Patent GB-609404-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to a machine for cleaning fur garments
Filed: 1946-03-13
Abstract: 609,404. Cleaning fur garments. ROOT, N. March 13, 1946, No. 7820. Convention date, April 7, 1945. [Class 138 (i)] A machine for cleaning fur garments with a particulate cleaning material such as sawdust comprises a rotatable container to receive the garments, having a number of peripheral apertures, a shutter member to rotate therewith and having an imperforate leaf associated with each aperture, and means for shifting the container and shutter relative to each other, whereby the leaves are positioned during the cleaning operation to block the apertures, and on such relative shifting expose the apertures to permit shaking-out of the cleaning material. A drum 42, Figs. 3 and 4, is mounted on a shaft 38 within a casing 11, Figs. 2, 3 and 4, and receives garments and sawdust through a door 64. A shutter member 28 has three leaves 32 concentric with the drum periphery, which is provided with three apertures 51, having perforate screens 52, adapted to be covered or. exposed by the leaves. The shutter is mounted on a hollow shaft 25 driven from an electric motor through a belt 111 and a pulley 73 keyed on the shaft, in the hub 74 of which is an aperture 76. Keyed to the shaft 38 is a collar 54 having a similar aperture 77. On rotation of the shutter 28, slots 142 therein engage pins 141 fixed on the drum to rotate the drum, the leaves 32 covering the apertures 51 and the apertures 76, 77 being slightly out of angular alignment, while the cleaning operation takes place, the garments and sawdust being shaken together, whereby a suitable solvent or detergent impregnating the latter is brought into intimate contact with the former. Any fumes in the drum are exhausted through vents 128 or through a pipe 133 connected to a blower 135. On stopping the motor, springs 145 secured in apertures 144 in the shutter and to pins 146 on the drum act to shift the drum relative to the shutter as far as permitted by the slots 142, whereby the apertures 51 are exposed and the apertures 76, 77 brought into alignment. A pin 93 in the aperture 77 is axially fixed by flanges 92 to a yoke 82 pivoted to the casing at 80 and rotates with the shaft 25, running in a circular slot 86 in the yoke. At its free end the yoke has an aperture 94 and is connected - thereby with an operating rod supported on brackets on the casing 11 and extending transversely of the drum, and having at its other end a crank-operating handle and a screw-thread engaging an internal thread in one of the brackets. On rotating the handle, the yoke 82 is pivoted inwards to push the pin 93 into the aperture 76, thereby locking together the drum and shutter with the apertures 51 exposed, whereby on starting the motor the sawdust is shaken out of the drum and falls through a shoot 147 into a drawer 124 for further use. After the shaking-out operation, the handle is turned to remove the pin from the aperture 76, whereby on restarting the motor the shutter moves into aperture-blocking position against the spring action for the next cleaning operation. In a modification, the springs and the yoke 82 and apertures 76, 77 are dispensed with, a reversible motor being provided, whereby on rotating the shutter in one direction the apertures are covered and on rotating it in the other direction the apertures are exposed. Alternatively, the drum may be driven by the motor and itself drive the shutter, by means of a slight readjustment of the associated parts.