CN113605035B

CN113605035B - Control method of clothes care equipment

Info

Publication number: CN113605035B
Application number: CN202011156889.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 闵敏; 陈英; 楼武雷; 吕钢
Original assignee: Panasonic Appliances Washing Machine Hangzhou Co Ltd; Panasonic Appliances China Co Ltd
Current assignee: Panasonic Appliances Washing Machine Hangzhou Co Ltd; Panasonic Appliances China Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-10-26
Filing date: 2020-10-26
Publication date: 2024-08-20
Anticipated expiration: 2040-10-26
Also published as: CN113605035A

Abstract

The invention discloses a control method of clothes care equipment, which belongs to the technical field of household appliances and solves the problems of high cost, easy clothes damage and the like of the existing care method; and a laundry wetting step of wetting the laundry by intermittent rotation of the washing tub in or after the water inlet step. The clothes care implemented by the control method is realized by intermittently rotating the washing drum to moisten clothes, and the clothes care equipment does not need to additionally arrange devices such as a heater, a spraying device and the like, so that the hardware requirement and the cost of the clothes care equipment are reduced. Because the water in the water containing barrel does not need to be heated, the clothes, in particular to high-grade clothes or clothes which are not suitable for washing, can not be damaged, and the control method can also be used for implementing clothes care, namely reducing the limitation on the types of the care clothes.

Description

Control method of clothes care equipment

[ Field of technology ]

The invention relates to the technical field of household appliances, in particular to a control method of clothes care equipment.

[ Background Art ]

With the improvement of life quality, consumers pay more attention to daily care of clothes, and the dust haze particles, peculiar smell or bacteria attached to the clothes are treated by traditional hand washing or machine washing, so that the damage to the clothes is large, energy and time are wasted, and the consumers more expect to perform the care operations of deodorizing, degerming, removing wrinkles and the like on the clothes on the premise of not washing, or perform the care operations after the clothes are washed.

Some clothes care methods proposed in the prior art, such as the steam washing function mentioned in the patent application number 201810750859.2, specifically, a heater is arranged in the bottom space between the water containing barrel and the washing barrel, the water level entering the water containing barrel is higher than the heater and lower than the washing barrel, high-temperature steam can be generated by heating part of water through the heater, the high-temperature steam enters the washing barrel to steam and wash clothes, peculiar smell and wrinkles on the clothes are removed, the purpose of deodorizing and removing wrinkles on the clothes under the condition of no water washing is achieved, but the arrangement of the heater causes the increase of equipment cost, and a small amount of water for heating the bottom of the water containing barrel has higher heat resistance requirements on peripheral structural members, so that the problems of dry burning of the heater and the like are easily caused.

[ Invention ]

The object of the present invention is to provide a control method for a laundry care appliance which at least partly solves the above mentioned technical problems.

In order to solve the technical problems, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

a method of controlling a laundry care apparatus, the laundry care apparatus comprising:

a tub and a washing tub rotatably disposed in the tub; and

The water inlet unit is connected with an external water source and used for providing nursing water;

The control method comprises the following steps:

a water inlet step, wherein the water inlet unit is used for feeding water between the water containing bucket and the washing bucket until the water level reaches a preset nursing water level h, and the preset nursing water level h is near the bottom of the washing bucket;

And a laundry wetting step of wetting laundry by intermittent rotation of the washing tub during or after the water inlet step.

In the control method of the clothes care apparatus, the radial distance between the water tub and the washing tub is H, and the preset care water level H is 90% H to 110% H in the water inlet step.

In the control method of the laundry care apparatus described above, the laundry care apparatus further includes a drying unit; the control method further includes: and a clothes care step, namely starting the drying unit after the clothes wetting step, and conveying hot air into the washing barrel for drying clothes.

In the control method of the laundry care apparatus as described above, the laundry care apparatus further includes a condensing unit for condensing the air flow, the laundry care step includes:

A pretreatment stage, wherein the condensing unit is closed, and the drying unit conveys hot air into the washing barrel;

And in the drying stage, the drying unit continues to convey hot air into the washing barrel, and the condensing unit is started.

