COMPLETELY STEAM IRON
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a fully steam iron, without an electric heating body in the main body of the iron, whereby ironing is carried out with supplied steam.
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in Figure 6, in a fully steam iron, without an electric heat body in a main plate body 41, whereby ironing is carried out with supplied steam , the steam supplied through a supply passage is momentarily filled into a thermal hollow chamber 44. Then, when a steam valve 45 is opened to jet the steam in the ironing, the steam is sent to branched, plural, through holes 48 through the thermal hollow chamber 44, a suction opening 46, the steam valve 45 and a main passage 47 and is jetted from the steam jets 49 into a base 42 of the plate. The thermal hollow chamber 44 is composed of an operational flat plate 50 and a casing member 51 welded together. As shown in Figure 6, each of the thermal hollow chamber 44, the main passage 47 and the branched passage hole 48 is a pressure vessel that needs to be made of stainless steel for mechanical strength. Additionally, ironing functionality is reduced because the plate thickness of these members is large and the main plate body 41 becomes completely heavy. The temperature of the base 42 is low because of the stainless steel that has low thermal conductivity. And, the operational flat plate 50 and the envelope member 51, which make up the hollow thermal chamber 44 are welded, amount of welding which is large and requires a lot of labor for welding and the reliability as a pressure vessel is not sufficient due to that welding takes place from the outside only on one side. Many other members (the main passage 47 the stepped, stepped holes 48) have problems of functionality in the production and in the reliability as products because they are also composed and connected with welding. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fully steam iron having a simple, safe construction, having good thermal efficiency and a light weight.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a cross-sectional side view showing a preferred embodiment of a fully steam iron of the present invention; Figure 2 is a top view of the fully steam iron in which a cover is removed; Figure 3 is a top view with a partial section of the fully steam iron in which a cover is removed; Figure 4 is a side view in cross section to explain a check valve; Figure 5 is a cross-sectional side view shown to explain the check valve, - Figure 6 is a cross-sectional side view of a conventional fully steam iron.
Description of the Preferred Modes The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Figure 1 is a cross-sectional side view of a fully steam plate embodiment that relates to the present invention. In the fully steam iron, the steam is supplied from a steam generation means and the supply (a boiler) not shown in the figures to a main body 1 of iron through a steam supply hose 4 for carrying out the heat and pre-heat retention of the main plate body 1 (a base 2) and jet the steam from base 2 for ironing. The fully steam iron of the present invention is provided, omitting the thermal hollow chamber for pre-heating in the main plate body 1, with the main plate body 1 having the base 2, a steam flow passage 11, an operation valve 7, and so on. A cover for preventing burning, made of plastic, is placed on the outside (upper side) of the main plate body 1. The hollow, thermal chamber is an enlarged space in the conventional fully steam iron in Figure 6 which forms a pressure vessel to maintain the steam supply, to temporarily hold the steam in the hollow, thermal chamber 44 for pre-heating and retaining heat from the main body 41 of the plate, and then to jetting the vapor out of the base. The vapor flow passage 11 is a tube provided with a pre-heating circulation passage 32 and a branched passage 31. As described in detail below, the pre-heating circulation passage 32 is composed to make the steam flow, heat transmit and heat (with heat) the main body 1 of the plate and the branched passage 31 is constructed to be freely closed and open to a tube in the supply hose 4 by changing the operation valve 7 positioned at an upstream end of the branched passage 31 to jet the steam out of the steam jet 3 connected to the branch passage 31 and placed in the base 2 of the iron. The passage 32 of the pre-heating circulation, which is part of a steam circulation passage, is a part of the circulation passage in which the steam generated in the boiler passes to the circulation passage 32 of preheating through of the steam supply hose 4, and the steam flows from the main body 1 of the plate (to circulate) in the direction of the arrow Z. The operation of opening and closing the operation valve 7 is carried out by pushing a handle 14 by dividing a valve body 7a from the valve 7 of a valve seat 7b to jet the vapor. The valve 7 is kept completely closed while the handle 14 is simply held and the steam is not jetted. Figure 1 shows a state of steam jet in which the valve is open. A top view of the fully steam iron, in which the cover 9 is removed, is shown in Figure 2. As shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, in the main body 1 of the iron having the base 2 of flat surface, a hole 12 of ramified passage along and parallel to the base 2 is placed above the base 2 and a hole 13 preheating circulation passage parallel to the base 2 is placed above the hole 12 of branched passage. The various steam jets 3 each of which has a steam jet portion 3 ', which extends gradually are placed in the base 2 and