This application is a National Phase of PCT International Application No. PCT/KR2018/003584, filed on Mar. 27, 2018, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) to Korean Application No. 10-2017-0038495 filed on Mar. 27, 2017 which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for controlling a spin-drying cycle of a laundry treatment machine, and more particularly to a method for controlling spin-drying of laundry using a laundry treatment machine.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, a laundry treatment machine is an apparatus which washes clothes, bedclothes, etc. (hereinafter, referred to as ‘clothes’) using water, detergents and mechanical action through a series of processes of washing, rinsing, spin-drying, etc., so as to remove contaminants from the clothes.

The laundry treatment machine generally performs a washing cycle, a rinsing cycle and a spin-drying cycle. Here, the spin-drying cycle includes rotation of a drum at the highest speed, and thus, a measure to overcome increased noise and vibration due to unbalanced rotation of the drum occurring during a process of rotating the drum at a high speed in the spin-drying cycle is required.

A laundry treatment machine has a balancer which reduces unbalance occurring due to unequal distribution of clothes accommodated in the drum, and a ball balancer or a liquid balancer may be used as the balancer of the laundry treatment machine. The ball balancer in which balls move to reduce unbalance occurring due to rotation of the drum, but if the drum is rotated at a designated speed or higher, movement of the balls in the ball balancer is difficult, and thus a measure to reduce unbalanced rotation of the drum caused by removal of water from the clothes in the spin-drying cycle is required.

DISCLOSURE

Technical Problem

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling a spin-drying cycle of a laundry treatment machine, in which unbalanced rotation of a drum caused by removal of water from clothes during a spin-drying process is reduced.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling a spin-drying cycle of a laundry treatment machine, in which unbalanced rotation of a drum occurring due to accelerating or decelerating rotation of the drum is reduced.

Objects of the present invention are not limited to the above-described objects, and other objects which are not stated above will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description.

Technical Solution

In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a method for controlling a spin-drying cycle of a laundry treatment machine, including performing a plurality of spin-drying operations by rotating a drum above an adjusted rotational speed range configured to adjust disposition of balls within a ball balancer so as to correspond to a change in an amount of eccentricity, and adjusting the disposition of the balls within the ball balancer by rotating the drum within the adjusted rotational speed range, between the respective spin-drying operations, thereby coping with the change in the amount of eccentricity caused by removal of water in the respective spin-drying operations.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for controlling a spin-drying cycle of a laundry treatment machine, including performing a plurality of spin-drying operations by rotating a drum above an adjusted rotational speed range configured to adjust disposition of balls within a ball balancer so as to correspond to a change in an amount of eccentricity, and adjusting the disposition of the balls within the ball balancer by rotating the drum within the adjusted rotational speed range, prior to each of the spin-drying operations, thereby coping with the change in the amount of eccentricity caused by removal of water in the respective spin-drying operations.

The spin-drying operations may include a preliminary spin-drying operation performed by rotating the drum within a RPM range of a resonance point of a cabinet or lower, and a main spin-drying operation performed by rotating the drum within an RPM range of above the resonance point of the cabinet, and the disposition of the balls within the ball balancer may be adjusted by rotating the drum within the adjusted rotational speed range, between the preliminary spin-drying operation and the main spin-drying operation, thereby coping with the change in the amount of eccentricity caused by removal of water in the preliminary spin-drying operation.

The main spin-drying operation may be divided into a first spin-drying operation performed by rotating the drum to a rotational speed of above the resonance point of the cabinet, a second spin-drying operation performed by rotating the drum at a maximum rotational speed higher than a maximum rotational speed of the drum in the first spin-drying operation, and a third spin-drying operation performed by rotating the drum at a maximum rotational speed for a longer time than in the second spin-drying operation, and the disposition of the balls with the ball balancer may be adjusted by rotating the drum within the adjusted rotational speed range, between the respective spin-drying operations, thereby coping with the change in the amount of eccentricity caused by removal of water between the respective operations divided from the main spin-drying operation.

In the first spin-drying operation, if the change in the amount of eccentricity due to removal of water is large during the rotation of the drum at a rotational speed of the resonance point of the cabinet or lower, the drum may be rotated at the rotational speed of the resonance point of the cabinet or lower, thereby preventing excessive vibration occurring from the drum.

In the first spin-drying operation, when a difference between a maximum vibration value within a first set rotational speed range set to the resonance point or lower, and a maximum vibration value within a second set rotational speed range set to be resonance point or lower, which is higher than the first set rotational speed range, exceeds a set value, the rotational speed of the drum may be maintained within the second set rotational speed range, and the first set rotational speed range and the second set rotational speed range may be set as sections in which removal of water is great, thereby preventing excessive vibration occurring during rotation of the drum at a rotational speed of above the resonance point of the cabinet.

The main spin-drying operation may include increasing the rotational speed of the drum to a maximum rotational speed, and decreasing the rotational speed of the drum from the maximum rotational speed, and the decreasing the rotational speed of the drum may include a ball disposition maintenance section configured to prevent excessive vibration of the cabinet occurring during a process of decreasing the rotational speed of the drum, thereby preventing excessive vibration of the drum occurring during the decelerating rotation of the drum.

Advantageous Effects

First, a method for controlling a spin-drying cycle of a laundry treatment machine in accordance with the present invention includes adjusting disposition balls within a ball balancer by rotating a drum within an adjusted rotational speed range, between a preliminary spin-drying operation and a main spin-drying operation, thus preventing excessive vibration of a cabinet occurring due to unbalanced rotation of the drum caused by removal of water in the spin-drying cycle.

Second, the method in accordance with the present invention includes adjusting disposition of the balls within the ball balancer by rotating the drum within the adjusted rotational speed range, among first to third spin-drying operations in which the drum is rotated at a rotational frequency of a resonance point or above, thus preventing excessive vibration of the cabinet occurring due to unbalanced rotation of the drum caused by removal of water in the spin-drying cycle.

Third, in the method in accordance with the present invention, when an amount of removed water is within or above a designated range during a process of spin-drying at the resonance point or lower in the first spin-drying operation, the rotational speed of the drum is not increased to a rotational speed of the resonance point or higher, and thus, excessive vibration of the cabinet occurring due to rotation of the drum at the rotational speed of the resonance point or higher may be prevented.

The effects of the present invention are not limited to the above-described effects, and various other effects of the invention will be directly or implicitly set forth in the following detailed description and the accompanying claims.