In the control method of the laundry care appliance described above, the washing tub is driven to rotate in the pretreatment stage and/or the drying stage.

In the control method of the laundry care apparatus as described above, the washing tub is driven to rotate in both the pretreatment stage and the drying stage, and the washing tub rotation speed in the pretreatment stage is greater than the washing tub rotation speed in the drying stage.

In the control method of the laundry care apparatus, the rotation speed of the washing tub in the pretreatment stage is greater than 45r/min.

In the control method of the laundry care apparatus described above, the temperature of the hot air in the pretreatment stage is greater than the temperature of the hot air in the drying stage.

In the control method of the laundry care apparatus, in the laundry wetting step, the washing tub is rotated in one direction or alternately rotated in the opposite direction.

In the control method of the laundry care apparatus, in the laundry wetting step, the intermittent rotation of the washing tub is stopped for 0.2s to 1s after 0.7s to 2s rotation, and thus the cycle is performed at least twice.

In the control method of the clothes care equipment, a water level sensor is arranged in the water containing barrel, and the water level of the water containing barrel is controlled according to the detection signal of the water level sensor; or the water inlet time is set in the water inlet step, and the water level of the water holding barrel is controlled according to the set water inlet time.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

In the control method of the clothes care equipment, in the water inlet step, the water inlet unit is used for feeding water between the water containing bucket and the washing bucket until the water level reaches the preset care water level H, the preset care water level H is near the bottom of the washing bucket, if the radial distance between the water containing bucket and the washing bucket is set to be H, the preset care water level H is near the bottom of the washing bucket and comprises the conditions that the preset care water level H is less than H, the preset care water level h=H and the preset care water level H is greater than H, particularly, the condition that the preset care water level H is greater than H is only slightly higher than the bottom of the washing bucket, so that the clothes at the bottom are partially wetted, and the clothes to be cared are prevented from being fully wetted by water.

In the following laundry wetting step, the laundry is wetted by intermittent rotation of the washing tub, more specifically: in the clothes wetting step, the washing barrel is controlled to operate according to a preset rotation stop ratio, and the kinetic energy of the rotation of the washing barrel and the inertia of the rotation of the washing barrel are utilized to enable the water surface at the bottom of the water containing barrel to generate waves, so that the water surface can be contacted with clothes in the washing barrel, and the aim of wetting the clothes is achieved; the rotation of the washing barrel not only makes the water surface generate wave, but also makes the clothes piled up in the washing barrel be scattered and stretched under the centrifugal action, so that the clothes are uniformly wetted.

The clothes care implemented by the control method is realized by utilizing the intermittent rotation of the washing barrel to moisten clothes, and the clothes care equipment does not need to additionally arrange devices such as a heater, a spraying device and the like, so that the hardware requirement and the cost of the clothes care equipment are reduced. Because the water in the water containing barrel does not need to be heated, the clothes, in particular to high-grade clothes or clothes which are not suitable for washing, can not be damaged, and the control method can also be used for implementing clothes care, namely reducing the limitation on the types of the care clothes.

The clothes moistened by the control method can realize the nursing operations such as deodorization, sterilization, wrinkle removal and the like of the clothes, taking the wrinkle removal as an example, the clothes with wrinkles are moistened and have certain moisture, and the clothes fiber can become soft, so that the wrinkles on the clothes are reduced or eliminated under the condition of not damaging the clothes fiber, and the clothes nursing effect is improved by matching with other nursing procedures such as drying, cooling and the like of clothes nursing equipment.

Further, the laundry care apparatus further comprises a drying unit; the control method further includes: and a clothes care step, namely starting the drying unit after the clothes wetting step, and conveying hot air into the washing barrel for drying clothes. The hot air is used for taking away moisture and peculiar smell in the clothes, and simultaneously drying and shaping the clothes, so that the work of independently ironing the clothes by a user is omitted.

