Patent ID: 8234801

Claim:
An apparatus for feeding pieces of cloth to a device for treating clothes, such as a rotary ironer comprising a conveyor with a direction of conveyance configured for conveying the pieces of cloth to the device, one or more spreader devices, each of which has a set of spreader clamps for releasably receiving a piece of cloth along a fore edge and in proximity of a pair of adjacent corners of the piece of cloth, where each spreader device is configured for moving the spreader clamps away from each other transversally of the direction of conveyance for straightening said fore edge and for delivering said piece of cloth to the conveyor at a delivering position, and one or more charger stations, each of which is configured for receiving a piece of cloth and moving it along a path from a feeding position to a position in which the piece of cloth is received by a set of spreader clamps at a receiving position, said path forming a selectable angle to the direction of conveyance of the conveyor, wherein at least one set of spreader clamps has a pair of pivot arms that, as seen in the direction of conveyance of the conveyor, have a fore and rear pivot arm that are pivotally journaled in separate journaling points situated at a distance from each other, one on the spreader clamps and one on a machine part that is secured against movement in the direction of conveyance, and wherein an actuator means is provided between one pivot arm and the machine part to move the one set of spreader clamps along a curved path to the effect that there is only a certain angle between the one set of spreader clamps in their respective receiving and delivery positions.