KR101290164B1 - Method for controlling clothes dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for controlling a clothes dryer for drying while rotating a drum in a state in which laundry is put into a drum. According to an aspect of the present invention, a drying operation is performed while rotating a drum rotatably mounted in a cabinet. As a control method of a clothes dryer to be performed, there is provided a control method of a clothes dryer including a step of shifting a rotational speed of a drum in a predetermined range within a predetermined range.

Description

Control Method of Clothes Dryer {METHOD FOR CONTROLLING CLOTHES DRYER}

The present invention relates to a control method of a clothes dryer for drying while rotating a drum in a state in which laundry is put in a drum.

The clothes dryer is a kind of household appliance which usually drys laundry, that is, mainly clothes using high temperature air, and heats a drum accommodating a drying object, a driving source for driving the drum, and air flowing into the drum. Means, a blower unit for sucking or discharging air in the drum.

Clothes dryers can be classified into various dryers according to the criteria for classification. First, the clothes dryer may be classified into an electric dryer and a gas dryer according to a method of heating air, that is, a heating means. The electric dryer heats air using electric resistance heat, and the gas dryer heats air using heat generated by combustion of gas.

In addition, the clothes dryer may be classified into a condensation type dryer and an exhaust type dryer according to a treatment method of wet air generated while drying a drying object. In the condenser dryer, the air that has been heat-exchanged with the drying object in the drum is circulated without being discharged to the outside of the dryer, and the condensate is made by exchanging heat with the outside air in a separate condenser and discharged to the outside. In the exhaust type dryer, the air that has been heat-exchanged with the object to be dried in the drum is discharged directly to the outside of the dryer.

The conventional clothes dryer performs drying by evaporating the moisture contained in the laundry by hot hot air supplied to the drum. However, in order to perform the drying efficiently, the hot air must be evenly transmitted to the loaded laundry. It may be difficult to evenly distribute the hot air.

For example, when a large amount of cloth is put into the drum or a large volume of laundry is dried, most of the space inside the drum is taken up by the laundry, so that the hot air is not evenly transmitted and the efficiency of the hot air is transmitted. There was also a problem such as increased drying time or increased power consumption to fall.

In order to solve this problem, the hot air is evenly transferred to the fabric during drying, and the drum is rotated during the hot air delivery to prevent the cloth from stagnating. However, if there is a lot of laundry loaded, the laundry does not move well. There is a limit because it is not.

In addition, a dryness sensor is included in the drum to measure the dryness. As the laundry is aggregated, the difference in dryness between the adjacent portion of the dryness sensor and the other portion is increased. Therefore, even if it is determined that the drying is completed by the dryness sensor, there is a problem in that a part of the drying is not completed or excessively dried.

The present invention has been made to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art as described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a control method of a clothes dryer that can more evenly transfer the hot air by inducing the movement of the laundry in the drying process more actively. have.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, as a control method of the clothes dryer for performing a drying stroke while rotating the drum rotatably mounted in the cabinet, a predetermined rotational speed of the drum during the drying stroke Provided is a control method of a clothes dryer, comprising the steps of accelerating and decelerating within a range.

That is, in the above aspect of the present invention, by accelerating or decelerating the rotational speed of the drum step by step in the drying process, it is possible to further promote the movement of the laundry in the drum. As the rotational speed of the drum is accelerated and decelerated stepwise or discontinuously, the centrifugal force applied to the laundry is changed, so that the movement of the laundry can be more promoted than when rotating at a constant speed.

In addition, by repeatedly performing the acceleration and deceleration step can further promote the movement of the laundry.

In addition, the step may include a first step of maintaining the rotational speed of the drum at the lowest speed within the range for a predetermined time; And a second step of maintaining the rotational speed of the drum at a maximum speed within the range for a predetermined time. That is, it is possible to shift the rotational speed in two stages of the minimum speed or the maximum speed, thereby maximizing the change in the centrifugal force to further promote the movement of the laundry.

Further, in this step, the rotational speed of the drum may be accelerated or decelerated from the lowest speed to the maximum speed in a plurality of steps, and each speed step may be maintained for a predetermined time. At this time, the time each step is maintained may be the same or different from each other. If the rotation speed of the drum is too slow, the movement of the laundry is less, and if too large, centrifugal force is excessively applied to the laundry so that the laundry is in close contact with each other and hot air is not evenly transmitted. In other words, there is a proper speed according to the laundry, which is difficult to determine in advance and difficult to measure using a separate sensing device. Consistent or similar steps can be present, allowing more efficient supply of hot air to the laundry.

As an example, in this step, the drum may be shifted at a speed of six steps. Then, the drum accelerated in six steps at the minimum speed can be reduced to the minimum speed again to repeat the acceleration step.

