JP3117270B2 - Washing machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a washing machine capable of detecting abnormal vibration of a dewatering tub.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in a washing machine that also serves as a dehydrator, a dehydrating tub also serving as a washing tub is driven to rotate by a motor, and the laundry is dehydrated by centrifugal force.

[0003] However, during the dehydration, the dehydration tub may cause abnormal vibration due to the offset of the stored laundry, and if it becomes excessive, damage to the outer box and other problems may be caused. For example, an abnormal vibration detecting means of a lever type is provided, and when abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub is detected thereby, it is immediately determined that abnormal vibration has occurred, and necessary measures such as stopping the dehydration operation are taken. What has been offered.

[0004]

However, the abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub is often detected at the beginning of the dehydration operation. On the other hand, in the above conventional apparatus, when the abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub is detected. However, since it is immediately determined that abnormal vibration has occurred and necessary measures are taken, the operation does not proceed smoothly, and as a result, many problems such as a prolonged time to the end of operation have occurred. Was.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and accordingly, an object of the present invention is to determine the occurrence of abnormal vibration even when abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub is detected. An object of the present invention is to provide a washing machine capable of making a determination only in a situation where the determination needs to be made without performing the determination.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a washing machine according to the present invention has a dehydration tub which is rotated by a motor and dehydrates laundry. together comprising abnormal vibration detecting means for detecting the abnormal vibration, comprising a laundry volume detecting means for detecting the amount of laundry and abnormal vibration criteria of abnormal vibration of the dewatering tank from the detection result by the amount of laundry detecting means Detection times
The product of the number or time of abnormal vibrations of the dehydration tank detected by the abnormal vibration detecting means determined by the number or the integrated value of the detection time
It is characterized by comprising abnormal vibration determining means for determining that abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub has occurred when the calculated value reaches the standard.

[0007]

The vibration mode of the dewatering tub during dehydration differs depending on the amount of laundry. For example, when the amount of laundry is large, the vibration of the dehydration tub increases after the start of dehydration and continues to increase thereafter. On the other hand, when the amount of the laundry is small, the vibration of the dehydration tub increases in one or two rotations immediately after the start of the dehydration, but thereafter, the laundry is quickly dehydrated and the load is reduced. It doesn't get too big.

Therefore, when the abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub is detected by the abnormal vibration detecting means, it should be immediately determined that abnormal vibration has occurred in a situation where the amount of laundry is large, but in a situation where the amount of laundry is small. Then, it should not be immediately determined that the abnormal vibration has occurred, but the determination should be made after waiting as necessary.

In view of this, not only abnormal vibration detecting means for detecting abnormal vibration of the dehydrating tub but also laundry amount detecting means for detecting the amount of laundry is provided. The criterion is the number of times that
The product of the number or time of abnormal vibrations of the dehydration tank detected by the abnormal vibration detecting means determined by the number or the integrated value of the detection time
When the calculated value reaches the standard, it is determined that abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub has occurred. This makes it possible to make an accurate determination according to the amount of laundry and prolong the operation time. Can be avoided.

[0010]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, FIG. 2 shows the structure of a washing machine, especially a washing machine for both dehydration, in which a water receiving tub 2 is provided in an outer box 1 while being supported by an elastic suspension mechanism 3. A dewatering tub 4 also serving as a washing tub is provided. The dewatering tank 4 has a large number of dewatering holes 5 on the peripheral side, and a stirring body 6 is disposed on the inner bottom.

A drive mechanism 8 mainly composed of a motor 7 is provided below the water receiving tank 2 so that the dewatering tank 4 and the stirring member 6 are selectively driven to rotate. I have. In addition, a drain valve 9 and a drain hose 10 for draining water from the inside of the water receiving tank 2 are provided below the water receiving tank 2.

On the other hand, a top cover 11 is mounted on the outer box 1, and a water supply valve 12 for supplying water into the dewatering tub 4 is provided inside the rear part of the outer cover 1, and a water level in the water receiving tub 2 is controlled. A water level sensor 13 to be detected is provided.
Is arranged.

The switch 14 constitutes an abnormal vibration detecting means 16 together with the lever 15, and the lever 15 is suspended at a position outside the water receiving tank 2 below the outside of the top cover 11.
The upper part is provided so as to be rotatable in the lateral direction indicated by arrow A. In this structure, when the dewatering tub 4 abnormally vibrates, the water receiving tub 2 vibrates to the position shown by the two-dot chain line in the figure, and hits the lever 15 to rotate the lever 15 in the lateral direction shown by the arrow A. The switch 14 is actuated in response to the detection, and abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub 4 is detected.

Next, FIG. 3 shows an electric circuit configuration of the washing machine. In this electric circuit configuration, a commercial AC power supply 17 is rectified and smoothed by a rectifying / smoothing circuit 18 and output as a DC low voltage power supply for an electronic circuit including a control circuit 20 by a constant voltage circuit 19. ing. The control circuit 20 functions as abnormal vibration determination means, is mainly composed of a microcomputer, and includes various A / D converters (not shown in detail).

