Dryer Water Distributor Layout to Keep Cooling Water Out of the Drum
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing clothes dryers face challenges in efficiently condensing moist air and preventing cooling water from entering the drum, leading to reduced heat exchange efficiency and potential wetting of clothes due to direct water supply into a narrow gap between the tub and drum.
Innovation Solution
A clothes dryer design featuring a water distributor with a water storage chamber and hydrophilically treated regions on the tub wall, where cooling water flows along the tub surface, reducing the likelihood of entering the drum and enhancing heat exchange efficiency through uniform water flow and increased heat exchange area.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If cooling water is supplied directly into the narrow gap between the tub and drum, then the structure is simple, but water easily enters the drum and wets the clothes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a water guide member as an intermediary component between the water supply and the tub-drum gap. This guide member channels the cooling water along the inner surface of the tub wall, preventing direct injection into the narrow gap. The intermediary structure ensures water flows in a controlled manner along the tub surface, eliminating the risk of water entering the drum while maintaining reasonable structural simplicity.
2Ease of manufacture
If cooling water flows directly in the narrow gap between tub and drum, then installation is simple, but heat exchange area is limited and efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions the water flow from a two-dimensional narrow gap between tub and drum to a three-dimensional path along the inner surface of the tub wall. By guiding water to flow along the tub wall surface rather than confining it to the limited gap space, the system dramatically increases the available heat exchange area. This dimensional change allows water to cover a much larger surface area of the tub, significantly improving heat exchange efficiency between the cooling water and the moist air in the drying chamber.
3Speed
If water flows quickly through the narrow gap, then the flow rate is high, but water is easily blown away by airflow into the drum
Solution Approach 1:
The water guide member serves as a protective intermediary that shields the water flow from the influence of air currents. By guiding water along the tub wall surface, the system creates a controlled flow path that is protected from the turbulent airflow present in the drying chamber. The guide member physically separates the water flow from the air flow, preventing the air from blowing water into the drum even when water flows at high rates.
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 ensures a smoother and more efficient water flow, preventing water from entering the drum and improving heat exchange efficiency, resulting in effective condensation and drying processes.
Implementation Method 1
A cross-sectional area of the water storage chamber is larger than the cross-sectional area of the water inlet, such that the water flow is buffered in the water storage chamber, and the water can flow out of the second holes relatively uniformly at a relatively smooth flow rate.
Implementation Method 2
the inner surface of the tub wall has a hydrophilically treated first region below the water outlet region, and the rest is a hydrophobic second region. The hydrophilically treated inner surface spreads the water flow flowing through to flow through a larger area, so as to increase the heat exchange area
Implementation Method 3
Water flow flowing along the wall surface is not liable to be blown away by airflow to enter the drum... flows along the inner surface of the tub wall, is not prone to entering the drum and also realizes a larger heat exchange area, so that higher heat exchange efficiency is obtained
Implementation Method 4
In a drying mode, the drum rotates, and moist air leaves the drum and is agitated under the rotation of the drum. The flowing water is in contact with the moist air, so as to improve the condensing effect on the air
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5
AI summary
A clothes dryer includes a drum (2, 200) for accommodating clothes and a tub (3, 300) surrounding the drum. A drum wall (21) has first holes (22) in dense distribution enabling the drum to be in spatial communication with the tub. A tub wall has a plurality of hollow-through second holes (81, 811), and a water outlet region (810, 8200) defined by the second holes extends horizontally. A water distributor (83, 830) is provided on the tub wall at an outer side that is away from the drum. In comparison with a mode that a water supply pipe directly extends into a narrow space between the tub and the drum, water flows inwards directly from the tub wall, which not only makes installation simpler, but also makes the water flow along an inner surface of the tub wall instead of dropping from the middle of a limited gap, significantly reducing the possibility of water entering the drum.