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[0001] This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-28079 filed on May 21, 2002, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to a washing machine, and more particularly to a method of controlling a rinsing operation of a washing machine.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] Generally, a washing machine is an apparatus which performs a washing operation of laundry by rotating a pulsator in forward and reverse directions to cause wash water therein to impact against the laundry.
[0006] A conventional washing machine performs washing, rinsing and spin-drying operations. Factors, such as a washing time, a rinsing time, a spin-drying time, wash water levels, and the number of times the rinsing operation is repeated are preset according to the amount and kind of laundry. The rinsing operation includes, in order, wash water discharging, spin-drying and rinsing processes, and is repeated two to five times at a preset water level.
[0007] In the rinsing operation, used wash water is first discharged from a water tub, and the wash water absorbed into laundry is removed by rotating a wash tub at a high-speed for a preset spin-drying time. Afterwards, water is supplied to the water tub until a reference water level, which is preset according to the amount and kind of the laundry, is reached, and the laundry is rinsed by forward and reverse rotations of the pulsator. The rinsing operation removes bubbles and detergent remnants contained in the laundry.
[0008] In the conventional rinsing process of the rinsing operation, the water is simply supplied to the water tub and, thereafter, the laundry is rinsed. In such a case, the laundry adhered to a wall of the wash tub during the spin-drying process of the rinsing operation falls to a center portion of an interior of the wash tub. Accordingly, since the rinsing process of the rinsing operation is performed while the laundry is still entangled, the entanglement of the laundry is not eliminated and the laundry is lumped into a body.
[0009] Therefore, where the spin-drying operation is performed in such a state, the laundry is wrinkled by the high-speed rotation of the wash tub during the spin-drying operation.
[0010] Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling a rinsing operation of a washing machine, which prevents entanglement of laundry, so as to perform a spin-drying operation of the laundry without wrinkling the laundry.
[0011] Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
[0012] To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a rinsing operation of a washing machine having a pulsator to wash laundry, the method comprising performing a wrinkle prevention rinsing process which includes driving the pulsator for a pulsator driving time and stopping the pulsator for a stopping time, wherein the pulsator stopping time is longer than the pulsator driving time, and the driving and stopping of the pulsator generate wrinkle preventing water flows which minimize wrinkles in the laundry.
[0013] The wrinkle preventing rinsing process may be performed before performing a final spin-drying operation of the washing mcahine.
[0014] The wrinkle preventing rinsing process may be performed after performing at least one operation of a general rinsing process of the rinsing operation.
[0015] The wrinkle preventing rinsing process may be performed for a wrinkle preventing rinsing time that is set to be longer than a general rising time for the general rising process.
[0016] The pulsator may be driven for a pulsator driving time that is shorter than a pulsator driving time for the general rinsing process, and stopped for a pulsator stopping time that is longer than a pulsator stopping time for the general rising process.
[0017] These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:
[0018]
[0019]
[0020]
[0021]
[0022]
[0023] Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.
[0024]
[0025] The washing machine includes a water tub
[0026] The clutch mechanism
[0027] A water supply conduit
[0028] A water discharge valve
[0029]
[0030] The apparatus includes a function selecting switch
[0031] In addition, a water supply valve drive unit
[0032] Hereinafter, with reference to FIG S.
[0033]
[0034] With reference to
[0035] Where the washing operation
[0036] That is, the control unit
[0037] Thereafter, the control unit
[0038] Where the last rinsing process, for example, the rinsing process
[0039] After performing the wrinkle preventing process
[0040] After performing the spin-drying operation
[0041]
[0042] With reference to
[0043] That is, the control unit
[0044] Where the wash water is discharged to the outside, the control unit
[0045] Where the laundry is spin-dried, the control unit
[0046] Where the supplying of the wash water is completed, the control unit
[0047] Where the first preset time elapses, the control unit
[0048] Where the second preset time elapses, the control unit
[0049]
[0050] As depicted in
[0051] During the wrinkle preventing rinsing process, the pulsator
[0052] As described above, the present invention provides a method of controlling a rinsing operation of a washing machine, wherein the method allows a spin-drying operation to be performed after an entanglement of laundry is eliminated, so as to minimize the formation of wrinkles in the laundry.
[0053] Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.