JP2000300894A - Clothes dryer with sterilizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To dry and sterilize clothes with a simple structure by providing a sterilizer using microwave in a domestic clothes dryer. SOLUTION: A blower 10 is provided in the upstream side of an air duct 11 in the inlet side of a drying drum 13 of a clothes dryer and a heater 12 is provided in the downstream side of the blower 10 to heat air supplied by the blower 10, feed hot air generated therein to the drying drum 13 and dry clothes. In this case, a generator 14 for generating the microwave such as magnetron is provided in the drying drum 13 as a sterilizer. During a drying process, the microwave 15 generated in the microwave generator 14 is applied to the laundry in the drying drum 13 so that water contained in the laundry and bacteria themselves are molecularly heated, boiled and sterilized. At the same time, evaporating water is transpired by hot air. Thus, a drying efficiency is improved and the clothes are sterilized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a clothes dryer with a sterilizer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a clothes dryer incorporating a sterilizer using microwaves in a general household clothes dryer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional household clothes dryer, the following two methods are employed to solve the problem of sterilizing bacteria adhering to laundry. The first is a method in which the temperature in the dryer is raised to about 75 ° C. by hot air and sterilized by high temperature. The second is a method of using an ultraviolet lamp and sterilizing with ultraviolet light.

[0003]

In the conventional sterilization method described above, the method of sterilizing at a high temperature cannot sterilize bacteria of a kind called thermophilic bacteria at about 75 ° C. Further, the method of sterilizing by ultraviolet rays cannot sterilize bacteria in a stable spore state. Furthermore, the method of disinfection by ultraviolet rays has a problem that clothes discolor.

[0004] In view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, an object of the present invention is to realize a clothes dryer with a sterilizing device capable of drying and sterilizing clothes with a simple configuration.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a clothes dryer with a sterilizer according to the first aspect of the present invention, wherein a sterilizer using microwaves is incorporated in a household clothes dryer. By adopting this configuration, bacteria of a kind called thermophilic bacteria and bacteria in a stable spore state can be killed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the clothes dryer with a sterilizing device, a sterilizing device using microwaves is used intermittently. Claim 3
The use of the sterilizer using microwaves is characterized in that the frequency of use is reduced as drying proceeds. Further, it is preferable that the progress of the drying be the temperature in the exhaust gas. The method is characterized in that humidity is detected and compared with warm air after heating of the heater to make a determination. In addition, claim 5 is for detecting the temperature and humidity in the exhaust, judging the progress of drying by comparing with the hot air after heating the heater, and controlling the frequency of use of the sterilizing device intermittently. A microcomputer is provided.

[0007] With this configuration, overheating of the laundry is prevented and sufficient sterilization is enabled.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a clothes dryer with a sterilizer according to the present invention. In the clothes dryer with a sterilizing device according to the present embodiment, an air passage 11 is provided so as to cover the blower 10, and a heater 12 and a drying drum 13 are connected to the air passage 11. The microwave generator 14 is provided as a. In addition, a magnetron is used for the microwave generator 14.

The operation of the embodiment constructed as described above will be described below. The present embodiment is basically a clothes dryer that heats air generated by a blower 10 by a heater 12 to generate warm air, and introduces the heated air into a drying drum 13 to dry laundry. In this drying step, the laundry 15 contained in the drying drum 13 is irradiated with the microwaves 15 generated by the microwave generator 14, and the moisture contained in the laundry and the bacteria itself is removed by microwave heating. At the same time as heating and boiling at the molecular level for sterilization, the evaporated water is evaporated with warm air, so that drying can be secondarily terminated quickly.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of a clothes dryer with a sterilizer according to the present invention. In the present embodiment, the blower 10, the heater 12, and the drying drum 13 are sequentially disposed in the air passage 11, and the microwave generator 14 is disposed in the drying drum 13 as a sterilizing device. This embodiment is the same as
A temperature sensor 16 is arranged at a hot air outlet of the heater 12,
A temperature sensor 17 and a humidity sensor 18 are arranged at an exhaust outlet of the drying drum 13 and these temperature sensors 1
6 and 17 and a humidity sensor 18, and a microcomputer 19 for controlling the operation of the microwave generator 14 based on information from the temperature sensors 16 and 17 and the humidity sensor 18 is provided.

The operation of the embodiment constructed as described above will be described below. In the present embodiment, the air generated by the blower 10 is heated by the heater 12 to generate hot air, which is introduced into the drying drum 13, and the microwave generated by the microwave generator 14 in the drying process. Irradiation 15 is applied to the laundry stored in the drying drum 13, and the laundry can be boiled and sterilized and sterilized by microwave heating.

In the drying step, a value obtained by measuring the temperature of the hot air emitted from the heater 12 by the temperature sensor 16 and
Drying drum 1 by temperature sensor 17 and humidity sensor 18
The microcomputer 19 intermittently operates the microwave generator 14 while judging the degree of drying from the measured values of the temperature and humidity of the exhaust gas obtained in Step 3, and reduces the operation frequency as the drying proceeds. Thus, the laundry can be dried and sterilized, and the microwave generator 14 can prevent the laundry from being overheated. In addition, this can prevent the laundry from being damaged by overheating.

[0013]

According to the clothes dryer with a sterilizing apparatus of the present invention, the water contained in the laundry and the bacteria itself is heated and boiled at the molecular level by electromagnetic waves to sterilize the water, and the evaporated water is heated with hot air. , The drying is secondarily terminated promptly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Blower 11 ... Air path 12 ... Heater 13 ... Drying drum 14 ... Microwave generator 15 ... Microwave 16, 17 ... Temperature sensor 18 ... Humidity sensor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A clothes dryer with a sterilizer, which is a general household clothes dryer, wherein a sterilizer using microwaves is incorporated. 2. The clothes dryer with a sterilizing device,
The clothes dryer with a sterilizer according to claim 1, wherein the sterilizer using microwaves is used intermittently. 3. The clothes dryer with a sterilizer according to claim 2, wherein the use of the sterilizer using the microwave reduces the frequency of use as the drying proceeds. 4. The clothes dryer with a sterilizer according to claim 3, wherein the progress of the drying is determined by detecting the temperature and humidity in the exhaust air and comparing the detected temperature and humidity with the heated air after heating the heater. 5. A microcomputer for detecting a temperature and a humidity in the exhaust gas, judging the progress of the drying by comparing the temperature and the humidity with the heated air after heating the heater, and controlling a frequency of use of the sterilizing apparatus intermittently. The clothes dryer with a sterilizer according to claim 4, comprising: