JPH0426752B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a method for operating a coin-operated clothes dryer that sets the operating time according to the number of coins inserted.

(b) Conventional technology As a conventional example, a drying time is automatically set according to the amount of coins inserted, heating and drying is performed for that time, and then the drying time is extended by adding coins. A coin-operated clothes dryer that can do this is shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-90290 (G07F17/20).

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention In the conventional example, heating and drying is performed according to the amount of coins inserted, regardless of the amount of material to be dried.
For example, even if the amount of material to be dried is small and drying is completed quickly, heating is still continued and the heat may damage the fabric of the material to be dried.

Therefore, for example, it may be possible to detect the drying temperature using a temperature control thermostat, determine the end of heating drying, and automatically stop heating drying.

However, if you do this, for example,
Even though the user has set a drying time of 10 minutes by inserting a coin, the amount of material to be dried may be small and the drying time may stop after 5 minutes. There is a problem of disbelief that something is not being done.

The present invention relates to a method of operating a coin-operated clothes dryer and is intended to solve these problems.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The operating method of the coin-operated clothes dryer according to the present invention includes: a rotating drum that accommodates items to be dried; a heater and a fan that supply drying air to the rotating drum;
A timer that adds the operating time set according to the coins inserted, a heating drying control section that controls the heating drying process that changes depending on the load amount, and a cooling unit that controls the cool down process that stops the operation of the heater. a down stroke control section, a drum reversal control section that controls a drum reversal stroke that stops the operation of the heater and the fan, a display control section that displays the progress status of each of the above strokes, and the operation of the timer and each control section. Under the control of the main controller, the drying program consisting of the heating drying process, the cool-down process, and the drum reversing process is executed in sequence during the time set in the timer, and The above-mentioned problem is solved by newly executing the drying program from the heating drying process when an additional coin is accepted during the cool-down process or the drum reversal process.

(E) Effect During the drying program, heated air is supplied in the heating drying process, so this process contributes most to drying the material to be dried.

In other words, the drying process has almost finished, but if you end the drying operation at this point, if the heating drying process time is shorter than the time set by coin insertion, the coins will be used for the remaining time. Problems regarding compensation for inputs are likely to occur.

Therefore, for such a case, following the heating drying process, a cool down process and a drum reversal process are executed within the set time of the timer.
To visually notify a user that drying work has not been completed.

In addition, the length of the heating drying process varies depending on the amount of load within the time required for the drying program. For example, if the time required for the drying program set by inserting a coin is 60 minutes, there are times when the amount of load is low and times when it is high. Since the former dries more easily, the heating drying process takes less than 60 minutes.

In other words, when the load amount is small, drying ends quickly and the cool-down process and drum reversal process are performed for the remaining time.

The progress of the drying program is displayed from time to time, so in this case, the user can use the time required for the cool-down process and drum reversal process to be used for the next drying operation. By changing the place and inserting an additional coin, a time corresponding to the additional input is added, and a new drying program starts with the heating drying process.

(f) Example Hereinafter, an example in which a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as microcomputer) controls the entire operation of a gas-type clothes dryer with a rated capacity of 10 kg, which is often used in coin laundries, will be explained based on the drawings.

In Figures 3 and 4, 1 is the body of a clothes dryer that can be used alone or in parallel, and a direct ignition type gas burner 2 and a combustion chamber 3 (heater) are installed on the top of the machine. A horizontal axis type rotary drum 4 is installed in the lower middle stage, and a horizontal filter 5 and an exhaust fan 6 are installed in the lower part. The fuselage 1 is provided with an air supply port 7 on the top that supplies combustion air from the side to the gas burner 2, an exhaust pipe 8 protruding from the back of the bottom, and a microcomputer 9 and other devices on the front of the top. electronic control system,
An operation panel 10 incorporating various switches, a coin slot, and a display is provided.

The fan 6 is driven by a fan motor 11, sucks combustion air from an air supply port 7, supplies it to the gas burner 2, causes the generated drying air to flow down the rotary drum 4, the filter 5 in that order, and passes it through the exhaust pipe. Discharge from 8. The exhaust pipe 8 is, for example, a shared duct 12.
The length of the exhaust path is specified within 20m, and the air volume by fan 6 is set between 10.5m ³ /min and 17m ³ /min.
The range is min.

The rotating drum 4 is driven in reverse at a low speed by a drum motor 13. Further, a door 14 for opening and closing the rotating drum 4 and the clothing entrance of the machine body 1 is provided on the front surface of the machine body 1, and the opening and closing of the door 14 can be detected by a door switch 15.

A temperature control thermostat 16 (temperature detection means) is provided between the rotating drum 4 and the filter 5 to detect the temperature of the drying air.
has been established. In addition, a superheat prevention thermometer A17 is installed on the side of the combustion chamber 3, and a superheat prevention thermometer B1 is installed on the top.
Normally, the thermo B18 does not operate because the flame of the gas burner 2 is slightly tilted by the air flow, but is operated when the air flow rate decreases and the flame starts to rise.

