JPH0515689A - Drum washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To smoothly perform a high speed rotation with low noise by detecting the vibration of a washing tub from the relative operation of the washing tub and a supporting member and temporarily stopping a drum prior to a dehydration at the time of more than the reference value so as to disentangle the washing clothes while supplying and draining the water. CONSTITUTION:A strain sensor 18 and a detection amplification circuit 19 are provided on the connection part of a washing tub 2 and a damper 10 to constitute a vibration sensor 12 and detect that vibration of the washing tub 2. Before a microcomputer judges that the rinsing is over and performs the dehydration operation, the drum is rotated clockwise and counterclockwise to perform the stirring operation to remove the tangle of the washing clothes. When the vibration detected by the vibration sensor 12 is higher than the reference, the rotation of the drum is temporarily stopped and the stirring operation disentangling the washing clothes by supplying and draining the water to the washing tub 2 is performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drum type washing machine which automatically operates from washing to dehydration.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional drum type washing machine, against vibration generated during dehydration, a heavy tank such as concrete is used to fix the water tank to suppress the vibration, and springs and dampers that support the water tank are used to suppress the vibration. It is known that it is absorbed.

[0003]

However, in the conventional drum type washing machine, the weight of the main body becomes heavy, the floor must be reinforced in a general house, and at the same time, the drum is rotated at a high speed during the dehydration operation. The vibration may cause the floor to resonate and generate noise.

Further, in this type of fully automatic washing machine, when the dehydration tank swings and comes into contact with the water tank due to the bending of the clothes at the time of the dehydration operation or the start of the dehydration operation, the dehydration operation is stopped by the safety device. Was agitating the clothes by hand to balance in the dehydration tank and restarting. This is troublesome for the user, and when the user is not near the washing machine, the dehydration operation is stopped and the washing is not completed.

The present invention has been made in consideration of such circumstances, and the vibration during dehydration is detected by a sensor, and when the vibration is large, the clothes are automatically loosened and the dehydration process is performed again. A drum type washing machine is provided.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a water tank for rotatably supporting a drum for accommodating clothes therein, a support member for elastically supporting the water tank, and a water supply / drainage means for supplying / draining water to / from the water tank. In a drum type washing machine configured to perform a process, a selection process, a drainage process and a dehydration process, a sensor for detecting vibration of the water tank due to rotation of the drum from relative movement between the water tank and the support member, and a sensor output Comparing means for comparing the magnitude of vibration of the aquarium with a reference value,
Provided is a drum-type washing machine characterized by comprising control means for temporarily stopping the drum to loosen clothes in the drum when the vibration of the water tub is larger than a predetermined value at the start of dewatering and supplying and draining water to and from the water tub. It is a thing.

[0007]

When the vibration in the water tank occurs at the start of the dehydration operation due to the condition of the clothes in the drum (because the clothes are entangled with each other to form a block), the vibration sensor detects the vibration and the vibration is detected. When the size is large, the drum is once stopped and water is supplied to and drained from the water tank, thereby loosening clothes and then dehydration is started again. This action is repeated until the clothes are balanced in the drum and the vibration is reduced.
Vibration free dehydration is possible.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention will be described in detail below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. This does not limit the invention.

FIG. 1 is a structural explanatory view of a drum type washing machine showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a main body case, 2 is a water tank,
3 is a drum that is rotatably supported inside the water tank 2 to accommodate clothes, 4 is a drum motor that rotates the drum via a motor pulley 5, a belt 6 and a drum pulley 7, and 8 and 9 are suspension tanks for the water tank 2 in the main body case. Lowering spring, 10
Reference numerals 11 and 11 are dampers for damping the vibration and swing of the water tank 2, 11 is a control circuit for controlling the drum motor 4 and a water supply / drainage device (not shown) of the water tank 2, and 12 is a vibration sensor for detecting the vibration of the water tank.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a side view of the main part of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a top view of the main part of FIG. In these drawings, reference numeral 13 denotes a damper support tool protruding from the water tank 2, and the damper 10 is supported by the bolt 14.

