Method of controlling washing machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10047470-B2
Application number	US-201615011296-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2016
Priority date	Feb 2, 2015
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of controlling a washing machine including detecting an amount of clothes contained in a drum, supplying washing water based on the detected amount of clothes, washing the clothes by applying current to a drive module after the supply of the washing water, a rinsing operation of rinsing the clothes by supplying water to a tub from an external water source, after the washing of the clothes, determining unbalance of the clothes by applying current to the drive module while washing water is contained in the tub, after the rinsing of the clothes, dispersing the clothes by controlling the current applied to the drive module when the unbalance of the clothes is determined to be equal to or higher than a set value, discharging the washing water contained in the tub when the unbalance of the clothes is determined to be lower than the set value, and dehydrating the clothes to remove the washing water from the clothes, after the discharge of the washing water.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling a washing machine having a tub and a drum, the method comprising:
detecting an amount of clothes in the drum;
supplying washing water based on the detected amount of clothes;
after supplying the washing water, washing the clothes by applying current to a drive module;
after washing the clothes, rinsing the clothes by supplying water to the tub from an external water source;
after rinsing the clothes, determining unbalance of the clothes by applying current to the drive module while washing water is in the tub;
when the unbalance of the clothes is determined to be equal to or greater than a predetermined value, supplying washing water to the tub and dispersing the clothes by controlling the current applied to the drive module;
when the unbalance of the clothes is determined to be less than the predetermined value, discharging the washing water in the tub; and
after discharging the washing water, dehydrating the clothes to remove the washing water from the clothes,
wherein determining the unbalance of the clothes includes:
after rinsing the clothes, discharging the washing water in the tub s until a level of the washing water in the tub is determined to reach an unbalance determination level, and then stopping the discharging of the washing water when the level of the washing water is determined to reach the unbalance determination level;
after discharging the washing water in the tub until the level of the washing water in the tub is determined to reach the unbalance determination level, accelerating the drum in an unbalance-inducing pattern to create an unbalance by controlling the current of the drive module; and
after accelerating the drum in the unbalance-inducing pattern, detecting the unbalance and comparing the detected unbalance with the predetermined value,
wherein a pulsator is provided in the drum, and the pulsator is rotated by the drive module,
wherein the unbalance determination level is a level at which at least a portion of the pulsator is immersed in the washing water,
wherein the unbalance-inducing pattern accelerating the tub in a pattern is in strong correlation with dehydration vibrations generated in a dehydration operation in order to intentionally create unbalance in the drum,
comprising applying, by a controller, current corresponding to a target speed to the drive module, and detecting an actual speed variation of the drum, and
wherein determining the unbalance of the clothes includes comparing the actual speed variation of the drum with the predetermined value.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after dispersing the clothes, the method comprising discharging the washing water such that a level of the washing water reaches the unbalance determination level.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after supplying washing water to disperse the clothes, the method returns to discharging the washing water such that the washing water reaches the unbalance determination level.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when the speed variation is less than the predetermined value, the method proceeds to discharge the washing water in the tub.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after dispersing the clothes, the method returns to the determining of the unbalance of the clothes.

6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising after dispersing the clothes, discharging the washing water such that the washing water reaches the unbalance determination level.

7. A method of controlling a washing machine having a tub and a drum, the method comprising:
performing a rinsing operation;
discharging washing water in the tub until a level of the washing water in the tub is determined to reach an unbalance determination level, and then stopping the discharging of the washing water when the level of the washing water is determined to reach the unbalance determination level;
after discharging the washing water until the level of the washing water in the tub is determined to reach the unbalance determination level, accelerating a drum in an unbalance-inducing pattern, to create an unbalance, by controlling a drive module; and
after accelerating the drum, detecting unbalance and comparing the detected unbalance with a predetermined value,
wherein a pulsator is provided in the drum, and the pulsator is rotated by the drive module,
wherein the unbalance determination level is a level at which at least a portion of the pulsator is immersed in the washing water,
wherein the unbalance-inducing pattern accelerating the tub in a pattern is in strong correlation with dehydration vibrations generated in a dehydration operation in order to intentionally create unbalance in the drum,
comprising applying, by a controller, current corresponding to a target speed to the drive module, and detecting an actual speed variation of the drum, and
wherein the detecting of the unbalance and the comparing includes comparing the actual speed variation with the predetermined value,
wherein when the speed variation is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, the method comprising supplying washing water to the tub and dispersing clothes in the drum by controlling the drive module.

8. The method according to claim 7 ,
wherein after dispersing the clothes, the method returns to the discharging of the washing water.

9. The method according to claim 7 , wherein when the speed variation is less than the predetermined value, the method comprising discharging washing water in the tub; and
after discharging the washing water, dehydrating clothes to remove washing water from the clothes.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Kim Kyunghoon
• Cho Younghan
• Choi Moonsuk

Classifications

• D06F29/02

  with liquid-extracting apparatus (with roller wringer D06F45/12) · CPC title

• D06F33/02

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F2204/065

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F39/003

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F39/088

  Liquid supply arrangements · CPC title