KR20120110498A - Clothes treating apparatus with a heat exchanger cleaning means - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A cloth processing device with a heat exchanger washing unit is provided to minimize the reduction of air volume caused by flow resistance by partially cleaning the heat exchanger even in a case that condensate water is not enough. CONSTITUTION: A drum is installed in a cabinet. A heat exchanger exchanges heat for air discharged from the drum. A plurality of spray nozzles spray water to separate area among surfaces of the heat exchanger. A control valve(160) supplies water to one or more spray nozzles. A controller controls the operation of the control valve. The controller controls the water so that the water is sequentially sprayed through the spray nozzles. The water is supplied from an outside water supply source.

Description

CLOTHES TREATING APPARATUS WITH A HEAT EXCHANGER CLEANING MEANS}

The present invention relates to a laundry treatment apparatus having a heat exchanger cleaning means, and more particularly to a laundry treatment apparatus having a means for removing lint accumulated on the surface of the evaporator.

The clothes treating apparatus having a drying function generally removes moisture by supplying hot air into the drum while a drying object is put into the rotating drum. The hot air supplied to the drum is generated by adding heat obtained by burning fuel such as electric resistance heat or gas to the air supplied to the drum, but a heat pump may be used to generate hot air in order to reduce energy consumption.

Specifically, the hot air exhausted from the drum is cooled and condensed by heat exchange with the evaporator, and the hot air is generated by heat-exchanging the air supplied to the drum with the condenser. When the heat pump is used, the amount of heat discarded in the exhaust or condensation process can be re-injected into the hot air generation, thereby reducing energy consumption.

However, as described above, the air passing through the evaporator is exhausted after contacting the clothes to be dried, and thus includes a large number of lint separated from the clothes surface during the drying process. In order to remove such lint, a lint removing filter is installed before the inlet to the evaporator on the exhaust flow path of the hot air, thereby preventing the lint from being exhausted or introduced into the evaporator to some extent.

However, in order to increase the lint removing performance, the mesh of the lint removing filter must be made small, but on the contrary, there is a problem in reducing the size of the mesh because the resistance of the flow path is increased and the exhaust efficiency is lowered. As a result, some of the lint passes through the lint removing filter and is introduced into the evaporator, and thus the introduced lint adheres to the surface of the evaporator, causing a decrease in heat exchange efficiency and an increase in flow resistance.

In order to solve this, various attempts have been made to remove the lint accumulated on the surface of the evaporator. As an example, a clothes treating apparatus has been disclosed in which condensed water generated by condensation by an evaporator is sprayed onto an evaporator surface to thereby remove lint. However, since the amount of condensate is not always sufficiently supplied, lint removal is not possible when the amount of available condensate is low, and even if the amount of condensate is sufficient, the condensate injected through the nozzle is evenly sprayed on the surface of the evaporator. In order to solve this problem, a pump having a high capacity is required.

In other words, as the capacity of the pump increases, the amount of power consumed increases, and the volume thereof also becomes large, thereby limiting the installation.

The present invention has been made in order to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art as described above, to provide a clothes treatment apparatus having a heat exchanger washing means that can remove lint accumulated on the heat exchanger surface even when the amount of condensate is insufficient. It is a challenge.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a clothes treating apparatus having a heat exchanger cleaning means capable of removing lint throughout the heat exchanger even with a small capacity pump.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, a cabinet; A drum installed inside the cabinet; A heat exchanger which exchanges heat with air exhausted from the drum; A plurality of injection nozzles for injecting water into different regions of the surface of the heat exchanger; A control valve for supplying water to at least one spray nozzle of each spray nozzle; And a control unit controlling the operation of the control valve to control water to be sequentially sprayed through a plurality of injection nozzles.

In this aspect of the present invention, one spray nozzle is not to wash the entire area of the heat exchanger, but to partially wash the heat exchanger through the plurality of spray nozzles. In other words, the surface of the heat exchanger does not necessarily have to be washed at the same time, in the case that a small amount of condensate is present, considering only the remaining portion of the heat exchanger in consideration of the remaining amount in the condensate, and then the remaining parts that are not washed By allowing the condensate to be collected after it is sufficiently collected, the washing can be performed even if the remaining amount of condensate is not enough.

