JPH0549782A - Fully automatic washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] When the product falls into the foam restraint state, the intermediate dehydration step is stopped and the rinse step is performed instead of the next rinse step, instead of the rinse step. .. [Structure] When the dehydration tank 2 falls into a foam restraint state, the intermediate dehydration step is stopped and the foam restraint correction step is performed to diffuse the foam. For example, a foam restraint correction process having a cloth piece deviation correction process for correcting unbalance is provided. If the foam restraint is not eliminated even after the foam restraint correction step is performed a predetermined number of times, a notification means is provided to notify the user of that fact.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control method for a fully automatic washing machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a fully automatic washing machine of this type, as disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 3-11240, does the rotation speed of the dehydration tub during intermediate dehydration rise to a predetermined rotation speed within a predetermined time? If it does not reach the specified number of rotations, it is judged that the dehydration tub has fallen into the foam restraint state, the intermediate dehydration process is stopped, the process moves to the next rinsing process, and the bubbles are diffused by water supply. Efforts are being made to eliminate bubble restraint. Then, during rinsing, the turbidity change of water is optically detected, the rinsing condition is automatically determined, and the rinsing step is ended. Further, in a fully automatic washing machine in which the rinsing process is time-controlled, the intermediate dehydration is stopped midway and the process proceeds to the next rinsing process.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-11240
In the above, although it is said that there is a concern of insufficient rinsing due to the suspension of the intermediate dehydration step, it hardly causes a problem in reality, but in our experimental results, when the foam was restrained, it was more than usual. Fine bubbles are generated and the same or more times of rinsing as usual is required.

Particularly, in a time-controlled fully automatic washing machine that does not have a turbidity detector for detecting changes in the turbidity of water, when the foam is restrained, it is stopped during the first intermediate dehydration step. The squeezing due to the dehydration of the washing water and the diffusion of bubbles due to the rinsing were insufficient once, resulting in insufficient rinsing.

Further, the imbalance of the laundry during dehydration has also been a cause of facilitation of foaming due to vibration, which makes it easier to restrain the foam.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] Each step such as washing, intermediate dehydration and rinsing is automatically executed sequentially according to a predetermined program, and the rotational speed of the dehydration tank is detected during the intermediate dehydration, and the rotational speed is measured after the motor is driven. , If it does not reach a predetermined value within a certain time, it is determined that the dehydration tank has fallen into a foam restraint state, the intermediate dehydration step of the main program that is being executed is stopped, and after shifting to the foam restraint correction step, again. The process is shifted to the intermediate dehydration step of the main program.

If the bubble restraint is not eliminated even after the bubble restraint correction process is performed a predetermined number of times, the operation is stopped and an alarm or display is issued. And during the bubble restraint correction process,
Provide a correction process for shifting the cloth.

[0008]

The rotation speed of the dehydration tank is detected, and when the rotation speed does not reach the predetermined value within a certain period of time, it is determined that the dehydration tank has fallen into the foam restraint state, and the intermediate dehydration process of the main program being executed is executed. The operation is stopped, and the process moves to the foam restraint correction process, water is supplied to the same water level as when washing, and a rinsing process is performed to dissolve and diffuse the foam between the water tank and the dehydration tank in water.

Further, during drainage, the water level is lowered to one step below the washing water level, and the pulsator is moved in small steps to correct the deviation of the cloth.

Then, the process is returned to the originally stopped intermediate dehydration process, and thereafter the operation is performed according to the initially set program.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described in detail below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control system of a fully automatic washing machine in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are also flowcharts.

1 is a water tank, 2 is a dehydration tank which doubles as a washing tank,
A large number of holes 2a are formed in the peripheral side wall. 3 is a pulsator, 4 is a water supply hose, 5 is a water supply valve, 6 is a water supply valve control unit,
7 is a drain hose, 8 is a drain valve, 9 is a drain valve controller, 10
Is a pressure pipe, 11 is a water level detector, 12 is a motor, 13
Is a motor control unit, 14 is a motor pulley, 15 is a pulley belt, 16 is a center pulley, 17 is a mechanical box having a built-in brake, clutch and speed mechanism, 18 is a pulse generator mounted on the same shaft as the center pulley 16, and 19 is In the rotation speed detection unit that detects the rotation speed from the output signal of the pulse generator 18, the rotation speed detection device is formed by the pulse generator 18 and the rotation speed detection unit 19. An outer box 20 houses the water tank 1, the control unit and the like. Reference numeral 21 is an unbalance detector for detecting an imbalance caused by a deviation of the cloth during dehydration. Reference numeral 22 is a sequence controller mainly composed of a microcomputer.

