JPH05146597A - Dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] Prevents clothes from sticking to the inside of the drum and from falling when the clothes are dried,
Prevents erroneous detection of dryness by the electrodes. [Composition] A dryer having an electrode for detecting the contact resistance of clothes and detecting the drying condition of clothes based on the detection signal output from the electrode to control the drying operation, the detection signal output from the electrode The rotation speed of the drum is controlled so as to be reduced while the dryness of the clothes is being detected based on the detection result. As a result, the centrifugal force acting on the clothes is reduced, and even if the clothes are dried and the weight of the clothes is reduced, the clothes fall without sticking to the inside of the drum. Therefore, the dropped clothes come into contact with the electrodes without fail, and erroneous detection can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dryer configured to supply warm air into a drum while rotating the drum to dry clothes in the drum.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a dryer of this type, conventionally, an electrode has been provided for detecting the contact resistance of the clothes when the clothes come into contact with the clothes, and the degree of drying of the clothes is detected based on a detection signal output from the electrodes. Then, a configuration provided with operation control means for controlling the drying operation is provided. With this configuration, when the drying rate of the clothes reaches, for example, 98% based on the contact resistance of the clothes detected by the electrodes, it is determined that the "drying detection" is performed, and the drying operation is continued for a predetermined time from this point. rear,
The operation is automatically terminated.

Further, in the above structure, the electrode is arranged at the fixed portion so as to face the inner lower portion of the drum. Thus, when the drum is rotated, the clothes in the drum are scooped up by the baffle and dropped, and the dropped clothes come into contact with the electrodes to detect the contact resistance.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional structure, as the clothes are dried, the weight of the clothes becomes lighter and the clothes get stuck on the baffle and stick to the inside of the drum. It may stick to the inside of the drum and not fall. In this case,
Clothes no longer contact the electrodes. Especially when the amount of clothes is small, the clothes often do not come into contact with the electrodes.

In this case, if the clothes do not come into contact with the electrodes, the detection signal output from the electrodes becomes a signal indicating that the contact resistance is infinite, that is, a signal indicating that the clothes have dried sufficiently. Even when the degree of dryness of clothes is actually insufficient, it is erroneously determined as “dryness detection”. For this reason, there have been problems that the clothes are not sufficiently dried and uneven drying occurs.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a dryer capable of preventing the clothes from falling while sticking to the inner side of the drum when the clothes are dried, and preventing erroneous detection of the drying condition. There is

[0007]

The dryer of the present invention is configured to supply warm air into the drum while rotating the drum to dry the clothes in the drum.
An electrode is provided for detecting a contact resistance of the clothes when the clothes are in contact, and an operation control means is provided for detecting a drying condition of the clothes based on a detection signal output from the electrode to control a drying operation. In the dryer, the operation control means controls the rotation speed of the drum to decrease when the dryness of the clothes is detected based on the detection signal output from the electrode. Have.

[0008]

[Function] When clothes are dried and the weight of the clothes becomes lighter, the clothes do not drop while sticking to the inside of the drum because the rotation of the drum causes a strong centrifugal force acting on the clothes. At the same time, it is presumed that the weight of the clothes is reduced and the clothes easily get caught on the baffle or the like. Therefore, if the rotational speed of the drum is reduced to reduce the centrifugal force acting on the clothes, the clothes will surely drop without sticking to the inside of the drum even if the weight of the clothes is reduced. The present invention has been made paying attention to this point.

That is, according to the above means, when the dry condition of the clothes is detected based on the detection signal output from the electrode, the rotation speed of the drum is controlled so as to be decreased. The centrifugal force acting on
Even if the clothes are dried and the weight of the clothes becomes lighter, the clothes do not stick to the inside of the drum and fall. Therefore, the dropped clothes come into contact with the electrodes surely, and the dryness of the clothes is accurately detected.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, in FIG. 2 showing the overall configuration, a clothing entrance / exit 2 is formed in the center of the front surface of the outer box 1, and a door 3 is rotatably provided to open / close the clothes entrance / exit 2. Has been. A drum 4 is rotatably provided inside the outer box 1.

In this case, the drum 4 has a shaft 5 provided at the center of its rear surface rotatably supported by a support plate 6 provided at the rear portion of the outer box 1 and an opening 7 at the front surface thereof. A drum support 8 provided at the front of the box 1 is rotatably supported. A drum motor 10 that drives the drum 4 to rotate via a belt 9 is arranged in the upper portion of the outer box 1.

A warm air supply device 11 for supplying warm air into the drum 4 is provided from the rear part of the drum 4 to the outer lower part and the front part. The warm air supply device 11 includes the drum 4
Air outlet 1 consisting of a large number of small holes formed in the rear center part
2, a fan casing 13 communicating with the air outlet 12,
A fan 14 arranged so as to partition the inside of the fan casing 13 into front and rear, a duct 15 communicating with the front portion of the fan casing 13, a heater 16 located in front of the duct 15 and attached to the drum support 8, The drum support 8 includes an air inlet 17 formed of a large number of small holes, and a fan motor 19 that rotationally drives the fan 14 via a belt 18.