On the other hand, the air volume of the air supplied to the drum in the step can be increased or decreased. Due to the shifted air volume, the pressure applied to the laundry is different, thereby further promoting the movement of the laundry.

The air volume may be increased or decreased at the same cycle as the rotation speed shift period, and the air volume may increase as the rotation speed of the drum is higher.

In some cases, a selection button may be added to the dryer body, and the range of the rotation speed may be changed in accordance with the selected button. That is, when the amount of laundry is large, the rotational speed range can be moved at a higher speed, and when the amount of the laundry is small, the rotational speed can be moved at a lower speed to further optimize the rotational speed according to the laundry.

This may be automatically measured through the quantity detection means provided in the dryer body as well as the selection button.

According to the aspects of the present invention having the configuration as described above, since the hot air can be more evenly transmitted to the laundry, the drying efficiency is improved, and thus the drying time and energy consumption can be shortened.

1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the clothes dryer.
Figure 2 is an internal structure showing the inside of the clothes dryer.
Figure 3 (a) is a graph showing a change in the drum rotation speed with time according to an embodiment of the clothes dryer control method according to the present invention.
Figure 3 (b) is a graph showing a change in the air volume with time according to an embodiment of the clothes dryer control method according to the present invention.
Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing the movement according to the speed of the bulky dry object inside the drum.
5 is a graph showing the degree of drying the drying object according to the drum rotation speed and the speed change cycle.
Figure 6 is a graph showing the experimental results of measuring the moisture content of the drying object according to the rotational speed of the drum.
7 is a graph showing a change in drum rotation speed with time according to another embodiment of a method for controlling a clothes dryer according to the present invention.
8 is a graph illustrating a change in power consumption according to a change in rotational speed.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the dryer according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, in order to describe a dryer according to an embodiment of the present invention, a front loading type, an electric type, and an exhaust type dryer will be described as examples. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and of course, the present invention may be applied to a top loading method, a gas type, a condensation type dryer, or the like.

1, an embodiment of a clothes dryer according to the present invention is shown. The clothes dryer 100 includes a cabinet 101 constituting an external appearance of the apparatus, and a front surface of the cabinet 101 is formed with a clothes inlet 102 for introducing clothes to be dried into the cabinet 101. do. The clothes inlet 102 is opened and closed by a door 103, and an operation panel 105 in which various operation buttons for operating the dryer are disposed above the clothes inlet 102, and the operation panel ( One side of the 105 is provided with a drawer cover (104).

2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the internal structure of the clothes dryer 100, a cylindrical drum 110 is rotatably mounted in the cabinet 101, the front lower side of the drum 110 An air suction path 130 is formed in communication with the drum 110.

The lower part of the cabinet 101 is provided with a drive motor 136, and has a rotating shaft. A pulley is connected to the rotating shaft, and a belt 137 connects the pulley and the outer surface of the drum. Accordingly, the rotational motion generated by the driving motor is transmitted to the drum through the belt, so that the drum rotates, and the drying object accommodated therein is rotated through the rotational motion of the drum 110, and the drying object is It flows inside the drum 117.

Hot air supply path 150 is formed on the rear of the cabinet. The air outside the clothes dryer enters the cabinet 101, passes through the heater 152, changes to hot air, and is discharged into the drum 117 through the heat pool supply path 150.

The hot air supplied into the drum is dried by evaporating moisture of the object to be dried, and exits the drum through the air suction path 130 by the blowing fan 134 and is discharged to the outside of the cabinet through the exhaust duct 135. .

Referring to FIG. 3, in one embodiment of the method for controlling a clothes dryer according to the present invention, the drying speed of the laundry is controlled so that the rotational speed of the drum is periodically changed from the first speed, the minimum speed, to the second speed, the maximum speed. Doing. In this embodiment, the minimum speed is set to 50 rpm, the maximum speed is set to 80 rpm.

For example, when 3 to 5 kg of clothes are put in a dryer and rotated, the object to be dried may be in close contact with the drum or may be separated from the drum and remain in the air. During this process, the object to be dried is pushed to the periphery of the drum's rotary shaft by a centrifugal force to form a space or gap. Since the space between the objects to be formed is formed so that the hot air passes smoothly between them and heat transfer is good, it is advantageous for the drying performance. Therefore, it is possible to uniformly dry the inside of the object to be dried by the hot air at such intervals. will be.

