JP3182367B2 - Centrifugal dehydrator - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention accommodates the laundry therein the cage-like drum, a centrifugal dehydrator to perform draining dewatering or cleaning solvent of the laundry by rotating the drum ( Here, the term “centrifugal dehydrator” includes a solvent centrifugal dewatering device). Needless to say, the present invention can be used for a washing machine or a washing / drying machine which continuously performs washing, dehydration, and drying.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A drum type centrifugal dehydrator has a structure in which washed laundry is accommodated in a basket-shaped drum, and the drum is rotated at a high speed about a horizontal axis. One of the major problems with this type of centrifugal dehydrator is that when the drum is rotated at high speed while the laundry is not evenly distributed on the inner wall of the drum, abnormalities occur due to imbalance in the mass distribution around the rotation axis. Vibration and abnormal noise are generated. In a commercially available drum type washer / dryer equipped with such a centrifugal dehydrator, a weight is mounted around an outer tub in which the drum is installed in order to suppress the abnormal vibration. For this reason, this type of conventional washer-dryer was very heavy, and the installation place was limited, and it was difficult to move and transport.

[0003] Several drum-type centrifugal dehydrators for solving the above-mentioned problem of abnormal vibration have conventionally been proposed. For example, in the centrifugal dewatering device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-254294, a method is disclosed in which laundry is uniformly distributed and arranged on the inner peripheral wall of the drum by low-speed rotation of the drum before performing the dehydration operation by high-speed rotation of the drum. . More specifically, first rotate the drum at low speed for a very short time,
Then, the laundry is dispersed by a combination of two-stage rotation control of rotating the drum at a rotation speed slightly higher than the rotation speed but sufficiently lower than the rotation speed during the spin-drying operation.

In the above prior art, a vibration monitoring sensor is installed on a pedestal portion of the apparatus as means for detecting uneven distribution of laundry inside the drum, and the rotation speed of the drum is increased to a high rotation speed for performing a dehydrating operation. When the vibration monitoring sensor detects abnormal vibration, the rotation speed is reduced.

[0005]

However, even if the method of controlling the rotation of the drum as in the above-mentioned prior art is used, the laundry is not always surely evenly distributed by one low-speed rotation of the drum. Therefore, the drum must be rotated at a high speed after trying to disperse the laundry by the low-speed rotation of the drum, and when abnormal vibration occurs, the rotational speed of the drum must be reduced again to re-disperse the laundry. If the dispersion of the laundry by the low-speed rotation of the drum and the detection of the eccentric load by the high-speed rotation of the drum are repeated a plurality of times in this manner, the dehydration time is prolonged.

Further, as described above, in the method of evenly distributing the laundry on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum, when only one relatively heavy (eg, jeans) garment is stored in the drum, Even dispersion cannot be performed, and it becomes impossible to suppress abnormal vibration.

[0007] For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-1000009 discloses a centrifugal dehydrator for adjusting the balance by adding a weight to a part of the inner peripheral wall of the drum. In this conventional centrifugal dehydrator, when the weight reaches the highest position of the drum, the laundry is determined to be in a position facing the weight with respect to the drum rotation axis due to gravity, and both are balanced. The drum shifts from low-speed rotation to high-speed dehydration rotation. However, even by such a method, it is not always possible to shift to the high-speed spinning rotation with the weight and the laundry being surely balanced, and it is not possible to completely prevent abnormal vibration during the spinning operation. Of course, it would be possible to balance by imposing strict conditions such as storing a predetermined weight of laundry in the drum according to the weight of the weight,
This is not practical in an actual centrifugal dehydrator.

