JPH03280991A - Dehydrating device provided with rotary drum - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To smoothly increase a dehydrating rotational speed easily across a resonance point at the time of dehydrating by providing a water-contained member consisting of a member, possible to absorb and remove water, held in a cavity part between a drum and a peripheral frame. CONSTITUTION:A drum 4 is rotatably supported around horizontal shafts 5, 6 in the inside of a tub 2, serving as an outer tank for dehydrating, and provided with parts 4a, 4b connected to space in the tub 2 at least partly in both sides and the periphery as an inner tank for dehydrating. A peripheral frame 16 is fitted to the periphery of the drum 4 with a predetermined space and provided with a part 18 connected to space at least partly in the tub 2. Further, a water- contained member 19, consisting of a member possible to absorb and remove water, is mounted and held in a cavity part between the drum 4 and the peripheral frame 16. Rotation is transmitted to the horizontal shafts 5, 6 for supporting the drum 4 by a rotary mechanism formed of a motor 8 or the like. As a result, a dehydrating rotational speed can be smoothly increased by easily riding across a resonance point at the time of dehydrating.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a dewatering device suitable for, for example, a fully automatic washer/dryer equipped with a rotating drum.

(Prior Art) Recently, a fully automatic washer/dryer has been developed that continuously performs all processes for laundry such as clothes in one rotating drum, from the washing process through the dehydration process to the drying process. It's coming.

These fully automatic washing machines have a structure in which a relatively large drum is rotatably supported around a horizontal axis within the housing due to the demands of the drying process, which causes the following problems. There is.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) First, the first point concerns countermeasures against uneven distribution (unbalance) of laundry in the drum at the start of the dewatering process.

That is, if such an unbalance amount is large, it is difficult to start the dehydration process, and even if the dehydration process is started, the drum is prevented from reaching a rotational speed that allows dehydration.

For this reason, it has been considered to correct the uneven distribution of laundry by controlling the rotation form of the drum. However, such countermeasures are not only incomplete in eliminating unbalance, but also cause the housing to vibrate greatly due to a large unbalance, especially at the initial stage, and generate large noise accordingly.

In addition, in order to suppress such vibration and noise,
Since the weight of the casing must be increased to make it as strong as possible, the weight of the entire product becomes very large. This impairs logistics, including transportation and management of the product, and also poses problems in handling during installation in general households.

The second point is to take measures to prevent laundry from sticking to the inner wall of the drum during the dewatering process.

That is, in the dehydration step, it is necessary to increase the degree of dehydration as much as possible in order to efficiently carry out the next drying step. To do this, it is necessary to increase the rotation speed of the drum during the dewatering process.

However, as the rotational speed of the drum increases, the laundry sticks to the inner wall of the drum, and even if the drum stops rotating at the end of spin-drying, the laundry will not be detached from the inner wall of the drum. Undesirable phenomena occur.

In other words, in the next drying process, the laundry falls downward near the highest position in the drum, which requires an agitation effect that evenly distributes the areas that are hit by the warm air, but the drying process causes the laundry to sag. This is because the phenomenon makes it impossible.

For this reason, the rotational speed of the drum cannot be increased to that extent during the dehydration process, resulting in an insufficient degree of dehydration, which results in the problem that the next drying process cannot be carried out efficiently.

Therefore, this invention was made in view of the above points, and by creating a drum structure that can effectively eliminate the imbalance caused by the uneven distribution of laundry inside the drum, it is possible to easily reduce the resonance point during spin-drying. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a dehydrating device equipped with an extremely good rotating drum that can smoothly increase the dehydrating rotation speed by overcoming the above problems, and can suppress vibration and noise without increasing the weight of the casing. There is.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a dewatering device equipped with a rotating drum that can eliminate the clinging of laundry to the inner wall of the drum during dehydration and contribute to improving the degree of dehydration.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a tub serving as an outer tank for dehydration, a tub which is rotatably supported around a horizontal axis inside the tab, and a tub for dehydration. A drum is fitted with a predetermined gap in the outer periphery of the drum, and has a portion communicating with the space inside the tab on both sides and at least a part of the outer circumference as an inner tank of the drum. an outer peripheral frame having a portion that communicates with the space of the outer peripheral frame, a water-containing member comprising a member capable of absorbing and dewatering water that is sandwiched between the gap between the drum and the outer peripheral frame, and a horizontal axis supporting the drum that is rotatable. A dewatering device is also provided that also includes a rotating drum with a rotating mechanism for transmitting water.

