drying process, moisture inside the laundry is evaporated, resulting in inefficient drying, that is, reduced rate drying, and energy is consumed. It will be wasted.

  The reduction drying is particularly remarkable in the drying of dust control products having pile yarns and the like. A specific example will be described. FIG. 6 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view of a commercial rental mat 49. The mat 49 has a thick pile 51 made of a large number of yarns, and a substantially entire surface of the base fabric 50. For example, a rubber coating layer 52 is provided on the back surface of the base fabric 50. When the mat 49 is dried, the moisture on the surface of the pile 51 is evaporated in the first half of the drying process, so that it quickly evaporates and the heater energy is effectively utilized. However, in the latter half of the drying process, the moisture (hatched line W) remaining at the base of the pile 51 is evaporated, but the root water W evaporates after moving to the surface by capillary action, and thus evaporates. It takes time to complete. During the movement of the moisture, a high temperature of 90 ° C. was not necessary, and thus the heater energy was wasted. That is, in the steam consumption shown in the lower part of FIG. 8, the energy S1 spent in the latter half of the drying process (particularly, the two energy S1 on the right side) has many useless parts.

[Object of the invention]
An object of the present invention is to improve the energy consumption efficiency by devising the set temperature in the drying step.

The present invention includes a rotating drum for storing laundry, a heater, a wind guide section for introducing air into the rotating drum, a wind exhaust fan capable of controlling the number of rotations, and discharges air in the rotating drum. An exhaust air unit, an exhaust air temperature sensor disposed in the exhaust air unit, and a controller that controls on / off of the heater are provided. The exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor is input to the controller, and the heater is turned on. is intended to apply to laundry drying machine to dry laundry adjusted to exhaust air temperature reaches the set temperature by turning off control, in order to solve the above problems, the drying process of the laundry is discharged It is composed of multiple drying periods with different wind setting temperatures and exhaust fan rotation speeds, and the exhaust air set temperature and exhaust fan rotation speeds are successively set lower as the initial drying period and the subsequent drying period are sequentially shifted. Is, and is set drying time for each drying time, after the drying step, a cooling step of cooling the laundry in a state of stopping the heater, set temperature of the final drying period is in the cooling step The temperature is substantially the same as the required cooling temperature . When setting the drying time of each drying period, in addition to the method of directly setting the drying time of each drying period, the ratio of the drying time between each drying period or the drying time of each drying period relative to the entire drying process The method of setting the drying time of each drying period indirectly by setting this ratio is also included. For example, it is possible to set the drying time of each drying period indirectly by setting the time of the entire drying process and by setting the time ratio of each drying period, and the drying time of the first drying period can also be set. In addition to setting, the ratio of the drying time of the remaining drying period to the drying time of the first drying period can be set, and the drying time of each drying period can be set indirectly.

(1) Dividing the drying process into a plurality of drying periods, and setting the exhaust air temperature so as to decrease sequentially, for example, in the latter half of the drying process, moisture remaining inside the dust control product is evaporated In this case, energy is not wasted for heating, and energy saving can be achieved. That is, efficient drying can be maintained mainly from the first half of the drying process for drying the surface of the laundry to the second half of the drying process for evaporating the moisture inside the laundry.

(2) The drying process is divided into a plurality of periods, and the set temperature of the exhaust air temperature is set so as to be sequentially lowered, so that the drying process is dried at the end of the drying process as compared with the conventional one-point setting method. At the end of the process, the temperature of the laundry can be reliably lowered, and the cooling process after the drying process can be shortened.

(5) The drying process is constituted by the first and second drying periods, and the time ratio of the first drying period is set in a range of 50 to 80% with respect to the entire period of the drying process. And the efficient drying period of the first half of a drying process can fully be maintained.

