KR20110111164A - Commercial clothes treating apparatus and operating method of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a commercial laundry treatment apparatus and a method for operating the same, according to an aspect of the present invention, a drum into which a drying object is inserted; Hot air supply means including blowing means for blowing air into the drum and heating means for heating air supplied by the blowing means; Drying degree detecting means for detecting whether the drying object is dried; And a control unit for controlling the operation of the hot air supply means, wherein the control unit comprises: a drying time setting module for setting a drying time according to the amount of money paid and information input by the user; A dryness determination module for determining a dryness degree of a drying object based on a signal transmitted from the dryness detection means; And hot air for stopping the operation of the heating means and operating only the blowing means when the drying is completed before the set drying time has elapsed, based on whether the set drying time has elapsed and the dryness detected by the dryness determining module. Provided is a commercial clothing processing apparatus comprising a supply means control module.

Description

COMMERCIAL CLOTHES TREATING APPARATUS AND OPERATING METHOD OF THE SAME}

The present invention relates to a commercial laundry treatment apparatus and a method of operating the same, and more particularly, to a laundry treatment apparatus used for a user to make a profit by paying a predetermined price.

Clothes treating apparatuses such as a washing machine or a dryer may be classified into various types according to their structure and operation method, but may be classified into household clothes treating apparatuses and commercial clothes treating apparatuses in terms of their use.

Unlike household clothes processing devices that are used for limited users in homes and small residential spaces, commercial clothes processing devices have a longer use time compared to homes and are durable and reliable in that they are used by many users. Not only is this required more, it is also required to have a structure that is easy to maintain and repair. In addition, the lower the cost of maintenance, the greater the profitability of the owners who operate the business sites.

On the other hand, in the case of the commercial laundry treatment apparatus as described above is often provided with a drying function in addition to the laundry function. That is, in the case of a general washing machine, the operation is completed through the process of washing-rinsing-dehydration, but in the case of a washing machine having a drying function, the drying stroke is additionally performed after the dehydration stroke. The drying stroke may be performed in the same manner as in a dryer having only a drying function. Specifically, in a state in which laundry to be dried is put into a drum that is rotatably installed in a cabinet of a laundry treatment apparatus, the inside of the drum is loaded. Blowing hot air through the hot air supply means consisting of a furnace heater and a blowing fan to dry the laundry.

At this time, the drum is rotated at a predetermined speed while the hot air is supplied to allow the laundry to be evenly dried.

In order to use the clothes treating apparatus having such a drying function, when a user pays a predetermined fee through a coin, a card, or other payment means, and selects a desired function, that is, a washing or drying function, The washing or drying function will be performed. In this case, the time is generally set longer as the paid amount is larger, so that the user recognizes that the user is provided with a service corresponding to the paid amount only when the device is operated for a time corresponding to the paid amount.

Therefore, if the drying operation is stopped due to the completion of the drying of the laundry during the drying process, the user regards it as a failure of the machine or recognizes that he has not received enough service for the price paid, and claims to the operator or the service provided. You will feel dissatisfied. On the contrary, if the drying stroke is continued even after the drying is completed, since the heater for continuously generating hot air is continuously operated, energy is unnecessarily consumed, thereby degrading energy efficiency.

The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, the technical problem to provide a commercial clothes treatment apparatus that can minimize the consumption of unnecessary energy that can occur during the drying process.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, a drum to which the drying object is put; Hot air supply means including blowing means for blowing air into the drum and heating means for heating air supplied by the blowing means; Drying degree detecting means for detecting whether the drying object is dried; And a control unit for controlling the operation of the hot air supply means, wherein the control unit comprises: a drying time setting module for setting a drying time according to the amount of money paid and information input by the user; A dryness determination module for determining a dryness degree of a drying object based on a signal transmitted from the dryness detection means; And hot air for stopping the operation of the heating means and operating only the blowing means when the drying is completed before the set drying time has elapsed, based on whether the set drying time has elapsed and the dryness detected by the dryness determining module. Provided is a commercial clothing processing apparatus comprising a supply means control module.

