Clothes drying apparatus

The present invention relates to an apparatus for drying hanger mounted clothes, comprising a hanger rod mounted above a drip pan element, where said rod and drip pan assembly may be slidably removed from a drying cabinet so that wet clothing articles may be easily mounted on the hanger rod. In another aspect, the present invention relates to an improved clothing hanger having at least one clothing clip adapted so as to retain an article of clothing to prohibit said article from being removed from said hanger during operations, where said clothing clip may be attached to said hanger by an extension wire. In another aspect, an automatic control is provided so that the drying cycle may be preselected so as to achieve the most efficient drying of the clothing articles.

TECHNICAL FIELD 
The present invention relates to an apparatus for drying hanger mounted 
clothes, which includes a drip pan element to collect excess water and 
includes improved hangers to retain clothing articles during drying 
operations. 
BACKGROUND ART 
It is well known to dry clothes after washing in tumble-type dryer. 
However, tumble dryers suffer the disadvantage of permanently wrinkling 
clothes of certain fabrics. In particular, the tumble dryers of the prior 
art tend to wrinkle permanent press clothing if the clothing is not 
promptly removed from the dryer after it completes its cycle. 
Consequently, the operator is required to be present when the dryer 
completes its cycle to remove clothing therefrom resulting in an 
inconvenience to the operator. Further, tumble dryers produce wrinkles in 
clothes by the very nature of the tumbling cycle. 
The prior art also contemplates the use of a clothes drying machine wherein 
the articles to be dried are mounted on a hanger or rack to allow hot 
turbulent air to be circulated around the clothing article to affect its 
drying. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 380,949 issued to Shannon discloses a 
clothes dryer wherein a plurality of clothes racks are mounted as drawers 
in a cabinet structure, the cabinet providing means to heat and circulate 
air around clothing mounted on the plurality of racks to affect drying 
thereof. Other devices contemplate clothing mounted on a hanger and 
stretched over a vent aperture to allow hot air to be forced into the 
interior of a wet clothing article to affect drying thereof. Examples of 
these devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 759,179 issued to Wiesman. 
The prior art also contemplates horizontally mounted clothes racks, mounted 
so as to be extended from the clothes drying machine to allow easy access 
thereto. Further, the prior art devices contemplate the use of a drip pan 
mounted directly beneath the above described clothing rack to collect 
excess water dripping from wet clothing articles prior to the completion 
of the drying step. Examples of these devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. 
No. 3,866,336 issued to Bereza. 
The devices of the prior art suffer the disadvantages of having no adequate 
means to attach clothing articles to the clothing rack to prohibit the 
article from being blown off of the rack when exposed to forceful gusts of 
hot drying air. Further, the devices of the prior art, while suggesting 
the use of drip pans, have no means to link the drip pan to the rack 
fixture to assure that the drip pan is under the wet clothing article at 
all times during the loading and drying operations. Further, the devices 
of the prior art fail to provide an easy means of both loading and 
unloading clothing articles from the drying cabinet while simultaneously 
providing a drip pan to collect all excess water from the clothing 
articles during the loading and drying operations. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention comprises an apparatus for drying clothing wherein 
the clothing is vertically mounted on hangers adapted to secure the 
clothing articles to prohibit their being removed from the hanger during 
drying operations. Specifically, the present invention contemplates the 
use of forceful gusts of hot dry air to affect drying of wet clothing 
articles and provides clip means to removably attach clothing articles to 
a hanger adapted to assure that the clothing article remains mounted in a 
vertical position during the drying operation. Further, the present 
invention provides a means wherein a drip pan is deployed beneath wet 
clothing articles at all times during the loading, drying, and removal 
steps.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
Referring to FIG. 1, the present invention comprises a cabinet 10 having a 
door 60. Cabinet 10 houses either a gas or electric air heater and air 
blower or pump (not shown) as are used in the prior art to generate and 
move heated air to affect the drying of wet clothing. In particular, 
cabinet 10 has interior wall 32 having a plurality of air holes 34 through 
which the heated air is forced into the interior of the cabinet. It will 
be understood that the other interior walls of cabinet 10 likewise have 
air holes to allow heated air to injected into the interior of the 
cabinet. 
