KR20070056590A - Method for controlling ultraviolet lamp in the clothes dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

An ultraviolet lamp control method of a clothes drier is provided to maximize the sterilization effects on dried objects, to apply an ultraviolet lamp into a sterilizer, and to regulate the sterilizer according to a drying course. An ultraviolet lamp control method of a clothes drier comprises two steps. The first step is for selecting a drying course by a user and reading temperature of a drum according to the selected drying course based on drum temperature of preset drying courses(S20,S30). The second step is for inputting a washing start order by the user and regulating an ultraviolet lamp and a heater according to the read drum temperature to perform the drying step. The second step has three sub-steps. The first step is for judging whether the drum temperature in the selected drying course is under a preset sterilizing temperature(S40). The second step is for repeatedly turning on/off the heater to maintain the drum temperature in an off-state of the ultraviolet lamp if the drum temperature is over the sterilizing temperature(S50). The third step is for repeatedly turning on/off the heater to maintain the drum temperature in an on-state of the ultraviolet lamp to sterilize the dried laundry if the drum temperature is under the sterilizing temperature(S60).

Description

Method for controlling ultraviolet lamp in the clothes dryer

1 is a sectional view schematically showing a main part of a clothes dryer having a sterilization apparatus of the present invention applied thereto;

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the sterilization apparatus according to the invention is fixed to the clothes dryer

3 is a flow chart showing a UV lamp control method of the clothes dryer according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

20: sterilizer 21: UV (ultraviolet) lamp

22: lamp holder 23: lamp bracket

The present invention relates to a sterilization apparatus of a clothes dryer, and more particularly, to a UV lamp control method of a clothes dryer for controlling a sterilization apparatus to which a UV lamp is applied according to a drying course.

The natural drying method, in which wet clothes are left in the air and dried naturally after washing, is greatly affected by weather or climate, and in urban areas, the user's rejection is increasing due to air pollution.

In order to solve various problems caused by the natural drying and to provide a user's convenience, a laundry dryer having a laundry washing function and a drying function has been developed.

The laundry dryer is basically installed to rotate by driving of a motor inside the cabinet for washing laundry, and includes a drum for receiving laundry, a water supply device and a drainage device for water supply and drainage of water. The apparatus further includes a blower for blowing air inside the drum for drying the laundry, an introduction duct for forming an air flow path, and a heater for heating the air blown through the introduction duct.

The laundry dryer of such a configuration blows air through the introduction duct by the operation of the blower after the washing and dehydration of the laundry, and heats the air with hot air to supply the drum to the drum by operating the heater. To dry.

Such a laundry dryer has the advantage of being able to perform laundry washing and drying in a batch, but it has to be manufactured to have a washing capacity of a predetermined size or more in order to perform the basic washing function. It has a fairly complicated disadvantage.

In addition, since the drying is carried out by blowing hot air in the state where the laundry is aggregated inside the drum, the hot air is transmitted only to the surface of the laundry, so the laundry that does not reach the hot air is not dried properly and the wrinkled laundry is dried, which causes many wrinkles. This occurred. In addition, in order to increase the drying effect of the laundry, if the temperature of the hot air is increased or the time is prolonged, the laundry may be damaged.

For this reason, a clothes dryer capable of exclusively drying laundry after washing has been developed. The clothes dryer is installed horizontally so as to rotate inside the cabinet, and includes a drum accommodating laundry, a motor for rotating the drum, a blower for blowing hot air inside the drum, an introduction duct, and a heater.

The clothes dryer may improve the drying efficiency of the laundry compared to the laundry dryer by dispersing the laundry inside the drum by drying the drum and blowing hot air to the dispersed laundry to dry the laundry.

In such a clothes dryer, the drying efficiency of laundry varies according to various factors such as hot air temperature, air volume, wind speed, and the like. The higher the temperature of the hot air can improve the drying efficiency, but there is a high risk of causing damage to the laundry due to overheating of the laundry and the drum, so the temperature of the hot air is limited according to the type of washing.

course Temperature (℃) off on high 70 51 mid high 67 49 medium 61 46 low 49 42 ultra low 38 38

In other words, the clothes dryer selects an appropriate dry course in consideration of the type and quantity of cloth and starts the stroke, and then heats the heater to heat the air circulating in the inlet duct after the stroke starts. Repeat on / off of heater to keep below a certain temperature.

To this end, the temperature range to be maintained for each drying course is defined as shown in Table 1 above, the on (on) / off (off) temperature of the heater for each course is defined in advance to form a table.

