JP2008048811A - Clothes dryer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problems of safety and reliability due to the fact that the operation pressure of a heat pump device rises, a current to a compressor increases and a load to the compressor increases when an air temperature inside a tub rises accompanying the advance of drying since the condensation pressure and evaporation pressure of the heat pump device are determined by an air condition inside the tub while a washing and drying machine provided with the heat pump device dehumidifies and heats the air inside the tub and dries clothes by the heat pump device for which the compressor, a condenser, an expansion means and an evaporator are successively and annularly connected. <P>SOLUTION: By providing an auxiliary cooler 41 on the air entrance side of the evaporator 23, the air temperature of an evaporator entrance is reduced; the excessive rise of the evaporation pressure is prevented, and thus the excessive rise of the condensation pressure due to the increase of a coolant circulation amount is prevented. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a washing / drying machine used in general households.

  A conventional drum-type washing and drying machine has a configuration as shown in FIG. Hereinafter, the configuration will be described. As shown in FIG. 5, a cylindrical outer tub 3 elastically supported by a plurality of suspensions 2 is provided inside the housing 1, and the suspension 2 absorbs vibration during washing and dehydration. . Inside the outer tub 3, a cylindrical, horizontal axis type inner tub 5 that accommodates an object 4 to be washed or dried (hereinafter referred to as clothing) is rotatably arranged, and a rotating shaft 6 a is rotated by a drive motor 6. To rotate.

  A plurality of baffles (not shown) for stirring clothes are provided on the inner wall of the inner tank 5, and a plurality of small holes 5 a are provided on the peripheral wall of the inner tank 5. On the front surface of the housing 1, there are provided an opening 1a through which clothes 4 are taken in and out and a door 7 for opening and closing the opening 1a. Similar opening portions 3 a and 5 b are also provided on the front side of the outer tub 3 and the inner tub 5, and the opening portion 3 a of the outer tub 3 is water-tightly connected to the opening portion 1 a of the housing 1 by a bellows 8. The bottom of the outer tub 3 has a drain port 9 for discharging washing water, is connected to a drain hose 11 via a drain valve 10, and its tip is led out of the machine.

  The blower 12 blows and supplies the warm air heated by the heater 13 from the air supply port 14 into the inner tank 5. The circulation duct 15 performs dehumidification of the wet drying air that has passed through the inner tank 5 and the outer tank 3, and has one end connected to the exhaust port 16 at the bottom of the outer tank 3 and the other end connected to the blower 12. ing. The water supply valve 17 controls water supply from a water supply hose 18 connected to a tap or the like of a water supply.

  In the above configuration, when the washing operation is performed, the door 7 is opened, the clothes 4 and the detergent are put into the inner tub 5, and the operation is started. First, when the water supply valve 17 opens the water supply port on the washing water side and a predetermined amount of water is supplied into the outer tub 3 and the inner tub 5, the drive motor 6 is activated and the inner tub 5 is rotationally driven to perform the cleaning operation. Do. After a predetermined time, the drive motor 6 is stopped, the drain valve 10 is opened, and dirty water is drained from the inner tank 5 and the outer tank 3 and drained to the drainage place outside the machine via the drain hose 11. Next, water is supplied to the outer tub 3 and the inner tub 5 in the same manner as described above, and a rinsing operation is performed. When the rinsing is completed, the drain valve 10 is opened and drained, and then the inner tub 5 is rotationally driven by the drive motor 6 at a high speed, whereby the clothes 4 are dehydrated.

  When the washing operation is completed as described above, the drying operation is started. In the drying process, while the inner tub 5 is driven to rotate at a low speed by the drive motor 6 and the clothes 4 are stirred, the air blown in the direction of the arrow 19 by the blower 12 is heated by the heater 13 to become warm air, and the air supply port 14 is sent into the inner tank 5. This hot air takes away moisture from the garment 4, passes through the small hole 5 a of the inner tub 5, passes through the outer tub 3, and reaches the circulation duct 15 through the exhaust port 16.

  At this time, the water supply valve 17 opens the water supply port on the cooling water side, and cooling water is poured into the circulation duct 15. When the warm air containing moisture from the clothing 4 deprives moisture and passes through the circulation duct 15, the cooling water cools it to cause moisture condensation, and the moist warm air is dehumidified and again as shown by the arrow. Return to the blower 12. This cooling water and dew condensation water is drained out of the machine via the drain valve 10. The clothes 4 in the inner tub 5 are dried by circulating hot air through the circulation path of the blower 12, the heater 13, the air supply port 14, the inner tub 5, the outer tub 3, the exhaust port 16, and the circulation duct 15. Can do.

  In the above-described conventional configuration, the heat used for drying the garment 4 is all discarded to the outside by the cooling water of the circulation duct 15 or the heat radiation from the housing 1, and is not reused.

