JPH07112096A - Gas clothes dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To determine whether the filter is clogged or the exhaust pipe is extended. [Structure] The motor 15 that drives the exhaust fan 14 can change the number of rotations. The control device 1 temporarily reduces the rotation of the exhaust fan when determining whether the exhaust air volume is less than or equal to a predetermined value and the cause is clogging of the filter or extension of the exhaust pipe. Then, the decrease amount of the exhaust air volume is detected, and when the decrease amount is large, it is determined that the exhaust pipe has been lengthened, and when the decrease amount is small, it is determined that the filter is clogged. As a result of the judgment, take appropriate action.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gas clothes dryer for drying clothes using gas, and more particularly to a gas clothes dryer which prevents overheating of clothes due to clogging of a filter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A gas clothes dryer is a device for applying a combustion gas obtained by burning gas to clothes containing moisture immediately after washing to dry them in a short time. 4 and 5 show an example of the gas clothes dryer. The entire structure of the gas clothes dryer 50 has a door 4 on the front surface, a switch board 5 having switches arranged below the door 4, a cylindrical drum 6, a motor 8 for rotating the drum 6, And combustion device 10
And the like, and the exhaust pipe 40 is installed in the rear.

The door 4 is attached so as to be openable and closable, and wet clothes can be put into the drum 6 from here. The drum 6 is rotatably provided with its center axis lying sideways, and is connected to the rotation axis of a motor 8 installed below through a belt 11 so as to be rotationally driven. The front side of the drum 6 is opened as an opening 20 and slidably contacts a front plate 12 installed slightly behind the door 4. An exhaust port 22 is formed and opened at the rear side of the drum 6, that is, at the bottom, a filter 24 is detachably attached, and the center is rotatably supported by a support portion 26.

Further behind the drum 6, an exhaust duct 28 connected to an exhaust pipe 40 is provided. The exhaust duct 28 is slidably attached to the drum 6,
An exhaust fan 14 is provided inside. Exhaust fan 1
4 is connected to the rotary shaft of the motor 8 via the belt 13 like the drum 6, and when driven, sucks the air in the drum 6 and exhausts it from the exhaust pipe 40 through the exhaust duct 28. .

The combustion device 10 includes a burner 30 and a burner 30.
It is composed of an adjusting means 16 for adjusting the amount of gas supplied to the drum, an introducing passage 32 for guiding the combustion gas, etc., and is arranged below the drum 6, and an air intake port 21 is formed below the combustion device 10. ing. The leading end of the introduction passage 32 is fixed to the front plate 12, and the drum 6 is inserted through the front plate 12.
Communicates with the inside of.

The introduction passage 32 is provided with a combustion exhaust gas outlet temperature sensor S1 for measuring the temperature of the combustion gas, the front plate 12 is provided with a clothes temperature sensor S2 for measuring the temperature of the clothes in the drum 6, and a humidity of the clothes. The humidity sensor S3 for measurement and the exhaust duct 28 are provided with various sensors such as an exhaust temperature sensor S4 for measuring exhaust temperature.

Next, the operation of the gas clothes dryer 50 will be described. When wet clothes are put in the drum 6 and the operation button is turned on, the motor 8 operates to rotate the drum 6 and the exhaust fan 14, and the combustion device 10 operates to burn the gas. Combustion gas flows from the introduction passage 32 to the drum 6
After entering the inside, the temperature of the clothes is raised to evaporate the attached moisture, and the clothes are exhausted from the exhaust pipe 40. In this way, the clothes are dried by the combustion gas. Then, the lint and the like contained in the exhaust gas are removed by the filter, and when the filter is clogged to the limit, the rise in the temperature of the blown-out gas of the combustion gas is sensed and a replacement warning is issued.

[0008]

However, in the conventional clothes dryer, only the warning that the filter is clogged is issued and the user can continue to use the filter even when the user does not actually replace or clean the filter. There was a risk that clothing would be damaged due to overheating of clothing temperature.