The fan motor 19 is arranged in the upper part of the outer box 1. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the heater 16 is composed of two heaters 16a and 16b, and is configured such that the heating output can be switched between strong and weak. A lint filter 20 is detachably arranged at the air outlet 12 portion of the warm air supply device 11. Further, the back plate 21 that closes the rear opening of the outer box 1 has an outside air intake 22 formed in the center thereof and an outside air return port 23 formed in the lower portion.

Further, an electrode 24 is provided below the drum support 8.
Are arranged so as to face the inside of the drum 4. This electrode 2
Reference numeral 4 is for detecting the contact resistance of the clothing when the clothing comes into contact and outputting a detection signal. A plurality of baffles 4a are provided on the inner peripheral surface of the drum 4 so as to project therefrom.

Further, in FIG. 3 showing the electrical configuration, an operation control means such as a microcomputer 25 is
It stores a control program for controlling the overall drying operation. A direct current constant voltage is applied to the microcomputer 25 from a direct current power supply circuit 26. A commercial AC power supply is applied to the DC power supply circuit 26 via a power supply plug 27. The microcomputer 25 is configured to control the on / off of the drum motor 10, the fan motor 19, and the heaters 16a and 16b through a drive circuit 28.

Then, the microcomputer 25 has
A detection signal from the electrode 24, a detection signal from a temperature sensor 29 for detecting the temperature inside the drum 4, and switch signals from various operation switches 30 provided on an operation panel (not shown) are provided. Further, the microcomputer 25 drives and controls the display 31 provided on the operation panel.

Next, the operation of the above structure will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 4, 5, and 6. Here, FIG. 1 is a flowchart schematically showing the control contents of the control program. FIG. 4 is a graph showing changes over time in the drying rate of clothes and changes over time in the contact resistance of clothes. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the on / off control of the drum motor 10. FIG. 6 (a)-
(D) is a front view showing the movement of the clothes 32 in the drum 4.

When the drying operation is started, the drum motor 10, the fan motor 19 and the heater 16 are energized to rotate the drum 4, and the warm air is supplied into the drum 4. In this case, first, "cloth amount detection" is performed in step S1 of FIG. Here, for example, the amount of clothing 32 is detected and stored based on the frequency of contact with the electrode 24.

Then, "iron detection" is performed (step S2). Here, when the contact resistance of the clothes 32 contacting the electrodes 24 is read and it is detected that the contact resistance reaches 8.1 MΩ (time t1 in FIG. 4), the drying rate of the clothes 32 reaches 90%. to decide. The drying rate is 90%
The state in which the clothes 32 are slightly moist is suitable for ironing the clothes 32. When ironing, the drying operation is stopped in this state and the clothes 32 are removed from the drum 4. Take out.

On the other hand, when the drying operation is continued, "drying detection" is performed as described below. That is, the electrode 24
The contact resistance of the garment 32 in contact with is read (step S3), and it is determined whether the contact resistance has reached 20 MΩ (step S4). When the contact resistance reaches 20 MΩ, it is determined that the drying rate of the clothes 32 reaches 98%. In this case, the process of "drying detection" is completed by continuously detecting twice that the contact resistance has reached 20 MΩ.

If the contact resistance does not reach 20 MΩ, the clothes 32 are not sufficiently dried, so that the process proceeds to “NO” in step S4 and the detection count is cleared (step S5). Then, the normal drying operation is continued (step S6).

After that, when the contact resistance reaches 20 MΩ as the drying of the clothes 31 progresses, the process proceeds to “YES” in step S4 and the number of times of detection is incremented (step S7). Then, it is determined whether or not the incremented number of times of detection is the “second time” (step S
8). Since the number of times of detection is "first time", the process proceeds to "NO" in step S8, and it is determined whether or not the amount of clothes 32 is small (step S9). In step S9, the determination is made based on the cloth amount detected in the above-mentioned "cloth amount detection".

Here, when the amount of cloth is large, step S
The process proceeds to “NO” at 9 to continue the normal drying operation (step S6). On the other hand, when the cloth amount is small, step S
At 9, the process proceeds to "YES" to reduce the rotation speed of the drum 4 (step S10). In step S10, the rotation speed of the drum 4 is reduced by intermittently energizing the drum motor 10.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the drum motor 10 is turned off when the contact resistance reaches 20 MΩ, and 5 seconds after that, the drum motor 10 is turned on for 0.5 seconds and off for 1 second. Therefore, the power interruption is repeated three times, for example. Such intermittent energization is performed for about 10 seconds, for example.

By the way, as the drying of the clothes 32 progresses and the weight of the clothes 32 becomes lighter, particularly when the amount of the clothes 32 is small, the drum 4 is rotated at a normal rotation speed, as shown in FIG. As shown, the garment 32 may not fall while being stuck to the inside of the drum 4. The reason for this is that the rotation of the drum 4 causes a fairly strong centrifugal force to act on the clothes 32, and the weight of the clothes 32 is reduced so that the clothes 32 are easily caught on the baffle and the like.
It is considered that this is because it becomes attached to the inner surface of the drum 4 in a substantially flat state.

