IMPROVED STEAM PRESS

This invention relates to a new design of steam press primarily but not exclusively for use in pressing cloths.

A huge volume of clothes gets creased and crumpled during washing and drying and need a speedy easy convenient means to flatten them back into a neat smooth appearance before they can be worn. Conventional clothes press irons are becoming more popular for this purpose but simply putting pressure and heat onto clothes tends to flatten everything in its place, rather than take out the creases.

The current state of the art of the clothes press irons includes irons having two heated plates that are pressed together under quite high pressure for a length of time to cause the ironing effect. Clothes presses are shown for example in JP6292800; JP7194896; FR2834239; JP7213799; JPl 1285599; US 4386993; US6000155; IT270240; JP1214397; and DE3519848. The ironing action of the common clothes steam-press iron involves clamping a fabric between two heated flat plates but this does not ensure the creases will be quickly removed, as it simply flattens in situ "as is", making no distinction between "fixing" creases in place. There is no mechanical assistance to the action, simply compression against two hot surfaces. This limits the press in its action in two major ways:

(i) it makes the press large and cumbersome; and

(ii) it makes the speed of the process very slow as it takes time for the pressure to affect the cloth.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a press for pressing cloth items, the press comprising an upper platen having a lower operative face; a lower platen having an upper operative face; means for pressing the platens towards each other to press a cloth item located between the operative faces of the platens; means for heating at least one of the platens; and means for moving the face of at least one of the platens in an orbital oscillating motion to assist removal of creases from the article being pressed.

The term "orbital" as used herein means that when the clothes iron hereof is operating, at least some points on the face of the sole plate move in a closed path from a start position to a displaced position and then from the displaced position back to the start position without re-tracing the route taken during the initial movement from the start position to the displaced position. The orbital path may be a circular orbital path, a figure of 8 orbital path or indeed any other orbital path. The use of an orbital path, in contrast to the simple back and forth movement used in US-A-2080682, produces an enhanced ironing performance.

The major novel feature of the preferred embodiment of the invention is that the top and for bottom platens of the press clamshell (in combination with the outer shell, or singly) are designed to oscillate in variations of lateral/orbital oscillatory motion, provided to the upper and lower faces, singly or together in opposing or same rotation at similar or different rates. The preferred embodiment also provides a foot powered action for the operation of the press so that closure of the press can be controlled by foot allowing the user to have free hands to manipulate the garment being ironed, e.g. holding it in the right orientation, moving it around.

The orbital oscillations of the platens canbe optionally under control of a speed control and/or an incremental press switch on the foot-pedal that closes the press to give oscillations or a boost to the oscillations when pressed and possible addition of steam at the same time.

The orbital oscillation of the platen is similar to the motion of the base of an orbital sander.

This invention proposes a clothes steam-press which in the first embodiment has an upper and a lower hot plate, in a clamshell design, the top platen of which oscillates in an orbital oscillating motion, clockwise or anticlockwise, the lower plate oscillating in the opposite rotation direction to the top. The base plate could optionally have a smaller orbit motion in the same rotation or opposite. In normal resting attitude the platens would sit about 50cm apart. When an item of clothes is placed between them, the oscillation starts by foot control or automatically and the platens close. The

surface on the platens may be slightly crowned and would help to encourage the cloth into a flat attitude. As soon, as the top plate comes down the lower plate would also start to oscillate ideally in the opposite rotational direction, ie if the lower plate is oscillating in a clockwise oscillation direction, the top would oscillate anticlockwise. The two plates would close on the garment for a few seconds then release pressure momentarily and reapply pressure every few seconds, allowing the user to move the garment about. If the lower and upper plates have a crowned surface, which would be very slightly convex, the two surfaces as they come together, in combination with the oscillations would encourage any item between them to flatten out and be fixed into permanent flat shape as the platens came together. The fabric would be ironed within only a few seconds and much more effectively than simply clamping it between two hot platens.

There are two variables in the oscillation, the orbit and the frequency. The orbit is the size of the oscillation, and is varied to accommodate differences in fabric in order to improve ironing properties for particular types of cloth. A smaller amplitude gives a higher quality of finish. The frequency of oscillation is preferably controllable via a rotating speed switch to apply greater ironing action to a specific area or fabric. A pressure switch allows the oscillations to be momentarily accelerated.

Amongst the advantages of the preferred embodiments of this invention are: (i) The orbital oscillation makes possible a new type of fast compact clothes ironing machine that for the first time frees the hands of the user from holding the iron - who now simply holds the garment and moves in between the plates. It mechanises the ironing action of clothes press to give it a true ironing action, and speeds up the work rate of the press, improving the flattening action many fold. This represents a radical change in speed, size, and effectiveness of the whole process.

(ii) The size of the clothes press is reduced to nearly that of a normal hand held iron.

(iii) The effective action of a press is increased sharply as the press becomes a machine that allows the user to apply more effective action with much lesser effort and in much less time.

(iv) It would simplify the ironing of a large volume of clothes within a fraction of the normal tune taken to do so. The whole action of the press iron would change radically.

(v) The foot powered closing of the clam shell allows the users hands much more freedom to handle the item and a skilled person would be very fast and efficient on the machine.

(vi) The oscillating motion dissipates heat and steam more easily into over the fabric material.

(vii) The oscillations encourage the faster breaking of electrochemical and magnetic tensions in the fibres and molecules, to encourage them into a new shape more quickly.

