KR20020092712A - Clothing dryer and drying method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A device and a method for drying clothing are provided to increase the dehumidifying effect by using a cooling element having an evaporator and a condenser, thereby obtaining high drying efficiency with the air of low temperature without damaging the clothing. CONSTITUTION: A clothing drying device includes a drum(100) receiving humid clothing and rotating at a predetermined speed, a cooling element(200) having an evaporator(210) for converting humid air of middle temperature in the drum to dry air of low temperature, a condenser(230) for converting the dry air of low temperature to dry air of high temperature, and a fan(250) for circulating the air in various states to supply the dry air of high temperature to the drum, and an air tube(300) mounted between the drum and the cooling element as an air channel.

Description

Clothing dryer and drying method

The present invention relates to a clothes drying apparatus and method, and more particularly, to improve the problem that the laundry is damaged due to high heat, and to a more efficient clothes drying apparatus and method.

1 is a structural diagram schematically showing a conventional clothes drying apparatus.

1, a conventional clothes drying apparatus includes a drum (10) containing laundry to be dried; A fan 20 for suction-circulating the humid humid air of the drum due to the laundry; A heat exchanger (30) for converting the sucked middle temperature wet air into dry air; A heater 40 for heating the low temperature dry air and converting the low temperature dry air into high temperature dry air; It consists of an air pipe 80 that serves as the passage of air.

In more detail, the drum 10 is a member in which the laundry to be dried is contained, and a baffle is formed therein so that the laundry can be lifted by rotation.

The fan 20 is a member that causes the flow of air by rotation, and mainly uses the fan motor 50 as a driving source for high speed rotation. In addition, when the fan 20 and the fan motor 50 are spaced apart by a predetermined degree, the fan 60 is connected using the belt 60.

The heat exchanger 30 is a member that sucks outside air to cool the middle temperature wet air of the drum 10 introduced by the fan 20 and cools the middle temperature wet air. Cooling fan 31 is provided to suck the water. At this time, the driving source for rotating the cooling fan 31 is to serve as the fan motor 50.

The heater 40 is a member for heating the low temperature dry air dehumidified in the heat exchanger 30 to convert the high temperature dry air.

The air pipe 80 is a member that serves as a passage through which air is circulated, and a drain hole for draining water generated in the heat exchanger 30 is formed, and the drip tray 70 receiving the drained water is installed separately. It is.

Looking at the operation of the conventional clothes drying apparatus having such a structure, first the fan 20 rotates at a high speed to suck air in the drum 10. The air is dehumidified while passing through the heat exchanger 30 and is heated by the heater 40 to be supplied to the drum 10 again. At this time, the laundry in the drum 10 is lifted by the baffles formed therein and falls off from the top due to the slow rotation. At this time, the moisture is evaporated by the hot air and the moisture is discharged through the exhaust port of the air pipe 80. .

By the way, such a drying method has a problem that the production cost is increased by using a heater of a very high temperature, not only to damage the fabric, but also to use a heat-resistant internal material.

An object of the present invention is to provide a clothes drying apparatus and method capable of drying laundry more efficiently at a lower temperature than a heater.

1 is a structural diagram schematically showing a conventional clothes drying apparatus.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of the clothes drying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flow chart showing a clothes drying process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10, 100 ... Drum 20, 250 ... Fan

30 ........ Heat exchanger 31 ........ Cooling fan

40 ........ heater 50, 400 ... fan motor

60, 500 ... belt 70, 600 ... drip

80, 300.Air pipe 200 ......... Refrigeration means

210 ....... Evaporator 220 ....... Compressor

230 ....... Condenser 240 ............ Expansion valve

310 ....... Drain

In order to achieve the above object, a clothes drying apparatus according to the present invention includes a drum containing humid laundry and rotating at a constant speed; An evaporator for converting the wet medium temperature air of the drum into low temperature dry air, a condenser for converting the low temperature dry air to high temperature dry air, and circulating the air in various states so that the hot dry air is supplied to the drum. Refrigeration means having a fan; And an air tube serving as an air passage between the drum and the freezing means.

In addition, the clothes drying method according to the present invention converts the medium-temperature wet air in the drum wetted by the laundry to the high temperature dry air by using the dehumidification effect using the cooling action of the evaporator and the heating effect using the heating effect of the condenser. Laundry drying step of drying the laundry; It is characterized by including an operation time inspection step of repeating the laundry drying step when it is not reached by checking whether the laundry has reached a sufficient time to dry, and ending the drying when the laundry is reached.

Thus, the clothes drying apparatus and method according to the present invention has the advantage of obtaining high efficiency at a lower volume and lower temperature by drying the laundry using the freezing circulation process of the freezing means, heat resistance due to low operating temperature It is also possible to use general materials rather than strong materials, which reduces the production cost.

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

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of a clothes drying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the clothes drying apparatus according to the present invention is a drum containing a humid laundry and rotates at a constant speed; An evaporator 210 for converting the medium-temperature wet air of the drum 100 into low-temperature dry air, a condenser 230 for converting the low-temperature dry air into high-temperature dry air, and circulating the air in various states to form the high temperature A refrigeration means (200) provided with a fan (250) for supplying dry air to the drum; It consists of an air pipe 300 that serves as an air passage between the drum 100 and the freezing means 200.

In more detail, the drum 100 is a member for carrying laundry, and a baffle is formed therein so that the laundry is lifted up and down by rotation, and the inside is filled with air moistened by the laundry. .

The evaporator 210 is a member in which a low temperature low pressure liquid refrigerant is converted into a low temperature low pressure gas refrigerant, and thus absorbs ambient heat during evaporation of the refrigerant, thereby lowering the ambient temperature. At this time, there is a medium-temperature wet air introduced from the drum 100, the temperature-wet air is the temperature is lowered due to the evaporator 210, the relative humidity is raised to form a moisture. As a result, a dehumidification action occurs so that the intermediate temperature wet air introduced from the drum 100 is replaced with low temperature dry air.