Next, referring to the control block diagram of FIG. 1, the microcomputer 9 includes a power supply circuit 19, a clock oscillation circuit 20, a reset circuit 21, a power failure detection circuit
2 and a backup detection circuit 23 for memory retention in the event of a power outage, and output to a load drive circuit 24 and a display 25 such as a 7-segment numeric display tube or LED. Furthermore, the microcomputer 9 receives coins inserted in order to control the operation in this embodiment.
coin switch circuit 26 operated by a card, etc.), door switch 15, manual reset switch 27, automatic control operation in this embodiment, or heating drying operation for a time corresponding to the number of coins inserted as in the conventional case. A plurality of deep switches 28 (provided on the circuit board) that allow the owner to manually select the
The information is input from the thermostat B18, and the ignition information for the gas burner 2 and the power information for the intermittent temperature control thermostat 16 are inputted.

The load drive circuit 24 includes a fan motor 11, a drum motor 13, a drive indicator light 29, a buzzer 30,
A totalizer 31 for counting the total number of coins inserted is connected, and a gas igniter 32 is connected via a temperature control thermostat 16, and a gas valve 33 is further connected to this via a thermostat A17.

Note that the above ignition information indicates that the gas ignition device 32 supplies gas to the gas burner 2. That is, the configuration is based on the fact that the gas valve 33 is open.

Next, the gas-type clothes dryer of this embodiment proceeds with operation in the order of heating drying, cooling down, drum reversal, and soft wrinkle (wrinkle prevention), and this is controlled by the microcomputer 9. This will be explained based on the figure and the flowcharts in FIGS. 2A and 2B. The main control unit 34 outputs control signals to each control unit based on the data stored in the ROM 35 and various input signals, and determines the initial state after the power is turned on. According to the signal from RAM36
After clearing the stored data, the exhaust processing flag is first set, and the operating time corresponding to the number of coins inserted is set in the operating time timer 37, and the display controller 38 digitally displays the operating time on the display 25.

The main control unit 34 displays the remaining time on the display 25 every minute, and if there is an operating time and the temperature control match flag is not set before the cool-down process, the main control unit 34 determines the exhaust treatment flag (see the figure). ). and,
Here, the load drive circuit 2 is controlled by the exhaust treatment control section 39.
4 to output a drive signal to the fan motor 11,
Execute a so-called prepurge. This exhaust time is measured for about 15 seconds by the exhaust time timer 40, and since the temperature control thermostat 16 is ON, the exhaust processing flag is then turned off and heating drying using hot air is started. For this heating drying, the heating drying control section 41 ignites and burns the gas burner 2, inverts the drum 4, and
This is to drive the fan 6.

Therefore, the main control unit 34 controls the temperature control thermostat 16 every time the temperature of the dry air after passing through the drum 4 reaches 70°C.
The number of times the gas burner 2 is turned off and the gas burner 2 is stopped, that is, the number of times the gas burner 2 is turned off, is counted by the number of intermittent times counter 42, and each time it is counted, the deep switch 28 is
Comparing and determining the number of times with one of the reference times that is freely set and stored in advance. The standard number of times in this example is 6 times in spring and autumn, 5 times in summer, and 7 times in winter.
It is desirable to set the number of times, but as mentioned above, the owner can freely set the number between 1 and 15.

In this way, each time the exhaust treatment flag is set until the match is made, the gas burner 2 is turned on and the temperature control thermostat 16 is turned on.
It is intermittently burnt with OFF, and heat drying at about 70℃ progresses. If the content of the intermittent number counter 42 matches the reference number within that time, the main control unit 34 sets a temperature control match flag and an exhaust processing flag based on this match signal, and performs time control using a predetermined timer, a 5-minute timer 43 in the embodiment. Do this. In this way, the arrival of the 5-minute time control range after the temperature control match flag is raised can be known by the short-term intermittent activation of the buzzer 30 by the buzzer control unit 44, and the digital display on the display 25 is slow. You can tell by blinking at the same time. The drying rate at this time is about 88% at the rated load and about 97% at a small load of about 2.5 kg, and loads of about 5 kg or less can be removed at this point.

In this way, even during the 5-minute time control, the temperature control thermostat 16 is intermittently operated, heating and drying progresses, and when 5 minutes have elapsed, the drying rate is
The drying rate reaches 100%, and under the rated load, the drying rate reaches approximately 93% after 3 intermittent drying cycles.

Due to the time-up of the 5-minute timer 43, the main control unit 34 which received the timer output erases the temperature control match flag, sets a cool-down flag (stroke flag), shifts to the cool-down process, and displays the remaining time on the digital display 25. “CD” is displayed instead of the time display. In this cool down, the cool down control section 45 stops combustion in the gas burner 2 and drives the drum 4 and fan 6.

After the cool-down process is completed, the drum reversal control section 46 sets a drum reversal flag that also stops the drive of the fan motor 11, and continues the drum reversal process until the operating time timer 37 times up. This drum reversal process normally moves the dry material that is still warm even after cooling down to prevent it from wrinkling, and is usually not particularly necessary and only takes about 5 minutes at most, but it can be done during operation. By continuing this operation without stopping during the remaining time, the user can demonstrate that the machine is operating according to the number of coins inserted.

