WO2013011604A1

WO2013011604A1 - Drum washing machine

Info

Publication number: WO2013011604A1
Application number: PCT/JP2012/001753
Authority: WO
Inventors: 内山　亘; 安井　利彦; 菊川　智之; 脇田　克也; 中間　啓人
Original assignee: パナソニック株式会社
Priority date: 2011-07-15
Filing date: 2012-03-14
Publication date: 2013-01-24
Also published as: WO2013011606A1; WO2013011605A1

Abstract

A drum washing machine is provided with a water tank for housing a washing tub that is tilted downward towards the rear surface side, a vibration detection unit for detecting the vibration of the water tank, and a torque variation detection unit for detecting the magnitude of the torque variation of a drive unit for driving the washing tub. A control unit (11a) for controlling each step such as wash, rinse, and drain detects the fabric quality of the laundry from the magnitude of the torque variation while the drive unit is operated at a rotational speed in which the magnitude of the vibration detected by means of the vibration detection unit (16) reaches the maximum.

Description

Drum washing machine

The present invention relates to a drum type washing machine that detects the quality of laundry and performs washing suitable for the quality of the laundry.

In general, when cotton and chemical fiber are compared, the characteristics of clothing such as water absorption capacity, water retention, water compatibility, etc. for washing water differ greatly, so when washing, washing, rinsing, dehydrating, etc. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the same process. Therefore, if it is possible to determine whether the laundry is cotton, for example, whether it is a polyester-based chemical fiber, washing is performed by reflecting the operation sequence on the basis of the fabric quality and performing the optimum operation. Improvement, water saving and reduction of time.

As a conventional cloth quality detection section, the cloth quality of the laundry in the washing tub is determined from the magnitude of torque fluctuation of the drive section detected by the torque fluctuation detection section during the washing operation (for example, see Patent Document 1).

However, in the case of the conventional configuration, as a condition for generating uneven rotation (torque fluctuation of the drive unit) due to the difference in the cloth quality, the maximum amount of laundry is directed from the top of the rotating washing tub to the bottom (washing tub bottom). It is necessary to knock it down with acceleration. FIG. 7A is a diagram illustrating a behavior in which a laundry containing a large amount of chemical fiber rotates in a rotating drum in conventional cloth quality detection. FIG. 7B is a diagram illustrating a behavior in which laundry with much cotton rotates in a rotating drum in conventional cloth quality detection. As shown in FIG. 7A, a chemical fiber or the like having a low water absorption sticks to the inside of the washing tub, so that the torque fluctuation is small. Thus, when detecting a chemical fiber, since water absorption is low, torque fluctuation is small.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7B, the cotton having high water absorption has a small torque fluctuation because the laundry does not lift up to the upper part of the washing tub, and thus idles at a low position in the washing tub. Therefore, in both cases, since the torque fluctuation is small, there is a problem that it is difficult to determine the cloth quality.

In general, when cotton and chemical fiber are compared, the characteristics of clothing such as water absorption capacity, water retention, water compatibility, etc. are greatly different, so when washing, that is, washing, rinsing, dehydrating, etc. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the same process. Therefore, if it is possible to determine whether the laundry is cotton, for example, whether it is a polyester-based chemical fiber, washing is performed by reflecting the operation sequence on the basis of the fabric quality and performing the optimum operation. Improvement, water saving and reduction of time.

Some conventional drum-type washing machines operate by setting a stirring time and a water level in accordance with the cloth quality in the washing process and the drying process (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

In Patent Document 2, the cloth amount detected by the cloth amount detection unit and the water level detected by the water level detection unit are input, and the laundry cloth quality is determined to be more cotton and more chemical fibers. ing. When the controller starts operation by operating the start / pause switch, it operates the water supply valve to supply water into the water tank, and when the water level detection unit detects a predetermined water level, it stops water supply and drives the motor. For example, inversion is performed with a time period of 20 seconds on and 3 seconds off, and washing is performed.

At this time, since the laundry gradually absorbs water, the water level drops, but the amount of water level decrease depends on the quantity and quality of the laundry. Further, at the time of starting and stopping the rotation, negative pressure is applied or water absorbed in the laundry is dripped, which slightly fluctuates. Therefore, the quality of the laundry is determined based on the water level in the rotating drum after the forward reversal is performed once, depending on whether the amount of laundry is large or small. And the water level and rotation speed at the time of washing are changed according to the determined cloth quality result.

Further, as another example of the conventional cloth quality detection unit, the cloth quality of the laundry in the washing tub is determined from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation of the driving unit detected by the torque fluctuation detection unit during the washing operation. (For example, refer to Patent Document 3).

This invention solves the conventional subject, and it aims at providing the washing machine which can detect the cloth quality of the clothes thrown into the washing tub accurately.

In addition, the present invention solves the conventional problem, and accurately detects the cloth quality of the clothes put in the washing tub, and optimizes the operation sequence based on the cloth quality to improve the washing performance. The purpose is to provide a drum-type washing machine that is excellent in energy saving, such as water saving and time saving (power saving).

Furthermore, the present invention solves the conventional problem, determines the difference in the water absorption speed of the fibers constituting the clothes put in the washing tub, and changes the rotational setting of centrifugal washing based on the result It is to provide a washing machine capable of performing a washing operation excellent in energy saving performance corresponding to a material constituting clothing.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-127978 JP-A-11-114278 JP 2007-185357 A

The drum-type washing machine of the present invention contains a laundry, a washing tub that is rotatable about a horizontal rotation shaft or a rotation shaft that is inclined downward from the front side toward the back side, and a water tub that stores the washing tub A vibration detecting unit that detects vibration of the water tub, a driving unit that drives the washing tub, a torque fluctuation detecting unit that detects the magnitude of torque fluctuation of the driving unit, and a cloth quality detection that detects the cloth quality of the laundry And a control unit that controls each process such as washing, rinsing, and dehydration by driving the driving unit and the like, and the control unit has a rotational speed at which the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detecting unit is maximized. The drive unit is operated, and the cloth quality detection unit determines the cloth quality of the laundry from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation in this state.

With such a configuration, the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is maximized after a certain amount of water corresponding to the weight of the laundry is supplied into the washing tub and absorbed by the laundry regardless of the fabric quality. The drive unit can be operated so that the laundry can be struck with maximum acceleration from the uppermost part of the rotating washing tub to the lowermost part (the bottom of the washing tub). By maximizing the magnitude (variation range) of torque fluctuation according to the cloth, whether the laundry is often made of material with high water absorption or whether it is made of material with low water absorption Quality can be detected easily and accurately.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the drum type washing machine of the present invention includes a cloth amount detection unit that detects the amount of laundry in the washing tub, and the control unit operates the drive unit to The detection unit detects the cloth quality of the laundry from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation in a state where the magnitude of the vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is maximized, and the control unit detects the cloth amount and the cloth quality by the cloth amount detection unit. The amount of water supply is determined from the fabric quality by the detector.

As a result, the laundry can be knocked down with the maximum acceleration from the top to the bottom of the washing tub regardless of the fabric quality, and the magnitude of torque fluctuation (variation width) according to the fabric quality (water absorption) ) To the maximum, the fabric quality can be detected accurately and easily, and washing is performed at the washing water level according to the fabric quality, so the washing performance is excellent, and the drum type is highly energy-saving, such as water saving and reduced time (power saving). A washing machine can be provided.

Further, in the drum type washing machine of the present invention, the washing process includes a centrifugal washing process for discharging washing water from the laundry by centrifugal force, and a degree that the laundry does not stick in the washing tub performed after the centrifugal washing process. The control unit changes the number of rotations of the washing tub in the centrifugal force washing step according to the fabric quality detected by the fabric quality detection unit.

According to the above configuration, after detecting the weight of the laundry immediately after the start of operation, the amount of water corresponding to the weight of the laundry is poured in the washing step, and the laundry that is being poured in the water pouring process is water-absorbing. It is determined whether there are many things made of high materials or many things made of materials with low water absorption. By changing the set rotation speed of the washing tub during the centrifugal washing process according to the cloth quality detection result, whatever the quality of the cloth, the inside of the washing tub is caused by centrifugal force according to its characteristics The degree to which clothing is pressed against the wall surface can be set. As a result, the laundry can be prevented from being extremely stuck to the inner wall surface of the washing tub. Therefore, it is possible to quickly switch to the stirring process performed after the centrifugal cleaning process, to prevent the washing process from being prolonged, and to realize a washing operation with excellent energy saving.

Further, in the drum type washing machine of the present invention, the control unit operates the drive unit, and the cloth quality detection unit detects the magnitude of the torque fluctuation in the state where the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is maximized. The fabric quality of the laundry is detected, and the control unit changes the content of the rinsing process from the fabric quality by the fabric quality detection unit.

As a result, the laundry can be knocked down with the maximum acceleration from the top to the bottom of the washing tub regardless of the fabric quality, and the magnitude of torque fluctuation (variation width) according to the fabric quality (water absorption) ) To the maximum, the fabric quality can be detected accurately and easily, and washing is performed in a rinsing process according to the fabric quality. Machine can be provided.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic structure of a drum-type washing machine according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control device for the drum-type washing machine according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a correlation between magnitudes of torque fluctuations due to differences in fabric quality when the rotating drum of the drum type washing machine in Embodiment 1 of the present invention is rotated in one direction at 45 rpm. FIG. 3B is a diagram showing a correlation between magnitudes of torque fluctuations due to a difference in cloth quality when the rotating drum of the drum type washing machine in Embodiment 1 of the present invention is rotated at a rotation speed corresponding to the cloth quality. . FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the correlation of the torque variation according to the cloth quality with respect to the cloth amount of the drum type washing machine in the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the behavior of the laundry in the rotating drum in a general drum-type washing machine. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the drum type washing machine in the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7A is a diagram illustrating a behavior in which a laundry containing a lot of chemical fibers rotates in a rotating drum in a general drum type washing machine. FIG. 7B is a diagram illustrating a behavior in which laundry with a lot of cotton rotates in a rotating drum in a general drum-type washing machine.

Hereinafter, Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic structure of a drum-type washing machine according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The configuration will be described below with reference to FIG.

A washing tub 3 is housed in the washing machine body 1 so as to be swingable, and a rotating drum 4 serving as a washing tub is disposed in the tub 3 so as to be rotatable around a rotation shaft 4a. A rotating shaft 4 a of the rotating drum 4 is directly connected to a motor 6 as a driving unit attached to the outside of the back surface of the water tank 3, and the rotating drum 4 is driven to rotate by the motor 6.

