Laundry Treatment Appliance Load Detection for Washing Quality Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Laundry treatment appliances often face inefficiencies due to improper loading, leading to inadequate contact between laundry and water/detergent or air, resulting in suboptimal washing and drying processes.
Innovation Solution
A method for operating laundry treatment appliances that assesses the laundry load and notifies users if it's outside an optimal range, allowing adjustments before the treatment process begins, ensuring the drum is unlocked only under safe conditions, and displaying notifications to inform users of overload or underload conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the drum is overloaded, then the productivity increases, but the washing quality deteriorates due to inadequate contact between laundry and water/detergent
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of laundry load before the washing cycle begins, estimating the amount of laundry and comparing it against optimal ranges. This allows the system to identify overload conditions in advance and take corrective actions, such as notifying the user to remove laundry or automatically adjusting treatment parameters, thereby preventing quality deterioration while maintaining high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts washing parameters based on the detected laundry load. When overload is detected, the control unit modifies treatment parameters such as water quantity, detergent dosage, drum rotation speed, and treatment duration to ensure adequate contact between laundry and water/detergent, thus maintaining washing quality even at higher productivity levels.
2Manufacturing precision
If the drum is underloaded, then the washing quality improves due to better detergent distribution, but the productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system detects underload conditions before the washing cycle begins by estimating the laundry amount and comparing it against optimal ranges. This preliminary detection allows the system to notify users to add more laundry or automatically adjust parameters to optimize the treatment process for the actual load size, ensuring both quality and productivity are maximized based on the actual laundry amount.
Solution Approach 2:
When underload is detected, the control unit adjusts treatment parameters such as reducing water quantity, detergent dosage, and treatment duration to match the smaller laundry load. This prevents waste of resources while maintaining optimal washing quality, and allows the system to process multiple smaller loads more efficiently, thereby improving overall productivity.
3Ease of operation
If the door is unlocked during treatment, then the ease of operation improves, but the safety deteriorates due to risk of injury from moving parts
Solution Approach 1:
The door locking mechanism transitions from a static locked state to a dynamic controllable state. The control unit dynamically adjusts the door lock status based on the treatment phase: during high-risk phases (drum rotation, water injection), the door remains locked; during safe phases (between phases, at start/end), the door can be unlocked. This dynamic control allows safe access when needed while maintaining safety during critical operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the treatment phase and drum status, and provides feedback control of the door lock accordingly. The control unit receives information about the current treatment phase and automatically adjusts the door lock state, unlocking only when safe conditions are detected and locking when hazardous conditions arise, thus balancing safety with operational convenience.
Data Source
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AI summary
Method for operating a laundry treatment appliance (2), comprising a casing (6) within which a drum (36) rotated by a motor (68) is arranged, an opening (28) provided in the casing (6) for loading the laundry into said drum (36) and a door (24) adapted to open or to close said opening (28), whereby said door (24) gives access to said drum (36) and is lockable by means of a door lock (58), and whereby said appliance (2) performs a laundry treatment cycle, comprising the steps of: a) selecting a laundry treatment process; b) loading laundry into said drum (36); c) starting said laundry treatment process; d) locking said door (24) by actuating said door lock (58); e) estimating the amount of laundry load; f) issuing a notification if the amount of laundry lies outside a laundry load threshold range; g) if the amount of laundry lies outside said laundry load threshold range, checking whether safety/security conditions for unlocking said door lock (58) are met; if said conditions are met, providing an unlocking enablement of said door lock (58); h) maintaining said unlocking enablement of said door lock (58) for a prescribed waiting amount of time, thereby allowing the user to change the amount of laundry load; i) determining if an interaction occurred which is linked to a possible access of laundry in said drum (36); j) if said interaction did not occur, prosecuting the laundry treatment process with one set of operational parameters; k) if said interaction has occurred, performing step d) and one of the following: - prosecuting said laundry treatment process with said one set of operational parameters, or - prosecuting said laundry treatment process with another set of operational parameters different from said one set of operational parameters, or l) performing steps e) to k) up to a prescribed number of times.