KR20090100802A - Cloth treating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A cloth managing device is provided to reduce consumption of electric energy with simple structure by supplying the hot wind according to the amount of the clothes appropriately. CONSTITUTION: A cloth managing device includes a cabinet(10), a hot wind supply unit, a detection unit(60), a control part, and a support member. The cabinet includes a receiving space in which the clothes are received. The hot wind supply unit supplies the hot wind to the inside of the cabinet selectively. The detection unit measures the number of the clothes. The control part controls the hot wind supply unit according to the number of the measured clothes. The clothes are put on the support member. The detection unit is equipped on the support member.

Description

Clothing treating apparatus

The present invention relates to a clothes handling apparatus, and more particularly, to a clothes handling apparatus capable of drying clothes appropriately according to the amount of clothes accommodated.

Recently, various types of clothes treating apparatuses have been used together with washing machines for washing clothes. For example, drum-type dryers for drying clothes after washing, cabinet-type dryers for hanging clothes and drying, and refreshers for supplying hot air to clothes and refreshing clothes have been developed.

Among the clothes treating apparatuses, a refresher, a dryer, or the like mainly supplies air by heating the air using a heater. Such heaters include a gas heater that burns gas to heat air, and an electric heater that heats air by electric resistance. In recent years, electric heaters that are easy to install and simple in structure have been used.

However, when the air is heated by the electric heater as described above, the high temperature heat of the heater may be directly transmitted to the clothing, which may cause damage to the clothing or further, a fire may occur in the clothing processing apparatus.

In addition, since the electric heater heats the air by using electricity, in order to heat the air to a desired temperature, a large amount of electricity is consumed, and thus a lot of maintenance costs are involved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to provide a laundry treatment apparatus having a simple structure and reducing electric energy consumption.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a clothes treatment apparatus capable of drying clothes suitably according to the amount of clothes accommodated in the clothes treatment apparatus.

An object of the present invention as described above, the cabinet in which the accommodation space is accommodated clothes are formed; A hot air supply device for selectively supplying hot air into the cabinet; A sensing unit measuring the number of clothes accommodated in the accommodation space; And a control unit for controlling the hot air supply device according to the number of clothes measured by the sensing unit.

Here, the cabinet further includes a support member on which the garment is mounted, and the sensing unit may be provided in the support member. More specifically, the sensing unit may be formed in each of the at least one hanger groove formed in the support member to be a switch that emits a signal when the hanger is mounted.

On the other hand, the control unit preferably controls the driving time of the hot air supply device or the temperature of the supplied hot air according to the number of clothes. To this end, the control unit preferably includes a storage unit for storing data about the driving time of the hot air supply device and the temperature of the hot air in advance corresponding to the number of clothes.

In addition, the clothes processing apparatus according to the present invention further includes a measuring unit for measuring the weight of the clothes accommodated in the accommodation space, the control unit is the number of the clothes, the weight of the measured clothes and clothes for the clothes received The hot air supply device can be controlled according to the information. In this case, the clothing information may be input by the user, and the clothing information may include at least one of cloth information and proper drying degree of the clothes to be accommodated.

Here, the controller may control the driving time or the temperature of the hot air of the hot air supply device. In detail, the control unit may include a storage unit in which data about a driving time of the hot air supply device or a temperature of the hot air is stored in advance in response to the number of the clothes, the weight of the clothes, and the clothes information.

On the other hand, the clothes treating apparatus according to the present invention may further include a steam generating device for selectively spraying steam to the receiving space.

Here, the controller may control the driving of the hot air supply device and the steam generator according to the number of clothes measured by the sensing unit. Preferably, the control unit controls the driving time of the steam generator or the temperature of the supplied steam.

Alternatively, the controller may control the operation of the hot air supply device and the steam generator according to the number of the clothes, the weight of the clothes, and the clothes information on the clothes to be accommodated. In this case, the steam generator may It is possible to control the running time or the temperature of the steam supplied.