[0008] In view of the above problems, the applicant of the present application filed Japanese Patent Application No.
In JP-A-354520 and the like, a pocket-shaped liquid holding portion capable of temporarily holding water is formed in a part of a baffle of a drum, and a predetermined amount of water is injected into the liquid holding portion according to uneven distribution of laundry. Thus, a centrifugal dehydrator having a novel configuration for adjusting the balance of the entire drum has been proposed. The present invention is a further improvement of the novel centrifugal dehydrator, and the object is to minimize the time required for balance adjustment before the start of the dehydration operation and to quickly shift to high-speed dehydration rotation. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a centrifugal dewatering device capable of shortening the required time for dehydration and the required time for washing.

[0009]

[Embodiment means and Invention The present centrifugal dehydrator of the present invention made to solve the above problems, make the drum accommodating a laundry within cage-like drum rotation A centrifugal dewatering device for dewatering the laundry by means of: a) a balance adjusting means comprising: a liquid holding part of a hollow body formed on a part of the wall surface of the drum; B) load amount detecting means for determining the amount of laundry stored in the drum; c) eccentric load detecting means for detecting the magnitude and position of the eccentric load of the drum; d) the liquid holding unit The magnitude of the eccentric load detected by the eccentric load detecting means in a state where the liquid is not injected into the liquid holding portion is larger than a predetermined value and the position of the eccentric load is on the inner peripheral wall of the drum. If not near the opposing location, Control means for determining a rotation control method of the drum for promoting movement of the laundry in the drum according to the load amount determined by the load amount detection means; e) a rotation control method determined by the control means And rotation control means for controlling a motor for rotating the drum so that the drum rotates.

[0010] The centrifugal dehydrator according to the present invention includes:
The magnitude of the eccentric load detected by the eccentric load detecting means in a state where the liquid is not injected into the liquid holding unit is larger than a predetermined value, and the position of the eccentric load is on the drum inner peripheral wall surface. In the case where the position is in the vicinity of the portion facing the liquid holding unit, the liquid is injected into the liquid holding unit by the liquid injection unit in accordance with the magnitude of the eccentric load, and the balance of the drum is adjusted.

In the centrifugal dehydrator according to the present invention, the drum itself does not have an eccentric load when the liquid is not injected into the liquid holding unit, and the liquid is injected into the liquid holding unit by the liquid injection means. Then, the drum itself has an eccentric load corresponding to the amount of the liquid. Therefore, as a method of balancing the entire drum, a method of suppressing the eccentric load by dispersing the laundry substantially uniformly on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum without using the balance adjusting means, and using a balance adjusting means. There is a method of suppressing the eccentric load by balancing the weight of the liquid in the liquid holding unit with the weight of the laundry.

[0012] The eccentric load detecting means is provided for detecting the magnitude and position of the eccentric load when the liquid is not injected into the liquid holding unit, that is, when the eccentric load is caused only by the uneven distribution of the stored laundry. Is detected. For example, when the drum is rotated at a rotational speed such that the centrifugal force acting on the laundry exceeds the gravity, the eccentric load detecting means detects the eccentric load based on the fluctuation of the drive current of the motor that rotationally drives the drum. The structure which detects a core load can be used.

If the magnitude of the detected eccentric load is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, but the position of the eccentric load is near the position facing the liquid holding portion on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum, the balance adjustment is performed. By means it is possible to balance the drum. However, if the position of the eccentric load is not in the vicinity of the portion facing the liquid holding portion on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum, the drum cannot be balanced using the balance adjusting means. There is.

Here, when the amount of the laundry is small, the number of the laundry is small and it may be impossible or difficult to uniformly distribute the laundry on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum. Therefore, a method of suppressing the eccentric load using the balance adjusting means is selected. On the other hand, when the amount of the laundry is large, the space in which the laundry can move in the drum is relatively narrow, so that it is difficult to harden and arrange the laundry at a specific position. Therefore, a method of suppressing the eccentric load by selecting the method of distributing the whole laundry substantially uniformly on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum without using the balance adjusting means is selected.

In view of the above, according to the load amount detected by the load amount detecting means, if the load amount is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the control unit causes the laundry to face the liquid holding unit on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum. The rotation control method is determined so that the drum is rotated so that the laundry is fixed to the position, and when the load amount exceeds a predetermined value, the entire laundry is distributed substantially evenly on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum.

