US1985485A - Apparatus for expressing liquids - Google Patents

Description

N. CRANE 'APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING LIQUIDS Filed Feb. 12, 1924 Patented Dec. 25, 1934 UNITED STATE APPARATUS FOR EXPRESSING LIQUIDS Newton Crane, Boston, Mass., asslgnor, by menne assignments, of one-half to George C. Graham. Watertown, Mass.

Application February 12, 1924, Serial No. 692,365

' 11 Claims.

The subject of this invention relates to laundry apparatus and its object is to provide a means practically negligible.

In this specification the term clothing term clothes includes wearing -or the apparel, bed

clothing, table linen and all other articles or fabrics made of woven or knitted threads or felted fibers which have to be washed from time to time.

The term laundry includes any part of mestic establishment in which clothes are washed,-

as well as commercial laundries.

a do- The wringer rolls heretofore widely used for mechanically extracting water from wet clothing have lthe practical objection that they are liable to stretch the articles, often to their great harm in the case of delicate and lacy fabrics, and to tear off buttons; and when driven by power are liable to cau'se injury to the attendant, notwithstanding the safety devices with which s'uch power wringers are equipped. Centrifugal driers, while free from the objections of wringer rolls, are liable to cause objectionable or even destructive vibration, owing to the high speed at which they are run and the difliculty, amounting practically to impossibility, of so distributing the clothing in the rotatable drum or basket as to balance perfectly on all sides of the axis of rotation apparatus in which The this invention is embodied avoids the drawbacks of both these prior types of ibly in directions surfaces of the mass of clothing, without tion.

apparatus in that it acts by exerting pressure ilexsubstantially normal to the vibra- The nature of the invention and the characteristics which I claim as new are further described in the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawing?- Figure 1 is an elevation with parts broken away and shown in section, of one form of my improved water expressing apparatus showing the cover element, or upper portion thereof partially opened.

Figure 2 is an elevationshowing the apparatus closed and illustrating by dotted lines its condition at the end of the pressing action upon a small charge of clothing.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the apparatus Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the principle of means for applying and relieving pressure with-l in the apparatus, and for exhausting vapor from.

thue- Like reference characters designate like parts wherever they occur in all the gures.

It should be understood at the outset that in many respects the apparatus which I am about to describe in detail is illustrative or typical of t the various principles of the invention, and while the forms of the various features herein illustrated are considered in some respects preferable to other possible forms, they are not exclusive of all others.

The main body of the apparatus comprises a shell or casing which is preferably spherical on account of the strength and the absence of corners and angles given by that form. Such shell is adapted to be opened and closed for reception, l5 retention, and removal of clothing, and isV preferably divided into two equal parts with the line of division at the equator of the sphere, this construction being the simplest and most feasible one for enabling the clothing to be placed in and 20 removed from the apparatus, and for strength. Hence, the two parts of the shell preferably comprise a lower hemisphere 5 and an upper hemisphere 6, separable from one another to the extent necessary tol insert and remove clothing, but 25 preferably connected in a way which will allow them to be easily separated and brought together. One possible and satisfactory means for securely locking the hemispheres together to withstand the internal pressure consists of hooks or lugs '7, 3o which are provided on the rim of the upper hemisphere and offset so as to pass through slots 8 in an .outwardly projecting web 9 on the rim of the lower hemisphere. I prefer to providel also a flange l0 at the circumference of the web 9 to em- 35 brace the hooks and give strength to this web. By placing the upper part of the shell on the lower part and inserting the hooks '1 through the slots 8, and then giving the upper part a partial turn, the two parts of the shell can be securely 40 locked together.

For permanently connecting the parts together with provision for their separation in the manner indicated I prefer to use a pintle rod 11 concentric with the center of the shell. which is secured 45 to the lower hemisphere by a bracket 12 and passes through eyes 13 on a bracket 14 secured to the upper hemisphere. The pintle rod is enough longer than the distance between the outer sides of the eyes 13 to permit the necessary 50 angular movement for locking and releasing the hooks; and the holes in the eyes are free enough on the pintle to permit swinging of the upper hemisphere about the pintle in spite of the curvature of the latter. Preferably the brackets 12 55 and 14 are provided with complemental stops 15 and 16 arranged to support the upper hemisphere when turned back from the lower hemisphere.

