Clothes dryer apparatus and method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsDouglas Allen Riddle, Jeremy Michael Green, James Alan Meyer, Emile Edward Abi-Habib, Zubair Hameed
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A dryer tumble drying articles includes a drum including a cavity configured to hold articles to be dried, a first motor drivingly coupled to the drum to rotate the drum, a heat source in flow communication with the cavity, and a variable speed motor drivingly coupled to a blower positioned to deliver heated air from the heat source to the cavity.
Claims24
A dryer for tumble drying articles comprising:
- a drum comprising a cavity configured to hold articles to be dried;
- a first motor drivingly coupled to said drum to rotate said drum;
- a heat source in flow communication with said cavity;
- and
- a variable speed motor drivingly coupled to a blower positioned to deliver heated air from said heat source to said cavity.
A blower control system for a tumble type dryer having a variable speed blower motor driving the blower to supply heated air to the dryer cavity through a cavity inlet and exhaust air from the dryer cavity through a cavity outlet, said system comprising:
- at least one temperature sensor positioned to sense a temperature associated with the dryer and configured to generate a temperature signal representative of the sensed temperature;
- at least one pressure sensor positioned to sense a pressure associated with the dryer and configured to generate a pressure signal representative of the sensed pressure;
- and
- a controller operatively coupled to said at least one temperature sensor and said at least one pressure sensor and configured to receive the temperature and pressure signals and control the operation of the variable speed blower motor based on at least one of the received signals.
A method for controlling a variable speed blower for a clothes dryer, said method comprising:
- installing a controller on the dryer in communication with at least one temperature sensor and at least one pressure sensor;
- receiving a signal in the controller from the at least one temperature and pressure sensors;
- and
- controlling the blower motor based on at least one of the received temperature and pressure signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.