WO2012101773A1

WO2012101773A1 - Clothing wrinkle removal using microwave irradiation

Info

Publication number: WO2012101773A1
Application number: PCT/JP2011/051452
Authority: WO
Inventors: 荒川康明
Original assignee: Arakawa Yasuaki
Priority date: 2011-01-26
Filing date: 2011-01-26
Publication date: 2012-08-02
Also published as: JPWO2012101773A1

Abstract

Provided is a method for removing wrinkles from clothing that can remove wrinkles from clothing simply and without taking time or effort. Wrinkles are removed by irradiating microwaves on clothing that is damp and wrinkled such as clothes that have been washed and spun. For the microwave irradiation, a microwave oven can be used. Covering the damp, wrinkled clothes with a bag and then irradiating the microwaves is even more effective. The microwaves can also be irradiated with the wrinkled clothes hanging. Wrinkles can be completely removed with a short period of microwave irradiation.

Description

Wrinkle removal of clothing by microwave irradiation

[Technical Field] The present invention relates to a method for removing wrinkles from clothes that are moist and wrinkled like clothes after washing and dehydration, and a microwave oven and washing machine that can remove wrinkles in clothes, and a clothes dryer.

It is effective to apply water, heat and force in combination to remove wrinkles from clothing. Specifically, the principle is applied to an iron, a washing / drying machine, a finishing device of a cleaning factory, and the like (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).

There is an invention in which ironing is performed while heating moisture of clothing with microwaves oscillated from an iron with a built-in microwave oscillator. Compared to conventional ironing, it is said that wrinkle smoothing is smoother and energy efficiency can be improved.

In addition, as a means to prevent clothing shrinkage in the process of drying in a short time, applying food drying technology, technology to control microwave output, temperature, pressure, technology to control the progress of temperature and drying, There is a technique for shortening the drying time by using microwaves for drying.

JP 2006-130157 A JP 2010-089553 A

While automatic washing and drying machines have been developed until washing and dehydration, for example, shirts, like underwear, are representative clothing that can be washed even though they can be washed at home. One of the main reasons is the trouble of ironing.

It is preferable if the clothes are wrinkled with a drum-type clothes dryer that dries the clothes using warm air. However, if the clothes are dried with a drum-type clothes dryer, wrinkles remain on the clothes. In the case of a cotton / polyester blend shirt, the higher the cotton blend rate, the more likely wrinkles will remain. In order to reduce wrinkles, it is necessary to increase the volume of the drum, which increases the size of the apparatus. In addition, when the clothes are stirred in the drum, the clothes are damaged by friction.

The method of stretching wrinkles with steam is to boil the water in the tank and generally spout steam from the outside of the fiber of clothing with low thermal conductivity, so some of the steam diffuses into the air and the loss of heat energy is large Also, it has little effect on cotton clothing for wrinkle removal. Development of a method for removing wrinkles of clothing effectively in a short time with little energy loss is awaited.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a garment wrinkle removing method capable of easily removing wrinkles of clothing without labor and a device equipped with a microwave irradiation means such as a microwave oven suitable for carrying out the garment wrinkle removing method. Is to provide.

The method for removing wrinkles of clothing according to the present invention uses microwaves to remove wrinkles. Laundry clothes that are dampened after washing and dehydration and are wrinkled, hang, or fold so that they do not press hard so that they do not crease, are placed in the microwave oven heating chamber, Set a timer to stop at, and irradiate the entire clothing with microwaves. At this time, if the garment is entirely covered with a bag made of polyethylene or the like, or a wrap film, the heating time is shortened, drying during heating is prevented, and wrinkle removal is further promoted. For example, when a 100% cotton shirt having a weight of 250 g when dried and a weight of 320 g after washing and dewatering is put in a bag, microwaves with a high frequency output of 550 W are irradiated for about 90 seconds. The temperature inside the bag immediately after irradiation is about 90 ° C., and the mass remains moist so that the mass is reduced by about 3 g from before the heating. At this point, the wrinkles are almost removed, but in order to prevent creases, immediately spread the clothes, grab the edges of the clothes such as collars, shake them in the air, and dry them naturally with a hanger.