Further, according to the present invention, in addition to the above configuration,
It is movable back and forth between the gap between the drum and the outer peripheral frame and the interior of the drum, and is biased so as to be able to retreat into the gap at least before the end of dewatering and to protrude into the drum at the end of the dewatering. A dewatering device is provided that includes a drum that is equipped with a raising and lowering member.

(Function) According to the above-mentioned configuration, the water-containing body sandwiched between the drum and the outer peripheral frame contains sufficient water at the initial stage of dehydration, so that
Since the weight of the entire rotating system including the drum is large, it is possible to correct the unbalance of the laundry to a relatively small degree, and as the dehydration progresses, it acts pseudo-like a liquid balancer, so the dehydration of the drum is improved. The rotation speed can be increased smoothly.

Further, in addition to the above, the raising and lowering member can separate the laundry from the inner wall of the drum at the end of dewatering.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, a tub 2 serving as an outer tub for washing and dehydration having substantially the same shape as the cubic housing 1 is disposed at the bottom via support legs 3. Inside the tub 2, there is a drum 4 with a generally cylindrical cross section as an inner tank for washing, dehydration, and drying, which is rotatable around a horizontal axis via airtight bearings 5a, 6a on rotating shafts 5, 6 on both sides thereof. is supported by

Here, the drum 4 has a large number of through holes 4a formed on both sides, which also serve as water passage holes for washing and rinsing, and ventilation holes for drying, and a large number of through holes 4a, which serve as dehydration holes for dewatering, on the outer periphery. A hole 4b is formed.

Note that, for convenience of illustration, only a portion of these through holes 4a and 4b are shown. In addition, an outer peripheral frame 1 is provided on the outer periphery of the drum 4.
6 is fitted. Between the drum 4 and the outer peripheral frame 16, there is a water-containing material made of a material capable of absorbing and dewatering, such as urethane foam or felt, in order to function as a pseudo liquid balancer, which is especially necessary in the dewatering process. A member 19 is sandwiched. The details of such a drum portion and its function during the dewatering process will be described later.

A belt 8b for transmitting the rotation of a motor 8 attached to the bottom of the tab 2 via a drive pulley 8a is attached to a pulley 7 that is pivotally attached to the rotating shaft 5. The drum 4 is configured to be rotated around a horizontal axis.

Furthermore, a drying device 100 is disposed within the circulation duct 9 formed at the top of the tub 2. This drying device 100
As shown in the figure, during the drying process, warm air is
As shown, circulation duct 9 → tab 2, drum 4 → tab 2 →
A circulation fan 10, a heat exchanger 11, and a heater 12 are provided to circulate through the circulation duct 9.

In FIG. 2, 13 is a cooling duct for dehumidification that is formed to intersect the circulation duct 9 and the heat exchanger 11. A cooling fan 14 is disposed within the cooling duct 13 to take in outside air along the path indicated by arrow B. This cooling fan 14 and the circulation fan 1
0, the rotation transmission mechanism 15a, 1 is transmitted from the shared motor 15.
5b is attached.

That is, according to such a drying apparatus 100, during the drying process, as described above, circulating hot air is introduced into the drum 4 as indicated by arrow A, but the heat exchanger 11 is used to introduce outside air from the cooling duct 13 into the drum 4. By exchanging heat with the drum 4, the laundry in the drum 4 is dried with a dehumidifying function.

