JP6346164B2 - Washing machine - Google Patents

Description

  Embodiments described herein relate generally to a washing machine.

  Fine bubbles containing fine bubbles with a sphere equivalent diameter ranging from several hundred μm to several tens of nm have various characteristics such as excellent surface activity and cleaning effect, and are expected to be used in a wide range of industrial applications. .

International Publication No. 2013/012069

  Then, the washing machine which improved the washing | cleaning capability using fine bubble water is provided.

  The washing machine according to the embodiment includes a water tank for storing water, a rotating tank disposed in the water tank, a dissolving region in which the detergent is introduced and the detergent is dissolved, one is connected to a water supply valve, and the other is the above-mentioned A water supply path capable of supplying water to the melting region, a fine bubble generating means provided in the middle of the water supply path and capable of generating fine bubble water, and a control means for controlling at least opening and closing of the water supply valve, In the washing course to be operated, the detergent is dissolved by bringing the detergent into contact with fine bubble water during a period in which the detergent is dissolved by water supply.

The longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the structure of the washing machine which concerns on 1st Embodiment. The block diagram which shows schematic structure of the washing machine which concerns on embodiment. The longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the structure of the washing machine which concerns on 2nd Embodiment Schematic which shows the structure of the washing machine which concerns on 3rd Embodiment. Opening and closing timing chart of water supply valve according to the embodiment

Hereinafter, washing machines according to a plurality of embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, in each embodiment, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the substantially same component, and description is abbreviate | omitted.
(First embodiment)
The first embodiment will be described below. A washing machine 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes an outer box 12, a water tank 14, a rotating tank 16, a pulsator 18, and a motor 20. The installation surface side of the washing machine 10, that is, the vertical lower side is defined as the lower side of the washing machine 10, and the opposite side of the installation surface, that is, the vertical upper side is defined as the upper side of the washing machine 10.

  The washing machine 10 is a so-called vertical axis type washing machine in which the rotation axis of the rotating tub 16 is directed in the vertical direction. The outer box 12 constitutes the outer shell of the washing machine 10. The outer box 12 is formed in a substantially rectangular box shape with, for example, a steel plate or the like, and has an opening at the top. The water tank 14 is accommodated inside the outer box 12. The rotary tank 16 is accommodated in the water tank 14. The water tank 14 is formed in a bottomed cylindrical shape having an opening on the upper side and a water tank bottom on the lower side. Similarly, the rotating tank 16 is formed in a bottomed cylindrical shape having an opening on the upper side and a rotating tank bottom on the lower side.

  The water tank 14 has a drain outlet (not shown) provided at the bottom of the water tank. The washing machine 10 includes a drain valve 52 shown in FIG. 2 and a drain hose (not shown) connected thereto. The drain valve 52 is, for example, an electronically controlled electromagnetic valve, and is driven and controlled by the control device 46. When the drain valve 52 is opened, the water in the water tank 14 is discharged from the drain port to the outside of the washing machine 10 via the drain valve 52.

  The rotating tank 16 has a plurality of holes (not shown), and communicates the inside and the outside of the rotating tank 16. The hole is formed in the whole area of the peripheral wall which comprises the cylindrical part of the rotation tank 16 mainly. The water supplied into the water tank 14 goes in and out of the rotary tank 16 through the hole.

  The pulsator 18 is provided near the bottom of the rotary tank in the rotary tank 16. The pulsator 18 can rotate relative to the rotary tank 16. The motor 20 is outside the water tank 14 and is provided at the bottom of the water tank. The motor 20 is, for example, an outer rotor type DC brushless motor. The motor 20, the rotating tank 16 and the pulsator 18 are connected by a clutch (not shown). A clutch (not shown) can selectively switch between a mode in which only the pulsator 18 rotates and a mode in which the pulsator 18 and the rotary tank 16 rotate integrally. The pulsator 18 rotates relative to the rotating tub 16 to agitate the laundry accommodated inside the rotating tub 16.

