JPH0257440B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a clothes dryer, and particularly to control of intermittent operation of a heater suitable for controlling the temperature of finishing hot air for clothes.

[Background of the invention]

The temperature of hot air in conventional Whirlpool dryers in the United States was controlled using a temperature adjustment thermostat that detected the exhaust temperature. (In the attached wiring diagram example,
(3 types: LT ₁ , MT ₁ , HT ₁ ) The purpose of this method is to keep the temperature below a certain level at any point during the operating process, and it does not take into account that the temperature should be controlled depending on the degree of dryness of the clothes. It had not been done. For this reason, when the room temperature is high, the thermostat operates initially, resulting in intermittently wasteful air blowing operation time, resulting in a longer drying time.

[Purpose of the invention]

The purpose of the present invention is to, after reaching a certain degree of dryness,
To provide a clothes dryer in which a heater is operated intermittently so as to give an appropriate finishing hot air temperature according to the degree of dryness of clothes by controlling the temperature of hot air.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides a control circuit including a rotating drum, a blower for blowing air inside the rotating drum, a heater for heating the air blown from the rotating drum, a microcomputer for controlling operation of the blower and energization of the heater, and a control circuit for controlling the rotating drum. In a clothes dryer control device that consists of a humidity sensor that detects the humidity in the exhaust air and outputs a humidity signal to a microcomputer in the control circuit, a humidity sensor that detects humidity changes from the start of operation to constant rate drying is used. A microcomputer in the control circuit reads the humidity signal, determines the amount of load in the rotating drum to be dried, detects the humidity at a predetermined degree of dryness that has transitioned from constant rate drying to lapse rate drying, and detects this humidity signal. is read by a microcomputer in the control circuit to perform intermittent operation of the heater, and the ON-OFF of this intermittent operation is time-controlled by the microcomputer, and the ON-OFF time is set to vary according to the load amount determined above. It is characterized by the following.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the overall structure of the clothes dryer will be explained with reference to FIG. Outer frame 1, outer frame base 7, intake hole 8
Inside the box body consisting of a rear lid 8 having a rear lid 8, there is a drum support 12 fixed to the outer frame 1 and having a slider 12-1, and a heater case 9 in which a heater 10 is disposed via a heater support 11. A drum 3, which stores clothes and has a heat insulating plate 3-1 on its back surface, is rotatably supported by a drum holder 9-2.

A filter 5 for collecting lint generated from clothing is installed on the drum 3 side of the exhaust port 12-2 of the drum support 12, and the air inside the drum 3 is passed through the duct 13 to the motor. 6-1, the exhaust pipe 1 is guided to a blower 6 having a fan 6-2.
4 and is discharged outside the machine. 15 is motor 6
It is a belt that transmits the rotation of −1 to the drum 3,
The upper part of the main body is a panel 4- to which control equipment 4-2 is attached.
A top cover 4 having a number 1 is attached.
16 is a humidity sensor that detects the degree of dryness, and 17 is a temperature adjustment thermostat that adjusts the exhaust temperature.

FIG. 3 shows the details of the panel portion of the present invention, and there are the following four types of temperatures to be selected by SW7, each of which is appropriately selected depending on the type of clothing.

a High…Standard clothing such as cotton b Med…Permanent press type c Low…Clothing made of heat-resistant fibers such as chemical fibers These are the types of clothing in which the hot air temperature applied to the clothing is lower in the order of a, b, and c. .

Air in d is a blowing operation, which is an operation in which the heater is not turned on, and is therefore unrelated to the intermittent operation of the heater of the present invention.

Here, the present invention relates to items a, b, and c above.

Intermittent ON-OFF operation of the heater will be explained.

Figures 4, 5, and 6 show drying time and humidity sensor 16.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the resistance value, the degree of dryness of clothing, and the exhaust temperature.

Normally, the method of controlling a clothes dryer with an automatic operation termination method using a humidity sensor is to control S1 and S in Fig. 6, where the humidity sensor changes significantly after operation.
2. Focusing on the fact that the time of S3 is a normal dry state instead of a damp state like ironing clothes, after detecting the resistance values of the temperature sensors at points S1, S2, and S3, It is configured to perform a cool-down operation (air blowing operation) and then stop.

Figure 4 shows the exhaust temperature at that time.The exhaust temperature is almost constant until X hours (constant rate drying section), and after X hours, the temperature begins to rise. (Decline rate dry interval).

In the constant rate drying zone, the clothing contains moisture, so even if the temperature of the hot air applied to the clothes is high, it has little effect on the clothes, but in the decreasing rate drying zone, the moisture contained in the clothes decreases. As the temperature of the fibers in the clothing rises, fibers that are sensitive to heat are affected, and when the effect is extreme, the clothing may shrink,
This causes discoloration, etc.

If you perform temperature control from the point when the clothes contain a lot of moisture, the air blowing time will be added and the drying time will become longer. Therefore, from the point when the above moisture content decreases, that is, near the lapse rate drying time, turn on the heater. OFF operation shortens the drying time the most, and the effect of warm air on the clothes is also appropriate.

