Improvement in arrangements provided for determining the type of textiles in the washload of clothes washing machines

Abstract: Clothes washing machine provided with a wash tub (1), a rotating drum (2) accomodated within said wash tub and adapted to contain the washload items and capable of being driven so as to rotate both at high and low rotating speeds, a pressure switch (3) arranged within an appropriate air chamber connected with the intake thereof at a location (4) situated below the lower level (5) of the wash tub, inlet and shut-off means (6) governing the water supply from the water delivery mains to the wash tub, and arranged to detect the average soaking characteristics of the washload items placed in the drum by first measuring their overall capacity of absorbing a defined amount of water, and then processing said measured value on the basis of the weight of said washload items, said weight being known. The machine operates either by letting defined water amounts into the wash tub, wherein said water is allowed to be absorbed by the washload up to the maximum soaking capacity thereof and the amount of absorbed water is then measured as the difference between the amount of water let into the tub and the residual amount of water, or by performing a substantially similar procedure, wherein the washload however undergoes a spin-extraction phase before the amount of residual water is measured and the calculations are made on the basis of the different water retention characteristics of the spin-extracted washload items.

Description: The present invention refers to a clothes washing machine, in particular a household-type clothes washing machine, provided with special means and related operating modes to enable the particular type of textiles, or mix thereof, forming the washload in the drum of said washing machine to be appropriately identified. Although the present invention refers particularly to front-loading clothes washing machines, and for reasons of greater simplicity and convenience the following description refers actually to such a type of washing machines, it will be appreciated that it may similarly apply to other types of washing machines, such as for instance top-loading washing machines, as well. Washing machines are known in the art which are provided with means adapted to identify the type of textiles, or mix thereof, forming the particular washload being handled in the drum of the washing machine. A purpose of such identification is to provide the machine with the ability of selecting the washing cycle automatically, with the various process parameters selected so as to optimize the operation of the machine and the washing results. For instance, the US patent specification no. 5,161,393 to the name of General Electric Company discloses a quite effective method for identifying the type of textiles in the washload. However, such a method only applies to washing machines having their drum rotating about a vertical axis, so that it is not suitable for use in conjunction with the great majority of washing machines having their drum rotating about a horizontal axis, ie. almost the totality of the European-built machines. Furthermore, such a method is a sort of a trial-and-error one based on a set of successive measurements, so that it turns out to be quite complex and time-consuming. From US 4,400,838 a method is known able to determine the average nature of the laundry in the machine by electronic means, in order to ensure that the appropriate treatment is applied to laundry of a specific nature. According to that invention the method is characterized in that at least one of said detections is effected continuously during filling of the tub, that the detected level (h) is compared with at least one reference value, and that when the water level in the tub begins to exceed said reference value the machine determines the nature of the laundry in the tub by comparing the volume of water absorbed per unit of weight of the laundry with a series of typical absorbed values each corresponding to laundry of a specific nature. Thus, by the use of the water-absorption properties of the laundry, which properties influence the water level reached in the tub for a given volume of water admitted to the tub, it is possible to determine the average nature of the materials of the laundry in the tub. It is to be noted that the water-absorption properties of laundry have been used for a different purpose, which is specifically known from German Patent Application No. 2940492. Said Application describes a method of controlling a washing machine of the economy type. In accordance with said method the weight of the laundry loaded into the machine is measured. Subsequently, the tub is filled up to a level which is computed starting from the weight and the washing programme selected by the user. When the tub is being filled with water, the water-absorbing capacity of the laundry is determined fron the difference between the water level corresponding to the volume of water admitted and the actual level that is reached. Depending on the absorption capacity and the weight of the laundry the water levels for washing and rinsing are determined in order to avoid a waste of water. An indication of the nature of the laundry is given by the user by means of a selection button on the machine. An erroneous selection may therefore result in an incorrect treatment of the laundry. In order to exclude such human errors the nature of the laundry is therefore determined by the machine itself. The method in accordance with the cited document is specifically characterized in that the volume of water absorbed per unit of weight of the laundry is compared with three typical values, which typical values correspond to three curves representing the level (h) of the water in the tub as a function of the volume (V) of the water, which three curves are a first curve