KR100695173B1 - Dishwasher with sensor for detecting detergent concentration and dish washing method using it - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are a dish washing machine having an improved rinsing function and a dish washing method using the same. The disclosed dishwasher includes a detergent liquid spraying unit for spraying detergent liquid onto the dishes stored in the chamber, a washing water spraying unit for spraying rinsing water, a conductivity measuring sensor for measuring the conductivity of the wastewater exiting the drainage channel of the chamber, and a conductivity It is provided with a controller for calculating the detergent concentration in the wastewater from the value measured by the measuring sensor and operating the washing water spraying unit accordingly. Since the dishwasher measures the detergent concentration during rinsing and proceeds with rinsing accordingly, the dishwasher can solve the problem of leaving detergent stains on the dishes and prevent unnecessary waste of water.

Description

A dishwasher providing sensor for measuring detergent concentration and dishwashing method using the chip sensor}

1 is a view showing the configuration of a dish washer according to the present invention,

2 is a view illustrating a conductivity measuring sensor for detecting detergent concentration in the dish washing machine shown in FIG. 1;

3 is a flow chart illustrating a washing process using the dish washing machine shown in FIG.

<Description of Symbols for Major Parts of Drawings>

1 ... tableware 10 ... chamber

20 Detergent spray unit 30 ...

40 nozzle head 50 drain

60 conductivity sensor 70 controller

The present invention relates to a dishwasher and a dishwashing method using the same, and more particularly, to an improved dishwasher and a washing method for preventing dish contamination by residual detergent by accurately measuring the concentration of a detergent and reflecting the rinsing operation.

In general, the dishwasher is an automatic dishwashing device made for the reduction of household work, it is composed of a washing process in the order of rinsing and drying after washing the contaminants by spraying detergent liquid to the dishes loaded in the chamber. Such a series of processes are usually carried out by sequence control, and the process of spraying, rinsing and drying the detergent solution is sequentially performed based on the operating time and the number of times.

By the way, even after the cleaning is finished, the dishes should be clean, even if the detergent is rinsed sufficiently, if the amount of detergent is not matched well, detergent stains may come out as it is. This leads to inconvenience of having to rinse the dishes again by hand, and increases the user's distrust in the performance of the dishwasher. On the contrary, even though a sufficient rinse has already been performed, the rinsing process may be repeated to waste unnecessary washing water. These problems are caused because the conventional dishwasher is a sequence control method that proceeds the cleaning process in a predetermined order as described above. That is, since the washing process is performed only according to a predetermined time or number of times, rather than checking the rinsing state and proceeding with the washing, problems such as poor washing or wasting of washing water may occur when the set value is not appropriate.

Therefore, in order to give users confidence in the cleaning performance, a new type of dish washer and cleaning method that can solve the problem of the rinsing process is required.

The present invention has been made in view of the above necessity, and an object thereof is to provide a dishwasher with a more reasonable and effective improvement of a rinsing function so that detergent stains do not remain on the dish after washing.

The dishwasher of the present invention for achieving the above object, the chamber containing the dishes to be washed; A detergent liquid spraying unit for spraying a detergent liquid on the dishes stored in the chamber; A washing water spraying unit spraying the washing water for rinsing on the dishes stored in the chamber; A conductivity measuring sensor for measuring conductivity of wastewater exiting the drainage channel of the chamber; And a controller configured to calculate the detergent concentration in the wastewater from the value measured by the conductivity measuring sensor and to operate the washing water spraying unit accordingly.

The conductivity measuring sensor may be a chip sensor having a chip that detects conductivity by being in direct contact with the wastewater, and the chip sensor is preferably configured so that a plurality of chips may be mounted and used one by one.

In addition, the dish washing method of the present invention for achieving the above object, the detergent liquid spraying step of spraying the detergent liquid to the dishes stored in the chamber, and rinsing step of washing the detergent liquid on the dish by spraying the washing water It includes, The rinsing step, by measuring the conductivity of the waste water flowing out of the chamber to determine the detergent concentration, characterized in that to spray the rinsing washing water according to the result.