  The washing machine 10 includes a water supply pipe 30, a water supply valve unit 32, and a detergent case 44 in the upper part thereof. For example, a tap water faucet and bath water intake means are connected to the water supply pipe 30 and supplied with source water 22 for washing. The water supply valve unit 32 includes a water supply pipe 30 branched to a fine bubble (hereinafter sometimes referred to as FB) side water supply valve 34 and a main water supply valve 36. A fine bubble generator 40 is connected to the FB side water supply valve 34, and is further connected to an FB pipe 38. The FB pipe 38 is connected to the detergent case 44 via the main pipe 42. With this configuration, the source water 22 introduced into the water supply pipe 30 is routed through the FB side water supply valve 34, the fine bubble generator 40 and the FB pipe 38, and the bypass route through the main water supply valve 36 and the main pipe 42. And is connected to the detergent case 44, and is supplied into the water tank 14 from the water supply port 45 via the detergent case 44.

  The fine bubble generator 40 is a device that generates fine bubbles in a liquid passing through a flow path provided therein, in this case, in water. As the fine bubble generator 40, for example, a cavitation type that generates fine bubbles by rapidly reducing the pressure of the liquid flowing in the internal flow path can be used. In addition, for example, a pressure dissolution method, a high-speed swirl liquid flow method, a fine hole method, a gas-liquid two-phase flow swirl method, or the like may be used. Moreover, the microbubble generator described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-129097 filed earlier by the present applicant can also be used. The fine bubble generator 40 can mainly generate bubbles including ultra fine bubbles having a bubble equivalent diameter of about 50 nm to 1 μm. The fine bubbles in the present embodiment include ultra fine bubbles having a bubble equivalent diameter of 50 nm to 1 μm.

  In general, fine bubbles are classified as follows according to the sphere equivalent diameter of the bubbles. For example, bubbles having a diameter of 1 mm or more are referred to as millibubbles, microbubbles having a size of about 1 μm to several hundred μm are referred to as microbubbles, and microbubbles having a diameter of less than 1 μm are referred to as ultrafine bubbles or nanobubbles. Further, fine bubbles of several hundred μm or less including micro bubbles and ultra fine bubbles are collectively referred to as fine bubbles. When the bubble diameter is less than 1 μm, the bubbles become smaller than the wavelength of light and cannot be visually recognized, and the liquid becomes transparent. These fine bubbles are known to have an excellent ability to clean an object in a liquid due to characteristics such as a large total interface area, a low flying speed, and a large internal pressure.

  For example, the ultra fine bubble has the following properties. That is, the ultra fine bubble stays in water for a long time while performing Brownian motion. Substances are decomposed by the energy generated by the crushing due to the self-pressurizing effect, and free radicals are generated. Since the bubble surface is negatively charged, the ultra fine bubbles repel each other and there is no bonding. Ultra fine bubbles have an action of attracting positively charged organic matter. Due to such properties, the ultra fine bubble has a high cleaning effect.

  In addition, since the microbubble has a negative charge, it easily adsorbs a foreign substance having a positive charge floating in the liquid. Therefore, the foreign material destroyed by the collapse of the microbubble is adsorbed by the microbubble and slowly rises to the liquid surface. And the liquid is purified by removing the foreign material collected on the liquid surface. Thereby, a high cleaning ability is exhibited.

  In the first embodiment, ultrafine bubbles, which are bubbles having a diameter of about 50 nm to 1 μm, are mainly generated by the fine bubble generator 40 as described above. Hereinafter, water containing fine bubbles is referred to as fine bubble water.

  FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an electrical configuration of a portion related to the gist of the present invention in the electrical configuration of the washing machine. In FIG. 2, the washing machine 10 includes an operation panel 48 for operating the washing course contents, a water level sensor 50 that detects the water level in the water tank 14, a motor 20 that rotates the pulsator 18, an FB-side water supply valve 34, A main water supply valve 36 and a drain valve 52 are provided. The control device 46 is configured mainly with a microcomputer. The control device 46 has a function of controlling laundry washing, rinsing and dewatering washing operations. Signals from the operation panel 48 and the water level sensor 48 are input to the control device 46.

  The control device 46 has a function of controlling the rotation of the motor 20, the opening and closing of the FB side water supply valve 34, the main water supply valve 36, and the drain valve 52 based on these input signals and a control program provided in advance. Yes.

  The operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 shows opening / closing timings of the FB side water supply valve 34, the main water supply valve 36, and the softener side water supply valve 37 in the washing process, draining / dehydrating process, rinsing process, draining process, final rinsing process, and draining / dehydrating process. It is a timing chart. The softener side water supply valve 37 will be described in a third embodiment described later.

  In the washing process, first, the control device 46 performs control to open the FB side water supply valve 34. As shown in FIG. 1, a fine bubble generator 40 is connected to the FB side water supply valve 34. Accordingly, the source water 22 supplied from the FB side water supply valve 34 passes through the fine bubble generator 40 to become fine bubble water, and the fine bubble water passes through the FB pipe 38 and is supplied to the detergent case 44. A detergent is put in the detergent case 44. The detergent is dissolved by contacting with fine bubble water in the detergent case 44 and mixing and stirring. Here, the detergent case 44 is also a dissolution area of the detergent. Before supplying fine bubble water to the detergent case 44, for example, a small amount of tap water or the like is supplied as the source water 22 into the detergent case 44 and the detergent and the source water 22 are brought into contact with each other. Control that leads to the detergent case 44 may be used.

  At this time, since fine bubble water has a negative charge on the surface, it tends to adsorb a surfactant that is easily charged positively, that is, a detergent. For this reason, since fine bubble water can disperse a detergent in water in a short time compared with normal tap water, detergent dissolution becomes good. The fiberable water and the detergent are agitated, and the detergent is dispersed to produce a dissolved detergent solution. The detergent liquid is caused to flow according to the flow of fine bubble water supplied to the detergent case 44 and is introduced into the water tank 14 from the water supply port 45. In addition, it is good also as a structure which provides a detergent dissolution chamber in the detergent case 44 here, and contacts and stirs a detergent and fine bubble water.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the control device 46 opens the FB side water supply valve 34 until the middle of the washing process to dissolve the detergent in the detergent case 44, and then closes the FB side water supply valve 34. Then, control for opening the main water supply valve 36 is performed, and control for filling the water tank 14 with washing water is performed. For example, tap water is supplied to the main water supply valve 36 as normal source water 22. Since the main pipe 42 is connected to the main water supply valve 36 and the fine bubble generator 40 is not connected to the main pipe 42, the source water 22 is supplied to the detergent case 44 as it is, bypassing the fine bubble generator 40. If there is an excess amount of detergent, the detergent case 44 is washed away and supplied to the water tank 14 through the water supply port 45.

  Here, when the fine bubble generator 40 has a mechanism for generating fine bubbles by, for example, a cavitation method, the pressure is reduced by reducing the diameter of the water channel in the fine bubble generator 40, and the flow rate of water is descend. For this reason, if the fine bubble water produced | generated by the fine bubble generator 40 is continued to be supplied to the last, the whole water supply time will become very long. Therefore, a main pipe 42 that is a water supply path that bypasses and does not pass through the fine bubble generator 40 is further provided. As a result, the FB-side water supply valve 34 of the water supply path that passes through the fine bubble generator 40 first is opened, and after the detergent put into the detergent case 44 is gone, the bypass water supply path that does not pass through the fine bubble generator 40 is used. By supplying water using a certain main pipe 42, the entire water supply time can be shortened. The main pipe 42, which is a bypass water supply path that does not pass through the fine bubble generator 40, may not be connected to the detergent case 44 and may be directly supplied with a water supply port disposed above the water tank 14.

