GB1347796A - Steam air garment finisher - Google Patents

Abstract

1347796 Steam-air garment finisher Mc- GRAW-EDISON CO 11 Jan 1972 [3 May 1971] 1237/72 Heading D1L [Also in Division F4] A steam-air garment finisher for conditioning and removing wrinkles from garments held individually on supports during a single finishing cycle comprises a cabinet 12 defining an enclosure for the steam and air treatment, an access opening 22 for the enclosure closable by a door 24, a conveyor 30 for conveying the supported garments throughout the enclosure, means comprising a motor 58 connected to end sprockets 32 and a driving chain 33 for driving the conveyor 30, steam pipes 42 disposed vertically in the enclosure on either side and close to garments held on the conveyor for passing steam through the garments and a drying enclosure 46 [see Fig. 3] separated from the steaming section of the cabinet by central wall 40 drying air being fed to and through the garments by air blower 48 through conduits 52, 55 past heaters 62 and through outlet 56 located above the conveyor 30 in the roof of the cabinet. The door 24 to the cabinet 12 is preferably pivotable by motor 110 and rack and pinion 112, 114 through 180‹ about central pins 26 and completely closes the opening 22 in both its operating positions. Disposed on each side of the door are a loading conveyor 68 for automatically loading the garments onto the conveyor and receiving conveyor 69 for receiving the conditioned, wrinkle-free garments from the conveyor after treatment. In operation garments are hung onto loading conveyor 68 outside the cabinet, door 24 is pivoted through 180‹ and motor 82 is operated to rotate the rod 70 of the loading conveyor through 90‹. The garment closest to conveyor 30 then slips off rod 70 to hook onto stem 37 attached via plate 36 to the sprocket chain of the conveyor 30, at the same time the remainder of the untreated garments slip down rod 70 to the next lowest protruding pin 76. Reversal of motor 82 causes rod 70 to return through 90‹ to its normal position and simultaneously allows the garments to slip further down rod 70 to the next lowest pin 74 disposed at right angles to pins 76. In this manner the untreated garments are loaded onto the conveyor 30 to be passed round the enclosure for steaming and drying treatment. At the end of the conditioning cycle receiving conveyor 69 is lowered into position 90D (see Fig. 3) to collect the finished garments from pin 104 which removes them from conveyor 30 (see Fig. 5, not shown) the door 24 is then again rotated through 180‹ allowing fresh unfinished garments which have previously been suspended from the second loading conveyor outside the cabinet to be treated and the finished, wrinkle free garments to be removed from the receiving conveyer. The apparatus may be programmed to carry out the steaming, drying, loading and receiving operations automatically, an operator being needed only to load and unload unfinished and finished garments onto and from the respective conveyers mounted on the door 24 of the cabinet.