Further, the laundry care apparatus further comprises a condensing unit for condensing the air flow, the laundry care step comprising: a pretreatment stage, wherein the condensing unit is closed, and the drying unit conveys hot air into the washing barrel; and in the drying stage, the drying unit continues to convey hot air into the washing barrel, and the condensing unit is started. The hot air conveyed to the washing barrel in the pretreatment stage forms a warm and humid environment in the washing barrel, is beneficial to the penetration of water vapor into the clothes fiber, and has more remarkable effects on nursing such as deodorizing, removing wrinkles and the like; the condensing unit is started in the drying stage, water vapor in hot air is condensed into condensed water under the condensing action provided by the condensing unit, the drying efficiency is improved, and the clothes after nursing are kept dry and clean.

Further, the pretreatment stage and/or the drying stage drives the washing tub to rotate. The washing barrel is driven to rotate in the pretreatment stage, so that clothes are more fully and uniformly wetted; in the drying stage, the washing barrel is driven to rotate, so that clothes are heated uniformly, and the drying efficiency is improved.

Further, the temperature of the hot air in the pretreatment stage is greater than the temperature of the hot air in the drying stage. The temperature of hot air is increased in the pretreatment stage, so that water vapor is facilitated to permeate into the fibers of the clothes; in the drying stage, the hot air introduced into the washing barrel separates out water in the wet clothes in a water vapor mode, the water in the clothes is gradually reduced and is easy to shrink by heat, the temperature of the hot air is reduced in the drying stage, the damage to the clothes is reduced as much as possible on the premise of not influencing the drying, and the cooling waiting time after the drying can be reduced due to the relatively low temperature of the hot air.

These features and advantages of the present invention will be disclosed in detail in the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

[ Description of the drawings ]

The invention is further described with reference to the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a garment care device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram II of a garment care device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a control method of the clothes care apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a control method of the clothes care apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Reference numerals:

100 water holding barrel, 110 air inlet, 120 air return opening, 130 condensation water inlet;

200 washing barrels;

300 fans;

400 wind pipes;

500 heaters;

600 inlet valve;

700 inlet line, 710 first branch line, 720 second branch line.

[ Detailed description ] of the invention

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be explained and illustrated below with reference to the drawings of the embodiments of the present invention, but the following embodiments are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments. Based on the examples in the implementation manner, other examples obtained by a person skilled in the art without making creative efforts fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", etc. indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings are merely for convenience in describing the present invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and thus should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

In the present invention, unless explicitly specified and limited otherwise, the terms "mounted," "connected," "secured," and the like are to be construed broadly and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally connected; can be mechanically or electrically connected; can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and can be communication between two elements. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art according to the specific circumstances.

In the present invention, unless expressly stated or limited otherwise, a first feature "above" or "below" a second feature may include both the first and second features being in direct contact, as well as the first and second features not being in direct contact but being in contact with each other through additional features therebetween. Moreover, a first feature being "above," "over" and "on" a second feature includes the first feature being directly above and obliquely above the second feature, or simply indicating that the first feature is higher in level than the second feature. The first feature being "under", "below" and "beneath" the second feature includes the first feature being directly under and obliquely below the second feature, or simply means that the first feature is less level than the second feature.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, a control method of a laundry care apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a tub 100 and a washing tub 200 rotatably disposed in the tub 100; and a water inlet unit connected with an external water source for providing nursing water. More specifically, the tub 100 is generally suspended in a body of the laundry care appliance, and the washing tub 200 is rotatably disposed in the tub 100 in such a manner that a rotation axis direction thereof is horizontal or a direction thereof is inclined downward from the horizontal toward a rear; the front portions of the tub 100 and the tub 200 are formed with openings for laundry to be taken and placed, and the inner spaces of the tub 100 and the tub 200 may communicate through the front openings of the tub 200; in general, a through hole communicating with the tub 100 is provided at a tub wall of the tub 200, and thus, the tub 100 and an inner space of the tub 200 may be communicated through a front opening of the tub 200 or the through hole at the tub wall thereof, and the above-described laundry care appliance may be constructed with reference to a drum washing machine of the related art.