For example, if the drying course selected by the user corresponds to 'medium', the heater generates heat and the hot air temperature reaches 61 ° C. When the heater is turned off, the temperature of the hot air drops to 46 ° C. while the heater is turned off. Restart the heater to reheat the circulating air. This process is repeated during the course of administration to control the temperature range of the course.

However, the low temperature drying mode corresponding to the ultra low course among the conventional drying courses is a stroke used only for a drying object that cannot tolerate high temperature hot air, such as lingerie or shoes made of silk, and in this case, a low temperature below 40 ° C. There is a disadvantage that the sterilization of the cloth is impossible because the drying is made in.

That is, when the drying process is performed at a temperature below the sterilization temperature capable of sterilizing bacteria, there is a problem in that the bacteria contaminated with the dry object cannot be removed. Furthermore, there was a risk that bacteria remaining in clothing could spread to the user or harm skin health and could not satisfy the code of healthy life aimed at by the user.

The present invention is to solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a clothes dryer that can maximize the sterilization effect of the drying object.

Another object of the present invention to provide a sterilization apparatus to which the ultraviolet lamp is applied and to provide a clothes dryer for controlling the sterilizer according to the drying course.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a clothes dryer equipped with an ultraviolet lamp for emitting ultraviolet (UV) to the drum, and a heater for heating the circulating air inside the drum, when the user selects the drying course is defined Reading a drum temperature corresponding to the selected drying course based on a drum temperature for each drying course; When the stroke start command is input from the user, the UV lamp control method of the clothes dryer includes a step of controlling the ultraviolet lamp and the heater according to the read drum temperature to perform a drying stroke.

The controlling of the UV lamp and the heater according to the drum temperature of the drying course selected by the user may include determining whether the drum temperature of the drying course selected by the user is less than or equal to a preset sterilization temperature, and as a result of the determination, the drum Repeatedly performing on / off of the heater to maintain the drum temperature when the ultraviolet lamp is turned off when the temperature is higher than the sterilization temperature; and when the drum temperature is lower than the sterilization temperature, ultraviolet rays for sterilization of dry clothing And repeatedly performing on / off of the heater so as to maintain the drum temperature while the lamp is turned on.

Therefore, according to the present invention, when the drying is performed with a hot air below a sterilization temperature at which sterilization is possible, the sterilization and disinfection of the clothing can be effectively performed by using an ultraviolet ray by driving a UV lamp during the administration.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention that can specifically realize the above object will be described.

First, referring to Figures 1 and 2, the configuration of the clothes dryer equipped with a sterilizer according to the present invention will be described.

1 is a view schematically showing a configuration of a clothes dryer having a sterilization apparatus of the present invention, in which a drum 2 is rotatably installed inside a main body 1, and a hot air supply passage is provided in the drum 2. (3) and the hot air discharge passage 4 are installed to communicate with each other. A heater 5 is installed on the hot air supply passage 3 to heat the air introduced from the outside of the main body at a high temperature, and is heated by the heater 5 into the drum 2 on the hot air discharge passage 4. Blowing fan (7) for generating a blowing force is installed so as to force the air in and discharge the air after completion of drying to the outside of the main body.

In the lower part of the main body 1, a drive motor 6 as a driving means for rotating the drum 2, and a belt 8 connecting the shaft of the drive motor 6 and the outer circumferential surface of the drum 2 are provided. It is composed. The blowing fan 7 is coupled to the shaft connected to the opposite side of the drive motor 6 is rotated by the drive motor (6).

The drum 2 is rotatably supported by the front supporter 11 and the rear supporter 12 which are respectively installed at the front and the rear of the main body 1.

An opening is formed in the front surface of the main body 1 to allow the input and withdrawal of the drying object, and the door 10 is installed to open and close the opening.

In addition, a sterilizer 20 is installed on the top of the front supporter 11 to sterilize the dry clothing contained in the drum 2 while being automatically turned on / off according to the drying course.

The sterilizer 20 is installed on the upper side of the front supporter 11 installed in front of the main body 1, as shown in Figure 2 the lamp fixing hole 11a on the upper side of the front supporter 11 It is formed to penetrate through the sterilization apparatus 20 is fixed to the lamp fixing hole (11a).

The sterilizing apparatus 20 is a UV lamp 21 for emitting ultraviolet light while being on / off controlled according to an electrical signal applied from a control device (for example, a microcomputer) that controls the entire system, and the UV lamp 21 The lamp holder 22 is fixed to the lamp holder 22, and the lamp bracket 23 is made of a translucent plastic material to which the lamp holder 22 is detachably fixed.