corresponding to the absence of laundry in the machine, a second curve corresponding to the presence of laundry of an absorbent material, and a third curve corresponding to the presence of laundry of a material which is little or not absorbent. In each of these cases the nature of the laundry follows from the geometrical differences of the curves which represent the variation of the water level h in the tub as a function of the volume V of the water admitted in Cartesian coordinates. Specifically, if the issue is highly absorbent, for example in the case of woolens or cotton, and water is admitted, the water is initially absorbed by the laundry in proportion to the weight of the load of laundry, so that it takes more time until a constant water level is reached. The curve representing the water level has a function of the volume V will exhibit a plateau parallel to the horizontal axis, the length of said plateau, which is equal to the volume of water absorbed, being characteristic of the presence of woolens and their weight. Conversely, in the case of laundry which is little absorbent, for example synthetic materials the corresponding curve will not exhibit a plateau and will very closely approximate the theoretical curve (without laundry), which is typical of said synthetic materials. However it was found that the final result of said measurements, comparisons and computing appears quite imprecise due to the variability of the interested parameters and mainly of the attitude of the fabrics to retain the washing liquor even after a standard procedure of soaking as just described. It would therefore be desirable, and it is in fact a main purpose of the present invention, to provide a clothes washing machine which has a drum rotating about a horizontal axis and is nevertheless capable of performing the measurements required to identify the type of textiles in the washload by using safe, reliable, precise, inexpensive methods and means on the basis of readily available technologies. The invention will be more clearly understood from the description given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematical view of a first arrangement of component parts and levels of a clothes washing machine according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a view illustrating diagrammatically the water absorption capacity of textiles of different nature; Figure 3 is a schematic view of the arrangement of component parts and levels of a clothes washing machine according to the present invention; Figure 4 is a view illustrating diagrammatically the evolution of the level of the bath measured in a clothes washing machine according to the present invention as a function of the progression of the washing cycle, for a low-absorbing type of textiles; Figure 5 is a view of a similar diagram as the one shown in Figure 4, but referring to a highly absorbing type of textiles, all other conditions being the same. The term "water" will be used in the following description to indistinctly mean both washing liquor and rinsing water. Such a simplification, however, will by no means affect the clearness of the exposure considering the context in which such terms are being used, as anyone skilled in the art will be able to readily understand. Referring now to Figure 1, which illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a solution according to the present invention is explained along with the related operation principles. The described clothes washing machine comprises a washing tub 1, a drum 2 rotating inside said washing tub and adapted to hold the washload, a pressure switch 3 having its air intake situated at a position generally referred to as 4 below the lower edge 5 of the washing tub, said clothes washing machine being further provided with programming and controlling means, including the control means 6, usually an electromagnetic valve, for opening and closing the water supply from an external source, as well as a circuit (not shown) for recirculating the water contained in the tub, such a circuit being adapted to be selectively activated by said programming and controlling means of the machine and to take up the water from the bottom of the tub and let it flow back into or onto the drum so that all washload items contained in said drum are in as short a time as possible affected simultaneously by said flow of recirculated water. It should be stressed here that the term "soaking" is used here to mean the amount of liquor taken up by the cloth before saturation, ie. before any further liquor added starts to be released. Anyway, this technical term, like some other term used here, is a part of the common knowledge of those skilled in the art and, as such, it is assumed to be commonly known. A method is known wich consists substantially in filling in a definite amount of water into the tub, including also all possible cavities associated therewith, such as for instance the outlet pipe, the air-trap of the pressure switch and the like, letting the clothes be soaked as much as possible by said water, possibly by subsequently filling in additional amounts of water as needed to restore the level, measuring the amount of residual water after the clothes have been soaked to saturation, and then, based on the weight of the clothes loaded into the drum and the amount of water absorbed, calculating the average soaking characteristics of the washload and, hence, the mix of textile types in the washload. The possibility of identifying the mix of textile types included in the washload on the basis of their water absorption capacity and, of course, the respective weight is an experimentally viable technique that is widely known in the art, so that no further explanation will be given here in this connection. According to the present invention, a method for measuring and calculating the absorbency characteristics of the fabrics is implemented by making use of