In the above structure, during the washing process, the water level information in the tank is given as pressure to the water level detector 11 through the pressure guiding pipe 10. When the sequence control unit 22 determines that the washing process is completed, the sequence control unit 22 turns off the output to the motor control unit 13 and stops the motor.

The rotation of the motor 12 is transmitted to the mechanical box 17 by the motor pulley 14, the pulley belt 15 and the center pulley 16. Due to the function of the clutch mechanism built in the mechanical box 17, only the pulsator 3 rotates during the washing / rinsing process, and the pulsator 3 and the dehydration tub 2 rotate in the same direction during the dehydration process. That is, when the motor 12 is stopped at the end of the washing process, the pulsator 3 stops. After stopping the motor, the counter of the microcomputer 22 is set to M = 0. Then, an ON signal is output to the drain valve control unit 9, the drain valve 8 is opened, and the water in the tank is drained through the drain hose 7. The water level detector 11 detects the completion of drainage, and the signal is sent to the sequence controller 2
When it is transmitted to 2, the ON signal to the motor control unit 13 enters,
The motor 12 is driven. The rotation of the motor 12 leads to the rotation of the dehydration tank 2 and the pulsator 3 from the center pulley 16 by the action of the clutch mechanism built in the mechanical box 17. That is, the spin-drying tank 2 rotates and centrifugal force causes
Intermediate dehydration begins, squeezing out the water contained in the laundry. At the same time, the sequence controller 22 starts counting the intermediate dehydration time t. Normally, 1 in the condition that no foam restraint occurs.
The rotation speed of the dehydration tank 2 rises to a high-speed rotation within 0 seconds.

On the other hand, in the bubble-restricted state, the dehydration tub 2 only rotates slowly, and never rotates at high speed. The relationship between the elapsed time and the rotation speed is shown in FIG. Therefore, when the intermediate dehydration time t reaches a predetermined time t ₁ ,
The presence or absence of bubble restraint can be detected by detecting the rotation speed N of the dehydration tub 2 from the output of the rotation speed detection unit 19 and comparing it with a predetermined rotation speed N ₁ .

The number of rotations of the motor is n ₁ , and the motor pulley 14
And the pulley ratio of the center pulley 16 is P ₁ and the number of magnetic poles of the pulse generator 18 is P ₂ , the center pulley 1
The rotation speed of _No. 6 is represented by n ₁ × P ₁ , and the rotation speed N of the dehydration tank 2 is also represented by N = n ₁ × P ₁ . Since the number of output pulses P ₃ of the pulse generator 18 is equal to the number of rotations of the center pulley 16 times P ₂ , P ₃ = n ₁ × P ₁ × P ₂ = N × P _{2 and} the output pulse of the pulse generator 18 becomes The relationship between the number of rotations and the number of rotations of the dehydration tank 2 is represented by P ₃ = N × P ₂ , and when the number of rotations N of the dehydration tank 2 normally rises to a predetermined number of rotations N ₁ or more, a predetermined intermediate dehydration is performed. The intermediate dehydration is continued until the time t ₂ , and the driving of the motor 12 is stopped. The dehydration tank 2 that was rotating at high speed is inertially rotated. When the inertial dehydration time t ′ is counted by the sequence control unit 22 and when a predetermined time t ₃ is reached, an OFF signal is output to the drain valve control unit 9 to close the drain valve 8, and the brake mechanism built in the mechanical box 17 causes The dehydration tank 2 is stopped. Then, an ON signal is output to the water supply valve control unit 6 to open the water supply valve 5 and perform water supply for the first rinse.

On the other hand, when the bubble restrained state is detected, that is, N
<N _{1 is} reached and the process moves to the bubble restraint correction process. Since the rotation of the dehydration tank 2 is very slow, there is almost no inertial rotation, and the drive of the motor 12 is stopped. When the inertial dehydration time t ′ = t ₃ is reached, the drain valve 8 is closed and the brake mechanism is activated. Then, the dehydration tank 2 is stopped.

Then, the calculation M = M + 1 is performed in the microcomputer 22 (M = 1 is input because M = 0 is reset when the motor is stopped). M counts the number of shifts to the foam restraint correction process, and if the preset number of foam restraint correction process shifts M ₁ (M ₁ = 2 in the embodiment) is M <M ₁ , the water supply valve 5 is opened. Supply water for the first rinse.

When the water supply starts, the bubbles gathered between the water tank 1 and the dehydration tank 2 when the foam is restrained are in the holes 2 on the side wall of the dehydration tank.
It returns to the dehydration tank 2 through a, dissolves in water and diffuses while returning. When water is supplied to the predetermined water level in the foam diffusion process, the foam diffusion process is operated for t ₆ hours (basically, the motor is driven similarly to the washing process, but the water flow is set to easily diffuse the foam into water).

