JPH0763557B2 - Dryer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a dryer that predicts and displays a drying operation time at the beginning of a drying operation.

(Prior Art) A conventional example of this type of dryer is, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-48.
There is one described in Japanese Patent No. 198. In this, the amount of material to be dried is determined by detecting the rise change of the exhaust gas temperature in the initial stage of the drying operation by a temperature sensor such as a thermistor, and based on the result, the drying operation time is predicted and displayed on the display, The displayed value is sequentially subtracted in units of 1 minute and displayed, and this displayed value is used as a guide for the remaining time required for the drying operation. Then, at the final stage of the drying operation, after the drying rate of the material to be dried reaches the specified value (95%), the time-controlled operation by the timer is executed to end the drying operation. In the inside, the control operation time is displayed on the display, and the displayed value is also sequentially subtracted in units of 1 minute and displayed.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) By the way, the display value of the display unit before shifting to the time control operation is merely an indication of the remaining time required for the drying operation,
Although the exact remaining required time is not displayed, the accurate remaining required time is displayed by the timer after shifting to the time control operation. However, since the time unit of the display value of the above-mentioned conventional device is the same time unit (1 minute unit) as before even after the time-controlled operation is shifted, the display of the display device is seen. However, it was not possible to distinguish whether or not the time-controlled operation was performed, and thus whether the displayed value was the reference time or the accurate time. Therefore, although the displayed value is actually the reference time before the time-controlled operation is started, it is easy for the user to mistake this as the correct time, which causes the displayed value to be incorrect. It was easy to misunderstand.

The present invention is intended to solve such problems,
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a dryer capable of easily discriminating whether the displayed value is a reference time or an accurate time and giving the user information about the remaining time required for the drying operation without misunderstanding.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving Problems) The dryer of the present invention predicts and displays the drying operation time at the initial stage of the drying operation, and displays the displayed value for a predetermined time as the drying operation progresses. The unit is sequentially subtracted and displayed, and after the time-controlled operation, the control operation time is displayed and the displayed value is a time unit smaller than the predetermined time unit with the progress of the drying operation. Is sequentially subtracted and displayed.

(Operation) Since the time unit of the display value decreases with the shift to the time control operation, it is easy to distinguish whether the display value is the reference time or the accurate time depending on the size of the time unit.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, in FIG. 2 showing the overall structure, 1 is an outer box of the dryer,
A rotating drum (not shown) that forms a drying chamber inside
Is rotatably provided. Reference numeral 2 denotes a door that opens and closes an inlet / outlet port of the dried object on the front surface of the outer box 1, and 3 denotes a vertically long operation panel disposed on the right side portion of the door 2 on the front surface of the outer box 1. In FIG. 2 showing the operation panel 3, 4 is a power switch, 5 is a start / stop switch for starting or stopping the drying operation, and 6 is a course change switch for changing the operation course, which can be changed. The driving courses are a "standard" course with a standard finish dryness, an "ironing" course that is suitable for ironing in a dry state, and a "careful" course that is thoroughly dried. Reference numeral 7 is three light emitting elements for displaying the driving course, and 8 is a heater changeover switch, which switches energization between a strong heater 9 (see FIG. 1) and a weak heater 10 having different heat generation amounts. It is a thing. Reference numeral 11 is two light emitting elements for displaying "strong" and "weak" of the heater, and 12 is a display for displaying the predicted value of the dry operation time and the remaining required time thereof, for example, a 7-segment type light emitting diode. It consists of a 3-digit digital display in which three display elements are arranged in a horizontal row, and this makes it possible to display a 3-digit time in units of 1 minute.

On the other hand, the configuration related to the control of the drying operation will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 13 denotes a detection electrode, which is arranged in a portion of the rotary drum that can contact an object to be dried, and an output signal of the detection electrode is input to both the contact degree detection circuit 14 and the drying rate detection circuit 15. In this case, the contact degree detection circuit 14 inputs a pulse signal to the microcomputer 16 every time the object to be dried contacts the detection electrode 13, for example.
By counting the number of pulse signals within a fixed time by means of 16, the frequency of contact between the detection electrode 13 and the material to be dried and thus the amount of material to be dried is determined. In addition, the drying rate detection circuit 15 includes the detection electrode 13
A voltage signal corresponding to the electric resistance value of the material to be dried, which is in contact with the dried material, and the drying rate is input to the microcomputer 16 to determine the drying rate of the material to be dried. Then, the microcomputer 16 switches the operation to a time-controlled operation by a timer when the drying rate of the material to be dried reaches a predetermined value during the drying operation, and this time-controlled operation is, for example, an operation course, the strength of the heater, and the material to be dried. After performing the predetermined time according to the physical quantity, the motor 17 is stopped and the drying operation is ended. Incidentally, 18
Is a notification buzzer.

