JPH0475040B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to irons used in general households;
Especially regarding irons that prevent you from forgetting to turn them off.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, as an iron to prevent forgetting to turn off the power, there is an iron that detects the movement of the iron during use to detect whether the iron is in use or not in use.

In other words, a combination of an optical sensor and a ball takes advantage of the fact that the ball moves due to the movement of the iron.
The usage status was determined by turning the optical sensor signal on and off.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention The conventional iron as described above requires a sensor for determining use/non-use, which is disadvantageous in terms of cost and implementation.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and provides a mechanism to prevent forgetting to turn off the power, which is highly effective in determining whether the iron is in use or not, without requiring a sensor to determine whether the iron is in use or not. It provides a portable iron.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a heater for heating the iron base, a water tank for generating steam, and a heater installed in two places, one near the evaporation chamber of the iron base and another. A temperature detection element, a power control device that controls the heater with a signal from one of the temperature detection elements, and a calculation result between the signal from the power control device and the signal from the other temperature detection element, determine whether dry use or steam The iron is equipped with an arithmetic control device that determines whether the iron is in use and whether the iron is in use or not for each of dry and steam use, and turns off the heater using a power control device if the iron is not in use. .

Function The above iron has two temperature detection elements installed in the vicinity of the evaporation chamber of the iron base and in other locations, so that it can determine whether the iron is used dry or with steam, and whether the iron is used in dry or steam mode. It is possible to reliably determine whether the device is in an unused state or not.

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

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram, and 1 is a heater, which is designed to heat an iron base 2. Associated with the evaporation chamber in the iron base 2 is a water tank 3 into which water is dripped to generate steam when the iron is used in a steam state. A first temperature detection element 4 is provided near the center of the iron base 2 when the tip of the iron base is not easily affected by steam, and the temperature of the surface of the iron base 2 is controlled by its signal. A second temperature sensing element 5 is provided.
The second temperature sensing element 5 is easily influenced by steam, and can detect a sudden drop in the temperature of the base surface when steam is generated. A power control device 6 is inserted into the energization circuit of the heater 1, and this power control device 6 turns the heater 1 ON and OFF in response to a signal from the second temperature detection element 5 to keep the temperature of the iron base surface constant. It works like this. The arithmetic control device 7 calculates the signals of the second temperature detection element 5 and the power control device 6, that is, calculates the ON time and OFF time of the power control device 6,
When it is determined that the user has forgotten to turn off the power, a signal is sent to the power control device 6 to turn off the heater 1.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the temperature control circuit. R _th
is a temperature sensing element, in this case a thermistor. R ₁ , R ₂ , and R ₃ are resistors, which together with the temperature sensing element R _th constitute a bridge circuit. IC ₁ is a comparator that compares the divided voltage V _- of R _th and R ₁ with the divided voltage V ₊ of R ₂ and R ₃ . As the temperature of the iron base surface increases, the resistance value of R _th decreases, and the voltage V _- increases.

When the temperature is low and V _- is smaller than V ₊ , the output voltage of comparator IC ₁ is high level, the base current flows through resistor R ₅ to the base of transistor Q ₁ from the output of IC ₁ , and transistor Q ₁ is turned on. do. The coil of relay RL is connected to the collector of transistor Q ₁ , and transistor Q ₁ is turned on.
Then, relay RL is also turned on.

Contact part 9 of relay RL turns on when RL turns on,
A current flows through the heater 1 from a power source 8 to heat the heater. As the base temperature of the iron increases and V _- becomes higher and V _- becomes greater than V ₊ , the comparator
The output of IC ₁ becomes low level, and transistor Q ₁
turns OFF and relay RL also turns OFF. Therefore, contact 9 also opens, cutting off the current to heater 1. FIG. 3 shows this heater temperature control state.

t is the heater temperature. V _R is the voltage across the relay coil, and when it is at a high level, the relay RL is ON.
Relay RL is OFF when it is at low level.

Figure 4 is a diagram of the iron body, with 15 being an iron base with a built-in heater, 12 being a water tank, and 1 being a water tank.
Numeral 4 is a hole for dripping water into an evaporation chamber 16 provided in the iron base, and numeral 13 is a rod for making and stopping water dripping into the evaporation chamber 16. When the rod 13 is raised, the hole opens and water drips. When the rod 13 is lowered, the hole closes, water stops dripping, and steam generation stops.

17 is steam. 11 is the handle part, 1
0 is the power cord.

