JPH05200194A - Control device of clothes dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect with a good accuracy the drying condition of clothes to be dried, preventing the presence of non-dried portion and over-dried condition and to inhibit damages to the clothes to be dried. CONSTITUTION:Hot air is supplied to the clothes to be dried within the rotation drum 1 by the hot air driving portion 3. The temperature distribution of this clothes to be dried is detected with the infrared ray imaging device 6. In accordance with the output of the infrared ray imaging device 6 the control means terminates the drying operation and minutely controls the drying operation in accordance with the drying condition of the clothes to be dried.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a clothes dryer control device for automatically controlling a drying operation state in accordance with a drying state of clothes to be dried in a drying cabinet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, automatic control of clothes dryers, such as detecting the dry state of clothes to be dried placed in a drying cabinet and automatically ending the drying operation, has been advanced.

Conventionally, a control device for this type of clothes dryer is
For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-37296, a humidity sensor is provided in the dryer to detect the dry state of the clothes to be dried from the humidity in the drying chamber, As shown in the background, there have been proposed one that detects the electric resistance value of the clothes to be dried, one that detects the temperature difference between the hot air supplied to the rotary drum and the exhaust gas discharged from the rotary drum, and the like. Each of these is configured to estimate the dry state of the clothes to be dried in the drying chamber from the humidity and temperature characteristics of the entire drying chamber and realize the automatic end of the drying operation.

[0004]

In such a conventional clothes dryer control device, since only the dry state of the entire clothes to be dried in the drying chamber can be grasped, clothes of different cloth quality are mixed, When the amount of clothes to be dried in the drying cabinet is extremely small, the drying operation is controlled according to the cloth with the larger amount of cloth, and the heating state of the drying drum etc. is judged as the drying state of the clothes to be dried. It is easy to make a wrong decision, such as
There is a problem in that it is highly likely to cause undried clothes to be dried and damage to the clothes due to overdrying.

The present invention is intended to solve the above problems, and it is a first object of the present invention to prevent undrying or overdrying by detecting the dry state of clothes to be dried.

A second object of the present invention is to make it possible to surely determine the temperature distribution of clothes even when the temperature distribution detection unit has a low level function and the temperature distribution cannot be grasped instantaneously.

[0007]

In order to achieve the first object of the present invention, a hot air drive unit for supplying hot air to clothes to be dried in a drying chamber and a temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried are detected. The first problem solving means is provided with a temperature distribution detection unit and a control unit that controls the drive state of the hot air drive unit according to the output of the temperature distribution detection unit.

Further, in order to achieve the second object, in addition to the means for solving the first problem, a stirring means for stirring the clothes to be dried in the drying chamber is provided, and the temperature distribution detecting section is provided for the clothes to be dried. A second problem solving means is that the stirring is stopped when confirming the temperature distribution.

[0009]

The present invention is achieved by the above-mentioned first means for solving the problems.
The temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried is detected and the dry state is checked, so there is no unevenness in drying, and
Damage to clothes to be dried due to overdrying can be prevented.

Further, the second problem solving means makes it possible to reliably determine the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried even when the temperature distribution detecting unit has a low level function and the temperature distribution cannot be grasped instantaneously.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

As shown in the figure, a rotary drum (dryer) 1
Is driven to rotate by a motor 2 and has a convex baffle (not shown) provided therein. The hot air drive unit 3 is composed of a heater 4 and a fan 5, and supplies hot air into the rotary drum 1. By putting clothes to be dried (not shown) in the rotating drum 1 and rotating them by the motor 2, the clothes to be dried are caught by the baffle and lifted to the upper part, and after reaching almost the apex, drop to the lower part. The hot air is evenly applied to the clothes to be dried. The infrared imager (temperature distribution detection unit) 6 is arranged on the front surface of the rotary drum 1, and as shown in FIG. 2, an infrared lens 7, a horizontal mirror 8 and a vertical mirror 9 mirror the temperature inside the rotary drum 1. The scanning is performed, and the signal processing circuit 10 detects the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried 11 inside the rotary drum 1 and the rotary drum 1 with an appropriate resolution. The control means 12 inputs the output of the infrared imaging device 6 and controls the operations of the motor 2 and the hot air drive unit 3.

