Patent Publication Number: US-2004050655-A1

Title: Industrial laundry machine

Description:
[0001] This invention concerns an industrial laundry machine for separating articles to be treated, such as sheets or other laundry articles in a clump, as a result of being mixed up together.  
       [0002] An industrial laundry machine includes one or more units for washing laundry and one or more units of drying/ironing/folding of this laundry.  
       [0003] After they are washed, the articles come out all together from the washing unit(s) and must be separated from each other, at least in small bunches so they can then be treated continuously by the drying/ironing/folding units.  
       [0004] Frequently, one or more press unit(s) presses articles between the time they are washed and the time they are subsequently treated, in order to extract a significant part of water that these articles contain. This pressing results in the articles being compacted in the shape of a relatively rigid bale which requires a machine to be used to separate these articles from each other.  
       [0005] There is one such machine, including:  
       [0006] a vertical mast;  
       [0007] a carriage that travels the length of this mast,  
       [0008] a clamp mounted on this carriage;  
       [0009] means of driving the carriage/clamp assembly along the mast, making it possible to move this assembly between a lower position in which the clamp comes up to and grips these articles and an upper position in which the clamp made it possible to extract one or more articles;  
       [0010] means of transferring the extracted articles to a conveyor for taking away these articles, and  
       [0011] control means of the movements of the carriage/clamp assembly, including means for detecting that the clamp is gripping one or more articles; after this detection means has detected that the clamp has gripped some laundry articles, they control the moving of the carriage/clamp assembly to said upper position.  
       [0012] This machine is generally satisfactory but still has the significant disadvantage of causing the clamp to be restricted in its movement, due to the clamp&#39;s subsequent deformation, that gradually alters its efficiency. Indeed, the clamp must go into the pile of articles so that it can effectively pick up these articles. However, the surface of the pile of articles can be irregular, and this pile is fairly rigid after it has been pressed. This results in the lowering movement of the carriage/clamp assembly being reversed before it can grip any articles of laundry, which then causes significant stress on the clamp.  
       [0013] Another disadvantage of the existing machines is the fact that the quantity of laundry gripped by the clamp is not always well controlled, and it frequently occurs that the clamp grips a larger quantity of laundry than required for a cycle of gripping/transfer of the articles.  
       [0014] This invention correctly targets these two basic disadvantages.  
       [0015] The machine that it concerns is of the aforementioned type.  
       [0016] According to the invention, this machine includes means of disengagement between said carriage and said carriage driving means. This disengagement means acts between the carriage and the driving means when a stress threshold exerted on clamp is exceeded, which is lower than the one at which the clamp could be damaged.  
       [0017] The invention thus makes it possible to eliminate any risk of such damage, with no need to reinforce the clamp&#39;s structure, and therefore without adding weight to this clamp. Such a weight would increase the inertia of the clamp and would be detrimental for the operation of the machine, particularly when the clamp moves which is necessary for the transfer of the articles.  
       [0018] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention,  
       [0019] the driving means includes a geared motor;  
       [0020] the machine includes transmission means, including a notched pulley mounted on the drive shaft of the geared motor, a notched pulley on the drive shaft of the geared motor, a return notched pulley and a notched belt engaged around these pulleys; and  
       [0021] the notched pulley mounted on the shaft of the geared motor includes said disengagement means, which is arranged between this notched pulley and this shaft and is shaped so as to ensure a connection between the pulley and the shaft when they are turning in the same direction and to allow a free rotation of the shaft with respect to the pulley when the pulley simply stops turning or stops turning in the same direction as this shaft.  
       [0022] When the carriage/clamp assembly is lowered or raised, the shaft of the geared motor and the pulley turn in the same direction so that the shaft drives the pulley; when the clamp goes to the laundry, regardless of the surface configuration of the laundry pile, the carriage, the belt and the two pulleys around which this belt is engaged are halted and the shaft can continue to turn freely with respect to the pulley mounted on it, until the laundry has been gripped, at which time the shaft of the geared motor is driven in the reverse direction to become a part of said carriage/pulley assembly near the top.  
       [0023] According to another aspect of the invention,  
       [0024] the clamp is in two parts, that is to say, it includes two independent gripping subassemblies, arranged next to each other and operating independently of each other;  
       [0025] each subassembly is fitted with its own detection means for detecting the presence or absence of articles in this subassembly, and the control means to open and close the jaws of clamp that makes up this subassembly,  
       [0026] the detection means and the control means of these two subassemblies act in such a way that, if the presence of articles is detected in both subassemblies at the same time, the control means of either of the two subassemblies is activated in order to open said gripping jaws of this subassembly to release the article or articles gripped by the same subassembly.  
       [0027] The clamp shaped in this manner makes it possible to much more precisely control the quantity of laundry picked up in each cycle and therefore to regulate the transfer of the laundry to the subsequent treatment units. 
     
