Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Hidetaka Yabuuchi

Takaaki Kusaka

Tomoaki Kitano

Shinichi Nakajima

Osamu Eguchi

Shinji Kondoh

Haruo Terai

Kiyonobu Yoshida

Yasumichi Kobayashi

Shigeharu Nakamoto

Akira Kataoka

Yutaka Takahashi

Tsuneo Shibata

Hiroyuki Kayama

Masayuki Tanaka

Hiroshi Uno

Hiroshi Mori

Naoyuki Ohara

Shinichi Ito

Tadashi Matsuyo

Toru Odachi

Hidetoshi Imai

Koji Nakai

Masayo Haji

Toru Hanada

Masaichi Fukushima

Yasuo Oshima

Masaru Kikukawa

Toshinari Matsumoto

Touru Hanada

Tadashi Ando

Kenjiro Tomita

Kiminori Kato

Yoshiyasu Endo

Miki Yasuno

Atsushi Nakayama

Mikio Tahara

Shigehiro Kimura

Hajime Nojima

Kouji Nakai

A washing and drying machine of the present invention includes a water tub elastically supported in a housing; a rotary drum being rotatably mounted in the water tub; a heat pump having a compressor, a heat radiator, a throttle valve, a heat absorber, a pipework, and an air guide duct for guiding air to the heat absorber and the heat radiator; an air passageway provided to the water tub for allowing the air to flow into the rotary drum; a blower for forcing the air heated by the heat radiator to flow through the air passageway into the rotary drum; and a flexible connection member. The flexible connection member connects the air passageway to the air guide duct.

Washing and drying machine

A clothes drying apparatus includes a heat pump mechanism, an air path for guiding drying air into a drying drum accommodating therein clothes, a blower for supplying drying air to the air path, and a controller for controlling a driving of a compressor, wherein the controller operates the blower and the compressor during a drying operation; stops the compressor in case the drying operation is suspended; and operates, in case the drying operation is resumed, the compressor after a certain time period has elapsed since the compressor had stopped. In case employing the heat pump mechanism having the compressor as a heat source, it is possible to reduce a load on the compressor and allow temperature of warm air to rapidly return by using the heat pump mechanism.

Clothes drier

A self-moving cleaner has a main body and comprises an intake opening for suctioning dust, an electric blower for generating airflow to suction dust, a dust receiver for collecting the dust suctioned by the electric blower, rollers driven by drive motors, a power source for supplying electric power to the electric blower and the drive motors, and sensors for optically detecting a distance to an obstacle. An enclosure surrounds the main body, the electric blower, the dust receiver, the power source, and the sensors, wherein the enclosure is transparent or semi-transparent, and the sensors transmit and receive light through the enclosure.

Self-moving cleaner

A catalytic combustion apparatus comprises a combustor , a fuel tank , a valve , and an ignition device . The combustor further comprises a gas nozzle , an air intake/ejector , a mixing chamber , a firing chamber , an ignition plug , a combustion chamber , a catalyst for combustion housed inside the combustion chamber , and an exhaust port . The mixing chamber is made into a straight cylindrical passage, a cylindrical firing chamber is provided in parallel to the mixing chamber so that an opening on the side of the firing chamber communicates with the combustion chamber , a burner port is disposed on the boundary between the mixing chamber and the firing chamber , and the burner is configured with a catalytic net . With this configuration, a flame is formed on the upstream side of the catalyst for combustion , the catalyst for combustion is heated by the heat of the flame to a catalytic combustion enabling temperature thus also effecting catalytic combustion on the catalytic net . The flame spontaneously disappears, and the catalyst for combustion commences catalytic combustion. As catalytic combustion can be effected without fail even when the combustion chamber is configured into a low profile, the thickness of the catalytic body can be reduced without reducing the combustion characteristics, thereby enabling reduction in the height of the burner and providing a downsized and thin catalytic combustion apparatus.

Catalyst combustion device

A portable heat transfer apparatus including a combustion device, a thermoelectric convertor for receiving the heat of the combustion device at its high temperature side, transferring the heat from its low temperature side to a heat exchanger, and generating electric power depending on the temperature difference between the high temperature side and low temperature side. A heat medium forced circulating device is driven by the power generated from the thermoelectric converter for transferring heat medium to the heat exchanger. Also provided is a heat releasing device for circulating and releasing the heat medium exchanged of heat in the heat exchanger. Therefore, the heat exchanger can be heated through the thermoelectric converter while heating the thermoelectric converter with the combustion device, and by heating with the heat exchanger. The temperature difference between the high temperature side and low temperature side of the thermoelectric converter can be obtained rationally and sufficiently. Therefore, the apparatus is reduced in size and weight, and it is convenient for portable use.

Heat transfer apparatus

A fuel tank stores fuel gas. A catalytic burning section is connected to the fuel tank for generating heat based on an oxidative reaction between the fuel supplied from the fuel tank and air. The fuel tank and the catalytic burning section are assembled as a catalytic heat generating apparatus. The catalytic heat generating apparatus is detachably installed in a housing of a heater section. The heater section has both ends provided with a pair of belt portions wound around a user's body.

Portable warmer suitable for a body

A catalytic combustion heating device 3 for generating heat by oxidation reaction of fuel gas stored in a fuel tank 24 and air in a combustion unit 29 is installed in a mount 4 provided in a jacket 1. The mount 4 is fastened to the waist of the body wearing the jacket 1 by a holding band 9, and the load applied on the shoulders through the jacket is lessened and comfort is improved. Thus, a warming jacket capable of warming the body comfortably is obtained.

Warming jacket

A zone of a floor to be cleaned is subdivided into a plurality of blocks, the position of each block is memorized in a memory of a self-running cleaning apparatus, and the status of each block such that a wall or an obstacle is placed on the block or the block is passed by the cleaning apparatus thereon is also memorized in the memory. The cleaning apparatus moves across the blocks having neither wall nor obstacle thereon and which have not been passed by the cleaning apparatus on the basis of a predetermined priority order in running direction.

Self-running cleaning control method

Self-running cleaning apparatus

An electric heat storage apparatus, such as a steam iron, hot plate, pan, etc., includes a metal body defining a hollow housing enclosing a heat storage device containing a thermally decomposable heat storage substance comprising 30-99% by weight pentaerythritol. The heat storage substance is completely confined in a fluororesin enclosure which isolates the substance from the metal body and prevents contact of ambient air therewith so that the thermal stability of the pentaerythritol is enchanced. The metal body is heated by an electric heating element to a selected temperature for storing heat in the heat storage substance. In the case of use as a cordless electric steam iron, the metal body forms the sole plate of the iron and is provided with a vaporization chamber in heat exchange relationship with the heat storage substance for the generation of steam.

Electric heat storage apparatus employing pentaerythritol heat storage

Growing community of inventors

Hyogo, Japan

Hidetaka Yabuuchi