Therefore, a compressor that compresses the refrigerant, a radiator that dissipates the heat of the compressed refrigerant, a throttle means for reducing the pressure of the high-pressure refrigerant, and the reduced-pressure and low-pressure refrigerant generate heat from the surroundings. It has been proposed to provide a clothes dryer with a heat pump device in which a refrigerant is circulated through a pipe line so that the refrigerant circulates (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to this configuration, it has been found that the amount of heat released to the outside can be recovered and the clothes can be effectively dried using energy.
JP 7-178289 A

  The washing and drying machine provided with the heat pump device dries the clothes by dehumidifying and heating the air in the tank by the heat pump device in which the compressor, the condenser, the expansion means, and the evaporator are sequentially connected in an annular manner as described above. However, since the condensation pressure and evaporation pressure of the heat pump device are determined by the air conditions in the tank, when the air temperature in the tank rises as the drying progresses, the operating pressure of the heat pump device rises and the compressor The increase in current and the load on the compressor have caused problems in terms of safety and reliability.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the clothes drying apparatus of the present invention is provided with an intake air temperature reducing means for reducing the air temperature at the evaporator inlet in order to prevent the operating pressure of the heat pump apparatus from being excessively increased. It is.

  As a result, the air temperature at the evaporator inlet can be reduced and the evaporation pressure can be prevented from rising excessively, so that the condensation pressure can be prevented from rising excessively due to an increase in the refrigerant circulation rate.

  The clothes drying apparatus of the present invention can prevent an excessive increase in the operating pressure of the heat pump apparatus, and has a great effect in terms of safety and reliability.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, an outer tub supported in a casing, an inner tub rotatably supported in the outer tub, a compressor, a condenser, an expansion means, and an evaporator are sequentially connected in an annular shape. The heat pump device, the discharge air passage, the exhaust air passage, the air blower, and the air blown by the air blower annularly form the outer tub, the air exhaust air passage, the evaporator, the condenser, and the air blower. A ventilation circuit connected to the evaporator, and the intake air temperature reducing means is provided on the air inlet side of the evaporator, so that the clothes can be effectively dried by dehumidification and heating by a heat pump, and the evaporation pressure is reduced. The amount of refrigerant discharged from the compressor due to excessive rise can be reduced, and the reliability of the compressor can be improved.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein as the intake air temperature reducing means, the drain pan located in the lower part of the evaporator and the water in the drain pan installed in the drain pan by capillary action are used. By providing the evaporating promotion means for sucking up, it is possible to reduce the air temperature by evaporating latent heat of the condensed water of the evaporator and recover the heat, and to suppress the increase of the evaporation pressure and improve the efficiency.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, as the intake air temperature reducing means, a water intake port of the drain pan, a pump for feeding water of the drain pan, and water fed by the pump are used. By providing a water spray pipe that is sprayed to the air inlet of the evaporator, it is possible to reduce the air temperature by the latent heat of vaporization of the condensed water of the evaporator and to recover the heat, and to suppress the evaporative pressure rise and to improve the efficiency Improvements can be made.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Components having the same configurations as those of the conventional example are denoted by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof is omitted. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
1 is a cross-sectional view of a washing / drying machine according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a refrigeration cycle diagram of the washing / drying machine according to the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an auxiliary of the washing / drying machine according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of another auxiliary cooler of the washing / drying machine according to the embodiment.

  20 is a compressor, 21 is a condenser, 22 is a capillary tube, and 23 is an evaporator. The compressor 20, the condenser 21, the capillary tube 22, and the evaporator 23 are sequentially connected in an annular shape to form a refrigeration cycle. .

  Reference numeral 25 denotes a discharge air passage, 26 denotes a discharge air passage, and 27 denotes a blower. The outer tub 3, the inner tub 5, the discharge air passage 25, the evaporator 23, the condenser 21, the blower 27, and the discharge air passage 26 are sequentially connected in an annular shape to form a closed air passage.

  Reference numeral 41 denotes an auxiliary cooler as means for reducing the intake air temperature, and is installed in the air path of the outer tub 3, the inner tub 5 and the evaporator 23. Reference numeral 42 denotes an evaporation promoting plate formed as a plurality of strip plates as evaporation promoting means, and the evaporation promoting plate 42 is made of a porous material or a fibrous material such as cloth or paper. The evaporation promoting plate 42 has a strip-like short side in contact with the bottom of the drain pan 35, is installed substantially vertically, and is installed parallel to the air flow.

  Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

  The clothes 4 that have been washed in the inner tub 5 are driven to rotate by rotating the rotating shaft 6a by the drive motor 6 when the drying operation is started. At the same time, the compressor 20 and the blower 27 start operation. The refrigerant compressed by the compressor 20 is radiated and condensed by the condenser 21, adiabatically expands by the capillary tube 22, evaporates and absorbs heat by the evaporator 23, and then returns to the compressor 20.