According to 1st Embodiment, there exist the following effects.
At the beginning of the washing process, the control is performed to supply fine bubble water to the detergent case 44 in which the detergent is charged, so that the detergent can be dissolved in an efficiently dispersed state. Thereby, the washing machine 10 which improved the washing | cleaning effect at the time of washing can be provided.

Moreover, since it was set as the structure which implements control which supplies source water 22 such as normal tap water which does not pass fine bubble generator 40 to water tank 14 after dissolving detergent with fine bubble water, all washing water is made fine. Compared with the case of using bubble water, it is possible to shorten the water supply time to the water tank 14 without deteriorating the cleaning effect.
It should be noted that the supply of fine bubble water is not necessarily the beginning of the washing process, and even if it is performed before or after the supply of source water 22, substantially the same effect can be expected at the initial stage of water supply.

(Second Embodiment)
Hereinafter, a second embodiment will be described. In the following description, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the washing machine 10 according to the second embodiment includes the water supply valve unit 32 and the fine bubble generator 40, but is generated by passing through the FB side water supply valve 34 and the fine bubble generator 40. The fine bubble water is supplied between the water tank 14 and the rotary tank 16 from the FB pipe 38, and is first stored in the detergent dissolution region 60 at the bottom of the water tank 14. The source water 22 that has passed through the main water supply valve 36 and the main pipe 42 without passing through the fine bubble generator 40 is also supplied between the water tank 14 and the rotating tank 16 and stored in the water tank 14. . The washing machine 10 has a detergent inlet 54 on the side of the rotary tub 16. The detergent introduced from the detergent introduction port 54 passes through the detergent passage 56 and leads to the lower part of the pulsator 18 at the bottom of the rotary tank 16, and a part of the detergent also falls from the detergent drop opening 58 to the bottom of the water tank 14.

  Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the detergent is introduced from the detergent inlet 54 and is present near the detergent dissolution region 60 at the bottom of the water tank 14. In the washing process, the control device 46 performs control to open the FB side water supply valve 34. As shown in FIG. 3, a fine bubble generator 40 is attached to the FB side water supply valve 34. Therefore, the source water 22 supplied from the FB-side water supply valve 34 passes through the fine bubble generator 40 to become fine bubble water, and the fine bubble water passes through the FB pipe 38 and is supplied between the water tank 14 and the rotating tank 16. And stored in the bottom of the rotary tank 16. When recognizing that fine bubble water has been stored to such an extent that the fine bubble water is immersed in the pulsator 18, the control device 46 performs control for driving the pulsator 18. The water level is detected when the water level in the water tank 14 is detected by the water level sensor 50 and a water level signal is transmitted to the control device 46. The fine bubble water is agitated in the detergent dissolution region 60 at the bottom of the water tank 14 by driving the pulsator 18. Thereby, fine bubble water and a detergent are contacted and stirred, and the detergent liquid which the detergent disperse | distributed to fine bubble water is produced | generated.

  The controller 46 sufficiently stirs the detergent and fine bubble water and determines that the detergent has dissolved, and then closes the FB-side water supply valve 34 and opens the main water supply valve 36 to fill the water tank 14 with washing water. Implement control.

  According to 2nd Embodiment, there exists an effect similar to 1st execution liquid. Moreover, since it has the detergent inlet 54, the detergent passage 56, and the detergent drop opening 58 which leads under the pulsator 18, the thick detergent before melt | dissolution is thrown into the detergent melt | dissolution area | region 60, without contacting a laundry directly. Thereby, since a detergent and fine bubble water can be efficiently contacted and stirred in the initial stage of water supply, a detergent can be dissolved favorably.