In addition to polyethylene bags, containers for wet and washed wrinkled clothing used for microwave irradiation include bags and boxes made of materials that can permeate microwaves without significant attenuation. Can be used. The bags and boxes used here may be completely sealed if there is no risk of breakage or explosion due to the generated steam, but even in a semi-sealed container that is partially opened, it prevents drying and wrinkles. Is expensive. If a part is open, the pressure in the container will not increase excessively, so there is no risk of breakage or explosion. The sealable container may be partially sealed without being completely sealed. In short, it is preferable that vapor and heat generated by microwave irradiation are not released from clothing as much as possible.

If you add a wrinkle removal mode that removes wrinkles from a microwave by irradiating microwaves on a microwave oven for a predetermined period of time in a heating chamber, Wrinkle removal is possible and preferable. This microwave oven may have a shape that can be used together for food heating, or microwave irradiation means is attached to a washing machine or clothes dryer, etc., and microwaves are confined and heated with a drum and a lid for putting clothes in and out. The structure used as a warehouse may be used.

By using the method for removing wrinkles of clothing by microwave irradiation according to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently remove wrinkles of clothing within a short time and with less energy. In particular, if microwaves are irradiated with clothes in a bag, steam and heat generated by microwave irradiation are trapped in the bag, so that wrinkles can be efficiently removed with less energy in a shorter time.

The left is a photograph of the same shirt that was naturally dried after carrying out Example 1 of the present invention, and the right is a photograph of the same shirt that was naturally dried without being irradiated with microwaves after dehydration.

The method for removing wrinkles of clothing according to the present invention removes wrinkles from the clothing by irradiating the wet and wrinkled clothing with microwaves in a heating cabinet. A microwave oven can be used as a microwave irradiation device.

For clothes that are not good at removing wrinkles, such as drum dryers and tunnel finishers, the main method is to remove wrinkles with a press, such as an iron, for clothes that are made of 100% cotton or a high cotton blend rate. However, wrinkles can be removed by steaming for 1-2 minutes with a popular device such as a microwave oven for home use. Folding or hanging, putting in a bag, setting a timer, taking out and shaking are safer and easier than ironing with both hands for a long time. 90 seconds of irradiation time allows other work, such as drying other clothes. In addition, there is no need to adjust the dehydration time to prevent wrinkles during folding or dehydration in advance, or to fold it and put it in the laundry net.

When the clothing is taken out after heating, it can be confirmed that the surface of the clothing is smooth and wrinkled at that time. Furthermore, by shaking the clothing in the air, the remaining wrinkles will not be noticeable. After that, dry naturally with a hanger.

In order to confirm the effect of removing wrinkles, 100% cotton shirts processed using a microwave oven were air-dried, and the shirts were partially dried in the right half of the chest, the left half of the back, and the right arm. A 180 ° C. iron was put on and the clothes were picked up after several hours, and the condition was confirmed, but there was almost no difference in the smoothness between the ironed part and the non-ironed part. At the time of purchase, the shirt showed that it was easy to iron, but even if it was washed and dehydrated, and the wrinkle was pulled and dried naturally, the wrinkle would be very noticeable if it was not ironed. The same effect is also significant for the other two shirts, purchased separately, with different thicknesses, weights, textures, and colors, all 100% cotton. Even after 100 or more implementations, no reduction in the effect was observed.

The reason why the wrinkle removal effect appears without applying a pulling or pressing force during microwave irradiation is considered to be simply because hydrogen bonds are broken, depending on the type of fiber. For example, the cross section of a cotton fiber has a hollow structure, and the water inside the hollow is rapidly vaporized by microwave irradiation, so that the hollow portion swells, the fiber thickness, length, twist, and interfiber spacing It is considered that there is an action to recover the slippage and the like, and as a result, the fabric is stretched and wrinkles of the clothing are removed. Fabrics and garments that contain fibers that are water-absorbing even if they do not have a hollow structure, such as wool, are considered to have a high effect of removing wrinkles by microwave irradiation.