(viϋ) The oscillations help the distribution of heat that is transferred more effectively to the fabric, making it more receptive to thermoplastic change.

(ix) Metals tend to have hot spots and variations in heat areas so the orbital oscillation also evens out the hot spots.

The invention will be better understood from the following description of preferred embodiments thereof, given by way of example only, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic perspective view of a first embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a detailed view of a part of the embodiment of Figure 1; and

FIGURE 3 is a view from beneath of part of the embodiment of Figure 1. Referring now to the drawings, the illustrated steam press 1 comprises an upper platen 2 and a lower platen 3. The upper platen 2 has a lower operative face 4 and the lower platen has an upper operative face 5. In use, items to be pressed (typically but not exclusively articles of clothing) are pressed between the operative faces of the platens .

To this end, power actuated means are provided for moving the platens apart to allow an item to be pressed to be located therebetween, and for pressing the platens together to effect the required pressing.

Means, for example electrical heating elements, are provided for heating one or both of the platens and steam outlets are provided in one or both platens to facilitate the application of steam to the item to be pressed thereby assisting the pressing operation as will be understood by those skilled in the art.

Preferably, the upper platen 2 is mounted via a vibration isolating spring mounting 6 onto an arm 7 which is hingedly connected to the lower platen. The action of opening and closing of the platens is accordingly a "clam shell" movement.

In accordance with the present invention means are provided for moving the face of at least one of the platens in an orbital oscillating motion to assist removal of creases from the article being pressed.

In the simplest form of the present invention one only of the platens (for example the upper platen 2) incorporates a drive mechanism to provide orbital oscillating motion to the face of the platen. The face of the platen oscillates in an orbital motion similar to that of the base of an orbital sander. The oscillation can be in the clockwise or anticlockwise direction. The drive mechanism can readily be constituted by an electric motor mounted on the body of the platen and having an output shaft formed with an eccentric spigot which is received in a bearing in the face of the platen. The face of the platen is secured to the back of the platen by sideways- flexible spring legs. When the motor is rotated the arrangement of the spigot induces orbital motion in the face of the platen. With such an arrangement, the shaft that is preferably supported by a bearing secured to the back of the housing adjacent the face, the bearing receiving a concentric portion of the motor shaft thereby relieving the motor bearings of the eccentric load induced by the spigot.

In order to reduce vibration a small counterweight is preferably attached to the motor rotor close to its associated platen face to dynamically balance the throw of the oscillating platen.

In more complex embodiments of the invention both platens of the press move in use. If desired, both platens may perform orbital oscillating motion which can be in the same or opposite rotational directions and/or of respectively different frequency and/or of respectively different amplitude. Alternatively, one only of the platen faces may execute orbital oscillating motion whilst the face of the other platen performs some other motion - for example linear backwards and forwards motion directed either longitudinally or transversely of the associated platen.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the face 4 of the upper platen 2 performs orbital oscillatory motion whilst the face 3 of the lower platen 5 performs longitudinal oscillatory motion in the direction of the arrow A and/or transverse oscillatory motion in the direction of the arrow B. Referring to Figure 3 which is a bottom plan view of the lower platen 5 the required freedom of movement of the platen is provided by mounting the platen face on longitudinal slides 8 and/or transverse slides 9. A suitable oscillating mechanism 10, for example in the form of a motor having an eccentric formed on its output shaft is mounted to provide the required longitudinal and/or transverse movement of the upper face 3 of the lower platen 5.

The orbital oscillatory motion pattern executed by one or both of the platen faces can be of any appropriate orbital form, for example it can be circular motion, Figure of 8 motion, or a complex pattern of motion in which random variations are superimposed on a basic regular orbital oscillatory movement of pattern.

In a further alternative embodiment of the invention (not shown) at least one of the platen faces is split into two or more areas at least two of which perform orbital oscillatory motion in a coordinated manner.

In a further embodiment of the invention (not illustrated) the amplitude of the orbital oscillatory motion varies according to position on the face of the platen. For example, the drive arrangement may be located adjacent the rear of the platen (the point furthest removed from the operator) with the result that the rear of the platen

face executes orbital motion of a larger amplitude than that of the nearer parts of the platen face.

One or both of the platen faces may be crowned - i.e. may be slightly convex in cross-section. Additionally or alternatively one or both of the faces of the platens may be formed by a flexible material, for example a fluid-filled flexible pad.

If desired, one or more ultrasonic generators may be provided for inducing ultrasonic waves in the surfaces of the platens to be superimposed on the orbital or other oscillatory motion of the platens.

Preferably, the apparatus of the present invention is operated by means of afoot operated controller 11. The controller 11 may incorporate a number of functions including, for example, opening and closing of the platens, control of the force with which the platens engage each other, and control of the movement of the platens - for example the frequency or amplitude of the orbital oscillatory movement. Alternatively, basic opening and closing operations of the press can be effected by means of the controller 11 whilst the starting, stopping and intensity of the various motions of the platens may be controlled automatically, for example in response to the attitude of the platens and/or in response to the force with which they engage each other.

The invention may be embodied as a freestanding press having its own legs 12, as illustrated, or may be embodied as a table-top device which can be stood on an existing surface, for example a table or worktop.

It is to be understood that although as illustrated the upper platen 2 is significantly smaller than the lower platen 3, alternative arrangements are possible and, in particular, the platens may be of equal size if so desired.