JPH05168796A - Drum type clothes drying machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a drum type clothes drying machine capable of reducing the entanglement of clothes and drying irregularitzes. CONSTITUTION:A clothes drying machine P has an outer box 20, a drum supported rotatably in both the positive and reverse directions around a horizontal shaft 4, and a fan 8 supported rotatably independently from the drum 1. Three clothes-lifting baffles 17 are provided at a uniform interval on the inner face of the peripheral wall of the drum 1. Each baffle 17 is protruded on the inner face of the peripheral wall of the drum 1, it is linearly extended from one side wall to the other side wall of the drum 1 and the extension direction is inclined by about 7 deg. against the horizontal shaft 4. The shape of the operating portion (portion to lift clothes) of each baffle 17 is made point-symmetrical with respect to the middle point of the length.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drum type clothes dryer, and more particularly to a dehumidifying type drum having a rotatable drum for storing drying clothes and a fan for circulating air. Type clothes dryer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a drum type clothes dryer, FIG.
0 and those shown in FIG. 11 are known. That is, the clothes dryer is provided with the drum 101 for storing the clothes for drying. The drum 101 is supported by a horizontal drum shaft 104 so as to be rotatable both forward and backward. The drum 101 is rotatably supported by a support plate 103 having an air outlet 102 on the front side wall (the left side wall in FIG. 10). Drum 1
01 is rotated by a drum driving motor 119 via a drum belt 116.

An exhaust port 10 is provided on the rear side wall of the drum 101.
7 is provided. This exhaust port 107 has an exhaust port 1
The lint filter 106 is attached so as to cover 07. The lint filter 106 is protected by the filter guard 105, and has a structure that can be removed from the drum 101 together with the filter guard 105.

At the rear of the drum 101, a double-blade type fan 108 which doubles as a heat exchanger for dehumidification is provided. The fan 108 is rotatably supported by the drum shaft 104. The fan 108 is rotated by a fan driving motor 118 via a fan belt 115.

Due to the rotation of the fan 108, air is generated as shown in FIG.
As indicated by a black arrow A of 0, the air passes through the duct 110, enters into the drum 101 from the air outlet 102, passes through the lint filter 106 and the exhaust port 107, and returns to the fan 108. A heater 111 for heating air is provided in front of the air outlet 102 in the duct 110. The air is heated by the heater 111, becomes warm air, and heats the clothes in the drum 101 to evaporate the moisture.

On the rear surface of the fan 108, a white arrow B
As shown in (3), by taking in cold air from the outside, the warm air passing in the direction A is cooled to dehumidify. Condensed water generated by dehumidifying due to the cooling of warm air is discharged to the outside of the machine from a drain port 112 provided in the lower part of the duct 110.

Reference numeral 120 denotes three drum baffles mounted on the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum 101. The left and right surfaces of the drum baffles 120 are parallel to each other and are attached so as not to be inclined with respect to the rotation axis of the drum 101. The drum 101 rotates at a low speed (40-60 rpm). Then, the clothes for drying are lifted upward in the drum 101 by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the drum 101 and the hooks of the drum baffles 120, 120, 120, and fall by its own weight (referred to as "tumbling"). The garment repeats this tumbling cycle to make good contact with warm air. By repeating the above steps, the clothes inside the drum 101 are dried.

A thermistor 113 for detecting the temperature of warm air is provided in the duct 110 near the exhaust port 107. A similar thermistor 114 is provided in front of the heater 111. These two thermistors 113 and 114 are controlled so that when the detected temperature difference becomes equal to or more than a predetermined value, it is determined that the drying is completed and the operation is stopped.

[0009]

In such a clothes dryer, control is performed so that the normal rotation time and the reverse rotation time of the drum 101 are equal until a certain time has elapsed after the start of the drying operation. ing. As described above, when the rotation of the drum 101 is controlled, the clothes are less clotted and the drying unevenness is improved as compared with the case where the drum 101 is rotated only in one direction. However, when the amount of clothes to be dried is large, although the clothes cling is reduced, when the clothes are dried and the bulk of the clothes is increased, the clothes are less likely to be replaced in the front-rear direction of the drum 101, and unevenness in drying is partially caused. Sometimes remained.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a drum type clothes dryer which has a high drying efficiency and can reduce clothes clogging and drying unevenness. ..

