JPH03106397A - Clothing dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce discrepancies between a set drying completing time and actual drying completing time by increasing a heating value of a heat source when the drying is judged not to be completed until a preset completing time and reducing the heating value of the heat source when the drying is judged to be completed earlier on the contrary. CONSTITUTION:A running process since a drying running start time is divided into three ones, i.e., an early drying running process, later standby process and later drying running process. During these processes, a heating value needed for the drying is detected always or at a predetermined interval. When an actual drying completing time is judged later than a preset drying completing time by that information, the heating value of a heat source 3 is increased for running to promote the progress of the drying. When the drying is judged to be earlier completed, the heating value of the heat source 3 is reduced to slow down the progress of the drying. Thus, a drying machine is programed to reduce errors of the drying completing time. Here, the necessary heating value is calculated from the drying degree of dried clothing detected by information from a drying detecting means 31 and an amount of dried clothing detected in the early drying running process.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to the control of clothes dryers, and particularly relates to a clothes dryer in which a drying end time can be set.

[Conventional technology]

Regarding clothes dryers, there are no particular documents that can be used to set the drying end time.

Generally, the method of setting the drying end time and operating it is as follows.
One possible method is to set the time required for drying in advance and start operation at a time measured by this set time from the specified drying end time. However, the time required for drying in a clothes dryer differs greatly depending on the amount of items to be dried, and as a result, the set drying end time and the actual drying end time are significantly different.

If the amount of items to be dried is small and dried too quickly, there is a disadvantage that the fluffiness, warmth, and dry finish that are unique to clothes dryers immediately after drying is lost.

Furthermore, in order to prevent this, if the preset time required for drying is shortened, there is a disadvantage that when there is a large amount of material to be dried, there is a significant delay and the user is forced to wait.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a clothes dryer having a function of setting a drying end time, in which the actual drying end time does not deviate greatly from the set drying end time as described above. be.

[Means to solve the problem]

The purpose is to provide a means for detecting the amount of heat required to dry the material to be dried, and to
When operating with a drying end time set, the heat source's calorific value will be medium from the time measured for a predetermined period of time from the preset drying end time. During this operation, if it is determined from the information from the means for detecting the amount of heat required to dry the material to be dried that the drying will not be completed by the preset time, the heat source is increased in amount of heat and shut off. When it is determined that the drying process should be completed quickly, this can be achieved by reducing the amount of heat generated by the heat source and slowing down the drying process.

[Effect]

When operating with a drying end time set, by programming the heat source to operate with the calorific value set to the middle level from the time measured for a predetermined time from the preset drying end time, during this operation Based on information from the means that detects the amount of heat required to complete drying, if it is determined that there will be a difference between the preset time and the actual time when drying ends, the amount of heat generated by the heat source will be increased. It is possible to reduce the error in the end time by adjusting it so that it increases or decreases.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 is an outer frame, 2 is a rotary drum that is rotatably supported within the outer frame 1 and is used to construct a clothes drying cabinet; 33-4- is a heat source for obtaining hot air for drying; This is a drum drive belt for transmitting the rotational force of the electric motor 5 to the rotating drum 2.

At the rear of the rotating drum 2, there is provided a drum air outlet for discharging circulating air for drying, which is indicated by a solid line arrow in FIG. It has an inlet 7, and has the role of a blower for generating the circulating air and cooling air (indicated by broken lines in FIG. 1) for cooling the circulating air flow, and has an inlet 7 through the blade wall surface. A double-winged fan that exchanges heat between circulating air and cooling air via a wall. A fan casing 9 containing a fan 8 is disposed. The fan casing 9 is partitioned into a circulating air/air side and a cooling air side by a partition plate 10 provided around the entire inner circumference and a felt 11 provided around the outer periphery of the double-winged fan 8.

Reference numeral 12 denotes an airtight felt for keeping the fan casing 9 and the rotating drum 2 airtight.