Numeral 15 projects from the damper 10 and the elastic plate 1
An actuator 16 in contact with 7 is a support plate fixed to the water tank 2, and supports an elastic plate 17 to which a strain gauge 18 is attached and a detection / amplification circuit 19 of the strain gauge 18. And
When the water tank 2 swings or vibrates, the actuator 15
Is rotated around the bolt 14 to change the degree of distortion of the elastic plate 17.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a constant voltage circuit V is obtained by rectifying AC power supplied from a household AC outlet by a rectifier circuit RF.
Supply to R. Therefore, a voltage suitable for the microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as a microcomputer) MC and the load control unit LD is converted into a constant voltage and supplied to each. And the operation unit K
From B, operation settings for washing, rinsing, dehydration and drying are performed by the user.

Each set operation mode is input to the microcomputer MC, and the microcomputer MC outputs a command to the drum motor 4 and the load control section LD so as to perform control according to each operation mode. The display unit DP displays the contents of each operation mode, time, etc., the drum motor 4 rotates the drum 3 in accordance with each mode, and the load control unit 7 selects a load (water supply / drainage device or heater) suitable for each operation mode. Etc.) to operate.

By the way, in the dehydration operation which is one step of these operation modes, the rinsing operation is completed, the clothes are stirred, and the dehydration operation is started at a high speed rotation (rotation speed of the drum 3 is low from 50 rpm to medium speed of 150 rpm). Up to 1000 rpm at a high speed), and depending on the state of the clothes in the drum 3, unbalanced when the drum 3 rotates (the agitation of the clothes is bad and the clothes are entangled together as a unit). At this time, a part of the drum 3 becomes heavy and the balance at the time of rotation of the drum 3 is deteriorated to cause vibration in the water tank), and the vibration causes the inconvenience that the water tank 2 comes into contact with a mechanical portion inside the main body case 1. Sometimes.

In order to prevent contact between the water tank 2 and the inside of the body case 1 due to such vibration, in this embodiment, the strain sensor 18 and the detection / amplification circuit 1 are provided at the connecting portion between the water tank 2 and the damper 10.
The vibration sensor 12 constituted by 9 is attached to detect the vibration of the water tank during the dehydration operation, and the rotation of the drum is controlled by the magnitude of the swing.

The strain sensor 18 has a characteristic that the internal impedance changes due to the deformation (distortion) of the sensor itself, and the output voltage changes at the time of deformation when a voltage is applied. Therefore, the strain sensor 18 is attached to the elastic plate 17. When attached, the elastic plate 17 is pressed and deformed by the actuator 15 provided on the damper 10 when vibration of the water tank 2 occurs, and a signal is output from the strain sensor 18. The signal output from the strain sensor 18 is amplified by the detection / amplification circuit 19 and the microcomputer M
It is input to C and compared with a predetermined value.

At this time, the vibration generated by the rotation of the drum 3 is synchronized with the rotation of the drum 3, and the output signal is as shown in FIG.
If the drum rotation speed is high, the cycle (T
s) becomes small and the drum rotation speed is slow, the cycle (Ts)
Grows. Also, large vibrations of the water tub 2, the larger the deformation of the elastic plate 17 by the actuator 15, the output signal voltage (V _M) is increased, the smaller the deformation of the elastic plate 17, the output signal voltage is also small. However, when the drum 3 is not rotating or when there is no vibration, the output signal becomes flat as shown in FIG. The microcomputer MC determines that the vibration of the water tank 2 is large when the voltage V _M exceeds a predetermined value, and determines that the vibration is small when the voltage V _M is less than the predetermined value.

The main operation in such a configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the microcomputer MC determines that the rinsing operation is completed (step S1), the operation mode shifts to the dehydration operation (step S2), but before that, the clothes may be entangled with each other during the rinsing operation. 3 is rotated in the normal direction / reverse direction for a certain period of time to perform a stirring operation for reducing the entanglement, and then the mode is changed to the dehydration operation mode (steps S3 and S).
4).

