WO2013099126A1 - Washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

This washing machine is provided with an inner tank (5) which is open at the top, an outer tank (3) which encloses the inner tank (5), a housing (1) which encloses the outer tank (3), a motor (9) which rotationally drives the inner tank (5), an acceleration sensor unit (10) which is mounted to the upper part of the outer tank (3) and which detects the vibration of the inner tank (5), and a control unit (33) which controls the rotation of the inner tank (5). The control unit (33) calculates the rotational speed of the inner tank (5) on the basis of a detection signal detected by the acceleration sensor unit (10) and controls the rotational speed of the inner tank (5). As a result of this configuration, the number of constituting parts is reduced to make the washing machine low cost.

Description

Washing machine

This invention relates to the washing machine which controls the rotation speed of an inner tank.

A conventional washing machine includes an inner tub provided with stirring blades, a motor, a control unit, a rotor position detection unit, a rotation speed detection unit, and the like. The motor rotationally drives the inner tank, and the control unit controls the operation of the inner tank. The rotor position detector detects the rotor position of the motor. The rotation speed detection unit detects the rotation speed of the motor or the stirring blade based on the output signal of the rotor position detection unit. Thereby, a control part controls so that the rotation speed of a motor or a stirring blade may become predetermined | prescribed rotation speed (for example, refer patent document 1).

Hereinafter, a method for controlling the number of rotations of the inner tub of the conventional washing machine described in Patent Document 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block circuit diagram for explaining an example of a method for detecting the number of rotations of the inner tub of a conventional washing machine.

As shown in FIG. 5, the conventional washing machine includes at least a stirring blade (not shown) rotatably disposed in the inner tub, a motor 55 for driving the stirring blade, an inverter 54, and a rotor position detector 56a. , 56b, 56c, a rotation speed detection unit (not shown), a current detection unit 66, and a control unit 63. At this time, the inverter 54 includes switching elements 54 a, 54 b, 54 c, 54 d, 54 e, 54 f that supply electric power to the motor 55. The rotor position detectors 56 a, 56 b and 56 c detect the rotor position of the motor 55. The rotation speed detection unit detects the rotation speed of the motor 55 or the stirring blade based on the output signals of the rotor position detection units 56a, 56b, and 56c.

Then, the control unit 63 controls the inverter drive circuit 64 to drive the switching elements 54a to 54f constituting the inverter 54. Thereby, the control unit 63 drives the motor 55 with substantially sinusoidal power supplied from the inverter 54. At this time, the control unit 63, based on the output signal from the rotation number detection unit, the energization ratio of the switching elements 54a to 54f of the inverter 54 so that the rotation number of the motor 55 or the stirring blade becomes a predetermined rotation number, that is, The applied voltage of the motor 55 is controlled. Thereby, the rotation speed of the inner tank is operated at a predetermined rotation speed.

The inner tank generally includes an inner tank that rotates to dehydrate clothing and an outer tank that houses the inner tank. A large number of through holes are formed in the peripheral wall of the inner tank, and water dehydrated from the clothes is discharged from the inner tank through the through holes. The outer tank receives the water from the inner tank.

Also, clothing that undergoes dehydration treatment is relatively heavy because it contains water. Therefore, clothing collides with the peripheral wall of an inner tank by rotation of an inner tank. As a result, dehydration of clothes is promoted.

However, the collision between the clothing described above and the peripheral wall of the inner tub promotes the dehydration of the garment, while causing the inner tub to vibrate.

Therefore, in order to avoid the above problem, a washing machine that detects the vibration of the inner tub has been disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3).

The washing machines of Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3 are provided with an acceleration sensor. Thereby, it is supposed that the vibration of the inner tank at the time of high speed rotation, which is difficult to detect with the switching element disclosed in Patent Document 1, can be detected by the acceleration sensor.

However, in the configurations of the washing machines of Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3, the number of components increases because an acceleration sensor is newly added. As a result, there is a problem that the configuration of the washing machine becomes complicated and the washing machine becomes expensive.

JP 2003-986 A JP-A-5-237290 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-43469

In order to solve the above problems, the washing machine of the present invention includes an inner tub that opens upward, an outer tub that encloses the inner tub, a housing that encloses the outer tub, a motor that rotationally drives the inner tub, An acceleration sensor unit that is attached to the upper part of the outer tub and detects the vibration of the inner tub, and a controller that controls the rotation of the inner tub. And a control part calculates the rotation speed of an inner tank based on the detection signal detected with the acceleration sensor unit, and controls the rotation speed of an inner tank.

