KR20040011217A - Dust amount sensing apparatus of dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A dust detecting device for a drying machine is provided to indicate cleaning time of a filter conveniently, and to prevent lowering of performance of the drying machine by measuring the amount of dust accumulated on the filter without checking the filter periodically. CONSTITUTION: A filter dust detecting sensor(40) is composed of a light emitting unit(42) irradiating light to a filter(26), and a light receiving unit(44) receiving light through the filter. The light emitting unit and the light receiving unit are arranged at both sides of the filter, and faced to each other inside an exhaust duct(22). A sensor cleaning unit is arranged in the lower part of the filter to remove foreign matters from the surface of the light emitting unit or the light receiving unit in attaching and detaching the filter, and a pad(50) as the sensor cleaning unit is mounted to the front and the back of the filter. A control unit calculates the dust amount of the filter by receiving the signal from the light receiving unit, and alarms the cleaning time of the filter to a user by transmitting a signal to a light emitting diode if the dust amount is over the reference value.

Description

Dust amount sensing apparatus of dryer

The present invention relates to a dryer for drying laundry inside a drum with hot air and purifying the air from the laundry with a filter, and more particularly, to an apparatus for detecting a dust amount of a dryer that can easily detect dust clogging of a filter.

In general, a laundry drying apparatus is a device for drying a laundry by blowing dry hot air heated by a heater into an accommodation space in which laundry is accommodated. The laundry drying apparatus is classified into a dryer having a drying function and a dry washing machine including a laundry function.

The dryer lifts and drops the laundry while the drum is rotated, and supplies the drying hot air generated by the heater to the inside of the drum to dry the falling laundry.

In addition, the dryer discharges the air drying the laundry to the outside through an exhaust duct, and a filter is detachably disposed inside the exhaust duct so as to purify the wet air while drying the laundry.

In the filter, foreign matters such as dust accumulate during the passage of cloudy wet air, and this dust decreases the amount of air blown out of the dryer, thereby reducing the drying performance of the dryer. Thus, the filter should be periodically taken out to clean the dust.

However, the conventional dryer has the inconvenience of periodically checking the amount of dust in the filter by taking out the filter, and there is a problem in that the drying performance of the dryer is deteriorated if such a check is not performed regularly.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems of the prior art, it is possible to detect the amount of dust accumulated in the filter so that it is easy to know the cleaning time of the filter and the amount of dust detection device of the dryer that can prevent the performance of the dryer The purpose is to provide.

1 is an exploded perspective view of one embodiment of a dryer according to the present invention;

2 is a side cross-sectional view of one embodiment of the dryer according to the present invention;

Figure 3 is a side cross-sectional view of opening the door of the embodiment of the dryer according to the invention when the filter is pulled out upward;

Figure 4 is a block diagram of the main part of an embodiment of a dryer according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols on main parts of the drawings>

12: drum 26: filter

22; Exhaust duct 40: Filter dust detection sensor

42; Light emitting portion 44: light receiving portion

50: pad

The present invention for solving the above problems is a dryer for drying the laundry inside the drum with hot air, the dryer for purifying the air to dry the laundry with a filter, the light emitting unit for irradiating light with the filter; Characterized in that the light receiving unit receives the light passing through the filter.

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

1 is an exploded perspective view of one embodiment of a dryer according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a side cross-sectional view of one embodiment of the dryer according to the present invention, Figure 3 is a case of opening the door of the dryer embodiment according to the present invention when the filter is pulled out upward Figure 4 is a side cross-sectional view of Figure 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main part of an embodiment of the dryer according to the present invention.

