Clothes drying equipment air duct structure and clothes drying equipment

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Current clothes drying apparatuses face issues with high air inlet temperatures due to uneven temperature distribution, leading to reduced drying efficiency and potential damage to clothes, which existing solutions cannot adequately address due to structural limitations and difficulty in controlling external cool air intake.

Innovation Solution

An air duct structure with a hollow air duct and an internal air guiding structure that splits the hot air flow into two bypass ducts, creating a turbulent flow by accelerating and decelerating the air, thereby reducing and uniformly distributing the temperature at the air inlet.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If the power of the heating device is increased to increase drying speed, then the drying efficiency is improved, but the air inlet temperature becomes too high affecting normal operation and potentially damaging clothes

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedrying speedVSAvoidair inlet temperature
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSTemperature

Solution Approach 1:

The air inlet duct is divided into multiple bypass ducts (first bypass duct, second bypass duct, etc.) using air guiding structures with partition walls. This segmentation allows the hot air flow to be split into multiple streams, reducing the temperature concentration at any single point while maintaining high heating power for faster drying.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Temperature

If additional cool air inlet is opened to reduce air inlet temperature, then the temperature control is improved, but the structure becomes more complex and external cool air is difficult to control due to ambient temperature changes

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveair inlet temperature controlVSAvoidair duct structure
Core Design Contradiction:
TemperatureVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The solution extracts and utilizes the existing cool air intake at the air inlet location, directing it through dedicated bypass ducts alongside the heated air streams. This avoids adding complex external cool air intake systems while effectively mixing cool and hot air to control temperature.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Device complexity

If traditional air duct design is used, then the structure is simple, but the temperature distribution at the drum air inlet is uneven resulting in poor drying efficiency and potential clothes damage

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveair duct structureVSAvoidtemperature distribution uniformity
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

Different bypass ducts are designed with different cross-sectional area variations along their lengths. The first bypass duct has a cross-sectional area that gradually decreases, while the second bypass duct has a cross-sectional area that gradually increases. This creates different flow characteristics (acceleration and deceleration) in different local regions, resulting in turbulent flow that uniformly distributes temperature at the air inlet.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Applied Scientific Principles

This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.

Function Achieved in This Case

The air duct structure effectively reduces and uniformly distributes the air inlet temperature, enhancing safety, reliability, and drying efficiency while preventing damage from local high temperatures.

Implementation Method 1

the accelerated split hot air flow and the decelerated split hot air flow are converged at the air inlet to form a turbulent hot air flow

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectTurbulent flow: Turbulence

Implementation Method 2

a first split hot air flow is guided and accelerated by the first bypass duct, and a second split hot air flow is guided and decelerated by the second bypass duct

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectFluid acceleration and deceleration: Bernoulli Effect

Data Source

PatentEP3604664B1Clothes drying equipment air duct structure and clothes drying equipment
Publication Date: 2022.09.28 CHONGQING HAIER ROLLER WASHING MASCH CO LTD
  • EP3604664B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3604664B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3604664B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

An air duct structure of a clothes drying apparatus includes a hollow air duct between a heating device and an air inlet, and an air guiding structure arranged in the hollow air duct. An original hot air flow heated by the heating device is divided by the air guiding structure into two split hot air flows. A first split hot air flow is guided and accelerated by the first bypass duct, and a second split hot air flow is guided and decelerated by the second bypass duct, and the accelerated split hot air flow and the decelerated split hot air flow are converged at the air inlet to form a turbulent hot air flow.