Method of treating laundry in a washing drum

Abstract

A rotary speed control that is dependent on the instantaneous position of the entrainment members in the rotating drum affords a further degree of freedom in terms of introducing mechanical energy into the laundry that is being moved in the interior of the washing drum. By way of the intensity or duration of the washing operation, this permits additional optimization of the washing result, insofar as the interaction between the washing drum and the laundry now definedly varies over the rotation of the drum topography or the instantaneous drum movement can be adapted to the current condition of interaction between the entrainment member and the laundry.

1 . A method of treating laundry, which comprises the steps of: 
 subjecting the laundry to turbulence by introducing mechanical energy to the laundry disposed in a washing drum driven by a drum drive motor, the washing drum having rib-shaped entrainment members on an inside wall disposed approximately in parallel relationship with a rotation axis; and    varying control of the drum drive motor in dependence on an instantaneous rotary position of the rib-shaped entrainment members.    
     
     
         2 . The method according to  claim 1 , which further comprises evaluating, as a rotary position-dependent signal, one of power consumption, motor current and rotary speed of the drum drive motor, on a basis of a fluctuation therein in dependence on a topography of the wash drum loaded with the laundry.  
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 1 , which further comprises sensing an instantaneous spatial position of the rib-shaped entrainment members using indicators associated with them at the washing drum.  
     
     
         4 . The method according to  claim 3 , which further comprises using a position sensor selected from the group consisting of magnetic position sensors, electrodynamic position sensors and optoelectronic position sensors at a pulley fixedly connected to the washing drum or at the rotor of the drum drive motor being a direct drive motor.  
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 1 , which further comprises deriving an instantaneous spatial position of the rib-shaped entrainment members disposed in the wash drum from an incremental counter result of drum movements.  
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 5 , which further comprises initiating an incremental sender due to an occurrence of a fluctuation in rotary speed or torque when driving the wash drum loaded with the laundry.  
     
     
         7 . The method according to  claim 6 , which further comprises using torque-dependent fluctuations in the incremental sender signal sequence for rotary position-dependent initialization of the incremental sender.  
     
     
         8 . The method according to  claim 5 , which further comprises: 
 providing the incremental sender with faults which are synchronized spatially to a drum topology and in response to which the incremental sender is initialized at a start of operation; and    filtering out the faults during operation by virtue of their positioning, which is then pre-known, in a counting process.    
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 1 , which further comprises varying a rotary speed presetting of the drum drive motor in dependence on the instantaneous rotary position of the rib-shaped entrainment members.  
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 1 , which further comprises varying a torque of the drum drive motor in dependence on the instantaneous rotary position of the rib-shaped entrainment members.