JPH0113878B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention includes a sequence control unit that sequentially performs a series of processes such as washing and rinsing, and after the first rinse is completed, it is possible to determine how many times to perform the next rinse or how many times to perform the next rinse. This invention relates to a rinsing control device for an automatic washing machine that automatically determines whether or not to perform rinsing, and performs rinsing without wasting water and time according to the degree of first rinsing.

According to conventional washing machines, the user can control the amount of laundry,
After determining the level of dirt and considering past experience, set the rinse time using a time switch, or, in the case of a fully automatic washing machine, set the rinse time and rinse time in the washing machine's timer cycle. The number of rinses was set in the machine, and rinsing was performed evenly regardless of the amount of laundry or how dirty it was. Therefore, rinsing is performed more than necessary, which has the drawback of damaging the fabric and wasting water and electricity. Moreover, on the other hand, rinsing may not be sufficient, and in order to obtain the desired cleaning effect, it may be necessary to carry out troublesome operations such as rinsing again.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and detects the degree of rinsing by the first rinsing by a detecting section provided with a light emitting element and a light receiving element facing each other, and also detects the degree of rinsing by the first rinsing. The subsequent rinsing program is determined by the comparing section and the rinsing determining section. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the general structure of a washing machine, in which 1 is the main body of the washing machine, 2 is an outer tub, and is suspended and supported within the main body 1 from the four corners of the upper part of the main body via rods 3. Reference numeral 4 denotes an inner tank which is rotatably arranged within the outer tank 2 and has a large number of holes 4a on the wall surface, and has a rotor blade 5 rotatably arranged at the center of the inner bottom.

Reference numeral 6 is a mechanism section provided at the bottom of the outer tub 2 and has a brake and clutch mechanism inside, and 7 is a motor, and the rotational force of this motor 7 is transmitted to the rotor blade 5 through the mechanism section 6 during washing and rinsing. , and during dehydration, they are transmitted to the inner tank 4 via the mechanism section 6.

8 is a drainage pot with a valve body 8a and an inflow pipe 8b
and an outflow pipe 8c. The inflow pipe 8b is a drain port 2 provided at the bottom of the outer tank 2.
a, and the outflow pipe 8c is connected to a drainage hose 9 connected to the outside of the machine.

Reference numeral 10 denotes a detection unit, which is installed in the inflow pipe 8b of the drain pot 8, as shown in FIG.
A light-emitting element 11 made of a light-emitting diode or the like and a light-receiving element 12 made of a phototransistor or the like are mounted facing each other by a mounting body 10a, and the light-receiving element 1
2, the light emitted from the light emitting element 11 passes through the inlet tube 8b made of a translucent material and the liquid within the inlet tube 8b. That is, the light emitting element 11 emits light in the infrared region, and the light emitting element 11 emits light in the infrared region.
If the inflow pipe 8b is made of polypropylene, it can pass through the inflow pipe 8b. By this, both elements 1
1 and 12, without touching the rinsing liquid etc.
Can detect transparency.

FIG. 3 schematically shows an electrical circuit of the detection unit 10 having a light emitting element 11 and a light receiving element 12 for detecting changes in the transmittance of the rinsing liquid.A constant voltage is applied to the light emitting element 11 side, and thereby It emits a light of strength. A voltage E _put is generated at the output terminal of the light receiving element 12 in accordance with the amount of light from the light emitting element 11 . When the amount of light that reaches from the light emitting element 11 is small, the voltage E _put generated at the output terminal decreases, and conversely, when the amount of light that arrives is large, the output voltage E _put increases.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained. When water is supplied to the inner tank 2 in the water supply process before the rinsing process after the washing process, the inflow pipe 8b of the drain pot 8 is filled with water. At this time,
Detergent and dirt contained in the clothes do not flow out much into this water. Therefore, the permeability of this water is high, and the corresponding output voltage on the light receiving element 12 side is _V1 in FIG. 4. Note that FIG. 4 shows the change in the transmittance of the liquid in the detection unit 10 during the water supply process a and the rinse process b, converted into an output voltage of the light receiving element 12. c is the drainage stroke.

