JPH05317593A - Clothes dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To finish clothes to be dried without generating wrinkles and with low electrical expenses and without decreasing a service life in a reservation operation. CONSTITUTION:This dryer is a clothes dryer of drum type, and also, it is provided with a function to reserve drying finishing time, and when reservation is set, a search operation to decide required drying operation time is operated by detecting the amount and wetness of clothes to be dried, thereby, an operation can be performed without leaving a time before finishing time, therefore, it is possible to drive without generating interruption, or without performing a finishing operation to heat the clothes to be dried cooled due to the interruption again by deciding the start time of a drying operation by performing an invers operation from reservation time based on the data of the search operation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a so-called drum type clothes dryer, and more particularly to a clothes dryer having a reservation function capable of making a reservation for a dry finish time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, drum type clothes dryers having a reservation function capable of reserving a dry finish time have been provided.

FIG. 9 shows the driving specifications of this product at the time of reservation, and is an example in which the reservation is made so that the work is finished at 23:00 and at 7:00 the next morning.

In this case, when starting, regardless of the actual amount of clothes to be dried, etc., a predetermined amount exceeding the expected rated amount in the time required to dry the rated amount of clothes to be dried with respect to the finish time. The drying operation is started from a predetermined time (in this case, 5 hours before, at 2:00) set by adding the time required for drying the clothes to be dried and the time for the finishing operation.

However, in practice, it is rare that more than the rated amount of clothes to be dried are put in the drum, and usually less than the rated amount of clothes to be dried are put. Therefore, the drying operation ends some time before the finishing operation is started (in this case, for example, about 1 hour), and the dryer is stopped until the finishing operation is started.

However, the finishing operation is carried out for about 20 minutes, which reheats the clothes to be dried which have been cooled by the rest, and after the finishing operation, the clothes to be dried are intermittently operated by a predetermined time every predetermined time. So-called soft keep operation is performed to prevent wrinkling.

[0007]

In the case of the above, the clothes to be dried are left overlapping at the bottom of the drum during the rest after the drying operation until the finishing operation is started, whereby It had a problem that dry clothes were wrinkled.

Further, since the finishing operation is carried out after the suspension, there is a problem that the electricity bill becomes high and the life of the dryer becomes short.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and therefore an object thereof is to prevent the clothes to be dried from wrinkling, to save electricity, and to shorten the service life during reserved driving. It is an object of the present invention to provide a clothes dryer that can be finished without using it and can be used without causing any illusion or concern to the user.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, in a clothes dryer of the present invention, a drum for containing clothes to be dried, a drive device for rotating the drum, and a blower for blowing air into the drum. The device is equipped with a heater that heats the wind, and has a reservation function that can reserve the dry finish time. When the reservation is made, it is necessary to detect the amount and wetness of the clothes to be dried. A search operation for determining the dry operation time is performed, and the start time of the dry operation by each of the devices and the heater is calculated by back calculation from the dry finish reserved time based on the data of the search operation.

In this case, the exploration operation is performed after the reservation starts.
It is best to do it after a short break.

[0012]

According to the above means, the dry operation is performed from the time when the required dry operation time suitable for the actual amount of clothes to be dried and the actual wetness is calculated back from the dry finish reservation time, and the time is calculated before the finish time. Therefore, there is no rest, and no rest occurs, so that the clothes to be dried do not cool and the finishing operation of rewarming it is unnecessary.

In the case where the exploration operation is performed after a short rest after the start of the reservation, the user leaves the dryer during the suspension time, and the exploration operation is started immediately after the reservation start. It is possible to avoid the illusion and worry about the simple reservation function.

[0014]

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

First, FIG. 2 shows the structure of the entire clothes dryer. A clothes outlet / inlet 2 to be dried is formed in the front box of the outer box 1 at a substantially central portion thereof, and a door 3 for opening / closing the inlet / outlet 2 is provided. It is pivotal.

A drum 4 is housed inside the outer case 1. The housed drum 4 has a large-diameter opening 5 formed on the front surface thereof in a drum support provided in the front part of the outer case 1. 6 is rotatably supported, and the shaft 7 provided at the center of the rear surface is
A fan casing 8 provided at the rear of the outer case 1 is also rotatably supported.

Inside the fan casing 8, there is provided a fan 9 which has a blade portion on each of the front surface side and the rear surface side and serves as a double-blade heat exchanger. This fan 9 is provided at the bottom of the outer casing 1. The arranged motor 10 is adapted to rotate via a belt 11.