The rotating drum 4 is provided with a plurality of through holes 4e over the entire peripheral wall 4c so that water can be passed and vented between the water tank 3 and the rotating drum 4. The back wall 4d of the rotating drum 4 is formed with a plurality of back openings 4f along the circumferential direction, and these back openings 4f are arranged so as to oppose the inlet 9e formed at the top on the back side of the water tank 3. Has been. In addition, a plurality of stirring protrusions 4 b are provided on the inner surface of the peripheral wall 4 c of the rotating drum 4, and the stirring protrusions 4 b can lift the laundry in the rotating drum 4 by the rotation of the rotating drum 4. Although the through-hole 4e is provided over the entire peripheral wall of the rotary drum 4, it may be partially formed on the peripheral wall of the rotary drum 4. In short, the air permeability between the water tank 3 and the rotary drum 4 and the passage of air are sufficient. What is necessary is just to set so that wateriness can be ensured and it does not interfere with drying from washing.

Further, the rotating shaft 4a of the rotating drum 4 is inclined so as to face downward from the front side toward the back side. Specifically, the rotating shaft 4a is arranged to be inclined downward from the horizontal direction X by, for example, an angle θ = 20 ± 10 degrees. Has been. By inclining the rotation shaft 4a in this way, the opening 13 on the front side of the water tank 3 can be arranged on the upper side, and the inside of the rotating drum 4 can be passed through the opening 13 of the water tank 3 without taking a posture of bending greatly. The laundry can be taken out.

Further, as compared with the case where the rotating shaft 4a is in the horizontal direction, the water supplied into the water tank 3 is accumulated on the back side, and a deep water storage state can be obtained even with a small amount of water. That is, it becomes easy for the laundry to hydrate with a small amount of water supply.

The water tank 3 is provided along the vicinity thereof with the same inclination as the rotating drum 4 in order to efficiently supply water to the laundry in the rotating drum 4. By inclining the rotating drum 4 and the water tub 3, the water starts to come into contact with the outer peripheral side of the laundry earlier than the horizontal arrangement, so that the laundry is likely to contain water. If the amount of water supply is not taken into consideration, the rotating drum 4 may be horizontal or the inclination angle θ may be less than 10 degrees.

In addition, an opening communicating with the inside of the rotating drum 4 through the opening 13 of the water tub 3 is provided on the front side of the washing machine body 1, and an opening / closing door 5 is provided in the opening so as to be freely opened and closed. The opening 13 of the water tank 3 is provided with an annular sealing material 14 at the mouth edge. The front surface side of the sealing material 14 is in contact with the rear surface side of the opening / closing door 5 so as to be sealed, and the sealing material 14 is deformed and pressed to the rear surface side of the opening / closing door 5 even if the opening of the water tank 3 that swings up and down, right and left and back and forth moves. As a result, hermeticity is maintained.

The upper part of the water tank 3 is provided with a detergent storage part 7a, a water supply valve 7b which is a water supply part, and a water supply path 7c. The detergent container 7a is supplied with water by opening and closing the water supply valve 7b. The water supply path 7c supplies the detergent in the detergent container 7a to the space Y formed between the inner surface of the water tank 3 and the outer surface of the rotating drum 4 together with water supply.

The bottom of the aquarium 3 has a drain pipe 8a with one end connected to the bottom of the aquarium 3, and a drain valve 8b as a drain. When the drain valve 8b is opened and closed, the washing process ends and the rinse process ends. For example, the water in the water tank 3 is drained through the drain pipe 8a when necessary. Further, on the downstream side of the drainage pipe 8a, a drainage filter 8c that can be removed from the outside of the washing machine body 1 is disposed to collect lint contained in the drainage.

The drying unit 9 includes a blower 9c, a blower path 9d, an inlet 9e, a lead-out port 9f, a dehumidifying unit 9g, a heating unit 9h, and a filter (not shown).

The outlet 9f takes out air from the water tank 3 and the rotating drum 4. The blower 9c sucks air from the outlet 9f. The filter (not shown) collects and removes dusts contained in the air from the outlet 9f. The introduction port 9 e is provided on the back side of the water tank 3 and puts air blown from the blower 9 c into the rotating drum 4. The air passage 9d connects the air blower 9c and the introduction port 9e. The dehumidifying part 9g is arranged in the air blowing path 9d and dehumidifies the high-humidity air from the outlet 9f. The heating unit 9h is arranged on the downstream side of the dehumidifying unit 9g in the air blowing path 9d, and heats the air after dehumidification into high-temperature air. The dehumidifying part 9g and the heating part 9h may be constituted by a heat pump unit, the heating part 9h may be constituted by a heater, and the dehumidifying part 9g may be a water cooling method or an air cooling method.

In the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment, the dehumidifying part 9g and the heating part 9h are configured by a heat pump unit, and the compressor constituting the heat pump unit together with the dehumidifying part 9g and the heating part 9h in the washing machine body 1 (Not shown) shall be provided.

In addition to the above, the water in the aquarium 3 is circulated by the circulation pump 30 as necessary at the time of the washing process including the water supply and drainage operations, the rinsing process, etc. It is possible to improve the function too much.

As shown in FIG. 1, the circulation pump 30 is fixed on a base plate 2 a that is the bottom of the washing machine body 1, and sucks wash water and sends it to the circulation channel 31. Further, the fed wash water is discharged into the washing tub from the opening 13 of the rotary drum 4 through the circulation water channel 31. More specifically, the discharge side path 31b of the circulation water channel 31 is connected to the injection port 51 provided in the front end wall 3g around the opening 13 of the water tank 3 from the outer surface, and the inner surface of the front end wall 3g of the water tank 3 The cleaning water is jetted between the corresponding outer surfaces of the front end walls 4g of the rotating drum 4 and discharged into the rotating drum 4 through a flow path formed therebetween. As a result, the water injection port 51 from the discharge side passage 31b is in a position where it does not come into contact with the laundry in the rotating drum 4, so that the laundry is caught and washed, disturbing the behavior required for rinsing or drying, or It is possible to prevent the laundry from being damaged or torn, and the appearance is not impaired. At this time, the rotational speed of the motor of the circulation pump 30 is set to about 3500 rpm, for example.

It should be noted that the injection port 51 is not limited to the attachment position at the lower part, and may be provided at the upper part as long as it does not come into contact with the laundry in the rotating drum 4. It may be arranged at a plurality of positions.

Further, when the cleaning water is simply sprayed into the rotating drum 4, the circulating water is injected only to the local portion of the laundry in the rotating drum 4, and the circulation effect is not fully utilized. On the other hand, when a special injection nozzle is used to inject circulating water over a wide area, the necessary pump pressure increases, which causes a cost increase. Therefore, in the first embodiment, for example, a DC brushless motor capable of controlling the rotation speed is used to circulate the water in the water tank 3 by the circulation pump 30.

Thus, by adjusting the flow rate and flow velocity of the discharged circulating water, the vertical angle and the lateral extent of the discharged circulating water can be changed without using a special injection nozzle. As a result, it becomes possible to supply the circulating water evenly and optimally to the laundry in the rotating drum 4 by the circulation pump 30, and the washing performance and the rinsing performance can be improved.

Further, since it is possible to avoid unnecessary supply of circulating water toward the space where the laundry is not located, wasteful power consumption can be suppressed, and abnormal foaming due to the cleaning water can also be suppressed.

The rotation speed of the circulation pump 30 is, for example, about 3500 rpm as described above during normal washing operation, and about 20 L of circulating water per minute is supplied to the laundry in the rotating drum 4. This will improve washing performance and rinsing performance. On the other hand, when it is determined by the load amount detection unit that the amount of laundry is less than the predetermined value, the control unit 11a constituting the control device 11 reduces the rotational speed of the circulation pump 30 to about 2500 rpm, for example. Circulating water is about 15L / min. By reducing the number of revolutions of the circulation pump 30, as shown by an arrow B in FIG. 1, the angle in the vertical direction in which the circulating water is discharged is made closer to the horizontal, and the degree of spread in the left-right direction is reduced. Thereby, when there is little laundry, the discharged circulating water is injected to the laundry located in the downward direction in the rotating drum 4, and circulating water is supplied efficiently.

In addition, in this Embodiment 1, although it was set as the structure which installs the circulation pump 30 on the baseplate 2a which is the bottom part of the washing machine main body 1, it is not limited to this, The water in the water tank 3 is circulated. However, the structure where the circulation pump 30 is installed in the lower part 3b of the water tank 3 may be sufficient. Moreover, the discharge side path | route 31b is not restricted to one, There may be multiple, and the injection port 51 may be not only from the lower part but from the upper part, and may be plural.

Furthermore, the drum-type washing machine according to the first embodiment is provided with a water level detection unit 10 that detects the amount of water supplied into the rotary drum 4. This connected the air trap part 10a and the pressure detection part 10c which were arrange | positioned in the predetermined position near the lowest part of the water tank 3 with the hose 10b. The pressure detection unit 10c is composed of a ferrite integrated with a bellows portion that moves by pressure, and a fixed-side coil that surrounds the outer periphery of the pressure detection unit 10c. To do. The water level detection unit 10 is open to the atmosphere and the output is constant when the cleaning water does not come into the air trap unit 10a.

As described above, the water level detection unit 10 is generally sensing by measuring the air internal pressure by the air trap mechanism, and measuring the time until the air internal pressure changes from the stable atmospheric open pressure affects the variation of the water level sensor. It is an appropriate calculation method that is not subject to

Further, the output of the water level detection unit 10 changes depending on the rotation of the rotating drum 4 during the washing operation, such as whether or not the rotating drum 4 is rotating, and the rotation number of the rotating drum 4. Correspondingly, there are several tables of rotation speed and water level. That is, the water level can be recognized while the rotating drum 4 is stationary or rotating.

The control unit 11a includes a system that can manage all input / output control with a timer, including various sensor outputs such as the water level detection unit 10 as well as instructions for water supply, drainage, and driving of the rotating drum 4. The time required for each operation and timing can be known.

The vibration detector 16 detects the vibration of the water tank 3. The vibration detection unit 16 includes at least one acceleration sensor (not shown), detects vibration in at least one of the vertical direction, the horizontal direction, and the front-rear direction of the water tank 3, and detects the acceleration in each detected direction. Output the sum of.

In Embodiment 1, as an example, vibration (acceleration) in the vertical direction with respect to the front surface of the rotating drum 4 is detected. The acceleration sensor may be a semiconductor acceleration sensor, a piezoelectric acceleration sensor, or the like, and may be a multi-axis (two-axis or three-axis) acceleration sensor. The actual vibration of the aquarium 3 occupies most of the components in the vertical direction, so the acceleration of clothing falling can be detected with sufficient accuracy in only one direction of the vertical direction. Since there is a rare case where the water tank 3 hits the casing, in the first embodiment of the present invention, a three-axis acceleration sensor is used to add and add the three-axis acceleration components. .