In FIG. 1, a water supply pipe 25 including a water supply valve 24 is connected to the upper right portion of the tab 2 in the drawing. Furthermore, a drain pipe 27 including a drain valve 26 is connected to the bottom of the tub 2 .

In FIG. 1, a laundry dryness sensor 28, which will be described later, is provided on the inner wall of the drum 4. The lead wire of this sensor 28 is led out of the tab 2 through means not shown, such as a through hole provided in the rotating shaft 6, and is connected to a corresponding part of a control circuit to be described later.

FIG. 3 shows a section II of the drum 4 in FIG. The outer peripheral frame 16 in which the convex portion 18 with holes is formed is fitted with a predetermined gap. The water-containing member 19 is inserted into the gap between the drum 4 and the outer frame 16 as described above.

This water-containing member 19 is required to be able to contain water for the balancer function and to be able to maintain a water-containing state in a stationary state.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 20 denotes a plurality of (three in the illustrated case) attached to the notch 19a at a predetermined interval along the circumference of the water-containing member 19 so as to be able to freely rise and fall in the direction of arrow C using the support shaft 21 as a fulcrum. ) is the raising/lowering member.

FIG. 4 shows the details of how the raising/lowering member 20 is mounted, and the raising/lowering member 20 can be freely raised and lowered so as to move in and out of the drum 4 using the support shaft 21 supported by the drum 4 as a fulcrum. Installed. In this case, the raising/lowering member 20 and the stopper 23
Since the torsion spring 22 is engaged between the drum 4 and the drum 4, the raising/lowering member 20 is always urged to protrude into the drum 4.

Note that, although not shown, a door member that can be opened and closed is provided in each of the housing 1, the tub 2, and a portion of the drum 4 in order to take in and take out laundry and to add detergent.

Therefore, in the above configuration, if a predetermined amount of water is supplied into the tub 2 and the motor 8 is driven with laundry and detergent put into the drum 4, as the drum 4 is rotated, Essentially, the laundry is agitated in water containing detergent to perform the well-known washing process, followed by a rinse and drain cycle followed by a spin cycle and a drying process for a fully automatic washer/dryer. It will be done continuously.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a control circuit applied to the fully automatic washer/dryer as described above, and is mainly composed of a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 51 and a drive circuit 52 controlled by this CPU 51.

The CPU 51 includes a clock pulse generation circuit 53 that is necessary for the operation of the CPU 51 and supplies a lock pulse, a laundry dryness detection circuit 54 connected to the laundry dryness sensor 28 mentioned above, and a fully automatic and A course select switch 55 for selecting a course, a start switch 56, and a door switch 5 for detecting opening/closing of the door.
7. Course display 58 to display the selected course
And a laundry (cloth amount) weight detection circuit 59 in the drum 4 is connected.

The drive circuit 52 also includes the water supply valve 24 and the drain valve 2 described above.
6. Motor 15 and heater 12 are connected to selectively receive AC voltage from AC power supply AC via power switch 60, and motor 8 selectively receives DC voltage from DC power supply circuit 61. connected to.

The laundry weight detection circuit 59 is configured to utilize the fact that the load current flowing through the motor 8 for rotating the drum 4 changes depending on the weight of the laundry.

When the fully automatic course is selected, the CPU 51 continuously executes the sequences necessary for each process of washing, rinsing, finishing (rinsing), spin-drying, and drying as shown in the process chart of FIG. 6 according to a predetermined program. In order to accomplish this, the water supply valve 24, drain valve 26, motors 8 and 15, heater 12, etc. are controlled via the drive circuit 52. That is,
In the process chart of FIG. 6, the washing process includes water supply and a washing sequence, and the rinsing process includes each sequence of draining, dewatering, water supply, rinsing, draining, water supply, rinsing, and draining. Further, the finishing (rinsing) process includes water supply and finishing (rinsing) casings, the dewatering process includes draining and dewatering (draining) sequences, and the drying process includes drying and ventilation sequences. is included.

Next, several features of the fully automatic washer/dryer having the above-described configuration and control configuration will be described.