At the bottom of the lower hemisphere is an outlet 17 for discharge of the expressed water, and within the shell is a rigid perforated strainer plate 18 which overlies the outlet to prevent the clothing being forced into the latter, and with sufficient clearance to permit free escape of the water.

The outlet is formed in a tube or lug 19 of an external attached fitting 20, such lug forming one member of a clamp adapted to mount the apparatus on a supporting structure 21, such as the edge of a laundry tub or washing machine, or whatnot. A complemental clamp 22 is mounted on a screw 23 which is threaded through a lug 24 on the same fitting. The clamping and supporting means need only be strong and rigid enough to support the weight of the apparatus and its load of wet clothes, for all stresses of pressure application and reaction are absorbed in the shell without transmission in any degree to the support.

In the upper hemisphere of the shell is mounted the pressing member 25 which is preferably a bag or bladder of flexible and distensible waterimpervious material. I prefer to use rubber composition, with or without embedded strengthening fabric as the material for this bag, and to mold the bag into substantialiy the form shown, where one side is convex fitting the interior of the shell throughout nearly the whole of the upper hemisphere thereof, and the other side is con cave toward the inlet from its rim or circumference, which lies approximately at the medial plane of the shell, the plane where the division between the two hemispheres occurs. Such concave side is preferably made with enough inherent stiffness to tend to hold and resume its shape when free from internal pressure, thus leaving the greater part of the interior of the shell free to receive wet clothing.

I prefer to form a large opening 26 in the middle of the convex side of the bag, and to surround such opening with a rib or -bead 27. A nipple or tube 28 having at one end a wide flange 29, equipped at its rim with a groove 30 complemental to the rib 27, is placed in the bag as shown in Figure 1, and passed through a hole in the shell where it is secured by a nut 31 screwed upon its threaded exterior. By this means the bag may be secured and pressed tightly against vthe shell so as to prevent leakage of liquid or other uid forced into its interior.

In using the apparatus for its intended purpose, wet clothing is placed in the lower half of the open shell, in which it may be heaped up to a volume approximately equal to the space in the upper half of the shell subtended by the concave side of the bag. Then the shell is closed and locked as before described; but before closing the shell I prefer to place in it a packing means to confine the clothing and prevent leakage of water through the joint between the two hemispheres. The possibility of escape of water through this joint occurs from the fact that the first pressure exerted against the highest part of the mass of clothes will cause water to rise around the mass faster than it can escape through the y outlet, and flood the joint; while the fact that the internal pressure tends to force the two parts of the shell away from one another makes it not feasible to close the joint tightly enough to prevent leakage under high internal pressure,

A simple and practical packing means which I have found effective for this purpose consists of a blanket 32 of flexible water-impervious material, preferably including rubber in vits composition, which is initially shaped with a generally sphericalcurvature as shown in Figure 1, so that when placed over a heaped up mass of clothes in the lower part of the shell its edges will enter between the mass and the shell below the upper rim thereof.

The shell being now filled, packed and closed, fluid under pressure is admitted to the flexible bag. While any uid which will not injure the bag may be used for this purpose, the most convenient; and inexpensive one to use is water derived from the community water supply, when such is available, or water under pressure otherwise imposed. For domestic use, in vwhich the apparatus is employed infrequently (as compared with commercial laundries) water derived from the city water supply at pressure of, around fifty or sixty pounds is by far the best source of pressure; but for commercial laundries, in which the extractor is in nearly continuous use, it may be more economical to employ a constant quantity of water or other fluid upon which pressure is imposed by a pump.