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided an outer box having a ventilation hole, and a clothes storage having an exhaust port supported inside the outer box so as to be rotatable in both forward and reverse directions around a horizontal axis. It is supported so that it can be rotated independently of the drum and the drum inside the outer box, and introduces outside air into the outer box through the vents and introduces the air inside the outer box into the drum and the air inside the drum. An air circulation fan exhausted from the exhaust port, a duct for circulating the air through the drum and the fan, which is arranged inside the outer box, and a duct which is arranged inside the duct to heat the air in the duct. Further provided on the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum, linearly extending from one side wall side of the drum to the other side wall side, and the direction of the extension is inclined with respect to the horizontal axis, The shape of the working part is the midpoint of the length A drum-type clothes dryer comprising comprises a garment lifting baffle is point symmetric regarding.

[0012]

The drum and the fan are controlled by their respective driving motors so as to rotate independently of each other. The drum is controlled to alternately repeat forward rotation and reverse rotation. This is to prevent the clothes from becoming entangled due to one-direction rotation of the drum. At this time, it is preferable that the normal rotation and the reverse rotation be performed for the same time. The fan is usually continuously rotated in one direction.

It is preferable that one cycle time of normal rotation / stop of rotation / reverse rotation of the drum is set within 10 minutes. The ratio of rotation stop time in the cycle is
It is preferably set to be 10% or less. For example, by controlling the normal rotation for 10 seconds, the rotation stop for 2 seconds, and the reverse rotation for 10 seconds, the entanglement of the clothes can be almost eliminated regardless of the kind and amount of the clothes.

The baffle may be provided integrally with the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum, or may be provided by attaching a rod member to the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum. Here, the baffle is provided with its extending direction inclined with respect to the horizontal axis of the drum. The baffle is also provided such that its shape is point symmetric about the midpoint of its length.

Therefore, as the drum rotates forward or backward, the garments in the drum receive vertical downward force or vertical upward component force of the same magnitude but different in direction by 180 ° on the inclined baffle. The garment then moves slightly forward or backward along the baffle and gradually replaces itself. As a result, the unevenness of drying is further improved and the drying time is shortened.

The number of baffles is arbitrary as long as it is plural, but normally three baffles are provided at equal intervals. Further, it is preferable that they have the same shape and the same size.

In the drum type clothes dryer according to the present invention,
Further, a weight estimating means for estimating the weight of the clothes in the drum, and a control for controlling the drum to rotate in either one of the forward and reverse directions when the weight of the clothes estimated by the weight estimating means is less than a certain value. It is more preferable to provide a part. When the weight of clothes in the drum is small, that is, when the capacity is small (two or three cutter shirts), the weight estimating means and the control unit rotate the drum forward or backward. In this way, even if the drum is continuously rotated in one direction, there is little entanglement of clothes. Therefore, since the drum rotation stop time is not required, the drying time is shortened. One specific example of the weight estimating means and the control unit is shown in the following embodiment.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to one embodiment shown in the drawings. The present invention is not limited to this.

1 and 2, the drum type clothes dryer P includes an outer box 20 having a plurality of ventilation holes 9 and a forward / backward direction around a horizontal shaft (drum shaft) 4 inside the outer box 20. A clothes storage drum 1 supported so as to be rotatable in both directions, and an air circulation fan (both-side fan) 8 supported so as to be rotatable independently of the drum 1 in the outer box 20.
And a duct 10 disposed in the outer box 20, and a semiconductor heater 11 for heating air, which is disposed inside the duct 10 and includes a PTC heater (a positive temperature characteristic semiconductor heater).

The drum 1 has an intake port (not shown) provided on the front side wall (left side in FIG. 1) and an exhaust port 7 provided on the rear side wall. The fan 8 introduces outside air into the outer box 20 through the ventilation port 9 and introduces air inside the outer box 20 into the inside of the drum 1 through the intake port, and discharges air inside the drum 1 through the exhaust port 7. Duct 10
It is for circulating air through the drum 1 and the fan 8. The heater 11 heats the air in the duct.

A support plate 3 is provided on the front side wall of the drum 1. The drum 1 is rotatably supported by the support plate 3. In front of the exhaust port 7 of the drum 1, there are provided a thread waste filter 6 for collecting the thread waste coming out of the clothes and a filter guard 5 for protecting the thread waste filter 6.