[0016] As an example of a specific rotation control method in the centrifugal dehydrator according to the present invention, the control means includes a step of shifting the laundry along the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum when the load amount is equal to or less than a predetermined value. A configuration may be adopted in which one rotation control method is selected, while, when the load amount is larger than a predetermined value, a second rotation control method is performed such that the entire laundry is unraveled. That is, in the first rotation control method, the lump of laundry causing the eccentric load is shifted as it is along the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum and moved to the vicinity of the position facing the liquid holding unit, In the second rotation control method, the whole entangled laundry is loosened so that the laundry can be easily dispersed one by one.

Furthermore, in the first rotation control method, when the drum is rotating at a rotational speed such that the laundry adheres to the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum and rotates due to the centrifugal force, the centrifugal force is larger than the gravity. It is preferable to reduce the rotation speed of the drum for a short time so as to reduce the rotation speed.

The centrifugal force causes the laundry to adhere to the inner peripheral wall of the drum and rotate, so that the mass of the laundry causing the eccentric load is lifted above the drum. When the size of the laundry becomes small, the mass of the laundry separates from the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum and slips backward. Thereby, the position of the eccentric load can be moved backward by the predetermined rotation angle.

Further, in the second rotation control method, after the rotation of the drum is substantially stopped, the drum is rotated while reversing the rotation in a range of a rotation speed at which the centrifugal force acting on the laundry is smaller than gravity. Is preferred.

When the rotation of the drum is substantially stopped, the laundry stuck to the inner peripheral wall of the drum falls to the bottom of the drum. Thereafter, when the drum is rotated while being inverted as described above, the laundry is agitated, air enters into the gap between the laundry, and the entangled laundry is easily separated from each other. Then, when the centrifugal force is increased to a rotation speed that exceeds the gravity next time, the laundry is easily dispersed evenly on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum.

[0021]

According to the centrifugal dehydrator according to the present invention, when the laundry is unevenly distributed, the balance adjustment using the balance adjusting means according to the amount of the laundry and the washing without the balance adjusting means are performed. The balance adjustment based only on the dispersed arrangement of the articles is selected, and the drum is rotated by a rotation control method such that the corresponding laundry is moved. Therefore, the balance adjustment is completed within a short time regardless of the amount of the laundry, so that the time required for dehydration and the time required for washing can be reduced. Further, occurrence of abnormal vibration and abnormal noise during the high-speed dehydrating operation can be reliably avoided.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the centrifugal dehydrator according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the structure of a drum type washing machine having a centrifugal dehydrator according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of the washing machine, and FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view showing a main part of the washing machine.

An outer tub 32 is suspended by a spring 34 and a damper 36 inside the outer case 30, and a drum 38 for containing laundry is supported by a main shaft 40 inside the outer tub 32.
A number of water holes 42 are provided in the peripheral wall of the drum 38, and water supplied to the outer tub 32 flows into the drum 38 through the water holes 42, and conversely, The water dehydrated from the water is scattered to the outer tub 32 through the water passage hole 42.

On the inner circumference of the drum 38, four baffles 44 are provided at positions each having a rotation angle of 90 degrees for scraping up the laundry with the rotation. One of the baffles 44 also serves as a balancer 46 for retaining water therein. On the back surface of the drum 38, a substantially disk-shaped water guide chamber 48 having a large water injection opening 50 on the inner peripheral side of the circumference around the main shaft 40 is provided. In the water guide chamber 48, a water injection hole 52 communicating with the balancer 46 is formed on the drum 38 side, and a drain hole 54 is formed on the outer tank 32 side facing the water injection hole 52 approximately 180 degrees with respect to the main shaft 40. I have. Outer box 30
A door 56 for opening and closing the front opening of the outer tub 32 is provided on the front surface of the outer tub 32, and laundry is stored in the drum 38 by opening the door 56.

