Drum Balancer Control for Washing Machine Spin Imbalance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Washing machines experience load imbalances during spin-dry cycles, leading to vibrations and noise, which can cause damage due to non-uniform laundry distribution and water separation.
Innovation Solution
A washing machine with a ring-shaped balancer housing and movable balancers that include weights to offset unbalanced loads, controlled by a unit that adjusts their positions to compensate for the imbalance, ensuring balanced operation during spin-dry cycles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the drum is rotated at high speed during spin-dry cycle, then water separation from laundry is improved, but load imbalance and vibration are generated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs balancers with adjustable weights that generate counterbalancing forces to offset the unbalanced load caused by non-uniform laundry distribution. The balancers are positioned opposite to the laundry concentration and can be adjusted in magnitude to compensate for the load imbalance, thereby reducing vibration and noise while maintaining high-speed rotation for effective water separation.
Solution Approach 2:
The balancer system is designed to be dynamically adjustable during the spin-dry cycle. The control unit continuously monitors the unbalanced load and adjusts the balancer positions and weight magnitudes in real-time, allowing the system to adapt to changing laundry distributions and maintain optimal balancing throughout the high-speed rotation.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If balancers are added to offset unbalanced load, then vibration is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The balancer system is divided into multiple independent balancers, each capable of individual adjustment. This segmentation allows the complex balancing function to be distributed across multiple simpler units, making the overall system more manageable and easier to control while achieving effective vibration reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates sensors that automatically detect unbalanced load conditions and trigger the balancer adjustment process without human intervention. The control unit autonomously calculates the required balancer positions and executes the balancing operation, reducing the need for complex manual adjustment mechanisms and simplifying the overall system operation.
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 solution effectively reduces vibrations and noise by automatically offsetting imbalanced loads, enhancing the stability and longevity of the washing machine.
Implementation Method 1
a balancer including a weight for offsetting an unbalanced load generated by the laundry during a spin-dry cycle
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A
AI summary
A washing machine comprises: a tub; a drum provided to be rotatable inside the tub and holding laundry; a drive motor rotating the drum; a ring-shaped balancer housing coupled to the drum; a balancer provided to be movable inside the balancer housing and including a weight that offsets an unbalanced load that occurs due to the laundry during a spin-dry cycle, and a moving unit that moves the weight; and a control unit performing a balancing operation for moving the balancer to a balancing position for offsetting the unbalanced load, and performing a compensating operation for moving the balancer to a compensating position to compensate for a reduced unbalanced state of the unbalanced load. The washing machine can automatically offset an unbalanced load due to laundry during a spin-dry cycle, and can compensate for a reduced unbalanced state of an unbalanced load due to rinsing, so as to reduce vibrations and noise from the washing machine during a spin-dry cycle.