EP0526829B1 - Folding stand for drying laundry with support for drying knitwear - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a collapsible drying rack with a support for drying knitwear, as specified in the prologue of claim 1.

The collapsible clothes horse are known. They consist of a system of hanging racks on which the textile goods to be dried (laundry, shirts, etc.) are hung. The hanging grids are fixed by joints to a metal housing, which is usually tubular, collapsible, so that the grilles are also tilted into the rest position when the supporting housing is folded.

A stand of a particularly advantageous type is described in the applicant's patent application, which was filed in Switzerland on October 18, 1990 under number CH 3346 / 90.3.

The stand described in the above patent application has all the ideal characteristics to be used in the present invention, which is why this construction serves as the basis for the description of the invention.

However, we would like to state in advance that the present invention is not limited to the type of construction of the stand as described in the patent application mentioned, but rather is applied to all stand types where two grilles follow two oblique wings from a central point when open above and so form a very open V The special shape of the joints of the two wings and the collapsible frame, which is a preferred example in the patent application mentioned, is inherent not the subject of the invention.

The stand of patent application CH 3346 / 90.3 of the depositor has the disadvantage of not having a support for drying knitwear.

The term "knitted fabric dryer pad" is understood to mean a surface which consists of a flexible and perforated material, possibly textile fabric, on which, in a horizontal, stretched position, those textile goods are spread out for drying that are not allowed to dry in a hanging position. Knitwear, in particular, must not be dried in a hanging position, otherwise they will warp unacceptably. For this reason, this type of textile, as well as generally all those that warp under the influence of traction, is dried in a lying position, ie. supported by a support surface.

• a) da die Strickwarentrocknerauflage zwischen den Stützbeinen des Ständers gespannt ist, ergibt sich in der Regel eine viel kleinere Dimension gegenüber der ganzen Fläche der höher liegenden Aufhängegitter. Das bedeutet, dass die zur Verfügung stehende Fläche zum Trocknen der Wäsche eher klein ist.
• b) die Anordnung der Strickwarentrocknerauflage unter den Wäscheaufhängegitter schränkt die Anwendungsmöglichkeit der Aufhängegitter selbst bedeutend ein. In der Tat dürfen die an den kleinen Stangen der Aufhängegitter aufgehängte Textilwaren aus offentsichtlichen Gründen in der Partie, wo sie über der Strickwarentrocknerauflage liegen, nicht mit dieser in Berührung kommen. Das bedeutet, dass die mittlere Partie der Aufhängegitter nur für "kurze" Textilwaren, dh. mit beschränkten Grössen, gebraucht werden kann.
• c) Es ist bekannt, dass die vertikal aufgehängte Wäsche beim Trocknen tröpfelt: wenn darunter eine Strickwarentrocknerauflage vorliegt, fällt das Abtropfwasser demnach direkt auf die Strickwaren, die auf der unteren Strickwarentrocknerauflage ausgebreitet sind, was ohne Zweifel unerwünschlich ist.

Collapsible clothes racks with a knitted fabric dryer pad are known from practice, which are characterized in that the pad is open, ie. Working position of the stand is attached under the hanging grid. This specific arrangement of the pad for knitting drying has some major disadvantages, such as:

• a) since the knitwear dryer cover is stretched between the support legs of the stand, there is usually a much smaller dimension compared to the entire surface of the higher hanging grid. This means that the space available to dry the laundry is rather small.
• b) the arrangement of the knitwear dryer pad under the laundry hanging rack significantly limits the application of the hanging rack itself. Indeed, for obvious reasons, the textile goods hung on the small bars of the hanging racks must not come into contact with the area where they lie above the knitted fabric dryer mat. This means that the middle section of the hanging rails only for "short" textile goods, ie. with limited sizes, can be used.
• c) It is known that the vertically suspended laundry drips when drying: if there is a knitwear dryer pad underneath, the dripping water falls directly onto the knitwear which is spread out on the lower knitwear dryer pad, which is undoubtedly undesirable.

The purpose of the present invention is therefore to avoid the above-mentioned disadvantages of the known collapsible drying racks with a knitted fabric dryer pad and, in particular, to propose a collapsible drying rack with a large contact surface for the knitted fabric drying, which is attached in such a way that the use of the hanging racks is not prevented.

This goal is achieved by means of a collapsible clothes horse as described and claimed by the depositor in patent application CH 3346 / 90.3 and is characterized by the specification set out in claim 1.