However, in the case of bulky large dry objects, the movement in the drum is different from general dry objects in which the volume is small. In the case of a bulky large dry object such as a blanket, there is not enough free space compared with the space in the drum. In addition, since it is not a plurality of separate drying objects but one drying object, they are easily separated without being separated from each other in the drum. Therefore, even when subjected to centrifugal force by drum rotation, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), it is not easy to form a space or a gap by being pushed to the periphery near the extension line of the drum rotation axis. Therefore, since it is difficult to form a space for the hot air to pass through, it is difficult to uniformly dry the interior of the object to be dried. In particular, when folded in the drum, such as duvets are difficult to unfold, so even when the drying is completed, the folded portion may not be dried.

Therefore, in the above embodiment, the rotation speed of the drum is shifted so that the laundry repeats the agglomeration and unwinding so that the hot air is evenly transmitted.

When the drum is rotated at the maximum speed of 80 rpm, in the case of a general dry object having a small volume, it is in close contact with the side of the drum and the effect of drying is inferior. However, in the case of a large-capacity drying object such as a large duvet, the drying object near the extension line of the rotation axis of the drum is pushed to the periphery by centrifugal force as shown in FIG. Accordingly, as shown in (b) of FIG. 4, the hot air smoothly passes through the spaces between the objects to be dried (such as a blanket), so that heat transfer is performed well, and thus, the interiors of the objects to be dried may be uniformly dried.

On the other hand, in the case of a single large-capacity drying object such as a blanket, the folded portion is sometimes expanded by centrifugal force due to the drum rotation at the maximum speed when it is rotated and swelled by the flow of hot air supplied into the drum. It may also spread. Figure 4 (c) shows this swelling up the drying object. Therefore, even the folded portion of the drying object can be easily unfolded. Thereby, drying can take place evenly. However, the state as shown in FIG. 4C is not continuous. Because the drum continues to rotate, the position or posture of the object to be dried may be changed to again as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, the rotational speed of the drum to change from the minimum speed to the maximum speed as described above is made periodically as shown in Fig. 3 (a). Referring to Figure 3 (a), the rotational speed of the drum is changing with a constant period of 10 seconds from 50rpm minimum speed in a single direction to 80rpm maximum speed.

Changing the rotational speed of the drum from the lowest speed to the maximum speed with a constant period of time means that the continuous drying of the bulky large dry object at maximum speed increases the chance of contact with hot air to the inside of the dry object. Although there is an advantage, there are disadvantages in that the possibility of damage to the drying object is increased by friction with the inner wall of the drum, and it is more advantageous for drying to continuously change the position or position of the drying object. This is to increase the movement of the object to be built.

Changing the rotational speed of the drum as described above is achieved by controlling the drive motor 136.

Figure 5 shows the degree of drying according to the rotational speed of the drum when drying a large amount of drying objects as described above. The drying object used in FIG. 5 is bulky and monolithic like a futon, and thus is easily folded inside the drum. The point measured in FIG. 5 is a point where it is difficult to dry well because it is folded inside the drum and placed in the middle in the case of a quilt which is a bulky object to be dried. This is because it is possible to measure whether the object to be dried is dried uniformly. In FIG. 5, the right square indicates the moisture content (FMC) range of the drying object after drying. In general, the degree of drying is 5% of moisture content. Referring to the graph on the left side of Figure 5, when measured at the same time, it was possible to obtain a drying degree of the moisture content of about 5% at a target period of change of the drum rotational speed is 10 seconds and the drum rotational speed is near 80rpm. Of course, increasing the drying time can reach a moisture content of 5% even at a lower speed than 80 rpm, unlike in Figure 5, but in this experiment was measured the fastest optimization at the same time.

Figure 6 contrasts the case of drying a large amount of the drying object only at the lowest speed and the case of drying when changing the rotational speed of the drum from the minimum speed to the maximum speed as in the present invention. More specifically, FIG. 6 shows a case in which a drying object is dried in a plurality of experiments, such as a quilt, which is a bulky drying object. After the completion of the water content is measured. Referring to FIG. 6, when a large amount of a dry object such as a blanket was dried while maintaining a constant speed, the moisture content of the spot which was folded inside the drum and difficult to dry was distributed in a section between 27 to 35%. However, as in the above embodiment, the rotational speed of the drum was periodically changed from 50rpm to 80rpm in a single direction, and when dried, the target result was almost uniformly distributed near 5% moisture content.

Therefore, based on the results as described above, when controlling the clothes dryer as in the above embodiment, even in the case of a large volume of a large dry object, the dry object can be changed in position or posture in the drum to dry the object It allows to dry uniformly and completely, and shows better drying performance than drying only at the lowest speed.

On the other hand, in the above embodiment, the clothes dryer may be controlled to increase or decrease the amount of air supplied to the drum while the rotational speed of the drum is periodically changed from the minimum speed to the maximum speed. This control method is illustrated in FIG.