As described above, the laundry treatment apparatus according to the present invention can prevent unnecessary waste of energy by appropriately drying the clothes according to the amount of clothes accommodated.

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

1 is a front view showing a laundry treatment apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In the present specification, a refresher for refreshing clothes and supplying hot air as a clothes treating apparatus is described, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the idea of the present invention may be applied to other clothes treating apparatuses that may include a heat pump described below. have. Hereinafter, a configuration of a laundry treatment apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, the clothes treating apparatus 100 according to the present exemplary embodiment has a hot air supplying hot air to a cabinet 10 and a receiving space 12 in which a receiving space 12 for receiving the clothing 1 is formed. Feeder (see FIG. 2, 22). In addition, the laundry treatment apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment may further include a steam generator (see FIG. 2, 30) for selectively spraying steam into the accommodation space 12.

Here, the clothes treating apparatus according to the present embodiment includes at least two or more detection sensors (refer to FIG. 2, 50 and 52), a hot air supply device 22, and a steam generator 30 that sense a temperature inside the cabinet 10. It may further include a control unit (not shown) for controlling the driving.

First, the cabinet 10 is provided with various components to be described later, the receiving space 12 is formed therein to accommodate clothing. The receiving space 12 is selectively communicated with the outside by the door 14. In addition, the receiving space 12 is provided with a variety of support members 16 and the like to hang the clothes (1), the support member 16 for supporting such clothes (1) will be described in detail later.

On the other hand, inside the cabinet 10 is formed a machine room 20 in which the hot air supply device 22 for selectively supplying hot air and steam to the receiving space 12 and the steam generator 30 is accommodated. The machine room 20 is preferably located at the lower portion of the accommodation space 12, the above-described hot air supply device 22 and the steam generator 30 is located therein. As such, the reason why the machine room 20 is located at the bottom is that the hot air and steam supplied to the accommodation space 12 have the property of being raised by heat, so that the machine room 20 is located at the bottom to face the hot air and This is because it is preferable to supply steam.

2 is a perspective view schematically showing the configuration of the inside of the machine room 20. In FIG. 2, only components of the heat pump 22 and the steam generator 30 constituting the hot air supply device are illustrated for convenience of description, and not illustrated for the piping line connecting the components.

Referring to FIG. 2, the heat pump 22 and the steam generator 30 for supplying steam are located in the machine room 20 as a hot air supply device for supplying hot air to the accommodation space (see FIG. 1 and 12). do.

The heat pump 22 corresponding to the hot air supply device of the present invention is similar to a heat pump used in an air conditioner or the like. That is, the heat pump 22 is provided with an evaporator 24, a compressor 26, a condenser 27 and an expansion valve 28 through which the refrigerant circulates, thereby dehumidifying and heating the air. That is, the refrigerant evaporates in the evaporator 24 to absorb latent heat of ambient air, thereby cooling the air to condense and remove moisture in the air. In addition, when the refrigerant is condensed in the condenser 27 via the compressor 26, the latent heat is released toward the surrounding air to heat the surrounding air. Therefore, the evaporator 24 and the condenser 27 function as a heat exchanger, and the air introduced into the machine room 20 is dehumidified and heated through the evaporator 24 and the condenser 27 to the receiving space 12. Supplied.

As such, the air heated by the heat pump 22 may be slightly lower than the air heated by using a conventional heater, but the air can be dehumidified without using a separate dehumidifier. Therefore, the air supplied back to the receiving space 12 by the heat pump 22 corresponds to a relatively 'low temperature dry air' (here, 'low temperature' does not mean that the temperature is absolutely low, but heating But it is used in the sense that the temperature is relatively low compared to conventional heating air). Therefore, the air supplied by the heat pump 22 of the present invention has a lower temperature than the hot air of the conventional clothes treatment apparatus, but supplies dehumidified air without a separate dehumidifier, so that the clothes are easily dried and refreshed. It becomes possible.