Next, when entering the first rinsing process b, the rotor 5
As a result, a water stream is generated, the clothes in the inner tank 4 are agitated, and the detergent and dirt contained in the clothes gradually flow out into the rinsing liquid. Then, the transmittance of the rinsing liquid gradually decreases, and the output voltage of the light receiving element 12 gradually decreases. Then, at the end of rinsing, the output voltage decreases to _V2 in FIG. 4. This V ₂
The voltage difference V _c between V 1 and V ₁ is the degree of change in permeability of the liquid that occurs during rinsing, and the degree of change in permeability determines the number of times the next rinse is performed. In other words, the subsequent rinsing program is determined by the change in permeability during the first rinsing process.

This uses a light emitting element 11 and a light receiving element 12,
When attempting to detect the degree of contamination of a liquid based on the transmittance of light, there is a limit to the range that can be detected. Therefore, subsequent rinsing programs are determined by the change in permeability during the first rinse, where the change in permeability of the rinsing liquid is the largest.

Also, the main purpose of the rinsing process is to remove detergent contained in the clothes. The relationship between the detergent concentration of the liquid and the permeability of the liquid is as shown in FIG.
Therefore, it is possible to know the detergent concentration of the liquid by measuring the permeability, but in the case of the second and subsequent rinses, the detergent concentration becomes extremely low; The amount of detergent contained in the rinsing liquid is about 1/3 to 1/4 of the amount of detergent contained in the first rinsing liquid. In the case of rinsing from the second time onwards, the cloudiness of the liquid due to fine lint such as lint generated from the laundry during rinsing becomes greater than the cloudiness of the liquid due to detergent, which contributes to changes in the permeability of the rinse liquid. The ratio is more influenced by the generation of lint than by detergent. Therefore, in order to accurately detect the state of detergent adhesion to clothing, it is best to detect the degree of penetration at the end of the first rinse, and it is better to determine the rinse program at this time for accurate detection. It is.

Figure 6 shows the difference in liquid permeability before and after rinsing in multiple rinsing processes with different washing concentrations, expressed as an output voltage difference V _c or V _d .
Characteristic A is when the detergent concentration is twice the rated concentration, characteristic B is when the detergent concentration is the rated concentration, characteristic C is when the detergent concentration is 1/2 times the rated concentration, and characteristic D is when the detergent concentration is 1/10 times the rated concentration.

FIG. 7 shows the dilution of the rinsing liquid in each rinsing process corresponding to characteristics A, B, C, and D in FIG. 6. As is clear from the figure, as the number of rinses increases, the degree of dilution of the rinse liquid decreases. In general, the dilution that satisfies rinsing is 1/
100 or less. Therefore, in the case of characteristic A in Figure 7, the dilution of the rinse liquid is 1/100 in two rinses.
Because of the above, rinsing is insufficient.

Therefore, by rinsing three times, the dilution becomes 1/100 or less, and the rinsing is satisfactory. In the case of characteristic B, rinsing twice is sufficient. Characteristic C
In this case, one rinse is not enough and two rinses are necessary. In the case of characteristic D, the dilution level becomes 1/100 or less after one rinse.

The output voltage differences between characteristics A, B, C, and D in FIG. 7 are shown in FIG. There is a clear difference in output voltage depending on the difference in temperature. Moreover, the characteristics A, B, C,
The difference in the output voltages between D is the largest during the first rinsing for the reasons mentioned above. Therefore, the degree of dilution can be detected based on the output voltage difference of the first rinse, and the number of subsequent rinses required can be predicted.