When microwaves are irradiated in a heating cabinet, water contained in clothing can be directly heated, and by wrapping in a bag, vapor is absorbed again into wet clothing that is being heated, so that the latent heat of evaporation is not wasted and more efficient. Wrinkle can be removed.

As a microwave irradiation device that removes wrinkles, a microwave oven that is widely used for food heating can also be used. If you already own a microwave oven, there is no equipment installation cost. Further, since the clothes can remain stationary during the microwave irradiation, there is no damage due to friction, and there is no need for a drum for spreading and stirring the clothes, so that the entire apparatus can be easily downsized.

Even when using conventional clothes dryers, cotton fabrics such as shirts that dry faster than cotton socks and knit clothes and tend to leave wrinkles are not put into the clothes dryer after washing and dehydration. It is effective to perform wrinkle stretching using a microwave oven. Compared with cotton knitted fabrics and knits in general, woven fabrics such as shirts have noticeable wrinkles, but they dry quickly even in natural drying.

Normally, the microwave oven is always connected to the outlet, so there is no need to make any special preparation before using the device. If a microwave oven that is widely used for heating food is irradiated with microwaves for a predetermined period of time and a wrinkle removal mode for removing wrinkles of clothes is added as a menu, it can be used more easily. Ascertain the relationship between microwave irradiation time and intensity and wrinkle removal for each type of clothing, clothing mass, and moisture content, and add a wrinkle removal mode according to the type of clothing to the menu as well as cooking. This is more preferable.

This microwave oven may have a shape that can be used together for food heating, or microwave irradiation means is attached to a washing machine or clothes dryer, etc., and microwaves are confined and heated with a drum and a lid for putting clothes in and out. The structure used as a warehouse may be used.

The apparatus may be a general microwave oven for food heating, but the shape of the heating cabinet may be a shape that can be accommodated without folding the clothing small. This is because there is little time and effort to fold clothing, and if it is folded strongly, wrinkles may occur at the folded portion. Even when the clothing is accommodated in an unfolded state, the entire clothing is covered with a polyethylene bag or the like during microwave irradiation, so that wrinkle removal becomes efficient.

When microwaves are applied to clothing, there are concerns about problems such as shrinkage and ignition due to drying. For example, in the case of a shirt, the microwave irradiation for about 90 seconds maintains a moist state, so no contraction occurs. . This point has been confirmed in Examples described later. As long as the microwave irradiation time up to about 50% is set with a timer in clothes that can be ironed at a temperature of 100 ° C. or higher, the possibility of shrinkage or ignition is considered to be low. Covering clothing with a polyethylene bag or the like not only increases the efficiency of wrinkle removal but also prevents the clothing from drying during microwave irradiation, and thus has the effect of suppressing shrinkage and ignition of the clothing.

When ironing clothes, the area that acts is small, and it was necessary to slide the iron in seconds so as not to burn the clothes during work, but when microwaves are applied to the clothes stored in the heating chamber, Since the whole can be heated uniformly, in the case of the shirt, even if the setting range of the operation timer is 90 seconds or 180 seconds, the clothes are not damaged. Moreover, there is no possibility of causing burns by touching a person who is working like an iron.

Depending on the type of clothing fabric, the effect of removing wrinkles may be noticeable or weak, while clothing that exhibits the effect is highly reproducible. Clothing in which 50% or more of cotton or wool is used as the material has a high wrinkle removing effect.

For example, 100% cotton shirts are generally highly evaluated for their texture, comfort and durability when washed with water. Nevertheless, the generation of wrinkles due to washing and dewatering and the trouble of removing wrinkles were major drawbacks for clothes that were washed repeatedly. Because microwave ovens are very widespread, the part that displays the quality of clothing products, and other explanations about the clothing, show that the wrinkles grow when heated in the microwave oven. become. For example, when the weight is 300 g or more on the clothing quality display portion at the distribution stage, it is displayed that wrinkles can be removed by heating in a microwave oven for 90 seconds for 500 W and 45 seconds for 1,000 W.

