Method and an apparatus for automatic ironing

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for automatic ironing of textile articles and the like in a very simple and practical way in which dewrinkling is done in a container (10) without touching the articles by any part of the apparatus or tool like means, comprising a wet ironing stage in which clothes are dewrinkled with high-temperature, high-humidity, high-pressure air and a dry ironing stage in which clothes are dewrinkled with high-temperature, high-pressure air. An automatic ironing machine is comprised of a box like unit container, an electronic control unit controlling the ironing process, a container (10) in which the clothes are placed, an air compressor (19) to increase the air pressure of the air and to circulate the air in the system, a steam generating system (40, 45b) to provide humidity, a heating system (45a) to increase to the temperature of the air and water in the system, and a refrigerating system (46-51) for drying and cooling.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for automatically ironing clothes items and the like by using only humidity, heat, and air pressure in a container. BACKGROUND ART [0002] It is known that clothes items and the like are usually ironed through the application of moisture, heat, and tension. Other than conventional irons, various devices are available for carrying out this operation having a box shape, in which the garment articles, suitable fitted to mannequins or arranged between clamps and the like, are subjected to impinging hot steam. In this type box like ironing apparatus, the blowing through of hot steam and subsequent ironing operations (such as circulation of air in the container, drying, ventilating etc.) and the door closing and opening operations are individually carried out through manual controls. This requires several ironing steps to be subjectively controlled by a person and, thus increasing the time that must be given ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an automatic ironing machine by which textile articles and the like are dewrinkled in a very easy and practical way with the help of high-pressure, high-humidity, and high-temperature air without using any means that touches the articles to be ironed by any part of the apparatus or tool like means that provides an additional tension on the textile articles and the like during ironing process and any other means such as clamps or cords or inflatable bags and the like for stretching the clothes or the sleeves.

Problems solved by technology

However, this type of system is relatively ineffective in dewrinkling the clothes compared to the conventional techniques and stretches the clothes out of shape due to non-uniform tensioning.

While this type of system is inefficient in dewrinkling, it requires plurality of clamps to ensure that the item is held in place when the bag is inflated and is not very practical to use.

However, this system does not provide the desired tension on the item to accomplish dewrinkling.

First, a shirt sleeve support system is still needed because dewrinkling shirt sleeves is a major problem for the devices discussed so far.

However, any kind of stretching by means of clamps or cords and the like, is not able to provide satisfactory results as in conventional means of ironing.

Second, ineffective dewrinkling cannot be prevented since there is no one to one correspondence between the shape of a clothes item and inflatable hanger.

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