JPH0647195A - Drum type clothes drier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a drum type clothes drier capable of preventing irregular drying regardless of the quantity of the clothes to be dried and capable of improving the drying efficiency. CONSTITUTION:The circulation path of the drying air heated by a heater 17 is divided into two duct medium sections 15b, 15d by a horizontal guide plate 30 vertically moved by a solenoid 22. When a large quantity is to be dried, the guide plate 20 is moved downward by the solenoid 22 to increase the flow of the drying air flowing to the center section in a drum 7 through the upper medium section 15b and duct upper section 15c of a duct 15. When a small quantity is to be dried, the guide plate 20 is moved upward to concentrate the drying air fed into the drum 7 from the lower medium section 15d near the inner face section of the peripheral wall of the drum 7.

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 clothes storage drum having an intake port and an exhaust port, an air circulation duct provided outside the drum, and this duct. The present invention relates to the structure of a drum type clothes dryer including an air heating heater provided inside.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a drum type clothes dryer is generally known. Hereinafter, the clothes dryer will be described with reference to the overall configuration diagram of FIG. 3 and the perspective view of FIG.

Reference numeral 1 is an outer box. On the front side of the outer box 1, there are provided a circular clothes insertion port 2 for inserting clothes and a door 3 for opening and closing the clothes insertion port 2. Further, a door packing 4 having elasticity is attached to a peripheral portion of the clothes insertion port 2 in order to seal a gap between the clothes insertion port 2 and the door 3. 5 is an inlet packing,
This is for sealing the gap between the outer box 1 and the drum support plate 6.

A clothing storage drum 7 is provided in the outer box 1. The drum 7 is rotatably supported by a horizontal drum shaft 8 provided on the back side thereof, and is rotationally driven by a belt 9 wound around the outer circumference. 10
Is a motor for driving the drum 7.

An exhaust port 11 for discharging the air in the drum 7 is formed at the rear of the side wall on the back side of the drum 7, and also collects thread waste and cotton dust generated in the drum 7. A dust collecting filter 12 is provided.

A heat exchange fan 13 is provided coaxially with the drum shaft 8. The heat exchanging fan 13 exhausts the air in the drum 7 from the exhaust port 11 and exchanges heat between the exhausted air and the air outside the machine to cool and dehumidify the exhausted air. A fan casing 14 is provided around the heat exchange fan 13.

Reference numeral 15 is an air circulation duct connected to the exhaust port 11 of the drum 7 via the fan casing 14. The duct 15 is provided so as to extend from the rear surface of the drum 7 to the front surface of the drum 7 through the lower side of the drum 7, and the outlet thereof is the hot air intake port 1 on the front surface of the drum 7.
Connected to 6.

Reference numeral 17 is an air heating heater provided near the outlet in the duct 15. The heater 17 heats the air passing through the duct 15 and supplies warm air into the drum 7. 18 is a fan casing 1
4 is a sliding part of the fan 13.

The operation of the clothes dryer having such a configuration will be described. For damp clothes, open the door 3 and open the clothes inlet 2.
Is put in the drum 7. Here, when the clothes dryer is driven, the drum 7 rotates and the fan 13 also rotates. Then, the air that has passed through the heater 17 and has become hot hot air is introduced into the drum 7. Then the clothes
Tumbled by baffle 19 in drum 7,
It is dried by coming into contact with the supplied warm air.

The air that has become humid during the drying process is transferred to the drum 7
It is discharged from the back surface of and is introduced into the duct 15. Also,
By contacting the fan 13, it is cooled and dehumidified into low humidity air. Then, the drum 17 is heated again by the heater 17
Supplied within. The above cycle is repeated to perform drying.

[0011]

As described above, the heater for heating the air is generally arranged at a position facing the lower front portion of the drum. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the hot air when drying a relatively large amount of clothes is
When it is sucked by the heat exchange fan, it flows through the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum to the exhaust port while staying in the vicinity of the intake port by the rotation of the drum and the tumbling by the baffle. Further, due to tumbling for a long time, the clothes at the center of the drum are highly entangled and twisted with each other. Therefore, as for the dry state of the clothes, it is difficult to dry near the central part (A zone) of the drum in FIG.
There were also many drying irregularities.

