JPH06315591A - Drum type washing dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a washing dryer capable of accurately detecting the dryness of the whole washing in a drum. CONSTITUTION:This dryer is a washing dryer in which difference between a first temperature measuring means 7 and a second temperature measuring means 9 is computed by a temperature data arithmetic part 10. and dryness detection is performed by a completion condition decision part 11, and a stroke control part 12 controls a drying stroke.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applied to clothes used in ordinary households for washing clothes by rolling a drum, dewatering by high-speed rotation of the drum, and clothing in a drum for rolling hot air. The present invention relates to the detection of dryness of a drum type washer / dryer which dehumidifies by a heat exchanger and dries clothes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The construction of a conventional drum type washer / dryer is shown in FIG.
2 shows. The dry air blown by the blowing means 16 is
The laundry in the drum 14 is dried by being heated to an appropriate temperature by the heating means 17. The dehumidifying means 18 dehumidifies the dry air that has become highly humid by drying the laundry. Dehumidifying means 1
A water-cooled type is used for 8, and the cooling water supplied by the water supply means 19 and the high-humidity dry air are heat-exchanged. Since the amount of saturated steam in the dried air cooled as a result of heat exchange is reduced, excess water is liquefied out of the water taken by drying the laundry. That is, it is dehumidified. The dehumidified water and the supplied water are drained by the drainage means 20 through the water tank 15. Further, an electrode 24 is attached to a lid 23 for opening and closing the opening of the drum 14 and throwing in laundry. This electrode 24 applies a constant potential difference between the drum 14 and the water tank 15. Reference numeral 21 is an end condition determination unit that detects the potential difference of the electrode 24 and determines the end point of drying. The signal from the end condition determination unit 21 is sent to the stroke control unit 22, and the stroke control unit 22 operates to end the drying stroke when receiving this signal.

That is, in the conventional drum type washing and drying machine, when the drum 14 rolls and the wet laundry touches the electrode 24, the potential difference corresponding to the degree of wetness generated in the electrode 24 is detected to detect the laundry. The time when the drying ends is judged.

[0004]

In the drum type washer / dryer having the above-mentioned conventional structure, it is judged that the drying is completed when the moist laundry does not touch the electrode 24.

In practice, however, even if the surface of the clothes is dry, there are many cases where the exposed portions such as pockets are wet. In such a case, the conventional drum type washer / dryer cannot accurately detect the dryness.

If the laundry in the drum 14 is very small, the laundry may not come into contact with the electrodes and the completion of drying cannot be detected. Further, when there is a large amount of laundry in the drum 14, the dry air blown by the blower means 16 is circulated without being blown deep into the drum 14 because the laundry is blocked by the laundry. For this reason, the laundry located at the hot air outlet of the drum 14 is dried in a short time, and the laundry at the back is left in an undried state, which causes unevenness in drying.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the problems of the above conventional structure, and provides a drum type washer / dryer capable of detecting the completion of drying of the entire laundry in the drum. It has one purpose. A second object is to provide a drum type washer / dryer capable of performing accurate dry detection even if the amount of laundry changes. A third object is to provide a drum type washer / dryer capable of more accurately detecting the completion of drying.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A first means for achieving the first object of the present invention is to provide a drum for washing and drying laundry, a water tank containing the drum, and a laundry in the drum. Blower means and heating means for heating and drying, dehumidifying means for dehumidifying the dry air blown by the blowing means, water supply means for supplying water to the dehumidifying means, and first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature in the dehumidifying means. A drainage means for draining the liquefied water dehumidified by the dehumidifying means and the water supplied by the water supply means; a second temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the water drained by the draining means; An end is detected by a temperature data calculator that calculates the temperature difference from the data of the second temperature measuring means, an end condition determiner that determines the end of drying from the information of the temperature data calculator, and an end condition determiner. Sometimes finish drying It is an and a degree controller drum type washing and drying machine.

In addition to the structure of the first means of the present invention, the second means of the present invention for achieving the second object is to detect the amount of laundry based on the data obtained from the temperature data calculating section. The drum type washer / dryer includes an end condition correction unit that corrects the end condition.

A third means of the present invention for achieving the third object is to detect the state of the laundry from the data obtained from the temperature data calculating section in addition to the configuration of the first means of the present invention. The drum type washer / dryer is provided with a fuzzy inference unit for performing and correcting the termination condition.

[0011]

The first means of the present invention uses the difference between the temperature data obtained from the first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature in the dehumidifying means and the second temperature measuring means for measuring the drainage temperature,
The end condition determination unit acts to detect the end of drying.

Further, the second means of the present invention is such that the end condition correction unit makes a correction based on the amount of laundry, so that even if the amount of laundry changes, the end of drying can be accurately detected. is there.