There are many kinds of fibers such as natural fibers, chemical fibers, mixed fibers, and some of the same fibers have been chemically treated to change their properties. There are many types of fiber cross-sections and weaving methods. For example, even a shirt labeled 100% cotton, when the surface is processed so that the fabric does not stick to human skin due to sweat, wrinkles caused by microwaves Some removal effects are hardly recognized. However, if the effect can be confirmed once, the reproducibility of the effect is extremely high.

Examples and effects are shown below. What was used as a microwave irradiation apparatus is the microwave oven for food heating of the rated high frequency output 550W.

Example 1
Wrinkled 100% cotton shirt with a weight of 285g in dry condition and 365g in the wet condition after dewatering is folded to a size of approximately 30cm in length, 25cm in width and 8cm in thickness. The bag was placed in a non-breathable polyethylene bag, the bag opening was lightly closed, the bag was placed horizontally in the heating chamber of the food heating microwave oven, a timer was set, and heating was performed for 90 seconds. The bag inflated with steam when heated. Immediately after the heating, the inside of the bag was about 85 ° C., the mass was about 362 g, and it remained wet. Observing the clothing in the bag, the wrinkles of most of the clothing had already disappeared and became smooth. When the bag was taken out of the bag and shaken in the air with a clothing collar, the remaining wrinkles could be removed almost completely. Thereafter, the shirt was dried on a hanger and dried to obtain a dried shirt in which wrinkles were almost completely removed (see FIG. 1).

(Example 2)
The removal effect could be confirmed even if the same shirt as in Example 1 was not put in the bag and irradiated with microwaves for the same time. However, in Example 1, the surface of the garment was finished more smoothly. The temperature after irradiation was 70 ° C., and the mass was 355 g. It was confirmed that the wrinkles became thin even when the heating time was 40 seconds.

(Example 3)
Example 1 except that the microwave irradiation time was 180 seconds for chinos with wrinkled cotton 60% and polyester 40%, with a mass of 440 g in a dry state and a wet weight after washing dehydration of 575 g. In the same way, wrinkles disappeared. However, due to the folding effect, the creases remained thin at the crease and did not disappear even after natural drying. In the case of slacks of 50% wool and 50% polyester that were processed at home, wrinkles almost disappeared and no creases could be made.

Example 4
100% cotton T-shirts, polo shirts and handkerchiefs were also ironed. It is necessary to change the microwave irradiation time according to the mass of each garment.

(Example 5)
Many shirts with 50% cotton and 50% polyester half sleeves were weak in effect. Although the effects were confirmed with 80% cotton and 20% polyester, the wrinkle removal effect was weaker than the shirt of Example 1. There was a tendency for the wrinkle removal effect to become weaker as the blend ratio of the polyester increased.

As described above, the preferred embodiments have been described with reference to the drawings. However, those skilled in the art will readily assume various changes and modifications within the obvious scope by looking at the present specification. Accordingly, such changes and modifications are to be construed as within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

A method for removing wrinkles from clothing by irradiating microwaves in a heating chamber to remove wrinkles from the clothing by irradiating the wet and wrinkled clothing with microwaves.
2. The method for removing wrinkles of clothing by microwave irradiation according to claim 1, wherein a microwave oven is used as the microwave irradiation device.
The method for removing wrinkles of clothes by microwave irradiation according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the microwaves are irradiated in a state where the clothes are wet and wrinkled.
The microwave irradiation is performed in a state in which wet and wrinkled clothing is placed in a sealed container or semi-sealed container through which microwaves are transmitted, or is covered with a bag through which vapor is not transmitted. The method for removing wrinkles of clothing by microwave irradiation according to any one of 1 to 3.
A microwave oven characterized by having a wrinkle removal mode as a menu that removes wrinkles from clothing by irradiating it with microwaves for a predetermined period of time in a heating chamber that is moist and wrinkled.
Microwave irradiation characterized by having a wrinkle removal mode that removes wrinkles from clothing as a menu by irradiating wet and wrinkled clothing in a heating chamber with microwaves for a predetermined time in a drum. Washing machine or clothes dryer equipped with means.