The main shaft 40 has a bearing 58 mounted on the outer tub 32.
, And a main pulley 60 is attached to the tip. A motor 62 is disposed on the lower surface of the outer tub 32, and the rotational driving force of the motor 62 is a motor pulley 64,
The power is transmitted to the main pulley 60 via the V-belt 66. In addition, water supplied to the water supply port 68 from an external tap, etc.
Water is injected into the outer tub 32 through the water supply valve 70, and is discharged from the water injection nozzle 74 provided in the outer tub 32 through the balance water injection valve 72. On the other hand, the water accumulated in the outer tub 32 is discharged outside through a drain port 78 opened and closed by a drain valve 76. An opening is provided on the ring portion of the main pulley 60 at one location on the circumference, and a light emitting unit 801 and a light receiving unit 802 are arranged on both sides of the ring portion. Thus, the light emitted from the light emitting unit 801 only once during the rotation of the drum 38 reaches the light receiving unit 802 through the opening. A rotation sensor described later outputs a detection signal (rotation marker) synchronized with the rotation of the drum 38 based on the light receiving signal.

Next, water injection and drainage to the balancer 46 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the operation state of the balancer 46 and the water guide chamber 48. When the water is discharged from the water injection nozzle 74 while the drum 38 is rotating at a predetermined rotation speed or more, the discharged water enters the water guide chamber 48 through the water injection opening 50, and the rear wall of the drum 38 is removed. It moves to the outer peripheral side by centrifugal force while being transmitted.
Then, as shown in FIG. 3A, the water adheres to and is held on the inner side of the outer peripheral wall of the water guide chamber 48 by centrifugal force. In addition,
Since the water injection opening 50 has a large area, even if the direction of fall of the water discharged from the water injection nozzle 74 varies due to a variation in water pressure or the like, most of the water surely jumps into the water guide chamber 48.

The balancer 46 is a hollow body that extends further outward than the water guide chamber 48 with respect to the main shaft 40. Therefore, the water injected into the water guide chamber 48 enters the balancer 46 through the water injection hole 52 by centrifugal force, and the water is injected into the water guide chamber 48 as shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), the balancer 46 is attached and held on the outer peripheral wall side, that is, on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum 38. In addition, a drain hole 54 is also opened on the outer peripheral side of the water guide chamber 48, and water escapes from the water guide chamber 48 through the drain hole 54, but the amount of drain water is compared with the amount of water injected into the water guide chamber 48. And very few.

When discharging the water accumulated in the balancer 46, the balancer 46 is stopped and held at the highest position on the rotation circumference. Then, since the centrifugal force acting on the water in the balancer 46 is lost, the water flows out to the water guide chamber 48 through the water injection hole 52 as shown in FIG. The accumulated water flows out to the outer tub 32 through the drain hole 54 located at the lowest position on the rotation circumference. Water injection hole 5
Although the opening area of the drain holes 2 and the drain holes 54 is small, the water in the balancer 46 and the water guide chamber 48 is completely drained to the outer tank 32 if the balancer 46 is kept at the above position for a while.

Next, the electrical configuration and operation of the parts related to centrifugal dehydration in the washing machine will be described with reference to FIG.
Control unit 10 mainly composed of microcomputer
Comprises a central control unit 11, a rotation speed control unit 12, an eccentric load detection unit 13, a load amount detection unit 14, and a water injection control unit 15. The central control unit 11 includes a memory in which an operation program for performing the dehydration operation is stored in advance, and information on the magnitude and position of the eccentric load and the load amount from the eccentric load detecting unit 13 and the load amount detecting unit 14, respectively. The information about the size is received and processed as described later to instruct the rotation speed control unit 12 of the target rotation speed of the motor corresponding to the desired drum rotation speed.