the steam jet 3 communicatively connects to the branched passage hole 12. The branched passage hole 12 and the preheating circulation passage hole 13 is formed in a connected manner of a block body. That is to say, a block body 15 formed by casting or forging is drilled with a hole to form non-penetrating holes such as the circulation and pre-heating passage hole 13 (the pre-heating circulation passage 32) and the hole 12. of branched passage (the branched passage 31). Therefore, a terminal portion, initially 25 is sealed with a weld or a plug as shown in Figure 2. The attached block body 15 includes a bonded block body that has no seam and although it is not shown in the figures, a block body formed with block bodies, plural, joined together, which make contact and which are fixed to each other. That is, the main body 1 of the plate has, as shown in Figure 1, an operational flat plate 16 having the base 2 and the steam jets 3, an intermediate layer 17 in which the passage hole 12 is placed. branched, an outer layer 18 in which is placed the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13, a valve sleeve portion 19 in which the operation valve 7 and a transfer pipe portion 20 are placed to supply and give steam outlet. The steam supply hose 4 for supplying the steam of the direction of arrow A is removably attached to the rear end attachment portion 29 of the transfer pipe portion 20 of the main body 1 of the plate and a valve Exhaust 21 for expelling the vapor in the direction of the arrow Z is removably attached to the rear end attachment portion 30. The exhaust valve 21 has a drain valve 22 (or a steam trap) to remove the water droplets generated in the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13. The steam supply hose 4 has a first delivery passage 5 and a second delivery passage 6 which is inserted into the first delivery passage 5 to form a double tube passage, and the length L of the second supply passage 6 is established to be from 200 mm to 500 mm. The first supply passage 5 is communicatively connected to the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 through a first pipe hole 23 of the transfer pipe portion 20, and the second supply passage 6 is connected to communicative way to the operation valve 7 through a second pipe hole 24 of the transfer pipe portion 20. And, steam is supplied to the branch passage hole 12 when the operation valve 7 is opened in the steam jet operation. That is, the second supply passage 6 the branched passage opening 12 is freely connected and closed by the operation valve 7. Next, the steam flow is described. First, in a non-jet state in which the operation valve is closed as shown in Figure 2, steam flows from the first supply passage 5, through the first pipe hole 23 as shown by the arrow B, passing on a spring side of the check valve 8 described later (in Figure 4), in the direction shown with the arrows CYD in the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13. The pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 has a branch portion 27 and a confluence portion 28, and steam passes through the main plate body 1. A pair or several pairs of the branch portion 27 and the confluence portion 28 can be placed as the vapor circulates through the entire area of the main body 1 of the plate to uniformly heat. And, the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 is eventually returned to a passage, steam is sent from the main plate body 1 in the direction of the arrows E with the water droplets through the exhaust valve 21 ( shown with arrow Z) and returns to the side of the boiler. The steam sent from the second delivery passage 6 in a non-jet state in which the operation valve 7 is closed, is not sent to the branch passage hole 12, if it is not released on the side of the passage hole 13 of pre-heating circulation as shown by arrow F in Figure 4 when opening the check valve 8 positioned on an upstream side of the operation valve 7 (a side portion below the operation valve 7). The check valve 8 is composed, in series in the direction of flow shown by the arrow F, of a ball 33, a seating surface 34 and a compression coil spring 35. The steam that pushes the ball 33 (to open the check valve), easily passes the check valve when the operation valve 7 is closed and is sent to the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 communicatively connected to the side of dock 35. Therefore, the steam sent through the second delivery passage 6 is always left free on the side of the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 to a non-jetting state, the generation of the water droplets in the second hole 24 of pipe is restricted because the steam is not in the second pipe hole 24 connected communicatively to the upstream side (lower portion) of the operation valve 7 and the water droplets do not flow to the steam jet 3 (the hole 12 of branched passage) when switching to the steam jet operation. Then, in the state of jet of steam jets in which the operation valve 7 is opened, as shown in Figures 1, 3 and 5, the steam from the boiler passing through the second delivery passage 6 and the operation valve 7 as shown in the arrow H, flows in the direction of arrow I in the branch passage hole 12. The branched passage hole 12, as shown in Figure 3, has a main hole 12a and many branching holes 12b, and many steam jets 3 in the main hole 12a and branching holes 12b penetrate the base 2. And , the steam also flows to the branching holes 12b as shown with the arrows J, and the steam in the branching holes 12b is jetted from the base 2 through the steam jets 3. Also in this state of