JPH07178292A - Clothes drying machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately detect drying of clothes and to improve durability of a thermistor, etc., by disposing the thermistor or thermocouples on the air discharge side of a heat exchanger for cooling of a clothes drying machine and covering the thermosensitive part with a water absorptive film. CONSTITUTION:This clothes drying machine of a dehumidification type cools air contg. steam discharged in a process for drying clothes to dehumidify the air and utilizes the, air for drying again after heating the dehumidified air. In such a case, the thermistor or thermocouple 17 is disposed on the air discharge side of the heat exchanger for cooling of the clothes drying machine. A heat sensitive part 18 of the thermistor 17, etc., is covered with a water absorptive film 19. The temp. change value of the water drops which splash from the air discharge side and stick to the heat sensitive part 18 is read by a control circuit which detects drying. Namely, the drying state of the clothes is directly and accurately detected by reading the (wet bulb) temp. of the water drops sticking to the thermistor 17, etc., and the constitution is simplified, by which the parts to be broken are eliminated and the durability is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a so-called dehumidifying type clothes dryer for home use.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional method for automatically detecting the end of drying of a dehumidifying type clothes dryer is to mainly measure the temperature change of an intake / exhaust part of a blower fan using a thermistor or a humidity sensor. Was used to measure the humidity changes in the intake and exhaust sections.

[0003]

The former is a method of indirectly determining the degree of dryness by measuring the temperature change of the intake / exhaust portion of the blower fan, which has a drawback that the accuracy of dryness detection is not good. The latter uses a humidity sensor to measure the degree of dryness directly, so the accuracy of dryness detection is good, but the humidity sensor usually has a poor durability because it uses a plastic thin film whose resistance value changes with humidity. There was a flaw.

Therefore, there is a demand for the development of a detection system which has high accuracy in detecting the dryness and is durable.

[0005]

In order to solve this problem, the present invention provides a thermistor or a thermocouple (hereinafter referred to as a thermistor) on the air discharge side of a cooling heat exchanger of a so-called dehumidifying type clothes dryer. ) Is provided, the heat sensitive part of this thermistor is covered with a water absorbing film, and the temperature change value of water droplets scattered from the air discharge side and adhering to the heat sensitive part is read by the control circuit to detect drying. It is a machine.

That is, since the water droplets scattered from the discharge side adhere to the water-absorbing film on the heat-sensitive part of the thermistor, the thermistor measures the wet-bulb temperature. Therefore, when the clothes are dried, the water droplets are not scattered, the water-absorbent film on the heat-sensitive part of the thermistor is dried, and the thermistor measures the dry-bulb temperature, and the measured temperature rises. It is a clothes dryer that detects the temperature change value by the control circuit and detects the drying.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the water vapor discharged in the process of drying clothes is cooled by the cooling heat exchanger to form dew condensation water which is scattered from the air discharge side of the heat exchanger. Water droplets adhere to the thermistor covered with the water absorbing film provided on the air discharge side.

Therefore, the temperature of the water droplets attached to the thermistor, that is, the wet-bulb temperature is read by the control circuit. However, when the clothes are dried, the water droplets are not scattered and the water-absorbent film of the heat-sensitive part of the thermistor Is dried, the thermistor will measure the dry-bulb temperature, and the measured temperature rises. The temperature change value is read by the control circuit to detect dryness.

[0009]

1 is a sectional view of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a thermistor for detecting dryness of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is likewise a circuit diagram of the electrical connection of the thermistor. Similarly, FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of the clothes dryer. FIG. 5 is a characteristic curve diagram showing changes in temperature (or voltage) of the thermistor during the drying operation.

1, 2, 3, and 4, the clothes drying drum 1 is rotationally driven by a motor 2, a pulley 3, and a belt 4. Double-wing fan 5 that also functions as a heat exchanger that cools and dehumidifies the air b that has become hot and humid due to drying of clothes
Is a motor 2, a fan pulley 6, a fan pulley 7,
It is rotationally driven by the fan belt 8. Circulation wind tunnel 9
Forms a path for sending the circulating air c on the exhaust side of the double-blade fan 5 and the circulating air d to the heater 10. Heater 10
The air a heated by the clothes 1 in the clothes drying drum 1
1 is dried to become hot and humid air b, and the two-blade fan 5
After being discharged into the cooling and dehumidifying air c through the circulation wind tunnel 9 and discharging the dehumidified water (condensation water) from the discharge port 15, it becomes the circulating air d, passes through the heater 10, and becomes the heated air a to be dried. Enter the drum 1. By repeating this, the clothes 11 are dried. The air on the cooling side of the double-blade fan 5 passes through the intake hole 12 and the double-blade fan 5 and is discharged from the exhaust hole 13. A controller 14 automatically controls the operation of the clothes dryer. 16 is a door of the clothes insertion port. In the circulation wind tunnel 9 on the exhaust side of the double-bladed fan 5, the thermistor 17
1, the circulating air b is cooled by the double-blade fan 5 to become the circulating air c containing water droplets, and the condensed water droplets scatter and adhere to the thermistor 17. As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the thermistor 17 has a heat sensitive portion 18 coated with a water absorbing coating 19 as shown in FIG. 20 is a lead wire of the terminal.

Next, the operation will be described. When the clothes after washing are put into the clothes dryer of the present invention and the controller 14 is turned on, the clothes dryer starts a drying operation, and the air a heated by the heater 10 is blown into the drying drum 1 to After drying 11 and becoming humid, the air b enters the suction side of the double-blade fan 5 and is cooled and dehumidified.
The air c containing water droplets is discharged to the circulation wind tunnel 9. The discharged air c is heated again through the circulation wind tunnel 9 and the heater 10 and enters the clothes drying drum 1 to dry the clothes 11. By repeating this, the drying operation proceeds. At this time, the air c containing water drops hits the thermistor 17, and the temperature of the thermistor 17 drops to the wet bulb temperature due to the water drops attached. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, dehumidification has not started yet for about 10 to 20 minutes during the beginning of the drying operation, and thus the temperature of the thermistor 17 is high without splashing of water drops, but the clothes are wet thereafter. Since water droplets adhere to the thermistor 17 during the interval, the temperature remains low between points A and B.
When the clothes are dried and water droplets start to decrease, the temperature (or voltage) measured value of the thermistor 17 is shown in FIG.
Begins to rise from point B to point P.

Therefore, if the temperature rise from point B to point P is detected and controlled by the controller 14, automatic drying can be completed.

Although the embodiment of the present invention shows a double-blade fan type dehumidifying clothes dryer, it can be applied to a dehumidifying clothes dryer using an aluminum fin type heat exchanger.

[0014]

As in the above embodiments, the thermistor for detecting water droplets is provided on the air discharge side of the cooling heat exchanger of the dehumidification type clothes dryer, and the dry condition of the clothes is attached to the thermistor. Since the (wet bulb) temperature of the water droplets is read and the dryness is detected directly, the dryness detection accuracy is much higher than the method that measures the temperature change of the intake and exhaust parts of the blower fan using a conventional thermistor. Get better In addition, because the thermistor with a simple water-absorbing coating is used for the sensor part, the structure is simple and there is no breakage part, and durability is extremely good compared to the conventional humidity sensor whose resistance value changes with humidity. .

Further, since the temperature change value of the thermistor is converted into a voltage and outputted, control by an electronic circuit is easy.

In the clothes dryness detecting means, the dryness of the clothes and the change in the temperature measurement value of the thermistor are directly compared with each other, so that the algorithm of the dryness detection control circuit becomes extremely simple and It has a number of effects, such as reduction of the design man-hours of the detection control circuit and cost reduction at the same time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a thermistor for drying detection of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of an electric connection portion of a thermistor of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of a clothes dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a characteristic curve diagram showing changes in the temperature measurement value (or voltage) of the thermistor during the drying operation of the clothes dryer according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Clothes Drying Drum 2 Motor 3 Pulley 4 Belt 5 Wing Fan 6 Fan Pulley 7 Fan Pulley 8 Fan Belt 9 Circulating Wind Tunnel 10 Heater 11 Clothes 12 Intake Hole 13 Exhaust Hole 14 Controller 15 Exhaust Port 16 Door 17 Thermistor or Thermocouple 18 Thermosensitive Part 19 Water absorbing coating

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

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A so-called dehumidification type clothes dryer which cools air containing water vapor discharged in the process of drying clothes to dehumidify, heats the dehumidified air, and then reuses it for drying. Provide a thermistor or thermocouple on the air discharge side of the cooling heat exchanger of the clothes dryer, cover the heat-sensitive part of this thermistor or thermocouple with a water-absorbing film, and scatter from the air discharge side to adhere to the heat-sensitive part. A clothes dryer characterized in that a temperature change value of water droplets is read by a control circuit to detect drying. 2. The clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein the thermosensitive part of the thermistor or the thermocouple is covered with a water absorbent non-woven cloth bag. 3. The clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein the heat-sensitive part of the thermistor or thermocouple is coated with a water-absorbing polymer. 4. The clothes dryer enters a steady operation, and water droplets scattered and discharged from the air discharge side of the cooling heat exchanger are attached to the heat-sensitive part of the thermistor or thermocouple to lower the temperature of the heat-sensitive part once. The clothes dryer according to claim 1, wherein the clothes are dried, water drops in the heat-sensitive portion are evaporated, and the temperature of the heat-sensitive portion rises again is read by the control circuit to detect the dryness.