The circulation side outlet of the fan casing 9 is connected to a heat source 3 by a duct l3 having a drainage port 36 in the middle and a duct 14.
is communicated with. Further, the cooling air is sucked in through an intake port provided at the center of the back plate 15, as shown by the broken line arrow in FIG. 1, and is discharged from the upper part of the back plate 15.

Note that 16 is a fan belt, 17 is a fan pulley, 1
8 is a drum support member; 19 is a door provided in front of the outer frame 1 for opening and closing an opening for taking in and taking out items to be dried (clothes); and F is a filter 20 that allows the rotary drum 2 to rotate freely around its outer periphery The fixed wall is for supporting the drum.

Next, the operation control method will be explained.

FIG. 2 shows a control circuit for a clothes dryer according to the present invention. 2
1 is a power plug connected to an i, o o v commercial power source, 22 is a power switch, and 2 and 3 are a microcomputer 24 containing a clothes dryer operation control program and supplying DC voltage to a control electronic circuit. 25 is a reset circuit for resetting the microcomputer 24 when the power is turned on; 26 is a clock circuit for generating the system clock necessary for the microcomputer 24; 27 is the microcomputer 24;
4 is a switch input section that transmits switch inputs selected by the user such as drying course setting, time setting, and operation start; 28 is a display circuit that informs the user of the operating status of the clothes dryer, drying course, time, etc. , 29 is a buzzer circuit that notifies the user when the microcomputer accepts the operation of the input switch or when the operation is completed, and 30 is a buzzer circuit that detects changes in the temperature and humidity of the circulating air to determine how dry the clothes are and how long the clothes are drying. The information of the dryness detection means and the required heat amount detection means 31 is sent to the microcomputer 2 to detect the amount of heat required for
A dryness detection circuit and a necessary amount of heat for transmission to 4, a detection circuit; 32 is a door switch that turns on and off as the door 19 is opened and closed; 33 is a door switch that turns on and off the door switch 32;
A door switch input input circuit 34 transmits the F state to the microcomputer 24; 34 is a drive circuit and a heat source control circuit for driving the heat source 3, controlling its calorific value, and driving the electric motor according to instructions from the microcomputer 24; 35 is a frequency signal acquisition circuit for inputting into the microcomputer 24 a frequency signal of a power source used for timekeeping.

As shown in FIG. 5, the heat source 3 consists of at least three sets of heat generating elements, and the heat source control circuit 34 works to generate a large amount of heat (drives three sets of heat generating elements), medium (drives two sets of heat generating elements), It is possible to switch between at least three stages: (drives a set of heating elements) and less (drives a set of heating elements).

Next, a method of controlling the clothes dryer described above will be explained. The microcomputer 24 mentioned above has the functions shown in FIGS. 3(a) and (
Three operation control methods shown in b) and (c) are selectively programmed.

The method shown in FIG. 3(a) is a commonly used method in which the drying operation is started when the user operates the operation start switch of the switch input section 27, and the drying detection circuit 3
Predetermined by information from 0? The method is to terminate the operation according to a program, or to terminate the operation according to a predetermined program after operating for a preset time.

The method shown in FIG. 3(b) is a method in which the drying end time (finishing reserved time) is reserved and operated.The user operates the switch input section 27 to start the reservation, and then the drying end time (finishing reserved time) is set. The operation will remain stopped until the time measured in minutes (
In this method, the drying operation is started at a time measured by To from the scheduled finishing time. In this operation control method, the operation process is divided into three steps from the start of the drying operation: an early drying operation process, a latter standby process, and a latter drying operation process.

And a means 3 for detecting the amount of heat required until the material to be dried is dried, which will be described later.
It is programmed to control operation according to the amount of required heat detected in step 1, and is designed to end the operation with a predetermined amount of moisture remaining in the dried material.

The moisture level of the dried material is detected by the dryness detection means 31.