The clothes dryer P is further provided with three clothes lifting baffles (drum baffles) 17, 17, 17 at equal intervals on the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum 1. Each baffle 17 is provided on the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum 1 so as to project linearly, and extends linearly from one side wall side of the drum 1 to the other side wall side thereof, and the extending direction is inclined about 7 ° with respect to the horizontal axis 4. ing. The cross-sectional shape of the operating portion (the portion for lifting clothes) of each baffle 17 is substantially triangular. Then, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the shape of the same portion is such that the left and right inclined surface portions are point-symmetric with respect to the midpoint of the length.

Incidentally, these baffles 17 ・ 17 ・ 17
In place of the above, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a baffle having a shape symmetrical with respect to the central axis and point symmetrical with respect to the midpoint of the length is tilted with respect to the horizontal axis 4 of the drum 1. May be provided.

The fan 8 is rotated independently of the drum 1 by a fan driving motor 18 via a fan belt 15. Reference numeral 19 denotes a drum driving motor, which rotates the drum 1 via the drum belt 16. Control including rotation of the fan 8 and the drum 1 is performed by a control unit (not shown). Reference numeral 2 is an air (warm air) blowout hole provided in the support plate 3. Reference numeral 12 is a drain port provided at the lowest position of the duct 10. The forward rotation of the drum 1 means that the drum 1 rotates in a counterclockwise direction when viewed from the front surface of the drum 1 (the side on which the clothing inlet is located).

A temperature detecting thermistor 13 is arranged behind the exhaust port 7 of the drum 1. A temperature detecting thermistor 14 is arranged upstream of the heater 11 in the duct 10. These thermistors 13 and 14 are used to detect that the clothes have been dried and to detect an abnormal temperature rise. Reference numeral 21 denotes a temperature detecting thermistor provided in the vicinity of the ventilation port 9 behind the fan 8 and detects the temperature of the outside air introduced into the outer box 20 from the ventilation port 9.

Next, the operation of the drum type clothes dryer P will be described. The clothes thrown into the drum 1 are centrifugal force and baffles 17 ・ 17 ・ 17 as the drum 1 rotates.
Is lifted up in the drum 1 by the lifting action of and falls by its own weight. Centrifugal force and baffle 17 ・ 17.1
The force applied to the clothes by 7 changes depending on the position of the clothes.
That is, the clothes near the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum 1 are largely moved by the centrifugal force and the force of the baffles 17, 17, 17. On the other hand, the clothes in the center of the drum 1 do not receive these forces so much and the movement is small. Therefore, by simply rotating the drum 1 in one direction, the clothes gradually become entangled, the contact between the clothes and warm air becomes insufficient, and the clothes cannot be dried.

When the drum 1 is rotated in both forward and reverse directions in a short cycle, even if the clothes start to get caught by the rotation in one direction, the same amount of force is applied to the clothes by the rotation of the drum 1 in the opposite direction. Nari clothing is loosened. At this time, the expansion direction of the baffles 17, 17, 17 is inclined at an angle α with respect to the horizontal axis 4 which is the rotation axis of the drum 1, as shown in FIG.
Since it is inclined by (≈7 °), component force in the A direction acts on the clothes when the drum 1 rotates in the reverse direction. Therefore, drum 1
The inner garment is moved in the direction of the black arrow in FIG. Then, the clothes slightly rotate rearward along the baffles 17, 17, 17 and change their positions.

As described above, since each of the left and right inclined surface portions of each baffle 17 is point-symmetric with respect to the midpoint of the length, the forward rotation of the drum 1 is the same as the reverse rotation and the direction is 1.
The component forces B different by 80 ° act on the clothes in the drum 1. Then, the clothes are slightly rotated forward along the baffles 17, 17 and 17 to return to the original state. Therefore,
In the drum 1, clothes near the heater 11 where warm air is likely to hit and clothes under the filter guard 5 where hot air is hard to pass are exchanged. In addition, the clothes are not caught and the door is not pressed against the door, and the unevenness of drying of the clothes is eliminated.

FIG. 8 shows the effect of such a clothes dryer P as data. That is, FIGS. 8A and 8B show the correlation between the number of clothes (vertical axis) and the degree of dryness (horizontal axis) in the conventional clothes dryer and the clothes dryer P of this embodiment, respectively. Show. From FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B, it can be seen that in the clothes dryer P of this embodiment, the dryness and the number of clothes have increased. That is, the effect is clearly exhibited when the amount of clothes to be dried is large.

In the clothes dryer P, the weight (capacity) of the clothes in the drum 1 is roughly determined based on the change in the temperature of the exhaust air from the drum 1 detected by the thermistor 13 as a weight estimating means. It is possible to judge.