[Composition of washing dryer]
1 to 3 show a laundry dryer for carrying out the control method according to the present invention, more specifically, a laundry dryer for drying a dust control product such as a rental mop, rental mat or rental cloth after washing. It is.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a longitudinal section, in which a cylindrical outer cylinder 2 is fixed in a dryer case 1, and a rotary drum 3 having many cylindrical bowls or punch holes in the outer cylinder 2 can rotate around a horizontal axis. Is provided. The rotating drum 3 is supported by a plurality of support rollers 5 and a driving roller 6, and the driving roller 6 is connected to a driving motor 10 via a winding conduction mechanism 7, and the driving motor 10 causes the rotating drum 3 to rotate around the horizontal axis. It is designed to rotate.

  An air guide passage (air guide portion) 13 communicating with the inside of the outer body 2 is provided at the upper end of the outer body 2, and an armored door type air volume adjusting door whose opening degree can be adjusted in the air guide path 13. 15 and a steam heater 16 are disposed, and the upper end of the air guide passage 13 is open to the outside. A side wall opening 17a is formed in the side wall of the air guide passage 13, and a side wall door 17 that can be opened and closed by a cylinder 18 is provided in the side wall opening 17a. The inside and outside of can be communicated.

An exhaust passage (exhaust portion) 20 communicates with the lower end of the outer body 2, and the exhaust passage 20 extends upward in the dryer case 1 and an exhaust fan (blower) 21 at the upper end portion. Is arranged. An exhaust air temperature sensor 22 for measuring the exhaust air temperature is disposed in the exhaust air passage 20.

  The steam heater 16 is connected to a circulation pump 25 and a heat exchanger 26 via a conduit 23, supplies steam generated by the heat exchanger 26 into the steam heater 16, and air in the air guide passage 13 is supplied. It comes to heat. An electromagnetic on-off valve 27 is provided in the middle of the conduit 23. By opening and closing the electromagnetic on-off valve 27, supply and stop of steam to the heater 16 are switched, and the heater 16 is turned on and off. .

  The steam on / off valve 27, the motor 21a of the exhaust fan 21, the rotary drum drive motor 10, the air volume adjusting door 15 and the side wall door 17 are connected to the controller 30, and are driven, stopped and opened / closed according to commands from the controller 30. Is to be controlled. The exhaust air temperature sensor 22 is connected to an input unit of the controller 30 so that the detected exhaust air temperature is input to the controller 30.

  FIG. 2 is a longitudinal side view of the dryer. The dryer case 1 has a laundry inlet 31 on one side in the direction of the axis of rotation of the rotary drum 3, and can slide upward in the inlet 31. A laundry outlet 33 is formed on the side opposite to the inlet 31, and the outlet 33 is provided with an outlet door 34 that can be rotated around a support shaft at the upper end. ing.

[Control program]
The controller 30 includes a storage device such as a CPU (or microcomputer), RAM, and ROM as well as a general control device, and also includes a timer, and the steam on / off valve 27, the exhaust fan for drying work. A program for controlling the motor 21a, the rotary drum drive motor 10, the air volume adjusting door 15 and the side wall door 17 is incorporated as follows.

  A drying process for a certain time and a cooling process for a certain time are set, and the drying process is divided into a first drying period T1 and a second drying period T2 in which the set temperature of the exhaust air temperature is different. Yes.

  For the primary and secondary drying periods T1 and T2, as a common control, the exhaust fan 21 and the rotary drum drive motor 10 are set to always drive, but the steam on-off valve 27 of the heater 16 is set. The on / off control is programmed so that the set temperature of the exhaust air temperature in the second drying period T2 is lower than the set temperature of the exhaust air temperature in the first drying period T1.

  The set temperature of the primary drying period T1 is set between 70 ° C. and 100 ° C., and is 90 ° C. in this embodiment, and the exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor 22 is 90 ° C. or higher. In this case, the heater 16 is turned off by closing the steam opening / closing valve 27. Conversely, when the exhaust air temperature falls below 90 ° C., the steam opening / closing valve 27 is opened and the heater 16 is turned on. In addition, the primary drying period T1 is set to 50 to 80% of the total drying process period T0. In the present embodiment, the total drying process period is set to 44 minutes, whereas the timer is a timer. Is set to 26 minutes.