1 to 4, the dryer according to the present embodiment, the laundry access hole (2a) is formed on the front and the case (2) to form the appearance of the dryer, and the inside of the case (2) rotates The drum 12 and the rear end of the drum 12 are rotatably arranged to be opened and opened in the front-rear direction to accommodate the laundry therein, and to lift and drop the laundry on the inner circumferential surface thereof. An opening hole 16a identical to the laundry access hole 2a is formed in the rear supporter 14 and a portion located behind the laundry access hole 2a, and rotatably supports the tip of the drum 12. The front supporter 16, the heater 18 disposed outside the drum 12, and the dry hot air passing through the heater 18 to the inside of the drum 12. Dry the laundry and the hot air supply duct 20 disposed on the back of the And an exhaust duct 22 for discharging wet air that has become cloudy and out of the case 2, a filter assembly 24 for purifying the air sucked into the exhaust duct 22, and installed in the exhaust duct 22. A fan 30; A motor 32 for generating a driving force for rotating the fan 30 and the drum 12, a power transmission mechanism (not shown) interlocked with the motor 32, and the filter; A filter dust amount sensor 40 for sensing the amount of dust accumulated in the assembly 24, an operation display unit 46 for displaying various operation states of the dryer including the amount of dust of the filter assembly 24 or the filter cleaning time; A driving operation unit 48 for operating the operation of the dryer, a driving operation signal of the driving operation unit 48 and a detection signal of the filter dust amount detecting sensor 40 are received to receive the heater 18, the motor 32, And a controller 49 for controlling the driving display unit 46.

Here, the case 2 is a cabinet 3, a cabinet cover 4 coupled to the front surface of the cabinet 3, the laundry access hole (2a) is formed in the center and the rear surface of the cabinet (3) A back panel 5 coupled to the air suction hole 5a, a top cover 6 coupled to an upper surface of the cabinet 3 to form an upper surface of the dryer, and a top cover 6 coupled to the top cover 6 It consists of a control panel (7), the control panel (49), the operation display unit (46) and the operation control unit (48), and a base (8) coupled to the bottom of the cabinet (3) to form the bottom of the dryer. The door 9 is rotatably disposed on the front surface of the cabinet cover 4 to open and close the laundry access hole 2a and the opening hole 16a.

In this case, when the door 9 is closed, the transparent glass 9a protrudes into the laundry access hole 2a and the opening hole 16a to prevent the laundry inside the drum 12 from being separated, and the laundry Make the drying process identifiable outside the dryer.

The front surface of the rear supporter 14 protrudes a disk-shaped guide portion 14a for guiding the inner circumferential surface of the rear end of the drum 12 and a guide roller 14b on which one side of the outer circumferential surface of the rear end of the drum 12 is raised.

A ring-shaped guide protrusion 16b for guiding the inner peripheral surface of the front end of the drum 12 and a guide roller 16c on which one side of the outer peripheral surface of the front end of the drum 12 are raised protrude from the rear surface of the front supporter 16. .

In addition, the front supporter 16 is provided with an insertion hole 16d into which the filter assembly 24 is inserted in the vertical direction, and an inlet portion 23 of the exhaust duct 22 is provided below the insertion hole 16d. ) Is placed.

The filter assembly 24 is inserted through the insertion hole 16d so that the lower part is disposed inside the inlet 23 of the exhaust duct 22.

The filter assembly 24 is formed of a filter cover 25 having an air intake hole 25a and a mesh to filter foreign substances in the air sucked through the air intake hole 25a and having a handle formed on the top thereof. And a filter supporter 27 formed between the filter cover 25 and the filter cover 25 to support the filter 26. The filter 26 includes a filter cover 25 and a filter supporter. It attaches and detaches in up-down direction between (27).

The filter dust detection sensor 40 includes a light emitting unit 42 for irradiating light to the filter 26; The light receiver 44 receives the light passing through the filter 26.

Here, the light emitting part 42 and the light receiving part 44 are disposed to face each other in the front-rear direction on the inner surface of the exhaust duct 22 with the filter 26 therebetween.

The driving display unit 46 is composed of a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) emitted by the signal of the control unit 49 (LED: dryer on / off LED, drying time display LED, filter dust display LED, Filter cleaning time LED, or various display components such as a liquid crystal display (LCD).