This makes it possible to control the rotation speed of the inner tub without using the conventional rotor position detection section of the washing machine and the rotation speed detection section that detects the rotation speed of the motor. As a result, it is possible to reduce the number of components and realize an inexpensive washing machine.

FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a washing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a change in acceleration value at an arbitrary time detected by the acceleration sensor according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the acceleration sensor unit and the microcomputer according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the acceleration sensor unit and the washing machine in the same embodiment. FIG. 5 is a block circuit diagram illustrating an example of a method for detecting the number of rotations of the inner tub of a conventional washing machine.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the present embodiment.

(Embodiment)
Below, the washing machine of embodiment of this invention is demonstrated using FIG.

FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal sectional view of a washing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the washing machine of the present embodiment includes a housing 1 surrounded at least by a side wall, an outer tub 3, an inner tub 5, a pulsator 7 as a stirrer, and a transmission. The mechanism unit 8 includes a motor 9 and a control unit 33.

The outer tub 3 is elastically suspended and supported inside the housing 1 by a plurality of suspensions 2. The inner tank 5 is provided inward of the outer tank 3, the side wall 5a has a number of dewatering holes (not shown), and a fluid balancer 6 is provided in the upper part of the inner periphery. Further, in the center of the bottom 5b of the inner tank 5, there is disposed a pulsator 7 having an outer periphery as an inclined surface, for example, a pan-shaped shape.

The transmission mechanism 8 has a reduction gear (not shown) for washing inside and is provided on the bottom 3 b of the outer tub 3.

The motor 9 is attached to the bottom 3b of the outer tub 3, and is connected to the pulsator 7 through a transmission mechanism 8 and a hollow, biaxial washing / dehydrating rotary shaft 4. Thereby, the pulsator 7 and the inner tank 5 can be rotated.

Further, the acceleration sensor unit 10 is provided on the upper portion of the outer surface of the outer tub 3, and is orthogonal to the rotation axis direction, the direction perpendicular to the rotation axis, and the direction perpendicular to these two directions (three directions of XYZ). Measure acceleration. The acceleration sensor unit 10 may be referred to as a 3D sensor unit.

Hereinafter, a specific system configuration of the washing machine according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of the acceleration sensor unit and the washing machine in the same embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 2, the washing machine of the present embodiment includes at least an acceleration sensor unit 10, a water level detection unit 34, an input setting unit 37, a display unit 38, and a control unit 33 that controls the load driving unit 31. It consists of and. The acceleration sensor unit 10 detects acceleration caused by vibration of the outer tub 3. The water level detection unit 34 detects the water level in the outer tub 3. The input setting unit 37 sets a washing course, time, and the like when the user presses an input button. The display unit 38 can confirm the user by displaying the washing course, time, and the like. The control unit 33 controls the load driving unit 31 according to inputs from the acceleration sensor unit 10, the water level detection unit 34, and the input setting unit 37, for example. Thereby, rotation of the motor 9 etc. is controlled.

Hereinafter, specific operations of the washing machine according to the present embodiment will be briefly described with reference to FIG.

First, when the user turns on the power switch 41, the washing machine is supplied with power from the power source 40 such as a commercial power source to each device such as the control unit 33.

Next, the user uses the input setting unit 37 to set, for example, a washing course and time.

Next, when the user presses a start button (not shown), steps such as washing, rinsing and dehydration are executed. At this time, the control part 33 controls and drives a required apparatus via the load drive part 31 according to each step.

This will execute the operation of each step of the washing machine.

Hereinafter, the control operation of the acceleration sensor unit of the washing machine of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the acceleration sensor unit and the microcomputer according to the embodiment. The microcomputer is built in the control unit 33.

As shown in FIG. 3, the acceleration sensor unit 10 includes an acceleration sensor 11 that measures at least three-axis accelerations of the X, Y, and Z axes, an A / D conversion unit 12, and a communication function unit having a serial communication function, for example. 13.

On the other hand, the microcomputer 50 provided in the control unit 33 includes a communication function unit 51 having, for example, a serial communication function, and communicates with the communication function unit 13 of the acceleration sensor unit 10. The vibration detection unit 52 acquires a certain period from the triaxial acceleration data input to the communication function unit 51 of the microcomputer 50. Thereby, the rotation speed of the inner tank 5 is detected as described below.

Hereinafter, the detection operation of the rotation speed of the acceleration sensor unit in the washing machine of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a change in acceleration value at an arbitrary time detected by the acceleration sensor according to the embodiment.