The condenser 230 is a member for converting a liquid refrigerant having a high temperature and high pressure into a liquid refrigerant having a medium temperature and high pressure. The condenser 230 emits heat to the surroundings when the temperature of the refrigerant decreases, thereby increasing the ambient temperature. At this time, there is a low-temperature dry air passed through the evaporator 210, the temperature rises due to the condenser 210 is changed to high-temperature dry air.

The evaporator 210 and the condenser 230 should be continuously supplied with air to be used for heat exchange, and for this purpose, an evaporation fan and a condensation fan are required. Preferably, the evaporation fan and the condensation fan are integrated and used as one fan 250, and the fan 250 may also serve to circulate the air as a whole.

In addition, the refrigerating means 200 including the evaporator 210 and the condenser 230 should be further provided with a compressor 220 and an expansion valve 240 for the refrigeration circulation action, the compressor 220 Is a member located after the evaporator 210 to convert the low temperature low pressure gas refrigerant introduced from the evaporator 210 into a high temperature and high pressure liquid refrigerant, and the expansion valve is located next to the condenser 230. It is a member that converts the medium-temperature high-pressure liquid refrigerant introduced from the condenser 230 into a low-temperature low-pressure liquid refrigerant. As described above, the refrigerating means 200 includes an evaporator 210, a compressor 220, a condenser 230, an expansion valve 240, and a fan 250, thereby providing a compression process, a condensation process, an expansion process, and an evaporation process. Freezing circulation is possible.

On the other hand, the fan 250 is driven by a fan motor 400, the fan motor 400 preferably rotates the drum 100 as well as the fan, and in this case, the rotating shaft of the drum 100 and It is preferable to use the belt 500 to compensate for the distance from the fan motor 400.

On the other hand, the air pipe 300 is a passage through which the air flows, it is preferable that the drain port 310 for draining the water formed in the evaporator 210 is formed, in this case a separate drip tray ( 600) is preferred.

Then, an operation process of the clothes drying apparatus according to the present invention having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a clothing drying process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3, the clothes drying process according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is a dehumidifying effect using the cooling action of the evaporator 210 the middle temperature wet air in the drum 100 wetted by the laundry, A laundry drying step (S 910) of drying the laundry by converting it into hot dry air by using a heating effect using a heating effect of the condenser 230; Checking whether the laundry has reached a sufficient time to dry the laundry to repeat the laundry drying step when not reached, it consists of an operation time inspection step (S 920) to finish drying.

Looking in more detail, the laundry drying step (S 910) is the step of sucking the middle temperature wet air in the drum wet medium temperature due to the laundry (S 911); The inhaled mesophilic wet air is dehumidified by the cooling action of the evaporator and converted into low temperature dry air (S 912); Converting the low temperature dry air into high temperature dry air by absorbing heat from a condenser (S 913); The hot dry air is supplied to the laundry in the drum, and the laundry is dried, and the hot dry air is converted into medium wet air (S 914).

The operation time checking step (S 920) is a step performed by the control unit by a command by a user's operation or a command by the self-sensing system, and may be performed before the laundry drying step (S 910).

Through this configuration and the process of performing, hot air is generated and supplied to the laundry, and the laundry is dried. At this time, the hot air applied is lower in temperature than the hot air generated by the heater, but the overall drying efficiency is improved due to the excellent dehumidifying action in the evaporator. Will be higher.

On the other hand, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and many variations are possible by those skilled in the art within the spirit of the present invention.

As described above, since the clothes drying apparatus and method according to the present invention have an excellent dehumidifying effect by using a freezing means including an evaporator and a condenser, a high drying effect can be obtained even with a relatively low temperature hot air. In addition, by using a relatively low temperature hot air rather than a very high temperature hot air, it does not hurt the fabric, it can be produced by using a general material rather than a heat-resistant material, there is an effect of reducing the production cost, because the volume is small, There is an advantage in the application.

Claims (6)

In the clothes drying apparatus for supplying dry air to the laundry dropped by the rotation of the drum to dry the laundry, A drum containing humid laundry and rotating at a constant speed; An evaporator for converting the wet medium temperature air of the drum into low temperature dry air, a condenser for converting the low temperature dry air to high temperature dry air, and circulating the air in various states so that the hot dry air is supplied to the drum. Refrigeration means having a fan; And an air tube that serves as an air passage between the drum and the freezing means. The method of claim 1, The freezing means further comprises a compressor and an expansion valve for refrigeration circulation of the refrigerant. The method of claim 1, The air pipe further comprises a drain that drains the water condensed on the evaporator. The method of claim 1, The fan of the freezing means is a clothes drying apparatus, characterized in that also serves as the evaporator fan and the condensation fan respectively required for the evaporator and condenser. A laundry drying step of drying the laundry by converting the medium-temperature wet air in the drum wetted by the laundry into hot dry air by using a dehumidifying effect using a cooling action of an evaporator and a heating effect using an exothermic action of a condenser; Checking whether the laundry has reached a sufficient time to dry the laundry to repeat the laundry drying step when not reached, the clothing drying method characterized in that it comprises an operation time checking step to finish drying when reached. The method of claim 5, The laundry drying step includes the steps of sucking in the middle temperature wet air in the middle temperature wet drum due to the laundry; The inhaled mesophilic wet air is dehumidified by the cooling action of an evaporator and converted into low temperature dry air; Converting the cold dry air into hot dry air by absorbing heat from a condenser; The hot dry air is supplied to the laundry in the drum, the laundry is dried, and the hot dry air is converted into moderately humid air.