Here, it is known from experimental results that when detergent is used at the rated concentration and clothes are washed at the rated load, if the detergent is pre-rinsed twice, the dilution level will be 1/100 or less. Then, rinse twice or 3 times.
The determination of whether to rinse twice is determined by the output voltage difference due to the first rinse and the value set between characteristics A and B in Figure 6.
It will be determined by comparing it with E _B. Also, whether to perform rinsing once or twice can be determined by the output voltage difference in the first rinsing process and between C and D in Figure 6.
Determined by comparing with the value E _A set between. The above is the case when pre-rinsing was performed.

Next, the case where water injection rinsing is performed will be explained. The relationship between the dilution of the rinsing liquid and the output voltage difference in the water injection rinsing process and the number of rinses is as shown by characteristic A' in FIGS. 6 and 7, and
This characteristic A', like A, assumes that the detergent concentration is twice the rated concentration. According to characteristic A', as shown in FIG. 7, because of characteristic A, the degree of dilution of the rinsing liquid is lower than in the case of rinsing. This situation is the same whether the detergent concentration is the rated concentration or 1/2 the rated concentration. In the case of water injection rinsing, as in the case of water rinsing, the degree of dilution is predicted by the output voltage difference, as shown in Figure 6.
The number of rinses can be determined by the values of E _B and E _A .

In the case of water injection rinsing, the dilution level is lower than in pre-rinsing, and if the number of subsequent rinses is predicted based on the output voltage difference in the first rinsing process, the rinsing performance will be improved compared to pre-rinsing. , it doesn't get worse.

Further, when the determination is made based on FIG. 6, when the detergent concentration is twice the rated concentration, the output voltage difference is greater than E _A and smaller than E _B , so it is determined that rinsing should be performed one more time. If you look at Figure 7 to see whether you are satisfied with rinsing twice in total,
The dilution after rinsing twice is less than 1/100, which means that the rinsing is satisfactory.

In this way, even in the case of water injection rinsing, it is possible to determine the number of rinsing cycles that suit the washing conditions. Therefore, the rinsing program, including the number of rinsing from the second and subsequent rinsing and the rinsing method of pre-rinsing or water injection rinsing, is determined based on the output voltage difference caused by the first rinsing.

In addition, the permeability of the liquid during water supply before the rinsing process,
When looking at the difference between the initial transmittance (difference V _d in the output voltage of the light-receiving element 12 in FIG. 4) in the draining step of the rinsing step (Fig. 4C), the detergent concentration and the output voltage and dilution rate for each rinsing step are determined. The relationship is V _c in Figure 4.
The same trend is observed, and in the case of V _d , the permeability is detected when bubbles are generated depending on the amount of detergent contained in the rinsing liquid, so the amount of detergent contained in the rinsing liquid, In other words, the degree of dilution is more clearly expressed.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the apparatus for controlling the number of rinses described above. When the draining and dewatering after the washing process is completed, the process moves to the rinsing process and water supply begins. During the water supply process, the permeability of the liquid
E ₀ (corresponding to the output voltage V ₁ in FIG. 4) is detected and stored. After water supply is complete, perform the first rinse.
At the end of the first rinse, the difference between the permeability E ₁ of the rinsing liquid (corresponding to the output voltage V ₂ or V ₃ in Figure 4) and the permeability E ₀ before the first rinse | E ₀
−E ₁ | is compared with the initial setting value E _A , and if it is less than E _A , the rinsing ends and the next spin-drying process moves on to end the washing.

If |E ₀ −E ₁ | is larger than the initial setting value E _A , then
Next, compare the initial setting value E _B and |E ₀ −E ₁ |,
If |E ₀ −E ₁ | is less than E _B , move on to the dehydration process,
Rinse once more.

If |E ₀ −E ₁ | is larger than E _B , after moving to the dehydration process, rinsing is performed two more times to complete the rinsing.

As described above, the number of subsequent rinses is determined according to the amount of change in the permeability of the rinse liquid during the first rinse process.