When the fan 9 is rotated, the air inside the drum 4 is sucked into the front part inside the fan casing 8 through the filter 12 in the inner part of the drum 4, and the air outside the machine is replaced by the outer case back. The air is sucked into the rear portion of the fan casing 8 from the outside air intake port 14 of the plate 13, whereby the air inside the drum 4 and the air outside the machine contact each other with the fan 9 as a boundary, and heat is exchanged. Dehumidification of air is performed.

The dehumidified air in the drum 4 is
After that, it is supplied into the drum 4 through the duct 15 shown in FIG. 3, and thus, the fan casing 8 and the fan 9, the motor 10, the belt 11 and the duct 15 are provided.
However, it functions as a blower for blowing air into the drum 4.

Further, a heater 16 is provided at the tip of the duct 15 of the blower, and when the heater 16 is turned on and heat is generated, the air supplied into the drum 4 is heated and the inside of the drum 4 is heated. The hot air is supplied, and when it is off and does not generate heat, the air supplied into the drum 4 is not heated and the cold air is supplied into the drum 4.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the motor 10 is adapted to drive the drum 4 to rotate via the belt 17, so that the motor 10 and the belt 17 function as a driving device. Is becoming

Further, a portion of the lower part of the drum support 6 facing the inside of the drum 4 functions as a clothes amount detecting means for detecting the amount of clothes to be dried and a dryness detecting means for detecting the dryness of the clothes to be dried. A pair of electrodes 18 functioning as are disposed.

On the other hand, a portion of the outer box 1 adjacent to the door 3 is shown in FIG.
The operation / display panel 19 shown in FIG. This operation
On the display panel 19, a key switch 20 for turning the power on and off, a key switch 21 for starting or temporarily stopping the operation, a key switch 22 for setting the current time and a reserved time, a key switch 23 for switching the strength of the heater, There is a key switch 24 for selecting a driving course, a digital display 25 for displaying the required time and remaining time for driving, and also displaying the current time and reserved time. , "Clock", then "Hour", "Minute" and then "Clock" to set the current time, then "Reserve"
The reserved time (dry finish time) is set by pressing, and then by pressing "hour" and "minute", and the reserved operation is started by pressing the key switch 21 after that.

In the outer box 1, a microcomputer 26 shown in FIG. 5 is provided as an operation control means, and a DC power source is supplied to the microcomputer 26 from a power source 27 through a rectifier circuit 28. ..

Further, the microcomputer 26 receives the clothes amount detection signal and the dryness detection signal from the electrode 18 through the detection circuit 29.

FIG. 6 shows the detection circuit 29 in detail. Since a relatively high voltage is obtained every time the clothes to be dried contact the electrode 18, the contact frequency measuring circuit 3
By counting at 0, the amount of clothes to be dried is detected and input to the microcomputer 26.
Further, the magnitude of the voltage depends on the wetness of the clothes to be dried because the electric resistance of the clothes to be dried varies depending on the wetness of the clothes to be dried. Therefore, by passing this voltage through the peak hold circuit 31, , The wetness of the clothes to be dried is detected and input to the microcomputer 26 via the buffer circuit 32.

Further, as the drying progresses, the wetness of the clothes to be dried decreases and the electric resistance increases as shown in FIG.
The voltage obtained when the clothes to be dried come into contact with the electrode 18 gradually decreases as shown in FIG. Therefore, by passing this through the peak hold circuit 31 shown in FIG. 6, a change in the dryness of the clothes to be dried (a change in the wetness) is detected,
It is input to the microcomputer 26 via the buffer circuit 32.

On the basis of those inputs, the microcomputer 26 then receives the heater 16 (16a, 16a).
b) and energization of the motor 10 are divided into three sets of relays 33 to 33.
It is designed to be controlled via a drive circuit 36 composed of 35.

The microcomputer 26 has a key switch 20 of the operation / display panel 19 in addition to the above.
Each switch signal is input from the switch input section 37 composed of .about.24, a temperature detection signal is output from a temperature sensor 38 (see FIG. 2) provided to detect the temperature in the drum 4, and a clock pulse generation circuit. Clock pulses are respectively inputted from 39, and a power switch 40 is inserted and connected to a circuit from the power source 27 to the heater 16 (16a, 16b) and the motor 10.

Next, the operation of the above structure will be described. First, for normal drying operation, by pressing the "start" key switch 21, the microcomputer 2
6 starts the drying run and in its first, eg 2 minutes,
The amount of clothes to be dried and the degree of wetness are detected based on the data detected from the electrode 18 via the detection circuit 28.
Then, based on the detection result, the required drying operation time is determined, and it is displayed on the digital display 25 to continue the drying operation.

On the other hand, in order to carry out the reserved operation, the key switch 22 is pressed to make a reservation. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, it is assumed that the current time is 23:00 and a reservation is made to finish at 7:00 the next morning.