In detail, an air inlet 21 through which air in the accommodation space 12 flows into the inside of the machine room 20 is formed at an upper end of the machine room 20, and an air inlet 21, an evaporator 24, and a condenser are formed. It is preferable to form a flow path through which air flows by the duct 29 connecting the 27 and the flow fan 32. The air introduced into the machine room 20 through the air inlet 21 by the duct 29 is dehumidified and heated while passing through the heat pump 22, and is supplied back to the receiving space 12 by the flow fan 32. do.

Here, although not shown in the drawings, the air inlet 21 may be preferably provided with a filter. By providing a filter at the air inlet 21, it is possible to filter various foreign matters and the like that may be included in the air flowing into the machine room 20 from the accommodation space 12 to supply only fresh air to the accommodation space 12.

On the other hand, the machine room 20 is provided with a steam generator 30 for selectively supplying steam to the accommodation space (12). By supplying steam to the accommodation space 12 by the steam generating device 30, it is possible to remove wrinkles and the like that may occur in clothing, and furthermore, by the high temperature steam with the effect of sterilization and refreshing due to the swelling of the clothing cloth, etc. You can expect the effect. As such, the timing of spraying steam by the steam generator 30 may be appropriately modified. Preferably, steam is sprayed before the hot air is supplied by the heat pump 22 described above. This is because it is preferable to supply hot air and then to dry the clothes after injecting high temperature steam.

The steam generator 30 is provided with a heater (not shown) for heating the water therein, and generates water by heating the water to supply to the receiving space (12). An external faucet or the like may be used as the water supply source for supplying water to the steam generator 30, or a container type water supply source provided on one side of the machine room 20 may be used. This container type water supply is preferably detachably installed so that the user can separate the water supply from the machine room 20 to fill the water and reinstall it.

In addition, the steam generated by the steam generator 30 is supplied to the accommodation space 12 through the steam hose 36 and the steam nozzle 40. In this case, the shorter the length of the steam hose 36 is, in order to prevent the temperature of the steam from being lowered or the condensation of steam while the steam moves along the steam hose 36. Therefore, when the machine room 20 is located below the accommodation space 12, the steam nozzle 40 preferably supplies steam through the top of the machine room 20, that is, the bottom of the accommodation space 12. .

In addition, a cooling fan 34 may be provided in the rear portion of the machine room 20. The cooling fan 34 supplies the air outside the machine room 20 into the machine room 20, thereby cooling the above-described heat pump 22, in particular, a compressor or by cooling the steam generator 30, thereby providing a machine room 20. The internal temperature is prevented from rising too much. On the other hand, reference numeral 52 and 50 not described in Figure 2 is a duct 29 and the receiving space 12 is located near the outlet 33 through which the heated air is discharged to detect a sensor for sensing the temperature of the flowing air Illustrated.

Meanwhile, the clothes treating apparatus according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention refreshes, sterilizes, or dries the clothes by selectively spraying hot air or steam on the clothes to be accommodated. However, in the case of injecting hot air or steam, it is preferable that the supply amount and temperature of the hot air or steam are determined in consideration of the amount of clothes accommodated.

In other words, if hot air or steam is supplied regardless of the amount of clothing, excessive hot air or steam is supplied when the clothes are small, and energy consumption is a problem, and when there are many clothes, sufficient refreshing, sterilization or drying effects cannot be expected. . Therefore, the clothes treating apparatus according to the present embodiment can expect a sufficient refreshing, sterilizing or drying effect while preventing energy waste by spraying hot air or steam appropriately according to the amount of clothes to be accommodated. Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings will be described in more detail.