  In the second drying period T2, the set temperature is lower than the first drying period T1 and is set between 40-70 ° C. as described above. In this embodiment, the cooling reaching temperature 60 of mop, mat, etc. is set. When the exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor 22 reaches 60 ° C. or higher, the steam on / off valve 27 is closed to turn off the heater 16. On the contrary, when the exhaust air temperature falls below 60 ° C., the steam on / off operation is performed. The heater 16 is turned on by opening the valve 27. The secondary drying period T2 in the embodiment is set to 18 minutes by a timer.

  During the cooling period T3, the exhaust fan 21 and the rotary drum drive motor 10 are always driven, the steam opening / closing valve 27 of the heater 16 is always kept closed, and the air volume adjusting door 15 is kept fully closed. Is set to The cooling period T3 is set to 1 minute by a timer.

[Drying and cooling operations]
(Laundry input process)
In FIG. 2, the front entrance door 32 is opened, a dust control product after washing is introduced from the entrance 31, the entrance door 32 is closed, and a drying operation is started by a drying start button (not shown).

(First drying period of drying process)
In FIG. 1, in the first half of the drying process, that is, in the first drying period T1, the rotary drum 3 is rotated by the drive motor 10, the air volume adjusting door 15 is fully opened, the exhaust fan 21 is rotated at the maximum output, and the side wall door is opened. 17 is closed. Since the set temperature is 90 ° C., the steam on / off valve 27 is closed when the exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor 22 is 90 ° C. or higher, and the steam on / off valve 27 is opened when the exhaust air temperature falls below 90 ° C.

  The air taken into the air guide passage 13 from the outside is heated by the heater 16 to rise in temperature and taken into the rotating drum 3 to dry the laundry being rotated. The dried air passes through the air exhaust passage 20 and is exhausted to the outside by the air exhaust fan 21.

  FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the control according to the present invention. In step S1, the laundry is loaded as described above. In step S2, the first drying period T1 starts, and at the same time, the timer counts the first timer count. To start. In step S3, the exhaust air temperature is maintained at 90 ° C. (set temperature) by the on / off control of the heater 16 during the primary drying period T1, and in step S4, when the first timer count is completed, The process proceeds to the secondary drying period T2.

  A curve X1 shown in the upper part of FIG. 5 shows an example of a change in the exhaust air temperature when the present invention is applied, and the exhaust air temperature rapidly rises from about 40 ° C. at the beginning of the first drying period T1. When the exhaust air temperature becomes 90 ° C. or higher at the point P1, the heater is turned off and the temperature rise is suppressed. Next, when the exhaust air temperature falls below 90 ° C. as indicated by point P2, the heater is turned on again, and the air temperature in the air guide passage 13 is increased. When the primary timer count ends at the point P4, the primary drying period T1 ends, but at the end (P4) of the primary drying period T1, the exhaust air temperature is maintained at approximately 90 ° C. . The lower part of FIG. 5 shows the steam consumption. From the start of the first drying period to the point P1, the heater is on, so that the steam of S0 is consumed, and between the points P2 and P3. Since the heater is on, the steam of S1 is consumed.

(Secondary drying period of drying process)
In FIG. 1, in the secondary drying period T2, as in the primary drying period T1, the rotary drum 3 is rotated by the drive motor 10 and the air volume adjusting door 15 is fully opened. For example, the side wall door 17 is closed at a rotation speed of 60%. Since the set temperature is 60 ° C., the steam on / off valve 27 of the steam heater 16 is closed when the exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor 22 exceeds 60 ° C., and the steam on / off valve 27 when the exhaust air temperature falls below 60 ° C. open.

  The air taken into the air guide passage 13 from the outside rises in temperature by the heating of the heater 16 and is taken into the rotary drum 3 to dry the laundry being rotated. The dried air is discharged to the outside from the exhaust passage 20 by the exhaust fan 21.

  Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 4, in step S5, the secondary timer count by the timer starts simultaneously with the start of the drying in the secondary drying period T2. In step S6, in the second drying period T2, the exhaust air temperature is maintained at 60 ° C. by the on / off control of the heater 16, and when the second timer count is completed, the process proceeds to the cooling step in step S8.

  In FIG. 5, immediately after the transition to the secondary drying period T2 at the point P4, the exhaust air temperature is close to 90 ° C., so the heater is turned off, and the exhaust air temperature decreases rapidly from the switching point P4. When the exhaust air temperature falls below 60 ° C. at the point P5, the heater is turned on and the air temperature in the air guide passage 13 is increased. When the exhaust air temperature becomes 60 ° C. or higher again as indicated by point P6, the heater is turned off. Even between the points P7 and P8, the heater is turned on as in the control between the points P5 and P6. When the timer count ends in 18 minutes, the secondary drying period T2 ends, but at the end P9 of the secondary drying period T2, the exhaust air temperature is approximately 60 ° C. That is, it is maintained at the cooling reached temperature. As can be understood from FIG. 5, the secondary drying period T2 is in the preheated drying state after the primary drying period T1, and the period during which the heater is on is short, and this secondary drying period. At T2, as described with reference to FIG. 6, the moisture H at the base of the pile 51 moves to the surface and is evaporated, so that it is in an efficient dry state.

That is, in the steam consumption shown in the lower part of FIG. 5, compared to the steam consumption S1 when the set temperature is 90 ° C., the steam amount S2 with a shorter ON duration is consumed when the set temperature is 60 ° C. Therefore, efficient drying is maintained from the first half of the drying process to the second half of the drying process.
ing.

(Cooling process)
FIG. 3 shows the state of the cooling process. In the cooling process period T3, the air volume adjusting door 15 is closed, the inlet 31 is open, and the side wall door 17 is open. The rotary drum 3 is rotated by the drive motor 10, the exhaust fan 21 is rotated at the maximum output, the steam on-off valve 27 is closed, and the heater is off.

  In the above state, external cold air is taken directly into the rotary drum 3 from the charging port 31, and outside air is also taken into the space between the outer side of the outer drum 2 and the case 1, and the rotary drum is passed through the side wall port 17 a. 3 flows in.

  The air that has cooled the laundry in the rotary drum 3 is discharged to the outside from the exhaust passage 20 by the exhaust fan 21.

  Referring to the flowchart of FIG. 4, in step S8, the timer starts the cooling process timer count at the same time as the cooling process starts in the heater-off state as described above. In step S9, the cooling process ends when the exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor 22 falls below the cooling reached temperature of 60 ° C. or the set cooling time (1 minute) by the timer elapses, whichever comes first. . As described above, at the final end of the secondary drying period T2, the film is dried at about 60 ° C. Therefore, as shown in the cooling process period T3 in FIG. 5, the cooling process takes a very short time. Cool down to 60 ° C or less.

(Removal process)
When the cooling process period T3 ends, the take-out door 34 of FIG. 2 is opened, the entire dryer case 1 is inclined downwardly, and the cooled laundry is discharged rearward.

(Comparison of steam consumption)
Comparing the steam consumption S0 + S1 + 2S2 in the present invention shown in the lower part of FIG. 5 with the steam consumption S0 + 3S1 of the conventional example of FIG. 8, the amount consumed in the period corresponding to the primary drying period T1 is any S0 + S1, and the calculation is the same. However, in the period corresponding to the secondary drying period T2 in FIG. 5, in the conventional example in FIG. 8, the set temperature is still 90 ° C., so the steam amount 2S1 is consumed, but the book in FIG. In the invention, the steam consumption 2S2 corresponding to the set temperature of 60 ° C. is smaller than the consumption 2S1 in the case of FIG. Specifically, when compared with an experiment using a mop having the same weight and the same degree of soiling, the total steam consumption in the present invention in FIG. 5 is 12% lower than the total steam consumption in the conventional example in FIG. It became.