It will be understood that the apparatus of the present invention 
accomplishes the drying of clothing in a manner similar to the dryers of 
the prior art, wherein hot dry air is forced across the surface of the wet 
clothing articles to cause evaporation of water contained in the articles, 
removing the water therefrom and transporting the water from the drying 
apparatus through an exhaust. The present invention contemplates an 
electric or gas heating element used to heat ambient air to a sufficient 
temperature to affect proper drying operations without damaging the 
clothing articles, and further contemplates the use of a blower or pump of 
a sufficient strength to move the heated air in a sufficient quantity to 
realize an efficient drying of the clothing articles. It will be further 
understood that the heated air may be blown across the clothing articles 
in a single jet, or in a plurality of jets or high velocity streams, or 
may be circulated about the wet clothing articles in a more gentle fashion 
by various blower apertures. In particular, the present invention 
contemplates the employment of perforations 34 located about the interior 
of the cabinet, where the hot dry air is emitted from the perforations to 
contact the surfaces of the wet clothing articles in a vigorous fashion, 
and then move towards an exahust duct (not shown) to be removed from the 
cabinet. 
Cabinet 10 has control mechanism 12 which allows the user to preset the 
temperature at which the clothing articles will be dried and to preset the 
time of the drying operation so as to control the clothing's exposure to 
the heated air. Control 12 also permits the user to control the velocity 
at which air is injected into the interior of cabinet 10 through air holes 
34 so as to better effect the drying of the clothing articles. 
Slidably mounted in the interior of cabinet 10 is a drying rack comprising 
hangers 70 mounted on a hanger rod 30 and drip pan 14 mounted beneath the 
hangers. In particular, the hanger rod and drip pan are connected by 
vertical supports 20, 22, 24 and 26, where drip pan 14 is mounted on 
slides 170 and 172 and comprises a base 168 with sides 160, 162, 164 and 
166. Hanger rod 30 is connected between cross members 74 and 76 which in 
turn are connected to slides 104 and 106. It will be understood that 
slides 104, 106, 170 and 172 may be of any configuration as suitable for 
the present application, and in the preferred embodiment contain ball 
bearings or wheels mounted so as to reduce the friction experienced during 
sliding operations. The combination of hanger rod 30, cross members 74 and 
76, and slides 104 and 106 may be referred to, generally, as a hanger rod 
assembly. Further, it will be understood that drip pan 14 may comprise any 
means to receive and retain a liquid, such as a substantially rectangular 
pan as shown, and generally, this liquid collection means may be referred 
to as a drip pan assembly. 
Slides 104, 106, 170 and 172 are located so as to assure that vertical 
supports 20, 22, 24 and 26 remain in a substantially vertical position 
when hanger rack 30 and drip pan 14 are located on the outside of cabinet 
10 and when the rack and drip pan are inserted into the drying cabinet. 
Referring now to FIG. 2, door 60 is shown in a closed position, and has 
window 62 through which the operator can observe drying operations. 
Further, cabinet 10 has air inlets 34 located above door 60 and inlets 36 
located below door 60 through which cool ambient air is drawn to be heated 
and injected into the interior of cabinet 10, then vented through an 
exhaust (not shown). It will be understood that when door 60 is in its 
closed position, cabinet 10 is sealed so as to provide an efficient drying 
operation. Further, the present invention contemplates the use of a safety 
switch mounted on door 60 so that when the door is open during operation 
the heating cycle is interrupted to permit the user to remove the rack and 
drip pan assembly from the cabinet and either retrieve partially dried 
clothing articles from the rack or load more clothing articles thereon at 
mid cycle. The present invention further contemplates that the hanger 
assembly and other metal surfaces be coated with a suitable material, such 
as plastic, so that the human operator will not be burned or injured in 
any other way when contacting the metal surfaces at mid cycle or at the 
completion of a drying cycle. 
Referring now to FIG. 3, in another aspect, the present invention 
contemplates the use of a clothing hanger adapted to prohibit clothing 
articles from being removed therefrom during drying operations by the 
force of air. In particular, hanger 70 has extensions 180 and 182 which 
are linked by cross members 80 and 82 so as to form a substantially 
rectangular hanger structure. Proximate to hanger hook 84 are clothing 
clips 120 and 122 attached to hanger 70 by extension wires 140 and 142. 
