Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Apparatus – With automatic control
Reexamination Certificate
2003-11-21
2004-08-17
Lu, Jiping (Department: 3749)
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Apparatus
With automatic control
C034S524000, C034S526000, C034S562000, C034S596000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06775923
ABSTRACT:
This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 10-2002-0074062 filed on Month 26, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laundry drier, and more particularly, to a laundry drier control method in which a medium temperature is calculated so that drying time may be dynamically controlled.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A laundry drier is an apparatus for drying wet objects, e.g., clothes, after completion of a washing cycle or the like.
FIGS. 1 and 2
illustrate a laundry drier according to a related art, with
FIG. 2
showing a cross-section taken along a line I—I in FIG.
1
.
Referring to
FIGS. 1 and 2
, a drier according to a related art is comprised of a body
100
having an entrance
101
at a front side in which a door
105
is installed, a drum
30
rotatably installed in the body and having a plurality of stirrers
30
a
protruding from an inner circumferential surface of the drum, a motor
50
fixed to an inner side surface of the body to generate and transfer via a belt
60
a slow and directionally controllable rotational force with respect to the drum, first and second hot air passages
10
a
and
10
b
for guiding an air flow of external air (
10
a
) to drum's interior to be discharged (
10
b
) to the exterior of the laundry drier, a heater
20
installed inside the first hot air passage to heat the air therein, and an exhaust fan
40
for generating a forcible blowing force to discharge air through the second hot air passage and thereby draw in external air through the first hot air passage.
Referring to
FIG. 3
, illustrating a laundry drying method according to the related art, with wet laundry placed in the drum
30
, drying is initiated in a step S
10
to actuate each of the exhaust fan
40
, the heater
20
, and the motor
50
. As the exhaust fan
40
starts to operate, external air is drawn in through the first hot air passage
10
a
, where it is heated by passing through the heater
20
and forcibly led into the drum
30
, to evaporate the water content of laundry placed therein. Thus, the drying action is realized by a negative blowing force of the exhaust fan
40
, whereby a circulation of air is achieved by drawing in external air through the first hot air passage
10
a
and discharging the air through the second hot air guide passage
10
b
. Meanwhile, the drum
30
is rotated according to a predetermined cycle, and the stirrers
30
a
pull the laundry up one side of the drum's interior to fall back down into a lower area thereof. The laundry is dried in a step S
20
through the above-explained process.
As drying thus proceeds, if it is determined in a step S
30
that a predetermined time has passed, the heater
20
and motor
50
are stopped in a step S
40
. Here, the exhaust fan
40
continues to operate for a fixed predetermined time of say, five minutes, to perform a cooling of the interior of the laundry drier in a step S
50
, after which the door
105
may be opened. Thus, the cooling is performed according to a procedure similar to that of the steps S
20
-S
40
in which a constant operation is continued for a fixed duration.
As above, the laundry drier of the related art completes its assigned task by execution according to a predetermined time. That is, the drying procedure is performed for a fixed time, as set by the manufacturer, regardless of the amount or type of laundry being dried. Therefore, drying may be incomplete or excessive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a laundry drier control method that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention, which has been devised to solve the foregoing problem, lies in providing a laundry drier control method, by which drying time is dynamically controlled according to an amount and type of a drying object.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a laundry drier control method, by which drying is performed accurately according to the amount and type of object being dried.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a laundry drier control method, by which a proper drying is determined according to the amount and type of object being dried.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from a practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the subject matter particularly pointed out in the specification and claims hereof as well as in the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages in accordance with the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a laundry drier control method. The method comprises steps of initiating a drying procedure by actuating a plurality of drivers, including a heater driver to increase an internal temperature of a laundry drier; determining a medium temperature time by measuring a time lapse from the drying procedure initiating step to a point where the internal temperature reaches a medium temperature between a drying initiation temperature and a maximum drying temperature; setting a drying time based on the determined medium temperature time; and performing the drying procedure for the set drying time.
In the above method of the present invention, the drying time is set by multiplying the determined medium temperature time by a predetermined factor, the drying initiation temperature is the internal temperature at the time of initiating the drying procedure, and the maximum drying temperature is a predetermined temperature set according to a user command at the time of initiating the drying procedure.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing explanation and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and illustrative and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4397101 (1983-08-01), Rickard
patent: 4412389 (1983-11-01), Kruger
patent: 4788775 (1988-12-01), Ahmed
patent: 5193292 (1993-03-01), Hart et al.
patent: 6700102 (2004-03-01), St. Louis
LG Electronics Inc.
Lu Jiping
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP
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