KR20080094707A - Domestic clothes drier with twin fan - Google Patents

Abstract

Dryer with a drum (1) where the clothes must be placed, one fan (5) blowing a drying air current through such drum, a condenser (3) in which such drying air current enters, a cooling air duct (4) blowing a second fresh air current through the condenser, produced by a second fan (6) connected to the air duct; at least one of these fans is composed of one set of external blades (10, 11, 12) and a second set of internal blades (21, 22, 23) that spin on a common axle (X), and the blades of the first set are laid out along one cylindrical structure, while the second set of blades are laid out along a second cylindrical structure inside the first one.

Description

Household Clothes Dryer with Twin Fans {DOMESTIC CLOTHES DRIER WITH TWIN FAN}

The present invention relates to an improved type of clothes dryer, preferably a household clothes dryer, which operates in a very efficient manner.

Reference is made herein to a simple clothes dryer in the following, but it should be understood that this description can also be applied to a combined laundry and drying machine in the same manner and thus also valid for a combined laundry and drying machine.

Apparel dryers operating using a variety of methods, in particular clothes dryers operated by condensation of a flow of hot air blown into a drum to remove moisture contained in the garment or by venting the flow of wet hot air to the outside Is known.

The clothes dryer is generally described in European Patent Application No. EP 04 009650.5 in the name of the same applicant as the present applicant, which is cited for brevity.

However, for the benefit of the reader, a brief description of this patent application document is included herein.

These dryers, as is known, usually comprise a fan and an associated electric motor, which blow air from the outside and blow the air into a drum containing the clothes to be dried and heated by an appropriate duct. It is produced by installing a heating and blowing system.

The heating element is installed inside the duct and is properly operated to heat the air blown by the blower across the heating element, whereby hot air is introduced into the drum to evaporate the moisture contained in the garment. do.

The hot air is introduced into the drum and then causes evaporation of the moisture contained in the garment, thereby being substantially saturated or completely saturated with moisture, after which the air is blown by the blower and the blower Forming a continuous flow directed to a suitable condenser, usually comprised of a heat exchanger, wherein the wet hot air flow passes through the heat exchanger along a so-called "hot" path, is blown from the periphery, passes through the heat exchanger and then back to the periphery Substantial continuous flow of air being guided passes through the heat exchanger along a so-called "cold" path.

Conventionally, the air flow along the "low temperature" path is also driven and maintained by blowers operated by respective electric motors.

The clothes dryer is a fairly simple, inexpensive, and operationally reliable mechanism, but has the common disadvantage that there is considerable noise due to the air flow blown into the inlet and outlet ducts at a significant speed, as is known.

As a result, the use of these dryers is usually limited to a specific time frame, so that the use of the dryer becomes less attractive for the average user.

The most direct technical solution for achieving two separate circulations of said air flow is to use each blower inserted inside a corresponding duct operated by each motor which is independently controlled.

Clearly, however, the two blowers use not only a negligible amount of power due to mechanical frictional factors of limited importance, but also the power that must be used to impart the required speed or pressure to each air flow, especially at the required flow rate. do.

Thus, a drying fan can be provided and, if necessary, can cool the condenser and provide the usual drying performance, while still being more efficient while keeping the manufacturing costs low without increasing the complexity of the dryer. It is desirable to provide a clothes dryer, which is the main object of the present invention.

These and other objects, which will be described further below, are achieved by providing a clothes dryer according to the following claims, the invention being more clearly understood from the following description, which is provided only by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings. Will be.

1 shows a schematic diagram of a clothes dryer provided with two fans and a condenser that are firmly connected to each other according to the prior art.

2 and 3 show two perspective views, ie front and side views, respectively, of a fan for circulating air in a dryer according to the invention.

4 shows a front view of the fan.

5 shows a cross section through the center of the fan.

6 shows a front view of a variant of an embodiment of a fan according to the invention.

FIG. 7 is two separate graphs showing pressure progress and power consumption of a motor in a clothes dryer having a fan according to the prior art (graph A) and a fan identical to the fan but installed according to the present invention (graph B). Is shown in the same diagram.

Referring to Figure 1, in the clothes dryer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a drum (1) is provided for accommodating the clothes to be dried, the drum is for the circulation of the air for drying the duct ( 2), the drying air also passes through a condenser (3) capable of condensing moisture present in the air passing through the condenser and through the "low temperature" air flow, ie the duct (4) blown and connected from the surroundings. The air flow conveyed to the condenser 3 passes through the condenser.

Both the duct 2 and the duct 4 comprise two separate fans 5, 6 inside the duct for driving respective drying air flows and cooling air flows.

One or both of the fans consists of two sets of vanes disposed on the outer side of each cylinder, the two cylinders being to be understood in an conceptual sense.

