JPH06281339A - Drying apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect repair timing in a drying apparatus for cloths, etc., by measuring cumulative operation time of the drying apparatus and informing a user of a fact that the cumulative operation time exceeds a predetermined time. CONSTITUTION:Once coins are introduced into a coin slot, a coin detector 14 detects the number of the introduced coins. A microcomputer 42 increments a counted value by the number of the coins to start drying operation by driving a motor 8 and firing a gas burner. The drying operation is continued by drying operation time per one coin multiplied by the number of coins. With the completion of the drying operation, the counted value, i.e., a product of the number of introduced coins until now and the drying operation time per one coin is calculated to estimate the cumulative operation time. Once the cumulative operation time exceeds a predetermined time, a colon display lamp 15 is lighted and informs a user of a fact that a lint filter is substantially clogged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dryer for drying an article to be dried such as clothes contained in a drying chamber.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been used a clothes dryer which heats air sucked from the outside and supplies the heated air to a drying chamber to dry clothes stored in the drying chamber. There is. In the drying chamber, heat exchange between the supplied heated air and the clothes is performed, whereby the moisture that has permeated the clothes is evaporated. Air that contains moisture is
It is exhausted to the outside of the machine through the exhaust pipe. A lint filter is provided at any position in the air flow passage from the drying chamber to the exhaust pipe. The lint filter is for adsorbing and removing lint and the like.

As the cumulative operating time of the dryer increases, the amount of lint adsorbed on the lint filter increases, and eventually the lint filter becomes clogged.
When clogging occurs, the flow rate of the air exhausted through the exhaust pipe decreases. Therefore, the air containing water cannot be quickly exhausted from the drying chamber. Therefore, there is a problem that the clothes in the drying chamber cannot be dried well. In particular, the dryer must be run for a very long time to completely dry the clothes.

The above problems can be solved by detecting that clogging has occurred and replacing the lint filter with a new one. A dryer having a function of detecting clogging of a lint filter is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-14097. The dryer disclosed in this publication includes a disk-shaped shutter that is opened and rotated by the wind pressure of the air discharged into the exhaust pipe. When the lint filter is clogged, the exhaust air volume decreases, and the rotating position of the shutter approaches the closing position. Therefore, the presence or absence of clogging of the lint filter is detected based on the opening degree of the shutter.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, when the clogging actually occurs, it is detected. That is, it is understood that the lint filter needs to be replaced only when the clogging actually occurs. Therefore, for example, when clogging occurs during the drying operation, the lint filter cannot be replaced until the drying operation ends, and thus the drying failure occurs. Therefore, in order to completely dry the clothes, it is necessary to restart the drying operation.

In particular, in the coin type dryer installed and used in the coin laundry store, the lint filter cannot be replaced by the user, and the dryer is operated for a long time in a poor operating condition. From
It was very uneconomical for the user. In a coin laundry shop or the like, when the lint filter is clogged, the manager of the coin laundry shop or the like will replace the lint filter. However, it is usually inconvenient for the user because it usually takes some time from the occurrence of clogging to the replacement of the lint filter.

[0007] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above technical problems and to be able to know the repair time in advance before the occurrence of a problem, thereby making it possible to maintain a good operating condition. Is to provide.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a dryer which is operated to dry an object to be dried contained in a drying chamber. The operating time measuring means for measuring the cumulative operating time of the machine, the comparing means for comparing the cumulative operating time measured by the operating time measuring means with a predetermined time, and the cumulative operating based on the result of the comparison by the comparing means. When the time is longer than the predetermined time, a notification unit that notifies that the cumulative operating time of the dryer has exceeded the predetermined time is included.

Further, in the drying machine according to the second aspect of the present invention, reset operation means for resetting the measurement time of the operation time measurement means, and in response to the operation of the reset operation means,
It further comprises reset means for resetting the measurement time in the operation time measuring means to zero and stopping the notification by the notification means.

[0010]

According to the above-mentioned structure, the cumulative operating time of the dryer is measured by the operating time measuring means, and the measured cumulative operating time is compared with the predetermined time by the comparing means. Then, as a result of the comparison, when the accumulated operation time exceeds the predetermined time, the notification means notifies that.