Further, the exhaust pipe connected to the gas clothes dryer may be long depending on the installation conditions and the like. In this case, exhaust resistance increases due to the exhaust pipe, and the blowing temperature may rise in the same manner as when the filter is clogged. Therefore,
There was a problem that a filter replacement warning was issued even when the filter was slightly clogged.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to accurately distinguish the clogging of the filter from the increase in resistance due to the increase in the length of the exhaust pipe so that appropriate measures can be taken.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a rotating drum which accommodates clothes therein and rotates, and a combustion device in which a combustion gas introducing passage is opened in a front surface of the rotating drum, A gas clothes dryer having an exhaust fan provided on a rear surface of the drum for exhausting evaporated water to the outside through an exhaust pipe, a drum motor for driving the drum, a fan motor for driving the exhaust fan, and an exhaust gas. And an exhaust airflow sensor that detects the airflow of the exhaust fan, and reduces the rotational speed of the exhaust fan by a predetermined amount when the detected exhaust airflow is less than or equal to a predetermined value. When this value is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, it is determined that the exhaust pipe has been increased, and on the other hand, when the air flow difference is equal to or less than the predetermined value, it is determined that the filter is clogged. Than it was forming a scan dryer.

[0012]

[Function] When the rotation speed of the exhaust fan is reduced, if the ventilation resistance is large because the exhaust pipe is long, the change in the air volume is large. Therefore, it is detected that the change is large and the exhaust pipe is long. Can be determined. On the other hand, when the filter is clogged, there is little change, and it can be determined that the filter is clogged. When it is determined that the exhaust pipe is long, a predetermined air volume is obtained by increasing the rotation speed of the exhaust fan according to the resistance value. On the other hand, when the filter is clogged, the operation can be continued as it is, and when the air volume decreases to the limit value, the operation can be stopped to prevent the clothing from overheating.

[0013]

EXAMPLE An example of the gas clothes dryer of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The mechanism of the gas clothes dryer is almost the same as that of the conventional example shown in FIG. 5 etc., but as shown in FIG. 1, the gas clothes dryer 2 is provided with a controller 1.
And a motor 7 for rotating the drum 6, and an exhaust fan 14
The difference is that the motors 15 for rotating the motors are separately provided.

The control device 1 is connected to the switches of the switch board 5, the motor 7, the motor 15, the adjusting means 16, the combustion exhaust gas blowout temperature sensor S1 and other sensors, and based on signals from the switches and sensors, Control. The motor 7 and the motor 15 are installed below the drum 6, the motor 7 is connected to the drum 6 via the belt 11, and the motor 15 is connected to the exhaust fan 14 via the belt 13. The motor 15 can change the number of rotations.

Further, the control device 1 performs the overall control as described above, and at the same time, the combustion exhaust gas blowing temperature sensor S1.
Based on the measured value of the combustion gas temperature from the filter 24
The state of clogging of the exhaust duct 28
An exhaust air flow sensor S5 installed inside the exhaust pipe 4
It has a function of distinguishing that 0 is increased and clogging of the filter 24. Further, when it is determined that the increase of the ventilation resistance is due to the increase of the exhaust pipe 40, the rotation speed of the exhaust fan 14 is increased so as to offset the increase of the ventilation resistance due to the increase of the exhaust resistance.

Next, an actual determination method by the gas clothes dryer 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When the operation button is turned on and the operation is started, the gas is burned at the rated output in the combustion device 10,
Moreover, the motor 7 rotates and the drum 6 rotates. Further, the fan motor 15 is driven and the exhaust fan 14 is rotated at a predetermined number of revolutions (F-1) to introduce the combustion gas into the drum 6 and discharge it from the exhaust pipe 40. Since the combustion gas is applied to the clothes in the drum 6 while being rotated,
It is heated in sequence and the water is evaporated.

Next, the exhaust air flow rate sensor S5 inputs the exhaust air flow rate f1 (F-2), and it is determined whether this f1 is less than or equal to a specified value α (F-3). If f1 is not less than or equal to the specified value, it is determined to be normal operation, and the process ends. On the other hand, when it is below the specified value α, it is compared with the limit value Y at F-4, and when it is below Y, it is judged as an abnormal situation where the air volume as an absolute amount is insufficient (F-12). , Issues a warning and stops the operation (F-13).

On the other hand, when f1 is not below the limit value Y, the routine proceeds to F-5, the rotation speed of the motor 15 is reduced, and the air volume f2 of the exhaust gas at that time is measured (F-
6). Then, f1 and f2 are substituted into the formula f1-f2 = A, and the difference A is obtained (F-7). Next, let A be the specified value β
(F-8), and if larger than β, exhaust pipe 40
Is determined to be long (F-10), the ventilation resistance of the exhaust pipe 40 is calculated, and the rotation speed of the motor 15 is rated by a predetermined amount based on the calculated value so that a normal air flow can be obtained. Increase above the number (F-11). Also, at F-8,
When A is not larger than β, it is determined that the filter 24 is closed.