the different water retention characteristics of the fabrics after wringing or spinning as compared to the water retention capacity of the same fabrics before wringing or spinning. It has in fact been observed experimentally that the accuracy in measuring water retention is usually greater (in the sense of a lesser variability under the same conditions) in the case of spin-extracted clothes with respect to clothes which are only wetted or soaked, but not spin-extracted. Such a method consists in carrying through an operating sequence which is capable of ensuring that all fabrics being tested are entirely wetted and soaked, letting such fabrics undergo a spin-extraction phase while maintaining such conditions in the tub as to make sure that the level of the free surface of the bath is in all cases lower than the lowest level of the side wall of the drum (this of course in order to ensure the effectiveness of the spin-extraction action), and then calculating the water absorbed in such conditions as the difference between the total amount of water filled in and the amount of residual water remaining in the tub. The absorbed water is then compared, under due reference to the weight of the washload of course, with previously recorded and stored experimental data relating to a plurality of measurements made on washloads of known weight, and with known contents in terms of mix of types of fabrics, subjected to a similar spin-extraction process. Based on such a comparison it is then quite simple to identify, for each weight of the washload, the mix of types of fabrics to be determined. According to such a method, the machine goes through a sequence consisting in: filling into the tub such an amount of water that the free surface thereof does not exceed the lowest level of the side wall of the drum, and storing this amount in its memory; carrying out a plurality of operation sequences, each one of which comprising a plurality of both low-speed drum rotation cycles and high-speed drum rotation cycles under simultaneous water recirculation, while recording and storing the level of the water at the end of each sequence of high-speed drum rotation cycles; carrying out a plurality of level-restoring water additions alternating with said plurality of operation sequences until the level of water measured at the end of said plurality of high-speed drum rotation cycles is equal to or exceeds the previously recorded level, said level-restoring water additions being anyway limited in all cases so as to make sure that the free surface of the water bath in the tub remains constantly below the lowest level of the side wall of the drum; calculating the amount of water absorbed by the washload in the drum by subtracting the amount of water corresponding to the last recorded level from the total amount of water filled into the tub; calculating the "washload-to-absorbed water" ratio and selecting the mix of types of fabrics through a comparison with a previously stored data base. Such a manner to proceed leads namely to the occurrence that the level tends to surely stabilize under all circumstances below the original level, owing to the water being absorbed by the clothes. This fact, however, does not originate any problem, since such a case is fully taken into account by the planned operating modalities which provide that, under such a circumstance, the afore described sequence of successive water additions, spin-extractions, measurements and comparisons is carried through or continued. The above described method allows for a particularly advantageous improvement in view of accelerating the measurement time requirements. It is in fact possible for the minimum amount of water to be filled to be assessed just once, to allow it to be entirely absorbed by the clothes during a low-speed rotation phase of the drum under water recirculation conditions for a few minutes (approx. 3 minutes), for restoring operation according to the afore described modalities starting from the first level-restoring water addition, instead of carrying out a first water fill procedure up to the limit set by the maximum attainable level (side wall of the drum) and then going through an extended sequence of water additions, etc. This variant enables the overall time requirements to be reduced by allowing an amount of water corresponding to several successive water fills and water additions, which would have required a correspondingly longer time to be completed, to be filled in just once, ie. the first time. A particularly advantageous feature, which is applicable to the cases in which the amount of water to be filled in has to be pre-determined, regardless of the level that can be reached by the bath in the tub, is described below. Such a feature applies for instance to the case of a washload made up of synthetic/cotton fabrics, where the water filled in to soak such fabrics is just sufficient to soak such fabrics while maintaining, during the subsequent stabilizing cycles, a significant pressure on the filter bell-shaped trap for an appropriately long period of time. Quite to the contrary, in the case of a washload made up by sponge-cloth fabrics the same amount of water proves insufficient in view of ensuring a total soaking effect and, therefore, it is absorbed rapidly and entirely under an abrupt fall of the pressure below significant values in a relatively short time, so that it proves impossible to record the new level. In order to eliminate the drawback of the pressure switch not being able to directly measure the amount of water filled in, it is necessary that the amount of water filled in be accurately measured, regardless of the pressure head existing on the pressure switch. This can be achieved by letting the water be filled in under time control, once that the flow rate, which depends substantially on both the water inlet means and the water delivery line pressure, is known. However, for