In addition, even when the remaining amount of condensed water is sufficient, since the condensed water is injected only to a part of the surface of the heat exchanger, compared to the case of simultaneously washing the entire surface of the heat exchanger, it is possible to use a small capacity pump.

Here, the water may use the condensed water generated by the heat exchanger, but in some cases it may be supplied from an external water supply such as a water supply source.

On the other hand, the bottom surface of the heat exchanger is formed with a condensate collecting portion for collecting the generated condensate, it may be further provided with a pump for supplying the condensate collected in the condensate collecting portion to the valve side.

In addition, the condensate collector is disposed adjacent to the condensate collector, a condensate reservoir for temporarily storing the condensate collected in the condensate collector is formed in the base located in the lower portion of the cabinet, the pump is installed in the condensate reservoir can do.

In addition, the valve and may include a water supply pipe for connecting each nozzle, the control valve is a water supply port is connected to each of the water supply pipe; And a drain port connected to a drain pipe for draining the condensed water stored in the condensate storage unit.

Here, the drain pipe may extend outside the cabinet to drain unnecessary condensate out of the cabinet. However, when there is no drainage facility at the place where the clothes treating apparatus is installed, a condensate reservoir for storing condensate in the cabinet is provided, and the drain pipe communicates with the condensate reservoir so that an appropriate amount of condensate remains in the condensate reservoir. can do. The condensate stored in the condensate reservoir may be discarded by the user.

On the other hand, the present invention can be applied to any clothes treatment apparatus having a heat exchanger for condensing the air exhausted from the drum, for example, the bottom of the cabinet is provided with a heat pump including a compressor, a condenser, an expander and an evaporator. In this case, the heat exchanger may correspond to the evaporator.

In addition, the clothes treating apparatus may be classified into an exhaust type for discharging the hot air exhausted from the drum to the outside of the cabinet, and a circulation type for condensing the hot air and then reheating and supplying it to the drum. Applicable to

Both the exhaust type and the circulation type include an exhaust passage, and the evaporator is installed in a base disposed under the cabinet, and is provided with a cover plate covering the evaporator and the condenser so that the base and the cover plate form an exhaust passage. can do. At this time, the condenser may be provided on the downstream side of the evaporator so that the air is reheated by the condenser and then fed back to the drum.

Here, the nozzle may be fixed to the cover plate.

According to another aspect of the invention, a heat exchanger for condensing the air exhausted from the drum; A plurality of injection nozzles for injecting water onto the surface of the heat exchanger; And a control valve for sequentially supplying water to the plurality of injection nozzles. The clothes treating apparatus is provided to sequentially spray water from the plurality of injection nozzles to the front surface of the heat exchanger.

According to aspects of the present invention having the configuration as described above, even if the remaining amount of condensate is not enough to partially wash the heat exchanger, it is possible to minimize the decrease in the air flow due to the flow resistance. In the circulating clothes treating apparatus where the air is continuously recycled, the heat dissipation performance of the evaporator is not only affected, but also destabilizes the heat pump system. Therefore, the surface of the evaporator needs to be kept clean at all times. Therefore, the above aspect of the present invention can wash the heat exchanger at a more frequent frequency than the prior art can be maximized its utility.

In addition, since a small capacity pump can be used, not only can the manufacturing cost be reduced, but it also takes up less space, which is advantageous.

1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a clothes treating apparatus having a heat exchanger cleaning means according to the present invention.
2 is an internal structure diagram schematically showing an internal structure of the embodiment.
3 is a plan view showing the base of the embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a partial cutaway view of the base shown in FIG. 3;
5 is a perspective view showing the injection pipe in the above embodiment.
6 is a partial cutaway view showing the installation structure of the injection pipe.
7 is a perspective view showing a control valve in the above embodiment.
8 is an exploded perspective view showing the control valve.
9 is an internal structural view showing a part of the clothes treating apparatus.
10 is a plan view showing a base included in another embodiment of a clothes treating apparatus having a heat exchanger cleaning means according to the present invention.
FIG. 11 is a perspective view illustrating the injection nozzle of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 10.
12 is a plan view showing an upper member constituting the injection nozzle.
13 is a plan view showing a lower member constituting the injection nozzle.
14 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of the injection nozzle.

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

1 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of a clothes treating apparatus having a heat exchanger cleaning means according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an internal structure diagram schematically showing an internal structure of the first embodiment. Here, the first embodiment is a dryer, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to the dryer, and may be applied to any clothes treating apparatus having a drying function of supplying hot air to dry laundry introduced into the drum.

1 and 2, the first embodiment includes a cabinet 100 in the form of a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, the upper surface of the cabinet 100 is provided with a top plate 102, the front of the dryer A control panel 104 is provided for controlling various functions and displaying operating states. In addition, an inlet 106 for injecting clothes to be dried is formed on the front surface of the cabinet 100, and a door 108 for opening and closing the inlet 106 is installed adjacent to the inlet 106. .

On the other hand, the inside of the cabinet 100, the drum 110, the clothes are introduced is rotatably installed. In addition, a lint filter installation part 112 through which air exhausted from the drum 110 flows is formed near the lower front of the drum 110. The lint filter installation unit 112 provides a place where a lint filter (not shown) for filtering lints included in the hot air exhausted from the drum is installed and forms a part of a flow path through which the hot air moves.

The circulation passage 116 is provided downstream of the lint filter installation unit 112, and the heat pump 120 is installed inside the circulation passage 116. Specifically, the heat pump 120 includes an evaporator 121, an expander 122, a compressor 123, and a condenser 124, but the evaporator 121 and the condenser 124 are provided in the circulation passage 116. The inflator and the compressor are disposed outside the circulation passage. Therefore, the air introduced from the lint filter installation unit 112 passes through the circulation passage 116 and passes through the evaporator 121 and the condenser 124 sequentially, thereby cooling (condensing) and reheating. do. In the cooling process, the moisture contained in the hot air condenses and forms on the surface of the evaporator or falls to the bottom of the evaporator. The condensed water thus produced is first collected in the condensate collecting unit located at the bottom of the evaporator. The said condensate collection part is mentioned later.

A back duct 114 is installed downstream of the circulation passage 116, and the back duct 114 is connected to supply hot air introduced from the circulation passage 116 to the drum. In addition, an auxiliary heater 118 is provided inside the back duct 114 to reheat the hot air primarily heated by the condenser 124. The auxiliary heater 118 operates at an initial time point at which the heat pump does not reach a normal state, thereby preventing the temperature of the hot air from being lowered, or providing an additional amount of heat to shorten the drying time even when the heat pump is reached. Or the like.

As shown, the first embodiment has a configuration of a so-called "circulating" dryer in which hot air exhausted from the drum is introduced into the drum again through cooling and reheating. However, as described above, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the "circulating" dryer, and after the hot air exhausted from the lint filter installation unit 112 passes through the evaporator 121 and is cooled and condensed, it does not pass through the condenser. It can also be applied to the "exhaust" dryer that is exhausted outside the cabinet 100 without.

3 is a plan view showing a base of the embodiment, Figure 4 is a partial cutaway view showing the base shown in FIG. 3 and 4, the base 130 is installed on the bottom surface of the cabinet 100, constitutes a part of the circulation passage described above, and the installation place for stably supporting the heat pump 120 Providing. In detail, a circulation passage in which the evaporator and the condenser are installed is arranged on the left side with reference to FIG. 3, and the expander 122 and the compressor 123 are installed on the right side.

In addition, the lint filter installation unit 112 is formed at the front portion (lower end in FIG. 3) of the cabinet 100, and a circulation flow guide unit 131 communicating with the lint filter installation unit 112 is formed. The circulation flow path guide part 131 communicates with the lint filter installation part 112 to guide hot air exhausted from the drum toward the evaporator 121. To this end, a plurality of guide vanes 131a are formed in the circulation flow path guide part 131 to guide the introduced air toward the evaporator 121 side.