FIG. 3 shows the experimental results on the relationship between the rotational speed and the air volume. The vertical axis of the graph is the exhaust air volume, and the horizontal axis is the rotation speed of the exhaust fan 14. In the graph, A is the standard length of the exhaust pipe 40, and the filter 24 is not clogged, B is the exhaust pipe 40 is extended, and C is the standard, the exhaust pipe 40 is standard. In terms of length, when the filter 24 is clogged, D is an experimental result when the exhaust pipe 40 is extended and the filter 24 is clogged.

Therefore, when the exhaust air volume f1 does not reach the limit value Y but is equal to or less than the specified value α, it is assumed that the filter 24 is closed or the exhaust resistance is large. When the rotational speed of 14 is decreased and the change in the air volume at that time is small, it can be determined that the filter 24 is clogged, and when the change is large, the exhaust pipe 40
Can be determined to be longer than the standard setting. Therefore, in each case, when the exhaust pipe 40 has a long total length, the rotation speed of the exhaust fan 14 is increased to obtain a standard air volume, and the filter is used. If it is determined that the filter 24 is clogged, the operation is continued until the limit of the air volume is reached, and when the limit is reached, it can be reliably determined that the filter 24 is clogged, so the operation can be stopped.

As described above, according to the clothes dryer of this embodiment, when the exhaust air volume is reduced by a predetermined amount, whether the reduction of the air volume is due to the clogging of the filter 24 or the filter is No abnormality in 24, exhaust pipe 4
Since it is possible to identify whether the installation length of 0 is due to a long installation time and take appropriate measures according to each, even though the filter 24 is not so clogged, a warning for filter replacement is issued. Or filter 24
Since it is not possible to make a reliable judgment even if the clothes are blocked, there is no possibility that the means for stopping the operation cannot be adopted and the clothes are overheated.

In the above embodiment, when the length of the exhaust pipe 40 is long, the rotation speed of the exhaust fan 14 is increased to increase the air volume, but the present invention is not limited to this. Alternatively, the gas supply amount may be reduced to maintain the clothing temperature at a predetermined value.

Further, when detecting clogging of the filter 24, the value of the combustion gas blowing temperature may be used together.

[0026]

According to the clothes dryer of the present invention, when the air volume is above the limit value and below the specified value, the rotation speed of the exhaust fan is temporarily reduced to detect the change amount of the air volume at that time. If the amount of change is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, it can be determined that the length of the exhaust pipe is long, and it is possible to adopt a different measure from that when the filter is clogged.On the other hand, when the filter is clogged, the amount of change is Since it can be reliably determined to be clogged by doing so small, take measures such as operating up to the limit of clogging and stopping the operation when the limit value is reached,
It is possible to prevent overheating of clothes due to filter clogging.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a gas clothes dryer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a gas clothes dryer according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the rotation speed and the air volume.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a gas clothes dryer.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a conventional gas clothes dryer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Control Device 2 Gas Cloth Dryer 4 Door 5 Switch Board 6 Drum 7, 8, 15 Motor 10 Combustor 11, 13 Belt 12 Front Plate 14 Exhaust Fan 16 Adjusting Means 20 Opening 22 Exhaust 24 Filter 26 Support 28 Exhaust Duct 30 Burner 32 Introduction passage 40 Exhaust pipe

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rotary drum which accommodates clothes therein and rotates, a combustion device having a combustion gas introduction passage opened at a front surface of the rotary drum, and an evaporated water content provided on a rear surface of the drum through an exhaust pipe to the outside. In a gas clothes dryer for drying clothes by gas combustion air, the exhaust motor includes a drum motor for driving the drum, a fan motor for driving the exhaust fan, and an exhaust gas for detecting an exhaust air volume. When the detected air volume of the exhaust gas is less than or equal to a predetermined value, the rotation speed of the exhaust fan is reduced by a predetermined amount, and the difference between the reduced air volume and the air volume before the reduction is calculated, and the difference A gas having a control means for judging that the exhaust pipe has been lengthened when the value is equal to or more than the value, and determining that the filter is clogged when the difference in air volume is less than or equal to a predetermined value. Clothes dryer.