Therefore, if the above-mentioned predetermined time is set to, for example, a time slightly shorter than the operation time in which any failure is expected to occur, the notification means can be informed before the failure occurs. You can In the configuration according to the second aspect, when the reset operation means is operated, the measurement time of the operating time measurement means is reset to zero and the notification of the notification means is stopped. Therefore,
For example, if the reset operation means is operated after performing repair work, the repair time can be repeatedly notified.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 3 is a front view showing a schematic structure of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention with a part cut away.
FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view of the clothes dryer. This clothes dryer is a coin type which starts operation by inserting a coin, and is mainly installed and used in a coin laundry store or the like. A drying chamber 2 is formed substantially in the center of the dryer main body 1, and a rotating drum 3 for accommodating and stirring clothes is provided in the drying chamber 2. A combustion chamber 4 is formed above the rotary drum 3, and a gas burner 5 for heating air is provided in the combustion chamber 4. In addition, below the drying chamber 2,
An exhaust pipe 6 is formed for guiding the air exhausted from the drying chamber 2 to the outside of the dryer main body 1. At the inlet of the exhaust pipe 6, a fan 7 for forcibly exhausting the air in the drying chamber 2 and guiding it to the exhaust pipe 6 is provided. Further, a motor 8 for rotating the rotary drum 3 and the fan 7 is provided at the bottom of the dryer main body 1.

The dryer main body 1 has an outside air intake 9 for taking in outside air at the upper rear surface and an air exhaust port 10 at the bottom rear surface. Further, a loading door 11 for loading clothes into the rotary drum 3 is attached to the center of the front surface of the rotary drum 3 in an openable and closable manner. A panel 12 is provided at the upper front end of the dryer main body 1. The panel 12 is formed with a coin insertion slot 13 for inserting a coin. A coin detector 14 for detecting that a coin has been inserted through the coin insertion slot 13 is provided in association with the coin insertion slot 13. The panel 12 is further provided with an indicator 15 for displaying the remaining operating time of the dryer. A recovery door 16 for recovering coins inserted from the coin insertion slot 13 is provided below the panel 12.

A door 17 is provided below the front of the dryer main body 1. Inside the door 17, the control box 1
8 is attached. The rotary drum 3 includes a dryer main body 1 via a felt or the like by an annular sheet metal drum support member 19 mounted so that the front surface side surrounds the loading door 11.
In addition to being rotatably supported, the rear surface side is rotatably supported by the dryer main body 1 by the shaft 20. On the surface of the rotary drum 3, air holes 21 which also serve as an air inlet and an air outlet are formed.

An air supply port 22 is formed between the combustion chamber 4 and the drying chamber 2. The outside air taken in through the outside air inlet 9 is heated in the combustion chamber 4, and the heated air is supplied into the drying chamber 2 through the air supply port 22. An excessive rise prevention detector 23 is provided on the upper surface of the combustion chamber 4. Exhaust pipe 6
Is a fan chamber 24 in which a fan 7 is installed and an air exhaust port 1
0 is connected. A lint filter 25 for adsorbing and removing lint and the like is provided in the air flow passage between the fan chamber 24 and the drying chamber 2. The replacement of the lint filter 25 is performed by opening the door 17.