The AC power supply 17 is connected to the water supply valve 12 via a triac 21, the drain valve 9 is connected via a triac 22, and the drive mechanism is further connected via triacs 23 and 24. 8 motor 7 is connected. Further, the motor 7 is provided with a phase difference detecting circuit 25 functioning as a laundry amount detecting means.

The phase difference detection circuit 25 is provided with
The load applied to the motor 7 when the agitator 6 is rotated with water and laundry stored therein is detected from the phase difference between the current and the voltage, and the detection signal is output as a laundry amount detection signal. More specifically, the current Im flowing to the motor 7 is detected by the current transformer 26, and the detected current Im is detected.
Is converted to a voltage and applied to the non-inverting input terminal (+) of the comparator 27, while the voltage Vac of the AC power supply 17 is divided and applied to the non-inverting input terminal (+) of the comparator 28.
The inverting input terminals (-) of these comparators 27 and 28
Is at ground potential. And those comparators 2
Exclusive OR circuit 29
Of the exclusive OR circuit 29
Is output to an integrating circuit 30, and the output signal of the integrating circuit 30 is applied to an input terminal of an A / D converter provided in the control circuit 20.

More specifically, the comparators 27 and 28
Represents the detection current Im and the power supply voltage Vac as shown in FIG.
, And the exclusive OR circuit 29 outputs a phase difference pulse Vθ corresponding to the phase difference θ between the pulses Vv and Vi. Then, the average voltage V of the phase difference pulse Vθ is calculated by the integration circuit 30.
θa, and outputs the averaged phase difference detection voltage Vθa
Is converted into a digital phase difference detection signal by the A / D converter of the control circuit 20 and supplied to the microcomputer as a laundry amount detection signal. The microcomputer calculates the laundry amount based on the laundry amount detection signal, for example. "Less than 1 kg", "1-2 kg", "2-
3 kg "and four stages of" exceeding 3 kg ".

The control circuit 20 further includes an input from a key input unit 31 having a course selection switch, a start switch, and the like, an input from the water level sensor 13,
In addition, the microcomputer 14 of the control circuit 20 is configured to provide inputs from the switch 14 of the abnormal vibration detecting means 16 based on those inputs and a control program stored in advance.
The control of the operation of the water supply valve 12, the drain valve 9, and the motor 7 and the operation of the display unit 32 are controlled at the same time.

The contents of control of the control circuit 20 by the microcomputer will be described below.

As shown in FIG. 1, the microcomputer of the control circuit 20 determines whether or not the start switch has been operated at the beginning of the operation (step S).
1) When it is determined that the operation has been performed, the water supply valve 12 is opened to supply water up to the laundry level detection water level (step S2).

Next, the motor 7 is started and the agitator 6 is rotated by the drive mechanism 8.
5 is performed to detect the laundry amount (step S3). Then, based on the detection result, the water level for washing and rinsing is set (step S4), and then the water supply valve 12 is opened to supply water to the set water level (step S4).
5).

After the water supply, the motor 7 is started and the agitator 6 is fully rotated by the drive mechanism 8 to perform "washing" (step S6). Thereafter, "water discharge" and "water supply" not shown. , And “rinse” in this order to perform “dehydration”.

In the "dehydration" step, first, the abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub 4
As a definition of the acceptance criteria, it is in this case, as shown in FIG. 5, the detection amount of laundry is if "less than 1kg"
The detection limit number N of abnormal vibration of the dewatering tank 4 is set to “4”,
The determination is performed by setting "3" for "1-2 kg", "2" for "2-3 kg", and "1" for "over 3 kg" (step S7).

Next, the drain valve 9 is opened (step S).
8) In this state, it is determined whether or not the water level in the water receiving tank 2 has reached the reset water level based on the input from the water level sensor 13 (step S9). The dehydration tub 4 is rotated at a high speed together with the stirring body 6 by the drive mechanism 8 in this case (step S10).

Then, in that situation, the abnormal vibration detecting means 1
It is determined whether or not the number of times of detection of the abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub 4 reaches the limit number N based on the input from the switch 14 of step 6 (step S11). It is determined whether or not the time has expired (step S12). As soon as it is determined that the time has expired, the motor 7 is stopped (step S13), and the operation is terminated.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S11 that the number of times of detection of abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub 4 reaches the limit number N while it is determined that the specified time for dehydration has not expired, When it is determined that abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub 4 has occurred, the dewatering operation is stopped by stopping the motor 7 (step S14), and the water supply valve 12 is opened instead (step S15). Water supply is performed until it is determined that the water level has reached the specified water level (step S
16) Further, the motor 7 is started, and the stirring mechanism 6 is rotated by the drive mechanism 8, whereby the laundry in the dehydration tub 4 is loosened (step S17). And
Thereafter, the process returns to step S8, and the dehydration operation is restarted.