Further, the third means of the present invention is such that the fuzzy inference section makes a correction depending on the state of the laundry, so that the fuzzy inference section acts to detect the completion of drying more accurately.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The construction of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 1 is a drum for washing, dehydrating and drying laundry. 2 is the drum 1
It is a water tank that contains. Reference numeral 3 denotes a blower for blowing dry air for drying the laundry in the drum 1, which is a blower fan. Reference numeral 4 is a heating unit constituted by a heater or the like that heats the dry air blown by the blowing unit 3 to an appropriate temperature to generate hot air. Dehumidifying means 5 acts to dehumidify the moisture by cooling the dry air which has become highly humid due to the moisture evaporated from the laundry as the laundry in the drum 1 is dried. In this embodiment, a water-cooling type dehumidifying means 5 is used. Reference numeral 6 is a water supply means composed of an electromagnetic valve or the like for supplying water to the dehumidification means 5. Reference numeral 7 is a first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature inside the dehumidifying means 5. Reference numeral 8 denotes a draining means for draining the water dehumidified and condensed by the dehumidifying means 5 and the water supplied by the water supplying means 6. Reference numeral 9 is a second temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the water drained by the draining means 6. Reference numeral 10 is a temperature data calculation unit that receives information from the first temperature measurement unit 7 and the second temperature measurement unit 9 and calculates the temperature difference between them. Reference numeral 11 denotes an end condition determination unit that determines the end of drying from the temperature difference calculated by the temperature data calculation unit 10. Reference numeral 12 is a process control unit that terminates the drying when the termination condition determination unit 11 detects the completion of the drying. Reference numeral 13 is a lid for opening and closing the opening of the drum 1 to throw in laundry.

In this embodiment, the first temperature measuring means 7
A thermistor is used as the second temperature measuring unit 9, and a microcomputer is used for the temperature data calculation unit 10, the end condition determination unit 11, and the stroke control unit 12.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below. When the laundry on the drum 1 is washed and the stroke control unit 12 starts the drying stroke, the blowing unit 3 and the heating unit 4 operate to heat the dry air for drying the laundry to an appropriate temperature and pass through the drum 1. Start the circulation. When the dry air passes through the drum 1, moisture is evaporated from the laundry to proceed with drying. Moisture evaporated from the laundry will be included in the dry air, and the dry air will be in a high humidity state. The high-humidity dry air is circulated through the dehumidifying means 5 to be cooled and dehumidified to be low temperature and low humidity. Dry air that has become low temperature and low humidity
The air is blown by the air blower 3 and heated to an appropriate temperature by the heater 4. The dry air, which became hot again,
The laundry is sent to the drum 1 to dry the laundry. The circulation of the dry air advances the drying of the laundry in the drum 1.

The operation of the dehumidifying means 5 will be described here. In the present embodiment, the dehumidifying means 5 uses a water-cooled heat exchanger. This utilizes the characteristic that the amount of saturated steam of air (the amount of steam that can be contained per unit volume) decreases as the temperature decreases. That is, the high-humidity dry air is brought into contact with the cooling water supplied by the water supply means 6 to lower the temperature of the dry air to reduce the saturated steam amount and condense and liquefy the supersaturated water. At this time, the energy that the dry air receives from the heating means 4 is
It is used for heat exchange in the form of latent heat of vaporization. Therefore, the cooling water is always given a certain amount of energy. Therefore, the temperature of the heat exchanger that constitutes the dehumidifying means 5 is
As long as the dry air contains a lot of water from the laundry,
It does not rise and remains constant. On the other hand, the cooling water used for heat exchange is newly supplied by the water supply means 6,
Since a constant amount of heat of liquefaction is always given, the temperature becomes constant.

The cooling water, which has been heat-exchanged with the dry air in the dehumidifying means 5 in this way, is drained by the draining means 8 through the inner wall of the water tank 2.