On the contrary, when the amount of clothes in the drum is relatively small, the air in the drum flows straight from the central portion of the drum to the exhaust port, so that the heated high temperature air is wasted a lot and the drying efficiency is high. There is a problem that not only the running cost decreases, but also the running cost increases.

In order to solve such inconvenience, the flow of hot air may be controlled and circulated depending on the amount of clothes to be dried. From such an idea, in the fully automatic washer / dryer disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 58-794, the end surface of the door glass is inclined so that the hot air is concentratedly supplied to the lower part of the drum. It is like this.

However, the invention disclosed in the above publication relates to a fully automatic washer / dryer, and since the circulating air passage and the entire structure are different from those of the clothes dryer, the above problems have not been solved.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to prevent drying unevenness regardless of the amount of clothes to be dried and to improve drying efficiency. Another object of the present invention is to provide a drum type clothes dryer capable of reducing running costs.

[0016]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to an outer box, a clothes storage drum rotatably supported inside the outer box and having an intake port and an exhaust port, and an outer side of the drum inside the outer box. An air circulation duct provided in, a heater for heating the air provided in the duct, and drying air heated by the heater is introduced from the intake port into the drum to dry the clothes. In a drum type clothes dryer provided with a heat exchange fan that discharges from the exhaust port to the outside of the drum and circulates again to the inside of the drum through the duct, between the heater in the duct and the intake port of the drum,
The drum type clothes dryer is characterized in that a guide plate for distributing and flowing the drying air in a lower direction and a central direction in the drum is provided.

That is, the drum-type clothes dryer according to the present invention is provided with a guide plate between the heater in the duct and the intake port of the drum, and the guide plate allows the drying air to be directed downward and in the center of the drum. The gist is that it is divided into parts and flows.

More preferably, the position of the guide plate is changed by the position changing means for flowing the drying air in the lower direction and the central direction in the drum at an arbitrary flow rate. As this position changing means, for example, a solenoid or a motor is used.

[0019]

The position changing means allows the position of the guide plate to be changed freely. When the dry amount measured by the dry amount detecting means for detecting the dry amount (the amount of clothes to be dried) is large, the air for drying is increased toward the center of the drum. On the contrary, when the dry amount is small, the drying air in the lower direction in the drum is increased. In this way, uneven drying is reduced and the optimum drying operation for clothes is performed.

As an example of the dry amount detecting means, there is a method of measuring the change of the load current value to the motor depending on the dry amount and calculating the dry amount by the calculation processing based on the change.
Based on the result detected by such a method, the guide plate between the heater and the intake port is moved in the predetermined direction by an arbitrary amount.

That is, if the dry amount is large, the guide plate is lowered by a solenoid or a motor. Then, a large amount of air heated by passing through the heater flows to the central portion in the drum. On the contrary, if the dry amount is small, raise the guide plate. Then, a large amount of the air flows downward in the drum and moves along the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum.

[0022]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. The present invention is not limited to this. In this embodiment, the same parts as in the prior art are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted or simplified.

In the outer box 1, a drum 7 which is rotatably supported and accommodates clothes to be dried is pivotally supported. The circulation path of the drying air heated by the air heating heater 17 is divided into two duct intermediate portions 15b and 15d by a horizontal guide plate 20 vertically moved by a solenoid 22 as a position changing means. That is, the duct 15 includes the duct lower portion 15a and the duct intermediate portions 15b and 15
It has d and the duct upper part 15c. The duct intermediate portions 15b and 15d are further divided into a lower intermediate portion 15d and an upper intermediate portion 15b.

The lower portion 15a of the duct is a portion extending from the lower side of the drum 7 to the lower front portion. The lower intermediate portion 15d is guided by the guide plate 20 after the air rising in the lower duct portion 15a is heated by the heater 17 and then guided by the guide plate 2
It is a part to be introduced into the drum 7 from below 0. The upper intermediate portion 15b is provided with the guide plate 2 after the air rising in the duct lower portion 15a is heated by the heater 17.
It is a part that is guided by 0 and flows upward.

The duct upper portion 15c is provided inside the door 3 by utilizing its thickness. This duct upper part 15c
When the door 3 is closed, the duct upper middle portion 15b
Is a part for the air that has risen to flow into and then be introduced into the drum 7. The upper middle portion 15b and the duct upper portion 15c of the duct 15 are divided to open and close the door 3, but when the door 3 is closed, the duct packing 23 seals.

The air flowing through the upper middle portion 15b of the duct 15 is introduced from the upper middle portion 15b through the duct upper portion 15c toward the center of the drum 7. Then, the clothes in the center of the drum 7 are dried. On the other hand, duct 1
The air flowing through the lower middle portion 15d of the drum 5 is introduced below the drum 7. Then, the clothes near the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum 7 are dried.

Duct upper part 15c and lower middle part 15d
The humid air introduced from the inside into the drum 7 to dehumidify the clothes is discharged from the drum 7 by the suction action of the heat exchange fan 13 and collected in the exhaust port 11. Then, after the heat is exchanged by the fan 13 to become low-humidity air, the cycle of circulating the air from the lower part 15a of the duct to the heater 17 is repeated.

The operating portion of the guide plate 20 is the drum support plate 6
It is provided in a guide plate case 21 which is fixed to and has a sliding portion of the guide plate 20. The solenoid 22 as a position changing means for operating the guide plate 20 is fixed to the guide plate case 21.

In the dry air circulation path as described above, when the dry amount detected by the dry amount detecting means is large,
The guide plate 20 is moved downward by the solenoid 22. Then, as described above, the upper middle portion 15 of the duct 15
The flow rate of the drying air flowing to the central portion in the drum 7 through b and the duct upper portion 15c is increased. This prevents uneven drying of the clothes. On the contrary, when the dry amount is small, the guide plate 20 is moved upward so that the drying air entering the drum 7 from the lower intermediate portion 15d of the duct 15 is concentrated near the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum 7.

[0030]

According to the drum type clothes dryer of the present invention, as described above, the high temperature drying air heated by the heater is adjusted to the central portion and the lower portion (lower) depending on the amount of clothes to be dried. It can be distributed at a set flow rate to the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the drum). Therefore, not only the occurrence of uneven drying, which is a drawback of the conventional clothes dryer, can be eliminated, but also the drying efficiency can be improved and the running cost can be reduced. Further, since the drying air contacts the respective clothes almost evenly, it is possible to reduce the damage to the cloth.

[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 an explanatory view of a main part configuration of the drum type clothes dryer.

FIG. 3 is an overall configuration explanatory view of a conventional drum type clothes dryer.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the drum type clothes dryer.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow state of circulating air when the clothes of the drum type clothes dryer have a large capacity.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Outer Box 2 Clothing Inlet 3 Door 4 Door Packing 5 Inlet Packing 6 Drum Support Plate 7 Drum 8 Drum Shaft 9 Belt 10 Motor 11 Exhaust Port 13 Heat Exchange Fan 14 Fan Casing 15 Duct 16 Inlet 17 Heater 18 Sliding Part 19 Baffle 20 Guide plate 21 Guide plate case 22 Solenoid (position changing means)

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Noriaki Miyoshi 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Within Sharp Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yuji Onishi 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An outer box, a clothes storage drum that is rotatably supported inside the outer box and has an intake port and an exhaust port, and an air circulation duct provided inside the outer box and outside the drum. And an air heating heater provided inside this duct, and drying air heated by this heater is introduced into the inside of the drum from the intake port, and while the clothes are being dried, the drying air is introduced from the exhaust port to the outside of the drum. In a drum type clothes dryer equipped with a heat exchange fan that discharges and circulates again through the duct to the inside of the drum, drying air is blown between the heater in the duct and the intake port of the drum in the lower part of the drum. A drum type clothes dryer, characterized in that it is provided with a guide plate for distributing and flowing in the direction of the center and in the direction of the central portion. 2. The position of the guide plate is changed by a position changing means for causing the drying air to flow at an arbitrary flow rate in a lower direction and a central direction in the drum. Drum type clothes dryer.