Next, details of the control device 11 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the control device 11 of the drum type washing machine according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The control device 11 includes a microcomputer, and includes a control unit 11a, a cloth quality detection unit 11b that detects the quality of the laundry, and a cloth amount detection unit 11d that detects the amount of the laundry. . The control unit 11a controls the motor 6, the water supply valve 7b, the drain valve 8b, and the like through a power switching unit (not shown) to perform washing, rinsing, and dehydration.

The rotation speed calculation unit 11e calculates the rotation speed of the rotary drum 4 from the speed signal output from the hall element 6a as the rotation speed detection unit. The rotation speed of the rotary drum 4 is supplied to the cloth amount detection unit 11d, and the cloth amount is detected based on the detected rotation speed.

Cloth amount detection is performed as follows. First, the control unit 11a drives the motor 6 to rotate. The rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 at this time is once raised to a rotational speed at which the laundry is stuck to the inside of the peripheral wall 4c of the rotating drum 4, for example, about 100 to 140 rpm. The controller 11a turns off the motor 6 after maintaining the rotation of the rotary drum 4 for a predetermined time. Then, the motor 6 rotates because the rotating drum 4 rotates due to inertia. At this time, the rotation of the rotating drum 4 gradually decreases due to the friction torque, and the rotating drum 4 eventually stops. The time from the stop of energization to the stop of the rotating drum 4 is long when the amount of laundry is large, and short when the amount of laundry is small. The amount of laundry is detected using the fact that the difference in time required for this stop is proportional to the amount of laundry.

The control unit 11a determines the cleaning water level according to the cloth amount detected by the cloth amount detection unit 11d, and opens the water supply valve 7b to supply water to the cleaning water level. Thereafter, the output from the vibration detection unit 16 is input, and the rotational speed of the motor 6 is varied while performing vector control so that the maximum acceleration is applied in a predetermined direction (vertical direction in the present embodiment). To decide. Thereafter, the output from the torque fluctuation calculation unit 11c is input while the determined number of revolutions is kept constant, and the fabric quality of the laundry is determined by the fabric quality detection unit 11b.

The torque fluctuation calculation part 11c calculates the output of the motor 6 detected from the motor current detection part 17 which is a torque fluctuation detection part. In the configuration in which the rotation of the motor 6 is controlled by vector control, the q-axis current obtained by vector control is proportional to the torque, so the torque of the motor 6 and the magnitude of torque variation are calculated using the q-axis current.

The drum type washing machine in the first embodiment of the present invention automatically controls the motor 6, the water supply valve 7b, the drain valve 8b, and the drying unit 9 according to mode setting and a control program, and at least a washing process, a rinsing process, a dehydrating process, It has a function of performing a drying process.

For the drum type washing machine configured as described above, the process of detecting the cloth quality will be described below for its operation and action.

In the normal washing operation, the laundry is first put in from the door 5 and the cloth amount is detected along with the rotation of the rotary drum 4 without being wet. The basic water supply amount is determined from the result of the cloth amount detection at this time. Then, the water supply valve 7b is opened and water supply is started. Further, the detergent in the detergent container 7 a is also put into the water tank 3 using the water supply at this time. When the water is supplied to the washing water level determined according to the amount of cloth, the rotating drum 4 repeats the left and right rotations for about 3 minutes to sufficiently absorb the washing water (containing water).

In Embodiment 1 of the present invention, after the laundry has sufficiently absorbed the washing water, the motor 6 operates at a rotational speed at which the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit 16 is maximized. . That is, the control unit 11a changes the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 in a range of 40 to 49 rpm so that the maximum acceleration is generated in the vertical direction (vertical direction) when viewed from the front side of the rotating drum 4. Specifically, the rotating drum 4 is rotated at 45 rpm for 20 seconds, and the vibration detector 16 detects an average vertical acceleration for 20 seconds. Next, while rotating the rotating drum 4 for the same time at 46 rpm, the vibration detector 16 similarly detects the acceleration in the vertical direction. The controller 11a searches for the number of rotations of the rotating drum 4 to which an average acceleration is applied in the vertical direction compared to the vertical acceleration during rotation at 45 rpm. Similarly, by changing the drum rotation speed from 47, 48, and 49 rpm to 44 to 40 rpm, the drum rotation speed to which the average acceleration is applied is obtained.

Next, the behavior of torque fluctuation according to the properties of the fabric will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. FIG. 3A is a diagram showing the correlation between the magnitudes of torque fluctuations due to the difference in fabric quality when the rotating drum of the drum type washing machine in Embodiment 1 of the present invention is rotated in one direction at 45 rpm. FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the correlation of the magnitude of torque fluctuation due to the difference in cloth quality when the rotating drum of the drum type washing machine in Embodiment 1 of the present invention is rotated at the number of rotations according to the cloth quality.

As shown in FIG. 3A, when there are many chemical fibers with low water absorption, when the rotating drum 4 is rotated at 45 rpm, most of the laundry is stuck inside the rotating drum 4 and uneven rotation is less likely to occur. Torque fluctuation is also reduced. On the other hand, when there are many cotton clothes with high water absorption, it does not lift to the upper part of the rotating drum 4, and the laundry runs idle at a low position of the rotating drum 4. As shown in FIG. 3B, the engine is idle in the vicinity of the lower part, and rotation unevenness is unlikely to occur, that is, torque fluctuation is reduced.

In addition, when the laundry is idle at a low position of the rotating drum 4, the laundry that is lifted and dropped halfway hits the stirring protrusion 4b that rises in the rotation direction and may be knocked up. At this time, the rotating drum 4 vibrates greatly in the left-right direction, and the torque fluctuation detected by the torque fluctuation detector 17 increases. Due to such behavior, just because the torque fluctuation is large, the laundry does not necessarily fall from the uppermost part of the rotating drum 4 to the lowermost part.

As described above, if the laundry does not fall from the uppermost part to the lowermost part of the rotating drum 4, it is difficult to distinguish the rotation unevenness and the torque fluctuation according to the cloth quality, and it is difficult to detect the cloth quality.

When the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 is in the range of 40 to 49 rpm, the vibration detecting unit 16 determines the rotational speed at which the maximum acceleration is detected, and the rotating drum 4 is rotated at that rotational speed. Facing the bottom, the laundry is knocked down with maximum acceleration. When the rotational speed and torque fluctuation are detected in this state, a result as shown in FIG. 3B is obtained. As shown in FIG. 3B, when the laundry has a large amount of chemical fiber, the garment sticking to the inner side of the peripheral wall 4 c of the rotating drum 4 is reduced by reducing the rotational speed to 43 rpm. That is, it is in a state in which the laundry is struck down with maximum acceleration from the uppermost part to the lowermost part of the rotating drum 4.

On the other hand, when there are many cotton clothes with high water absorption, clothes containing water are heavy, so by increasing the number of revolutions to 48 rpm, the clothes can be lifted up to the top of the rotating drum 4, and the laundry is directed to the bottom. Is knocked down with maximum acceleration.

In this way, the minimum condition for rotating the rotary drum 4 is established, and then the cloth quality is determined based on the magnitude of torque fluctuation.

In the process of determining the cloth quality based on the magnitude of the torque fluctuation, as described above, the control unit 11a has a rotation speed at which the laundry can be reliably knocked down with the maximum acceleration. In this case, the rotating drum 4 is continuously rotated at 43 rpm or the like. At this time, it is finely detected whether the fluctuation (torque fluctuation) of the rotational speed in the short period cycle is large or small, for example, the magnitude of the torque fluctuation in units of 0.1 second is detected.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the rotating rotating drum 4 sinks due to the fall of the laundry in the rotating drum 4, thereby causing rotation unevenness (torque fluctuation of the motor 6). For example, if you put about 4kg of cotton clothes, double 8kg of washing water. For this reason, the rotation drum 4 is calculated to have 12 kg of cloth containing washing water.

Although the laundry in the rotating drum 4 depends on how the cloth is biased, a lump of cotton containing approximately 2 kg of water is lifted up to the top of the rotating drum 4 and dropped down toward the bottom of the rotating drum 4 Therefore, the rotating drum 4 easily sinks and uneven rotation occurs. The magnitude of the rotation unevenness is ± 2 rpm for chemical fibers and ± 5 rpm for cotton, and the numerical difference itself is small. This is because even if rotation unevenness occurs by using vector control having high-speed response as the control method of the motor 6, it is difficult to cause rotation unevenness by rapidly increasing and decreasing the motor current. Since the influence on the torque fluctuation is large as much as the difference in rotation unevenness is small, the control device 11 according to the first embodiment of the present invention can easily distinguish the difference in the fabric quality by referring to the torque fluctuation (q-axis current of the motor current). . When the vector control is not performed, the variation in the rotation speed (rotation unevenness) becomes larger, so that the cloth quality can be determined based on the magnitude of the rotation unevenness.

Note that the torque fluctuation is detected at the timing when the motor 6 starts operating, that is, for 5 seconds after the rotation of the rotary drum 4, the laundry in the drum is not stable, so that the torque fluctuation is not detected and the torque fluctuation is detected after 5 seconds. Start detecting. It is better to detect the fluctuation as long as possible until the rotating drum 4 is stopped.

Finally, the process of detecting the cloth quality from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation detected by the torque fluctuation detector 17 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the correlation of the torque variation according to the cloth quality with respect to the cloth amount of the drum type washing machine in the first embodiment of the present invention.

The difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the torque fluctuation of the rotary drum 4 is replaced with a numerical value that is easy to calculate (for example, a numerical value in units of a maximum of 400 bits) by the torque fluctuation calculation section 11c, and the cloth quality detection section 11b. As shown in FIG. 4, the fabric quality is determined by comparing the first predetermined value A and the second predetermined value B, which are threshold values, with the ratio of fibers having high water absorption and fibers having low water absorption. .

In the case of FIG. 4, if it is 2nd predetermined value B or less, for example, 240 bits or less, it will be determined that the ratio of the clothing which consists of a chemical fiber is large. If it exceeds 240 bits and is less than the first predetermined value A, for example, less than 290 bits, cotton and chemical fibers are roughly half of the laundry, and if it exceeds 290 bits, the proportion of clothing made of cotton is high. Next, the fabric quality is determined.

