Laundry treating apparatus having expansion valve which is variable according to the driving mode
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorsHyuksoo Lee, Bio Park, Seonghwan Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dryer is provided. The dryer may include an expansion valve that may be varied in response to changes in operation mode. The dryer may be a condensation type heat pump dryer, and, in an operation method thereof, the expansion valve may be varied according to an on/off of a solenoid valve corresponding to a selected operation mode. In a first operation mode the heater may be turned on so that heating is supplied by both the heat pump and the heater to provide for rapid drying. In a second operation mode the heater may be turned off to provide for more economical operation. By employing multiple operation modes, a required refrigerant flow rate may be controlled.
Claims17
A dryer, comprising:
- a cabinet;
- a drum rotatably provided within the cabinet;
- a drying duct provided in the cabinet to supply dry air to the drum;
- an evaporator and a condenser sequentially provided on an air flow path formed by the drying duct;
- a compressor and an expansion apparatus configured to form a refrigerant compression cycle along with the evaporator and the condenser;
- a heater configured to selectively heat air supplied to the drum through the drying duct;
- and
- a controller configured to control operation of the dryer, wherein the expansion apparatus comprises:
- a first expansion valve provided on a first refrigerant flow path;
- a second expansion valve provided on a second refrigerant flow path;
- and
- a solenoid valve provided on one of the first refrigerant flow path or the second refrigerant flow path to selectively close or open the respective refrigerant flow path, and
- wherein the controller is configured to turn the solenoid valve on to open both the first expansion valve and second expansion valve when the heater is turned on, and to turn the solenoid valve off when the heater is turned off.
A method of operating a dryer comprising a cabinet, a drum, a drying duct, a heat pump, a heater and an expansion apparatus in the heat pump comprising a first expansion valve and a second expansion valve having separate refrigerant flow paths and a solenoid valve provided on one of the refrigerant flow paths of the first and second expansion valves to selectively close or open the respective refrigerant flow path, the method comprising:
- receiving an operation mode selection for operating the dryer;
- controlling the heater and the solenoid valve in response to the received operation mode selection;
- and
- circulating refrigerant through the respective refrigerant flow paths of the first expansion valve and second expansion valve at the same time during a refrigerant compression cycle, or circulating refrigerant through only one of the refrigerant flow paths of the first expansion valve or the second expansion valve, based on the received operation mode selection.
A method of operating a dryer having a heat pump and an auxiliary heater, the method comprising:
- receiving a selection of one of a plurality of operation modes for operating the dryer;
- generating an operating command based on the selected operation mode;
- controlling the auxiliary heater in accordance with the operating command;
- and
- controlling an expansion device of the heat pump in accordance with the operating command, the expansion device including a solenoid valve and first and second expansion valves, comprising:
- turning the auxiliary heater on, and turning the solenoid valve on to open the first expansion valve controlling flow through a first refrigerant flow path, and circulating refrigerant through both a first refrigerant flow path on which the first expansion device is provided and the second refrigerant flow path on which the second expansion valve is provided, in a first operation mode of the plurality of operation modes;
- and
- turning the auxiliary heater off, and turning the solenoid valve off to close the second expansion valve, and circulating refrigerant through only the first refrigerant flow path, in a second operation mode of the plurality of operation modes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.