On the other hand, the dryer according to the present embodiment is disposed under the filter 26 and the sensor cleaning means for wiping off the foreign matter adhered to the surface of the light emitting portion 42 or the light receiving portion 44 when the filter 26 is attached and removed It includes more.

The sensor cleaning means is a pad 50 attached to each of the front and rear surfaces of the filter 26.

Looking at the operation of the present invention configured as described above are as follows.

First, after the laundry is put into the drum 12, and the operation operation unit 48 is operated to operate the dryer, the control unit 49 supplies power to the heater 18 and the motor 32. do.

When the motor 32 is driven, the drum 12 and the fan 30 are rotated, and the laundry in the drum 12 is lifted by the lift 11 and then dropped.

At this time, the air outside the case (2) is sucked into the air suction hole (5a) by the blowing force generated during the rotation of the fan 30, is heated and dried while passing through the inside of the heater 18, The hot air supply duct 20 is supplied into the drum 12.

The dry hot air supplied into the drum 12 is in direct contact with the laundry dropped by the lift 11 to dry the laundry, and is changed into a cloudy wet air.

The cloudy humid air is sucked into the suction hole 25a of the filter cover 25, and foreign substances such as dust are filtered through the filter 26 and then discharged to the outside of the dryer through the exhaust duct 22. do.

On the other hand, the light emitting unit 42 emits a predetermined amount of light to the filter 26 while the dryer is operating as described above, and the light receiving unit 44 receives the light passing through the filter 26 to receive the amount of light. Is sent to the control unit 49.

The control unit 49 receives the signal from the light receiving unit 44, calculates the amount of dust in the filter 26, and if it is determined that the amount of dust is greater than the preset value, the control unit 49 turns on the LED for displaying the filter dust amount or the LED for cleaning the filter. Signal to allow the user to know when to clean the filter 26.

Meanwhile, when the user pulls out the filter 26 upward as shown in FIG. 3 to remove dust accumulated in the filter 26, the pad 50 disposed below the filter 26. The dust rubs off the surface of the light emitting unit 42 or the light receiving unit 44 while rubbing the surface of the light emitting unit 42 or the light receiving unit 44.

Meanwhile, in the present embodiment, the amount of dust of the filter detected by the filter dust amount detecting sensor 40 is displayed through the filter dust amount display LED disposed on the control panel 7 or the operation display unit 46 of the filter cleaning timing LED. However, it is also possible to use a voice device such as a buzzer instead of the operation display unit 46 described above.

The dust detection device of the dryer according to the present invention configured as described above has the advantage that the user does not need to periodically check the filter because it easily detects the amount of dust accumulated in the filter by receiving the light irradiated toward the filter from the light emitting unit. There is this.

In addition, since the pad disposed on the filter removes foreign matter on the surface of the light emitting part or the light receiving part when the filter is attached or detached, there is no need to separately clean the light emitting part or the light receiving part, and there is an advantage of preventing the deterioration of the detection performance of the filter dust detection device. have.

In addition, the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit are disposed to face each other in the front-back direction of the exhaust duct with the filter interposed therebetween, so that the amount of dust accumulated in the filter can be accurately detected.

Claims (4)

A dryer for drying laundry inside a drum with hot air and purifying the air from which the laundry is dried with a filter, A light emitting unit for irradiating light with the filter; Dust detection device of a dryer, characterized in that consisting of a light receiving unit for receiving the light passing through the filter. The method of claim 1, The dryer further comprises an exhaust duct inserted into the lower portion of the filter and discharges the air passing through the filter to the outside, And the light emitting unit and the light receiving unit are disposed to face each other in the front-rear direction of the exhaust duct with the filter interposed therebetween. The method of claim 1, And a sensor cleaning means disposed under the filter to wipe off the foreign matter adhering to the surface of the light emitting part or the light receiving part when the filter is attached or detached. The method of claim 3, wherein And said sensor cleaning means is a pad attached to each of said front and rear surfaces of said filter.