The operation in the above-mentioned structure will be described. First, the clothes 11 to be dried containing water are agitated in the rotary drum 1 and heated by the hot air from the hot air drive unit 3 to be included in the clothes 11 to be dried. The water contained therein is vaporized and discharged from the rotary drum 1. The detection image obtained by the infrared imaging device 7 is from a dry initial state where there are many low temperature parts as shown in Fig. 3 (a) to a relatively high temperature part as shown in Fig. 3 (b) as the drying progresses. However, since the energy of the hot air is almost deprived of the water vaporized from the clothes to be dried 11 during the drying process, the surface temperature of the clothes to be dried 11 cannot be rapidly increased and the steady state continues for a while. . Here, when the drying further progresses and approaches the end of the steady state, the proportion of the high temperature portion gradually increases as shown in FIG. 3 (c). From this point on, the adverse effect of heat on the damage to the clothes 11 to be dried increases, so it is not necessary to completely dry the clothes, and if the sun is dried after that, the control means 12 is used.
Stops the motor 2 to stop the rotary drum 1, stops the supply of hot air from the hot air drive unit 3, and ends the drying operation. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the damage to the clothes and to dry the clothes in a shorter time than the sun drying.
If it is desired to completely dry the clothes 11 to be dried even if the damage to the clothes is sacrificed to some extent, the drying operation is terminated when the low temperature part disappears as shown in FIG. 3 (d).

As described above, according to the control apparatus for the clothes dryer of the present embodiment, the driving state of the hot air driving unit 3 is controlled according to the output of the infrared imaging device 7 which detects the temperature distribution of the clothes 11 to be dried. The surface temperature of the clothes to be dried 11 in the rotating drum 1 can be directly detected to accurately detect the dry state of the clothes to be dried 11, and the drying operation can be finely controlled more appropriately according to the dry state of the clothes to be dried 11. can do.

In the above embodiment, the clothes to be dried 11 are put into the rotary drum 1 and dried.
Instead of using, the clothes to be dried may be suspended and dried.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described.
When the infrared imaging device 7 confirms the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried, the control means 12 in FIG. 1 is a rotating drum (agitating means).
The configuration is such that 1 is stopped. Other configurations are the same as those in the above embodiment.

The operation of the above-described structure will be described. When the infrared imaging device 7 detects the temperature distribution of clothes to be dried,
In order to observe a moving object in real time, it is common to use a multi-element sensor. However, in order to obtain a cost advantage, when a scanning method using a single element sensor as shown in FIG. Since it takes a few seconds to obtain an infrared image, once the rotating operation of the rotary drum 1 is stopped,
The temperature of the clothes to be dried in a stopped state is detected. However,
In this case, rotate the clothes several times to stir the clothes to avoid detecting the temperature condition with only a part of the clothes to be dried.
It is necessary to detect multiple times.

As described above, according to the clothes dryer control device of the present embodiment, when the infrared imaging device 7 confirms the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried, the rotary drum 1 is stopped.
Even if the infrared imaging device 7 uses a scanning method using a single element sensor, the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried can be reliably detected.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above embodiments, according to the present invention, a hot air drive unit for supplying hot air to the clothes to be dried in the drying chamber and a temperature distribution detection for detecting the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried. Section and a control means for controlling the driving state of the hot air drive section according to the output of the temperature distribution detection section, the surface temperature of the clothes to be dried in the drying chamber is directly detected, thereby drying the clothes. The dry condition of clothes can be detected accurately, and the drying operation can be finely controlled more appropriately according to the dry condition of clothes to be dried. can do.

Further, since the temperature distribution detecting section is provided with a stirring means for stirring the clothes to be dried in the drying chamber and the stirring is stopped when the temperature distribution detecting section confirms the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried, Even if the function is of a low level and the temperature distribution cannot be grasped instantly, the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried can be reliably detected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a controller for a dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an infrared imaging device used for the control device of the clothes dryer.

[Fig. 3] (a) to (d) Detection imaging diagram of the infrared imaging device

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Rotating Drum (Drying Cabinet) 3 Hot Air Drive 6 Infrared Imager (Temperature Distribution Detection) 11 Dried Cloth 12 Control Means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A hot air drive unit for supplying hot air to clothes to be dried in a drying cabinet, a temperature distribution detecting unit for detecting a temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried, and the hot air according to the output of the temperature distribution detecting unit. A control device for a clothes dryer, comprising: a control unit that controls a drive state of a drive unit. 2. The clothes drying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising stirring means for stirring the clothes to be dried in the drying chamber, and the stirring is stopped when the temperature distribution detection unit confirms the temperature distribution of the clothes to be dried. Machine control device.