From whatever source derived, the pressure within the bag forces its lower surface against the mass of clothing, and progressively conforms the surface of the bag exactly to the surface of the clothing, exerting uniform pressure over the whole mass of an intensity equal to the pressure at which the fluid is supplied. The water held in the wet clothing is thus rapidly and evenly pressed out. I have found that when using water at sixty pounds per square inch as the pressure fluid, as much of the contained water can be pressed from the clothing as is done by the best wringers of the roller type. The employment of higher pressures of course results in a greater proportion of the water being pressed out.

The bag is prevented from injury due to abrasion in rubbing over the mass of cloth by the blanket 32, which, having a higher coeicient of friction upon the bag than upon the wet clothing, moves with the surface of the bag over the clothing as the shape and position of the clothing mass changes under the application of pressure and with the discharge of the water.

Preferably the distensible and collapsible side of the bag (that is its end or concave wall) is of graduated thickness in order to distribute the stretching, if any, to which it may be subjected by the internal fluid pressure. Such graduation of thickness is indicated illustratively in an exaggerated way in Figure 1. Stretching of the ccnvex wall of the bag is substantially prevented by the -frictiona1 engagement of that wall with the shell, against which it is held under the full pressure of the contained fluid.

.It is plain from the foregoing description and the drawing that the part of the bag hereinbefore referred to as its concave side, or in other words, its distensible and collapsible side, contains a sufflciency of material, greater than the amount required merely to extend across the middle part of the shell, and is sufficiently flexible, to lie close to that part of the shell through which the inlet opens, when the water is withdrawn from the bag, and to be distended into 'close proximity to the opposite half of the shell. 'I'hat is, the bag when distendedis enabled to flll substantially the entire interior of the shell. In Figure 2 of the drawstantially coextensive with ing the bag is partly distended, leaving a relatively small space `in which the clothing is contained;

. and it is to be understood that if a smaller quantity of clothing than that here indicated is placed in the shell, the distended bag will more completely illl the interior of the shell, even to .the extent of entirely filling it when there is no clothing therein. v

The concave o distensible side ofthe bag is essentially a diaphragm or partition which divides the interior of the shell into two chambers or spaces, one -of which receives the clothing to be dried while the other receives the water or other fluid which applies pressure upon such clothing. Owing to the excess material contained in. such diaphragm, and the way in which it is preferably shaped or molded, concave-convex form with substantially spherical curvature nearly enough conforming to the shell to enable either of such spaces to become subthe entire internal volume of the shell. The positions of the diaphragm when collapsed toward theinlet and expanded toward the outlet, respectively, are substantially on opposite sides of a medial plane of the shell, and in each position the diaphragm is smooth and free from wrinkles.

By virtue of the characteristics hereinbefore described, the pressure of the werking fluid upon the confined mass of clothing is most effectively applied and is distributed in a substantially uniform manner over the whole mass. The spherical form of the shell eliminates corners or angles in which parts of the clothing might enter and fail to receive the full extent of the squeezing pressure. The flexibility and distensiblity of the diaphragm enable it to follow the receding mass of clothing and conform to all irregularities in the surface lof the mass, enabling as great a pressure to be applied to those parts of the mass in which there is a smaller number of thicknesses or plies of clothing, as to the parts where a greater nurnber of plies or folds or thicknesses of clothing may be bunched together so as to make a harder mass. All the articles acted upon, and all parts of such articles are thus equally dried and when taken out have no areas which are wetter` than other parts. And the diaphragm is able to change its position without forming overlapping folds and wrinkles sumcient to pinch and bind portions of the diaphragm in such mannerthat they would be excessively stressed and torn or broken under pressure of the working fluid with continued recession of the mass of clothing.