The rinsing step may include a pre-measuring step of measuring the conductivity of the wastewater before spraying the washing water, calculating a detergent concentration, and setting the low concentration washing mode and the high concentration washing mode according to the result of the pre-measuring step, and the low concentration washing mode. It is preferable to include the step of performing the control of the feedback of the measurement and washing until the concentration is less than the set detergent concentration by continuously measuring the conductivity of the waste water while the washing in one of the high concentration washing mode.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to this, terms or words used in the present specification and claims should not be construed as being limited to the common or dictionary meanings, and the inventors should properly explain the concept of terms in order to best explain their own invention. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

1 shows a dish washer according to the present invention.

As shown, the chamber 10 in which the dishes 1 to be washed are accommodated, the detergent liquid spray unit 20 for spraying the detergent solution on the dishes 1 stored in the chamber 10, and rinsing A washing water spraying unit 30 for spraying washing water is provided. Accordingly, when the dish 1 to be washed is put in the chamber 10 and the dishwasher is operated, the detergent liquid is sprayed from the detergent liquid spraying unit 20 under the control of the controller 70 to remove contaminants from the dish 1. After the removal, and then rinse the washing water for rinsing in the washing water spray unit 30 to wash the detergent. The detergent liquid spray unit 20 includes a tank 21 and a pump 22 for storing the detergent liquid, and the nozzle head 40 in the chamber 10 by pumping the wash water with the washing water spray unit 30. It is provided with a wash water pump 31 for supplying. Here, the nozzle head 40 is used for both the detergent liquid injection and the washing water injection according to the selection of the valve 80, and the pumps 22 and 31 illustrate a structure in which the detergent liquid and the washing water are separately provided. In some cases, the nozzle head 40 may be separately installed and installed in each of the units 20 and 30, and the pumps 22 and 31 may be integrated into one unit.

In addition, the conductivity measuring sensor 60 for detecting the concentration of detergent by measuring the conductivity of the wastewater is installed in the drain passage 50 of the chamber 10. That is, the conventional dishwasher proceeds with the washing in a predetermined sequence according to the sequence flow, but the dishwasher of the present invention by using the conductivity measuring sensor 60 to measure the detergent concentration in the waste water and to perform the rinsing operation accordingly After washing, the stain of detergent on the tableware (1) is to be actively prevented. As the conductivity measuring sensor 60, a chip sensor such as a field effect transistor (FET) may be used. For example, as illustrated in FIG. Can be used. That is, when one of the various chips 61 installed in the disc 62 is exposed through the window 63a of the case 63 so as to be in contact with the wastewater, and mounted on the mounting portion 51 of the drainage passage 50, the exposure is performed. The chip 61 comes into contact with the wastewater to measure the conductivity, and the controller 70 receiving the signal calculates the detergent content from the conductivity value. This is because the detergent contains a lot of Na ⁺ ions. Therefore, the conductivity can be estimated by measuring the chip sensor. Then, after using the chip 61 several times, the disc 62 is rotated so that the next chip 61 is exposed to the window 63a so that the new chip 61 can be measured. This is to improve the ease of use by reducing the number of replacement of the sensor (60). That is, after using the chip 61 for a certain period of time, it is necessary to replace it with a new one so that accurate measurement can be continued. In this way, a plurality of chips 61 are installed on one disc 62 to rotate the disc 62 while the disc ( This is because by using the alternating 61, the frequency of having to open the mounting portion 51 of the drainage passage 50 and replace the conductivity measuring sensor 60 by that much. Reference numeral 52 denotes a drive gear which is coupled to the gear surface 62a of the disc 62 and is driven by the motor 53 to turn the disc 62 to be replaced by the chip 61. Reference numeral t denotes a connection terminal for electrically connecting the chip 61 of the master 62 and the controller 70.

The washing process using the dishwasher having such a configuration proceeds as shown in the flowchart shown in FIG. 3.

Once the dish 1 is put into the chamber 10 and the washing machine is operated, the detergent liquid is sprayed through the nozzle head 40 from the detergent spraying unit 20 to remove contaminants from the dish 1 (S1). ). Up to this point, the conventional dishwasher proceeds in the same manner.

Thereafter, a rinsing process including the features of the present invention is performed. First, the conductivity is measured from the wastewater of the drainage passage 50 in the conductivity measuring sensor 60 to measure the detergent concentration before the rinsing starts (S2). This is to grasp the detergent concentration in the wastewater before starting a full rinse and to differentially run the subsequent rinse mode accordingly. That is, when the measured value is higher than the first reference value set in advance (S3), the rinse is performed in the high concentration rinsing mode (S5), and in this case, the rinsing is performed in the low concentration rinsing mode (S4). The first reference value is set to the amount of standard detergent used. For example, when 1 gram of detergent per liter of water is referred to as the standard concentration, if it is detected that the content is less than that proceeds to a low concentration rinse mode, if it is exceeded it is to rinse in a high concentration rinse mode. The high rinse mode and the low rinse mode are performed by varying the rinse time or the number of rinses. That is, when a low concentration rinse is selected, for example, the rinse is performed for 1 minute, and when a high concentration rinse is selected, the rinsing is performed for 2 minutes to make a difference in the basic rinsing process. In this case, since the rinsing process basically changes depending on the measured detergent concentration, appropriate washing may be performed appropriately when the detergent is contained in a large amount and when the detergent is contained in a small amount. After completion of the basic rinsing, the conductivity of the wastewater is measured by the conductivity measuring sensor 60 again to determine whether the detergent concentration falls below the desired second reference value (S6). The second reference value is the final dilution concentration, and when it is below this, it is judged that the detergent is almost washed off. If it is not less than that instead, the additional rinsing process (S7) is repeated until the second reference value or less. That is, the feedback control continues. Then, when a signal is received from the conductivity measuring sensor 60 as the detergent content falls below the second reference value, the controller 70 ends the rinsing process and finishes the cleaning.

Therefore, since the detergent concentration in the wastewater is directly measured using the conductivity measuring sensor 60 and the rinsing process is performed according to the result, unnecessary waste of water does not occur and detergent stains remain.

On the other hand, here, but the example is a case in which the washing is completed by the rinsing process, if the dishwasher is added to the drying or sterilization function may be performed after the rinse the additional function.

Since the dishwasher according to the present invention measures the detergent concentration during rinsing and rinses accordingly, the dishwasher can solve the problem of leaving detergent stains on the dishes and prevent unnecessary waste of water.

As described above, although the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto and is intended by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of equivalents of the claims to be described.

Claims (5)

A chamber accommodating dishes to be washed; A detergent liquid spraying unit for spraying a detergent liquid on the dishes stored in the chamber; A washing water spraying unit spraying the washing water for rinsing on the dishes stored in the chamber; A conductivity measuring sensor for measuring conductivity of wastewater exiting the drainage channel of the chamber; And, And a controller configured to calculate the detergent concentration in the wastewater from the value measured by the conductivity measuring sensor and to operate the washing water spraying unit accordingly. The method of claim 1, The conductivity measuring sensor is a dishwasher, characterized in that the chip sensor having a chip for detecting the conductivity in direct contact with the waste water. The method of claim 2, The chip sensor is equipped with a plurality of chips, dishwasher, characterized in that can be used sequentially one by one. In the dish washing method comprising a detergent liquid spraying step of spraying the detergent liquid to the dishes stored in the chamber, and a rinsing step of washing the detergent liquid on the dish by spraying the washing water, The rinsing step, dishwashing method, characterized in that by measuring the conductivity of the waste water flowing out of the chamber to determine the detergent concentration, and spraying the rinsing wash water according to the result. The method of claim 4, wherein The rinsing step, A pre-measuring step of calculating the detergent concentration by measuring the conductivity of the wastewater before spraying the wash water, Setting the low concentration washing mode and the high concentration washing mode according to the result of the pre-measuring step; And continuously measuring the conductivity of the wastewater while performing the washing in one of the low concentration washing mode and the high concentration washing mode, and performing feedback control of the measuring and washing until the detergent concentration is lower than the set detergent concentration.

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