(Third embodiment)
Hereinafter, the third embodiment will be described. The washing machine 10 according to the third embodiment further includes a softener side water supply valve 37, a softener pipe 43, and a softener case 62 in addition to the configuration of the washing machine 10 according to the first embodiment or the second embodiment. It has a configuration. This will be described in detail below.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the washing machine 10 includes a water supply valve unit 32. The water supply valve unit 32 is a multiple water supply valve in this case, and includes a FB side water supply valve 34, a main water supply valve 36, and a softener side water supply valve 37. The softener side water supply valve 37 is connected to the softener case 62 via the softener pipe 43. A fine bubble generator 41 is provided between the softener side water supply valve 37 and the softener case 62. A softening agent is put in the softening agent case 62 as a surfactant. The source water 22 that has passed through the fine bubble generator 41 becomes fine bubble water, which is supplied to the softener case 62. Within the softener case 62, the softener and the fine bubble water are brought into contact with each other and stirred to dissolve the softener in the fine bubble water. Here, the softener case 62 is also a dissolving region of the softener.

  At this time, since fine bubble water has a negative charge on the surface, it tends to adsorb a surfactant that is easily charged positively, that is, a softening agent. For this reason, since fine bubble water can disperse | distribute a softening agent in water in a short time compared with normal tap water, it becomes possible to melt | dissolve a softening agent favorably. The softening agent dissolves in fine bubble water and becomes softening agent water, which is supplied to the water tank 14. In this case, the softener case 62 may be provided with a dissolution chamber, that is, a dissolution region in which the softener and fine bubble water are brought into contact with and stirred to dissolve the softener in the fine bubble water.

  The FB pipe 38 connected to the detergent case 44 has a fine bubble generator 40, and water supply control is performed by the FB side water supply valve 34. Further, the main pipe 42 which is a water supply path connected to the detergent case 44 does not have the fine bubble generator 40, and is supplied with water by the main water supply valve 36, which is a so-called bypass route which does not pass through the fine bubble generator 40. But there is. The detergent case 44 is configured to be able to supply water to the water tank 14 via the supply pipe 39.

  In FIG. 4, the outer box 12, the rotating tank 16, and other configurations are simplified to represent only the water tank 14, but the specific structure is the outer box 12, the water tank 14, and the rotation in FIG. 1 or 3. The configurations of the tank 16, the pulsator 18, and the motor 20 are the same. For example, if this embodiment is applied to the washing machine 10 according to the first embodiment, the softener water supplied from the softener case 62 is supplied to the water tank 14 and the rotary tank 16 from above. Moreover, if this embodiment is applied to the washing machine 10 according to the second embodiment, the softener water supplied from the softener case 62 is supplied between the water tank 14 and the rotary tank 16 and stored in the bottom of the water tank 14. The

  The operation of the third embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 5, in the final rinsing process, the control device 46 opens the softener side water supply valve 37 to supply the source water 22 to the fine bubble generator 41 through the softener pipe 43. When passing through the fine bubble generator 41, the source water 22 becomes fine bubble water and is supplied to the softener case 62. A softening agent is put in the softening agent case 62. Therefore, the fine bubble water is first brought into contact with and agitated with the softener in the softener case 62 to produce a softener liquid in which the softener is dissolved in the fine bubble water. The generated softener liquid passes through the softener pipe 43 and is supplied into the water tank 14.

  Next, after the softener in the softener case 62 has melted, the control device 46 closes the softener side water supply valve 37 and opens the main water supply valve 36. The source water 22 passing through the main water supply valve 36 passes through the detergent case 44 and is supplied to the water tank 14 via the supply pipe 39. Thereby, the water tank 14 is filled with the softening agent water in which the softening agent is dissolved in the source water 22 and the fine bubble water.

According to the washing machine 10 which concerns on 3rd Embodiment, there exist the following effects.
At the beginning of the final rinsing process, control is performed to supply fine bubble water to the softener case 62 filled with the softener, so that the softener is efficiently dispersed and dissolved in the fine bubble water. Made possible. As a result, the softening agent easily penetrates into the clothes, and the clothes after washing have a softer finish. Therefore, it is possible to provide the washing machine 10 with improved softening effect at the time of final rinsing.