Further, it is programmed to determine the amount of heat necessary for drying the object to be dried by the necessary heat amount detection circuit 30 and the necessary heat amount detection means 31 at the beginning of the first operation process. In this embodiment, changes in the temperature of the hot air at the drum air outlet 6 are used to determine the required amount of heat. FIG. 4 shows changes in the temperature of the hot air at the drum air outlet 6. "a" indicates when the amount of material to be dried is small, and "b" indicates when the amount of material to be dried is large. When the amount of material to be dried differs, the rate of change in temperature θ1 and θ2 immediately after the start of operation differs. In this embodiment, the amount of material to be dried is determined from the difference between θ1 and θ2, and the required amount of heat is determined from that amount.

Although temperature changes are used in this embodiment, temperature changes or other means may also be used.

The latter standby step is a step of waiting in a stopped state from the end of the first drying operation step to the start time of the latter drying operation step.

The latter drying operation process is a process that dries the moisture left on the material to be dried during the earlier drying operation process, and the operation is started from the time required to complete drying from the previously set finish reservation time. The process starts, and when it is determined that the object to be dried is dry based on information from the dryness detection circuit, the operation is terminated according to a predetermined program.

Further, the time of the latter drying operation step is set to a time that can dry the moisture remaining in the object to be dried in the drying operation step when the heat source 3 is operated with a high calorific value.

During this process, the amount of heat required for drying (that is, the amount of heat generated by the heat source 3 and the operating time) is detected constantly or at predetermined intervals, and based on this information, the actual end of drying starts from the preset drying end time. If it is determined that the time will be delayed, the heat source 3 is operated with a higher calorific value to speed up the drying process, and if it is determined that the drying process will end early, the heat source 3 is operated with a lower calorific value and the drying process is accelerated. It is programmed to reduce the error in the drying end time by slowing down the progress of drying. In this step, the required amount of heat is calculated from the degree of dryness of the material to be dried detected based on information from the dryness detection means 31 and the amount of material to be dried detected in the earlier drying operation step.

Note that To is the time required for drying, which is determined by taking into consideration variations in drying time depending on the type, amount, dehydration state, etc. of the material to be dried.

The method shown in FIG. 3(c) is the method shown in FIG. 3(b) in which the initial drying operation time is set in advance. (Only the method for setting the start time of the first drying operation process is different from the method shown in Fig. 3(b); the rest is the same.) In this example, the first drying operation process is set at night when electricity consumption is low. It is set to take place. Note that the start time of the initial drying operation step may be set arbitrarily by the user.

It is also possible to eliminate the pre-expectation process and start operation immediately.

In addition, in the operating method of FIG. 3(b) and FIG. 3(c), the amount of heat detection means 3 necessary for drying the material to be dried is
When the calorific value of the heat source 3 is controlled so that the operation is performed continuously according to the required heat amount determined in step 1 and the length of time from the operation start time to the appointed reservation time, is omitted.

In this case as well, from the time when a predetermined period of time elapses from the preset drying end time, the operation is centered on the calorific value of the heat source 3, and the same control as in the latter drying operation step is performed. is programmed to.

Next, the operation of the clothes dryer described above will be explained.

When the power supply program is inserted into the power sensor and the power switch 22 is turned on, a DC voltage is generated by the power supply circuit 23 and a system clock is transmitted to the microcomputer 24 by the clock generation circuit 26.

At the same time, the microcomputer is reset by the reset circuit 26 and becomes operational, and the umbrella dryer waits for a switch operation from the user. next,. When the user opens the door 19, puts clothes, etc. to be dried into the rotary drum 2, and closes the door 19, the door switch 32 is turned on, and the door 19 is turned on through the door switch input input circuit 33. The closed information is input into the microcomputer.

Several pre-programmed drying courses and the above-mentioned Figure 3 (a). The user selects his/her favorite operation control method from the operation control methods shown in (b) and (c), and
9, information such as the drying course, operation control method, time, etc. set in the display circuit 28 is displayed by a display element such as a light emitting diode, and the operation is started (in the case of the operation control shown in FIG. 3(a)) or The reservation is started (in the case of the operation control shown in FIGS. 3(b) and 3(c)).