As described above, according to the present construction, not only the abnormal vibration detecting means 16 for detecting abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub 4 but also the phase difference detecting circuit 25 (the laundry amount detecting means) for detecting the amount of laundry. ), Based on the detection result of the phase difference detection circuit 25, the microcomputer of the control circuit 20 determines the number of times of detection of abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub 4 (judgment criterion), and the abnormal vibration detecting means 16 When the detected abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub 4 reaches the limit number of times, it is determined that the abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub 4 has occurred.

This is for the following reason. In other words, the vibration mode of the dewatering tub 4 during dehydration differs depending on the amount of laundry. For example, when the amount of laundry is large,
The vibration increases after the start of dehydration and continues to increase thereafter. On the other hand, when the amount of the laundry is small, the vibration of the dehydration tub 4 increases in one or two rotations immediately after the start of the dehydration, but thereafter, the laundry is quickly dehydrated to reduce the load. , Not too big.

Therefore, when the abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub 4 is detected by the abnormal vibration detecting means 16, in a situation where the amount of the laundry is large, it should be immediately determined that the abnormal vibration has occurred. It is possible to quickly prevent damage to the outer box 1 and other problems due to excessive vibration of the outer box 1.

On the other hand, in a situation where the amount of laundry is small, it should not be immediately determined that abnormal vibrations have occurred, but the determination should be made after waiting as long as necessary. It is possible to avoid as much as possible the occurrence of a problem that the time until the time is prolonged.

Further, the vibration of the dewatering tub 4 includes not only so-called lateral vibration but also vertical vibration. When this longitudinal vibration occurs, the rotation speed of the dewatering tub 4 does not easily increase, and the dewatering efficiency decreases. Would. In order to detect the longitudinal vibration, since the longitudinal vibration is accompanied by the transverse vibration having a small amplitude, it is sufficient to detect the small transverse vibration. To this end, the abnormal vibration detecting means 16 detects the abnormal vibration of the dewatering tank 4. What is necessary is just to make it detect sensitively. However, in the conventional one,
If the abnormal vibration detecting means 16 is made sensitive, as is apparent from the above, a so-called erroneous determination is made when the amount of laundry is small.

On the other hand, in the above-described configuration, even when the amount of laundry is small, an accurate determination can be made by a suitable criterion. Therefore, the abnormal vibration detecting means 16 may be made sensitive. Longitudinal vibration can be detected as desired, and the dewatering efficiency can be improved.

[0034] It should be noted that the acceptance criteria of abnormal vibration of de-water tank 4,
It is not limited to the limit number of times of detection of the abnormal vibration, and may be an integrated value of the detection time of the abnormal vibration (the operation time of the switch 14).

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings. In particular, as a whole, the present invention is similarly applied to a washing machine other than the dewatering / washing machine, for example, a two-tub washing machine. For example, the present invention can be carried out with appropriate modifications without departing from the gist.

[0036]

As is apparent from the above description, the washing machine of the present invention has a dehydration tub that is rotated by a motor to dehydrate laundry, and detects an abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub. In addition to the vibration detecting means, it is provided with a laundry amount detecting means for detecting the amount of the laundry, and based on the detection result by the laundry amount detecting means, the criterion for the abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub is set as the number of times or the detection time of the abnormal vibration Integrated value of
In defining that equipped abnormal vibration determining means for determining the occurrence of the abnormal vibration of the dewatering tank detected by the detecting means abnormal integrated value of the number or time of vibration abnormalities dewatering tank when it reaches its normal vibration It can accurately judge the abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub according to the amount of laundry, and not only can prevent damage to the outer box and other problems quickly, but also, especially, drive as much as possible An excellent effect is achieved that can prevent the occurrence of problems such as prolonged time until the end of operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cutaway side view of the entire washing machine.

FIG. 3 is an electrical configuration diagram

FIG. 4 is a waveform chart for explaining the operation of the phase difference detection circuit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a detected laundry amount and a dehydration tub abnormal vibration determination criterion.

[Explanation of symbols]

4 is a dewatering tank, 7 is a motor, 16 is abnormal vibration detecting means, 2
Reference numeral 0 denotes a control circuit (abnormal vibration determination means), and reference numeral 25 denotes a phase difference detection circuit (laundry amount detection means).

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiyuki Makino 4-21 Yoshihara-cho, Nishi-ku, Nagoya-shi Toshiba Abu E Co., Ltd. Nagoya Office (56) References Japanese Utility Model 3-111280 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) D06F 33/02 D06F 49/02

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An abnormal vibration detecting means for detecting abnormal vibration of the dewatering tub, and a laundry amount detecting means for detecting an amount of the laundry; And the determination of abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub based on the detection result by the laundry amount detecting means.
The reference is determined by the number of times of detection of abnormal vibration or the integrated value of the detection time, and when the number of times or time of the abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub detected by the abnormal vibration detection means reaches the criterion, abnormal vibration of the dehydration tub is reached. A washing machine comprising abnormal vibration judging means for judging occurrence of a vibration.