Dryer and method for controlling same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018282934-A1
Application number	US-201515531619-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 25, 2015
Priority date	Nov 28, 2014
Publication date	Oct 4, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A controller (3) of the dryer (D) controls an output of the heater to have an output per unit time lower than a predetermined output of normal based on a state of the object to be dried collected by the information receiver, and controls a drying ending time based on a state of the object to be dried and an output of the heater.

First claim

1 . A dryer comprising:
a drum configured to receive an object to be dried and be rotated by a motor; a blower configured to introduce air for clothes drying into the drum; a heater configured to heat the air for clothes drying; an information receiver configured to collect drying object information about a state of the object to be dried in the drum; and a controller configured to determine a size of the object to be dried based on the drying object information about a state of the object to be dried, and control the heater based on the determined size of the object to be dried such that output of the heater per unit time is lower than a predetermined output.

2 . The dryer of claim 1 , further comprising:
a clothes distributor configured to agitate and distribute the object to be dried in the drum; and an electrode sensor arranged to be able to contact the object to be dried distributed by the clothes distributor and having electric resistance changing by contact with an object to be dried with moisture, wherein the information receiver is configured to collect a change in electric resistance of the electrode sensor as the drying object information about a state of the object to be dried, and wherein the controller is configured to convert the change in electric resistance of the electrode sensor received by the information receiver to a pulse signal, and determine a size of the object to be dried based on the pulse signal.

3 . The dryer of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to
integrate count of the pulse signal during a predetermined period at the beginning of a drying process after the start of drying operation, count first operation time from the start of drying operation until the pulse signal count per unit time is less than a threshold, and set a strong heating mode to increase heating intensity of the heater after the first operation time, if a first condition, in which integration of the pulse signal count is equal to or less than an integration reference value or the first operation time is equal to or longer than a reference time, is satisfied.

4 . The dryer of claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to
setting the heating intensity of the heater to a weak heating mode weaker than the strong heating mode after the first operation time, if a second condition, in which integration of the pulse signal count exceeds the integration reference value and the first operation time is shorter than the reference time, is satisfied.

5 . The dryer of claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to
control heating mode settings of the heater based on the pulse signal, upon reception of a pause of drying operation and resumption of drying operation after a pause from a manipulation means manipulated by a user.

6 . The dryer of claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to
set operation ending time to a predetermined operation ending time if the first condition is satisfied, and set the operating ending time to be shorter than the predetermined operation ending time if the second condition is satisfied.

7 . The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to
control at least one of revolution per minute (rpm) of the motor, rotation direction of the motor, rotation time of the motor, and rpm of the blower, based on the pulse signal, control at least one of operation of the drum and activation of the clothes distributor based on the pulse signal, and control at least one of an extent of movement of an object to be dried and agitation speed of the object to be dried in the drum.

8 . The dryer of claim 2 , further comprising:
a temperature measuring means configured to measure at least one of surrounding temperature and temperature of air introduced to the drum from outside, wherein the controller is configured to stop controlling operation ending time or heating mode setting of the heater based on the pulse signal, if the temperature measured by the temperature measuring means is beyond a predetermined temperature range.

9 . The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to
fix the heating intensity of the heater after the start of drying operation to a heating mode corresponding to a setting signal, if the setting signal to set a heating mode is input from the manipulator.

10 . The dryer of claim 1 , further comprising:
a measuring means arranged in at least one of the drum or the body of the dryer for measuring at least one of values corresponding to vibration of the drum, weight of an object to be dried, and acceleration of the drum, wherein the information receiver is configured to collect a measurement from the measuring means, and wherein the controller comprises an output setter configured to set a target output of the heater or blower based on a result of comparison between a reference value corresponding to the size of the object to be dried and the measurement measured by the measuring means.

11 . The dryer of claim 1 , wherein the controller comprises
a storage configured to store the size of the object to be dried, and size-output relations, which are relations between target outputs of the heater or blower and sizes, and an output setter configured to set a target output of the heater or blower corresponding to drying object information about a state of the object to be dried collected by the information receiver, based on the size-output relations.

12 . The dryer of claim 11 , wherein the output setter is configured to
set a first target output in a case that the size of the object to be dried is larger than a predetermined size to be less than a second target output in a case that the size of the object to be dried is smaller than the predetermined size.

13 . The dryer of claim 11 , further comprising: a vibration sensor configured to measure a value corresponding of vibration of the drum,
wherein the output setter is configured to stop outputting of the heater if a measurement of the vibration sensor is equal to or greater than a threshold.

14 . The dryer of claim 13 , wherein the controller comprises
a form determiner configured to determine a form of the object to be dried based on a measurement of the vibration sensor, and a drying time setter configured to set a period from start to end of a drying process based on the determined form of the object to be dried.

15 . The dryer of claim 11 , further comprising:
a clothes distributor configured to agitate and distribute the object to be dried in the drum; and an electrode sensor arranged to be able to contact clothes distributed by the clothes distributor and having electric resistance changing by contact with a clothes with moisture, wherein the storage is configured to store measurement-size relations, which are relations between measurements of the electrode sensor and sizes of the object to be dried, and wherein the controller comprises a size determiner configured to output size information corresponding to a measurement measured by the electrode sensor to the information receiver based on the measurement-size relations stored in the storage.

16 . A dryer comprising:
a drum configured to receive an object to be dried and be rotated by a motor; a blower configured to introduce air for clothes drying into the drum; a heater configured to heat the air for clothes drying; an information receiver configured to collect a state of the object to be dried in the drum; and a controller configured to determine a size of the object to be dried based on the state of the object to be dried, and control drying ending time based on

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kamii Toshihiro
• Hisashi Kawasaki

Classifications

• D06F2105/28

  Electric heating · CPC title

• D06F2105/24

  Flow or velocity · CPC title

• D06F2103/08

  Humidity · CPC title

• D06F2103/04

  Quantity, e.g. weight or variation of weight · CPC title

• D06F2103/02

  Characteristics of laundry or load · CPC title