The lamp holder 22 is configured such that the lower surface of the lamp holder 22 is completely opened so that ultraviolet rays emitted from the UV lamp 21 are totally radiated into the drum 2. And, each side portion is made of a structure formed with a plurality of vents 25 for heat dissipation.

The sterilization apparatus 20 configured as described above is an embodiment selected as an example, and the installation position of the sterilization apparatus 20 including the UV lamp 21 may be changed in various forms and the shape of the UV lamp 21 may also be changed. Do.

The present invention provides an algorithm for controlling the UV lamp 21 of the sterilizer 20 in consideration of the drying course while having the sterilizer 20 described above.

Referring to Figure 3, when described in detail the UV lamp control method of the clothes dryer according to the present invention.

As shown, after the user puts the drying object in the wet state into the drum (2), the appropriate drying course is selected in consideration of the type or amount of cloth (S10).

Thereafter, when an administrative start command is applied from the user (S20), the drum temperature T0 corresponding to the drying course selected by the user is read based on the predetermined drum temperature for each drying course (S30).

For example, as shown in Table 1, when the drying course is divided into 'high', 'mid high', 'medium', 'low' and 'ultra low', the heater 5 is turned on for each drying course. Configure the table by pre-defining the on / off temperature.

That is, the temperature at which the heater 5 is turned off and the temperature at which it is turned on are defined for each course so that the drum 2 temperature heated by the heater 5 maintains a constant temperature range corresponding to the drying course.

At this time, the drum temperature (T0) to be read in the step (S30) is preferably set to the heater off temperature.

Subsequently, it is determined whether the drum temperature T0 read in the process S30 is equal to or greater than the preset sterilization temperature T1 (S40).

The sterilization temperature T1 is preferably set to a temperature level at which various bacteria and the like remaining in the dry clothing are naturally sterilized.

As a result of the determination (S40), if the drum temperature (T0) of the drying course selected by the user is higher than the sterilization temperature (T1), since the sterilization and disinfection are performed only by the drum temperature (T0), the UV lamp 21 is used. The driving of the heater 5 is repeated according to the heater on / off temperature so as to maintain the drum temperature T0 corresponding to the drying course in the off state (S50).

On the other hand, if the drum temperature (T0) of the drying course selected by the user (S40) is less than the sterilization temperature (T1), since the sterilization and disinfection of the dry clothing is not performed only by the drying stroke using hot air, the UV lamp 21 is used. The driving of the heater 5 is repeated according to the heater on / off temperature so as to enhance the sterilization effect by maintaining the drum temperature (T0) (S60).

Subsequently, during the administration according to the drying course selected by the user, the drying degree of the object to be dried is periodically detected and the target dryness is reached (S70). After finishing all the strokes (S80).

Therefore, in the present invention, when the drying stroke is made of hot air below the sterilization temperature (T1), the dry clothing is made using the ultraviolet rays emitted from the UV lamp 21 by driving the UV lamp 21 to improve the sterilizing effect during the stroke. Sterilize / Disinfect.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and as can be seen in the appended claims, modifications can be made by those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains, and such modifications are within the scope of the present invention.

UV lamp control method of the clothes dryer according to the present invention described above, sterilization of clothing despite the low temperature drying course by emitting ultraviolet rays through the UV lamp during the course of the administration if the drying operation is made to a temperature that can not sterilize sterilization There is an effect that can maximize the effect.

Claims (2)

In a clothes dryer having an ultraviolet lamp for emitting ultraviolet rays (UV) into the drum and a heater for heating the circulating air inside the drum, Reading a drum temperature corresponding to the selected drying course based on a predetermined drum temperature for each drying course when the user selects a drying course; And, When a stroke start command is input from a user, the step of controlling the ultraviolet lamp and the heater according to the read drum temperature to perform a drying stroke characterized in that the drying step of the clothes dryer. The method of claim 1, The step of controlling the UV lamp and the heater according to the drum temperature of the drying course selected by the user, Determining whether the drum temperature of the drying course selected by the user is less than or equal to a predetermined sterilization temperature; Repeating the on / off of the heater to maintain the drum temperature in a state where the ultraviolet lamp is turned off when the drum temperature is equal to or greater than the sterilization temperature; As a result of the determination, if the drum temperature is less than the sterilization temperature of the clothes dryer, it characterized in that the step of repeatedly performing the on / off of the heater to maintain the drum temperature in the state of turning on the ultraviolet lamp for sterilization of dry clothing UV lamp control method.

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