In the present invention, paying attention to this point, after detecting this drying point with a humidity sensor, a microcomputer outputs a heater ON/OFF signal to cause the heater to perform intermittent operation.

In this example, the High temperature is a temperature that must not exceed this temperature during the normal drying cycle, so for safety reasons, the temperature is adjusted using the temperature adjustment thermostat No. 10, and the temperature is adjusted using the microcomputer.
The heater is being operated intermittently for Med and Low.

From the point of entering lapse rate drying (drying rate approximately 90%)
For Med and Low temperature control, turn on the heater.
-OFF control is performed, and FIG. 1 shows the relationship between time and temperature.

Assuming that the temperature of Med is 5℃ lower than the temperature of High, and the temperature of Low is about 5℃ lower, the microcontroller outputs the heater ON/OFF output to change the temperature of Med and Low as shown in Figure 1. Continue ON-OFF operation until drying is completed.

High, Med, and Low are classified based on exhaust temperature.
This temperature is a temperature value determined by approximately converting the average hot air temperature applied to the clothing to the exhaust temperature according to the temperature of the fibers of the clothing.

By the way, the humidity sensor turns on the heater.
It detects the point of OFF operation,
Since the relationship between sensor resistance and dryness is different between rated load and small load, this is classified based on the humidity sensor resistance value from the start to the initial process operation, and since the load amount is different, there is a difference in the temperature rise of the exhaust gas. Therefore, in this example,
Med for small load and rated load, respectively.
Low heater intermittent operation is performed.

The intermittent operation time of the heater varies depending on the rated load of the clothes dryer, heater input, expected temperature, etc., but the ON-OFF chart and overall flow chart of one embodiment of the present invention are shown in Section 7. Shown in Figure 8.

FIG. 9 shows a control circuit diagram.

The humidity sensor 16 also detects when it is time to turn the heater ON/OFF using PD1 to PD3, and outputs an intermittent operation output to the heater from the PG2 port, which is pre-installed in the software as shown in Figure 8. This is for controlling the heater of the invention.

18 is the power switch, 19 is the door switch, 2
0 is a tryout.

21 is a microcomputer used in this embodiment.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention includes a rotating drum,
A control circuit including a blower that blows air inside the rotating drum, a heater that heats the air from the rotating drum, a microcomputer that controls the operation of the blower and energization of the heater, and a control circuit that detects the humidity in the exhaust air from the rotating drum. In a clothes dryer control device that includes a humidity sensor that outputs a humidity signal to a microcomputer in the control circuit, the microcomputer in the control circuit transmits the humidity signal from the humidity sensor that detects changes in humidity from the start of operation to constant rate drying. Read it to determine the amount of load in the rotating drum to be dried,
A humidity sensor detects the humidity at a predetermined degree of dryness that has transitioned from constant rate drying to lapse rate drying, and a microcomputer in the control circuit reads this humidity signal to perform intermittent operation of the heater, and turns on this intermittent operation.
−OFF is time-controlled by a microcomputer,
The present invention is characterized in that the ON-OFF time is set to be different depending on the load amount of the load amount determination.

According to this configuration, the following advantages can be expected.

After reaching a predetermined degree of dryness, which is when the process shifts to lapse rate drying, the heater is operated intermittently by turning on and off, so that an appropriate finishing hot air temperature can be obtained for the clothes.

Since the ON/OFF time of the heater is made different depending on the amount of clothing loaded, it is possible to obtain a more appropriate finishing hot air temperature.

The structure is extremely simple because the determination of the load amount of the clothes and the determination of the predetermined degree of dryness after transition to lapse rate drying are performed using one humidity sensor and a microcomputer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the relationship between drying operation time and exhaust temperature during the heater ON-OFF cycle. FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the clothes dryer according to the present invention. Fig. 3 shows the display panel of the clothes dryer according to the present invention, and Figs. 4 to 6 show detailed diagrams of the time during drying operation and the relationship between exhaust temperature, dryness of clothes, and humidity sensor resistance value. It is a diagram. Figure 7 is a flowchart regarding heater ON-OFF operation, and Figure 8 is heater ON-OFF operation.
An example of an OFF chart. FIG. 9 is a circuit diagram of a dryer according to the present invention. 16... Humidity sensor, 17... Temperature adjustment thermostat, 10... Heater, 21... Microcomputer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A control circuit including a rotating drum, a blower that blows air in the rotating drum, a heater that heats the air blown from the rotating drum, and a microcomputer that controls the operation of the blower and the energization of the heater; In a clothes dryer control device that consists of a humidity sensor that detects the humidity in the exhaust air from a rotating drum and outputs a humidity signal to a microcomputer in the control circuit, it detects changes in humidity from the start of operation to constant rate drying. The humidity signal from the humidity sensor is read by a microcomputer in the control circuit to determine the amount of load in the rotating drum being dried, and the humidity sensor detects the humidity at a predetermined degree of dryness that has transitioned from constant rate drying to decreasing rate drying. This humidity signal is read by a microcomputer in the control circuit and the heater is operated intermittently.
ON-OFF is time-controlled by a microcomputer, and ON-OFF is determined according to the load amount determined above.
A control device for a clothes dryer characterized by setting different times.