First, with regard to countermeasures against uneven distribution (unbalance) of laundry within the drum 4 during dewatering, it will be described that a balancing structure using a pseudo liquid balancer system corresponding to the drum 4 supported by a horizontal shaft is adopted as the drum structure.

Figure 7 shows the operating principle of a normal liquid balancer.
When it is assumed that there is an unbalance 74 as shown in the figure, the balance liquid 73 is in a liquid distribution state centered on a zero point that is offset by a distance e from the rotation center point S.

That is, at frequencies higher than the resonance point of the vibration system, an uneven amount of liquid occurs on the opposite side to the unbalance 14 due to uneven distribution of laundry due to the phase relationship. Therefore, the excitation force due to the centrifugal force of the unbalance 14 and the liquid imbalance acts so as to cancel each other out, and as a result, the occurrence of vibration is suppressed,
The generation of noise can be reduced.

However, in the case of the drum 4 supported by a horizontal axis as adopted in the present invention, even if a normal liquid balancer as shown in FIG. Since the balance and the liquid deviation amount are in the same direction, no balancing effect occurs.

In order to solve this problem, the present invention employs, in particular, a quasi-liquid balancer type balancing structure in which a water-containing member 19 is sandwiched between the drum 4 and the outer peripheral frame 16 as the drum structure as described above. .

That is, as partially shown in FIG. 8, the entire water-containing member 19 contains sufficient water at the start of dehydration. Therefore, the weight of the entire rotating system of the drum 4 is large, and the unbalance of the laundry can be corrected in a direction that makes it relatively small, so it is possible to suppress the generation of vibration and noise, and it is also possible to suppress the generation of vibration and noise. The rotation speed of the drum 4 can be smoothly increased to overcome the resonance point.

Then, as the dewatering rotation speed by the drum 4 increases,
As illustrated in FIG.
The particles are gradually scattered in two directions from the outside tab.

In this process, an uneven amount of water content distribution will occur in the non-perforated convex portion 17 in the opposite direction (right side in the figure) to the unbalance 84 shown in FIG. They act to cancel each other out. Therefore, by controlling the motor 8, the dewatering rotation speed of the drum 4 can be made sufficiently high, and the degree of dehydration can be effectively increased, and the generation of vibration and noise can be effectively suppressed. can.

In addition, according to such an unbalance solution, there is no need to increase the weight of the casing itself, so the overall product can be made as light as possible, making it easier to distribute and handle. Become.

Next, we will discuss countermeasures against burrs of laundry on the inner wall of the drum during the spin-drying process.

FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) show the relationship between the laundry 94 in the drum 4 and the raising/lowering member 20 during the dewatering process as described above.

First, in the state shown in FIG. 9(a), the centrifugal force due to the high speed rotation of the dehydration basin and the pressure of the laundry 94 are applied to the lifting member 20.
Since the biasing force against the drum 20 is overcome, the raising/lowering member 20 is withdrawn from the drum 20 and accommodated in the cutout portion of the water-containing member 19. That is, in this state, the laundry (94)
are co-circulating along the inner wall of the drum 4 as shown.

However, when dewatering is completed and the rotational speed of the drum 4 decreases, the centrifugal force acting on the laundry 84 decreases as shown in FIG. Since this becomes dominant, the raising/lowering member 20 is returned to its normal state in which it entered the drum 4. As a result, the laundry 84 comes into contact with the raising/lowering member 20, gradually separates from the inner wall of the drum 4, and falls downward, thereby preventing unnecessary clinging to the inner wall of the drum. Thereby, even in the next drying process, the laundry 84 in the drum 4 falls through the hot air without rotating with the drum 4 and is effectively dried.

Next, we will describe a control technique that allows the laundry to always behave optimally within the drum 4 during the drying process.