In the above aspect of the present invention, if it is determined that drying is completed in a state in which the drying time corresponding to the amount paid by the user has not elapsed, the control unit stops the operation of the heater as the heating means and operates only the blowing means. Minimizing wasted energy. Here, the control unit may be provided separately from or integrated with the control unit for controlling the clothes processing apparatus.

In addition, when drying is completed before the set drying time elapses during the drying process, it may further include a display means for displaying it to the outside. The display means is configured to visually or audibly inform the user that the drying is completed, and based on this, the user can determine whether to stop the drying process.

In addition, if the drying is completed before the set drying time elapses during the drying process may further include an operation means for stopping the drying process by the user's selection. In this way, the drying time can be quickly terminated if desired, thereby reducing the time required as well as the energy consumption.

Here, the operation means can be operated only when the drying is completed. Through this, it is possible to prevent the operation of the device in the situation that the drying is not completed by operating the operation means inadvertently.

According to another aspect of the invention, the drying step by supplying hot air to the laundry by using a heating means and a blowing means during the drying time determined according to the amount paid or the user's selection; Sensing the dryness of the laundry in a drying process; Stopping drying of the heating means and operating only the blowing means when drying is completed before the determined drying time has elapsed; There is provided a method of operating a commercial washing machine comprising the step of stopping the blowing when a predetermined time elapses.

Here, the method may further include indicating that the drying is completed before stopping the operation of the heating means.

In addition, after the display step, the user may further include the step of stopping the blowing even if the set drying time has not elapsed when the user is instructed.

In addition, the method may further include the step of indicating that drying is completed and the heating means is stopped and only the blowing means is operated.

According to the aspects of the present invention having the configuration as described above, it is possible to minimize the unnecessary consumption of energy by operating the heating means even though the drying is actually completed, it is possible to reduce the energy consumption and increase the operator's yield.

1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a commercial garment treatment apparatus according to the present invention.
2 is a cross-sectional view schematically showing the internal structure of the embodiment shown in FIG.
3 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a controller in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1.
4 is a flowchart illustrating an operating method of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail an embodiment of a commercial garment treatment apparatus according to the present invention.

1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a commercial clothing treatment apparatus according to the present invention, the embodiment is intended for commercial dryers, but is not necessarily limited thereto, the present invention uses a heating means such as a washing machine It may be applied to any type of clothes handling apparatus that supplies hot air to laundry to perform a drying function.

Referring to FIG. 1, the embodiment has a form in which one dryer 100 and one washing machine 200 are arranged side by side. In this case, in addition to the case in which the arrangement of the dryer and the washing machine is arranged left and right, a case in which a plurality of dogs are arranged vertically or vertically is arranged. In addition, a plurality of washing machines may be arranged side by side or a plurality of dryers may be arranged side by side. In addition, the means for supplying the hot air in the washing machine and the dryer are the same, and the structure for supplying the hot air into the inside of the washing machine can utilize a conventional one, so that only the dryer 100 will be described in the following description.

The dryer 100 includes a main body 102 constituting an external appearance of the apparatus, and an inlet 104 for injecting clothes to be dried into the main body 102 is formed on the front surface of the main body 102. The inlet 104 is opened and closed by a door 106, and an operation panel 108 in which various operation buttons for operating the dryer are disposed above the inlet 104.

In addition, a coin box 103 for allowing a user to pay the usage fee is installed on the upper portion of the main body 102, and a card reader 105 is installed on the front of the operation panel 108. The coin box 103 and card reader 105 may be provided for each dryer as shown, or may be configured such that one coin box and a card reader are shared by a plurality of dryers. Therefore, the user can use the apparatus after setting the drying course and time and paying the corresponding fee through the operation buttons provided on the operation panel 108.

2 is a partial cutaway view schematically showing the internal structure of the dryer 100. Referring to FIG. 2, a drum 120 is rotatably installed in the main body 102 to dry a drying object therein, and the drum 120 is supported by a supporter from the front and the rear. It is rotatably supported. In addition, the drum 120 is connected to a power transmission belt (not shown) and a driving motor provided at the lower part of the dryer, and is driven to receive rotational force.

