Laundry treating apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12188172-B2
Application number	US-202117357305-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 24, 2021
Priority date	Jun 24, 2020
Publication date	Jan 7, 2025
Grant date	Jan 7, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed is a laundry treating apparatus including a cabinet, a drum, a fluid circulator, an air circulator including a humidity sensor, a driver, and a controller, wherein a drying operation includes an efficiency increasing process for increasing drying efficiency inside the drum, an efficiency maintaining process for maintaining the drying efficiency, and an efficiency decreasing process for reducing the drying efficiency, wherein the controller performs the drying operation while distinguishing the efficiency increasing process, the efficiency maintaining process, and the efficiency decreasing process from each other using a measured value of the humidity sensor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating apparatus comprising:
a cabinet;
a drum disposed rotatably inside the cabinet and configured to accommodate laundry therein;
a fluid circulator configured to repeat endothermic and exothermic processes as fluid circulates therethrough;
an air circulator including (i) a fan configured to cause air heated through the fluid circulator to flow into the drum and (ii) a humidity sensor configured to measure a humidity of the air passing through the drum;
a driver including (i) a first driver configured to rotate the drum and (ii) a second driver configured to rotate the fan; and
a controller configured to perform a drying operation of the laundry by independently controlling the fluid circulator, the first driver, and the second driver,
wherein the drying operation includes (i) an efficiency increasing process for increasing drying efficiency inside the drum, (ii) an efficiency maintaining process for maintaining the drying efficiency, and (iii) an efficiency decreasing process for reducing the drying efficiency, and
wherein the controller is configured to determine to perform each of the efficiency increasing process, the efficiency maintaining process, and the efficiency decreasing process based on a measured value of the humidity sensor.

2. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to terminate the efficiency increasing process and perform the efficiency maintaining process when the measured value of the humidity sensor reaches a preset efficiency maintaining process entry humidity sensor value in the efficiency increasing process.

3. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the humidity sensor includes (i) a first humidity sensor configured to measure a first humidity of air flowing into the drum and (ii) a second humidity sensor configured to measure a second humidity of air flowing out of the drum, and
wherein the controller is configured to:
calculate the drying efficiency from measured values of the first humidity sensor and the second humidity sensor, respectively; and
terminate the efficiency increasing process and perform the efficiency maintaining process when the drying efficiency reaches a preset efficiency maintaining process entry drying efficiency.

4. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the fluid circulator includes a compressor compressing the fluid,
wherein the controller is configured to control a frequency of the compressor to be higher in the efficiency increasing process than in the efficiency maintaining process.

5. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the efficiency increasing process includes a first efficiency increasing process and a second efficiency increasing process performed after termination of the first efficiency increasing process,
wherein the controller is configured to control the driver and the fluid circulator such that an increase rate of the drying efficiency is higher in the first efficiency increasing process than in the second efficiency increasing process.

6. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to perform the second efficiency increasing process after performing the first efficiency increasing process for a preset first efficiency increasing process execution time.

7. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to terminate the first efficiency increasing process and perform the second efficiency increasing process when the measured value of the humidity sensor reaches a preset second efficiency increasing process entry humidity sensor value.

8. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the humidity sensor includes (i) a first humidity sensor configured to measure a first humidity of air flowing into the drum and (ii) a second humidity sensor configured to measure a second humidity of air flowing out of the drum, and
wherein the controller is configured to:
calculate the drying efficiency from measured values of the first humidity sensor and the second humidity sensor, respectively; and
terminate the first efficiency increasing process and perform the second efficiency increasing process when the drying efficiency reaches a preset second efficiency increasing process entry drying efficiency.

9. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the fluid circulator includes (i) a compressor configured to compress the fluid and (ii) a compressor sensor configured to measure a temperature of the fluid discharged from the compressor,
wherein an increase rate of a measured value of the compressor sensor is greater in the first efficiency increasing process than in the second efficiency increasing process.

10. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to control the driver such that an RPM of the fan is lower in the first efficiency increasing process than in the second efficiency increasing process.

11. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the fluid circulator includes a compressor compressing the fluid,
wherein the controller is configured to control the compressor such that a frequency of the compressor is constant in the efficiency increasing process.

12. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to:
control the first driver such that an RPM of the drum in the first efficiency increasing process is equal to an RPM of the drum in the second efficiency increasing process; and
control the second driver such that an RPM of the fan is lower in the first efficiency increasing process than in the second efficiency increasing process.

13. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the first efficiency increasing process includes a laundry amount determination process, wherein the controller is configured to control the driver to rotate the drum and determine an amount of laundry inside the drum in the laundry amount determination process,
wherein the controller is configured to control the driver such that an RPM of the drum is constant in the first efficiency increasing process after the laundry amount determination process.

14. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to control the driver such that an RPM of the drum and an RPM of the fan are constant in the second efficiency increasing process and the efficiency maintaining process.

15. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to terminate the efficiency maintaining process and perform the efficiency decreasing process when a change rate of the measured value of the humidity sensor reaches a preset efficiency decreasing process entry humidity change rate.

16. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the humidity sensor includes (i) a first humidity sensor configured to measure a first humidity of air flowing into the drum and (ii) a second humidity sensor configured to measure a second humidity of air flowing out of the drum,
wherein the controller is configured to:
calculate the drying efficiency from measured values of the first humidity sensor and the second humidity sensor, respectively; and
terminate the efficiency maintaining process and perform the efficiency decreasing process when the drying efficiency reaches a preset efficiency decreasing process entry drying efficiency.

17. The laundry treating apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the efficiency decreasing process includes a first efficiency decreasing process and a second efficiency decreasing process

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Ryoo Byeongjo
• Park Bio
• Cheon Taewon

Classifications

• D06F2103/34

  Humidity · CPC title

• D06F2105/26

  Heat pumps · CPC title

• D06F2105/48

  Drum speed · CPC title

• D06F58/206

  Heat pump arrangements · CPC title

• Y02B40/00

  Technologies aiming at improving the efficiency of home appliances, e.g. induction cooking or efficient technologies for refrigerators, freezers or dish washers · CPC title