This will be described with reference to an example of temperature change data in the drum showing the relationship between the temperature in the drum 1 and the passage of time as shown in FIG. Comparing the temperature inside the drum 1 after 30 minutes from the start of operation, the weight of the clothes is 3.5k.
In case of g, it is 53 ° C, whereas in case of 4.5kg, it is 4
There is a difference of 8 ° C. Further, the temperature during constant rate drying, that is, the temperature inside the drum 1 that has become constant 30 minutes after the start of operation, also changes while maintaining the difference based on the difference in the weight of the clothes.

The temperature during the constant rate drying is influenced by the temperature of the air near the place where the clothes dryer P is installed. Therefore, the thermistor 21 is provided to correct the influence of the room temperature or the like when estimating the weight of the clothes in the drum 1 by detecting the room temperature or the like. With this correction by the thermistor 21,
Estimate the weight of the clothes in the drum 1. When the controller determines that the weight of the clothes is less than a certain value and is small (the capacity of the clothes is small), the controller causes the rotation direction of the drum 1 to be one direction and the rotation of the drum 1 to be continuous. Turn it. That is, the rotation of the drum 1 is controlled so that no pause time is provided.

In the clothes dryer P, the clothes are prevented from clinging and the clothes are repeatedly moved back and forth within the drum 1, so that unevenness in drying is eliminated and the drying efficiency is improved. Further, since the clothes do not solidify in the drum 1, there is no risk of local overheating, and rubbing with the fixed parts such as the support plate 3 is small, so that damage to the clothes is reduced. Further, in the case of performing a small amount of drying in which the effect of the forward / reverse rotation of the drum 1 may be small and the drying efficiency may be reduced,
By switching to one-way rotation, the drying efficiency can be improved. In addition, since the clothes do not solidify in the drum 1, the impact of the tumbling on the clothes is small, and the stability during use can be secured even if the clothes dryer P is installed on a unit stand or the like.

[0034]

The drum type clothes dryer according to the present invention is
Since it is configured as described above, the drying efficiency is good, and clothes clogging and drying unevenness can be reduced more than ever before.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration explanatory diagram of a drum type clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a structural explanatory view of a drum and a baffle of the clothes dryer.

FIG. 3 is a configuration explanatory view of one baffle of the clothes dryer seen from a plane.

FIG. 4 is a configuration explanatory view of the baffle viewed from a side surface.

FIG. 5 is a configuration explanatory view of another baffle used in the clothes dryer as viewed from above.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of the configuration of the baffle viewed from the side.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a relationship between rotation of a drum and movement of clothes in the clothes dryer.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the correlation between the number of clothes and the degree of dryness in the clothes dryer in comparison with those in the conventional clothes dryer.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view for explaining the relationship between the temperature inside the drum of the clothes dryer and the passage of time.

FIG. 10 is an overall configuration explanatory view of a conventional drum type clothes dryer.

FIG. 11 is a configuration explanatory view of a drum and a baffle of the clothes dryer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Drum 4 Horizontal Axis 7 Exhaust Port 8 Fan 9 Vent Port 10 Duct 11 Heater 17 Baffle 20 Outer Box

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An outer box having a ventilation hole, a clothes storage drum having an exhaust port, which is supported inside the outer box so as to be rotatable about a horizontal axis in both forward and reverse directions. An air circulation system that is supported so that it can rotate independently of the drum, and that introduces outside air into the outer box through the vents and introduces air inside the outer box into the drum and discharges air inside the drum through the exhaust port. A fan for use, a duct arranged in the outer box for circulating air through the drum and the fan, and a heater arranged inside the duct for heating the air in the duct. The protrusion is provided on the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum, and extends linearly from one side wall side to the other side wall side of the drum, and the direction of the extension is inclined with respect to the horizontal axis, and the shape of the operating portion is long. Clothing holding that is point-symmetric with respect to the midpoint Drum-type clothes dryer which is formed by including a for raising the baffle. 2. The drum type clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of baffles are provided, and the baffles have the same shape and the same size. 3. Further, a weight estimating means for estimating the weight of the clothes in the drum, and the drum is rotated in either one of the forward and reverse directions when the weight of the clothes estimated by the weight estimating means is below a certain value. The drum-type clothes dryer according to claim 1, further comprising a control unit for controlling the drum-type clothes dryer.