Referring to (b) of FIG. 3, the air volume of the hot air supplied into the drum is periodically increased and decreased in association with the period of speed change. Specifically, the air volume is increased when the rotational speed of the drum is at the maximum speed to be a high air volume (Ah) and is reduced at the minimum speed to become a low air volume (An). The control of the air volume is achieved by controlling the blowing fan 140 described above. That is, it is preferable that the controller for controlling the above-described driving motor and the blowing fan is provided in the clothes dryer. Accordingly, the drive motor and the blower fan may be linked to each other by the controller to periodically change the drum rotation speed and the amount of air supplied to the drum.

By controlling the air volume as described above to change the air volume in accordance with the rotation speed of the drum, to supply a sufficiently high temperature air when a gap or space is formed in the center portion of the large volume of the drying object at the maximum speed, the drying time is shortened To do so. In addition, when the gap or space is reduced at the lowest speed and hot air is difficult to penetrate, the supply of hot air may be reduced to reduce the amount of heat to be supplied to the drum. As a result, a power consumption reduction effect may occur. In addition, according to the change in the wind pressure to further promote the behavior of the laundry will help to improve the dry uniformity.

On the other hand, the embodiment may allow the user to select a drying method in which the rotational speed of the drum periodically changes to a maximum speed in advance when the volume of the drying object is large.

In this case, selection means are provided to the user to allow the user to select a drying method in which the rotational speed of the drum is periodically changed to the maximum speed in advance. More specifically, when the user operates the operation panel 105 to use the clothes dryer, the operation panel 105 is provided with a guide display such as 'large capacity drying' or 'quilt drying' in advance. In this way, the rotational speed of the drum in which the information on the amount of input is input can be adjusted accordingly. That is, when a large amount of laundry is added, the minimum speed and the maximum speed may be further increased, and when a small amount of laundry is added, the minimum speed and the maximum speed may be further reduced.

By allowing the user to select the drying method in advance as described above, it is possible to change the drying method between the drying object of the general capacity and the drying object of a large capacity, thereby improving the user's convenience, and the drying performance is also effective according to the drying object. Can be improved.

In the above embodiment, the rotational speed of the drum is shifted in two stages of the lowest speed and the maximum speed, but is not necessarily limited thereto and may be shifted in a more granular step.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the minimum speed and the maximum speed may be divided into a plurality of stages, and the rotation speed may be increased step by step from the lowest to the maximum. 7 is configured to shift in six steps.

8 is a graph illustrating power consumption when a drying stroke is performed while shifting a rotational speed at a single speed, a speed of two steps, and a speed of six steps. In the case of a single speed, 50rpm shows the lowest power consumption.If the rotation speed is lower than that, the time required for drying increases, so that the overall power consumption increases, and if it is higher, the power consumption consumed by the high speed rotation increases, Power consumption is increased.

The lowest power consumption is achieved when the minimum speed is 46rpm and the maximum speed is 60rpm in the two-speed rotation speed.The lowest speed is 40rpm, the maximum speed is 60rpm and the medium speed is 44rpm, 48rpm, 52rpm when the six-speed rotation speed is set. At 58rpm, it shows the lowest power consumption.

In any case, it can be seen that the power consumption is lowered in the case of shifting and controlling to have a rotational speed of six stages.

100: clothes dryer 101: cabinet
102: clothing opening 103: door
104: drawer cover 105: operation panel
110: drum 130: air intake
134: blower 136: drive motor
138: drive shaft 140: blowing fan
150: hot air supply passage 152: heater

Claims (10)

A control method of a clothes dryer for performing a drying stroke while rotating a drum rotatably mounted in a cabinet,
Control method of the clothes dryer, comprising the step of repeatedly changing the rotational speed of the drum during the drying stroke within a predetermined range. delete The method of claim 1,
The step is
A first step of maintaining the rotational speed of the drum at the lowest speed within the range for a predetermined time; And
And a second step of maintaining the rotational speed of the drum at a maximum speed within the range for a predetermined time. The method of claim 1,
The rotational speed of the drum in the step is a control method of the clothes dryer, characterized in that the shift in a plurality of stages from the minimum speed to the maximum speed. 5. The method of claim 4,
Each speed step is maintained for a predetermined time. 5. The method of claim 4,
In the step, the drum is a control method of the clothes dryer, characterized in that the speed is changed at six speeds. delete The method of claim 1,
Control method of the clothes dryer, characterized in that for increasing the amount of air supplied to the drum in the step. 9. The method of claim 8,
The air flow rate is controlled by a clothes dryer, characterized in that the increase and decrease in the same period as the rotation speed shift period. 10. The method of claim 9,
The air flow rate control method of the clothes dryer, characterized in that the higher the rotational speed of the drum.

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