Embedded Textile Temperature Sensors for Real-Time Dryer Cycle Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Institutional laundry settings face challenges in accurately determining the dryness of textiles, leading to inefficiencies, premature textile degradation, and increased energy consumption due to the variability in drying cycles and conditions.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of embedded temperature sensors that measure and transmit temperature data from textiles during drying cycles, allowing for real-time monitoring and analysis to determine dryness and control dryer operations, thereby optimizing drying times and reducing energy usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a relatively long drying time is selected to ensure complete dryness, then the textiles will be fully dry, but the textiles may become overdried leading to premature degradation and increased energy consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements real-time temperature monitoring of textiles during the drying cycle using embedded temperature sensors. The controller receives temperature data and dynamically adjusts the drying cycle parameters, creating a closed-loop feedback system that prevents overdrying while ensuring complete dryness, thereby reducing energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the drying parameters (temperature, time) based on real-time textile temperature measurements. By monitoring the actual textile temperature rather than using fixed cycle parameters, the system adapts to varying conditions and stops the drying process at the optimal point, avoiding energy waste from overdrying.
2Reliability
If temperature is set to medium or high with a relatively long drying time, then complete dryness is achieved, but textile degradation occurs leading to early replacement
Solution Approach 1:
Real-time temperature monitoring provides feedback to the controller, which adjusts the drying cycle to prevent excessive heat exposure. This feedback mechanism ensures textiles are dried completely while avoiding temperature and time combinations that would cause degradation, thereby extending textile life.
Solution Approach 2:
The drying cycle transitions from a static, pre-programmed sequence to a dynamic process that continuously adapts based on textile temperature measurements. The controller modifies drying parameters in real-time, adjusting heat application and cycle duration to match the actual drying needs of the textiles, preventing degradation.
3Ease of operation
If fixed drying cycle parameters are used, then the dryer operation is simple, but accurate determination of dryness cannot be achieved due to variability in drying conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The system maintains ease of operation by allowing the controller to automatically manage the drying process, while improving precision through real-time temperature feedback from embedded sensors. The controller processes temperature data and determines dryness accurately without requiring user intervention, resolving the contradiction between simplicity and precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces fixed mechanical timing mechanisms with an intelligent control system that uses temperature sensing and data processing to determine dryness. This substitution maintains operational simplicity for the user while achieving precise dryness detection through electronic sensing and algorithmic analysis.
4Measurement precision
If embedded temperature sensors are implemented, then real-time dryness monitoring is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The embedded temperature sensors are integrated into the textiles themselves, making the textiles self-monitoring. This eliminates the need for complex external monitoring equipment, as the textiles provide their own temperature data directly to the controller, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The temperature sensing functionality is merged with the textile material through embedded sensors, and the control system merges temperature monitoring with the existing drying control architecture. This integration approach achieves precise dryness measurement without proportionally increasing system complexity, as multiple functions share common hardware and software resources.
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
This solution enables more accurate determination of dryness, reduces textile wear and replacement, decreases energy consumption, and enhances the efficiency of laundry facilities by automatically controlling dryer cycles based on real-time temperature data.
Implementation Method 1
at least one embedded temperature sensor that senses a temperature of a textile in the drying compartment of a clothes dryer
Data Source
AI summary
An embedded temperature sensor may be attached to or otherwise associated with a textile in order to measure one or more temperatures of the textile. Temperature information received from one or more embedded temperature sensor(s) throughout the course of a dryer cycle may be analyzed to determine dryness of one or more textiles in a dryer, determine whether one or more textiles in the dryer are overdry, generate an indication of the dryness of the one or more textiles in the dryer, and/or to control one or more dryer cycles of the dryer, such as by automatically turning-off the dryer when one or more of the textiles in the dryer are determined to be dry. The embedded temperature sensor may further be used to validate a cleaning process in a cleaning machine.