In the dehydration operation, the drum 3 is unidirectionally started up from low speed rotation (50 rpm) to medium speed rotation (150 rpm) (step S5), and then high speed rotation (1000 rpm).
up to rpm) and the dehydration operation state is set. However, as described above, imbalance may occur depending on the condition of the clothes in the drum. Therefore, when unbalance occurs and vibration of the water tank occurs while increasing the number of rotations of the drum from low speed to medium speed, the vibration sensor 12 does not vibrate in order to prevent contact and damage between the water tank and the mechanism inside the main body. It is detected and constantly input to the microcomputer MC. If the vibration is small (step S6), the microcomputer MC gradually increases the drum rotation speed to medium speed rotation (150 rpm) (step S6).
7) When it is determined that the vibration is large (step S6,
S8) Stop the rotation of the drum once (step S1
5) The stirring operation is performed to remove the entanglement of the clothes in the drum (step S14). Then, when it is considered that the entanglement of the clothes is removed (step S13), the dehydration operation mode is started again from the low speed operation, and the above contents are repeated.

While the rotation speed gradually increases from low speed rotation to medium speed rotation of the drum, when the microcomputer MC determines that the vibration is small and reaches the medium speed rotation (150 rpm), if the vibration is small, the high speed (1000 rpm) is reached. ) To rotate the drum (step S9). In step S8, when the vibration is large, the drum rotation is stopped again and the stirring operation is performed (steps S15 and 14), the dehydration operation is started again from the low speed rotation, and this is repeated until the vibration becomes small, and the microcomputer MC vibrates. If it is determined that is small, the drum rotation is started up to high speed rotation (1000 rpm) (step S9).

Even at this time, the vibration sensor 12 continuously detects the vibration and continuously inputs it to the microcomputer MC. When the vibration of the water tank 2 is large (step S10), the rotation of the drum 3 is stopped and the stirring operation is performed. Remove the entanglement of the clothes in the drum and restart the spinning operation from the low speed rotation. If the microcomputer determines that the vibration is small, high-speed rotation (1000
When the dehydration operation is started up to rpm) and the dehydration operation is performed for a predetermined period (step S11), the dehydration operation ends (step 12).

In this way, by using the vibration sensor to which the strain sensor is applied, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of vibration of the water tank during the dehydration operation and perform a continuous operation from a series of washing to dehydration.

In this embodiment, the vibration sensor 12 is installed at the connecting portion between the water tank 11 and the damper 10, but it may be located at a position where the vibration of the water tank 2 such as the spring 9 that suspends the water tank 2 can be detected. It can be installed anywhere.

The clothes agitation operation in step 14 is as follows: (1) Forward / reverse rotation of the drum 3 is repeated. (2) Water is supplied into the water tank 2 and the drum 3 is rotated at a low speed. Etc., but if the operation in (1) above is performed first and the vibration still does not decrease,
The operation of (2) may be performed, or the vibration sensor 1
The operation of (1) or (2) may be selected depending on the degree of output of 2.

[0026]

While the conventional drum type washer / dryer suppresses the vibration of the water tank with a heavy object such as concrete, in the present invention, by using the vibration sensor to which the strain sensor is applied, the vibration of the water tank is reduced. If there is, the drum is rotated to stir the clothes in the drum, the stirring operation is performed until the vibration is reduced, and the rotation of the drum can be smoothly started up to high-speed rotation. Type washing machine is provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural explanatory view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a top view of a main part of FIG.

5 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is an output waveform diagram of the vibration sensor.

FIG. 7 is an output waveform diagram of the vibration sensor.

8 is a flowchart showing a main part of the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Body Case 2 Water Tank 3 Drum 4 Drum Motor 5 Motor Pulley 6 Belt 7 Drum Pulley 8 Spring 9 Spring 10 Damper 11 Damper 12 Vibration Sensor

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A water supply process comprising: a water tank for rotatably supporting a drum containing clothes; a support member for elastically supporting the water tank; and a water supply / drainage means for supplying / draining water to / from the water tank, In a drum-type washing machine configured to perform a selection process, a drainage process, and a dehydration process, a sensor that detects vibration of a water tank due to drum rotation from relative movement between the water tank and a support member, and a sensor that receives output from the sensor A comparison means for comparing the magnitude of the vibration with a reference value, and a control means for stopping and supplying water to the water tank by temporarily stopping the drum to loosen the clothes in the drum when the vibration of the water tank at the start of dehydration is larger than a predetermined value. A drum-type washing machine characterized by being provided.