JPH0116174B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to washing machines such as dishwashers and washing machines that utilize foam.

Conventional structure and its problems Conventional cleaning machines that use foam cleaning pump air into the cleaning liquid to generate foam, and supply the generated foam one after another to the cleaning tank to clean the objects placed in the cleaning tank. The item to be cleaned is immersed in the foam, and the item to be cleaned is brought into contact with the foam.
At this time, the detergency of the surfactant, the foam-breaking action of the foam,
The dirt components on the object to be cleaned were removed by the mechanical force caused by the abrasion of the bubbles. Therefore, cleaning always requires contact between the object to be cleaned and the foam.

However, since the foam from which dirt has been removed (foam from which dirt has been dissolved) contains components other than surfactants with low surface tension, it has a significant foam-breaking effect in the areas that come into contact with the object to be cleaned. I will receive it. Although this foam-breaking effect is desirable in terms of improving the cleaning effect, since the foam does not rise above the foam-broken surface, it is difficult to prevent bubbles from rising above the surface of the foam-broken surface. Some of the items to be cleaned will not be immersed in the foam and will not be cleaned easily.
To explain in more detail, in foam cleaning, cleaning starts from the lowest contact surface of the object to be cleaned, which has dirt, and this surface becomes the foam-broken surface. Once this contact surface has been cleaned to some extent, the bubble-broken surface moves to the next contact surface. This is repeated one after another until the top is cleaned. Therefore, it generally takes a long time to clean the objects located at the top, depending on the amount of dirt. This phenomenon was particularly noticeable in dishwashers used to wash dirty dishes, etc., which contain a large amount of dirt components and a large amount of oil, fat, and protein that have a remarkable foam-breaking effect. In order to shorten this time, it is effective to increase the amount of air blown, but when the amount of air blown is increased, the amount of detergent used increases and the noise level also increases.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves these conventional problems and provides a washing machine for foam washing that significantly shortens the washing time without increasing the amount of detergent used.

Structure of the Invention A cleaning machine using foam according to the present invention includes a cleaning tank that stores an object to be cleaned, a foaming device that foams a cleaning liquid and supplies the foam to the cleaning tank, and a discharge path that discharges the foam from the upper part of the cleaning tank. The detergent is used in such a manner that the amount of foam supplied after the cleaning tank is substantially filled with foam is smaller than the amount of foam supplied from the start of foam supply until the cleaning tank is substantially filled with foam. The amount is reduced and the cleaning time is shortened.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a cleaning tank for storing objects to be cleaned 2a and 2b, and at the bottom of the cleaning tank 1 there is provided a foaming device comprising a foaming board 3, a blower device 4, a check valve 5, and the like. This foaming device is operated to blow air into the cleaning liquid 6 to foam the cleaning liquid 6, gradually filling the cleaning liquid 2a stored in the lower stage from the bottom to the top, and supplying it to the cleaning tank 1 to perform foam cleaning. . 7 is a rack that supports the object to be cleaned, 8 is the object to be cleaned 2 after foam cleaning.
A water sprinkling device 9 sprinkles water on the surfaces a and 2b to perform rinsing, and 9 is provided at the top of the cleaning tank, and includes a foam detector 10 that detects foam flowing through the discharge path 9, which is a discharge path for discharging foam to the outside of the cleaning tank. We are prepared.

As an embodiment of the bubble detector 10 is shown in FIG. 2, it is composed of a pair of metal electrodes 11a and 11b, and is attached to the discharge path 9 via insulating plates 12a and 12b. Reference numeral 13 denotes a defoaming device installed on the downstream side of the foam detector 10, which defoams foam and collects the foam into the cleaning tank 1 as a cleaning liquid 6;
Discharge outside. 14 is a heater for heating the cleaning liquid, and 15 is a drain valve.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

After the objects 2a and 2b to be cleaned are stored in the cleaning tank 1 and the cleaning liquid 6 is supplied, a switch (not shown) is turned on to energize the heater 14 and heat the cleaning liquid 6.
When the cleaning liquid 6 reaches a predetermined temperature and the blower device 4 operates, air A is supplied to the cleaning liquid 6, bubbles B are generated, and the bubbles B fill the cleaning tank 1 from below. The generated foam B comes into contact with the objects 2a, 2b to be cleaned and washes the objects 2a, 2b, and the objects 2a, 2b washed by the foam are rinsed with fresh water from the water sprinkler 8. Finish cleaning.

