Patent ID: 8489358

Claim:
A method for determining loads in clothes washing machines, CHARACTERIZED by comprising the following steps: (E1) Acceleration of a mobile assembly of the washing machine until the mobile assembly reaches a pre-determined rotation speed (E2) Acceleration of the mobile assembly until the mobile assembly reaches a rotation speed faster than the rotational speed in the first step (E1); (E3) Shutdown of an engine, whereby the engine which turns the mobile assembly is shutdown; (E4) Acceleration of the mobile assembly until it reaches a pre-determined rotational speed, whereby the rotational speed of the engine which turns the mobile assembly is increased up to a pre-determined rotation speed limit; (E5) Measurement, whereby parameters regarding the engine are measured; (E6) Acceleration of the mobile assembly until it reaches a rotational speed faster than the rotational speed in the forth step (E4), whereby the engine current is measured; (E7) Shutdown of the engine and measurement of the deceleration time, whereby the said engine is turned off and turns via inertia, with the time spent from the shutdown until a pre-determined minimum rotational speed limit is reached, being measured; (E8) Repetition, whereby, the following steps are repeated at least once: acceleration of the mobile assembly until it reaches a pre-determined rotation speed, whereby the rotational speed of the engine which turns the mobile assembly is increased up to a pre-determined rotation speed limit (E4); Measurement, whereby parameters regarding the engine are measured (E5); acceleration of the mobile assembly until it reaches a rotational speed faster than the rotational speed in the forth step (E4), whereby the engine current is measured (E6); and shutdown of the engine and measurement of the deceleration time, whereby the said engine is turned off and turns via inertia, with the time spent from the shutdown until a pre-determined minimum rotational speed limit is reached, being measured (E7); (E9) Calculation of an average of each one of the parameters measured in the previous step (E8); and (E10) Obtainment of the value of clothes load based on the values obtained in the previous step (E9), wherein the value of clothes load is obtained by an equation Load = a ⁢ ∑ 1 n ⁢ V n + b ⁢ ∑ 1 n ⁢ T m n + c ⁢ ∑ 1 n ⁢ T c n + d ⁢ ∑ 1 n ⁢ C n + e ⁢ ∑ 1 n ⁢ T d n where, V=Line voltage, Tm=Engine temperature, Tc=Control module temperature, C—engine current, Td=Deceleration time (time that the engine takes to stop after being turned off), n=number of repetitions of the seventh step and a, b, c, d, e are constants obtained empirically through the analysis of tests performed; or by the use of the average values in a neural network having an input layer which comprises the following parameters measured in the previous steps: line voltage, engine temperature, engine control module temperature, sum of the engine current and deceleration time.