Next, the cloth shift correction step (the water level is one step below the water level in the foam diffusion step, the motor drive is operated in small steps. For example, 0.5 seconds of right rotation-0.5 seconds of stop-left rotation of 0.
After correcting the unevenness of the cloth by doing (for 5 seconds), return to the original main program and repeat the rinsing I process again. Then, when the intermediate dewatering is performed again, if the rotation speed N is N ≧ N ₁ , the motor 12 is stopped after a predetermined time t _{2 has} elapsed, the drain valve 8 is closed, water is supplied, and the main program is sequentially executed according to the following procedure. To drive.

However, in the above-mentioned case, when the rotational speed N is N <N ₁ , the motor drive is stopped when the bubble restriction is detected again, the drain valve 8 is closed after the inertia time t ′ = t ₃ , and the microcomputer 22 The counter is M = 1 + 1 by the calculation of M = M + 1.
(Because M = 1 when the first bubble restraint correction chart was entered), M = 2 was substituted (M in advance.
₁ = 2), M ≧ M ₁ , and an alarm display is displayed on the display unit (not shown) of the washing machine main body, and an operation such as issuing an alarm is stopped to stop the operation.

As described above, by predetermining the number of times M ₁ of shifting to the foam restraint correction from the usage situation of the washing machine and various experimental results, it is possible to prevent the shift to the foam restraint correction process more than necessary. It is possible to prevent wasteful use of water and electricity and display a warning because the detergent is used too much.

When an abnormal vibration of the water tank occurs due to the imbalance caused by the unevenness of the cloth at the time of dehydration, an unbalance detector 21 for detecting the magnitude of the amplitude is provided, and when the imbalance is detected, Stop the dehydration process of the main program and move to the separately provided process, and
Stop, close the drain valve, supply water and rinse,
In a washing machine provided with a control method for shifting to the cloth piece deviation correcting step and returning to the dehydration step of the main program again, the unbalance correcting step may be used for the foam constraint correcting step. In this case, the same program in the microcomputer 22 can be used for processing, which is advantageous in terms of memory capacity and can be inexpensive.

[0024]

As described above, according to the control method of the present invention,
When the dehydration tank falls into the foam restraint state during the intermediate dehydration, the intermediate dehydration step is stopped, the foam restraint correction step is performed, and after the foam is diffused, rinsing is performed a number of times according to a predetermined main program, Insufficient rinsing when the conventional rinsing process of the next stage is performed is solved.

In addition, the number of times is set in advance in the bubble restraint correction process, and when the bubble restraint is not resolved within the set number of times, the operation is stopped and an alarm or display notification means is provided. In addition to notifying the user, it is possible to prevent unnecessary waste of water and electricity by repeating the extra correction process.
Forcibly, the user can be informed of the excessive use of the detergent.

Further, by including a cloth shift correction step in the foam restraint correction step, when the intermediate dehydration is performed again after the foam restraint, the promotion of foaming due to the imbalance caused by the cloth shift is reduced, and the foam restraint is again performed. Can be prevented.

Since the bubble restraint correction process of the present invention can be provided without using a special turbidity detector or other rinsing degree detecting device, there is also an advantage that the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control system of a fully automatic washing machine in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is likewise a flowchart showing the steps from the washing process to the stop of operation.

[Z3] It is also a continuation of the flowchart of FIG.

FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the elapsed time during intermediate dehydration and the rotation speed of the dehydration tank.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Water tank 2 Dehydration tank 12 Motor 18 Pulse generator 19 Rotation speed detection unit 21 Unbalance detection device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A detection means for automatically performing the washing, intermediate dehydration, rinsing and other steps sequentially in accordance with a predetermined program to detect the rotation speed of the dehydration tank in the intermediate dehydration step, and the rotation speed is constant after driving the motor. In a fully automatic washing machine equipped with a determination means for determining whether or not a predetermined value is reached within a time period, if the dehydration tub does not reach the predetermined value, it is determined that a foam restraint state has occurred and the main running A fully automatic washing machine, characterized by further comprising a foam restraint correction step of stopping the intermediate dehydration step of the program and shifting to the intermediate dehydration step of the main program again. 2. The operation stopping means for stopping the operation and the notifying means when the foam constraint is not resolved even after the foam constraint correcting step is performed a predetermined number of times, and the notifying means is provided. Fully automatic washing machine. 3. The fully automatic washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the foam restraint correction step is provided with a cloth piece deviation correction step.