The rotation speed control unit 12 operates together with the motor drive unit 21 to maintain the motor 62 at the specified rotation speed. When an electric motor whose rotation speed is controlled by phase control, such as an induction motor or a commutator motor, is used as the motor 62, the rotation speed control unit 12 determines the designated target rotation speed and the current rotation speed received from the rotation sensor 23. The phase control angle is calculated based on the speed information and the motor drive unit 2 is calculated.
Give to 1. The motor drive unit 21 includes, for example, an inverter control circuit, and supplies the motor 62 with a drive current obtained by turning on / off a switching element according to a given phase control angle.

The motor current detector 22 detects the drive current flowing through the motor 62, converts the drive current into a voltage value, and supplies the voltage value to the eccentric load detector 13. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the fluctuation of the motor current. In the figure, a rotation marker M is a marker based on a signal indicating one rotation cycle of the drum 38 obtained by the rotation sensor 23. When an eccentric load exists on the drum 38,
As shown in FIG. 5, the motor current has a fluctuation component corresponding to the eccentric load. The fluctuation of the motor current corresponds to the fluctuation of the load torque of the motor 62, and the maximum peak of the motor current appears when the load torque becomes maximum within one rotation period of the drum 38. The fluctuation amplitude L of the motor current corresponds to the magnitude of the eccentric load, that is, the amount of eccentricity. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the relationship between the amount of eccentricity and the fluctuation amplitude L. By examining such a relationship in advance and storing it in a memory, the amount of eccentricity can be obtained from the fluctuation amplitude L. It should be noted that the fluctuation factor of the motor current is not necessarily limited to the eccentric load. Therefore, in order to accurately detect the fluctuation component due to the eccentric load, it is necessary to use the motor 3
It is preferable to perform a filtering process for extracting only the frequency components near the rotation speed of No. 8.

The eccentric load detecting section 13 receives the signal of the fluctuation component of the motor current as shown in FIG. 5 and outputs the maximum peak and the minimum peak at every interval of the rotation marker M, that is, every one rotation period of the drum 38. Is detected. Then, the difference (fluctuation amplitude L) between the maximum and minimum peaks is calculated, and the eccentricity is obtained by referring to the relationship shown in FIG. 6 stored in the memory. Further, the eccentric position on the inner peripheral wall of the drum 38 is detected based on the timing when the maximum peak appears (for example, the delay time from the immediately preceding rotation marker M).

The load amount detector 14 detects the amount of laundry (load amount) prior to the washing step of the laundry, for example, in the following procedure. That is, first, after the dry laundry is stored in the drum 38, a predetermined amount of water is poured into the outer tub 32. Next, the drum 38 is rotated at a rotation speed during the washing process (for example, about 55 rpm) for a predetermined time and then temporarily stopped. Since the dried laundry absorbs water when the drum 38 rotates, the water level in the outer tub 32 decreases by the amount of the absorbed laundry. When the amount of laundry is large, the water level drop is large. Therefore, the water level sensor attached to the outer tub 32 detects the water level drop amount, and determines the amount of the laundry based on the detected amount. Note that this load amount can be used for controlling the water injection amount and the like during the washing step, for example, in addition to the dehydrating step.

The control procedure during the spin-drying process in the washing machine having the above configuration will be described with reference to the schematic diagrams of FIGS. 11 and 12 and the flowcharts of FIGS. In the following description, a numerical value when the diameter of the drum is set to 470 mm is taken as an example, but it is apparent that a case where the drum diameter is different can be dealt with by appropriately changing the numerical value of each rotation speed. is there.

When the washing process is completed and the dewatering process is started, the laundry in the drum 38 is piled up on the bottom as shown in FIG. At this time, no water enters the balancer 46, and the drum 38 itself has no eccentric load.

When the start of the dehydration process is instructed by the user from the operation unit 20, the motor 62 is started and the eccentric load detecting rotation is executed (step S1). At this time, the rotating speed N1 of the drum 38 is slightly higher than the rotating speed at which the centrifugal force acting on the laundry and the gravity are balanced (for example, about 80 rpm).
m) is rotated in one direction.