the actual flow rate to be known, considering that it may vary due to a number of factors, among which the water supply pressure from the mains is certainly a very significant one, the following procedure shall be carried out, by first bringing the water level in the conduit up to the level L3 and then defining a second level L4 (see Figure 3) lying above the level L3 and preferably situated in the outlet conduit in such a manner that the volume V comprised between said levels is known. At this point the flow-rate measurement sequence is started by switching in the water inlet system and recording the time taken by the water level in said conduit to rise from the level L3 to the level L4. The V-to-time ratio then gives the exact indication of the actual flow rate at which water is filled in. Once that such a flow rate is known, it will be possible for the programming and controlling system of the machine to switch in the water inlet means of the machine just for the time required to let into the tub the exact amount of water needed, with an accuracy which is of course within the tolerances allowed for by the sensitivity of the sensors of the mechanical configuration adopted and the accuracy of calculation arrangement used. Finally, a measurement error may in some cases be induced by the fact that, during the water fillinq phase, a part of such water, while flowing down along the wall of the drum, penetrates the same drum where it wets part of the washload. This of course brings about an error in the calculation of the flow rate, in the sense that a lower flow rate than the actual one is calculated by the system. In order to eliminate such a possible error, provisions should be appropriately taken so as to prevent the inflowing water from entering in contact with the clothes contained in the drum. This can be achieved by filling in the water directly from the lower portion of the tub.

Claims: Method of identification of the type of textiles in the washing load of a washing machine, in particular of the household type, comprising a washing tub (1), a drum (2) rotating within said washing tub and adapted to hold the washload and to be rotatably driven at both low speed and high speed, a pressure switch (3) arranged within an appropriate air chamber connected with the pressure intake thereof at a point (4) situated below the lowest level (5) of the tub, inlet and shut-off means (6) governing the water supply from the water delivery mains to the washing tub, and provided with a circuit for the recirculation of the water contained in the tub, said machine being arranged to detect the average soaking characteristics of the washload items placed in the drum by first measuring their overall capacity of absorbing a definite amount of water and then processing said measured value on the basis of the weight of said washload items, said weight being known, characterised in that said measurement is carried out by: filling such an amount of water into the tub that the free surface of the bath hardly reaches up to the lowest level of the side wall of the drum, and storing the information concerning such an amount; carrying out a plurality of operation sequences, each one of which comprises a plurality of low-speed rotation and high-speed rotation cycles of the drum under simultaneous recirculation of the water, and recording the water level at the end of each sequence of high-speed rotation cycles of the drum; carrying out a plurality of level-restoring water additions alternating with said plurality of sequences of operation until the condition is reached in which the water level measured at the end of said plurality of high-speed rotation cycles of the drum is equal to or exceeds the previously recorded level, said level-restoring water additions being anyway limited in all cases in such a manner that the free surface of the water bath in the tub remains constantly below the lowest level of the side wall of the drum; calculating the amount of water absorbed by the washload contained in the drum by subtracting the amount of water corresponding to the last recorded level from the total amount of water filled in the tub; calculating the "washload-to-amount of absorbed water" ratio and identifying the mix of types of fabrics in the washload. Clothes washing machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the first water fill is carried out by filling into the tub an amount of water judged to be capable of being absorbed entirely by the washload, regardless of the level reached by said water fill, during the subsequent operation sequence at both low and high speed rotation of the drum under water recirculation conditions. Clothes washing machine according to any of the claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the amount of water filled in during the various phases is the result of a time-controlled operation on the basis of the actual flow rate ensured by the water inlet means (6) provided to deliver water into the tub. Clothes washing machine according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that said actual flow rate is determined by filling water into a known volume comprised between a first reference level (L3) and a second reference level (L4) and recording the time needed for the water level to rise from said first level (L3) to said second level (L4). Clothes washing machine according to claim 4, characterized in that said measurement of the actual flow rate is carried out in advance of the water fill phases described in the preceding claims, a first water fill being carried out so as to reach said first reference level (L3) before starting with the determination of the actual flow rate of said water inlet means (6).

Inventors: BATTISTELLA SILVIO, BATTISTELLA, SILVIO
Applicants: ELECTROLUX ZANUSSI ELETTRODOME, ELECTROLUX ZANUSSI S.P.A.
Application year: 1995
Main classification: D06F39
IPC codes: D06F33, D06F39