3 is a perspective view showing the support member in more detail in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 3, the support member 16 is located at an upper portion of the receiving space 12 inside the cabinet 10, and a user hanger on which clothes (see FIG. 1 and 1) are mounted (see FIG. 1). 2) is hanging on the support member (16). Therefore, at least one hanger groove 18 is formed on the top surface of the support member 16 so that the hanger 2 is mounted, so that the user inserts the upper portion of the hanger 2 into the hanger groove 18 so as to hang the hanger 2. It will be fixed.

In this case, the clothes treating apparatus according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a sensing unit capable of measuring the amount of clothes accommodated in the accommodation space 12, specifically, the number of clothes. The sensing unit is provided in the support member 16, and specifically, the sensing unit 60 includes one or more switches respectively formed in one or more hanger grooves 18 formed in the support member 16. Here, the switch provided in the support member 16 transmits a signal to the controller when the hanger 2 is mounted on the hanger groove 18.

4 shows a schematic configuration diagram of the sensing unit 60 in this embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 4, as described above, the sensing unit 60 is constituted by one or more switches 62, and such a switch 62 is formed on a hanger groove formed in the supporting member (see FIG. 3 and 16) (see FIG. 3, 18) respectively. Each switch 62 is connected with a resistor 64 having a predetermined capacity. Therefore, when the hanger 2 is mounted on the hanger groove 18, the switch 62 provided in the groove 18 is turned on to pass current, and the controller measures the resistance value by measuring the current value. It becomes possible. Based on the measured resistance value, the controller determines the number of switches that are turned on, whereby the controller determines the number of the hangers 2 mounted on the groove 18, thereby accommodating the space 12. Determine the number of clothes provided in the.

The controller measures the number of clothes accommodated in the accommodation space 12 as described above, and then controls the driving of the hot air supply device 22 and the steam generator 30 according to the measured number of clothes.

Specifically, the controller controls the driving time of the hot air supply device 22 or the temperature of the hot air supplied according to the measured number of clothes. For example, as the number of clothes increases, it is preferable to lengthen the driving time of the hot air supply device 22 and to increase the temperature of the supplied hot air in proportion to the number of clothes. To this end, the control unit of the laundry treatment apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a storage unit (not shown) that stores data on the driving time of the hot air supply device 22 or the temperature of the supplied hot air in correspondence to the number of clothes. It is preferable. Such data may be directly input by the user, but is preferably input to the controller in advance by the manufacturer or the like before the product is released.

On the other hand, even if the amount of clothing by measuring the number of clothes as described above because the weight of the clothes mounted on each hanger is different from each other, it may be difficult to accurately measure the weight of the clothes.

Therefore, the clothes treating apparatus according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention is further provided with a measuring unit 70 for measuring the weight of the clothes. The measuring unit 70 can be implemented in various forms, in the present embodiment consists of a load cell (loadcell) provided in the support member 16. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the hanger 2 is mounted on the support member 16, it becomes possible to measure not only the number of hangers to be mounted but also the weight of the clothes to be mounted.

As a result, the controller can control the hot air supply device 22 according to the weight of the clothes as well as the number of the measured clothes. For example, it is preferable to increase the driving time of the hot air supply device as the weight of the clothes increases, and to increase the rotation speed of the flow fan 32 so that the hot air and the like are evenly sprayed on the clothes as the number of clothes increases.

On the other hand, when adjusting the driving time of the hot air supply device 22 and the temperature of the supplied hot air according to the number and weight of clothes as described above, it may be difficult to simply adjust the temperature of the hot air according to the weight of the clothes. That is, it is preferable to adjust the temperature of the hot air in accordance with the appropriate drying temperature according to the cloth and the cloth of the clothing to be accommodated. Therefore, the clothes treating apparatus according to the present embodiment preferably includes an input unit (not shown) for inputting clothes information such as cloth or proper drying temperature for clothes to be accommodated.