By the above rotation, all the laundry rotates while being pressed against the inner peripheral wall of the drum 38 by the centrifugal force as shown in FIG. 11B. If the laundry is unevenly distributed on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum 38, the motor current fluctuates as shown in FIG. 5 and the eccentric load detecting unit 13 determines the eccentric amount and eccentricity as described above. The position is detected (step S2).

Next, the central control unit 11 determines whether the eccentric amount is equal to or less than a predetermined value a (step S).
3). When it is determined in step S3 that the amount of eccentricity is equal to or smaller than the predetermined value a, it can be determined that vibration and noise are small even if the dehydration operation is performed in that state. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S9, where the rotation speed of the drum 38 is increased to a predetermined high-speed rotation speed N2. Thereby, the water that has permeated the laundry is scattered by the centrifugal force and dehydrated. Here, the high-speed rotation speed N2 can be set to about 1000 rpm. However, in order to protect the laundry which is liable to damage the cloth, a washing course designated by the user (for example, a blanket washing course, a dry-only clothes washing course). And so on).

If it is determined in step S3 that the amount of eccentricity is larger than the predetermined value a, then the eccentric position is changed to the balancer 46.
It is determined whether or not the position is within a predetermined range near the position facing 180 degrees (step S4). The predetermined range is set to the balancer 46 with respect to the main shaft 40 in consideration of the detection error of the eccentric position.
Is set to an appropriate width centering on a rotation position facing 180 degrees. When it is determined in step S4 that the eccentric position is within the predetermined range, it can be determined that the balance adjustment of the drum 38 can be performed by injecting water into the balancer 46. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S8, where the balance water injection operation as described later is executed to achieve the balance, and then the dehydration operation is performed.

When it is determined in step S4 that the eccentric position is not within the predetermined range near the position facing the balancer 46, it is determined whether or not the load is one third or less of the rated load (step S4). Step S5). When it is determined in step S5 that the load exceeds one-third of the rated load, the amount of the laundry is large, and the balance adjustment by the distributed arrangement of the entire laundry is more difficult than the balance adjustment using the balancer 46. Is determined to be appropriate. Then, a laundry loosening operation as described later is executed (step S6), and the drum 38 is operated.
After the laundry is evenly distributed on the inner peripheral wall surface, the eccentric load is detected again.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S5 that the load amount is equal to or less than 1/3 of the rated load amount, the amount of the laundry is small, and the balancer 46 is operated more than the balance adjustment by the uniform distribution of the laundry. It is determined that the balance adjustment used is appropriate. This is because when the amount of laundry is small, for example, there is a high possibility that there is only one or a small number of laundry, and in such a case, it is impossible or extremely difficult to balance only with the laundry. is there. Therefore,
The position of the laundry is shifted in the circumferential direction on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum 38 by executing the eccentric load moving operation as described below, so that the eccentric position is near the position 180 degrees opposite to the balancer 46. (Step S7). Then, the eccentric load is detected again.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the control of the balanced water injection operation in step S8. In the balanced water injection operation, first, the rotation speed of the drum 38 is increased to the medium rotation speed N3 (step S81). The medium rotation speed N3 is preferably set to a rotation speed higher than the low rotation speed N1 and lower than a resonance point determined by the weight of the drum 38 itself. If the medium rotation speed N3 is set higher than the resonance point, the rotation speed of the drum 38 passes through the resonance point before water is injected into the balancer 46,
The effect of the balancer 46 cannot be exhibited. Since the resonance point varies depending on the weight of the laundry stored in the drum 38, it is necessary to consider an increase in the weight of the laundry due to water absorption. For example, when the drum diameter is 470 mm, the resonance point is about 200 rpm.
It may be set to about 30 rpm.