Supplementing the relationship between the fabric quality and the amount of fabric, according to FIG. 4, the so-called practical area is called laundry capacity (generally, it is said that the capacity of laundry that an adult changes and wash in one day is 1.5 kg. The range of the most practical washing capacity (up to 3 families washing every day) can determine the fabric quality without depending on the amount of fabric. However, in the case of a capacity of 1 kg or less or a capacity exceeding 6 kg, it is necessary to change the cloth quality judgment threshold value according to the cloth quantity obtained as a result of the cloth quantity judgment (the cloth quality detection threshold value based on the cloth quantity). Correction).

When the laundry is less than 1 kg, it is difficult to detect the difference in the cloth quality by the vibration detection unit 16 because it is relatively light even if it contains washing water. When the laundry exceeds 6 kg, the rotary drum 4 is almost filled with the laundry, and it is difficult to drop the rotary drum 4 from the upper part to the lower part. For this reason, it is difficult to detect a difference in fabric quality by the vibration detection unit 16. Therefore, the maximum torque fluctuation range, which is the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of torque fluctuation, becomes small. Therefore, the fabric quality can be determined according to the amount of fabric by lowering the threshold value for determining the level of water absorption.

As described above, the drum-type washing machine in the present embodiment accommodates laundry, and a washing tub that is rotatable around a horizontal rotation axis or a rotation axis that is inclined downward from the front side toward the back side; Water tank for storing the washing tub, vibration detection unit for detecting vibration of the water tub, driving unit for driving the washing tub, torque fluctuation detecting unit for detecting the magnitude of torque fluctuation of the driving unit, and the quality of the laundry And a control unit that controls each process such as washing, rinsing, and dehydration by driving the drive unit, etc., and the control unit has the maximum magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit. The drive unit is operated at the rotation speed at which the cloth quality detection section determines the cloth quality of the laundry from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation at the rotation speed at which the magnitude of the vibration is maximum.

With such a configuration, the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is maximized after a certain amount of water corresponding to the weight of the laundry is supplied into the washing tub and absorbed by the laundry regardless of the fabric quality. The drive unit is operated so that That is, the laundry can be knocked down with the maximum acceleration from the uppermost part of the rotating washing tub toward the lowermost part (the bottom of the washing tub). Therefore, by extracting the maximum amount of torque fluctuation (variation width) according to the fabric quality (water absorption), the laundry is often made of a material with high water absorption or low water absorption. The cloth quality of the material can be easily and accurately detected.

Further, the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment includes a water supply unit that supplies water to the washing tub or the water tub, and a rotation speed detection unit that detects the rotation speed of the drive unit. The control unit operates the water supply unit to operate the drive unit at a rotation speed at which the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is maximum in a state where the laundry contains water by supplying water, and the cloth quality detection unit Detects the cloth quality of the laundry from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation at the rotational speed at which the magnitude of vibration becomes maximum.

Further, in the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment, the control unit performs a process of rotating the washing tub at a predetermined rotation speed for a predetermined time after the start of water supply, and changes the predetermined rotation speed to detect vibration detected by the vibration detection unit. The number of rotations that maximizes the size of is determined.

Further, in the drum type washing machine according to the present embodiment, the cloth quality detection unit is configured such that the magnitude of the torque fluctuation at the rotational speed at which the magnitude of the vibration detected by the vibration detection part is the maximum is larger than the predetermined torque fluctuation. If large, the laundry is judged to have a high percentage of superabsorbent fibers.

Further, in the drum type washing machine according to the present embodiment, the cloth quality detection unit determines the cloth quality based on the magnitude of the torque fluctuation after the elapse of a predetermined time from the start of the operation of the driving unit.

With such a configuration, the torque fluctuation detection is canceled in a section where the torque value is not stable immediately after the operation of the drive unit is started, and the cloth quality is determined based on the torque fluctuation in a state where the torque value is stable after a predetermined time has elapsed. It is possible to improve the accuracy of the cloth quality determination.

Further, in the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment, the vibration detection unit has at least one acceleration sensor, and detects vibration in at least one of the vertical direction, the horizontal direction, and the front-rear direction of the water tank, Output the sum of acceleration in each detected direction.

With such a configuration, even when the laundry is biased in the washing tub, the drive unit is adjusted so that the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is always maximized by the high-speed response of the acceleration sensor. be able to. As a result, the laundry can always be struck down with the maximum acceleration from the top to the bottom of the rotating washing tub.

In addition, the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment is configured such that the control unit performs vector control of the drive unit, and the torque fluctuation detection unit is based on the q-axis current when the control unit performs vector control of the drive unit. To detect the magnitude of torque fluctuation.

With this configuration, the drive unit is configured to be rotationally controlled by vector control, and is configured to detect the magnitude of torque variation of the drive unit based on the q-axis current obtained in vector control. Detection accuracy can be further improved, and the accuracy of the cloth quality determination can be further improved.

The drum-type washing machine in the present embodiment includes a cloth amount detection unit that detects the amount of laundry in the washing tub, and the control unit is a torque that determines the cloth quality based on a signal from the cloth amount detection unit. Correct the threshold of variation.

With such a configuration, when the amount of laundry is large, the width of torque fluctuation due to the cloth quality becomes larger. Therefore, by correcting the cloth quality judgment threshold value, the cloth quantity can be improved without being affected by the cloth quantity. Can detect quality.

Next, when the washing process is finished, the drain valve 8b is opened, and the wash water in the water tank 3 passes through the drain pipe 8a and the drain filter 8c and is drained outside the apparatus. Thereafter, rinsing and dehydration processes are performed, and the washing operation ends.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, after a constant amount of water corresponding to the weight of the laundry is supplied into the aquarium 3 and absorbed by the laundry, regardless of the fabric quality, the vibration detector 16 The motor 6 is operated so that the magnitude of vibration to be detected is maximized. In other words, the laundry can be knocked down with the maximum acceleration from the uppermost part to the lowermost part of the rotating drum 4, and the magnitude of the torque fluctuation (variation width) according to the fabric quality (water absorption) is maximized. Pull out to the limit. By doing in this way, it is possible to easily detect cloth quality such as whether the laundry is often made of a material with high water absorption or whether it is made of a material with low water absorption. An excellent washing operation is possible.

As described above, the drum-type washing machine in the present embodiment accommodates laundry, and a washing tub that is rotatable around a horizontal rotation axis or a rotation axis that is inclined downward from the front side toward the back side; Water tank for storing the washing tub, vibration detection unit for detecting vibration of the water tub, driving unit for driving the washing tub, torque fluctuation detecting unit for detecting the magnitude of torque fluctuation of the driving unit, and the quality of the laundry And a control unit that controls each process such as washing, rinsing, and dehydration by driving the drive unit, etc., and the control unit has the maximum magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit. The drive unit is operated at the rotational speed at which the cloth quality detection unit determines the cloth quality of the laundry from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation in this state.

In addition, the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment includes a water supply unit that supplies water to the washing tub or the water tub, and a rotation number detection unit that detects the rotation number of the drive unit, and the control unit operates the water supply unit to supply water. By doing so, the laundry is hydrated and the drive unit is operated at a rotation speed at which the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection section is maximized, and the cloth quality detection section is at a rotation speed at which the magnitude of vibration is maximized. The cloth quality of the laundry is detected from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation.

(Embodiment 2)
The second embodiment of the present invention will be described below. Since the drum type washing machine in the second embodiment is the same in structure and components as the drum type washing machine in the first embodiment, the drum type washing machine in the second embodiment will also be described with reference to FIGS. explain.

As shown in FIG. 1, the circulation pump 30 is fixed on a base plate 2 a that is the bottom of the washing machine body 1, and sucks wash water and sends it to the circulation channel 31.

Here, the washing water is water used for washing in the washing process, and includes water before the detergent is dissolved and water after the detergent is dissolved. Rinsing water is water used for rinsing in the rinsing process, and the detergent remaining in the laundry is dissolved, so that the water containing the detergent is also included in the rinsing water.

The supplied wash water or rinse water is discharged from the opening 13 of the rotating drum 4 into the washing tub through the circulation water channel 31. More specifically, the discharge side path 31b of the circulation water channel 31 is connected to the injection port 51 provided in the front end wall 3g around the opening 13 of the water tank 3 from the outer surface, and the inner surface of the front end wall 3g of the water tank 3 Corresponding to this, washing water or rinsing water is jetted between the outer surface of the front end wall 4g of the rotating drum 4 and discharged into the rotating drum 4 through a flow path formed therebetween. As a result, the water injection port 51 from the discharge side passage 31b is in a position where it does not come into contact with the laundry in the rotating drum 4, so that the laundry is caught and washed, disturbing the behavior required for rinsing or drying, or It is possible to prevent the laundry from being damaged or torn, and the appearance is not impaired. At this time, the motor rotation speed of the circulation pump 30 is set to about 3500 rpm, for example.

In addition, the injection port 51 is not limited to the lower attachment position, and any position may be provided in the upper part or in a plurality as long as it does not contact the laundry in the rotating drum 4. It may be an arrangement.

Further, when washing water or rinsing water is simply sprayed into the rotating drum 4, the circulating water is injected only to the local area of the laundry in the rotating drum 4, and the circulation effect is not fully utilized. On the other hand, when a special injection nozzle is used to inject circulating water over a wide area, the necessary pump pressure increases, which causes a cost increase. Therefore, in the second embodiment, for example, a DC brushless motor capable of controlling the rotational speed is used to circulate the water in the water tank 3 by the circulation pump 30.

Moreover, since it is possible to avoid unnecessary supply of circulating water toward the space where the laundry is not located, wasteful power consumption can be suppressed, and abnormal foaming caused by the detergent water can also be suppressed.

The rotation speed of the circulation pump 30 is, for example, about 3500 rpm as described above during normal washing operation, and about 20 L of circulating water per minute is supplied to the laundry in the rotating drum 4. This will improve washing performance and rinsing performance. On the other hand, when the load amount detection unit determines that the amount of laundry is less than the predetermined value, the control unit 11a reduces the rotation speed of the circulation pump 30 to, for example, about 2500 rpm, and supplies 15 L of circulating water to be supplied per minute. To a degree. By reducing the number of revolutions of the circulation pump 30, as shown by an arrow B in FIG. 1, the angle in the vertical direction in which the circulating water is discharged is made closer to the horizontal, and the degree of spread in the left-right direction is reduced. Thereby, when there is little laundry, the discharged circulating water is injected to the laundry located in the downward direction in the rotating drum 4, and circulating water is supplied efficiently.