Fig. 1

Eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Ständers mit den gleichen Charakteristiken wie jene des Patentgesuches CH 3346/90.3 des Hinterlegers und bei welchem die vorliegende Erfindung als Verbesserung angewandt wurde;

Fig. 2

Eine Ansicht des Wäscheständers nach Erfindung im Aufriss, vereinfacht in der Darstellung um einige Konstruktionsdetails besser zu zeigen;

Fig. 3a

Eine Strickwarentrocknerauflage in ausgebreiteter aber nicht an den Wäscheständer angehakte Position, welche eine bevorzugte Variante der Kanten mit Schnellfixierungselementen zeigt;

Fig. 3b

Eine Seite der Strickwarentrocknerauflage der Fig.3a, nachdem diese and das Ende einer der Aufhängegitter fixiert worden ist.

The invention will now be described with the aid of some illustrated exemplary embodiments. The illustrations show:

Fig. 1

A perspective view of a stand having the same characteristics as that of the applicant's patent application CH 3346 / 90.3 and to which the present invention has been applied as an improvement;

Fig. 2

A view of the clothes horse according to the invention in elevation, simplified in the representation to better show some construction details;

Fig. 3a

A knitted fabric dryer pad in a spread position but not hooked onto the clothes horse, which shows a preferred variant of the edges with quick fixation elements;

Fig. 3b

One side of the knitted fabric dryer support of FIG. 3a after it has been fixed to the end of one of the hanging grids.

1 shows the stand of the previous patent application CH No. 3346 / 90.3 described in detail. For the construction and functional details of the same, we therefore refer to the description contained in this document and restrict ourselves here to the description of the necessary elements from which this stand is composed.

It therefore has two legs 1 and 2, which are connected at their upper ends in points 12 and 13 in an articulated manner. When the stand is in the open working position, these legs form a "circle" that stands firmly on the floor. Furthermore, there are two hanging grids 3, 4 which are tiltably fixed to the support legs 1 and 2 by means of joints which are described in the abovementioned transcript. They each consist of a V-shaped frame and are connected in several points by strips 5, from which the laundry is hung up to dry.

The shape of the joints in Fig. 1 corresponds to that described in patent application CH 3346 / 90.3, consisting of the hooks 6 ', 6 ", or 7', 7", which hook into a lock 9 or 8 and which is firmly attached to the legs 2.1. However, this shape is not important for the purpose of the present invention, for which it is sufficient that when the stand is in the open position, the hanging grids 3, 4 form a V with a very large central angle, but less than 180 degrees.

For a reason which will be explained later, it is also preferred that the joints that connect the legs 1, 2 underneath and to the suspension grid 3, 4, as shown in FIG. 1, are connected to one or more locking stops so that the Stand in the open position is "autostable", ie. it can only be opened up to a certain limit and not above it. However, this characteristic, which is shown in the exemplary embodiment in FIG. 2 and described in patent application CH 3346 / 90.3, is also not essential for the present invention, which in a non-preferred embodiment can do without this auto-stability of the stand and this task of stability for the inventive element entrusted, which we will now describe.

According to the invention, the ends of a knitted fabric dryer pad 12 are fixed to the outer ends 11, 12 of the hanging grids 3, 4, which are stretched between the ends 10, 11 when the stand is in the open position.

The knitted fabric dryer pad 12 consists of a textile cloth or in any case of a flexible band that is permeable to air, for example. perforated so that the air can circulate better through the textile goods (knitwear, sweaters, etc.) that are put on to dry.

In this description it is pointed out that the concept "tensioned support" does not necessarily mean that it is always subject to a tensile force.

With the solution of the "autostable" stand as shown in Fig. 1 and where the structure of the stand is provided with locks that spread the legs 1,2 only up to a max. Allow angles, the support 12 is only hooked or hooked at its ends to the ends 10, 11 of the hanging grid 3, 4: there is therefore no pulling force even when the stand is in the fully open position. It thus results when the stand is not loaded, ie. if there is no textile to dry on the stand, slight loosening. Only after it has been loaded does the support for drying the knitted fabric stretch and of course form a small deflection (not shown) in the middle part and care is taken that the deflection of the knitted fabric dryer frame 12 also does not exceed a certain maximum value in this "autostable" solution in particular, that the support does not come into contact with the hanging grids, which form a very open V.

If, on the other hand, according to another possible, although not preferred by the invention, the structure of the stand, ie. If the legs and grids are not provided with a lock that limits the degree of opening of the legs (this solution is not shown because it is considered less than ideal), the knitwear dryer pad 12 itself can serve as a lock for the opening restriction of the stand. In this case, the pad 12 is always subjected to a pull, but also bends slightly in the middle when textile goods are placed to dry.

This solution without an inevitable locking stop on the stand frame, where the stabilization of the open stand is entrusted to the support, is not preferred since the use of the support for drying the knitwear is mandatory when no textile goods need to be dried. A much better solution is an "autostable" stand, to which the knitted fabric dryer pad 12 is placed if necessary, but which can also be used without the pad if the latter is not required.

In this solution, it is very important to provide a rapid fixing system for the support 12 at the grid ends 10, 11 so that the stand can be promptly equipped with the knitted fabric dryer support 12 or, if it is no longer required, can be freed from it.