4Although in the foregoing description I have referred to one of the and to the other asthe lower hemisphere, and have described certain adjuncts as being connected to one or the other of 'these specic hernispheres, it is to be understood that such description is for convenience 'and brevity only vand hasno limiting eiect. It is within my contemplation that all of the adjuncts and fittings may be reversed from the relations. here shown, and that the whole machine may be reversed, if desired, and arranged to receive the pressure-applying fluid from the bottom and. discharge the extracted liquid from the top. The position and arrangement of the whole device or of its constituent parts shown in the drawing is not an essential factor of this invention, but may be modified in many ways within the scope of the protection which I claim. So also may alternative and equivalent constructions for the details of the apparatus be substituted for those shown.

it has a normallyhemispheres as the upper,v

A shown diagrammatically an operative means for filling and exhausting the pressure applying bag, for augmenting the pressure applied thereby and for exhausting the shell of vapor. This diagram illustrates the principles of the means which I prefer to use for the purposes stated, although it does not show the mechanical structure of the various means. Such structure, however, is available from knowledge of those skilled in the arts to which the various means herein illustrated relate.

In the diagram a pipe 33 is shown as running from the supply nipple of the extractor to a source of pressure, herein typifled by a water tap 34 which may be the water faucet of a. laundry tub or a sink. The pipe 33 should be flexible or articulated in part, or readily detachable from the shell, in order to permit the cover part of the shell to be opened. A three-way cock 35 having an ejector nozzle 36 at one end of its through passage typifles means for directing water into the bag and for exhausting the bag. When the cock is in the position here shown the water-jet from the nozzle 36 exhausts the water from the presser bag, thereby enabling the shell to be opened quickly after the clothes have been squeezed; but when the cock is turned so that its branch 3'1 registers with the inlet passage 38, water flows into the bag. The pipe 39 represents a by-pass leading from the discharge outlet of the shell to the ejector valve 35. Its connection with the ejector valve is controlled by a cock 40 and its connection with the shell outlet is controlled by a cock 4l. These cocks may be set-so .as to connect the pipe 39 with the outlet 17 and close the latter to the outer air, thus connecting the by-pass with the interior of the shell. The cock 40 can be set to connect the by-pass with the ejector valve and shut off the passage from the latter to the presser bag. Then the ejector will exhaust vapor from the shell during the persistence of pressure upon the clothing, thus adding the effect of diminished vapor pressure to the effect of direct mechanical pressure in drying the clothes. A pressure greater than that of the water supply may be exerted through the agency of a device 42 in the nature of a hydraulic press containing a differentialpiston 43, 44, the smaller area of which is connected with the presser bag 25 by a pipe 45 and the larger area of which is exposed to the water supply pressure through a branchk or by-pass pipe 46 controlled by a threeway cock 47. After filling the bag and compressing the clothes to the full pressure of the water supply with the cock 4'7 in the position shown in Figure 4, this cock may then be turned to register its branch 48 with the water supply, whereupon pressure is exerted upon the large area of the piston and transmitted with multiplied effect to the presser bag. Since by this time most of the water has been pressed out of the clothes and the latter have been reduced to their most compact volume, the full effect of the multiplied pressure may be exerted with transfer of but very little water from the smaller area chamber of the differential pressure apparatus, and the stroke of the differential piston may be made long enough to supply this small additional amount.

Either or both of the means typified by the pressure multiplying device and the vapor exhausting by-pass may be used in conjunction with the rest of the apparatus illustrated or both may be omitted without ness of the water extractor as such.

I have yshown at 49 an air chamber or dome In Figure 4 I have connected in the piping between the valve 47 and.

affecting the effectivethe shell, adapted to entrap and confine a small quantity of air under pressure. Ordinarily the confined and compressed body of air is'unnecessary, but in case a slight leak should develop in the bag, the compressed air would be effective to maintain the pressure for the short time required to exhaust vapor from the shell, such exhausting action being carried out by the ejector element and while the valves are set to close the connection between the bag and the source of pressure.

