Textiles: ironing or smoothing – Accessories – Sheet shake out or spreader devices
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-28
2003-07-01
Izaguirre, Ismael (Department: 3765)
Textiles: ironing or smoothing
Accessories
Sheet shake out or spreader devices
Reexamination Certificate
active
06584711
ABSTRACT:
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for automating all the steps of a process for laundering and finishing dirty rectangular sheets of fabric at a plant such as the laundry.
2. Background Art
Heretofore at the laundry, it has been customary to receive a heap of dirty rectangular sheets of fabric, deprive the sheets of dirt at a laundering step for laundering or cleaning the sheets collectively with water or a detergent, then introduce the laundered or cleaned sheets into a dewatering step to dewater the sheets with a dewatering device, subsequently convey the dewatered sheets to a drying and disentangling step to dry the moist sheets and, at the same time, disentangle the sheets which have been entangled into a crumpled mass, and heap the sheets which have been disentangled. For the purpose of extracting one of the sheets from the heap and ironing it, this sheet must be supplied to an ironing device as held in a spread state with the opposite edges (sides) thereof neatly parallelled.
It has been further customary, therefore, to spread manually the sheets which have been disentangled, supply the spread sheets to an edge parallelling step and, with the aid of an edge parallelizing device, parallel the edges to the device, introduce the sheets with the parallelled edges into an ironing step and subject them to a finish ironing, fold the finish ironed sheets at a folding step, wrap the folded sheets at a wrapping step, and put the wrapped sheets to temporary storage prior to delivery.
For laundering and finishing the sheets of fabric, these sheets are required to undergo the steps mentioned above. In the conventional process for finishing laundered rectangular sheets of fabric, the laundering, dewatering, drying, disentangling, edge parallelling, ironing, folding, wrapping, and storing steps have been already mechanized and have been performed by the use of relevant devices without requiring any manual work. The step for spreading sheets between the drying and disentangling step and the edge parallelling step or the ironing step, however, has defied mechanization because the sheets by nature are supple and liable to collapse. At this step, therefore, several employees are engaged to perform the works of extracting individual sheets one by one from the heap, disentangling them, seeking out one corner of each sheet and the edge of the sheet extending from this corner or the corner of the sheet adjacent thereto, taking firm hold thereof, spreading the relevant sheets, and supplying the spread sheets to the edge parallelling device or the ironing device at the subsequent step.
Since these works compel the employees to bear the pain of hard labor under the adverse environment of high temperature and high humidity, they suffer from poor operational efficiency and boost the cost of operation. Since the spreading step which forms part of the whole process of laundry relies on such manual works, the whole process of laundering dirty sheets of fabric and finishing the laundered sheets cannot be automated. This fact poses the problem of interrupting any attempt at realizing an unattended operation of the laundry under an adverse environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention has an object of realizing unattended operation of the laundry as a plant and automation of the whole process of a series of steps for laundering dirty sheets of fabric and finishing the laundered sheets by providing a method and apparatus for the work of spreading sheets of fabric at one step in a series of steps ranging from laundering dirty sheets through finishing laundered sheets, namely the step for taking firm grip of one sheet out of a heap of sheets, suspending the sheet, spreading this sheet, and supplying the spread sheet to a device at the next step.
For accomplishing the object mentioned above, such concrete spreading means as will be cited herein below are provided for the spreading step which comprises picking up one of a heap of sheets of fabric which have been laundered, dewatered, dried, and disentangled, taking firm grip of one arbitrary corner part of the sheet together with the point (portion) of the sheet terminating an arbitrary width of one edge thereof extending from the one corner or another corner part adjacent across the edge to the one corner.
A first chuck (a sheet gripping member) which is vertically reciprocated by and along an elevating column takes firm grip of one of the heap of rectangular sheets of fabric. When the first chuck is moved upward along the elevating column to suspend the sheet, the sheet hangs down under its own weight. So long as the sheet is not entangled, the corner part of the sheet separated by the largest distance from the point of grip (the corner itself or the portion near the corner) assumes the position of the lowermost end of the suspended sheet. The sheet is placed in a device adjoining the elevating column and serving to extract the corner part of the sheet. A second chuck then takes firm grip of the one corner part of the sheet located at the lowermost end thereof and the first chuck looses the sheet.
The sheet hangs down under its own weight from the second chuck and, as a result, the lowermost end thereof constitutes itself the corner part which is diagonal to the corner part already gripped by the second chuck. The device for extracting the corner part of the sheet extracts the diagonal corner part and a third chuck takes firm grip of this diagonal corner part. When the second and the third chuck are laterally moved in the horizontal direction to stretch the sheet, the sheet is folded along the diagonal line connecting the corner parts gripped by the second and the third chuck and caused to hang down in the shape of an inverted triangle. From this state, the sheet is supplied to each of the first through the fifth spreading means to be described below.
In the first means for spreading a rectangular sheet of fabric, the second and the third chuck are caused to take firm grip of one corner of the sheet and the corner diagonal thereto and hang the sheet down in the shape of an inverted triangle, then the second and the third chuck are moved onto a rectangular mounting stand so as to lay the sheet folded in the shape of an inverted triangle on the mounting stand, and the second and the third chuck are moved on the mounting stand so as to drag the sheet thereon. A fulcral post for inhibiting the movement of the sheet is disposed on the central line of the mounting stand so that the second and the third chuck may be parallelly moved in the areas on the mounting stand divided by the central line.
At the same time that the folding edge of the sheet collides against the fulcral post, one of the two chucks is caused to looses the sheet and the other chuck alone is left continuously dragging the sheet. During the continued movement of the sheet, the fulcral post imparts on the sheet a gathering action such that the sheet may advance toward a line sensor which is disposed across the paths for travel of the chucks extending parallelly to the central line on the mounting stand. When the line sensor detects one edge of the sheet, the movement of the chucks or the movement of the sheet is stopped.
Thereafter, the chuck still keeping grip of the sheet is caused to loose the sheet. Another chuck which is adapted to move in the direction perpendicular to the central line on the mounting stand takes firm grip of one corner part of the sheet together with the point of the sheet terminating an arbitrary width of one edge thereof extending from the one corner and suspends and spreads the sheet.
In the second means for spreading a rectangular sheet of fabric, the second and the third chuck take firm grip of one corner part of the sheet together with another corner part thereof diagonal to the one corner part, fold the sheet in the shape of an inverted triangle, open the doubled parts of the folded and suspended sheet and straighten the folding edge. A rotary arm is rotated and approximated in the
Armstrong Westerman & Hattori, LLP
Izaguirre Ismael
Tokai Co., Ltd.
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