[Another embodiment of the invention]
(1) Although the steam heater is used in the above-described embodiment, various heaters such as an electric heater or a gas heater can be used, and instead of controlling the heater on / off, the steam circulating in the steam heater is used. The amount can be adjusted, and the electric heater can be configured to adjust the current to maintain the set temperature.

(2) It is also possible to use an inverter control type exhaust fan.

(3) The cooling attainment temperature is preferably 60 ° C. for mats in which mops, dust control cloths or pile yarns are implanted, and preferably 50 ° C. for waste cloths.

(4) The set temperature for the primary drying period is preferably set within a range of 70 ° C. to 100 ° C., and the set temperature for the secondary drying period is preferably 40 ° C. to 70 ° C. including the cooling attainment temperature. Set within the range of ° C.

(5) In the above embodiment, the drying process is divided into the first and second periods. However, it is possible to divide the drying process into three or more periods and set the set temperature to be sequentially lower. is there.

(6) As in the present invention, a maximum exhaust temperature (for example, 120 ° C.) is set in association with the configuration in which the drying process is divided into a plurality of periods, and the exhaust temperature sensor detects a temperature equal to or higher than the maximum exhaust temperature. In such a case, the dryer may be automatically stopped and a warning buzzer or the like may be used to warn.

(7) In the above-described embodiment, the cooling process is configured to end at the earlier of the time when the cooling reaching temperature is reached or the time when the cooling process setting time by the timer is ended. It is also possible to adopt a configuration that always ends when the temperature reaches, or a configuration that always ends when the cooling process setting time preset by the timer ends.

(8) As a method of setting the drying time in each drying period, for example, in addition to the method of directly setting as in the above-described embodiment, for example, the time of the entire drying process is set and the time ratio of each drying period You can also set the drying time for each drying period indirectly, by setting the drying time for the first drying period and the remaining drying period for the first drying period. It is also possible to set the time ratio and indirectly set the drying time of each drying period.

It is the laundry dryer for dust control products to which this invention is applied, Comprising: It is a vertical front schematic diagram which shows the state at the time of a drying process. It is the II-II cross-sectional schematic of FIG. It is the same laundry dryer as FIG. 1, Comprising: It is a vertical front schematic diagram which shows the state at the time of a cooling process. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the control method by this invention. It is a figure which shows the change of the exhaust air temperature at the time of applying this invention, and the change of the steam consumption for heaters. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional enlarged view of the mat | matte which is a dust control product used as a laundry. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the conventional control method. It is a figure which shows the change of the exhaust air temperature at the time of applying the conventional control method, and the change of the steam consumption for heaters.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Dryer case 2 Outer trunk 3 Rotating drum 13 Air guide passage (air guide part)
15 Air volume adjustment door 16 Heater 20 Exhaust passage (exhaust section)
21 Exhaust fan 27 Steam on-off valve 30 Controller 31 Input port 32 Input door

Claims (1)

A rotary drum (3) for storing the laundry, a heater (16) and an air guide section (26) for introducing air into the rotary drum (3), and an exhaust fan (21) whose rotational speed can be controlled. An exhaust section (20) for exhausting air in the rotary drum (3), an exhaust air temperature sensor (22) disposed in the exhaust section (20), and the heater (16) on and off A controller (30) for controlling, and the exhaust air temperature detected by the exhaust air temperature sensor (22) is input to the controller (30), and the heater (16) is turned on and off to control the exhaust air temperature. In the control method of the laundry dryer for drying the laundry by adjusting to become,
The laundry drying process is composed of a plurality of drying periods with different exhaust air set temperatures and different exhaust fan rotation speeds,
As the transition from the first drying period to the subsequent drying period sequentially proceeds, the exhaust air set temperature and the rotational speed of the exhaust fan are sequentially set lower, and the drying time of each drying period is set,
After the drying step, it has a cooling step of cooling the laundry with the heater stopped,
The method for controlling a laundry dryer, wherein the set temperature of the final drying period is substantially the same temperature as the ultimate temperature required in the cooling step .

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