Referring to fig. 3, based on the laundry care apparatus, the control method thereof includes:

a water inlet step of water inlet unit for inlet water between the tub 100 and the washing tub 200 until the water level reaches a preset care water level h, which is near the tub bottom of the washing tub 200;

and a laundry wetting step of wetting the laundry by intermittent rotation of the washing tub 200 after the water inlet step.

In the water inlet step, the radial distance between the tub 100 and the washing tub 200 is set to be H, the preset care water level H is near the bottom of the washing tub 200, including the preset care water level H < H, the preset care water level h=h, and the preset care water level H > H, especially, the preset care water level H > H is only slightly higher than the bottom of the washing tub 200, so that the bottom clothes are partially wetted, and the clothes to be cared are prevented from being fully wetted by water, otherwise, if the preset care water level H is too low, the clothes wetting effect in the clothes wetting step is reduced, and the preset care water level H is preferably 90-110% H. Specific water level control modes include, but are not limited to, the following two modes:

1. A water level sensor is disposed in the tub 100, the water level of the tub 100 is controlled according to a detection signal of the water level sensor, preferably a pneumatic water level sensor, or a sensing device for water level detection, which is conventionally known, such as an infrared sensor, a magnetic sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, etc., and when the water level in the tub 100 reaches a water level threshold (e.g., a preset care water level h as described above), a control system of the laundry treating apparatus stops the operation of the water inlet unit in response to the detection signal of the water level sensor.

2. In the water inlet step, a water inlet time is set, and the water level of the tub 100 is controlled according to the set water inlet time. Since the space between the tub 100 and the tub 200 is fixed in size, assuming that the water inlet time is T, the water level in the tub 100 just reaches H, the water inlet time T (t.ltoreq.T) is set according to the water level requirement, and in the water inlet process, the control system of the laundry treating apparatus controls the water inlet unit to stop working when the actual water inlet time reaches T.

In the following laundry wetting step, the laundry is wetted by intermittent rotation of the washing tub 200, more specifically: in the laundry wetting step, the washing tub 200 is controlled to operate according to a predetermined rotation-stop ratio, and the water surface at the bottom of the tub 100 is corrugated by using the kinetic energy of the rotation of the washing tub 200 and the inertia of the stop, so that the water surface can contact the laundry in the washing tub 200, thereby achieving the purpose of wetting the laundry; the rotation of the washing tub 200 not only waves the water surface, but also shakes and stretches the laundry piled up in the washing tub 200 under the centrifugal effect, so that the laundry is uniformly wetted.

Preferably, in the laundry wetting step, the intermittent rotation of the tub 200 is stopped for 0.2s to 1s after rotating for 0.7s to 2s, and thus the cycle is repeated at least twice, for example, for 1s after rotating the tub 200 for 2s, until a predetermined completion time of the laundry wetting step or a predetermined number of cycles is reached. Generally, the time for the tub 200 to rotate is longer than the time for stopping, so that a large rotational kinetic energy and a large stopping inertia can be obtained, so that the water surface at the bottom of the tub 100 swings more uniformly and densely with waves, and the laundry wetting effect is ensured. In the laundry wetting step, the rotation manner of the washing tub 200 is not particularly limited, and may be unidirectional rotation, such as always clockwise or counterclockwise rotation, or may be clockwise or counterclockwise rotation alternately, such as stopping for 1s after 2s of forward rotation, and then reversing for 2s, thus circulating.

The clothes care implemented by the control method of the embodiment wets clothes by utilizing the intermittent rotation of the washing tub 200, and the clothes care equipment does not need to additionally arrange devices such as a heater, a spraying device and the like, thereby reducing the hardware requirement and the cost of the clothes care equipment. Since the water in the tub 100 does not need to be heated, damage to laundry, particularly high-grade laundry or laundry not suitable for washing, may be prevented, and laundry care may be performed by the control method of the present invention, i.e., restriction of kinds of laundry care is reduced.