In Embodiment 2, the circulation pump 30 is installed on the base plate 2a which is the bottom of the washing machine body 1. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the water in the water tank 3 is circulated. Alternatively, the circulation pump 30 may be installed in the lower part 3 b of the water tank 3. Moreover, the discharge side path | route 31b is not restricted to one, There may be multiple, and the injection port 51 may be not only from the lower part but from the upper part, and may be plural.

Furthermore, the drum-type washing machine according to the second embodiment is provided with a water level detection unit 10 that detects the amount of water supplied into the rotary drum 4. This connected the air trap part 10a and the pressure detection part 10c which were arrange | positioned in the predetermined position near the lowest part of the water tank 3 with the hose 10b. The pressure detection unit 10c is composed of a ferrite integrated with a bellows portion that moves by pressure, and a fixed-side coil that surrounds the outer periphery of the pressure detection unit 10c. To do. If the water trap 10a does not receive cleaning water or rinsing water, the water level detection unit 10 is released into the atmosphere and the output is constant.

The output of the water level detection unit 10 changes depending on the rotation of the rotating drum 4 during the cleaning and rinsing operations, such as whether or not the rotating drum 4 is rotating, and the number of rotations thereof. Depending on the number, it has several tables of rotation speed and water level. That is, the water level can be recognized while the rotating drum 4 is stationary or rotating.

In the second embodiment, as an example, vibration (acceleration) in the vertical direction with respect to the front surface of the rotating drum 4 is detected. The acceleration sensor may be a semiconductor acceleration sensor, a piezoelectric acceleration sensor, or the like, and may be a multi-axis (two-axis or three-axis) acceleration sensor. The actual vibration of the aquarium 3 occupies most of the components in the vertical direction, so the acceleration of clothing falling can be detected with sufficient accuracy in only one direction of the vertical direction. Since there is a rare case where the water tank 3 hits the housing, the second embodiment of the present invention uses a triaxial acceleration sensor and adds and sums the triaxial acceleration components. .

Next, details of the control device 11 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control device 11 of the drum type washing machine in Embodiment 2 of the present invention. The control device 11 includes a microcomputer, and includes a control unit 11a, a cloth quality detection unit 11b that detects the quality of the laundry, and a cloth amount detection unit 11d that detects the amount of the laundry. . Further, the control unit 11a controls the motor 6, the water supply valve 7b, the drain valve 8b and the like through a power switching unit (not shown) to perform washing, rinsing and dehydration.

Cloth amount detection is performed as follows. First, the control unit 11a drives the motor 6 to rotate. The rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 at this time is once raised to a rotational speed at which the laundry is stuck to the inside of the peripheral wall 4c of the rotating drum 4, for example, about 100 to 140 rpm. After maintaining the rotation of the rotating drum 4 for a predetermined time, the control unit 11a turns off the energization of the motor. Then, the motor 6 rotates because the rotating drum 4 rotates due to inertia. At this time, the rotation of the rotating drum 4 gradually decreases due to the friction torque, and the rotating drum 4 eventually stops. The time from the stop of energization to the stop of the rotating drum 4 is long when the amount of laundry is large, and short when the amount of laundry is small. The amount of laundry is detected using the fact that the difference in time required for this stop is proportional to the amount of laundry.

The control unit 11a determines an initial water supply amount according to the cloth amount detected by the cloth amount detection unit 11d, and supplies water by opening the water supply valve 7b. The initial water supply amount referred to here represents an amount of water appropriate for washing clothes with low water absorption. If there are many clothes such as chemical fibers having low water absorption as a result of the cloth quality determination described later, a sufficient amount of water for washing or rinsing is supplied at this time, so there is no need for supplementary water to be added. On the other hand, when it is determined that there are many clothes such as cotton having high water absorption, water is supplied before the laundry absorbs water and the water level decreases.

After the water supply, the control unit 11a drives the motor 6, inputs the output from the vibration detection unit 16, and vectorizes the rotation speed of the motor 6 so that the maximum acceleration is applied in a predetermined direction (vertical direction in the present embodiment). The number of rotations of the motor 6 is determined by varying the control. Thereafter, the output from the torque fluctuation calculation unit 11c is input while the determined number of revolutions is kept constant, and the fabric quality of the laundry is determined by the fabric quality detection unit 11b.

The drum type washing machine according to the second embodiment of the present invention automatically controls the motor 6, the water supply valve 7b, the drain valve 8b, and the drying unit 9 according to mode setting and a control program, and at least a washing process, a rinsing process, a dehydrating process, It has a function of performing a drying process.

In the normal washing operation, the laundry is first put in from the door 5 and the cloth amount is detected along with the rotation of the rotary drum 4 without being wet. The basic water supply amount is determined from the result of the cloth amount detection at this time. Then, the water supply valve 7b is opened and water supply is started. Further, the detergent in the detergent container 7 a is also put into the water tank 3 using this water supply. When the water supply is completed up to the initial water supply amount determined according to the amount of cloth, the rotating drum 4 repeats the left and right rotations for about 3 minutes to allow the laundry to sufficiently absorb water (containing water).

In the second embodiment of the present invention, after the laundry has sufficiently absorbed water, the motor 6 is operated at a rotational speed at which the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit 16 is maximized. That is, the control unit 11a changes the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 in a range of 40 to 49 rpm so that the maximum acceleration is generated in the vertical direction (vertical direction) when viewed from the front side of the rotating drum 4. Specifically, the rotating drum 4 is rotated at 45 rpm for 20 seconds, and the vibration detector 16 detects an average vertical acceleration for 20 seconds. Next, while rotating the rotating drum 4 for the same time at 46 rpm, the vibration detector 16 similarly detects the acceleration in the vertical direction. The controller 11a searches for the number of rotations of the rotating drum 4 to which an average acceleration is applied in the vertical direction as compared with the vertical acceleration during 45 rpm rotation. Similarly, the drum rotational speed at which the acceleration is averaged is obtained by changing the drum rotational speed from 47, 48, and 49 rpm to 44 to 40 rpm in the reverse direction.

Next, the behavior of torque fluctuation according to the properties of the fabric will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. FIG. 3A shows a correlation diagram of the magnitude of torque fluctuation due to the difference in fabric quality when the rotating drum of the drum type washing machine in Embodiment 2 of the present invention is rotated in one direction at 45 rpm. FIG. 3B shows a correlation diagram of the magnitude of torque fluctuation due to the difference in cloth quality when the rotating drum of the drum type washing machine in Embodiment 2 of the present invention is rotated at the number of rotations according to the cloth quality.

As shown in FIG. 3A, when there are many chemical fibers with low water absorption, when the rotating drum 4 is rotated at 45 rpm, most of the laundry is stuck inside the rotating drum 4 and uneven rotation is less likely to occur. Torque fluctuation is also reduced. On the other hand, when there are many cotton clothes with high water absorption, it does not lift to the upper part of the rotating drum 4, and the laundry runs idle at a low position of the rotating drum 4. As shown in FIG. 6B, the engine is idle in the vicinity of the lower part, and rotation unevenness is unlikely to occur, that is, torque fluctuation is reduced.

As described above, when the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 is in the range of 40 to 49 rpm, the vibration detecting unit 16 determines the rotational speed at which the maximum acceleration is detected, and the rotating drum 4 is rotated at that rotational speed. The laundry is struck down with the maximum acceleration from the top to the bottom. When the rotational speed and torque fluctuation are detected in this state, a result as shown in FIG. 3B is obtained. As shown in FIG. 3B, when the laundry has a large amount of chemical fiber, the garment sticking to the inner side of the peripheral wall 4 c of the rotating drum 4 is reduced by reducing the rotational speed to 43 rpm. That is, it is in a state in which the laundry is struck down with maximum acceleration from the uppermost part to the lowermost part of the rotating drum 4.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the rotating drum 4 sinks due to the fall of the laundry in the rotating drum 4, so that rotation unevenness (torque fluctuation of the motor 6) occurs. For example, if you put about 4kg of cotton clothes, double 8kg of washing water. For this reason, the rotation drum 4 is calculated to have 12 kg of cloth containing washing water.

Although the laundry in the rotating drum 4 depends on how the cloth is biased, a lump of cotton containing approximately 2 kg of water is lifted up to the top of the rotating drum 4 and dropped down toward the bottom of the rotating drum 4 Therefore, the rotating drum 4 easily sinks and uneven rotation occurs. The magnitude of the rotation unevenness is ± 2 rpm for chemical fibers and ± 5 rpm for cotton, and the numerical difference itself is small. This is because even if rotation unevenness occurs by using vector control having high-speed response as the control method of the motor 6, it is difficult to cause rotation unevenness by rapidly increasing and decreasing the motor current. Since the influence on the torque fluctuation is large as much as the difference in rotation unevenness is small, the control device 11 according to the second embodiment of the present invention can easily distinguish the difference in the fabric quality by referring to the torque fluctuation (the q-axis current of the motor current). . When the vector control is not performed, the variation in the rotation speed (rotation unevenness) becomes larger, so that the cloth quality can be determined based on the magnitude of the rotation unevenness.

At the cloth quality detection stage, as described above, water is supplied up to the initial water supply amount. The initial amount of water supply is the amount of water supplied when there are many laundry items with low water absorption, such as chemical fibers. Therefore, if the cloth quality detection part 11b judges that there are many chemical fibers, it is not necessary to supply water again. On the other hand, the more water-absorbing laundry such as cotton, the more water is absorbed and the water level is lowered. Therefore, if the cloth quality detection part 11b judges that there is much cotton, before the laundry absorbs water and a water level falls, the water supply valve 7b will be operated and water will be supplied again.

Here, supplementing the relationship between the fabric quality and the amount of fabric, according to FIG. 4, it is said that the so-called practical area washing capacity (generally the capacity of washing that an adult changes after a day is 1.5 kg) The range of the most practical washing capacity that one to three families wash every day) can determine the quality of the fabric without depending on the amount of fabric. However, in the case of a capacity of 1 kg or less or a capacity exceeding 6 kg, it is necessary to change the cloth quality judgment threshold value according to the cloth quantity obtained as a result of the cloth quantity judgment (the cloth quality detection threshold value based on the cloth quantity). Correction).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a constant amount of water according to the weight of the laundry is supplied into the aquarium 3 or the rotating drum 4 regardless of the cloth quality, and the laundry is allowed to absorb water. The motor 6 is operated so that the magnitude of vibration detected by the detection unit 16 is maximized. In other words, the laundry can be knocked down with the maximum acceleration from the uppermost part to the lowermost part of the rotating drum 4, and the magnitude of the torque fluctuation (variation width) according to the fabric quality (water absorption) is maximized. Pull out to the limit. Accordingly, it is possible to easily and accurately detect the cloth quality such as whether the laundry is often made of a material having high water absorption or whether the laundry is made of a material having low water absorption. In addition, by supplying water and stirring up to a water supply amount corresponding to the detected cloth quality, washing can be performed in accordance with the cloth quality, so that the cleaning performance is improved. In addition, when there are many fibers with low water absorption, water is not wasted, so that operation with excellent water saving can be performed. On the other hand, when there are many fibers with high water absorption, the amount of water is small, and the fabric damage caused by rubbing between the laundry can be reduced.