FIG. 2 shows the first temperature measuring means 7 at this time.
Shows the temperature change in the dehumidifying means 5 measured by the above, and the temperature change of the cooling water measured by the second temperature measuring means 9. Figure 2
As shown in, the temperature measured by the first temperature measuring means 7 and the temperature measured by the second temperature measuring means 9 change again after a certain period of time. This is because the heat exchange between the circulating air and the cooling water is no longer performed, and indicates that the laundry in the drum 1 has dried. In order to express this characteristic more strongly, FIG. 3 shows the time change of the temperature difference when the difference between the temperature of the first temperature measuring means 7 and the temperature of the second temperature measuring means 9 is taken. The temperature data calculation unit 10 determines the temperature difference equilibrium point as shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the operation of the temperature data calculator 10. First, in step 1, it is determined whether or not the equilibrium point has been determined, and if so, the termination condition determination unit 11 performs termination determination. If it has not been confirmed, the process proceeds to step 2. Step 2 is a step of avoiding an unstable time of the system immediately after the start of drying and waiting for a certain period of time to elapse. When this fixed time elapses, FIG.
As shown in, the temperature difference begins to drop steadily.
At this stage, go to step 3. Assuming that the time interval for measuring the temperature difference is 1 minute, for example, in step 3, it is determined whether or not the elapsed time from the previous measurement has reached this 1 minute. When this measurement time is reached, in step 4, the current temperature difference is measured. Further, in step 5, a difference from a provisionally set equilibrium point is taken to determine whether or not the difference is larger than a predetermined value of 0.5 deg, for example. If it is larger than the predetermined value, it is judged that the temperature difference is still falling, and step 6
The equilibrium point tentatively determined by is updated to the current temperature difference. If it is smaller than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step 7 and it is determined whether or not there is a temperature change within a predetermined time of, for example, 8 minutes.
If there is no change of 0.5deg even after the 8 minutes,
In step 8, the temporary equilibrium point is set as the equilibrium point. In this way, the termination condition determination unit 11 makes the temperature data calculation unit 1
From the equilibrium point determined to be 0, for example, it is determined whether or not the temperature corresponding to the dry detection temperature difference of 8 deg has risen. If this end condition is satisfied, the end condition determination unit 11 sends a dry end detection signal to the stroke control unit 12. Receiving this signal, the stroke control unit 12 stops the blower unit 3, the heating unit 4, and the water supply unit 6 to finish the drying.

As described above, in this embodiment, the data of the first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature in the dehumidifying means 5 and the data of the second temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of the water drained by the draining means 6 are used. Since the end of drying is determined by the calculation of the temperature data calculation unit 10 using this, it is possible to detect the end of drying of the laundry accurately.

Needless to say, it is possible to change the drying rate of the laundry at the end of drying by changing the setting of the temperature difference for detecting the drying.

Next, an embodiment of the second means of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same parts as those in the above embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted. In the present embodiment, the end condition correction unit 14 that determines the amount of cloth from the temperature data calculated by the temperature data calculation unit 10 and corrects the end condition is provided. Therefore, the end condition determination unit 11 detects the end of drying using the target value corrected by the end condition correction unit 14.

In this embodiment, a microcomputer is used as the end condition correction unit 14.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a temperature characteristic diagram showing changes in the temperature difference between the first temperature measuring means 7 and the second temperature measuring means 9 when the amount of laundry is different. As can be seen from this figure, when the amount of laundry in the drum 1 is different, the optimum drying detection temperature difference is different. Especially when the amount of laundry is very small (for example, if the dry capacity of the drum 1 is 2.5 kg,
When the amount of laundry is about 0.5 kg), the drying air is very easy to pass through, so that the drying efficiency is improved and this tendency becomes remarkable. That is, in order to detect the dryness more accurately, it is necessary to correct the difference in the dryness detection temperature depending on the amount of laundry. In this embodiment, the end condition correction unit 14 is configured as shown in FIG.
The amount of laundry is determined based on the length of the equilibrium point duration time T from the time when the temperature difference equilibrium point is established to the time when the temperature difference begins to rise as shown in FIG. That is, if the equilibrium point duration time T is shorter than a preset predetermined value of, for example, 8 minutes, it is determined that the amount of laundry is less than the standard amount. In this case, for example, the drying detection temperature difference is changed from 8 deg to 4 deg, and this information is sent to the termination condition determination unit 11. That is, the setting of the dryness detection temperature difference is corrected according to the difference from the predetermined value. In this way, the end condition determination unit 11 executes the dry detection using the corrected dry detection temperature difference.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the end condition correction unit 14 corrects the setting of the dry detection temperature difference in accordance with the amount of laundry, so that even if the amount of laundry changes, it is accurate. The end of drying can be detected.

Next, an embodiment of the third means of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same parts as those in the above embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof is omitted. In the present embodiment, the state of the laundry is judged from the temperature data calculated by the temperature data calculator 10 and a drying end detection target value (hereinafter simply referred to as a dry detection target value) for correcting the drying end condition is output. A fuzzy inference unit 15 is provided. Therefore, the end condition determination unit 11 detects the end of drying using the dry detection target value output by the fuzzy inference unit 15.

In this embodiment, a microcomputer is used as the fuzzy inference unit 15.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 8 to 11. FIG. 8 shows the first temperature measuring means 7 and the second temperature measuring means when the amount of laundry and the water content contained in the laundry before drying (hereinafter simply referred to as water content before drying) are changed. 9 is a temperature characteristic diagram showing a change in temperature difference of No. 9. As can be seen from the temperature difference changes in FIGS. 8A and 8B, when the water content before drying and the laundry amount are different, the optimum drying detection temperature difference is different. Therefore, in order to detect the dry end more accurately, it is necessary to correct the dry detection target value by the parameters indicating the water content before drying and the laundry amount. However, the relationship between pre-drying water content, laundry content and optimum dry sensing temperature difference is very complicated and model identification is very difficult. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the dry detection target value is inferred by fuzzy inference that can easily express the relationship between complicated parameters.