Thus, the predicted value of the dry operation time (hereinafter referred to as "predicted time") is the amount of the object to be dried detected through the detection electrode 13, that is, in this embodiment, the contact degree detection circuit 14 to the microcomputer 16 within a fixed time. Based on the number N of pulse signals input to, the following is determined according to the type of driving course and the strength of the heaters 9 and 10. For example, when the "standard" course is selected and switched to the strong heater 9, the relationship between the pulse signal number N (contact frequency) and the predicted time is the fourth.
It is set stepwise as shown by the solid line in the figure. In this case, if an attempt is made to calculate the prediction time by using the relationship between the number of pulse signals N and the prediction time as a mathematical expression, the mathematical expression becomes a curve expression shown by a dotted line in FIG. 4, and is not a simple expression. Moreover, even if the predicted time is finely calculated from such a formula,
Considering that the prediction accuracy is not so high, it can be understood that the number in the unit of less than 10 minutes among the calculated values is not so important. Therefore, in this example, the time unit of the prediction time is set to 10 minutes in consideration of the prediction accuracy,
The range of each pulse signal number N when the prediction time is set to 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes, ..., 120 minutes is obtained in advance, and these data are stored in the microcomputer 16.
Then, the predicted time T is determined based on the pulse signal number N detected at the initial stage of the drying operation according to the flowchart of FIG. Specifically, when N ≦ 200, T = 30 minutes, 200 <N ≦
At 600, T = 40 minutes, at 600 <N ≦ 1100, T = 50 minutes ...
When N> 7800, T = 120 minutes is determined. The predicted time determined in this way is displayed on the display 12. This displayed value is sequentially subtracted in units of 10 minutes with the progress of drying operation,
It is displayed as a guide for the remaining time required for dry operation (hereinafter referred to as "remaining operation time"). Then, after shifting to the time-controlled operation by the above-mentioned timer, the control operation time is displayed on the display unit 12, and the displayed value is set in a time unit smaller than the above-mentioned time unit with the progress of the drying operation, for example, 1
Subtract minute by minute to accurately display the remaining operating time. When the displayed value reaches 0 minutes, the motor 17
Is stopped and the drying operation ends.

In addition, in the case of driving courses other than the "standard" course, the estimated values of the estimated time and the remaining operating time are displayed in 10-minute units in the same manner as above, and after the time-controlled operation is started, the indicator is displayed. Twelve display values are sequentially subtracted by the minute.

According to the present embodiment described above, the time unit of the display value of the display unit 12 changes from the unit of 10 minutes to 1 with the transition to the time-controlled operation.
Since it is reduced to the minute unit, it is possible to easily distinguish whether the displayed value is the reference time or the accurate time depending on the size of the time unit, and the user misunderstands that the reference time is the correct time. Can be prevented. That is, if it is displayed in units of 10 minutes, it is easy to know that it is the standard time, which is the stage before shifting to the time-controlled operation, and if it is displayed in units of 1 minute, It is easy to know that it is a step and an accurate time, and the end time of the drying operation can be accurately known based on this displayed value.
The 12 displayed values can give the user information about the remaining operating time without misunderstanding.

In the above embodiment, the display 12 is composed of a digital display, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the operation panel is provided with a clock scale, and a large number of light emitting elements are provided corresponding to the clock scale. The time may be displayed by providing the light emitting element and selectively lighting the light emitting element. Further, in the above embodiment, the time unit of the display value of the display device 12 before shifting to the time control operation is 10 minutes,
For example, it may be set in units of 20 minutes or 5 minutes depending on the level of prediction accuracy. Similarly, the time unit of the display value after shifting to the time control operation is not limited to the unit of one minute, and if it is smaller than the time unit of the display value before that, for example, the unit of 5 minutes, the unit of 10 seconds, etc. good. Further, in the above embodiment, the predicted time is determined based on the contact frequency between the detection electrode 13 and the amount of the material to be dried, but for example, the rise change of the exhaust temperature at the initial stage of the drying operation is detected by a temperature sensor such as a thermistor. The means for determining the predicted time based on the detected value is not specified above.

[Effect of the invention] As is apparent from the above description, the present invention reduces the time unit of the displayed value with the transition to the time-controlled operation.
An excellent effect that it is possible to easily distinguish whether the displayed value is a reference time or an accurate time depending on the size of the time unit and to give the user information about the remaining time required for the drying operation without misunderstanding. Play.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a block diagram, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the whole, Fig. 3 is a front view of an operation panel, and Fig. 4 is the number of pulse signals (contact frequency). ) And the predicted time as a graph, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart. In the drawing, 12 is a display, 13 is a detection electrode, and 16 is a microcomputer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for terminating a drying operation by executing a time-controlled operation by a timer after the drying rate of a material to be dried reaches a predetermined value. The drying operation time is predicted and displayed at the beginning of the drying operation. , The display value is sequentially subtracted and displayed in a predetermined time unit as the drying operation progresses, and after the time-controlled operation, the control operation time is displayed and the display value is dried. The dryer is characterized in that it is sequentially subtracted and displayed in a time unit smaller than the predetermined time unit with the passage of.