JPH0385197A - Washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a more correct time necessary for drying of washing by detecting both weights of washing before washing and after dehydrating, calculating on detection results the volume of water contained in the dehydrated watching and calculating the time necessary for drying up the washing. CONSTITUTION:Inside of an outer box of a washing machine is supported an inner tub 2 elastically by means of a suspension device 5 which consists of plural suspension rods 3 and springs 4. In the suspension device 5, a spring 14 is interposed between a movable seat 12 at the lower end of the spring 4 and a flange 13 at the lower end of the suspension rod 3, and a pair of electrodes 15 and 16 are mounted opposingly on the seat 12 and the flange 13. The electrodes 15 and 16, a resistor and a 'not' circuit are connected to form an oscillation circuit 21, which works as a weight detecting means. A control device 31 receives the output from the circuit 21 together with operation signals from an operation part 39. Corresponding to the input and a prememorized control program, the control device 31 controls ON-OFF TRIACS 34, 36, 37 and 38, and also controls a signal output part 41 for providing signals to a drying machine to tell the time necessary for drying.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a washing machine equipped with a function of calculating the time required to dry laundry.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, washing machines have not been provided with a function of calculating the time required to dry washed laundry. If so, it is a dryer, but a dryer generally detects the amount of laundry (cloth amount) and calculates the time required to dry it.
The problem was that it lacked accuracy.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As mentioned above, there is a problem in that the dryers that have been provided in the past have a function of calculating the time required to dry laundry, but the function lacks accuracy. It had a point.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a washing machine that can more accurately calculate the time required to dry laundry.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problem) The washing machine of the present invention is capable of washing and dehydrating laundry, and detects the weight of the laundry before washing and after dehydrating. and calculating means for calculating the moisture content of the laundry after spin-drying based on the detection result by the weight detection means and calculating the time required for drying the laundry from the calculation result. It has characteristics.

(Function) According to the above means, the time required to dry the laundry can be calculated from the moisture content that is most important for drying the laundry.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, an outer box 1 of the entire washing machine shown in FIG. 2 has an outer tub 2 therein, elastically supported by a suspension device 5 consisting of a plurality of hanging rods 3 (only one shown), springs 4, etc. It is set up. An inner tank 6 is disposed within the outer tank 2, and a stirring body 7, which in this case is shaped like a container, is disposed within the inner tank 6. Further, a drive mechanism 9 including a motor 8 that rotates the agitator 7 in forward and reverse directions during washing and rinsing and rotates the inner tank 6 at high speed in one direction during dehydration is disposed at the lower part outside the outer tank 2. There is.

In addition, a drain valve 10°, a drain hose 11, etc. are also provided at the lower part outside the outer tank 2.

In the suspension device 5, as shown in FIG.
A spring 14 is interposed between the movable seat plate 12 and the collar 13, respectively, and electrodes 15, 16 are attached to the movable seat plate 12 and the collar 13 in a facing arrangement.
are resistors 17, 18 and knot circuit 19. shown in FIG.
20 to form an oscillation circuit 21 as shown in the figure, which serves as weight detection means. Note that FIG. 4 also shows the output waveform of the oscillation circuit 21, and its oscillation layer JI
T is expressed by the following formula.

T: 2CR (However, R>R,) C...Capacitance between electrodes 15.16 R...Value of resistor 17 R5... Value of resistor 18 Therefore, the electrostatic capacitance between electrodes 15.16 The oscillation period T of the output of the oscillation circuit 21 also changes as the capacity changes depending on how much the outer tub 2 sinks depending on whether the laundry is placed in the laundry. It is now possible to detect the weight of objects.

On the other hand, a top cover 22 is attached to the upper part of the outer box 1, and a panel 23 shown in FIG. 5 is provided at the front of the top cover 22. Panel 23 says "wash".

Selection operation keys 24 for “rinsing” and “dehydration”
26 and display LEDs 27 to 29 are provided, as well as a display window 30 for displaying the time required for drying the laundry in text, for example, as shown in the figure.

A control device 31 is also incorporated in the front part of the top cover 22. This control device 31 is configured, for example, by a microcomputer including the function of a calculation means, and is supplied with control power from an AC power source 32 via a power circuit section 33, as shown in the sixth section. There is. A water supply valve 35 provided to supply water into the inner pa 6 is connected to the AC power supply 33 via a triac 34, the drain valve 10 is connected via a triac 36, and a water supply valve 35 is connected via a triac 36, The motor 8 is connected thereto.

Further, the control device 31 is configured to receive an oscillation output from the oscillation circuit 21 and receive an operation signal from an operation section 39 consisting of the selection operation keys 24 to 26. , based on the input and the pre-stored control program, the triac 3
4.36.37.38, and simultaneously controls the display operating state of the display unit 40 consisting of the display LEDs 27 to 29 and the display window 3o, and outputs a drying time signal to a dryer (not shown). The operating state of the signal output section 41 is controlled.

Therefore, the control contents of the control device 31 will be described below with reference to FIG.