Hot air induced by the guide vane 131a is introduced into the circulation passage 116. The circulation passage 116 is defined by a cover plate 140 covering a bottom surface of the base 130 and an upper portion of a space formed by a partition wall (not shown) formed on the base 130. That is, the circulation passage 116 is formed by the partition wall of the cover plate 140 and the base 130, and the air passing through the circulation passage 116 thus generated passes through the evaporator and the condenser in turn and then the base. It is introduced into the back duct 118 through the back duct connection 133 formed on the rear surface of the 130.

On the other hand, the portion in which the evaporator and the condenser is disposed among the bottom surface of the base 130 functions as the condensate collector 132. That is, the condensed water generated while condensed by the evaporator 121 is first collected by the condensate collecting unit 132. The collected condensate is introduced into the condensate storage unit 134 positioned adjacent to the compressor 123. The condensate collecting unit and the condensate storage unit are partitioned by partitions not shown, and are communicated with each other by through holes formed in the partitions.

Therefore, when the level of the condensate collected in the condensate collection unit 132 is higher than a predetermined level, the condensate storage unit 134 is introduced into and stored through the through hole. The condensate stored in the condensate storage unit 134 is supplied to the control valve 160 installed on the cover plate 140 by the pump 150.

7 and 8, condensed water supplied through the water supply pipe 180 connected between the discharge port of the pump 150 and the inlet port 161 of the control valve 160 is provided in the control valve 160. The water is discharged through the plurality of water supply ports 181, 182, and 183 and the drainage ports 184. The inflow port 161 is formed in the valve case 165 in which the control disk 167 is embedded, and the water supply port and the drain port are formed in the port portion 166 coupled with the valve case 165. The control disk 167 is rotatably mounted by a motor 166 installed at one end of the valve case 165, and a cutout 167a is formed.

In addition, the water supply port and the drainage port are disposed radially at intervals of 90 ° to the port portion 168. Therefore, the path of the condensed water supplied through the inlet port 161 is determined according to the position of the cutout 167a. In the state shown in FIG. 8, the condensed water is discharged to the water supply port 162, and the position of the cutout 167a may be controlled by a controller (not shown).

Thus, the condensed water passing through the control valve 160 is supplied to the injection pipe 170 through the three water supply pipes (181, 182, 183). 5 and 6, the injection pipe 170 has a central pipe shape and includes a fastening portion 171 integrally formed to extend to both sides. The fastening part 171 has a flat plate shape extending in one direction, and fastening holes 171a are formed at both ends thereof to allow the cover plate 140 and the bolt to be fastened.

The discharge hole 172 of the injection pipe 170 penetrates the cover plate 140 and is disposed to protrude to the bottom surface of the cover plate 140. In addition, a diffuser 142 is formed at a bottom surface of the cover plate 140 to form a flow path of condensed water discharged from the discharge port 172 of the injection tube 170. Here, the diffuser 142 may be integrally formed with the cover plate 140 as shown, or may be separately manufactured to be fixed to the bottom surface of the cover plate 140.

Inside the diffuser 142, a channel 143 is formed as a flow path through which the injected condensed water flows, and the width of the channel 143 increases toward the outlet 144. In addition, the outlet 144 of the channel 143 is bent downward to face the front of the evaporator 121. Therefore, the condensed water discharged through the injection pipe 170 flows along the channel 143 of the diffuser 142 to stabilize the flow and falls to the front of the evaporator along the shape of the outlet 144. That is, immediately after the condensed water is discharged from the injection pipe, the speed is high due to the pressure of the pump, so that the amount is scattered due to the collision with the wall surface.

As the amount of scattered water increases, the amount of condensed water introduced to the surface of the evaporator is reduced, so that the flow rate is reduced and stabilized while flowing along the diffuser, so that the condensed water can be supplied to the evaporator, thereby making full use of the supplied condensed water. However, for this purpose, the channel length of the diffuser should be sufficiently secured, but in some cases, the channel length may be insufficient. In contrast, the guide plate 145 spaced apart from the outlet 144 is installed on the bottom surface of the cover plate 140. The guide plate 145 is formed to be inclined downward to face the front of the evaporator 121, by the guide plate 145, even if some of the condensate discharged through the outlet 144 is scattered, the front of the evaporator To be discharged.