Then, when the "start" key switch 21 is pressed, the microcomputer 26 suspends the operation for the first some time, for example, several minutes, and then performs the exploration operation for, for example, 2 minutes. This exploration operation is for determining the required dry operation time, which is performed by the electrode 18 as described above.
The amount of wet clothes and the degree of wetness are detected from the data detected by the detection circuit 29, and the required drying operation time is determined based on the detection result. Then, the start time of the dry operation is determined by calculating backward from the dry finish reserved time based on the data of the exploration operation. In this case, if the finishing reservation time is 7:00 the next morning, and it is determined that the drying operation time of 4 hours is necessary as a result of the exploration operation, the drying operation is started 4 hours before that, that is, 3:00.

When the drying operation is completed, the soft keep operation is performed. This soft-keeping operation is an operation of performing a predetermined time every predetermined time (for example, every 10 seconds every 5 minutes). For example, the operation is performed by rotating the drum 4 and blowing air into the drum 4. I am trying to do it. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the driving of the drum 4 and the driving of the fan 9 may be performed by separate motors, and the soft keeping operation may be performed only by rotationally driving the drum 4. In some cases,
Alternatively, the heater 16 may be turned on.

As described above, according to this structure, the required drying operation time suitable for the actual amount of clothes to be dried and the actual wetness is determined by the search operation, and the result is calculated backward from the dry finish reservation time. Since the drying operation is performed from the specified time, there is no time left before the finishing time as in the conventional one, so that the clothes to be dried are overlapped at the bottom of the drum without stopping the operation. Since it is not left as it is, it is possible to prevent the clothes to be dried from wrinkling.

Further, as described above, since the operation is not stopped, the clothes to be dried are not cooled, and the finishing operation for rewarming the clothes is not required, whereby the electricity bill can be reduced and the clothes can be dried. The life of the machine can also be extended.

In addition, particularly in the case of the above-mentioned configuration, if the exploration operation is started immediately after the start of the reservation, the user has the illusion that the dryer has malfunctioned, and is concerned that the reservation function is functioning normally. On the other hand, after the start of the reservation, on the other hand, since the exploration operation is started after a little rest time, the user will leave the dryer during the rest time, and as described above. Avoid illusions and anxieties.

The required drying time in the search operation may be determined by detecting the rise of the temperature in the drum 4 from the detection result of the temperature sensor 36.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings, and may be implemented with appropriate modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0039]

The clothes dryer of the present invention is as described above and has the following effects.

In the clothes dryer of claim 1, a drum for containing the clothes to be dried, a driving device for rotating the drum, a blowing device for blowing air into the drum, and a heater for heating the wind are provided. It has a reservation function that allows you to reserve a dry finish time, and when that reservation is made,
A search operation is performed to determine the required dry operation time by detecting the amount and wetness of the clothes to be dried, and the start time of the dry operation by each of the above devices and heaters is calculated backward from the dry finish reservation time based on the data of this search operation. By doing so, it is possible to finish the clothes to be dried without wrinkling at the time of reserved operation, and the electricity cost does not need to be high,
Furthermore, it can be finished without shortening the life.

In the clothes dryer according to the second aspect of the present invention, in the above structure, the exploring operation is further performed after the reservation is started and after a short rest, so that the user has an illusion or concern about the reservation function. Can be used without waking it up.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a time chart for explaining an operation showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the entire vertical section with a part broken away.

FIG. 3 is an overall front view

[Figure 4] Enlarged front view of the operation / display panel

FIG. 5 is a schematic electrical configuration diagram.

FIG. 6 is a diagram of a circuit that processes the signals detected at the electrodes and functions accordingly.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the relationship between the electrical resistance of the clothes to be dried and the drying rate.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a relationship between a voltage detected by electrodes and a drying rate.

FIG. 9 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 is a drum, 8 is a fan casing (blower), 9 is a fan (blower), 10 is a motor (blower / driver), 15 is a duct (blower), 16 is a heater, 18
Is an electrode, 22 is a key switch, 26 is a microcomputer, and 29 is a detection circuit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A drum for containing clothes to be dried, a drive device for rotating and driving the drum, an air blowing device for blowing air into the drum, a heater for heating the air, and a dry finish time can be reserved. It has a possible reservation function, and when the reservation is made, a search operation is performed to detect the amount of dry clothes and the degree of wetness to determine the required dry operation time. Also, the clothes dryer is characterized in that the start time of the drying operation by the heater is calculated by back-calculating from the dry finish reservation time. 2. The clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein the exploration operation is performed after a reservation has been started and after a short rest.