That is, when the control device 31 is supplied with control power and starts its operation, it first determines whether or not the current moment is the initial stage of the start (step A1). Here, if it is determined that the current time is the initial stage of the start, then the next step is to determine whether or not the selected driving course is from "Washing J" to "Dehydrating" (Step A2). If it is determined that
3) In this weight judgment routine, as shown in FIG. 1(b), the oscillation period T of the oscillation output manually inputted from the oscillation circuit 21 is checked to determine the weight applied to each of the hanging rods of the suspension device 5. The weight of the laundry before washing is detected (Step B1), the average value thereof is calculated (Step B2), and the weight X of the laundry before washing is determined (Step B3).
), and when the judgment is completed, the process returns to the main routine.

In the returned main routine, next, the weight determination progress flag F1 before washing the laundry is set to "1" (step A4), and further the initial start progress flag F2 is set to "1" (step A5). After this, proceed to the next step (step A6)
, controls the steps to be performed from "washing" to "dehydration" (not shown), and returns to step A1.

Therefore, it is determined again whether or not the current time is the initial stage of the start, but this time it is determined that this is not the case because the earlier start initial progress flag F2 is set to "1". Next, it is determined whether the entire course up to dehydration j has been completed (step A7), and if it is determined that it has been completed, then it is determined whether or not the weight of the laundry before washing has been determined. (Step A8).However,
Here, too, it is determined that the weight judgment has been made because the previous weight judgment progress flag F is set to "1", so the process then proceeds to the weight judgment routine again (step A9).

This Tt weight determination routine has the same contents as described above, and therefore steps B1, B2. B
3, in this case, the weight iY of the laundry after spin-drying is detected, and after detection, the process returns to the main routine.

In the returned main routine, next, the water molecules fiZ of the laundry after spin-drying are calculated by subtracting the weight Y of the laundry after spin-drying found above from the previously known weight jiX of the laundry before washing. (Z-Y-X) is calculated (step A10). Then, based on the determined water content Z of the laundry after spin-drying, the time t required to dry the laundry (drying time) is calculated (step A11). The required drying time t is calculated using the following formula.

Here, Figure 7 shows the change in the temperature in the drying room over time from the start to the end of the drying operation of the dryer, and the amount of evaporation in the constant temperature state is independent of the difference in the dryer. It is constant, and as the amount of dry cloth increases, the drying area increases, so it is determined as follows in proportion to the amount.

Evaporation amount at constant temperature: 1gcc/min (cloth amount: rated amount ~ 21
3) tree/min (2/3 to 1/3) 14cc/min (173 or less) In addition, the loss time is approximately 7 minutes from the start to the constant temperature state shown in the figure, and It takes about 5 minutes during the air blowing operation from the constant temperature state to the end, so the total time is about 12 minutes.

Therefore, now it weighs 2kg before washing, and 3゜14kg after spin-drying.
g (at 57% dehydration rate...this is the dehydration rate after dehydration in a normal fully automatic washing machine), the moisture content (Z)
-3゜t4kg -2kg -1140g, and if the weight before washing is 2kg, in a dryer with a rated capacity of 3kg, it is judged to be more than 2/3, so the amount of evaporation is 18cc.
Then, it is calculated as .

Therefore, next, the above calculation results are displayed on the display window 3 of the panel 23.
0 as shown in FIG. 5, and at the same time activates the signal output section 41 to output the calculation result to the dryer (not shown), so that the dryer is operated, for example, under timer control based on the calculated result. (step A12).

After this, the process proceeds to step A6.

Note that if it is determined in the previous step A2 that the selected driving course is not from "washing" to "dehydration", then the process jumps to step A5, and the course is changed in step A7. If it is determined that it is not completed, step A
If it is determined in step A8 that the weight of the laundry has not been determined before washing, the process also jumps to step A6.

In this way, according to this embodiment, the amount of moisture that is most important for drying laundry is calculated, and the time required to dry the laundry is calculated from that, and the amount of laundry ( Compared to conventional dryers, etc., which detect the cloth ff1) and calculate the time required to dry it from that, it is possible to calculate the required drying time more accurately, greatly improving the convenience of the user. be able to.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, the washing machine of the present invention includes a weight detection means for detecting the weight of laundry before washing and the weight after dehydration, and Since it is equipped with a calculation means that calculates the moisture content of the laundry after spin-drying based on the detection result and calculates the time required to dry the laundry from the calculation result, it is most applicable to drying the laundry. This provides an excellent effect in that the time required to dry the laundry can be calculated from the moisture content, and therefore the time required to dry the laundry can be calculated more accurately.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1(a)
is a flowchart of the main routine of the overall operation, the same figure (
b) is a flowchart of the weight judgment routine, Fig. 2 is a longitudinal side view of the overall configuration, Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view of the weight detection means section, Fig. 4 is a circuit diagram of the same section, and Fig. 5 is a panel section. FIG. 6 is a schematic electrical configuration diagram of the whole, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the change over time in the temperature inside the drying chamber during drying operation of the dryer. In the drawings, 15°6 represents an electrode, oscillation circuit (weight detection means), and control device (calculation means).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A device capable of washing and dehydrating laundry, comprising a weight detection means for detecting the weight before washing and the weight after dehydration of the laundry, and dehydrating based on the detection result by the weight detection means. A washing machine characterized by comprising a calculation means for calculating the moisture content of the laundry to be washed and the time required to dry the laundry from the calculation result.