First, the vibration generated during washing and dehydration of the washing machine causes the center of gravity of the outer tub 3 to move from the washing / dehydration rotary shaft 4 due to the bias of clothing in the inner tub 5 in the process of increasing the rotational speed of the inner tub 5. Occurs when they deviate.

At this time, unless some resonance phenomenon occurs in the inner tank 5, the change in the acceleration value due to vibration is approximately one sine wave (sine wave of one cycle) for one rotation of the inner tank 5 as shown in FIG. 2. Appears).

Therefore, first, a sine wave within an arbitrary time is detected as a detection signal by the acceleration sensor 11 of the acceleration sensor unit 10.

Next, sine wave data that is the detected detection signal is A / D converted by the A / D converter 12 and transmitted to the microcomputer 50 by the communication function unit 13 having a serial communication function. Accordingly, the A / D converted sine wave data is received by the communication function unit 51 having the serial communication function of the microcomputer 50 of the control unit 33 and input to the vibration detection unit 52.

The input sine wave data is processed by the microcomputer 50 constituting the vibration detection unit 52 inside the control unit 33 to calculate the rotation speed of the inner tank 5. Thereby, based on the detection signal detected by the acceleration sensor unit 10, the rotation speed of the inner tank 5 is detected.

Next, the control unit 33 compares the calculated rotation number of the inner tub 5 with the target rotation number stored in advance in the storage unit of the control unit 33 necessary for each step such as washing, rinsing, and dehydration. At this time, when the rotation speed of the inner tank 5 does not reach the target rotation speed, the control unit 33 controls the load driving unit 31 to increase the rotation speed of the motor 9. On the other hand, when the rotation speed of the inner tub 5 is equal to or higher than the target rotation speed, the control unit 33 controls the load driving unit 31 so as to decrease the rotation speed of the motor 9.

Thereby, the rotation speed of the inner tank 5 can be controlled to the target rotation speed. As a result, the rotation speed of the inner tank 5 can be controlled without using the rotor position detection section and the rotation speed detection section.

In this embodiment, the example in which the acceleration sensor unit and the microcomputer have the serial communication function as the communication function unit has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a parallel communication function may be provided, and the control operation can be speeded up.

In the present embodiment, the triaxial acceleration sensor has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a uniaxial or biaxial acceleration sensor may be used as long as it can detect acceleration data associated with the rotation of the inner tank 5. Thereby, an acceleration sensor unit can be constituted at low cost.

As described above, the washing machine of the present invention includes an inner tub that opens upward, an outer tub that contains the inner tub, a housing that contains the outer tub, a motor that rotationally drives the inner tub, An acceleration sensor unit that is attached to the upper part of the tank and detects the vibration of the inner tank, and a control unit that controls the rotation of the inner tank. And a control part calculates the rotation speed of an inner tank based on the detection signal detected with the acceleration sensor unit, and controls the rotation speed of an inner tank.

Thus, the rotational speed of the inner tank can be controlled without using the rotor position detecting section for detecting the rotor position of the motor and the rotational speed detecting section for detecting the rotational speed of the motor by the output signal of the rotor position detecting section. As a result, it is possible to reduce the number of components and realize an inexpensive washing machine.

The present invention is not limited to a washing machine, and is useful in the technical field of controlling the number of rotations of a device including a rotationally driven device such as a dryer.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Housing | casing 2 Suspension 3 Outer tank 3b, 5b Bottom part 4 Washing / dehydration rotating shaft 5 Inner tank 5a Side wall 6 Fluid balancer 7 Pulsator 8 Transmission mechanism part 9, 55 Motor 10 Acceleration sensor unit (3D sensor unit)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Acceleration sensor 12 A / D conversion part 13,51 Communication function part 31 Load drive part 34 Water level detection part 33,63 Control part 37 Input setting part 38 Display part 40 Power supply 41 Power switch 50 Microcomputer 52 Vibration detection part 54 Inverter 54a , 54b, 54c, 54d, 54e, 54f Switching element 56a, 56b, 56c Rotor position detector 64 Inverter drive circuit 66 Current detector

Claims (1)

An inner tank that opens upward;
An outer tank containing the inner tank;
A housing containing the outer tub;
A motor that rotationally drives the inner tank;
An acceleration sensor unit that is attached to the upper part of the outer tub and detects the vibration of the inner tub;
A controller for controlling the rotation of the inner tank,
The said control part is a washing machine which calculates the rotation speed of the said inner tank based on the detection signal detected by the said acceleration sensor unit, and controls the rotation speed of the said inner tank.

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