IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO CLOTHES DRIERS

Abstract: A clothes drier (1) of the type in which heated air is moved to an exhaust (9) through a rotating drum (6) in which clothes to be dried are tumbled, has an exhaust temperature sensor and a reference temperature sensor (16) connected in a circuit, arranged to switch "off" a heater (10) to the drier when a desired manually set temperature difference between exhaust and reference temperature is reached. A clock control selector (25,32) selectively lowers the required exhaust temperature if the original preset temperature is not reached within a predetermined time so that loads of clothes of varying size and initial wetness will be dried to substantially the same dryness as selected by the user.

Description: Improvements in or relating to clothes driers This invention relates to clothes driers. It is an object of the present invention to provide a clothes drier and/or a method of operating the same which will at least provide the public with a useful choice. Accordingly in one aspect the invention consists in a method of controlling the drying of clothes in a clothes drier of the type in which heated air is moved to an air exhaust through a rotating drum in which clothes to be dried are tumbled, said method including the steps of sensing the temperature of the exhaust air after it has passed over at least most of the clothes in the drum, arranging automatic cut-off of heat to the air to be passed through the drum when the exhaust air reaches a substantially predetermined temperature initially set at a temperature sufficiently high as to ensure that a small load of clothes attain a substantially predetermined degree of dryness, and automatically lowering said initially set temperature at a desired rate during drying. In a further aspect the invention consists in a clothes drier of the type in which air is heated and then moved through a rotating drum in which clothes for drying are tumbled by rotation of the drum, the air being passed to an exhaust means after passing through the drum said clothes drier including sensing means to sense the temperature of the exhaust air after it has passed in use, over at least most of the clothes in the drum, signal means to give a signal when the exhaust temperature reaches a substantially predetermined temperature, cut-off means actuable by said signal to cut-off heat to air admitted to said drum when said predetermined exhaust temperature is reached, and automatic adjusting means to adjust said predetermined exhaust temperature downwards at a desired rate during drying from an initial setting, said initial setting being sufficiently high as to ensure that a small load of clothes attain a substantially predetermined degree of dryness. To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting. One preferred form of the invention and modifications thereof will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic sketch of a clothes drier according to the invention; Figure 2 is a block diagram of one form of circuitry used in applying the invention to a clothes drier such as that shown in figure 1; and Figure 3 is a block diagram of an alternative form of circuitry. Referring to figure 1 of the drawings, a clothes drier is#shown such as that described in U.K. Specification No. 1,221,343. In such a clothes drier the cabinet 1 is provided with a motor 2 which rotates a fan 3 positioned adjacent to an air inlet 4 the fan pressurizing the air inside the cabinet 1. The motor also drives a belt 5 by which a drum 6 is rotated on a supporting spindle 7. The drum 6 in which clothes to be dried are tumbled has an air inlet 8 at the back (although the air inlet may be at the front) and an air exit or exhaust 9 at the front (although the air exit may be at the rear). The air is caused to enter the drum 6 through the entrance 8 by the pressure in the cabinet 1 and after the air is heated by an annular heating element 10. Such a clothes drier has been in production for many years and is well known to those skilled in the art. In such a clothes drier, the air, after being heated and passing through the drum, and thus over the clothes therein, changes in temperature as the clothes load dries. Typically it is warm and wet during most of the cycle, then becomes hotter as dryness nears completion. According to the present invention it is this raising of the exhaust air temperature that is used to deduce dryness of the clothes, and trip a device which switches the drier into cool-down mode and finally stop. According to the present invention a clothes drier such as that described above is provided, as is shown in figure 2, with two temperature sensing elements, for example, thermistors, one or more reference temperature sensors 15 and one or more exhaust temperature sensing elements 16. These elements are each positioned in a suitable position at which the temperature is representative of the temperature of the ambient air (or alternatively the heated air flowing into the drum or a mixture of ambient air and heated air) and of the temperature of the exhaust air i.e. the air after it has passed over at least most if not all of