In addition, a heater case 130 is installed at a lower portion of the drum 120, and a rear duct 140 disposed in a vertical direction of the main body 102 is installed at the rear of the heater case 130. The heater case and the rear ducts 130 and 140 are introduced from the outside to function as an intake duct for sucking the outside air existing in the interior of the main body 102 to supply the interior of the drum 120. At this time, the heater 150 is installed inside the heater case 130 to heat the low-temperature outside air sucked to be a high temperature required for drying the laundry. The heater 150 may use a combustion heater using a fuel such as a heat transfer heater or a liquefied gas using a resistor, and one or more may be installed.

Here, the heater case and the rear ducts 130 and 140 are illustrated as two physically separated structures, but are not necessarily limited thereto, and an example in which both are formed integrally may be considered.

At this time, the inlet of the heater case 130 is located inside the main body 102, the outside air inside the main body 102 through the inlet port 110 formed in the lower inlet of the heater case 130. Flows into. The intake port 110 is formed in a plurality of slit shape, through which the outside air introduced from the outside can be directly introduced into the intake port (110). The outside air introduced in this way is heated by the heater 150 and introduced into the rear duct 140 as hot air having a high temperature (about 300 ° C.) and then supplied to the drum.

The supplied hot air is introduced into the front duct 160 located at the front lower side of the drum 120 after drying the laundry contained in the drum. The air flowing into the front duct 160 contains foreign substances such as lint or dust present on the surface of the laundry, and a lint filter 162 for filtering the filter is installed inside the front duct 160. Air is passed through the lint filter 162 to allow foreign substances to be filtered out.

The first exhaust duct 180 is connected to the front duct 160. The first exhaust duct 180 forms a part of an exhaust flow path for discharging the hot air passing through the front duct 160 to the outside of the main body 102, and the intake air flow path and the exhaust flow path are defined therein. A blowing fan 170 is installed to suck air in the drum 120 and force air to be blown out of the dryer so that the flow of air is generated.

The blowing fan 170 included in the embodiment is a full blower fan of a type that is present on the duct where the air is exhausted from the drum and sucks the air discharged from the drum toward the exhaust duct. However, depending on the dryer configuration, the blower fan may be positioned in the heater case 130 in which hot air is supplied to the drum, and the heated air inside the suction duct may be pushed into the drum. This type is called a push type.

In addition, the blowing fan 170 is driven by the above-described drive motor. In other words, one side of the drive motor is provided with a pulley for driving the above-mentioned power transmission belt, the other side is connected to the blowing fan, the blower fan and the drum 120 are driven by one motor Will be. Therefore, in the above embodiment, when the driving motor rotates, the drum and the blowing fan rotate simultaneously. The system that drives the drum and the blower fan simultaneously using a single motor is called a one motor system. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to only one motor system, and a drum driving motor for rotating the drum 120 and a fan motor for rotating the blower fan 170 are provided with two motors, respectively. So-called two-motor systems can also be considered.

On the other hand, a second exhaust duct 190 is disposed at the rear end of the first exhaust duct 180, and the distal end of the second exhaust duct 190 communicates with the outside of the main body 102 to function as an exhaust port. do. As a result, an exhaust flow path is formed by the first and second exhaust ducts and the connecting portion. Thus, the air sucked through the heater case 130 sequentially the rear duct 140, the drum 120, the front duct 160, the first exhaust duct 180 and the second exhaust duct 190. It is discharged to the outside of the body while going through.

In addition, the drum is provided with a dryness sensor (not shown) for measuring the dryness of the laundry. An electrode sensor having a pair of electrodes may be used as the sensor. When two electrodes provided in the electrode sensor come into contact with the laundry, the resistance is changed according to the water content of the laundry, and a corresponding voltage difference is output. Will be. The voltage difference thus output is transmitted to the controller to be described later, and configured to check whether or not drying of the loaded laundry is completed.

Referring to FIG. 3, a configuration of a control unit for controlling the operation of the dryer 100 is schematically illustrated. The control unit 250 is a microcomputer 252 for controlling the operation of the device as a whole, a dryness determination module 254 is connected to the electrode sensor to determine the dryness of the laundry is put on the basis of the voltage difference transmitted from the electrode sensor A drying time setting module 256 for setting a drying time based on the amount of money charged through the coin box 103 or the card reader 105 and a user's selection input through the operation panel 108; It is configured to include a heater / blowing fan control module 258 for controlling the operation of the heater 150 and the blowing fan 170.