When the rotation speed of the drum 38 is the medium rotation speed N3
Is reached, the water injection control unit 15 opens the balance water injection valve 72 (step S82). As a result, as described above, the water is discharged from the water injection nozzle 74 and the water gradually enters the balancer 46, and is held in the balancer 46 in a state of being attached to the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum 38 by centrifugal force. At the same time, the eccentric amount that gradually changes is detected by the eccentric load detecting unit 13 and the central control unit 11
It is determined whether or not the eccentric amount is equal to or smaller than the predetermined value b (step S83).

The laundry in the drum 38 rotates while being completely pressed against the inner peripheral wall surface by the centrifugal force, while the amount of water in the balancer 46 gradually increases and the weight increases. The fluctuation amplitude L of the motor current as shown in FIG. If it is determined in step S83 that the amount of eccentricity is equal to or less than the predetermined value b, the water injection control unit 1
5, the balance water injection valve 72 is closed (step S84). As a result, the increase in the water inside the balancer 46 stops, and the eccentric load due to the uneven distribution of the laundry and the balancer 4
The eccentric load of the entire drum 38 becomes small due to the balance with the water in 6.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the rotation control during the loosening operation in step S6. The loosening operation is performed when the amount of laundry is relatively large,
In such a case, a large number of laundry items are often entangled with each other and are difficult to peel off. Therefore, first, the rotation of the drum 38 is temporarily stopped or reduced to the extent that it is almost stopped (step S61). Next, the drum 38 is rotated leftward at the rotation speed during the washing process (for example, about 55 rpm) (step S62), and then the rotation direction is reversed and the drum 38 is rotated rightward at the same rotation speed (step S62). Step S63). Then, the left-right inversion is repeated until a predetermined time elapses (step S64), and the loosening operation ends. As a result, the laundry is agitated inside the drum 38 as shown in FIG. 11C, so that the entangled laundry is loosened and the laundry is easily separated from each other. Therefore, when the process returns from step S6 to step S1 and the rotation speed of the drum 38 is increased to the rotation speed N1, the loosened laundry is evenly distributed on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum 38 as shown in FIG. It becomes easy to disperse, and the possibility that the amount of eccentricity falls within a predetermined value a or less increases.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of the rotation control at the time of the eccentric load moving operation in step S7.
In the eccentric load moving operation, first, it is determined whether or not the rotation speed of the drum 38 is the rotation speed N1 (step S71). If the rotation speed exceeds the rotation speed N1, the rotation speed is reduced to the rotation speed N1. Maintain (step S72). The central control unit 11 roughly grasps the minimum peak value of the motor current and the appearance position during one rotation of the drum during the rotation of the drum 38 by one or more rotations. If a peak appears (step S7
3) Immediately after that, the rotational speed of the drum 38 becomes equal to the rotational speed N4.
(Step S74). The rotation speed N4 is appropriately set within a range where the centrifugal force acting on the laundry is smaller than the gravity, and is set to, for example, about 45 rpm. When the rotation speed of the drum 38 has decreased to the rotation speed N4 (step S75), the rotation speed is immediately increased again to the rotation speed N1 (step S76).

Due to such a change in the rotation speed, the laundry inside the drum 38 moves as follows. The eccentric load transfer operation is performed when the amount of the laundry is relatively small. In such a case, the laundry is often united. Therefore, the drum 38 is rotated at the rotation speed N1.
When is rotated, the lump of the laundry is as shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the drum 38 is pressed against the inner peripheral wall and rotated. When the mass of laundry is near the lowest position on the inner peripheral wall of the drum 38, the load on the motor 62 is at a minimum, and the motor current has a minimum peak. At this time, if the rotation speed of the drum 38 is rapidly reduced as described above, the centrifugal force is weakened when the laundry stuck on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum 38 is lifted upward, as shown in FIG. So that it slips down. Then, since the rotation speed is increased again after slipping off by a certain distance (rotation angle), the lump of laundry is re-tensioned at the moved position on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum 38 as shown in FIG. Rotate with. The amount of movement of the laundry caused by one decrease in the rotation speed is substantially determined mainly depending on the rotation speed N4 and the amount (weight) of the laundry. Therefore, even if the mass of laundry cannot be moved to a position 180 degrees opposite to the balancer 46 by one rotation speed reduction operation, the above-described operation is repeated a plurality of times to set the eccentric position to a desired position. Can be.