the clothes to be dried, respectively. The sensors 15 and 16 are connected to an amplifier 17 and through a user control 18 to a comparator 19. The specific value of exhaust air temperature when the clothes are at a given degree of dryness varies and errors result if they are not compensated for. We have found that variables such as ambient temperature, heater wattage and line voltage, and air throughput can be substantially compensated for in a very simple manner by positioning the reference sensor in a console 12 positioned above the top 13 of the cabinet 1, the console being a separate compartment from the pressurized cabinet interior 14. In this position the sensor 15 receives some heat from the heater plate and we found that the heat received by the sensor 15 is substantially proportioned so that the reference temperature change was substantially the same as the exhaust temperature with any change in the above variables. As an example the reference sensor 15 is positioned so that temperature is approximately 100C above ambient and changes directly with ambient. If the voltage changes from 230 to 250 reference temperature increases by approximately 30C, and when the exhaust duct is restricted by a cover over 75% of its area, then the reference temperature increases by approximately 70C. However the exhaust temperature varies with the size of the clothes load and.it is this variable that the present invention at least attempts to accommodate. Thus in the preferred form the user is able to adjust the control 18 which is calibrated (perhaps a little arbitrarily) in "degree of dryness", and this adjusts an initial setting of a signal from the temperature sensitive device 16 in the exhaust air stream which in the preferred form is compared with the reference temperature. It will be apparent however that a less desirable construction could be used in which the exhaust temperature alone would give a reasonable result. When there is a predetermined difference between the temperatures of sensors 15 and 16 (herein referred to as the trip temperature) the comparator 19 is signalled to switch off heat to the drier via lead 20 and the drier goes into a cool-down and eventually stopping mode using any known circuitry. With a small load of clothes, the exhaust air is hotter for a given degree of dryness, because, we believe, the operation is less energy efficient and probably much of the heated air.fails to contact the clothes and emerges hotter and dryer The user control 18 is operated by the user to make a temperature difference setting according to a scale marked "damp, normal, dry, super dry" or any other convenient marking. This user control biases "the trip temperature" settings to an initial setting high enough as to result in a small load of clothes attaining a substantially predetermined degree of dryness. The invention therefore also provides an automatic system to control the trip temperature settings dependent on load size. Accordingly because a small load dries in a shorter time than a large load and because a small load results in a higher exhaust temperature than the exhaust temperature which results from a larger load dried to substantially the same degree, the following circuitry is adopted. Referring to figure 2 again, a series of switches and resistors 25 are provided controlled by a clock 26 and the output from the switches 25 supplied to the comparator 19 by lead 27. As stated above the user setting 18 initially provides for a relatively high trip temperature to be needed before the drier is switched to cool down mode. The user set signal which causes the comparator 19 to actuate switching off of the'heating of the drier through lead 20 is modified by the clock controlled switches and resistor control signals sent to the comparator 19, so that as time progresses as is measured by the clock 26, the control signal results in a reduction of required trip temperature to switch of the drier. Thus it will be apparent that as drying continues, if the exhaust temperature does not reach the initial user set temperature difference the clock 26 and switch circuit 25 progressively reduce the trip temperature necessary to switch off drying and the drier continues to run until exhaust temperature reaches the lowered trip temperature setting from the clock control signals and heat is cut off. Thus the trip temperature reached is progressively reduced at a desired rate. The rate depending on the number of resistors and switches and the time interval between progressive switching operations. As an example of the parameters necessary, if a load of say 500gms is dried to achieve a 1% moisture content, the trip temperature would need to be of the order of 300C (exhaust temperature at sensor 16 about 600C and referenced temperature at refernece sensor 15 about 300C). Accordingly if 500gms is accepted as being a minimum load likely to be placed in the drier then the initial trip temperature setting to 1% moisture would be 600C. If the user control is set to say "dry" and 1% moisture is regarded as "super dry" then a dryness of about 8% would be achieved if the trip temperature reaches 200C and thus the user control may vary the trip