Here, as parameters highly correlated with the water content before drying and parameters highly correlated with the laundry amount,
The equilibrium duration T shown in FIG. 8 and the post-equilibrium temperature difference increase gradient θ indicating the temperature difference increase gradient after the temperature difference reaches the equilibrium are respectively adopted, and this information is obtained by the calculation of the temperature data calculation unit 10. I have to. Based on the data obtained here, the fuzzy inference unit 15 uses, for example, an inference rule that "if the equilibrium continuation time is long and the gradient after equilibration is small, the dry detection target value is large", Is determined as the drying detection temperature difference and is sent to the end condition determination unit 11.

FIG. 9 shows the structure of the fuzzy inference. The membership function and rule table used are shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, respectively.

The end condition determination unit 11 executes the dry detection using the corrected dry detection temperature difference.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the fuzzy inference unit determines the state of the laundry and infers the drying end target value according to the state of the laundry, so that it is more accurate. It is possible to detect dryness.

[0034]

The first means of the present invention is to wash and wash laundry.
A drum to be dried, a water tank containing the drum, a blowing unit / heating unit for heating and drying the laundry in the drum, a dehumidifying unit for dehumidifying the dry air blown by the blowing unit, and a water supplying unit for supplying water to the dehumidifying unit. A first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature in the dehumidifying means, a draining means for draining the water dehumidified and liquefied by the dehumidifying means and the water supplied by the water supplying means, and the draining means for discharging the water. Second temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature of water, a temperature data calculating section for calculating a temperature difference from the data of the first and second temperature measuring means, and judgment of completion of drying from information of the temperature data calculating section An end condition determination unit for performing the above, and a stroke control unit for ending the drying when the end condition determination unit detects the end, can accurately detect the end of drying of the entire laundry in the drum. Those capable of providing a ram type washing and drying machine.

A second means of the present invention is, in addition to the configuration of the first means of the present invention, an end condition correction unit for detecting the amount of laundry and correcting the end condition from the data obtained from the temperature data calculation unit. As a provided structure, the present invention provides a drum type washer / dryer capable of accurately detecting dryness even when the amount of laundry changes.

A third means of the present invention is, in addition to the configuration of the first means of the present invention, a fuzzy reasoning section for detecting the state of the laundry and correcting the ending condition from the data obtained from the temperature data calculating section. It is possible to provide a drum type washer / dryer capable of performing accurate dryness detection regardless of the state of the laundry as a configuration including.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a drum type washer / dryer showing an embodiment of the first means of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing characteristics of temperatures detected by the first temperature measuring means and the second temperature measuring means.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing characteristics of the same temperature difference.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the temperature data calculation unit.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a drum type washer / dryer showing an embodiment of the second means of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a difference in temperature characteristics depending on the amount of laundry.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a drum type washer / dryer showing an embodiment of the third means of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a difference in temperature characteristics depending on a state of the laundry.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of the fuzzy inference.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the membership function.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing the rule table.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a conventional drum type washer / dryer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Drum 2 Water Tank 3 Blower Means 4 Heating Means 5 Dehumidifying Means 6 Water Supply Means 7 First Temperature Measuring Means 8 Drainage Means 9 Second Temperature Measuring Means 10 Temperature Data Calculator 11 End Condition Judgment Unit 12 Process Control Part 14 End Conditions Correction unit 15 Fuzzy inference unit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shuji Abe 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A drum for washing / drying laundry, a water tank containing the drum, a blowing unit / heating unit for heating and drying the laundry in the drum, and a dehumidifying unit for dehumidifying the dry air blown by the blowing unit. A water supply means for supplying water to the dehumidifying means, a first temperature measuring means for measuring the temperature inside the dehumidifying means, water dehumidified and liquefied by the dehumidifying means, and water supplied by the water supplying means. A drainage means, a second temperature measurement means for measuring the temperature of the water drained by the drainage means, a temperature data calculation section for calculating a temperature difference from the data of the first and second temperature measurement means, and a temperature A drum type washer / dryer, comprising: an end condition determination unit that determines the end of drying based on information from a data calculation unit; and a stroke control unit that ends the drying when the end condition determination unit detects the end. 2. The drum type washer / dryer according to claim 1, further comprising an end condition correction unit that detects the amount of laundry and corrects the end condition from the data obtained from the temperature data calculation unit. 3. The drum type washer / dryer according to claim 1, further comprising a fuzzy inference unit that detects the state of the laundry and corrects the ending condition from the data obtained from the temperature data calculation unit.