Washing machine having moisture absorption element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10443175-B2
Application number	US-201615567488-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2016
Priority date	Jul 31, 2015
Publication date	Oct 15, 2019
Grant date	Oct 15, 2019

Abstract

The present invention relates to a washing machine which can reduce energy required for a washing cycle and a drying cycle. The washing machine includes a moisture absorption element containing porous aluminosilicate, in which the porous aluminosilicate has a Si/Al atomic ratio of 15 or less and a total specific volume (Vtotal) of pores of 0.3 cm3/g, the Vtotal of pores being defined as sum of Vmeso and Vmicro.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A washing machine comprising:
a drum; and
a drying duct for circulating hot air inside the drum;
wherein the drying duct includes a moisture absorption element containing porous aluminosilicate therein, a heater attached to an outer peripheral surface of the moisture absorption element and adapted to heat the moisture absorption element and air, and a blowing fan adapted to circulate air,
wherein the moisture absorption element containing the porous aluminosilicate has an atomic ratio of Si/Al of 15 or less and a total specific volume V total of pores, which is defined as a volumetric sum of V meso and V micro , of 0.3 cm 3 /g or more, wherein:
the V meso represents a Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) cumulative volume of mesopores having a pore size of 2 to 300 nm; and
the V micro represents a volume of micropores having a pore size of less than 2 nm, as calculated from argon adsorption Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area by the t-plot method.

2. The washing machine according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a cabinet having a laundry loading opening formed thereon;
a door installed at the laundry loading opening to be opened and closed;
a tub installed inside the cabinet to hold washing water; and
a motor installed on the tub to transmit a driving force to the drum;
wherein the drum is rotatably installed in the tub; and
the drying duct is fixed to an outer peripheral surface of an upper side of the tub in which its respective ends are connected to an intake port and an exhaust port of the tub such that the drying duct circulates hot air inside the drum.

3. The washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the porous aluminosilicate has the V meso of 0.05 cm 3 /g or more.

4. The washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the porous aluminosilicate has, at 25° C. and relative humidity of 95%, a moisture absorption amount of 22% or more, the moisture absorption amount (% at 25° C., 95% RH) being defined by the following Formula 1, and has a ratio of moisture absorption amounts per relative humidity of 1.2 or more, the ratio of moisture absorption amounts being defined by the following Formula 2:
Moisture absorption amount (% at 25° C.,95% RH)=[ W (g)/AS (g)]*100  [Formula 1]

Ratio of moisture absorption amounts per relative humidity=moisture absorption amount (% at 25° C.,95% RH)/moisture absorption amount (% at 25° C.,50% RH)  [Formula 2]

wherein, in Formula 1, AS (g) represents the weight of the porous aluminosilicate and W (g) represents the weight of water that has been maximally absorbed by AS (g) of the porous aluminosilicate when the moisture has been absorbed using the porous aluminosilicate, and
in Formula 2, the moisture absorption amount (% at 25° C., 95% RH) represents the moisture absorption amount as defined by the above Formula 1, the moisture absorption amount (% at 25° C., 50% RH) represents the moisture absorption amount calculated according to the formula of [W1 (g)/AS (g)]*100 when the moisture is desorbed from the porous aluminosilicate in a state of the relative humidity being lowered from 95% to 50%, wherein W1 (g) represents the weight of water that has been maximally absorbed by AS (g) of the porous aluminosilicate after the moisture has been desorbed.

5. The washing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the porous aluminosilicate has an argon adsorption Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of 200 m 2 /g or more.

6. The washing machine according to claim 5 , wherein the porous aluminosilicate is represented by Chemical Formula 1 as shown below:
M x SiAl y O a (OH) b (H 2 O) c   [Chemical Formula 1]

wherein, in Chemical Formula 1, M represents an alkali metal, an alkaline earth metal, or a transition metal, x and y each independently represent a positive number, and a, b, and c represent a number of 0 or more, provided that a+b is a positive number.

Assignees

• Lg Chemical Ltd

Inventors

• Jung Sang Yun
• Park Cheol-Hee
• Choi Kwon Il
• Jun Shin Hee
• Lee Dae Ki
• Oh Myoung Hwan

Classifications

• D06F39/04

  Heating arrangements · CPC title

• D06F37/04 Primary

  adapted for rotation or oscillation about a horizontal or inclined axis · CPC title

• D06F25/00 Primary

  Washing machines with receptacles, e.g. perforated, having a rotary movement, e.g. oscillatory movement, the receptacle serving both for washing and for centrifugally separating water from the laundry and having further drying means, e.g. using hot air  (control of washing or of washing and drying D06F33/00, D06F34/00; domestic laundry dryers D06F58/00) · CPC title

• D06F39/006

  Textiles & Paper · mapped topic

• D06F58/26

  Heating arrangements, e.g. gas heating equipment (D06F58/18 takes precedence) · CPC title