Laundry treatment machine

Details Laundry treatment machine Laundry treatment machine

2001-06-01

2003-10-07

Stinson, Frankie L. (Department: 1746)

Textiles: fluid treating apparatus

Machines

Single tub and automatic sequential operation mechanism

C068S012270

Reexamination Certificate

active

06629439

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The invention lies in the field of household appliances. The invention relates to a laundry treatment machine with an electronic control device for the automatic implementation of laundry treatment programs.
A laundry treatment machine may include, in particular, a washing machine, a laundry drying machine, or a combined washing and drying machine. Such machines are generally in the prior art.
Furthermore, depending on the material of the items of laundry, the items can be subjected to different degrees of mechanical loading, can be heated only up to a certain temperature, and/or must not be treated with certain chemical substances. Depending on the degree to which the items are soiled or the type of their soiling, items of laundry should be treated differently. On one hand, the items of laundry should be treated as gently as possible, while, on the other hand, their soiling should be removed as completely as possible. Another important parameter is the energy required for the treatment of the laundry. As little energy as possible should be required for such treatment. A further criterion is the time period for the treatment of the laundry, which should be as short as possible. The prior art washing machines include a large number of washing programs and other laundry treatment programs, for example, drying programs, from which an operator can choose a program that, in the user's own judgement, is the most suitable for the laundry to be treated. To make such a determination, the operator requires considerable knowledge and experience for judging what material is relevant to the items of laundry to be treated and which type of soiling of the items of laundry is at issue. If an item of laundry has no label indicating its material and the type of permissible laundry treatment, it is often not possible for an operator to identify the type of material of the item of laundry and to determine the permissible treatment process or washing process. Also, in the case of stains, an operator often cannot identify which type of soiling is present.
In the days before washing machines and laundry dryers, and before there were so many different types of fabric and types of detergent for laundry, the operator was directly involved with the laundry. The person was able to “test” the laundry. He or she also knew exactly which item of laundry could be subjected to greater or lesser degrees of mechanical loading, for example, when wringing out the laundry after the laundering operation. The wringing out of the laundry corresponds today to the spinning in a washing machine or in a drier.
Today, the operator is separated from the laundry by the washing machine. He or she can only set a certain program. According to the program set, the entire laundry treatment takes place either completely correctly or completely incorrectly or partly correctly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a laundry treatment machine that overcomes the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type and that treats items of laundry more gently, with less energy, and in an optimized time without the operator needing to have special knowledge concerning the type of the items of laundry.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a laundry treatment machine, including an electronic control device for automatic implementation of laundry treatment programs having a decision-making means for identifying a type of each laundry item placed into the laundry treatment machine and making a decision concerning an optimized laundry treatment program of a plurality of laundry treatment programs to be used for treating a combination of the identified laundry items placed into the laundry treatment machine, information output means for presenting to a user the optimized laundry treatment program as a proposal, the information output means connected to the decision-making means, and input means connected to the electronic control device, the input means to be actuated by a user for confirming the laundry treatment program determined by the decision-making means.
According to the invention, a possible way of identification and communication is to be created between the operator, the laundry treatment machine, and the items of laundry to be treated, thus assisting the operator in making a decision concerning good laundry treatment by the laundry treatment machine.
Within the scope of the invention, “type of items of laundry” can be understood as meaning not only the type of material, type of fiber, and type of dyes of the items of laundry to be treated, but also the type and degree of their soiling, depending on how the control device of the laundry treatment machine is constructed.
For example, within the scope of the invention, the control device or the decision-making device of the laundry treatment machine may have stored the following parameters of the items of laundry, which it takes into consideration when determining a laundry treatment program: types of fabric, types of soil, permissible temperatures, treatment duration, the amount and type of treatment water, detergent, rinsing agent. etc.
The decision-making device is combined with the electronic control device. It may be disposed separately from the latter, or be formed partly or completely by the electronic control device, or be integrated in the latter. The decision-making device identifies the type of the items of laundry and calculates for the identified items of laundry an optimum laundry treatment program (washing program and/or drying program and/or other laundry treatment operations).
As a result, laundry is treated with a program optimized for the laundry even if the operator has no detailed knowledge concerning the type of fabric and/or the type of soiling of the items of laundry.
The operator need only present the items of laundry to a detecting device or a measuring head of the decision-making means and then load them into the laundry treatment machine. Then, after all the desired items of laundry have been loaded, the operator closes the laundry treatment compartment of the machine and gives it a starting command. The control device is preferably configured to start the laundry treatment program only when the laundry treatment compartment is closed, for example, in the case of a washing machine, the door of the washing drum is closed.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, a communication system is provided, by which the decision-making device can communicate with a person. Depending on the embodiment, information output of the decision-making device may be optical and/or acoustic, for example, a voice output. The information to be conveyed by a person can be entered in the communication system manually and/or by speech, depending on its embodiment.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, decision-making device not only permits a “YES” or “NO” decision to be possible, by confirming or canceling a laundry treatment program proposed by the machine, but the possibility of a person modifying the laundry treatment program proposed by the decision-making device and starting it in a modified form is also provided.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the input means includes a selection device modifying the optimized laundry treatment program and executing the modified laundry treatment program.
The decision-making device may be configured to propose one of the laundry treatment programs that are stored in the electronic control device, or to generate an individual laundry treatment program based on the type of the items of laundry identified. Such an individually generated laundry program may include parts of the stored laundry treatment programs.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the decision-making means selectively sets a stored laundry treatment program and generates a custom laundry treatment program indiv

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