First, the background of such a problem will be explained. Generally, the drum rotation speed during the drying process is maintained at a predetermined rotation speed during the entire period from the early stage to the late stage of the drying process. That is, the drum rotation speed is determined to a value that optimizes the behavior of the laundry at the beginning of the drying process. However, as the drying progresses, the laundry dries and becomes lighter and lighter, resulting in a situation where the laundry rotates with the drum without falling within the drum. As a result, the parts of the laundry that come into contact with the hot air within the drum become uneven, resulting in a problem in that drying efficiency is extremely reduced, drying time becomes longer, and power consumption also increases.

FIGS. 10(a), (b), and (e) show the different behaviors of the laundry 94 with respect to the drum rotational speed during the drying process as trajectories indicated by arrows.

In other words, in the state shown in Fig. 10(a), the drum rotation speed is too fast compared to the weight of the laundry, which gradually dries and becomes lighter, resulting in improper behavior in which the laundry rotates with the drum. FIG. 10(b) shows an optimal state in which the laundry behaves as if it were falling inside the drum. The situation shown in Fig. 10 (C) is the opposite of Fig. 10 (a), when the rotation speed of the drum becomes too slow compared to the weight of the laundry for some reason. This is an inappropriate case where the ball behaves in such a way that it does not rotate while taking an effective flight distance.

Therefore, the present invention detects the dryness of the laundry inside the drum 4 during the drying process using the laundry dryness sensor 28, and the rotation speed of the drum 4 is adjusted via the motor 8 according to the detected dryness. Figure 10 shows the behavior of the laundry inside the drum 4 (
This method employs a control technique such as b) to achieve the optimum result. In other words, this control technique allows the drums 4 to 4 to dry as the laundry in the drum 4 progresses. In order to reduce the rotational speed of jI#, as shown in FIG. 5, a laundry dryness detection circuit 54, CP
By applying feedback to the motor 8 via the U51 and the drive circuit 52, it is possible to maintain optimal behavior for drying the laundry in the drum 4 at all times.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the laundry dryness sensor 28, in which two electrodes P protrude into the drum 4 as shown in FIG.
The change in inter-electrode resistance when laundry comes into contact between i and P2 is detected by replacing it with a change in voltage. That is, this sensor 28 is of a type that detects the degree of dryness (drying rate) by utilizing the fact that the electrical resistance of the laundry increases as the drying progresses.

Specifically, a predetermined applied voltage is applied from, for example, the DC power supply circuit 51 between the one electrode P1 and the fixed resistor Rp connected to the other electrode P2, and the voltage Vd across the fixed resistor Rp is increased. The structure is such that the change is detected and supplied to the laundry dryness detection circuit 54.

In other words, every time undried and damp laundry comes into contact between the two electrodes PI and P2, the resistance between the electrodes decreases instantaneously, and the instantaneous value changes when the laundry is dry. becomes larger as the process progresses. As a result, the voltage across the fixed resistor R is 6
As shown in FIG. 12, the drying rate decreases as the drying rate increases.

Therefore, the laundry dryness detection circuit 54 receives the voltage V that changes according to the drying rate from the sensor 28 as described above.
The signal is subjected to predetermined electrical processing (for example, rectification, waveform shaping, level discrimination, etc.) and is transferred to the CPU 51 as a motor control signal corresponding to the laundry drying rate. Upon receiving this motor control signal, the CPU 51 controls the motor 8 via the drive circuit 52 to a predetermined drying rate range (for example, control is performed so as to provide a driving voltage that rapidly decreases between 80 and 90%).

FIG. 14 shows a control circuit according to another embodiment regarding the drying process control technique, in which the motor 8 in FIG. The configuration is substantially the same as that in FIG. 5, except that it uses a so-called inverter (motor) configuration that is driven at a variable speed depending on the speed. That is, in this case, the CPU 51 controls so that a motor control signal corresponding to a change in drying rate is converted into a variable frequency signal and supplied from the inverter circuit 63 to the motor 8a via the drive circuit 52.