Such an input unit is preferably provided on the front surface of the door 14 of the cabinet 10. Therefore, the user inputs the clothing information through the input unit before placing the clothes in the accommodation space 12 and mounts the clothes on the accommodation space 12 by the hanger 2. In this case, the control unit receives information such as cloth and proper drying temperature of the clothes through the input unit, and further, the number and weight of the clothes can be measured by the sensing unit 60 and the measuring unit 70. On the other hand, as described above, the control unit pre-inputs the driving time of the hot air supply device and the temperature of the supplied hot air in response to the clothes information, the number and weight of the clothes. Therefore, the controller controls the driving time of the hot air supply device 22 and the temperature of the supplied hot air according to the input clothing information, the measured number of clothes, and the weight of the clothes.

In addition, since the clothes treating apparatus according to the present invention includes a steam generator 30 for supplying steam to the accommodation space 12, the control unit also controls the steam generator 30. In this case, the controller may control the steam generator 30 according to the number of clothes measured by the sensing unit 60. For example, as the number of clothes increases, the driving time of the steam generator 30 and the temperature of the supplied steam may be increased.

In addition, in the case where the measuring unit 70 and the input unit are provided, the control unit controls the driving time of the steam generating device and the temperature of the steam to be supplied according to the weight of clothes measured by the measuring unit 70 and the clothes information input by the input unit. It becomes possible to control. For example, as the weight of the clothes increases, the driving time of the steam generator 30 and the temperature of the supplied steam may be increased, and further, the temperature of the supplied steam may be appropriately adjusted according to the clothes information.

1 is a front view of a laundry treatment apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing the inside of the machine room in Figure 1,

3 is a partial perspective view showing a supporting member in FIG. 1, and

4 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a sensing unit provided in the supporting member of FIG. 3.

Claims (16)

A cabinet in which an accommodation space in which clothes are accommodated is formed; A hot air supply device for selectively supplying hot air into the cabinet; A sensing unit measuring the number of clothes accommodated in the accommodation space; And And a control unit for controlling the hot air supply device according to the number of clothes measured by the sensing unit. The method of claim 1, And a support member through which the garment is mounted in the cabinet, and the sensing unit is provided in the support member. The method of claim 2, The sensing unit is formed in each of the at least one hanger groove formed in the support member, characterized in that the clothing processing device comprising a switch for emitting a signal when the hanger is mounted. The method of claim 1, The control unit is a clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the driving time of the hot air supply device or the temperature of the supplied hot air according to the number of the clothes. The method of claim 4, wherein The control unit comprises a storage unit for storing the data about the driving time of the hot air supply device and the temperature of the hot air in advance corresponding to the number of the clothes. The method of claim 1, Further comprising a measuring unit for measuring the weight of the clothing accommodated in the accommodation space, the control unit for controlling the hot air supply device according to the number of the clothing, the weight of the measured clothing and clothing information about the clothing to be accommodated Clothing processing apparatus, characterized in that. The method of claim 6, Clothing processing apparatus, characterized in that the clothing information is input by the user. The method of claim 7, wherein The clothing information includes at least one of the clothing information and the appropriate drying degree of the clothing to be accommodated. The method of claim 6, The control unit is a clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the driving time of the hot air supply device or the temperature of the hot air. The method of claim 9, The control unit may include a storage unit configured to store data about a driving time of the hot air supply device or a temperature of the hot air in advance in response to the number of the clothes, the weight of the clothes, and the clothes information. . The method of claim 1, And a steam generator for selectively injecting steam into the accommodation space. The method of claim 11, The control unit is a clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the operation of the hot air supply device and the steam generator according to the number of clothes measured by the detection unit. The method of claim 12, The control unit is a clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the operating time of the steam generator or the temperature of the supplied steam. The method of claim 6, And a steam generator for selectively injecting steam into the accommodation space. The method of claim 14, And the control unit controls the operation of the hot air supply device and the steam generator according to the number of the clothes, the weight of the clothes and the clothes information on the clothes to be accommodated. The method of claim 15, The control unit is a clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that for controlling the operating time of the steam generator or the temperature of the supplied steam.

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