The range where the condensed water discharged by the respective diffusers reaches is set smaller than the total area of the evaporator. Therefore, the condensed water injected by one diffuser reaches only a part of the evaporator but not the whole. However, the areas where the condensed water injected by the three diffusers arrives are different from each other as shown. Therefore, one diffuser cannot wash the entire area of the evaporator, but the sum of the ranges sprayed by each diffuser makes it possible to wash the entire area of the evaporator.

Here, the entire area of the evaporator does not necessarily mean all the areas in front of the evaporator, and should be seen to include the area in which lint included in the hot air may accumulate.

On the other hand, if more than a suitable amount of condensate is stored in the condensate storage unit it should be drained to maintain a proper level. Therefore, when the amount of condensate stored in the condensate storage unit is detected by a sensing device such as a level sensor (not shown), the condensed water through the drain port 165 of the control valve 160 using the pump 150. Allow to drain. The condensate drained in this way may be discharged to the outside of the cabinet through the drain pipe 184 to adjust the amount of condensate stored in the condensate storage unit.

However, when the drainage facility such as the sewer is not provided at the place where the embodiment is installed, drainage is not possible outside the cabinet. As shown in FIG. 9, a condensate storage tank 109 for storing condensed water in the upper part of the cabinet is provided. In addition, the drain pipe 184 communicates with the condensate reservoir 109 so that the condensate can be stored in the reservoir 109. The condensed water stored in the condensed water storage tank 109 may be discarded by the user or may be utilized when condensed water is insufficient after removing foreign matter through a filter or the like.

Now, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

If it is necessary to remove the lint collected on the surface of the evaporator, the control unit senses the amount of condensate stored in the condensate reservoir. If the detected amount of condensate is greater than or equal to the minimum amount required to clean the evaporator (where the minimum amount corresponds to an amount that can be meaningfully cleaned for the evaporator area assigned to one diffuser, which can be arbitrarily set by those skilled in the art) The pump and the control valve are operated to inject condensate into the surface of the evaporator. At this time, the control valve rotates the control disk in sequence, and controls so that the condensed water supplied by the pump can be sequentially sprayed through each diffuser.

That is, as the control disk rotates, the water supply port or the drainage port facing the cutout portion communicates with the inflow port, and condensate is discharged from the control valve through the corresponding port. The discharged condensate is injected to the surface of the evaporator through the injection pipe and the diffuser, and a part of the evaporator located within the injection range of the condensate is washed by the injected condensate. Thus, when the condensate is sequentially sprayed through each diffuser, the surface of the heat exchanger is thus also cleaned sequentially, ie with a time difference.

Here, the number of injection tubes which are simultaneously injected may vary depending on the number of cutouts formed in the control disk. That is, in the case of three incisions, the injection is made through two diffusers at the same time. The number of cutouts can be arbitrarily set according to the capacity of the pump and the use of the dryer.

If the amount of condensate is insufficient to wash the entire evaporator, the washing is not performed, that is, the remaining amount of condensate is insufficient, and thus the position of the diffuser, which is less frequently sprayed than the other diffusers, is stored in a memory provided in the controller. If a sufficient amount of condensate is stored, it should be preferentially sprayed from the diffuser.

Alternatively, when the amount of condensate is insufficient to wash the entire evaporator, an example may be considered in which the washing is performed for the entire region by adjusting the injection amount instead of spraying only a portion of the evaporator.

In the above embodiment, the evaporator is washed only with condensed water, but a case of using an external water supply source such as a water supply source may be considered. That is, when an external water source is connected to the added inlet port by adding an inlet port of the control valve, or when an additional water pipe branched from the water supply pipe connected to the inlet port is connected to the external water source, water supplied from the external water source is connected. Can be used to clean the evaporator.

Here, in order to control the water supply from the external water supply source, an on-off valve that blocks the flow path is installed in the water supply pipe connected to the external water supply source. In the case where the quantity is insufficient, an example may be considered in which the on / off valve is opened to use external water together with condensate.

In addition, the nozzle may be used in various forms.

10 to 14 show a second embodiment having a nozzle different from the first embodiment. In the following description of the second embodiment, the same parts as the first embodiment will be denoted by the same reference numerals and redundant descriptions will be omitted, and only different parts from the first embodiment will be described.