An apparatus of the nature here described may be made in various sizes and capacities according to use required. On account oi' the large volume in proportion to the diameter of a sphere, and the great strength of its shell, large quantities of clothing may be handled with an apparatus of relatively very small diameter and light weight. Since its action is one of compression only, it does no harm whatever to the clothes in expressing the water; and since the tomes acting are nearly static, there is no tendency to vibration. Neither is there any need of carefully packing the clothes, but they can be heaped into the ,shell without taking any care whatever as to their distribution, otherwise than to see that they do not trail over the edge of the lower part and that the packing blanket 32, when used is placed within the rim of this part.

, The shell is preferably made of metal which is not corrodible by water, such as brass, copper or aluminum, etc., but it may be made of iron or steel galvanized or plated with non-corrodible metal. It can be conveniently and cheaply made by known methods of drawing or pressing sheet metal, or in proper cases may be made by metal founding methods.

The foregoing description explains in principle and detail a preferred form of apparatus intended for laundry purposes. 'Ihe same apparatus, or equivalent 'apparatus embodying the same fundamental principles, may be applied to other and more or less analogous uses for pressing other liquids than water from other materials than clothing.

Certain of the elements and combinations embodied in the apparatus herein disclosed may also be employed and combined in other forms and arrangements. Thus for instance the shell may be of other forms than spherical in situations where it is feasible to dispense with the advantages of maximum volume with minimum dimensions and weight peculiar to the sphere. Hence the term shell as used in this specification is to be construed as including any container or chamber adapted to conne clothing while being compressed, substantially asherein described. And for further instance, the pressing means here embodied in the bag may have other forms, arrangements and modes of action. Essentially the bag is a diaphragm of special form adapted to conform itself to the changing surface of the mass against which it presses. Although I prefer to use an elastic diaphragm or bag, I may use one which is merely flexible and distensible without capacity for stretching, as may readily be done by givingthe diaphragm sumcient bagginess or slack to permit of its conforming to vthe surface of the mass. In a broader view the bag or diaphragm is essentially a flexible and yieldable presser adapted to be brought and pressed by external force against the matter operated upon, and to change, as to its surface contours, in conformity-` with the changing contours of the mass being pressed, and in this view an element equivalent to the bag or diaphragm may be made of dierent character to be operated in a diierent way within a shell of other than spherical form. It should be understood then that within the meaning of the term presser as used in the following claims, I include not only the bag here shown, but other kinds of diaphragms as well. The blanket 32 is another element having functions which may be performed in other forms of apparatus and in connection with other forms of presser ,than that shown, or by equivalent elements of other form and construction. It may be generically defined as a cover or packing which lies between the fluid .impregnated material in the shell and the walls of the shell, particularly the joints in the shell between its separable parts, or between such material and the presser. When used in commotion with a presser it is effective not only to prevent leakage of water'through the joint in the shell, but also to prevent water and parts of the conilned material from getting between the presser and the lateral walls of the shell. It would equally serve this function in combination with a sliding presser in a shell of uniform diameter.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: Y

l. A'laundry apparatus for the extraction of water from wet clothing, comprising a substantially spherical shell divided into separable parts, means for detachably connecting said parts together, and a distensible bag secured in one of said separable parts and having an inlet opening through the wall of the shell for the reception of fluid under pressure, the 'other of said parts having an outlet for discharge of the water expressed from wet clothing placed in the shell, said bag having its side away from the inlet constructed to assume a concave condition when the bag is free of internal pressure, and to be bulged by internal pressure into approximate conformity with the interior of the shell remote from the inlet. I

2. A laundry apparatus for the extraction of water from wet clothing comprising a substantiallyfspherical shell having an inlet at one side and an outlet at the opposite side, a flexible diaphragm mounted in the shell in a manner to provide a liquid-impervious partition between the inlet and the outlet, said diaphragm dividing the interior of the shell into a pressure-receiving space into which said inlet opens and a clothingreceiving space from which said outlet leads, and the diaphragm being located with its circumference near the medial plane of the shell and having suillcient flexibility and a sufliciency of material to permit of being collapsed toward I the inlet from said medial plane and of being flexed across such plane toward the outlet, into substantial conformity with the interior of the shell; and said shell having provisions for being opened to receive wet clothing in said clothingreceiving space.