  Moreover, since it was set as the structure which implements control which supplies the source water 22, such as normal tap water, to the water tank 14, after melt | dissolving a softening agent with fine bubble water, it compares with the case where all rinse water is made into fine bubble water. And shortening the whole water supply time to the water tank 14 can be performed in the state which improved the softening effect.

  In the description of the first to third embodiments, the washing machine 10 has been described by exemplifying a so-called vertical type washing machine in which the rotation axis of the rotating tub is oriented in the vertical direction, but is not limited thereto. For example, the washing machine 10 may be a so-called horizontal axis type drum type washing machine in which the rotation axis of the rotating tub is inclined downward or horizontally.

  Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented by way of example and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

  In the drawing, 10 is a washing machine, 14 is a water tank, 16 is a rotating tank, 44 is a detergent case (dissolution area), 30 is a water supply pipe (water supply path), 34 is an FB side water supply valve, 36 is a main water supply valve, 37 is Softener side water supply valve, 38 is an FB pipe (water supply path), 39 is a supply pipe (water supply path), 42 is a main pipe (water supply path), 43 is a softener pipe (water supply path), 40 and 41 are fine bubbles generated , 46 is a control device, 60 is a detergent dissolution region, and 62 is a softener case (dissolution region).

Claims (11)

A water tank for storing water;
A rotating tank disposed in the water tank;
A dissolving area where the detergent is introduced and dissolves the detergent;
One is connected to a water supply valve, and the other is a water supply path capable of supplying water to the melting region,
Fine bubble generating means provided in the middle of the water supply path and capable of generating fine bubble water,
Control means for controlling at least opening and closing of the water supply valve,
The said control means is a washing machine which performs the control which melt | dissolves a detergent by making a detergent and fine bubble water contact in the period when the detergent is dissolved by water supply in the wash course to be drive | operated.   The washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the fine bubble generating means is provided in the middle of the water supply path between the water supply valve and the dissolution region.   The washing machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a fine bubble generating means is provided downstream of the water supply valve and upstream of the dissolution region. A water tank for storing water;
A rotating tank disposed in the water tank;
A softening agent is introduced and a dissolving region for dissolving the softening agent;
One is connected to a water supply valve, and the other is a water supply path capable of supplying water to the melting region,
Fine bubble generating means provided in the middle of the water supply path and capable of generating fine bubble water,
Control means for controlling at least opening and closing of the water supply valve,
The said control means is a washing machine which performs the control which melt | dissolves a softening agent by making a softening agent and fine bubble water contact during the period which melt | dissolves a softening agent by water supply in the wash course to be drive | operated.   The washing machine according to claim 4, wherein the fine bubble generating means is provided in the middle of the water supply path between the water supply valve and the dissolution region. Wherein a downstream side of the water supply valve, the washing machine according to claim 4 or 5 the fine bubble generating means provided on the upstream side of the front Ki溶 solution region.   The washing machine according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising a water supply path that does not pass through the fine bubble generating means.   The washing machine according to claim 7, wherein the control unit performs control of passing water through a water supply path that does not pass through the fine bubble generating unit after water has passed through the water supply path through which the fine bubble generating unit passes. .   The washing machine according to claim 7, wherein the water supply path that does not pass through the fine bubble generating means is a water supply path connected to one of the multiple water supply valves. A pulsator for stirring the laundry is provided at the bottom of the rotating tub,
The washing machine according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the dissolution region is located below the pulsator. The dissolution zone is the bottom of the aquarium;
The fine bubble water is poured between the water tank and the rotating tank,
The washing machine according to claim 10, wherein the fine bubble water comes into contact with a detergent previously introduced into the dissolution region before the laundry in the rotating tub.

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