Proximate to the locations at which cross member 80 connects to extensions 
180 and 182 are clothing clips 130 and 132 attached to the extensions by 
wire extensions 150 and 152. It will be understood that this improved 
hanger structure will allow clothing articles to be filled by warm drying 
air, but will prohibit the clothing article from being removed from the 
hanger by the force of the drying air. The improved hanger of the present 
invention avoids the problems associated with the prior art cabinet dryers 
wherein the clothing articles were removed from the drying hangers, 
falling to the floor of the cabinet, and thereby remaining undried through 
the completion of the drying cycle. 
It will be further understood that the present invention contemplates the 
improved hanger structure to be manufactured in a variety of sizes and 
shapes so as to better retain articles of clothing during drying 
operations. For example, in one embodiment, hanger 70 is of a suitable 
size and shape so as to receive and retain a man's shirt, while 
alternative embodiments may be of an elongate length and narrow width so 
as to receive and retain a pair of man's pants in a fully extended 
position to facilitate drying operations. In yet another alternative 
embodiment, hanger 70 may be of suitable dimensions so as to receive and 
retain a woman's full length dress in an extended position so that air may 
pass over the surface of the dress to allow effective drying. Generally, 
the hanger structure contemplated by this invention may be of rectangular, 
trapezoidal, or triangular shape, or may be of such a shape that employs 
rectangular, trapezoidal, and triangular elements in such a fashion so 
that the hanger will be properly sized and shaped to receive and retain 
specific types of articles of clothing. It will be further understood that 
all hangers contemplated by the present invention may employ clothing 
clips and wire extensions as shown in FIG. 3 so as to prohibit the 
clothing article from being removed from the hanger by the force of the 
drying air. 
In operation, the operator removes wet clothing articles from a washing 
machine and mounts them on hangers 70 by hanging the clothing over the 
hanger and attaching clothing clips 120, 122, 130 and 132 to the clothing 
at suitable places. It will be understood that wet clothing articles 
should have their buttons or zippers fastened when placed over hanger 70 
so that the wet clothing article will completely encase the hanger to the 
greatest extent possible. This aspect of mounting wet clothing articles on 
hangers 70 assures that the hanger will be most effective in allowing warm 
drying air to be circulated over the entire surface of the clothing 
article, without the unwanted effect of having the clothing article bunch 
up or in some other way fold over upon itself during drying operations 
from the vigorous gusts of warm air blown upon the clothing article. 
Door 60 of cabinet 10 is opened, and the hanger rod and drip pan assembly 
is slidably extended from the cabinet to allow access to the hanger rod. 
The loaded hangers are then hung on rod 30 and all excess water in the 
clothing is allowed to drip onto pan 14. Pan 14 serves to avoid the 
clothing dripping onto the floor area immediately in front of cabinet 10, 
thereby avoiding the danger of a person slipping on the wet floor after 
door 60 is closed. It will be understood that pan 14 may have a drain (not 
shown) so that excess water is removed from the pan and drying cabinet 
prior to the initiation of the drying operation. 
After the operator determines that substantially all excess water has been 
drained from the clothing articles the rod and pan structure is slid into 
cabinet 10 and door 60 is closed so as to seal the cabinet to prohibit any 
warm air from escaping therefrom. The operator may then preselect the 
temperature at which the clothes will be dried, where, for instance, 
higher temperatures may used to dry cotton fabrics, and lower temperatures 
used to dry permanent press fabrics. Further, the blower speed may be 
preselected to allow the clothes to be dried in a vigorous fashion by air 
moving at a high velocity or dried in a more modest fashion by lower 
velocity air. Further, the operator may preselect the amount of time he or 
she desires the dryer to be in operation, and uses his or her experience 
to best estimate the amount of time necessary to dry a particular load of 
clothing. 
The drying cycle may be interrupted at any time by opening door 60, and 
hanger rod 30 and drip pan 14 may be slidably removed from the interior of 
the cabinet so as to allow the operator to either remove or add new 
clothing articles to rod 30 at mid cycle. It will understood that the 
drying operations may be observed through window 62 located in door 60 so 
that the operator may judge when the clothing is reasonably dry by 
observing the clothing through the window. 
Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described in the 
foregoing Detailed Description and illustrated in the accompanying 
Drawings, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the 
embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, 
modifications, and substitutions of parts and elements without departing 
from the spirit of the invention. The present invention is therefore 
intended to encompass such rearrangements, modifications, and 
substitutions of parts and elements as fall within the scope of the 
invention.