steam jet stream as described above, the steam passes through the first supply passage 5 and the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 to heat the main plate body 1 and retain the heat, and flows towards the side of the boiler. The check valve 8, as described above, is opened and is working to send the steam supplied from the second supply passage 6 to the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 in the non-jet jet state, and it closes to prevent the water droplets, generated and remaining in the circulation and preheating passage hole 13, from flowing back to the side of the second supply passage 6 in the state of jet of vapor jets. In the non-jet state, the drops of water generated in the hole 13 of the pre-heating circulation passages do not flow back to the side of the second pipe hole 24 (the second supply passage 6) to a when the check valve 8 is opened because the steam supplied from the second supply passage 6 flows to the side of the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 with a considerable flow rate when the check valve 8 is opened. As shown in Figure 1, the second delivery passage 6, inserted into the first delivery passage 5 of the steam supply hose 4, opens in the first supply passage 5 with a predetermined length L for sucking the vapor. The predetermined length L is a length to prevent the water droplets generated in the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13 from flowing back to the side of the first supply passage 5 or to prevent the water droplets generated in the The first pipe hole 23 and the connecting portion 29 are introduced into the second supply passage 6 communicatively connected to the side of the branch passage hole 12. In this way, however, the water droplets are not blown from the steam jets 3. When the length of L is less than 200 mm, the water droplets are easily introduced into the second delivery passage 6. On the contrary, when the length L is more than 500 mm the tube as the second supply passage 6 is excessive. In the steam passage 11 (the branched passage hole 12 and the preheating circulation passage hole 13), composed of a passage in which the steam flows, the internal pressure does not become excessively high because the Steam has its flow velocity. Y, the cross section of the hole is preferably circular, whereby the thickness of the wall plate of the tube of the vapor flow passage 11 is thin even if the pressure (internal pressure) of the vapor in the flow passage 11 steam. The main body 1 of the plate can be made with light metals such as aluminum and aluminum alloy because the stress generated in the main body 1 of the plate is small and stable for the composite tube wall of the block body 15 as shown in FIG. described above. The plate made with aluminum has improved characteristics such as a plate because the aluminum has a thermal conductivity and very preferably a good transmission and thermal efficiency with the steam in the pre-heating circulation passage hole 13. Metals other than aluminum such as titanium, magnesium or an alloy of these metals can be used. With the previous construction, the main body of the iron can be made slim and compact. Therefore, the outer surface of the cover 9 is not hot when the main body 1 of the iron has high heat because the iron has the space 10 as an air layer between the plastic cover 9 of the main iron body 1 as shown in Figure 1, so that it is maintained safely, because the hand of the worker touching the cover 9 is not burned. According to the fully steam iron of the present invention, with a rational construction as a pressure-resistant construction for flowing steam as a pressurized fluid in which steam passes only through passages having a small cross-sectional area without a heat chamber as a large hollow portion, an iron is obtained completely steam-safe that has a simplified and lightweight construction. In addition to the above effect, the steam is freely jetted from the steam jets 3 by the operation valve 7 and the main body 1 of the plate is prevented from reducing temperature during a prolonged period of jetting of steam jets. Therefore, ironing is always carried out very neatly. And, the state and distribution of effort by the internal pressure of the steam are uniform and stable, the iron completely steam is made safe and simple construction. Therefore the plate can be formed with light metals that have rather low mechanical strength and good thermal conductivity to improve the functionality of the ironing. And, the generation of droplets of water in the passages is prevented, because the steam can always be sent to the hole 13 of heating circulation passage and the steam is also not in the state of no jet jet, and the drops of excessive water are not thrown in jets of steam jets 3 to the garment that is ironed when it is changed to the state of jet of steam jets. And, the excess water drops are not jetted from the steam jets 3 to the garment that is ironed when it is changed to the state of steam jet because the water droplets remain in hole 13 of passage of preheating circulation are prevented from flowing back to side of the second supply passage 6. Therefore, ironing always takes place very neatly. In addition, the iron becomes very light. And the functionality of the ironing is remarkably improved because the temperature in the base 2 can be increased. While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in this specification, it is to be understood that the invention is illustrative and not restrictive , because several changes are possible within the spirit and the indispensable characteristics.