In the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment, the control unit determines the amount of water supply from the fabric amount by the fabric amount detection unit and the fabric quality by the fabric detection unit.

Such a configuration makes it possible to operate with excellent energy savings such as saving water and saving time (power saving).

Further, the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment determines the initial water supply amount from the cloth amount by the cloth amount detection unit, supplies water by the water supply unit, and rotates with the maximum magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit. The cleaning unit is determined again from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation at the rotational speed at which the magnitude of vibration is maximized.

With such a configuration, even when the water supply amount determined by the cloth amount detection unit is not suitable for the cloth quality, washing can be performed with the water supply amount according to the cloth quality. , Cleaning performance can be maintained. Moreover, the damage of a laundry can be reduced by the water level fall by the water absorption of a laundry.

Further, in the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment, when the control unit determines that the ratio of the laundry whose fabric quality by the fabric quality detection unit is high in water absorption is large, the water supply unit supplies water.

With such a configuration, even in the case of laundry having a high water absorption and a lot of cloth quality, it is possible to improve the cleaning performance by supplying a water supply amount considering the water absorption of the laundry. Moreover, since water can be supplied according to the cloth quality of the laundry, damage to the laundry can be reduced due to a decrease in the water level due to the water absorption by the laundry.

(Embodiment 3)
The third embodiment of the present invention will be described below. Since the drum type washing machine in the third embodiment is similar in structure and components to the drum type washing machine in the second embodiment, the drum type washing machine in the third embodiment will also be described with reference to FIGS. explain.

In Embodiment 3, the control part 11a changes the content of the rinse process from the cloth quality by the cloth quality detection part 11b.

The washing process is the same as in the second embodiment. When the rinsing process is started, the amount of water supply is determined from the detected cloth amount and cloth quality. The controller 11a decreases the water supply amount as the proportion of fibers having low water absorption increases, and increases the amount of water supply as the proportion of fibers having high water absorption increases. The reference water supply amount at this time is a water supply amount corresponding to the cloth amount detected by the cloth amount detector 11d.

The control unit 11a opens the water supply valve 7b to supply water, and when the water level detection unit 10 detects that the determined water supply amount has been reached, the control unit 11a closes the water supply valve 7b and stops water supply.

The controller 11a shortens the stirring time of the rinsing process as the proportion of fibers having low water absorption increases, and increases the stirring time of the rinsing step as the proportion of fibers having high water absorption increases.

For example, if it is determined that the laundry is composed of a low water-absorbing fiber such as a chemical fiber, the stirring time is shortened by 2 minutes from the set time. Also, if it is determined that the laundry has a high proportion of highly water-absorbing fibers such as cotton, the stirring time is increased by 2 minutes from the set time.

Further, the control unit 11a decreases the stirring speed of the rinsing process, that is, the rotation speed of the rotating drum 4 as the ratio of the fibers having low water absorption increases, and increases the ratio of the fibers having high water absorption as the ratio of the fibers having high water absorption. The rotational speed is increased.

For example, if it is determined that the laundry has a high proportion of low-absorbent fibers such as chemical fibers, the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 is delayed by 2 rpm from the set rotational speed. Moreover, if it is judged that there are many ratios comprised from a fiber with high water absorption, the rotation speed of the rotating drum 4 will be made 2 rpm faster than a setting rotation speed.

Furthermore, the controller 11a has a high proportion of fibers with low water absorption when the cloth quality detector 11b determines that the laundry fabric has a high proportion of fibers made of low water absorption such as chemical fibers. The number of rinsing steps is reduced. Also, if the cloth quality of the laundry is determined by the cloth quality detection unit 11b to have a high proportion of fibers made of cotton or other highly water-absorbing fibers, the greater the proportion of fibers having high water-absorbing properties, the more times the rinsing process is performed. Have a lot. For example, if it is determined that the laundry is composed of a high water-absorbing fiber such as cotton, the number of rinses is increased by one from the set number. If it is determined that the laundry is composed of fibers with low water absorption, the number of rinses is reduced by one from the set number. The number of times set at this time is the number of times corresponding to the amount of cloth detected by the cloth amount detector 11d.

Cloth with high water absorption, like jeans and trainers, is hard when it contains water, and the washing water that has penetrated into and between the fibers cannot be shaken unless the water is powerfully stirred with a large amount of water. Therefore, the rinsing effect is enhanced by changing the water supply amount, the stirring time, the number of times of rinsing, and the number of rotations of the rotating drum 4 (stirring speed), which are the setting contents of the rinsing process, to increase.

On the other hand, clothing with low water absorption, like jerseys, is soft even when it contains water, and the space between fibers is more than 10 times that of cotton clothing. For this reason, in the case of rinsing, a sufficient rinsing effect can be obtained even if it is stirred for a short time with a small amount of water. Therefore, the rinsing is performed by changing the water supply amount, the stirring time, the number of times of rinsing, and the number of rotations of the rotating drum 4 to be the setting contents of rinsing as compared with the case where there are many proportions composed of fibers having high water absorption. Improve energy-saving performance such as saving water, saving time, and saving power while ensuring performance.

Further, in the third embodiment, the fabric is divided into three types of water absorption characteristics, that is, cotton having high water absorption, chemical fiber having low water absorption, and a mixture of cotton and chemical fiber. The ranking is not limited to this, and the ranking may be further refined by using several other types of chemical fibers such as nylon and acrylic. In addition, although it was decided to rank as a mixture of laundry composed of 100% cotton such as towels and laundry composed of 100% chemical fibers such as jerseys, it is not limited to this. In mixed fibers such as fibers, the fibers may be ranked by changing the mixing ratio of fibers to 1: 2, 1: 1, 2: 1, or the like.

Also, the rinsing process may be changed only by whether the number of fibers having high water absorption is high or low without performing detailed ranking. That is, if the torque fluctuation range is larger than a predetermined value, for example, 240 bits, it is determined that there are many fibers with high water absorption. If the torque fluctuation range is smaller than 240 bits, it is determined that there are few fibers with high water absorption or many fibers with low water absorption. Based on this determination, the contents of the rinsing process may be changed such as three times of rinsing when there are many fibers with high water absorption and two times when there are few fibers.

As described above, according to the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment, a constant amount of water corresponding to the weight of the laundry is supplied into the aquarium 3 or the rotating drum 4 regardless of the fabric quality, and the laundry absorbs water. Then, the motor 6 is operated so that the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detector 16 is maximized. In other words, the laundry can be knocked down with the maximum acceleration from the uppermost part to the lowermost part of the rotating drum 4, and the magnitude of the torque fluctuation (variation width) according to the fabric quality (water absorption) is maximized. Pull out to the limit. Accordingly, it is possible to easily and accurately detect the cloth quality such as whether the laundry is often made of a material having high water absorption or whether the laundry is made of a material having low water absorption. Further, by supplying water to the rinse water level corresponding to the detected cloth quality and stirring, rinsing suitable for the cloth quality can be performed, and the rinsing performance is improved. In addition, when there are many fibers with low water absorption, water is not wasted, so that operation with excellent water saving can be performed. On the other hand, when there are many fibers with high water absorption, the amount of water is small, and the fabric damage caused by rubbing between the laundry can be reduced.

(Embodiment 4)
Embodiment 4 of the present invention will be described below. Since the drum type washing machine in the fourth embodiment is similar in structure and components to the drum type washing machine in the second embodiment, the drum type washing machine in the fourth embodiment will also be described with reference to FIGS. explain.

In Embodiment 4, the control part 11a changes the content of the rinse process from the cloth quality by the cloth quality detection part 11b.

The washing process is the same as in the second embodiment. When the cloth quality detection unit 11b detects that the laundry in the rotating drum 4 is composed of a highly water-absorbing fiber, the control unit 11a performs water injection rinsing while supplying water.

When the rinsing process is started after draining the washing water in the water tank 3, the control unit 11a opens the water supply valve 7b to supply water, and when the water level detection unit 10 detects that the predetermined water supply amount has been reached, the control unit 11a opens the water discharge valve 8b. open. With the water supply valve 7b and the drain valve 8b opened, the motor is operated to rinse the laundry.

If the laundry is composed of fibers with high water absorbency, the detergent is retained in the fibers and is difficult to fall off. By supplying the rinse water in which the detergent is not dissolved, the detergent in the laundry can be easily dissolved in the rinse water, and the rinse performance can be improved.

When the cloth detection unit 11b detects that the laundry in the rotary drum 4 is composed of fibers having high water absorption, that is, the ratio of fibers composed of low water absorption is high, the control unit 11a In order to stir the laundry with a predetermined amount of rinsing water, rinsing is performed.

When the laundry is composed of fibers with low water absorption, the detergent is difficult to be held in the fibers, and thus the laundry is rinsed to stir the laundry with a predetermined amount of rinse water. This achieves water saving and energy saving while ensuring rinsing performance.

As described above, after the cloth quality detection unit 11b determines the cloth quality of the loaded laundry, it is possible to select whether to rinse or rinse the rinsing method, so that the rinsing according to the cloth characteristic is performed. This makes it possible to maximize the rinsing effect. Therefore, it is possible to improve the rinsing performance under conditions excellent in energy saving within a specific time.

As described above, according to the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment, a constant amount of water corresponding to the weight of the laundry is supplied into the aquarium 3 or the rotating drum 4 regardless of the fabric quality, and the laundry absorbs water. Then, the motor 6 is operated so that the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detector 16 is maximized. In other words, the laundry can be knocked down with the maximum acceleration from the uppermost part to the lowermost part of the rotating drum 4, and the magnitude of the torque fluctuation (variation width) according to the fabric quality (water absorption) is maximized. Pull out to the limit. Accordingly, it is possible to easily and accurately detect the cloth quality such as whether the laundry is often made of a material having high water absorption or whether the laundry is made of a material having low water absorption. In addition, rinsing performance is improved by rinsing according to the detected fabric quality.

(Embodiment 5)
Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described. The drum type washing machine in the fifth embodiment is the same in structure and components as the drum type washing machine in the second embodiment, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

Hereinafter, the washing process of the drum type washing machine in the fifth embodiment will be described.