However, in this drum reversal process, the main control section 34 restores the remaining time display on the digital display 25 and at the same time adds a colon display to inform that heating drying is possible within the remaining time.

When the time secured by the inserted coin has elapsed, the main control unit 34 operates the buzzer 30 to correspond to "end", sets up the soft wrinkle flag, and displays the time zero while increasing the soft wrinkle stroke up to 2 times. Run time. What is this soft wrinkle?
The soft wrinkle control unit 47 rotates the drum for 10 seconds every minute in order to prevent wrinkles from forming before the dried material is taken out. The owner can eliminate the soft wrinkle stroke by operating one of the deep switches 28.

The above work description is for the normal case where sufficient time is secured by inserting coins to complete the drum reversal process, but the flowchart in Figure 2B (see figure 2) also applies when the number of coins inserted is small. is shown. First, if time passes during the cool-down process, complete the cool-down process before transitioning to soft wrinkles. Next, when the time reaches zero in the time control range by the 5-minute timer 43, the process immediately shifts to the cool-down process (see the figure), and then automatically shifts to the soft wrinkle process. The same is true when the temperature control thermostat 16 reaches zero time during the heating drying process, which is intermittent even once. However, if the temperature control thermostat 16 does not intermittent even once, that is, the time reaches zero without increasing the temperature to approximately 70℃ (when the number of coins inserted is small or the load is large), a cool-down is necessary. Since there is no wrinkle, it immediately shifts to soft wrinkle (see figure). During this time, the display 25 indicates the time zero, and the buzzer 30 operates at the time zero.

Here, if the number of coins inserted is found to be small, the user inserts additional coins. Main control section 3
4 processes the additional input signal from the coin switch circuit 26 by determining whether the operating time is in a zero state. If it is zero, it is as described above, but if it is already in operation (with time), the process is changed depending on which stroke it is. In other words, if the cool-down process or drum reversal process is progressing, all other data except the data for extending the operating time due to additional coin insertion are cleared, the exhaust treatment flag is set, and the operation is started for the new operating time based on the extended data. The timer timer 37 is reset. Therefore, the main control unit 34 restarts the operation from the heating drying process. On the other hand, if it is in the heating drying process,
The new operating time based on the extension data is reset to the operating time timer 37, and the temperature control match flag and intermittent frequency counter are cleared. Therefore, in this case, the main control section 34 causes the heating drying operation to be performed for a long time (see FIG. 2A). The former corresponds to when the items to be dried are replaced, and the latter corresponds to when additional items to be dried are added during operation, and in both cases, the door 14 is opened once.

The door 14 may be opened in the middle of the drying process in order to check the degree of drying of the material to be dried. In this case, by inputting the activation signal of the door switch 15,
The main control section 34 causes the door opening/closing control section 48 to stop all output, clears the intermittent frequency counter 42, the temperature control coincidence flag, and the drum rotation flag, and sets the exhaust processing flag. In the heating drying process, to compensate for the temperature drop inside the drum 4 due to the opening of the door 14, the heating drying is restarted from the beginning, and in the drum reversal process, the finished drying material is taken out and other drying materials are removed even if only for the remaining time. This means that in order to dry the object, heating and drying is started from the beginning (see the figure). However, if the door 14 is opened during the cool-down process, the remaining cool-down process continues when the door 14 is closed again unless an additional coin is inserted at the same time.

(G) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, the user can use the operating time based on the coins he has inserted by looking at the itinerary display, and if the user has no intention, he can use the operating time for the occupied time only. By indicating execution by reversing the drum, it is possible to eliminate the trouble of returning coins and to prevent wrinkles from forming on the dried material. Therefore, it is possible to provide a coin-operated clothes dryer that is very easy to use for the user and easy to manage for the owner.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of a dryer according to the present invention, FIGS. 2A and 2B are flowcharts for explaining the operation, FIG. 3 is a front sectional view, and FIG. 4 is a side sectional view. 2... Gas burner (heater), 4... Rotating drum, 6... Fan, 9... Microcomputer, 16... Temperature control thermometer (temperature detection means), 25... Display, 2
6... Coin switch circuit, 34... Main control section,
37... Operating time timer, 38... Display control unit,
41... Heating drying control unit, 42... Intermittent frequency counter (CTN), 43... Predetermined time (5 minutes) timer, 45... Cool down control unit, 46... Drum reversal control unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rotating drum that accommodates the material to be dried, a heater and a fan that supplies drying air to the rotating drum,
A timer that adds the operating time set according to the coins inserted, a heating drying control section that controls the heating drying process that changes depending on the load amount, and a cooling unit that controls the cool down process that stops the operation of the heater. a down stroke control section, a drum reversal control section that controls a drum reversal stroke that stops the operation of the heater and the fan, a display control section that displays the progress status of each of the above strokes, and the operation of the timer and each control section. Under the control of the main controller, the drying program consisting of the heating drying process, the cool-down process, and the drum reversing process is executed in sequence during the time set in the timer, and A method for operating a coin-operated clothes dryer, characterized in that when an additional coin is accepted during execution of a cool-down process or a drum reversal process, the above-mentioned drying program is newly executed from a heating drying process.