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The soon to be announced DOE standards for 1999 will certainly change the
design of appliances for the future. This new generation of appliances promises
to bring new challenges to the designers but also new levels of performance,
economy, and environmental friendliness to the purchasing consumer.
The application of electronics, sensors and control technology to appliances
will enable the machines to achieve even better washability performance while
providing better energy efficiency. OEM's using this strategy should be able
to easily meet the new standards and avoid the high cost of designing new
appliances.
Figure 6. Building blocks for smart
appliances
Turbidity sensing will be one of the key technologies used to meet the
performance standards for the late 90's. When combined with advanced algorithms,
this technology can provide the information for the controller to see what
is taking place during the wash process and to adapt itself intelligently
to the task at hand.
Smart appliances like these can avoid washing dishes more (or less) than
they need to be. They save water where they can by working to eliminate extra
fills. They give more consistent results by moving the cycle selection away
from the user, who typically uses the pots and pans cycle for every load,
and do a better job interpreting true load conditions. They can feed information
back to the user. They offer the ability to incorporate diagnostics into
the machine and reduce field service calls for the OEM. For the appliance
designer developing wet appliances, turbidity sensing can be a valuable tool.
It may be the key to solving your efficiency improvement needs.
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