In such a state, the clothes 32 are placed on the drum 4
Since it will not fall while sticking to the inside of the clothes 32
Do not contact the electrode 24. Therefore, the detection signal output from the electrode 24 is a signal indicating that the contact resistance is infinite (greater than 20 MΩ), and thus even when the dryness of the clothes 32 is actually insufficient, "Dry detection"
Will be erroneously determined to be.

On the other hand, according to this embodiment, since the drum motor 10 is intermittently energized as described above, after the drum 4 is almost stopped as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6C, the clothes 32 fall from the inside of the drum 4. Therefore, the dropped clothes 32
Since the electrode contacts the electrode 24, the detection signal output from the electrode 24 becomes a signal indicating the actual dryness of the clothes 32. Therefore, it is possible to prevent erroneous determination.

Then, as described above, the drum motor 10
When the rotation speed of the drum 4 is reduced by intermittently energizing the drum 4 and then returned to the normal rotation speed, the clothes 32 in the drum 4 are not flat as shown in FIG. 6D. Therefore, even if the drum 4 is rotated at a normal rotation speed, the clothes 32 will drop without sticking to the inside of the drum 4, and the clothes 32 will come into contact with the electrodes 24.

After that, when it is detected that the contact resistance of the clothes 32 does not reach 20 MΩ, the clothes 32 are not sufficiently dried, so that the process proceeds to “NO” in step S4 and the detection count is cleared. At the same time (step S5), the normal drying operation, that is, the drying operation of rotating the drum 4 at the normal rotation speed is continued (step S6).

On the other hand, when it is continuously detected again that the contact resistance reaches 20 MΩ, the process proceeds to “YES” in step S4 and the number of times of detection is incremented (step S7). Here, since the incremented number of times of detection is the “second time”, the process proceeds to “YES” in step S8, and at this point (at time t2 in FIG. 4), “dryness detection” is performed.
Is determined to be completed (step S11).

Subsequently, the drying operation is continued for a set time of, for example, 20 minutes (step S12), and thereafter, with the heater 16 turned off, only the air is blown into the drum 4 while rotating the drum 4. The operation is performed for a predetermined time (step S13). As a result, the drying operation ends. After that, the so-called soft keep operation is performed (step S14) to prevent the clothes 32 from wrinkling. In this soft keep operation, the operation of turning on the drum motor 10 for about 10 seconds in 2 minutes without energizing the heater 16 is repeated until the clothes 32 are taken out or for a maximum of 2 hours.

According to this embodiment having such a configuration, when the dryness of the clothes 32 is detected based on the detection signal output from the electrode 24, for example, the contact resistance is 20 MΩ.
When the first time is reached, the drum motor 10 is intermittently energized to control the rotation speed of the drum 4 so that the centrifugal force acting on the clothes 32 is reduced.
Even if the clothes 32 become lighter as the drying progresses,
The clothes 32 fall without sticking to the inside of the drum 4. Therefore, the clothes 32 fall and come into contact with the electrodes 24 without fail, the dryness of the clothes 32 can be accurately detected, and erroneous determination of the dryness detection can be reliably prevented. This makes it possible to sufficiently dry the clothes and prevent uneven drying.

Specific values such as the on / off ratio and the intermittent energization time when the drum motor 10 is energized intermittently are as follows.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but may be set appropriately. Further, in the above-described embodiment, when the rotational speed of the drum 4 is reduced, the drum motor 10 is intermittently energized. However, instead of this, for example, the voltage energized to the drum motor may be variably controlled. good. Furthermore,
In the above embodiment, the drum 4 and the fan 14 are independently driven by the two motors 10 and 19, but instead of this, the drum and the fan are driven by one motor. It may be applied to the configuration.

[0034]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention controls so as to reduce the rotation speed of the drum when the dryness of clothes is detected based on the detection signal output from the electrode. Since the centrifugal force that acts on the clothes is reduced and the clothes become lighter due to the progress of drying, it is possible to prevent the clothes from sticking inside the drum and not falling. It has an excellent effect that erroneous detection of the condition can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] Overall vertical side view

FIG. 3 is a block diagram.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing changes over time in the drying rate of clothes and changes over time in the contact resistance of clothes.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the on / off control of the drum motor.

6A to 6D are front views showing movement of clothes in a drum.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 is a drum, 4a is a baffle, 10 is a drum motor, 1
1 is a warm air supply device, 14 is a fan, 19 is a fan motor, 24 is an electrode, 25 is a microcomputer (operation control means), and 32 is clothes.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A structure for supplying warm air into the drum while rotating the drum to dry the clothes in the drum, and detecting a contact resistance of the clothes when the clothes come into contact with the clothes. In a dryer comprising an electrode, and an operation control means for detecting a drying condition of the clothes based on a detection signal output from the electrode to control a drying operation, the operation control means outputs the electrode. When detecting the dry condition of the clothes based on the detection signal
A dryer, which is controlled so as to reduce the rotation speed of the drum.