In the second embodiment, the injection nozzle 200 includes three injection chambers 202 having three water supply ports 212 and communicating with each of the water supply ports 212. Specifically, the injection nozzle 200 is coupled to the upper member 210 and the upper member 210 in which the three water supply ports 212 are formed, and the lower member to form three injection chambers 202 therein. And 220. The cover plate 140 is coupled to the cover plate 140 through two fastening parts 214 and 222 extending to both sides of the upper member 210 and the lower member 220, respectively.

In addition, a space portion is formed inside the lower member 220, and the space portion is divided into three injection chambers 202 by the partition wall 228 formed in the space portion. In addition, a concave portion 226 is formed in the edge portion to engage with the protrusion of the upper member, which will be described later, and seals the inside of the injection chamber with respect to the outside. In addition, a spraying slit 224 for spraying the supplied condensed water extends along the longitudinal direction of the lower member 220 on the bottom surface of the lower member 220. The injection slit 224 is disposed below the cover plate 140.

A groove 218 coupled to the partition wall 228 is formed in the upper member 210, and a protrusion 216 is formed at a position opposite to the recess 226. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, the concave portion and the protrusion 216 are engaged with each other to prevent the condensed water from leaking from the injection chamber 202. And, the injection slit 224 is located above the front of the evaporator so that the condensed water injected through the injection slit 224 can be injected to the front of the evaporator.

Here, although one injection slit 224 is formed throughout the lower member, an example in which a plurality of injection slits are formed for each injection chamber may be considered. In addition, an example in which a plurality of inlet ports are formed in one injection chamber may be considered, and an example in which one inlet port is shared by a plurality of injection chambers may be considered.

Claims (14)

Cabinet;
A drum installed inside the cabinet;
A heat exchanger which exchanges heat with air exhausted from the drum;
A plurality of injection nozzles for injecting water into different regions of the surface of the heat exchanger;
A control valve for supplying water to at least one spray nozzle of each spray nozzle; And
And a control unit controlling the operation of the control valve so as to sequentially spray water through a plurality of injection nozzles. The method of claim 1,
The water treatment apparatus, characterized in that the water is supplied from an external water supply. The method of claim 1,
Wherein said water is condensed water produced by said heat exchanger. The method of claim 3,
The bottom surface of the heat exchanger is formed with a condensate collector for collecting the generated condensate,
And a pump for supplying condensate collected in the condensate collecting unit to the valve side. The method of claim 4, wherein
Is disposed adjacent to the condensate collector, the condensate storage unit for temporarily storing the condensate collected in the condensate collection unit is formed in the base located in the lower portion of the cabinet, the pump is installed in the condensate storage unit Clothing processing apparatus made of. The method of claim 1,
And a water supply pipe connecting the valve and each nozzle. The method according to claim 6,
The control valve includes a water supply port to which each of the water supply pipes is connected; And
And a drain port connected to a drain pipe for draining the condensate stored in the condensate storage unit. The method of claim 7, wherein
The drainage pipe is a clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that extending to the outside of the cabinet. The method of claim 7, wherein
The cabinet further includes a condensate reservoir for storing condensate, and the drainage pipe is in communication with the condensate reservoir. The method of claim 1,
The bottom surface of the cabinet is provided with a heat pump including a compressor, a condenser, an expander and an evaporator, wherein the heat exchanger is a clothes treatment apparatus characterized in that the evaporator. The method of claim 10,
The evaporator is installed on the base disposed under the cabinet, the cover plate for covering the evaporator and the condenser is provided, the clothes processing apparatus, characterized in that to form an exhaust flow path with the base. The method of claim 11,
A condenser is provided downstream of the evaporator, and the air passing through the condenser is supplied to the drum, characterized in that the clothes supply apparatus. The method of claim 11,
And the nozzle is fixed to the cover plate. A heat exchanger for condensing air exhausted from the drum;
A plurality of injection nozzles for injecting water onto the surface of the heat exchanger; And
And a control valve for sequentially supplying water to the plurality of injection nozzles.
Clothing processing apparatus in which water is sprayed sequentially from the plurality of injection nozzles to the front surface of the heat exchanger.

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