The effect of fabric movement on washing performance in a front-loading washer IV: under 3.25-kg laundry load condition

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of fabric movement on detergency in a front-loading washer. To this end, various fabric movements of 3.25-kg loads were induced by controlling wash spin speeds at 34, 46, 50, and 54 r/min and detergency was measured, after which the correlation between the fabric movement and detergency at each wash speed was analyzed. The observed fabric movement characteristics were represented by 10 Fabric Movement Indexes (FMIs), with numerical values defined to describe fabric movements in a front-loading washer. It was revealed that detergency was highest at the wash spin speed of 46 r/min. It was also found that each speed resulted in distinguishing characteristics of fabric movements and two FMIs, “Distance from the center of the drum to the tracer fabric” and “Number of appearances of the tracer fabric”, had the greatest influence on detergency. These results show that not only falling movement, which provides high mechanical force to fabric, but also fabric interactions, such as abrasion and mixing, also affected detergency just as significantly.