Patent GB-703624-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to automatic controls for washing, bleaching, dyeing andother machines
IPC: D06F33/04
Filed: 1950-09-27
Abstract: An automatic valve control for a washing, bleaching, dyeing or like machine comprises a spindle 9 one part of which has a screw 11 of elongated pitch on which a float 13 is mounted, the float being slidable but non-rotatable in a liquid measuring container 1 and therefore rotating the spindle as it rises and falls with the level of <PICT:0703624/IV(c)/1> <PICT:0703624/IV(c)/2> <PICT:0703624/IV(c)/3> the liquid in the container 1.  A pipe 2 connects the container 1 to the clothes and washing or like liquid container (not shown) so that the liquid level is the same in both containers.  Hot and cold water inlet valves (not shown) for supplying water to the washing or like container are controlled by pistons in cylinders adapted to be fed at both ends with a fluid under pressure, e.g. compressed air.  The feed of fluid to the cylinder to open and close the cold water valve is controlled by valves 3 and 6 respectively.  Valves 5 and 4 control the opening and closing respectively of the hot water valve.  The float 13 is annular in shape and has four rollers 14 adapted to engage on the four faces of the screw 11 and two rollers 16 adapted to engage parallel guide surfaces on a fixed vertical guide rail, 17.  The spindle 9 rotates in bearings 7, 10 and projects above the container 1, the projecting part having an elongated key 18 (Fig. 7).  A hollow cylinder 19 slides with its upper end on the spindle 9 and key 18 and carries a removable sleeve 20 having a peg 21 removably engaging a hole in the cylinder 19.  A cylinder 22 is freely rotatable on the spindle 9 and is supported by a disc 23 which rotates with the spindle 9.  The cylinder 22 is adapted to be rotated one-eighth of a revolution between successive processes by means of a spring loaded pawl 26 which engages a ring of eight ratchet teeth 25 and is mounted on a slide 27 moved to and fro by a piston 28\sv in a cylinder 28.  The cylinder 19 is supported by means of a helical ring of eight teeth 24 on the cylinder 22 which engage successively with teeth 31 provided on a ring 32 rotatable in the cylinder 19 and held yieldingly in a predetermined angular position by a compression spring, Fig. 5 (not shown).  When the cylinder 22 is rotated the slide 19 is free to descend by gravity but its descent is momentarily stopped by one of a ring of teeth 35 which are angularly offset relative to the teeth 31. When the tooth 24 has moved clear of the tooth 35 the cylinder 19 is free to descend until arrested by the engagement of the tooth 31 with the next lower tooth 24.  The cylinder 19 descends in eight similar stages and when stopped after the last descent with the teeth 24, 35 out of register, the ring 32 being free to yield angularly against the action of the spring enables a tooth 31 encountering a tooth 24 in the upward movement to slide angularly out of line with the obstructing tooth 24 and the cylinder 19 can be raised without rotating it.  The valves 3-6 are spring closed and are opened through the medium of levers 36-39 pivotally mounted at 40-43 and having rollers 44-47 respectively.  A series of rings are secured on the sleeve 20 by a screw-threaded ring 50, each ring 48 having a peripheral projection 51 adapted to engage one of the rollers 44-47. The angular setting of the rings 48 and therefore of their projections can be adjusted, thirty-two rings being required for eight processes.  When the outlet valve of the machine is opened the float 13 falls and rotates the spindle 9 and one or more projections 51 on the rings 48 actuate rollers 44 and/or 46 to open fluid control valves 3 and/or 5 and admit cold and/or hot water to the containers. The float thereupon rises, rotating the spindle 9, until the desired quantity of liquid has ben introduced into the containers, when valves 4 and/or 5 are actuated to cut off the supply of hot and/or cold water. Different volumes of cold and hot water are obtained by opening one valve before the other, but closing them at the same time.  In a modification, Figs. 9, 10 (not shown), each valve is closed by the action of a spring, only the opening of the valve being effected by compressed air.