In order to achieve water intake between the tub 100 and the tub 200, the water intake unit of the present embodiment includes a water intake valve 600 and a water intake pipe 700 connected to the water intake valve 600, the water intake valve 600 being connected to an external water source, one end of the water intake pipe 700 being connected to the water intake valve 600, the other end being connected to a space between the tub 100 and the tub 200, and water being introduced between the tub 100 and the tub 200 through the water intake pipe 700 after the water intake valve 600 is opened. Referring to fig. 2, if the laundry care apparatus has a laundry washing function, a first branch pipe 710 and a second branch pipe 720 may be disposed on the water inlet pipe 700, the first branch pipe 710 supplying water into the tub 200, and the second branch pipe 720 supplying water between the tub 100 and the tub 200, so that different water inlet modes can be selected according to different care needs.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the control method of the laundry care apparatus according to the above embodiment is as follows: the time sequence of the water inlet step and the clothes wetting step is adjusted, and the clothes wetting step is executed in the water inlet step, so that the whole clothes care time can be shortened, and the water inlet step and the clothes wetting step are exemplified: in addition to the end time of the water intake step, the laundry wetting step is started at any time point of the water intake step, and generally, the laundry wetting step is performed continuously after the water intake step is ended, and the laundry care time is shortened by using the intersecting time period of the two steps.

Referring to fig. 2 and 4, in one embodiment of the present invention, a control method of the laundry care apparatus according to the above embodiment is as follows: the laundry care apparatus of the present embodiment further comprises a drying unit; the control method further comprises the following steps: and a laundry care step of starting the drying unit after the laundry wetting step, and supplying hot air into the washing tub 200 for drying the laundry.

Specifically, the drying unit includes an air duct 400, a heater 500 and a fan 300 disposed on the air duct 400, an air inlet 110 is disposed at the front of the tub 100, an air return 120 is disposed at the rear of the tub 100, two ends of the air duct 400 are respectively connected to the air inlet 110 and the air return 120 of the tub 100 to form a circulation air path, the fan 300 sucks air in the tub 200 and the tub 100 from the air return 120 during operation, heats the air to form hot air through the heater 500, and blows the hot air into the tub 100 and the tub 200 through the air inlet 110, takes away moisture and odor in laundry through the hot air, and simultaneously dries and shapes the laundry, thereby omitting the operation of individually ironing the laundry by a user.

In order to achieve better care effect, the clothes care apparatus of the present embodiment is further provided with a condensing unit, and divides the clothes care step into a pretreatment stage and a drying stage, wherein in the pretreatment stage, the condensing unit is turned off, and the drying unit delivers hot air into the washing tub 200, so that a warm and humid environment is formed in the washing tub 200, water vapor is facilitated to permeate into the inside of the clothes fiber, and more remarkable effects are achieved for care such as deodorization, wrinkle removal, and the like; in the drying stage, the condensing unit is started, water in hot air is condensed into condensed water under the condensing action provided by the condensing unit, the drying efficiency is improved, and the clothes after nursing are kept dry and clean.

The above-mentioned condensing unit delivers water and/or air into the tub 100 for condensing an air flow, and exemplary: the condensing unit is the water inlet valve 600 described in the previous embodiment, and the tub 100 is further provided with a condensing water inlet 130, and the water inlet valve 600 is connected to the condensing water inlet 130 through a pipe (not shown). In the drying stage, the water inlet valve 600 is opened, water is supplied into the tub 100 through the condensation water inlet 130, and the water exchanges heat with hot air circulated in the tub 100, so that moisture in the hot air condenses to generate condensed water, which is deposited at the bottom of the tub 100 and can be discharged through a drain of the laundry care device. In addition, the condensing unit may be a fan, and in the nursing step, the fan is turned on to introduce the external air into the water tub for condensing the hot air flow, and the condensing principle is the same as that of the water cooling mode, so that the description is omitted.