The cylinder is also coaxial and the radius of the first cylinder is smaller than the radius of the second cylinder.

However, substantially two cylinders and thus two sets of vanes are also inserted inside one another without being in contact with each other as is clearly shown in FIGS. 2 to 5.

The first set of vanes 10, 11, 12,... Or outer set are firmly supported by walls P disposed along each cylindrical geometric base, thereby forming a support structure of the fan.

A predetermined set of vanes of the second set of inner vanes 20, 21, 22,... Are advantageously similarly supported on the wall P such that the two sets of vanes can be assembled together and rotated simultaneously.

Referring also to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, in order to prevent harmful vortices on the inner vanes, the inner vanes are not flat and have a curved shape, ie associated concavities oriented in consideration of rotation. , C2, C3, etc.) is advantageous.

Further, the free ends of the vanes of each set are preferably connected by reinforcing rings 7, 8, respectively.

The fan according to the invention is thus formed.

The mode of operation of such a fan will now be evident, in fact the air sucked by the cavity between the two sets of vanes is moved outward by the outer vanes according to known mechanics, while the air sucked into the inner vanes It is naturally blown outwards, i.e. into the cavity, at a certain given speed which is added to the speed imparted by the outer vanes through which the air passes.

Basically, operation is similar to that of a twin stage fan, where at least some of the air sucked into it is subjected to continuous action of two sets of vanes.

Clearly, the flow of air blown from the inner vanes also aids in the movement of air sucked directly from the outside into the cavity, which improves the general efficiency of the fan.

It is also conceivable that the air blown out from the set of inner vanes is slightly decelerated by the air sucked directly into the cavity from the outside, but the overall effect is to improve the efficiency of the fan, as shown in FIG. Figure 7 shows two graphs showing the flow rate of a fan according to the invention and the flow rate of a fan not according to the invention, graph A represents the pressure and power consumption of the fan not according to the invention, and graph B shows The set of inner vanes according to the invention shows the corresponding parameters of the same fan added.

Furthermore, with reference to FIG. 4, in certain embodiments and in certain operating conditions, for example, when the fan must always be operated in the same direction of rotation, ie in the main direction of rotation as occurs more often in a clothes dryer, the fan is not radial. When the inner vanes are provided in a direction inclined by a given angle (i) with respect to the radial plane passing through, the efficiency of the fan is further increased, especially when the inner vanes are inclined to refer to the rotation direction S of the fan, respectively. The outer edges 45, 46, 47 of the inner vanes of the edge are clearly positioned more forward than the respective inner edges 45A, 46A, 47A with respect to the planes p1, p2, p3 passing through the respective vanes. Found.

More generally, however, it is possible to construct a fan which operates in an alternating manner for the same time in each direction of rotation, in which case the vanes of the fan also do not have a differential shape but rather as an example in FIG. 6. It is clearly advantageous for all inner vanes to be flat and radially arranged as shown.

Claims (7)

A drum (1) for receiving clothes to be dried, at least one first fan (5) capable of blowing a first flow of drying air through the drum, and designed to allow the drying air flow to pass through An optional condenser 3, and an associated cooling air duct 4 carrying a second flow of fresh air through the condenser 3, the second flow being directed to the cooling air duct 4. In a clothes dryer or combined garment laundry and drying machine, which is driven by a combined second fan 6, At least one of the fans 5, 6 is formed by a first set of outer vanes 10, 11, 12 and a second set of inner vanes 21, 22, 23 that rotate about a common axis X. , A first set of vanes is distributed on the first cylinder, The vanes of the second set of vanes are disposed along a second cylinder, which is different from the first cylinder and is disposed inside the first cylinder. The clothes dryer or combined garment laundry and drying machine according to claim 1, wherein the base of the cylinder formed by the first set of vanes is at least partially closed by a wall (P). A clothes dryer or combined garment laundry and drying machine as claimed in claim 2, wherein the vanes of the second set of vanes disposed therein are fixed against the wall (P) at one of the ends. A clothes dryer or combined garment laundry and drying machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said vanes of said first set are radial with respect to said common axis (X). The vane of claim 4, wherein the vanes of the second set of inner vanes 20, 21, 22 are oriented in a non-radial direction with respect to the common axis and have a predetermined slope with respect to each radial plane passing through the vanes. (i) a clothes dryer or combined garment laundry and drying machine. 6. The garment according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined slope is given such that the outer edges 45, 46, 47 of each inner vane are located further forward than the respective inner edges 45A, 46A, 47A. Dryer or combined garment laundry and drying appliance. 7. A laundry dryer or a combination garment wash according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the inner vanes have concave surfaces C1, C2, C3 which are directed in consideration of the rotation of the fan. Drying appliance.

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