3. A laundry apparatus for extraction of water from wet clothing comprising a shell divided into separable and connectible parts, a diaphragm mounted within said shell with its rim adjacent to the plane of division between said parts, dividing the interior of the shell into two chambers and being formed with suiilcient bagginess and capacity for distension to occupy positions conforming approximately to the interior shape of the shell at respectively opposite sides of said plane.

4. A laundry apparatus for expressing liquid from wet clothing comprising a shell adapted to contain a mass of such clothing and having provision for being opened and closed to receive and confine the clothing, the shell having an inlet at one side of a medial plane and an outlet at the opposite side of such plane, and a diaphragm arranged in the shell between said inlet and outlet, said diaphragm having a shape and sutilcency of material which causes it, when free from pressure application, to assume a concave formation near to the walls of the shell between said plane and the inlet, and to be displaced by fluid pressure into a convex form similar to the shell at the opposite side of said plane.

5. A liquid expressing apparatus for laundry and similar uses, comprising a shell adapted to corinne a mass of liquid-impregnated clothing material, a presser arranged to press against the mass so confined, and a packing arranged between the mass and the presser in contact at its periphery with the walls of the shell.

6. A liquid expressing apparatus adapted to conne a mass of liquid impregnated material, comprising a shell, having an inlet and an outlet at respectively opposite extremities, a movable presser within said shell between said inlet and outlet dividing the interior of the shell into a pressure fluid-receiving space and a materialreceiving space, said presser being movable by pressure iluid to compress liquid impregnated material placed in the latter space, and a packing extending across the shell between said presser and the outlet in contact at its periphery with the wall of the shell and being directed at its periphery away from the presser.

'7. A laundry. apparatus for expressing water from .wet lclothing comprising a shell divided equatorially into two hemispheres having separable engaging means for separably securing them together, one of said hemispheres having an outlet and the other having an inlet, a flexible and distensible diaphragm mounted in the latter hemisphere so as to define a space of variable volume into which said inlet opens, the entire space in both hemispheres at the opposite side of said diaphragm being available for reception ot wet clothing, and a packing member arranged within the shell and betweenthe wet clothing at one side and the joint between the hemispheres at the opposite side, whereby to prevent discharge through said joint of the water expressed from the clothing.

8. Alaundry apparatus for the extraction of water from wet clothing, comprising a shell having means for opening and closing it to receive and confine wet clothing, said shell having an inlet for pressure fluid at one side and a water outlet at the other side of a medial plane, and a flexible diaphragm arranged within the shell between said inlet and outlet to divide the interior of the shell into two chambers, said diaphragm'being water impervious, elastic and resilient, and having an initial set from its rim portion near said medial plane toward that side of the shell in which said inlet opens.

9. A shell having a space adapted to receive a mass of liquid-impermeated material and an outlet from said space, and having also a uid receiving space and. an inlet opening thereto, an impervious vpresser between said spaces movable by fluid pressure in the second named space to press against material placed in the lrst named space, in combination with a conduit arrangedV to lead fluid under pressure to said inlet and having a discharge branch, an ejector, and means for directing fluid under pressure either through said conduit to the shell or through said ejector and outlet branch, the ejector being arranged to exhaust iluid from said second named space.

'10. In combination with a conduit of liquid under pressure, a liquid expressing apparatus having a pressure-moved diaphragm, and connections including a three-way valve between said conduit and said expressing apparatus; said three-way valve having a discharge outlet and having passages, including an ejector nozzle arranged to exhaust liquid from the expressing apparatus.

11. A laundry apparatus for extraction of water from wet clothingy comprising a substantially spherical shell having an inlet and an outlet, and a water impervious flexible and elastic diaphragm arranged within the shell and dividing it into two chambers, into one of hich chambers the inlet opens and from the other of which the outlet leads, said diaphragm having a concavo-convex formation adapted to be set over vtoward either the inlet or the outlet.

' NEWTON CRANE.

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