When the drying operation is started, power is supplied to the heat source 3 and electric motor 5 according to instructions from the microcomputer 24, and the rotating drum 2 and the double-winged fan rotate.

Thereby, the circulating air heated by the heat source 3 flows into the rotary drum 2, removes moisture from the material to be dried, is discharged from the rotary drum 2, and is sucked into the double-blade fan 8. When the drying material passes through the double-winged fans, it is cooled by the cooling air due to the heat exchange effect of the double-winged fans 8, and the moisture taken from the dried material condenses into water droplets and is discharged outside the machine. The circulating air that has passed through the double-blade fan 8 reaches the heat source 3 again through the fan 1.3.14, where it is heated and flows into the rotating drum 2, where this process is repeated continuously to advance drying.

In the case of the operation control method shown in FIG. 3(a), the drying operation is performed continuously, and the drying inspection is performed according to the information from the first circuit 30 to determine whether the operation is terminated according to a predetermined program or not. Alternatively, after operating for a preset time, the operation ends according to a predetermined program.

In the case of the method shown in FIGS. 3(b) and (e), the operation is stopped and stands by from the start of reservation until the start time of the first drying operation step, and when the start time comes, the drying operation described above is started. It is done.

At this time, the amount of heat detection means 31 necessary for drying the object to be dried
The required drying time is calculated according to the required amount of heat detected in the drying process, and is programmed to be allocated to the early drying operation process and the latter drying process.

Note that the detected required amount of heat can be calculated from the start of operation.
Heat source 3 necessary for drying until the reservation time
The heat source 3 may be controlled by the heat source control circuit 34 to achieve the calorific value calculated, and the heat source 3 may be operated continuously to accelerate the late-expectation stage process.

When the clothes dryer according to the present invention is operated with the drying end time set in this way, the amount of heat generated by the heat source 3 is reduced from the time measured for a predetermined time from the preset drying end time. During this operation, if it is determined based on the information from the required heat amount detection means that there will be an error between the preset time and the actual time when drying ends, the heat generated by the heat source 3 will be By adjusting the amount to increase or decrease,
This makes it possible to reduce the difference between the preset drying end time and the actual drying end time.

〔Effect of the invention〕

-15 16 According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a clothes dryer in which the drying end time can be set and the error between the set drying end time and the actual drying end time is small.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the control circuit device, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operation control method, and Fig. 4 is the temperature of one rotary drum air outlet. FIG. 5, which is a diagram showing changes in wind temperature, is a diagram showing a heat source and a heat source control circuit. Engineering: Outer frame, 2. Rotating drum (drying room), 3. Heat source,
5...Electric motor, 8...Double wing fan (blower fan), 2
7... Switch input section, 28 - Display circuit, 30...
Dryness detection circuit and necessary heat amount detection circuit, 31 Dryness detection means and required heat amount detection means, 34... Drive circuit and heat source control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A drying chamber for drying objects to be dried, a blower fan for sending air to the drying chamber, an electric motor for rotationally driving the blower fan, and at least a large amount of heat for heating the air sent to the drying chamber. A heat source that can be switched to three stages: , medium, and low, a means for detecting the drying of the material to be dried, a means for detecting the amount of heat required to dry the material to be dried during operation, and a means for setting the drying end time. When operating with a drying end time set, the heat source is controlled so that the calorific value of the heat source becomes medium from the time a predetermined amount of time has elapsed from the preset drying end time. When it is determined that the drying process will not be completed by the preset end time based on the information from the means for detecting the amount of heat required for drying the material to be dried, the amount of heat generated by the heat source is increased to finish the drying process earlier. A clothes dryer characterized in that when a determination is made, the clothes dryer operates by reducing the amount of heat generated by the heat source.