FIG. 5 is a view of the base surface of the iron. 1
is the temperature of the heater, and _t1 is the temperature of the center of the iron base surface, which is detected by the temperature detection element 5. Temperature sensing element 5
The signal is sent to the power control device 6, which controls the heater 1.
Turn on and off to control temperature. In addition, the temperature t ₁ is easily affected by steam because the evaporation chamber is nearby, and when steam is generated, t ₁ drops rapidly.

Temperature t ₂ is the temperature at the tip of the iron base surface,
It is not affected by steam much.

The operation of one embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. When the power is turned on at start, the relay turns on.
Then, the heater temperature rises (step 18). The temperature detection element detects this, and when the predetermined temperature is reached, the relay is turned off (step 19). Measure the time T ₀ until this relay turns OFF for the first time, and remove it. When the base temperature drops, the relay is activated again.
Turn on (step 20). At this time, temperature data t ₁ and t ₂ are taken at the center and tip of the iron base surface. When the temperature rises and exceeds a predetermined temperature, the relay will
OFF (step 21), the base surface temperature decreases,
The relay is turned ON again (step 22). The relay is
The time of turning ON and OFF is defined as one cycle, and the time T of this one cycle is measured (Step 23). Next, it is determined whether it is 3 cycles (step 24), and 3 cycles are determined.
If it is a cycle, the data T ₁ , T ₂ , and T ₃ are taken (step 25). If it is not 3 cycles, step 21
Return to the previous section. Here, 3 cycles of data T ₁ ,
Check whether the data of two or more of T ₂ and T ₃ exceeds the specified time (in this case, 2 minutes) (step
26). If the specified time has elapsed, it is determined that the iron is not in use (step 27).

When in use, (temperature t ₂ at the tip of the base) −
(Temperature t ₁ at the center of the base) (step
28). If this is positive, it is determined that steam is not generated (dry use). Next, measure the relay ON or OFF time t' ₁ at the center of the base, the relay ON or OFF time t' ₂ corresponding to the temperature at which the relay turns ON or OFF at the tip of the base, and calculate A = (t' ₂ - t ' ₁ )
Calculate OFF−(t′ ₂ −t′ ₁ )ON (step 29).
Three pieces of data A ₁ , A ₂ , A ₃ of this calculation result A are obtained (step 30). Sum of squared deviations S _A of A ₁ , A ₂ , A ₃
(Step 31). Then, it is checked whether S _A is larger than a certain specified value B (step 32). S _A
>B, it is determined that it is in use (step 38), and if S _A <B, it is determined that it is not used. Return to step 28 and t ₂
If −t ₁ is negative, it is determined that it is being used by steam.
From then on, follow the same algorithm as for dry use, calculate result A at step 33, and calculate result 3 at step 34.
Obtain data A ₁ , A ₂ , A ₃ . In step 35, the sum of squared deviations S _A is calculated. Then, it is checked whether S _A is larger than a certain specified value C (step 36), and it is determined whether it is in use (step 40) or not in use (step 39).

If it is determined that the heater is not in use and the power has been on for a certain period of time, it is determined that the heater has been turned off and the heater is turned off.

As described above, with this configuration, it is possible to detect the use or non-use state using the temperature control signal without providing a separate use/non-use detection switch, and it is also possible to reliably detect the use/non-use state even in a steam state. , it is possible to perform forget-to-disconnect detection that is inexpensive and easy to use.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above embodiments, whether the iron of the present invention is used dryly or with steam, it can be determined whether the iron is in a used state or not by using two temperature detection elements. This system reliably determines the temperature of the iron and turns off the heater if it is not in use, making it possible to provide an easy-to-use and safe iron.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure shows an example of the temperature control circuit, Fig. 3 shows the base temperature characteristics during temperature control, Fig. 4 shows the main body of the iron,
FIG. 5 is a diagram of temperature measurement of the iron base, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example of detecting use/non-use status. 1... Heater, 2... Iron base, 3...
Water tank, 4... First temperature sensing element, 5... Second temperature sensing element, 6... Power control device, 7...
Arithmetic control unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A heater for heating the iron base, a water tank for steam generation, and temperature detection elements installed in two places, one near the evaporation chamber of the iron base and another, and a signal from either of the temperature detection elements to turn on the heater. Based on the calculation result of the controlling power control device, the signal from the power control device, and the signal from the other temperature detection element, it is determined whether the iron is used for dry use or steam use, and whether the iron is used or not for each use of dry and steam use. If the heater is not in use, the power control device turns the heater on.
An iron that has a calculation control device that turns off.