After the lump of laundry has been moved to a position 180 degrees opposite to the balancer 46 by such an eccentric load transfer operation, appropriate water injection into the balancer 46 is performed by the above-described balance water injection operation. FIG.
As shown in (d), the balance of the laundry and the balancer 46 can be balanced.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to a drum type washing machine, it is apparent that the present invention can be applied to a dry cleaner using a petroleum solvent or the like.

[0050]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a drum type washing machine having a centrifugal dehydrator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of a main part of the washing machine of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a state of injecting and discharging water to and from a balancer in the centrifugal dehydrator of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an electric block diagram of the centrifugal dehydrator of the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in motor current due to the influence of an eccentric load.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a relationship between an eccentric amount and a fluctuation amplitude of a motor current.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a control operation at the time of a dehydration operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a control operation at the time of a dehydration operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a control operation at the time of a dehydration operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a control operation at the time of a dehydration operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a state of movement of laundry in the drum in the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a schematic view showing a state of movement of laundry in a drum in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Control part 11 ... Central control part 12 ... Rotation speed control part 13 ... Eccentric load detection part 14 ... Load amount detection part 15 ... Water injection control part 21 ... Motor drive part 22 ... Motor current detection part 23 ... Rotation sensor 38 ... Drum 46: Balancer 74: Water injection nozzle

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Tetsuo Harada 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-9-10480 (JP, A) Hei 5-293289 (JP, A) JP-A-57-76341 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) D06F 23/02, 33/02 D06F 49/00-49 / 04

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A centrifugal dehydrator for performing dehydration of accommodating a laundry within cage-like drum the laundry by rotating the drum, a) a drum of a hollow body formed in a part of the wall of Balance adjusting means comprising a liquid holding part and liquid injecting means for injecting liquid into the liquid holding part; b) load amount detecting means for determining an amount of laundry stored in the drum; c) eccentricity of the drum An eccentric load detecting means for detecting a magnitude and a position of the load; and d) a magnitude of the eccentric load detected by the eccentric load detecting means in a state where the liquid is not injected into the liquid holding portion, is a predetermined value. If the position of the eccentric load is larger than the position of the eccentric load on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum and not in the vicinity of the portion facing the liquid holding portion, the laundry in the drum is Drums to facilitate movement Control means for determining a rotation control method; and e) rotation control means for controlling a motor for rotating and driving the drum so that the drum rotates according to the rotation control method determined by the control means. Centrifugal dehydrator. 2. The eccentric load, wherein the magnitude of the eccentric load detected by the eccentric load detecting means in a state where the liquid is not injected into the liquid holding section is larger than a predetermined value, and When the position of the load is near a position facing the liquid holding portion on the inner peripheral wall surface of the drum, the liquid injection device injects a liquid corresponding to the magnitude of the eccentric load into the liquid holding portion, and The centrifugal dehydrator according to claim 1, wherein balance adjustment is performed. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to rotate the laundry along the inner peripheral wall of the drum when the load is equal to or less than a predetermined value .
The drum is rotated at a rotational speed that sticks to the peripheral wall and rotates.
When spinning, the centrifugal force will be less than gravity
Select the first rotation control method of reducing the urchin rotational speed for a short time the drum, whereas, if the load is greater than a predetermined value, a rotational control method to perform the loosening of the whole laundry
After washing the drum, stop the rotation of the drum
The centrifugal force acting on the surface is within the range of rotation speed less than gravity
The centrifugal dehydrator according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein a second rotation control method of rotating the drum while rotating the drum is selected.