FIG. 3 shows the relationship between the amount of air blown, the foam filling time, and the washing time until the dishes can be washed. Curve C shows the relationship between the amount of air blown and the foam filling time, curve D shows the relationship between the amount of air blown and the cleaning time, and curve E shows the cleaning time after the foam is filled, that is, D-C. Note that the washing conditions are as follows. Cleaning: 0.5% enzyme-containing anionic surfactant. Washing temperature: 60℃. Amount of tableware:
Serves 6 people. Dirt: egg yolk, beef tallow, starch. Equipment used: A commercially available dishwasher (NP5400 manufactured by Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd.) modified for foam cleaning. The foam filling time was defined as the time when the cleaning tank 9 was filled with foam and the foam entered the discharge path 9, and the cleaning time was defined as the time from when the switch was turned on until the end of rinsing.

As is clear from Fig. 3, there is a correlation between the air flow rate, that is, the foam supply amount, the cleaning time D, and the foam filling time C, and as the air flow rate increases, that is, the foam supply amount increases, both times It becomes shorter. However, it can be seen that the time E from when the foam is filled until the end of cleaning does not vary greatly depending on the amount of air blown, that is, the amount of foam supplied. This is because most of the dirt is removed by the cleaning power of the detergent and the mechanical force caused by rubbing the foam during the process of filling the foam, and after the foam is filled, only a small amount of the remaining dirt is removed. It is thought that there is not much foam-breaking effect, and most of the foam is discharged by simply passing through the object that has already been cleaned.

Therefore, we conducted an experiment by increasing the amount of air blown to increase the amount of foam supplied until the cleaning tank 9 was filled with bubbles after the start of cleaning, and then decreasing the amount of air blown to reduce the amount of foam supplied after the cleaning tank 9 was filled with foam. I went to As a result, the cleaning time was exactly the same as when cleaning was performed without reducing the air flow rate, that is, by supplying a large amount of foam from the start to the end of cleaning, and the results were plotted on curve D in Figure 3. . For example, after starting cleaning, continue to increase the air flow to 200.
/min, the time required to fill the bubbles is 10
The washing time was 22 minutes. After starting to wash this
Blow air at 200/min for 10 minutes to fill with bubbles.
When the air flow rate was then lowered to 50/min, the cleaning time was also 22 minutes.

In this way, even if the air flow rate is reduced after the cleaning tank 1 is filled with foam, the cleaning time does not change, so a large amount of foam is supplied with a large air flow rate until the cleaning tank 1 is filled with foam. However, after filling, it becomes possible to clean by reducing the amount of air blown and the amount of foam supplied. By the way, at the stage when a large amount of foam is being supplied, the foam breaks down on the dirty surface of the object to be cleaned 8, so the cleaning tank 1 is not filled with foam all at once, but gradually fills up, and in the process, the discharge path 9 is filled with foam. There is no foam discharge from. When the cleaning tank 1 is filled with bubbles, the bubbles pass through the discharge path 9, the passage of the bubbles is detected by the bubble detector 10, and the bubbles are further defoamed by the defoamer 13 and discharged. Note that if the bubble detector 10 detects passage of bubbles, the bubble generator is controlled to reduce the amount of air blown. If the air flow rate remains large even after the cleaning tank 1 is filled with foam, the bubbles in the cleaning tank 1 will hardly be broken, and all the foamed foam will be discharged outside the cleaning tank, reducing the amount of detergent used. becomes enormous. However, once the cleaning tank 1 is filled with foam, the supply of foam can be reduced, so if the air flow rate is reduced, the amount of foam discharged will also be reduced, which will naturally reduce the amount of detergent used. can do. Further, when the air flow rate is reduced, the noise is also reduced.

Note that if you clean at 50/min from the beginning, it will take 55 minutes for cleaning tank 1 to fill with bubbles, which will shorten the cleaning time.
Since it takes 80 minutes or more, increasing the air flow from the start of cleaning until the air is filled with bubbles can shorten the cleaning time.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the foam-using cleaning machine of the present invention reduces the amount of foam supplied after the cleaning tank is filled with foam, so the cleaning time can be significantly shortened without increasing the amount of detergent used. It is advantageous in terms of resource saving and pollution, and has great industrial value. It is particularly useful for dishwashers, which contain many soiling components and many foam-breaking components.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a front sectional view of an embodiment of the foam-based cleaning machine of the present invention, Figure 2 is a side sectional view of the foam detector of the same foam-based cleaning machine, and Figure 3 is the air flow rate and foam filling. It is a figure showing the relationship between time and cleaning time. 1...Cleaning tank, 3...Foam board, 4...Blower device, 9...Discharge path.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A washing tank that stores an object to be cleaned, a foaming device that foams a cleaning liquid and supplies foam to the cleaning tank, and a discharge path that discharges foam from the upper part of the cleaning tank, and starts supplying foam. A cleaning machine that uses foam, in which the amount of foam supplied after the cleaning tank is substantially filled with foam is smaller than the amount of foam supplied until the cleaning tank is substantially filled with foam. 2. A cleaning machine using foam according to claim 1, wherein a foam detector is provided in the discharge path, and the foam detector detects foam and changes the amount of foam supplied.