The motor 8 drives the rotary drum 3 and the fan 7. The motor 8 applies a rotational force to a belt 26 wound around the outer peripheral surface of the rotary drum 3 via a pulley 27. A fan 7 is attached to the drive shaft of the motor 8. During the drying operation, the driving force of the motor 8
The rotating drum 3 is rotated at a low speed and the fan 7 is rotated at a high speed, so that they are rotated in one direction. At the same time, the gas burner 5 is ignited.
The air from the outside air intake port 9 is sent to the combustion chamber 4 and heated by the gas burner 5, and the generated heated air is introduced into the rotary drum 3 from the air supply port 22 and the air hole 20. The introduced heated air exchanges heat with the clothes in the rotary drum 3. This causes the water in the clothes to evaporate. The air containing the evaporated water exits the rotary drum 3 through the air holes 20 and is further fed into the fan chamber 24 through the lint filter 25. And the exhaust pipe 6
Through the air exhaust port 10 to the outside.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the external structure of the control box 18. An operation hole 31 for operating a counter switch 30 for resetting a counter described later is formed on the front surface of the control box 18. FIG. 6 is a front view showing the configuration of the control board housed in the control box 18. The counter switch 30 is attached to the control board 40. The counter switch 30 is normally operated after the lint filter 25 is replaced. Further, a setting switch 41 for variably setting the drying operation time To per inserted coin is attached to the control board 40. The dry operation time To is set to, for example, 15 minutes. The setting switch 41 is not necessary unless the drying operation time To needs to be changed. A microcomputer 42 for controlling the operation of each part of the clothes dryer is further attached to the substrate 40. In this embodiment, the counter switch 30 corresponds to the reset operation means.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged front view of the display unit 15. The display unit 15 is composed of an LED (light emitting diode) display unit, etc., and three sets of seven segments arranged in a "day" shape are arranged in the left-right direction so that a three-digit number can be displayed. It was done. With this indicator 15,
The remaining operating time of the dryer (in minutes) is displayed. A colon display unit 50 is provided at the lower end of the display unit 15. The colon display unit 50 is for notifying the administrator that the lint filter 25 is about to be replaced,
When it is time to replace the lint filter 25, this is notified by lighting. Further, when the counter switch 30 is operated, the counter switch 30 is turned off. In this embodiment, the colon display section 50 functions as a notification means.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the electrical construction of the clothes dryer of this embodiment. The microcomputer 42 for controlling the operation of each part of the clothes dryer has a display unit 15, a coin detector 14, and a trial run switch 60.
Are connected. The coin detector 14 detects that a coin has been inserted into the coin insertion slot 13 (see FIG. 3). Further, the microcomputer 42 is connected with a setting switch 41, a cooldown detection switch 61, an excessive rise prevention detector 23, and a counter switch 30.
Further, at the time of power failure, a power supply compensation circuit 62 that generates power for holding data in the microcomputer 42, a power failure detection circuit 63, a power supply circuit 64, and a gas combustion controller 65 that controls the ignition operation of the gas burner 5 are connected. Has been done. The gas combustion controller 65 outputs to the microcomputer 42 intermittent information, information on whether or not ignition has occurred, and the like. In this embodiment, the microcomputer 42 functions as a comparing means, a resetting means, and an operating time measuring means.

The microcomputer 42, based on the outputs from the coin detector 14, the trial run switch 60, the setting switch 41, the cool-down detection switch 61, the excessive rise prevention detector 23, the counter switch 30, etc., loads a load according to a predetermined program. The motor 8, via the drive circuit 66,
It controls the buzzer 67, the indicator light 68 and the gas combustion controller 65. Further, the remaining time is displayed on the display unit 15.

Inside the microcomputer 42, a C
A PU (Central Processing Unit) 69, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 70 that stores a processing program that changes to a drying operation, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 71 that is used as a work area of a CPU are provided. . Further, 72 is an internal bus. FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the clothes dryer. The user inserts a coin (for example, a 100-yen coin) into the coin insertion slot 13 after accommodating the clothes in the rotary drum 3. When coin insertion is detected by the coin detector 14 (step S1), the value of the counter C is incremented by the number of inserted coins (step S2).
The counter C is a counter realized by software executed by the microcomputer 42. Then, the motor 8 is rotated, the gas burner 5 is ignited at the same time, and the drying operation is started (step S
3). For example, the dry operation time To per coin
Is set to 15 minutes, when 5 coins are inserted, the drying operation is continuously performed for 75 (= 15 × 5) minutes.

When the drying operation corresponding to the number of coins inserted is completed (step S4), the value of the counter C, that is, the cumulative number of coins inserted so far and the drying operation time To per coin (for example, 15). Min) is obtained (step S5). Thereby, the cumulative operating time Ts of the clothes dryer is obtained. Next, the cumulative operating time T
It is determined whether s exceeds a predetermined time Tp (for example, 6000 minutes) (step S6). If it is determined that the cumulative operating time Ts exceeds the predetermined time Tp, it is considered that the clogging of the lint filter 25 is about to occur, and the colon display section 50 provided in the display 15 is turned on (step S7). On the other hand, if it is determined in step S6 that the cumulative operating time Ts does not exceed the predetermined time Tp, it is determined that the clogging has not yet occurred, and the colon display portion 50 is not turned on.

In the present embodiment, the predetermined time Tp is set to be slightly shorter than the cumulative operating time in which the clogging of the lint filter 25 is expected to occur. Therefore, before the actual clogging occurs, the colon display 5
0 lights up. Therefore, the administrator of the dryer can know the replacement time of the lint filter 25 before the clogging occurs. Therefore, the lint filter 25 can be replaced at an appropriate time. Therefore, a good operating condition can be always ensured.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation related to the reset of the value of the counter C and the cancellation of the display by the colon display section 50. Colon display 50
When the switch is turned on (step S11), it is determined whether or not the counter switch 30 has been continuously pressed for a fixed time (for example, 5 seconds) or more (step S12).
When the counter switch 30 is pressed for 5 seconds or more, the value of the counter C is reset to zero (step S1).
3). At the same time, the colon display unit 50 is turned off (step S14).

Therefore, by continuously pressing the counter switch 30 for 5 seconds or more, the value of the counter C can be reset to zero and the lighting state of the colon display portion 50 can be released. Thus, if the counter switch 30 is operated after the lint filter 25 is replaced,
You can know the proper replacement time of the new lint filter after replacement.

The description of this embodiment is as described above.
The invention is not limited to the embodiments described above. For example, although the coin-type clothes dryer in which coins are inserted has been described in the above-described embodiments, the present invention is also applicable to, for example, a clothes dryer using a prepaid card that is paid in advance and purchased. That is, the cumulative operating time can be obtained by accumulating the frequencies of the prepaid cards used to operate the dryer and obtaining the product of the cumulative frequency and the operating time per frequency. By turning on the above-mentioned colon display portion when the cumulative operating time exceeds the predetermined time, it is possible to notify the administrator that the replacement time of the lint filter is near before the clogging occurs. .

Further, in the above embodiment, the cumulative operating time of the clothes dryer is obtained as the product of the cumulative number of inserted coins and the operating time per coin. You may make it measure directly by etc. By adopting such a configuration, the present invention can be applied to a dryer other than a coin type or a card type.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the colon display section 50 is used as the notification means, but a speaker or the like may be used. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the manager or the like is notified that the replacement time of the lint filter 25 is close, but the replacement time of other consumable parts may be notified.

Besides, it is possible to make various design changes within the scope of the present invention.

[0030]

As described above, according to the dryer of the first aspect, when the cumulative operating time of the dryer is longer than the predetermined time, the notification means notifies that effect. Therefore, if the predetermined time is set to a time shorter than the operation time in which any failure is expected to occur, the fact can be notified before the failure occurs. Therefore, the dryer administrator can know the repair time before the trouble occurs. For this reason, a good operating condition can always be maintained, and dry defects do not occur.

According to the drying machine of the second aspect, when the reset operation means is operated, the measurement time of the operating time measurement means is reset to zero and the notification of the notification means is stopped. Therefore, if the reset operation means is operated, for example, when repair work is performed, it is possible to repeatedly notify the time of occurrence of a defect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an operation of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an operation related to resetting a counter value and canceling a display by a colon display unit.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing the schematic configuration of the clothes dryer with a part thereof cut away.

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the clothes dryer.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of a control box.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a control board housed in a control box.

FIG. 7 is a front view of a display device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the clothes dryer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Drying room 3 Rotating drum 14 Coin detector 25 Lint filter 30 Counter switch 42 Microcomputer 50 Colon display

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A dryer which is operated to dry an object to be dried contained in a drying chamber, the operating time measuring means for measuring an accumulated operating time of the dryer, and the operating time measuring means. Based on the comparison result by the comparison means for comparing the measured cumulative operating time and the predetermined time, when the cumulative operating time is longer than the predetermined time, the cumulative operating time of the dryer is predetermined. A dryer, comprising: a notification unit that notifies that the time has been exceeded. 2. A reset operation means for resetting the measurement time of the operation time measurement means, and in response to the operation of the reset operation means, the measurement time in the operation time measurement means is reset to zero and the notification is given. 2. The dryer according to claim 1, further comprising a reset unit that stops the notification by the unit.