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US 7,966,684 B2Granted
Methods and apparatus to accelerate the drying of aqueous working fluids
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorsTremitchell L. Wright, Joel A. Luckman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for drying a fabric load which has been wetted with a working fluid including the steps of flowing drying gas through a container holding the fabric load, sensing the non-aqueous working fluid concentration and the aqueous working fluid concentration in the wash liquor or in the headspace above the fabric within the container and controlling drying in response to the sensed working fluid concentration.
Claims20
A method for laundering fabric in a laundering apparatus comprising:
- disposing a fabric load in a container;
- washing the fabric with a wash fluid comprising a non-aqueous working fluid;
- removing the wash fluid after washing;
- drying the fabric load after removing the wash fluid from the container, the drying comprising:
- flowing drying gas through the container to dry the fabric load;
- sensing a non-aqueous working fluid concentration in the fabric while flowing the drying gas through the container;
- sensing the moisture concentration in the fabric while flowing the drying gas through the container;
- determining whether the non-aqueous working fluid concentration is less than about 5% by mass of fabric and determining whether the moisture concentration is less than about 4% by mass of the fabric, and
- adding additional moisture to the fabric when it is determined that the non-aqueous fluid concentration is less than about 5% by mass of fabric and it is also determined that the moisture concentration is less than about 4% by mass of fabric.
6 more elements
A method for laundering fabric in a laundering apparatus comprising:
- disposing a fabric load in a container;
- washing the fabric with a wash fluid comprising a non-aqueous working fluid;
- removing the wash fluid after washing;
- drying the fabric load after removing the wash fluid from the container, the drying comprising:
- flowing drying gas through the container to dry the fabric;
- sensing a non-aqueous working fluid concentration in the fabric while flowing the drying gas through the container;
- sensing the moisture concentration in the fabric while flowing the drying gas through the container;
- determining whether the non-aqueous working fluid concentration is less than about 5% by mass of fabric, and
- adding additional moisture to the fabric when it is determined that the non-aqueous fluid concentration is less than about 5% by mass of fabric, and
- wherein the additional moisture is added such that the amount of moisture in the fabric ranges from about 2% to about 8% by mass of the fabric.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.