Next, the above-mentioned rinsing control will be explained using the block diagram of the control circuit shown in FIG. A detection unit 10, which is provided with a light emitting element and a light receiving element facing each other, converts the transmittance of the rinsing liquid into voltage and detects it. Specifically, first, the detection unit 10 detects the permeability of the liquid in the supplied water during the first rinsing, and stores the value E ₀ in the memory 14 of the memory unit 13 . Next, at the end of the first rinse, the permeability of the rinse liquid is measured by the detection unit 1.
0, and the value _E1 is stored in the memory 1 of the memory unit 13.
Memorize in 5. Then, the next comparison unit 16 calculates the difference |E ₀ −E ₁ | and compares |E ₀ −E ₁ | with the initial setting values E _A and E _B . Then, the next rinsing determining section 17 determines the subsequent rinsing program, and sends the signal to the order controlling section 18. When a microcomputer is used as the sequence control section 18, it stores programs for each step of water supply, rinsing, draining, and dewatering, and repeats each programmed step according to the signal from the rinsing determining section 17. . Furthermore, when a cam-type timer is used as the order control section 18, a program that can perform rinsing up to three times, for example, is incorporated, and by fast-forwarding or other operations in the order control section 18, the signal from the rinse determination section 17 is Set to perform proper rinsing. Next, a signal is sent to a load control unit 19 such as a relay, bidirectional three-terminal control rectifier, or SCR to control the actual load, such as a motor, water valve, etc.
Operate the drainage magnet, etc.

As described above, the present invention determines the rinse program for the second and subsequent rinses based on the difference in transmittance before and after the first rinse, that is, detects the difference in transmittance at the end of the first rinse when the difference in transmittance is large. Detection accuracy can be improved, and by performing the first rinse, the detergent concentration at the time of washing,
Since the judgment can be made including conditions such as the amount and type of items to be washed, the amount of rinsing water used and the rinsing time can be optimally set before the end of rinsing. Furthermore, since the subsequent rinsing program is determined at the end of the first rinsing, subsequent rinsing cycles (rinsing method and number of times) can be accurately displayed. This makes it easier to predict the time required to complete the rinse cycle, preventing wasted rinse water usage and rinse time, and allows the time required for subsequent rinse cycles to be displayed at the end of the first rinse, eliminating previous problems. This is what we are doing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an automatic washing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the vicinity of the detection section, FIG. The figure shows the relationship between each step of water supply, rinsing, and drainage and the output voltage of the light-receiving element in the detection section. Figure 5 shows the relationship between detergent concentration and transmittance. Figure 6 shows the relationship between the detergent concentration and the transmittance. A diagram showing the relationship between the output voltage difference corresponding to the change in permeability and the number of rinses between the water supply before rinsing and the rinsing liquid after the same rinse. Figure 7 shows the relationship between the dilution level and the number of rinses under the conditions of Figure 6. FIG. 8 is a flowchart of its rinsing control, and FIG. 9 is a block diagram of its control circuit. 10...Detection section, 11...Light emitting element, 12...
Light receiving element, 13... Storage section, 16... Comparison section, 1
7... Rinse determining section, 18... Sequence control section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A sequence control unit that sequentially performs a series of processes such as washing and rinsing, and a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element to detect changes in the transmittance of light to the water supplied to the washing tub and the liquid after rinsing in the washing tub. a detection section configured by facing each other, a storage section that stores the value detected by the detection section, a comparison section that compares the difference between the stored values and a set value, and a signal from the comparison section. a rinsing determination unit that determines a rinsing program by the detection unit and the storage unit, the rinsing liquid permeability before the first rinsing and the rinsing liquid permeability after the first rinsing is completed. The difference between the detected values and the set value are compared by the comparing section, and the rinsing program for the second and subsequent times is determined by the rinsing deciding section based on the signal from the comparing section. An automatic washing machine rinse control device consisting of: