KR100633156B1 - Drum washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a drum washing machine that can improve the drying efficiency by heat-exchanging the internal air discharged from the drum through the heat exchanger and the external air sucked into the drum.

Drum washing machine according to the present invention, the drum 20; An exhaust duct 30 installed in communication with the drum 20 and discharging the internal air of the drum 20 to the outside; An intake duct 40 which is installed in communication with the drum 20 and sucks the outside air into the drum 20 so as to cross the flow direction of the inside air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 30; Connected to the exhaust duct 30 and the intake duct 40, the drum 20 of the drum 20 through the first passage 52 and the intake duct 40 through which internal air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 30 passes. A heat exchanger (50) formed to intersect the second flow passage (54) through which external air sucked into the interior; It is installed in communication with the first flow path 52 of the heat exchanger 50, and comprises a humidity control member 90 for lowering the humidity of the air passing through the first flow path (52). Accordingly, not only can the drying efficiency be more improved, but the internal air discharged to the outside can be discharged to the room without discharging to the outside of the building, thereby reducing the installation cost.

Drum, exhaust duct, intake duct, heat exchanger, humidity control member, temperature control fan

Description

Drum Washing Machine {DRUM WASHING MACHINE}             

1 is a configuration diagram schematically showing a conventional drum washing machine,

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing a drum washing machine according to the present invention,

3 is a state diagram showing the flow direction of the internal air and the external air passing through the heat exchanger and the temperature control member of the drum washing machine according to the present invention,

Figure 4 is an enlarged perspective view showing the heat exchanger structure of the drum washing machine according to the present invention,

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the temperature control member of the drum washing machine according to the present invention,

Figure 6 is a schematic diagram showing a state provided with a temperature control fan in the drum washing machine according to the present invention.

            <Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

            20 drum 22 air outlet

            24: air intake port 30: exhaust duct

            40: intake duct 50: heat exchanger

            52: first euro 54: second euro

            60: fan 70: heater

            80: internal circulation duct 90: humidity control member

            92: temperature control fan

The present invention relates to a drum washing machine, and more particularly, to a drum washing machine to heat exchange the internal air discharged from the drum and the external air sucked into the drum to improve the drying efficiency.

In general, a drum washing machine is a type of washing machine that uses a small amount of water to rotate the washing tank repeatedly by 360 degrees to wash the laundry from the top to the bottom, and not only to wash the laundry but also to rinse, dehydrate and dry the laundry. It has a function.

The drum washing machine is classified into a circulation drying method for drying laundry by circulating internal air discharged from the drum and a non-cyclic drying method for drying laundry by sucking external air into the drum.

Conventional acyclic drying drum washing machine as shown in Figure 1, the drum (1); An intake duct 2 for sucking outside air into the drum 1; A circulation fan 3 provided at one side of the intake duct 2 to guide external air into the drum 1; A heater 4 for heating external air sucked into the intake duct 2; An exhaust duct 5 for discharging the internal air of the drum 1 that has been dried to the outside; And a heat exchanger (6) for heat-exchanging external air and internal air passing through the intake duct (2) and the exhaust duct (5).

Such a drum washing machine has the advantage of not only reducing the power consumption of the heater 4 by increasing the temperature of the external air sucked into the drum 1, but also lowering the temperature of the internal air discharged to the outside. It is disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2000-0059274.

However, the drum washing machine as described above has a structure in which the intake duct 2 and the exhaust duct 5 passing through the heat exchanger 6 are arranged in parallel with each other so that the flow direction of air is opposite to each other. There is a limit to maximize the heat exchange efficiency between the outside air and the internal air through.

In addition, the temperature and humidity of the internal air discharged to the outside is relatively high compared to the temperature and humidity of the external air existing in the room. Therefore, even if the temperature and humidity of the internal air is somewhat lowered in the process of passing through the heat exchanger, it is somewhat unreasonable to discharge it directly into the room.

The present invention was created to solve the above problems, and the object of the present invention is to provide a drum washing machine that can maximize heat exchange efficiency and minimize the temperature and humidity of the internal air discharged to the outside. .

The present invention to achieve the above object, the drum; An exhaust duct installed in communication with the drum and discharging the internal air of the drum to the outside; An intake duct installed in communication with the drum and sucking external air into the drum to intersect a flow direction of the internal air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct; A first flow passage connected to the exhaust duct and the intake duct, through which the first air passing through the exhaust duct passes, and a second flow passage through which the outside air sucked into the drum through the intake duct passes; A heat exchanger formed to intersect; Installed in communication with the first flow path of the heat exchanger, characterized in that it comprises a humidity control member for lowering the humidity of the air passing through the first flow path.

The humidity control member is preferably made of a porous material.

The humidity control member is installed in communication with the heat exchanger, the casing is open one side; It is preferable to include a filler that is filled so that air can pass through the casing.

Blowing from the rear of the heat exchanger, it may further include a temperature control fan for lowering the temperature of the internal air discharged to the outside through the heat exchanger.

It is preferable that the first flow path and the second flow path are provided in plural numbers, and are alternately arranged.

It is preferable that the first passage and the second passage each have a cross section of a wave shape.

Preferably, the first flow path and the second flow path include an aluminum material.

It may further include an internal circulation duct installed in communication with the exhaust duct and the intake duct, the internal circulation duct to smoothly maintain the flow of the internal air passing through the heat exchanger.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in Figure 2, the drum washing machine according to the present invention and the drum (20); An exhaust duct 30 installed in communication with the drum 20 and discharging the internal air of the drum 20 to the outside; An intake duct 40 which is installed in communication with the drum 20 and sucks the outside air into the drum 20 so as to cross the flow direction of the inside air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 30; The heat exchanger 50 is connected to the exhaust duct 30 and the intake duct 40 and exchanges heat between the internal air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 30 and the external air sucked into the interior through the intake duct 40. )Wow; It is provided at the rear of the heat exchanger 50, and comprises a humidity control member 90 for reducing the humidity of the air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 30 and the heat exchanger (50).

The drum 20 is provided with an air outlet 22 and an air inlet 24 connected to the exhaust duct 30 and the intake duct 40, respectively.

One end of the exhaust duct 30 is installed in communication with the air outlet 22 of the drum 20, the other end is installed in communication with the heat exchanger (50). One end of the intake duct 40 is installed in communication with the air inlet 24 of the drum 20, and the other end thereof is installed in communication with the heat exchanger 50.

The intake duct 40 is provided with a fan 60 and a heater 70 for drying the laundry after the laundry dewatering operation in the drum 20 is completed. The fan 60 sucks external air into the intake duct 40 to blow air toward the heater 70, and the heater 70 heats the air blown by the fan 60.

Therefore, the air blown by the fan 60 is heated by the heater 70 while passing through the intake duct 40, and then flows into the drum 20 through the air inlet 24 of the drum 20. As a result, the laundry can be dried by heating. The internal air generated during the drying process of the laundry is introduced into the exhaust duct 30 through the air outlet 24 of the drum 20, and the internal air introduced into the exhaust duct 30 passes through the heat exchanger 50. Heat exchanged with external air introduced into the heat exchanger 50 from the outside in the process is converted into low-temperature air is discharged to the outside. In addition, the outside air is heat-exchanged with the internal air passing through the heat exchanger 50, converted into high temperature air, and introduced into the drum 20 through the intake duct 40.

The heat exchanger 50 is formed so that the air flow path through which the internal air and the external air pass so as to increase the heat exchange efficiency. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, the outside sucked into the drum 20 through the first passage 52 and the intake duct 40 through which the internal air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 30 passes. The second flow passage 52 through which air passes is formed to intersect.

Therefore, it is possible to convert the hot air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct 30 to a low temperature and to convert the low temperature air sucked into the inside through the intake duct 40 to a high temperature.

The plurality of first flow passages 52 and the second flow passages 54 of the heat exchanger 50 are each provided in plural and have a structure in which they are alternately stacked. The first flow path 52 and the second flow path 54 each have a corrugated cross section and preferably include an aluminum material having excellent heat transfer.

The shape and material of the first flow path 52 and the second flow path 54 may be variously changed as necessary within the range in which the flow directions of the internal air and the external air cross.

On the other hand, when adopting the heat exchanger 50 structure as described herein, there is a possibility that the internal pressure is increased by the pressure loss generated when the internal air of the drum 20 passes through the heat exchanger (50). In order to prevent this, it is preferable that the internal circulation duct 80 is installed to communicate with the exhaust duct 30 and the intake duct 40 so as to smoothly maintain the flow of the internal air passing through the heat exchanger 50.

The amount of internal air introduced into the inner circulation duct 80 may be appropriately adjusted by adjusting the diameter or forming the interference protrusion, and the inner circulation duct 80 may utilize a condensation duct installed in the existing drum washing machine.

The humidity control member 90 is installed in communication with the first flow path 52 of the heat exchanger 50, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, and discharges through the first flow path 52 of the heat exchanger 50 to the outside. It lowers the humidity of the internal air.

The humidity control member 90 may remove moisture contained in the internal air discharged to the outside through the heat exchanger 50. Therefore, it is possible to discharge the air having a humidity almost similar to the indoor air, so that it is possible to discharge to the room, not outside the building.

The structure of the humidity control member 90 may be variously changed within a range capable of lowering the humidity of the internal air discharged to the outside through the first passage 52 of the heat exchanger 50. For example, as shown in Figure 5 is installed in communication with the heat exchanger 50, the casing 92, one side is open; The casing 92 may be configured to include a filler 94 filled to allow air to pass therethrough. Therefore, moisture is removed while the internal air discharged to the outside passes through the space between the fillers 94.

The casing 92 has a plurality of air vents 91 formed at one side of the casing 92 so that internal air passing through the space between the fillers 94 may be discharged to the outside. The position of the air vent 91 can be variously changed as necessary.

The humidity control member 90 may itself be configured to include a porous material.

And, as shown in Figure 6, by installing a temperature control fan 92 at the rear of the heat exchanger 50 to blow toward the heat exchanger 50 of the internal air discharged to the outside through the heat exchanger (50) It is possible to lower the temperature. The structure of the temperature control fan 92 may be selectively applied to a known type.

As described above, according to the present invention, the heat exchange efficiency between the internal air and the external air passing through the heat exchanger is maximized, thereby further improving the drying efficiency.

In addition, since the internal air discharged to the outside through the heat exchanger can be discharged to the room without discharging to the outside of the building, there is an advantage that the installation cost can be reduced.

Claims (11)

Drum; An exhaust duct installed in communication with the drum and discharging the internal air of the drum to the outside; An intake duct installed in communication with the drum and sucking external air into the drum to intersect a flow direction of the internal air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct; A first flow passage connected to the exhaust duct and the intake duct, through which the first air passing through the exhaust duct passes, and a second flow passage through which the outside air sucked into the drum through the intake duct passes; A heat exchanger formed to intersect; Installed in communication with the first flow path of the heat exchanger, and comprises a humidity control member for lowering the humidity of the air passing through the first flow path, The humidity control member is made of a porous material, is installed in communication with the heat exchanger, the drum is characterized in that it comprises a casing that is open on one side, and the filler is filled to allow air to pass through the inside of the casing. washer. delete delete The method of claim 1, And a temperature control fan which blows air from the rear of the heat exchanger to lower the temperature of the internal air discharged to the outside through the heat exchanger. The method of claim 1, And a plurality of first flow passages and a plurality of second flow passages, each of which is alternately stacked. The method of claim 5, And the first channel and the second channel each have a cross section of a wave shape. The method according to claim 5 or 6, The drum washing machine, characterized in that the first flow path and the second flow path comprises an aluminum material. The method of claim 1, And an internal circulation duct installed in communication with the exhaust duct and the intake duct, the inner circulation duct smoothly maintaining the flow of the internal air passing through the heat exchanger. Drum; An exhaust duct installed in communication with the drum and discharging the internal air of the drum to the outside; An intake duct installed in communication with the drum and sucking external air into the drum to intersect a flow direction of the internal air discharged to the outside through the exhaust duct; A first flow passage connected to the exhaust duct and the intake duct, through which the first air passing through the exhaust duct passes, and a second flow passage through which the outside air sucked into the drum through the intake duct passes; A heat exchanger formed to intersect; A humidity control member installed in communication with the first flow path of the heat exchanger to lower the humidity of the air passing through the first flow path; And an internal circulation duct installed in communication with the exhaust duct and the intake duct, the inner circulation duct smoothly maintaining the flow of the internal air passing through the heat exchanger. The method of claim 9, And a temperature control fan which blows air from the rear of the heat exchanger to lower the temperature of the internal air discharged to the outside through the heat exchanger. The method of claim 1, And a plurality of first flow passages and a plurality of second flow passages, each having a cross section of a wave shape and being alternately stacked.

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