Patent ID: 8863400
Filing Date: 2014-10-21
Classification: D06F

Abstract:
1. A clothes dryer, comprising: a cabinet; a drum rotatably installed in the cabinet, the drum including an air inlet provided at a first end of the drum and an air outlet provided at a second end of the drum; a motor that generates and transmits a rotational force to the drum; a first air path connected to the air inlet of the drum through which air flows into the drum; a second air path connected to the air outlet of the drum through which air is discharged from the drum to an outside of the cabinet; a heat pump including a first heat exchanging member for the first air path and a second heat exchanging member for the second air path, wherein the heat pump is disposed below the drum, and the first heat exchanging member and the second heat exchanging member are positioned below the drum on opposite sides of a center line of the drum; a damper provided in the second air path and adapted to open and close the second air path to adjust a flow of air discharged to the outside; and a temperature sensor or a humidity sensor provided in the second air path, upstream of the damper, wherein a degree of opening of the second air path by the damper is controlled based on a saturation point at which an increase rate of temperature sensed by the temperature sensor becomes lower or at which a decrease rate of humidity sensed by the humidity sensor becomes slow, wherein the air inlet of the drum and the air outlet of the drum are spaced apart from one another in an axial direction of the drum, and wherein the first air path and the second air path are spaced apart from each other.