Patent GB-314043-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in pressing machines specially adapted for laundry work
IPC: D06F71/04
Filed: 1928-12-15
Abstract: 314,043. American Laundry Machinery Co., (Assignees of Pauly, R. C.). June 22, 1928, [Convention date]. Band; actuated or applied by motor stopping or controlling appliances and by springs.-In a garment press having motor means for effecting final heavy pressure after manual or power closing, and wherein there is provided a controller for the motor, means are provided normally tending to move the controller to neutral position to stop the motor and thereby prevent further closing, and other means are provided which overcome this tendency as the press head reaches the safe closed position, whereby the motor may continue to operate to apply the final heavy pressure. The motor controller must therefore be maintained manually in its operative closing position until after the press is safely closed, whereupon the manual maintenance may be released and the controller be automatically held in its operative closing position during the application of the final heavy pressure. After the heavy pressure has been applied the controller is automatically moved to neutral position by a member driven off the motor shaft, thereby stopping the motor. The movement of the controller to neutral position, either from its closing or opening position, automatically applies a brake to the motor shaft simultaneously with the opening of the motor circuit. Manual actuation of a single lever releases the brake and sets the controller in its operative press-closing or opening position, the brake being released immediately prior to the setting of the controller. Means are also provided to prevent movement of this lever to the press opening position after it has been operated to initiate the press closing movement until after the controller has been moved to neutral position. The motor 43, Fig. 3, drives a crankshaft 30 through worm gearing 39, 40, and the press head 8, Fig. 1, is actuated from the crankshaft through the link and lever system 29, 27, 19, 16, 14, the push rod 14 being guided in a swivel block 11 and being coupled to the press head lever 9 through a manually swung coupling member 12 actuated by a lever 38. The crankshaft 30 projects into a controller box 45, Fig. 3, in which a shaft 46 parallel to the crankshaft is supported. On this shaft a pair of insulating segments 47, 48 are mounted, each segment carrying at each of its opposite free corners a bifurcated contact 49 - - 52. The shaft 46 also carries a pinion 58, Fig. 10, meshing with a rack 59 on a rod 60 slidable in the controller box so that the segments can be swung to either side of the neutral position shown in Fig. 9. When the segments are swung clockwise, the contact 49, Fig. 3, bridges a pair of leaf contacts 56, 55 in the positive line of the motor circuit, and the contact 51 simultaneously bridges contacts 53, 54 in the return line. When the segments are swung to the other side of the neutral position these contacts are respectively bridged by the moving contacts 50, 52 to complete the motor circuit in the same direction as before. The rack rod is connected by levers and links 72, 74, Fig. 9, 76, 79, Fig. 3, to an operating handle 81 which is held by a latch 86 in its normal neutral position. Operation of the handle 81 upwardly or downwardly releases the brake and moves the rack rod to the left or right respectively to complete the motor circuit for the closing or opening movements respectively. A mutilated disc 64, Fig. 10, is mounted on the crankshaft 30 within the controller box and carries a roller 66 which, at the ends of the full closing or opening movement of the press, strikes against one or other of two fingers 63, 62 respectively, secured to the rack rod and moves the rod to the right or left to neutral position and so stops the motor. This movement of the rack rod simultaneously applies the brake. The brake comprises a strap 89, Fig. 6, encircling a drum 42<1> on the motor shaft 41, the strap being adjustably anchored at one end 90 and secured at its other end to a plunger rod 101 sliding in a fixed bearing and held up by a spring 103 compressed between the bearing and a disc 102 secured to the plunger rod. A double cone 96 for depressing the plunger rod to release the brake is secured to a rod 95 which is pivoted to the lever 76, Fig. 3, which is one of the levers in the system between the handle 81<1> and the rack rod 60. The rod 95 slides in bearings 92, 93, Fig. 6, and a spring 98 between the bearing 92 and a collar 99 on one end of the rod restores the rod to the brake-applying position shown on release of the handle 81. If the handle 81 is released before the press has reached safe closed position this movement of the rod 95 is communicated to the rack rod to move the segments to neutral position for stopping the motor. At the time that the press reaches safe closed position, however, a roller 69, Fig. 10, carried on a lever 68 pivoted at 67 to the mutilated disc 64, contacts with the finger 62. A spring 70 is anchored to the disc 64 and to the other end of the lever 68, tending to throw the roller 69 outwardly. If now the handle 81 be released the spring 98 will be prevented from moving the rod 95 to brake-applying position and the rack rod 60 to neutral position owing to the tensioning of the spring 70 that would then occur, the strengths of the two springs 70, 98 being adjusted to prevent such movement. The press then proceeds to fully closed position, the motor continuing to run, despite release of the handle 81, until the roller 69 moves off the finger 62 and the roller 66 strikes the finger 63 to move the rack rod to neutral position and to apply the brake. Whilst the press is closing the operator may move the handle 81 from the press closing position only as far as its neutral position, thereby stopping the motor and applying the brake; means for preventing him from moving it to press opening position until after the press has moved to fully closed position comprise a raised portion 65 on the mutilated disc 64 abutting into the path of the fingers 62, 63 and forming in effect an extension of the roller 66. The rack rod is held against accidental displacement from neutral position by a spring-pressed ball 60<1>, Fig. 9, engaging a recess 60<11> in the rod in its neutral position.