The heater / blowing fan control module 258 basically operates the heater and the blower fan for a drying time set by the drying time setting module 256 so that a drying process is performed while the drying time is elapsed. When it is detected that the drying of the laundry is completed through the dryness determination module 252 before, the operation of the heater 150 is stopped and only the blower fan 170 is operated.

Through this, in this case, in order to allow the user to check the operation state of the device, the microcomputer 252 is dried through the display 108b provided on the operation panel 108, and only the blower fan is operated. Will be displayed. In some cases, the user may want to stop the operation of the device without additional operation in the dry state. Therefore, a separate operation button 108a is provided on the operation panel 108 and only the blower fan operates as described above. Only when the operation button 108a is pressed, the drying process is immediately stopped.

At this time, the operation button 108 ㅁ is set to operate only in a state in which drying is completed before the drying time elapses, thereby preventing an unwanted operation interruption by an incorrect operation.

The operation of the above embodiment will now be described with reference to FIG.

When the user selects the course or the desired drying function through the operation button provided on the operation panel 108 (S01), and pays a predetermined amount through the coin box or card reader (S02), the drying time setting module The drying time is set based on the user's selection and the amount of payment (S03).

Thereafter, the heater and the blower fan are operated to start a drying process (S04), and a progress time is counted in the drying process to determine whether the set drying time has elapsed (S05). If the drying time has elapsed, the process moves to step S11 to stop the drying process regardless of whether the laundry is actually dried.

In the state where the drying time has not elapsed, the dryness of the laundry introduced through the electrode sensor is continuously checked at the same time as the drying time counting (S06). If it is confirmed that the drying of the laundry is not completed, the process returns to step S04 and repeats step S06. When it is confirmed that the drying is completed, the operation of the heater is stopped to minimize unnecessary energy consumption (S07).

In addition, the user is notified by the display that only the blower fan is operating because the drying is completed so that the user can recognize the operating state of the device (S08).

On the other hand, in a state in which the operation of the heater is stopped, as described above, it is checked whether there is a stop instruction from the user through the operation button (S09), and if there is such a instruction, the process moves to step S11 to stop the drying process. do. If there is no instruction, go to step S10 to continuously operate the blower fan or stop the drying process depending on whether the drying time has elapsed.

Claims (8)

A drum into which the object to be dried is put;
Hot air supply means including blowing means for blowing air into the drum and heating means for heating air supplied by the blowing means;
Drying degree detecting means for detecting whether the drying object is dried;
A control unit for controlling the operation of the hot air supply means; Commercial clothes processing apparatus comprising a,
The control unit,
A drying time setting module for setting a drying time according to the paid amount and information input by the user;
A dryness determination module for determining a dryness degree of a drying object based on a signal transmitted from the dryness detection means; And
On the basis of whether the set drying time has elapsed and the dryness detected by the dryness determining module, if drying is completed before the set drying time has elapsed, the hot air supply for stopping the operation of the heating means and operating only the blowing means. Means control module; Commercial clothes processing apparatus comprising a. The method of claim 1,
When the drying is completed before the set drying time elapses during the drying process, the commercial clothing treatment apparatus further comprises a display means for displaying it to the outside. The method of claim 2,
When the drying is completed before the set drying time elapses during the drying process, the commercial clothes processing apparatus further comprises an operation means for stopping the drying process by the user's selection. The method of claim 3,
The operation means is a commercial clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that only operating when the drying is completed. Performing drying by supplying hot air to the laundry using a heating means and a blowing means during a drying time determined according to the amount paid or the user's selection;
Sensing the dryness of the laundry in a drying process;
Stopping drying of the heating means and operating only the blowing means when drying is completed before the determined drying time has elapsed;
Stopping the blowing when a preset time elapses. The method of claim 5,
Operating method of the commercial washing machine further comprises the step of indicating that the drying is completed before stopping the operation of the heating means. The method of claim 6,
And a step of stopping the blowing even if the set drying time has not elapsed in response to a user's instruction after the displaying step. The method of claim 5,
And further comprising indicating that the drying is completed to stop the heating means and to operate only the blowing means.

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