Preferably, the washing tub 200 is driven to rotate in the pretreatment stage, and the rotation speed is set to be greater than 45r/min to more sufficiently and uniformly wet the laundry.

Preferably, the washing tub 200 is driven to rotate in the drying stage, so that laundry is uniformly heated, and drying efficiency is improved.

More preferably, the rotation speed of the washing tub 200 in the pretreatment stage is greater than that of the washing tub 200 in the drying stage, for example: the rotating speed of the washing barrel 200 in the pretreatment stage is 45r/min, the rotating speed of the washing barrel 200 in the drying stage is lower than 45r/min, and the higher rotating speed of the washing barrel 200 is set in the pretreatment stage, so that the clothes can obtain better wettability; the rotational speed of the washing tub 200 is reduced after entering the drying stage, and energy consumption and noise are reduced.

Preferably, the temperature of the hot air in the pretreatment stage is greater than the temperature of the hot air in the drying stage. The temperature of hot air is increased in the pretreatment stage, so that water vapor is facilitated to permeate into the fibers of the clothes; in the drying stage, the hot air introduced into the washing barrel separates out water in the wet clothes in a water vapor mode, the water in the clothes is gradually reduced and is easy to shrink by heat, the temperature of the hot air is reduced in the drying stage, the damage to the clothes is reduced as much as possible on the premise of not influencing the drying, and the cooling waiting time after the drying can be reduced due to the relatively low temperature of the hot air.

The steps in the control method described in the above embodiment of the present invention are divided, for clarity of description, and the steps may be combined or split in practical application, so long as they contain the same logic relationship, which is within the protection scope of the present invention.

While the invention has been described in terms of embodiments, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited thereto but rather includes the drawings and the description of the embodiments above. Any modifications which do not depart from the functional and structural principles of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A control method of a laundry care apparatus, characterized in that the laundry care apparatus comprises:

a tub and a washing tub rotatably disposed in the tub; and

The control method comprises the following steps:

a laundry wetting step of wetting laundry by intermittent rotation of the washing tub in or after the water inlet step; the radial distance between the water containing barrel and the washing barrel is H, the preset nursing water level H is 90-110% H in the water inlet step, and the water surface at the bottom of the water containing barrel is corrugated by utilizing the kinetic energy of the rotation of the washing barrel and the inertia of the rotation of the washing barrel, so that the water surface can be contacted with clothes in the washing barrel, and the aim of wetting the clothes is fulfilled.

2. The control method of a laundry care apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the laundry care apparatus further comprises a drying unit; the control method further includes: and a clothes care step, namely starting the drying unit after the clothes wetting step, and conveying hot air into the washing barrel for drying clothes.

3. The control method of a laundry care apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the laundry care apparatus further comprises a condensing unit for condensing the air flow, the laundry care step comprising:

4. A control method of a laundry care appliance according to claim 3, characterized in that the washing tub is driven in rotation in the pretreatment phase and/or the drying phase.

5. The control method of a laundry care apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the tub is driven to rotate in both the pretreatment stage and the drying stage, and a tub rotation speed in the pretreatment stage is greater than a tub rotation speed in the drying stage.

6. The control method of a laundry care appliance according to claim 4, wherein the washing tub rotation speed in the pretreatment stage is greater than 45r/min.

7. A control method of a laundry care appliance according to claim 3, characterized in that the hot air temperature in the pretreatment stage is greater than the hot air temperature in the drying stage.

8. A control method of a laundry care apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein in the laundry wetting step, the washing tub is rotated in one direction or alternately rotated in the opposite direction.

9. The control method of a laundry care apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein in the laundry wetting step, the intermittent rotation of the washing tub is stopped for 0.2s to 1s after 0.7s to 2s rotation, and the cycle is thus performed at least twice.

10. The control method of a laundry care apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein a water level sensor is provided in the tub, and a water level of the tub is controlled according to a detection signal of the water level sensor; or the water inlet time is set in the water inlet step, and the water level of the water holding barrel is controlled according to the set water inlet time.