If the controller 11a of the drum type washing machine in the fifth embodiment determines that the ratio of the cloth quality of the laundry is composed of fibers having low water absorption, the rotating drum for performing subsequent centrifugal cleaning is performed. The setting content is changed in the direction of decreasing the rotation number of 4. Specifically, the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 in centrifugal cleaning is set slightly lower (−20 rpm) than the standard set value (100 rpm).

Moreover, if the control part 11a determines that the ratio of the cloth quality of the laundry is high, it is set to increase the number of rotations of the rotating drum 4 when performing centrifugal cleaning thereafter. Change the contents. Specifically, the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 in centrifugal cleaning is set slightly higher (+20 rpm) than the standard set value (100 rpm).

Hereinafter, the operation of the washing process in the drum type washing machine in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the drum type washing machine according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the rotating drum 4 that is the washing tub is rotated by the motor 6 as the driving unit (S1), and the rotation number of the rotating drum 4 is adjusted to the motor. 6 (S2). The vibration detector 16 detects the vibration of the water tank 3 accompanying the rotation of the rotating drum 4 and determines whether or not the vibration is maximum (S3). If it is determined that the vibration is not maximum, the motor 6 is controlled. The rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 is changed.

When it is determined that the vibration of the water tank 3 is maximum (YES in S3), the control unit 11a detects the magnitude of the torque at that time by the motor current detection unit 17. When the torque fluctuation calculation unit 11c determines that the torque fluctuation width (magnitude of torque fluctuation) is larger than the first predetermined value A (YES in S4), a setting in which the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 in centrifugal cleaning is increased. (S5). For example, in the case of standard clothing, it is set slightly higher (+20 rpm) than the standard setting value (100 rpm) that is considered to have the maximum centrifugal effect. As a result, it is possible to effectively wash the laundry that is weakly attached to the inner side wall surface of the washing tub by centrifugal force, and it does not require a lot of operation to peel off the laundry from the wall surface. There is no increase in power consumption due to longer time and longer time.

When the torque fluctuation calculation unit 11c determines that the torque fluctuation range is smaller than the first predetermined value A and larger than the second predetermined value B, which is a value smaller than the first predetermined value (NO in S4, (YES in S6), the setting contents of the centrifugal rotation are left as they are, and the centrifugal rotation speed is not changed (S7).

Further, when the torque fluctuation calculation unit 11c determines that the torque fluctuation width is smaller than the first predetermined value A and smaller than the second predetermined value B (NO in S6), the rotation of the rotary drum 4 in centrifugal force cleaning is determined. The number is set slightly lower (−20 rpm) than the standard set value (100 rpm) (S8). This prevents too much sticking of the laundry to the inner side wall surface of the washing tub due to centrifugal force, requires an operation to peel off the laundry from the wall surface, and consumes due to longer and longer washing time. It is possible to reduce problems that cause an increase in the amount of power.

After that, the water supply process is finished and the first cleaning operation, the tumble cleaning (stirring process), is performed for 3 minutes. The tumble cleaning is performed at a rotation speed such that the laundry does not stick to the inner wall of the rotating drum 4. In other words, the rotation of the rotating drum 4 causes the laundry to be lifted by the stirring protrusions 4b, and the number of rotations is such that the laundry is washed from the top to the bottom. In the agitation process, the detergent component is sufficiently impregnated between the fibers of the garment, and the oil sweat dirt inside the fibers and between the fibers acts on the detergent component by the tumble operation (S9).

Thereafter, the centrifugal cleaning process is started (S10). At this time, the rotational speed of the rotary drum 4 is set to the rotational speed set and changed as described above (S11). Since the rotating drum 4 is rotated at a rotational speed corresponding to the quality of the cloth, if the clothing is composed of a large amount of cotton clothing, the rotating drum 4 rotates at a higher rotational speed so that the centrifugal force is effective. The washing water is dehydrated at once. On the other hand, in the case of clothing having a large proportion of chemical fibers, the rotating drum 4 rotates at a lower rotational speed, so that the clothing is not crushed and strongly sticks to the inner wall surface of the rotating drum 4. Absent. The rotating drum 4 rotates at such a set number of rotations, and a centrifugal force washing process is performed (S12). At this time, the controller 11a performs a circulating shower that drives the circulation pump 30 to repeatedly discharge the washing water onto the laundry. Thereby, the dewatering effect by centrifugal force and the washing performance can be improved by the absorption of the washing water by the circulation shower. This centrifugal washing process and the tumble washing are repeated until the washing time is over (S13). Thereafter, the operation is completed through a rinsing step (S14) and a dehydrating step (S15).

Here, the mechanism of cleaning by centrifugal force will be described. The washing effect of the drum-type washing machine is largely due to clothing deformation and rubbing of clothing by applying mechanical force to the laundry by tumbling as described above. Therefore, particles entangled in the laundry fibers such as mud and sand can be effectively removed by tumbling and detaching them from the clothes. On the other hand, oil stains and the like are adsorbed on the detergent particles by reacting with a detergent component (surfactant) and emulsifying. At the time of adsorption, the mission of the detergent particles is finished. By washing out the used detergent component between the fibers of the clothes or from the surface of the laundry fibers (detergent removal), the washing of the clothes is completed. Therefore, it is an important factor to quickly perform this detergent detachment. In a two-layer washing machine and a widespread vertical washing machine, a method is adopted in which clothes are washed with a stream of water using a stirring blade by immersing the laundry in a large amount of washing water. However, in such a case, the detergent detachment described above is caused by the water flow generated in the washing water, and the used detergent attached to the surface of the clothing is quickly scraped off, and a new detergent is applied to the scraped portion of the clothing. To supply. Accordingly, it is possible to replace cleaning water efficiently from the viewpoint of laundry, that is, to quickly expel used detergent components and to supply fresh detergent quickly.

Such replacement of washing water is less effective in a drum-type washing machine than in a two-layer washing machine or a vertical washing machine because the water flow is small. Therefore, the operation by centrifugal force is not the purpose of washing, but rather the purpose is to expel used detergent that is stuck (sticked) between the surfaces of the fibers of the laundry (clothing) or between the fibers.

The method of expelling used detergent differs depending on the quality of the laundry, but the quality of the laundry is roughly divided into cotton fibers and chemical fibers. In the case of a garment such as a jersey having a large proportion of chemical fibers, for example, when a centrifugal force is applied, it is pressed against the inner wall surface of the washing tub. For this reason, the clothes are deformed and crushed, so that the used detergent water between the fibers escapes from the clothes at once due to the dehydration effect. At this time, the higher the number of rotations of the rotating drum 4 is, the greater the effect of desorbing the detergent is. Moreover, in the case of chemical fiber, even if it contains water, a softness | flexibility is not impaired. For this reason, even if the clothes are pressed tightly against the inner wall surface of the rotating drum 4 due to the high rotation of the rotating drum 4, if the rotation is stopped, the clothes can be easily peeled off from the wall surface and can immediately return to the tumbling cleaning. On the other hand, when there are many ratios comprised from cotton clothing, for example in the case of jeans, if water is included, between fibers will become dense and will become heavy and hard clothing. Since the detergent component also has the property of sticking to the surface of hard clothes rather than collecting between the fibers, when centrifugal force is applied, the washing water enters between the fibers even if the rotational speed of the rotating drum 4 is low. I can't put it. Therefore, when flowing on the surface of hard clothing at high speed, there is a sufficient effect of scraping off the detergent attached to the clothing surface.

For this reason, when the ratio of the fibers having high water absorption is large, the rotational speed of the rotary drum 4 in the centrifugal washing process is set high, and the ratio of fibers having low water absorption is large. In this case, the rotational speed of the rotary drum 4 is set low. Accordingly, it is possible to perform a washing operation with excellent energy saving performance while maintaining the washing performance.

In the present embodiment, the water-containing portion is a circulation shower by driving the circulation pump 30, but the water-containing portion may be water-containing by immersing a part of the laundry in the washing water accumulated in the water tank 3. . Even if the cleaning water is not positively discharged, the rotating drum 4 rotates, so that the cleaning water accumulated in the water tank 3 is repeatedly touched, and the effects of dehydration and water absorption can be obtained.

In addition, the figure (FIG. 4) which shows the maximum torque fluctuation | variation range by the amount of the laundry used for determining predetermined value A and B is three types of water absorption, cotton, a chemical fiber, and the mixture of cotton and a chemical fiber. The rank of the set water level is determined according to the characteristics, but it is not limited to this, and in mixing cotton and chemical fibers, the mixing ratio is changed to 1: 2, 1: 1, 2: 1, etc. You may rank more finely. Thereby, it is possible to detect in detail whether the laundry is composed of fibers having high water absorption or is composed of fibers having low water absorption, that is, an approximate ratio.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the cloth quality detector is configured so that the laundry being put in is often made of a material with high water absorption or made of material with low water absorption. In accordance with the result, the set rotation speed of the drum is changed during washing by centrifugal force. By adjusting the degree to which the clothes are pressed against the inner wall of the drum by force, it is possible to prevent the laundry from being extremely stuck to the inner wall of the drum, that is, by quickly switching between centrifugal cleaning and tumbling cleaning. It is possible to maximize the cleaning effect.

Each configuration described in this embodiment cooperates with hardware resources such as a CPU (or microcomputer), a RAM, a ROM, a storage / recording device, an electrical / information device including an I / O, a computer, a server, and the like. You may implement with the form of the program to be made. In the form of a program, new functions can be easily distributed / updated and installed by recording them on a recording medium such as magnetic media or optical media, or distributing them using a communication line such as the Internet.

Thus, according to the present embodiment, according to the cloth quality detection result, during the centrifugal washing process, by changing the set rotation speed of the washing tub, whatever the cloth quality is, Depending on the characteristics, the degree to which clothing is pressed against the inner wall surface of the washing tub by centrifugal force can be set. As a result, the laundry can be prevented from being extremely stuck to the inner wall surface of the washing tub. Therefore, it is possible to quickly switch to the stirring process performed after the centrifugal cleaning process, to prevent the washing process from being prolonged, and to realize a washing operation with excellent energy saving.

(Embodiment 6)
The sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described below. Since the drum type washing machine in the sixth embodiment is the same as the drum type washing machine in the second embodiment in structure and components, the description thereof will be omitted.

Also in the present embodiment, the torque fluctuation calculation unit 11c replaces the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the torque fluctuation of the rotating drum 4 with a numerical value that is easy to calculate (for example, a numerical value in units of maximum 400 bits). And input to the cloth quality detection unit 11b. As shown in FIG. 4, the fabric quality is determined by comparing the first predetermined value A and the second predetermined value B, which are threshold values, with the ratio of fibers having high water absorption and fibers having low water absorption. .