FIG. 15 schematically shows the control flow of the drying process with the configuration shown in FIG. 14. In step S1, the (inverter) motor 8 a s heater 12 and fan motor 15 are driven in response to a command to start drying. do. In this case, the CPU 51 causes the induction motor 8a to take the optimum value as the initial drum rotational speed, as described above. Thereby, as drying progresses, a drying detection signal is inputted at predetermined time intervals in step S2. In the next step S3, the CPU 51 determines whether or not drying has ended according to the input drying detection signal. If the determination in step S3 is negative (No), the CPU 51 returns to step S2 through step S4 for controlling the (inverter) motor 8a to take a speed according to the level of the dryness detection signal. Also,
If the determination in step S3 is completed (YES), C
The PU 51 proceeds to step S5 and stops the (inverter) motor 8 as heater 12 and fan motor 15. In this case, in order to lower the temperature of the laundry at the end of drying, the fan motor 15 may continue to blow air.

The drying process control technique of the present invention as described above ensures that the laundry always behaves optimally within the drum 4 during the drying process, regardless of whether it is in the case of FIG. 5 or FIG. 14. Therefore, it is possible to improve drying efficiency, shorten drying time, and reduce power consumption.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and illustrated, and various modifications and applications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, the present invention is not limited to a fully automatic washer/dryer, but can also be applied to a washer/dryer that is equipped with a rotating drum supported by a horizontal axis and performs washing and dehydration processes, or a dehydrator that performs only the dehydration process.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Therefore, as described in detail above, according to the present invention, by providing a drum structure that can effectively eliminate the unbalance caused by uneven distribution of laundry within the drum, it is possible to easily overcome the resonance point during spin-drying and spin out water. It is possible to provide a dewatering device equipped with an extremely good rotating drum that can smoothly increase the number of revolutions and suppress vibration and noise without increasing the weight of the casing.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a dewatering device including a rotating drum that can eliminate the sticking of laundry to the inner wall of the drum during dewatering and contribute to improving the degree of dehydration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of a fully automatic washer/dryer to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is a plan view of the drying device section of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a diagram of the drum section of Fig. 1. 1-1 sectional view, FIG. 4 is a detailed view of the installation of the raising/lowering member shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a control circuit applied to the fully automatic washer/dryer shown in FIG. Figure 6 is a sequence diagram of each process performed by the control circuit in Figure 5, Figure 7 is a diagram of the operating principle of a general liquid balancer, and Figures 8 and 9 (a) and (b) are the invention. Figures 10(a), (b), and (c) are diagrams for explaining the action of the dewatering process, and Figures 11 to 10 are diagrams for explaining the appropriate and inappropriate behavior of laundry in the drum. FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a specific example of the laundry dryness sensor in FIGS. 1 and 5 and its operating principle, and FIGS. 14 and 15 are block diagrams showing control circuits according to other embodiments. It is a figure which shows the control flow of a drying process by a figure. 1... Housing, 2... Tab, 3... Leg, 4... Drum, 5゜6... Rotating shaft, 7... Pulley, 8...
Motor, 8a... Drive pulley, 8b... Belt, 9
...Circulation duct. 100...Drying device, 4a, 4b...Through hole, 16.
... Outer peripheral frame, 17... Convex part without holes, 18... Convex part with holes, 19... Water-containing member, 20... Lifting member, 2
2...Torsion spring, 23...Stopper.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A tab serving as an outer tank for dehydration, and a container rotatably supported around a horizontal axis inside the tab;
A drum having portions communicating with the space inside the tub on both sides and at least part of the outer circumference as an inner tank for dewatering; an outer peripheral frame having a portion that communicates with the space within the tub; a water-containing member made of a member capable of absorbing and dewatering that is sandwiched between the gap between the drum and the outer peripheral frame; and a horizontal shaft that supports the drum. A dewatering device comprising a rotating drum equipped with a rotation mechanism that transmits rotation. (2) It is movable back and forth between the gap between the drum and the outer peripheral frame and the interior of the drum, and is capable of retreating into the gap at least before the end of dehydration and protruding into the drum when the dewatering is finished. Claim (1) comprising a tilting member that is energized.
A dewatering device comprising the drum described in .