3a to 3b, which are schematic representations of some details of the stand according to the invention, deal with the fastening problem of the knitted fabric dryer pad 12 on the hanging grid 3, 4 and in particular show a preferred solution for the fastening.

2 shows the stand of FIG. 1 in elevation. The articulation details of the structural elements of the stand were deliberately omitted, since, as already mentioned above, these are not important for the purpose of the invention. 2 only shows that the support 12 is fastened to the ends 10, 11 of the grids 3, 4 by bending around these ends. On each side of the support 12, a loop 13, 14 is thus formed in the manner of a hook, which is hooked onto the bars 10, 11 forming the grating ends.

One type - not shown further - of forming these loops 13, 14 can be by attaching hooks, for example. made of metal, done at the end of edition 12. A preferred solution for achieving a quick attachment of the pad 12 to the ends 10, 11 is described below. It should be noted here that, according to a preferred form of the invention, the narrower sides of the knitted fabric dryer overlay 12 have edges with quick-release fasteners 13, 14, with which each side of the overlay 12 is connected to the corresponding end of the hanging grids 10 and 11, respectively. The rapid attachment of the closure elements 13, 14 allows prompt conversion the "autostable" stand from a stand for mixed use, namely for drying products, whether made of knitted or solid fabrics, into a stand for only solid fabrics, which are hung on the rods of the hanging rails, and vice versa.

In Fig. 2 you can also see the open stand in the working position. In particular, it can be seen that thanks to the inventive placement of the dryer pad 12, the entire space existing under the hanging grid 3, 4 can be used for hanging articles (especially solid fabrics) that can be dried in the hanging position. This was not the case with the stand, which was fitted with a knitted fabric dryer pad under the bars and cited in the introduction. It should also be noted that the arrangement of the knitted fabric dryer support above the hanging grids completely eliminates, or at least greatly reduces, the risk that the dripping water will fall onto the makes available below. This is because knitwear spread on a knitwear dryer pad has less tendency to drip than those hanging on the bars, for obvious reasons related to the nature of the products, so it is not the case to explain them further here.

FIGS. 3a and 3b show a preferred form of quick-release fastener for the knitted fabric dryer pad 12, specifically in FIG. 3a in the extended position of the pad 12 and in FIG. 3b in the hooked position.

As can be seen in Fig. 3a, each end of the support on the same side (the upper one in the example of Fig. 3a) has two zones 14 ', 15' and 14 '', 15 '' with penetrating hooks. These zones are approximately 1 cm wide strips that extend along the entire side of the pad. The strips 14 'and 14''are arranged on the outermost edge of the support 12, while the strips 15' and 15 '' of the opposite side are arranged at a certain distance from the relevant edges of the support 12.

This distance between the strips 14 ', 15', or 14 '', 15 '' is provided such that, as can be seen in Fig. 3a, where the support 12 is shown hooked to the grid ends, here by a circular profile shown when the pad 12 is checked, ie. is wrapped around the circular profile, the two tick strips match and hook each other so that a quick attachment of the pad 12 is ensured. The strips 14 ', 14' ', 15', 15 '' are known in practice under the name Velcro models and are used today for a wide variety of quick fasteners. As a rule, they consist of more or less open plastic hooks that hook into each other and ensure very good tear resistance. These strips, on the other hand, are easy to open by pulling them perpendicularly away from each other.

However, it should be mentioned that this special quick-release form is only one of the many possible solutions. Another practical solution, albeit less ideal than the one described above, is that of using snap fasteners or so-called zippers, which quite rightly falls within the scope of the claim for protection of claim 3.

The advantages of the present invention, besides those already mentioned, are also seen in the simple and practical application and in the fact that, thanks to this invention, the stand can be quickly converted and adapted to the respective drying requirements and thus the ideal conditions for handling and creates to dry.

Claims (3)

1. Foldable laundry stand with two support legs (1, 2) which are hingedly connected at their upper ends and form a "pair of compasses" and with two grids (3, 4) for hanging up laundry which are pivotally connected with the support legs (1, 2) via a hinge and thereby form a V with a large central angle, which is however less than 180° when the stand is in the open position,
   characterised in that the ends of a support (12) for drying knitwear are fixed at the outer ends (10, 11) of the grids for hanging up laundry, the support being tensioned between the said ends (10, 11) when the stand is in the open position.
2. Laundry stand in accordance with claim 1, characterised in that the support for drying knitwear (12) is made of a textile cloth, the narrow ends of which have edges with quick closure elements (13, 14) by which each end is connected to the corresponding end (10, 11) of the grids (3, 4) for hanging up laundry.
3. Laundry stand in accordance with claim 2, characterised in that the quick closure elements (13, 14) are of the type in which hooks (14', 14", 15', 15") penetrate one another.

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