In the case of FIG. 4, if it is 2nd predetermined value B or less, for example, 240 bits or less, it will be determined that the ratio of the clothing which consists of a chemical fiber is large. If it exceeds 240 bits and is less than a predetermined value A of 1, for example, less than 290 bits, cotton and chemical fibers are roughly half of laundry, and if it exceeds 290 bits, the proportion of clothing made of cotton is high. Next, the fabric quality is determined.

In this way, if the fabric quality is judged as three types, cotton, chemical fiber, and cotton and chemical fiber mixed, and if the ratio of cotton is large, clothes with high water absorption will absorb water like jeans and trainers. If it is hard, the detergent water that has penetrated into and between the fibers cannot be shaken unless it is powerfully stirred with a large amount of water, so the amount of water supply, rinse stirring time, and number of rinses that are set for rinsing are increased. The rinsing effect is enhanced by changing the rinsing method and increasing the stirring speed from rinsing to water rinsing. On the other hand, when the ratio of synthetic fibers is large, clothing with low water absorption is soft even if it contains water like a jersey, and the space between fibers is more than 10 times wider than cotton clothing. Even if stirring is performed for a short time, a sufficient rinsing effect can be obtained. In this way, it will save time and save energy while ensuring rinsing performance.

In the sixth embodiment, the cloth quality is divided into three types of water absorption characteristics of cotton, chemical fiber, and a mixture of cotton and chemical fiber. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the chemical fiber is nylon or the like. Other fibers may also be used to refine the ranking. Moreover, in mixing cotton and chemical fibers, the mixing ratio may be changed to 1: 2, 1: 1, 2: 1, or the like.

(Embodiment 7)
The seventh embodiment of the present invention will be described below. The drum-type washing machine in the seventh embodiment is the same as the drum-type washing machine in the second embodiment in structure and components, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

In Embodiment 7 of the present invention, the control unit 11a changes the contents of the rinsing process from the fabric quality by the fabric quality detection unit 11b.

The washing process is the same as in the second embodiment. When the rinsing process is started, the rinsing water level is determined from the detected cloth amount and cloth quality. The controller 11a decreases the water supply amount as the proportion of fibers having low water absorption increases, and increases the amount of water supply as the proportion of fibers having high water absorption increases. The reference water supply amount at this time is a water supply amount corresponding to the cloth amount detected by the cloth amount detector 11d.

Control unit 11a opens water supply valve 7b to supply water, and when water level detection unit 10 detects that the determined rinse water level has been reached, water supply valve 7b is closed and water supply is stopped.

In the seventh embodiment, the cloth quality is divided into three types of water absorption characteristics: cotton having high water absorption, chemical fiber having low water absorption, and a mixture of cotton and chemical fiber. However, the ranking is not limited to this, and rank classification may be further refined by using several kinds of other fibers such as nylon and acrylic as chemical fibers. In addition, although it was decided to rank as a mixture of laundry composed of 100% cotton such as towels and laundry composed of 100% chemical fibers such as jerseys, it is not limited to this. In mixed fibers such as fibers, the fibers may be ranked by changing the mixing ratio of fibers to 1: 2, 1: 1, 2: 1, or the like.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, by supplying water to the rinsing water level corresponding to the detected cloth quality and stirring, rinsing suitable for the cloth quality can be performed and the rinsing performance is improved. In addition, when there are many fibers with low water absorption, water is not wasted, so that operation with excellent water saving can be performed. On the other hand, when there are many fibers with high water absorption, since the amount of water is small, it is possible to reduce fabric damage caused by rubbing between laundry.

Since the washing machine according to the present invention detects the cloth quality of the laundry, it automatically detects not only the home washing machine but also a washing apparatus for textiles, a commercial washing machine mainly for washing water, and the cloth quality. It can also be applied to controlled equipment.

1 Washing machine body 2a Base plate 3 Water tank 4 Rotating drum (washing tank)
4a Rotating shaft 4b Stirring protrusion 4c Peripheral wall 4d Back wall 4e Through hole 4f Rear opening 5 Opening / closing door 6 Motor (drive unit)
6a Hall element (rotation speed detector)
7a Detergent storage part 7b Water supply valve (water supply part)
8a Drain pipe 8b Drain valve (drainage section)
8c Drainage filter 9 Drying unit 9c Blower 9d Blower route 9e Inlet 9f Outlet 9g Dehumidifying unit 9h Heating unit 10 Water level detection unit 11 Controller 11a Control unit 11b Cloth quality detection unit 11c Torque fluctuation calculation unit 11d Cloth amount detection unit 11e Rotation Number calculation unit 14 Seal material 16 Vibration detection unit 17 Motor current detection unit (torque fluctuation detection unit)
30 Circulating pump 31 Circulating water channel 31b Discharge side channel 51 Injection port

Claims

A laundry tub that stores laundry and is rotatable about a horizontal rotation shaft or a rotation shaft that is inclined downward from the front side toward the back side, a water tub that contains the laundry tub, and vibrations of the water tub are detected. Vibration detecting unit, driving unit for driving the washing tub, torque fluctuation detecting unit for detecting the magnitude of torque fluctuation of the driving unit, cloth quality detecting unit for detecting the cloth quality of the laundry, and the driving A control unit that controls each process such as washing, rinsing, and dehydration by driving the unit, and the control unit drives the drive at a rotational speed that maximizes the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit. A drum-type washing machine in which the cloth quality detecting section judges the cloth quality of the laundry from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation in this state.
The laundry tub or the water tank is provided with a water supply unit that supplies water, and a rotation number detection unit that detects the rotation number of the drive unit, and the control unit operates the water supply unit to supply the water so that the laundry is In the water-containing state, the drive unit is operated at a rotation speed at which the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection section is maximized, and the cloth quality detection section is determined based on the magnitude of the torque fluctuation at the rotation speed. The drum type washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the cloth quality of the laundry is detected.
The controller performs a step of rotating the washing tub at a predetermined rotation speed for a predetermined time after the start of water supply, and changes the predetermined rotation speed so that the vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is maximized. The drum-type washing machine according to claim 2, wherein
When the magnitude of the torque fluctuation at the rotation speed at which the magnitude of the vibration detected by the vibration detection section is maximum is larger than a predetermined magnitude of the torque fluctuation, the cloth quality detection section The drum type washing machine according to claim 1, wherein it is determined that the ratio of the sexual fibers is large.
2. The drum type washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the cloth quality detection unit determines the cloth quality based on a magnitude of the torque fluctuation after a predetermined time has elapsed since the start of the operation of the driving unit.
A cloth amount detection unit that detects the amount of laundry in the washing tub; the control unit operates the drive unit; and the cloth quality detection unit has a magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit. The cloth quality of the laundry is detected from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation in the maximum state, and the control unit determines the water supply amount from the cloth quantity by the cloth quantity detection unit and the cloth quality by the cloth quality detection unit. The drum type washing machine according to claim 1 to be determined.
The control unit determines an initial water supply amount from the cloth amount by the cloth amount detection unit and supplies water by the water supply unit, and the drive unit at a rotation speed at which the magnitude of vibration detected by the vibration detection unit is maximized. The drum type washing machine according to claim 6, wherein the water supply amount is determined again from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation at the rotation speed at which the magnitude of the vibration is maximized.
The said control part detects the cloth quality of the said laundry while the said cloth quality detection part rotates the said washing tank at the rotation speed which the said laundry does not stick to the inner peripheral wall of the said washing tank. Drum-type washing machine.
After the water supply unit supplies the initial water supply amount according to the cloth amount of the cloth amount detection unit, the control unit detects the cloth quality by the cloth quality detection unit, and supplies water to the determined water supply amount again. The drum-type washing machine according to claim 6, wherein the amount of water supply when the proportion of laundry having high water absorption is high is higher than the amount of water supply when the proportion of laundry having low water absorption is high.
The drum-type washing machine according to claim 6, wherein the cloth quality detection unit determines the cloth quality from the magnitude of the torque fluctuation after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of the operation of the drive unit.
The washing step includes a centrifugal washing step of discharging washing water from the laundry by centrifugal force, and a stirring step of rotating the laundry so that the laundry does not stick in the washing tub, which is performed after the centrifugal washing step. The drum-type washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the control unit changes the number of rotations of the washing tub in the centrifugal force washing step in accordance with the fabric quality detected by the fabric quality detection unit.
The washing unit further includes a water-containing part that contains the washing water, and in the centrifugal cleaning step, the water-containing part sucks the washing water collected at the bottom of the water tank and discharges it again to the laundry in the laundry tank. The drum type washing machine according to claim 11.
The said control part makes the rotation speed of the said drive part low, so that the said ratio becomes large, when the said cloth quality detection part detects that the said laundry is comprised from the fiber comprised with a low water absorption is large. A drum-type washing machine as described in 1.
The apparatus further comprises a cloth amount detection unit for detecting the cloth amount of the laundry, and the control unit performs the centrifugal operation according to the cloth amount detected by the cloth amount detection unit and the cloth quality detected by the cloth quality detection unit. The drum type washing machine according to claim 11, wherein the rotational speed of the drive unit in the force washing step is determined.
The drum type washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the control unit performs a rinsing process according to the fabric quality by the fabric quality detection unit.
When the control unit detects that the laundry in the washing tub has a large proportion of fibers having low water absorption by the cloth quality detection unit, the stirring time of the rinsing step increases as the proportion increases. The drum type washing machine according to claim 15, wherein the drum type washing machine is shortened.
When the control unit detects that the laundry in the washing tub has a high proportion of fibers having low water absorption by the cloth quality detection unit, the amount of water supplied in the rinsing step increases as the proportion increases. The drum type washing machine according to claim 15, wherein the drum type washing machine is reduced.
When the control unit detects that the laundry in the washing tub has a high proportion of fibers having low water absorption by the cloth quality detection unit, the number of times of rinsing in the rinsing step increases as the proportion increases. The drum type washing machine according to claim 15, wherein the drum type washing machine is reduced.
When the control unit detects that the laundry in the washing tub has a high proportion of fibers having low water absorption by the cloth quality detection unit, the washing tub in the rinsing step increases as the proportion increases. The drum-type washing machine according to claim 15, wherein the number of rotations is reduced.
The drum-type laundry according to claim 15, wherein the controller performs water injection rinsing when the cloth detection unit detects that the laundry in the washing tub has a high percentage of water-absorbing fibers. Machine.