    
    
     [0028] For a more complete understanding, the invention is again described below with reference to the attached schematic drawing representing a preferred embodiment of the machine that it concerns as a non-limiting example.  
     [0029]FIG. 1 is an elevation view of an installation including this machine;  
     [0030]FIG. 2 is an overhead view of this installation;  
     [0031]FIG. 3 is a side view of the machine according to the invention, at an enlarged scale, with protective screens that comprise this machine being in place;  
     [0032]FIG. 4 is a 3-D view, with the screens not represented, and  
     [0033]FIG. 5 is a partial view, from the side and at an enlarged scale. 
    
    
     [0034]FIG. 1 and  2  represent a part of the industrial laundry machine in a very simplified and schematic manner. This includes one or more washing and pressing units (not represented) of the laundry, a conveyor  1  moving the piles  2  of pressed laundry, in the form bales that are more or less compact, a conveyor  3  taking the piles  2  near the machine  4  according to the invention, three conveyors  5 ,  6  and  7  carrying articles of laundry  10  treated by the machine  4 , and a subsequent treatment unit  8  of the laundry. In the example represented, the unit  8  is called an “inserting” machine, which makes it possible to spread each article out flat so the article can go into an ironing unit and then into a folding unit.  
     [0035] The machine  4  is for extracting articles  10  from the pile  2  by separating them from each other, minimally into small clumps, so that these articles  10  can then be continuously treated by the subsequent treatment unit or units.  
     [0036] The machine  4  includes:  
     [0037] a vertical mast  15  forming a guide rail  16 ;  
     [0038] a carriage  17  that can move along this mast  15 , in this rail  16 ;  
     [0039] a clamp  18  in two parts  18   a ,  18   b , mounted on this carriage  17 ;  
     [0040] a geared motor  20 , a notched pulley  21  mounted on the drive shaft of this geared motor  20 , a return notched pulley  22  and a notched belt  23  engaged around these pulleys  21 ,  22  to which the carriage  17  is connected;  
     [0041] a pivoting arm  25  connecting the clamp  18  to the carriage  17  and  
     [0042] control means of the movements of the carriage  17 /clamp  18  assembly, including detection means of the gripping of one or more articles  10  by the clamp  18 .  
     [0043] The geared motor  20  forms a driving means of the carriage  17 /clamp  18  assembly along the mast  15 , and the pulleys  21 ,  22  and the belt  23  forming the transmission means. These various means make it possible to move said assembly between a lower position in which the clamp  18  comes up and grips the articles  10  and an upper position in which this clamp makes it possible to extract one or more articles  10 .  
     [0044] The pulley  21  can be disengaged from the shaft that contains it, i.e., the shaft of the geared motor  20  in this case. This pulley  21  can most notably be of the type with moveable balls arranged radially between the shaft and itself, so as to ensure a connection between the pulley and the shaft when they are turning in the same direction and to allow a free rotation of this shaft with respect to this pulley when the pulley simply stops turning or stops turning in the same direction as the shaft.  
     [0045] This pulley  21  thus makes it possible for the clamp  18  to disengage from the geared motor  20  when the clamp comes into contact with the pile of laundry, before the gripping of an article  10  by the clamp  18  has been detected.  
     [0046] The arm  25  is mounted pivoting on the carriage  17  and is activated by an actuator  30  between two positions located on either part of the mast  15 . In one of these positions, the clamp  18  is opposite the conveyor  3 , so it can operate the gripping of an article  10  and in the other position, the clamp  18  is in a position that is more or less 180° opposed to the first, with the clamp  18  being opposite the conveyor  5  in order to be able to deposit the gripped articles  10  onto the conveyor  5 .  
     [0047] Each part of clamp  18   a  includes two moveable jaws  35  activated by an actuator  36 . One of the jaws  35  has a photoelectric cell  37  for detecting the presence of one of more articles  10  between the jaws  35 .  
     [0048] This cell  37  is connected to a control assembly, which controls the closing of the jaws  35  when the presence of one or more articles  10  has been detected and that activates the movement of the carriage  17  to the top after the article(s)  10  has been gripped.  
     [0049] The two parts of the clamp  18   a  are arranged next to each other and operate independently of each other. Said control assembly acts in such a way that, if the presence of articles  10  is detected in both parts of the clamp  18   a  at the same time, the actuator  36  of one of these parts of the clamp  18   a  opens the jaws  35  of this part of clamp  18   a  so to release the article or articles gripped by the same part of clamp  18   a.    
     [0050] As shown by the foregoing, the invention provides a machine—with respect to the similar machine of the prior art—that has the advantage of eliminating all excess pressure of the clamp  18  against the pile of laundry  2  and therefore any risk of damaging this jaw  18  by deformation without needing to reinforce the structure of the clamp, and therefore without any detrimental weighting of the clamp. Moreover, the clamp  18  in two parts  18   a  makes it possible to much more precisely control the quantity of laundry picked up at each cycle, and therefore to regulate the transfer of this laundry to the subsequent treatment units.