temperature to be 200C when the user control is on "dry" and other reductions in minimum load temperatures would be achieved by other settings of the user control 18. Now if a load of say 4kg is placed in the drier to dry these to 1% moisture condition, i.e. "super dry" then the trip temperature of 200C would be achieved in about 120minus. Accordingly the clock 26 and switching device 25 would be arranged to give a bias downwardly from 300C to 200C trip temperature over a period of 120mins. The use of the above construction is accordingly fully described as follows: The user places clothes to be dried in the drum 6, and sets the user control 18 to a desired degree of dryness, e.g. dry". The clothes drier is then started up and heating occurs. To take account of changes in ambient or inlet air temperature, ambient temperature or inlet air temperature or a mixed temperature as above outlined is sensed by reference temperature sensor 15. The exhaust temperature is sensed by sensor 16. The amplifier 17 receives these two signals, compares them and passes out a signal e.g. a voltage, through the user control 18 to the comparator 19. At the same time the clock 26 is started up and at suitable rtervrals of time a switch in the resistor switch box 25 is controlled to alter the trip temperature setting recognised by the comparator 19 as being the desired temperature at which heating of the entering air is to be switched off. After heating has continued for a period of time dependent on the clothes load and degree of intial dampness the signal received from the amplifier 17 and the clock control signal received from the switch and resistor box 25 will be compared by the comparator 19 and when the comparison meets a desired level switching off of heating to the drier occurs, the drier goes into a cooling mode and ultimately, through a further control, stopping of the tumbling of the drier is effected. The construction shown in figure 2 is of an analogue type of circuitry in which there is direct comparison of resistance values or voltages by the comparator 19. In figure 3 there is shown a digital circuit which achieves the same result. Thus signals from the reference temperature sensor 15 and the exhaust temperature sensor 16 and the user control 18 are switched by a multiplexing switch 30 to an analogue to digital convertor 31. The digital pulses are then supplied to a microprocessor 32. A clock 34 is provided and in association with the microprocessor 32 controls the trip temperature at a desired rate so that the same result is achieved as with the construction of figure 3. From the foregoing it will be seen that an automatic control of resultant clothes drying is obtained by the invention in simple yet effective manner. The housewife need only select a degree of dryness and although there is a certain degree of arbitrariness in this selection, the operator after a little experience will know within reasonable limits the degree of dryness likely to be obtained by a particular setting and on subsequent loading the drier as above described will substantially regardless of the load of clothes placed in the drier, attain that desired degree of dryness as set by the user. The features disclosed in the foregoing description, in the following claims and/or in the accompanying drawings may, both separately and in any combination thereof, be material for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A method of controlling the drying of clothes in a clothes drier (1) of the type in which heated air is moved to an air exhaust (9) through a rotating drum (6) in which clothes to be dried are tumbled, said method including the steps of sensing the temperature (16) of the exhaust air after it has passed over at least most of the clothes in the drum (6) , arranging automatic cut-off of heat to the air to be passed through the drum when the exhaust air reaches a substantially predetermined temperature initially set at a temperature sufficiently high as to ensure that a small load of clothes attain a substantially predetermined degree of dryness, and automatically lowering said initially set temperature at a desired rate during drying. 2. A method as claimed in claim 1 which includes the steps of comparing the instantaneous exhaust temperature (16) with a reference temperature (15). 3. A method as claimed in claim 2 which includes the step of sensing the temperature of ambient or incoming air and using the differences between signals given by the exhaust air temperature and the ambient or incoming air temperature to give a resultant operative signal. 4. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims which includes the step of manually setting said initially set temperature. 5. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims which includes the step of substantially lowering said initially set temperature by comparing a signal resulting from the sensing of said exhaust temperature with a further signal which is changed progressively as drying progresses. 6. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims which includes the step of converting sensed temperatures into measurable parameters and controlling a resistance means relative to time so that said initially set temperature at which heat cut-off occurs is reduced. 7. A method as claimed in claim 6 which includes the step of controlling a series of switched resistors (25) to vary said initially set temperature. 8. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 which includes the steps of converting signals resulting from sensing said exhaust temperature (16) into digital pulses feeding such pulses to a microprocessor (32), converting signals dependent on the position of a user control (18) into digital pulses feeding said pulses to said microprocessor (32) and controlling the pulses by a clock (34) so that said initially set temperature to be reached for cut-off is progressively reduced. 9. A method of controlling the drying of clothes in a clothes drier when effected substantially as herein described with reference to figures 1 and 2 or figures 1 and 3 of the accompanying drawings. 10. A clothes drier (1) of the type in which air is heated and then moved through a rotating drum (6) in which clothes for drying are tumbled by rotation of the drum (6), the air being passed to an exhaust means (9) after passing through the drum (6) said clothes drier including sensing means (16) to sense the temperature of the exhaust air after it has passed in use, over most of the clothes in the drum, signal means to give a signal when the exhaust temperature reaches a substantially predetermined temperature, cut-off means actuable by said signal to cut-off heat to air admitted to said drum when said predetermined exhaust temperature is reached, and automatic adjusting means (25,26)to adjust said predetermined exhaust temperature downwards at a desired rate during drying from an initial setting, said initial setting being sufficiently high as to ensure that a small load of clothes attains a substantially predetermined degree of dryness. 11. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 10 wherein a reference sensor (15) is provided to sense a reference temperature dependent on heat from ambient or heated air into said drum (6) or a combination of ambient and heated air temperature into said drum and means to provide a signal which is a measure of the difference between said exhaust air temperature and said ambient or inlet air temperatures, 12. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 11 wherein said reference sensor (15) is positioned to gain some heat from ambient air and some heat from the heated air into said drum. 13. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 12 wherein said reference sensor (15) is positioned to receive some heat from the heated air as well as some heat from ambient air. 14. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 13 wherein said reference sensor is positioned in a console (12) above said cabinet and substantially vertically above said heater. 15. A clothes drier as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 14 wherein a manual control (18) is provided whereby said initial temperature is settable within limits by an operator. 16. A clothes drier as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 15 wherein said automatic adjusting means comprise a clock controlled signal means, signals from which are varied by a clock (26) therein as drying progresses and a comparator (19) is p#rovided to which signals from said exhaust air temperature sensor (16) and said clock controlled signal means are passed, a desired comparison resulting in actuation of said cut off means. 17. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 16 wherein said automatic adjusting means comprise a variable resistance means (25) and said clock, said clock varying said variable resistance means (25) at a desired rate to vary said predetermined exhaust temperature, 18. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 16 wherein said -automatic adjustinq means comprise an analogue to digital converter (31) to convert signals from said exhaust temperature sensor and said reference temperature sensor to digital pulse form, and said comparator comprises a microprocessor (32) to process such digital pulses. 19. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 18 when dependent on claim 11 wherein said analogue to digital converter (31) converts signals from said reference temperature sensor (15) to digital pulse form. 20. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 18 or claim 19 wherein multiplexing means (30) are provided whereby signals from said sensors (15,16) are multiplexed into said comparator (32). 21. A clothes drier as claimed in claim 18 or claim 19 when dependent on claim 15 wherein said manual control (18) is connected to said microprocessor (32) through an analogue to digital converter and digital pulses therefrom are controlled by said clock (34) at a predetermined rate. 22. A clothes drier is claimed in claim 21 when dependent on claim 18 wherein said multiplexing means (30) also multiplex signals from said manual control (18) into said microprocessor (32).

Inventors: CHUNG CHRISTOPHER, SMITH, DENNIS EDWARD
Applicants: FISHER & PAYKEL LIMITED
Application year: 1983
Main classification: D06F58
IPC codes: G05D22, D06F58