  At this time, the air circulated by the blower 27 is cooled and dehumidified by the evaporator 23 with high humidity in the outer tub 3 and the inner tub 5, and the cooled and dehumidified air is heated by the condenser 21. This high-temperature, low-humidity air flows from the outer tub 3 to the inner tub 5 to dry the garment 4 that has been squeezed inside. At this time, the air is lowered in temperature and humidified by the latent heat of vaporization of the moisture contained in the clothing 4, and is guided again to the evaporator 23.

  As drying of the clothing 4 proceeds, the air reaching the evaporator 23 gradually increases in temperature and humidity. For this reason, the refrigerant evaporation temperature in the evaporator 23 is gradually increased, and the specific volume of the refrigerant sucked into the compressor 20 is lowered accordingly, and the compression ratio is lowered. It gradually increases and the condensation pressure in the condenser 21 gradually increases.

  At this time, moisture in the air dehumidified by the evaporator 23 is condensed and stored in the drain pan 35. The dehumidified water is sucked up by a capillary phenomenon by the evaporation promoting plate 42 installed at the bottom of the drain pan 35 and reaches the top of the evaporation promoting plate 42. Since the evaporation promotion plate 42 is located on the upstream side of the evaporator 23, the sucked dehumidified water is evaporated from the surface of the evaporation promotion plate 42 by the high-temperature air flowing between the plurality of evaporation promotion plates 42.

  During evaporation, the dehumidified water takes heat of vaporization from the air, so the temperature of the flowing air decreases. For this reason, the air reaching the evaporator 23 is cooled and the absolute humidity increases at the same time, but is condensed again by the evaporator 23 and returns to the drain pan 35 (see FIG. 3).

  In addition, the auxiliary cooler 41 according to another example includes a pump 43 installed on the lower surface of the drain pan 35, a connection pipe 44, and a water spray pipe 45. The pump 43 and the water spray pipe 45 are connected in communication by a connection pipe 44. The water spray pipe 45 is installed upstream of the air flow near the upper end of the evaporator 23 (see FIG. 4).

  Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

  Similarly, the dehumidified water stored in the drain pan 35 is guided to the sprinkling pipe 45 through the connection pipe 44 by the pump 43. The dehumidified water is sprayed in a direction substantially orthogonal to the air flow in the form of a minimal mist in the water spray pipe 45.

  As a result, the water droplet itself directly exchanges heat with hot air, and the water droplet evaporates. At this time, the air is deprived of the heat of vaporization due to evaporation and the temperature is lowered. For this reason, although the air reaching the evaporator 23 is lowered in temperature and the absolute humidity is increased at the same time, it is condensed again by the evaporator 23 and returns to the drain pan 35.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, by installing the auxiliary cooler in the air path upstream of the evaporator, even if the temperature of the inlet air of the evaporator rises due to the progress of drying, the auxiliary cooler An increase in the inlet air temperature can be suppressed, and a decrease in reliability due to an increase in compressor load due to an increase in the condensation temperature can be prevented.

  As described above, the clothes drying apparatus according to the present invention can prevent an excessive increase in the operating pressure of the heat pump apparatus and has a great effect in terms of safety and reliability. The present invention can be applied not only to drying clothes such as a dryer but also to uses of a heat pump type drying apparatus other than clothes such as food.

Sectional drawing of the washing-drying machine in Embodiment 1 of this invention Refrigeration cycle diagram of the washing and drying machine in the embodiment The perspective view of the auxiliary cooler of the washing dryer in the embodiment The perspective view of the other auxiliary cooler of the washing dryer in the same embodiment Cross-sectional view of a conventional washing and drying machine

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Case 3 Outer tank 5 Inner tank 20 Compressor 21 Condenser 22 Capillary tube (expansion means)
23 Evaporator 25 Exhaust air passage 26 Discharge air passage 27 Blower 35 Drain pan 41 Auxiliary cooler (intake air temperature reduction means)
42 Evaporation promotion plate 43 Pump 45 Watering pipe

Claims (3)

  An outer tank supported in a housing; an inner tank rotatably supported in the outer tank; a heat pump device in which a compressor, a condenser, an expansion means, and an evaporator are sequentially connected in an annular manner; and a discharge air passage And an exhaust air passage, an air blower, and a blower circuit formed by annularly connecting the air blown by the air blower to the outer tub, the exhaust air passage, the evaporator, the condenser, and the air blower. A clothes drying apparatus provided with intake air temperature reducing means on the air inlet side of the evaporator.   The clothes drying apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a drain pan positioned at a lower portion of the evaporator; and an evaporation promoting unit that is installed in the drain pan and sucks up water in the drain pan by a capillary phenomenon. apparatus.   As the intake air temperature reduction means, a water intake port for the drain pan, a pump for feeding water from the drain pan, and a water spray pipe for spraying water fed by the pump to an air inlet of the evaporator are provided. Item 2. A clothing drying apparatus according to Item 1.

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