Method and apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a mangle or to some other laundry-treatment arrangement

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9988220-B2
Application number	US-201514950296-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 24, 2015
Priority date	Nov 26, 2014
Publication date	Jun 5, 2018
Grant date	Jun 5, 2018

Abstract

Items of laundry are fed from an input machine to a mangle or some other laundry-treatment arrangement. Operating personnel are employed to feed the input machine with the items of laundry. This is costly in terms of time and personnel. The invention makes provision for determining surface profiles of the items of laundry by means of imaging installations. From these surface profiles a location for the automatic gripping of the item of laundry or of a corner of same, and preferably also the position of the location or corner, is determined by electronic image processing, whereby the location or corner of the item of laundry can be securely gripped in an automatic and targeted manner. By virtue of the described measures, hitherto manual activities in front of the input machine can be easily performed in a reliable and fully-automatic mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for feeding items of laundry to a mangle or to some other laundry-treatment arrangement, comprising:
recording a surface profile of an item of laundry, from which a location to be gripped on the item of laundry is determined, and then gripping the item of laundry gripped at this location,
wherein when the item of laundry is gripped, the item of laundry is spread out at two adjacent corners of a front edge of the item of laundry and the item of laundry is deposited with the front edge on a feed conveyor which transports the item of laundry to the mangle or to some other laundry-treatment arrangement, and
wherein the surface profile of the item of laundry is determined by at least one imaging process.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the imaging process is at least one three-dimensional imaging process.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the item of laundry is gripped at a location where, in accordance with the determined surface profile, the item of laundry exhibits the greatest curvature gradient.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the item of laundry is gripped at one of the corners that, on the basis of an analysis of the determined surface profile, is most suitable for gripping the item of laundry for spreading out the item of laundry.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the surface profile of the item of laundry, supplied to the method hanging on a retaining means, is determined and, on the basis of the determined surface profile, one of the corners of the item of laundry is gripped in a targeted manner.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising, on the basis of the determined surface profile of the item of laundry, using the imaging process to ascertain the orientation of a hem of the item of laundry and, on the basis of the determined orientation of the hem, feeding the item of laundry to the laundry-treatment arrangement in an alignment corresponding to a preferred position of the hem.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein for an item of laundry that is supplied to the method hanging down from a held corner, a lowest corner of the item of laundry is gripped and spread out, wherein the other corners of the item of laundry are formed such that they assume positions that can be gripped.

8. A method for feeding items of laundry to a mangle or to some other laundry-treatment arrangement, comprising:
for an item of laundry that is supplied to the method hanging down from a held corner of the item of laundry, gripping a lowest corner of the item of laundry and spreading out the item of laundry, whereby other corners of the item of laundry are formed such that the other corners assume positions that can be gripped,
wherein when the item of laundry is gripped and the item of laundry is spread out at two adjacent corners, namely the lowest corner and one of the other corners that is adjacent to the lowest corner, of a front edge of the item of laundry, the front edge being located between the lowest corner and the one of the other corners that is adjacent to the lowest corner, the item of laundry is transported with the front edge as a leading edge to the laundry-treatment arrangement.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the item of laundry is spread out at diagonally opposite corners, namely the held corner and the lowest corner, and of the other corners thus formed, selecting one of the other corners that is adjacent to the held corner and the lowest corner, both of which are now held corners.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 , wherein, for the item of laundry that is held at the diagonally opposite corners, one of the other corners formed during the spreading out process is gripped and at least the held corner is released.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein, for the item of laundry that is held at the diagonally opposite corners, one of the other corners formed during the spreading out process is gripped which is intended to be part of the front edge of the item of laundry.

12. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the positions of the other corners formed during the spreading out of the item of laundry are determined by the determination of the surface profile.

13. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein at least one position of the other corners formed during the spreading out of the item of laundry are determined by an imaging method.

14. An apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a mangle or some other laundry-treatment arrangement with a transport system having moveable clamps for holding a respective corner of an item of laundry, wherein the transport system is assigned at least one imaging device for the purpose of generating a surface profile of an item of laundry.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 14 , wherein imaging devices are arranged at various positions of the transport system where a corner of the item of laundry is gripped.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 14 , wherein the transport system is assigned at least one pair of rollers for the passage of at least one part of an item of laundry and that the two rollers of the pair of rollers are rotatable about parallel, upright axes of rotation.

17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the transport system is assigned at least one pair of rollers for the passage of at least one part of an item of laundry and that the two rollers of the pair of rollers are rotatable about axes of rotation that are brought at least into a nearly upright position.

18. An apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a laundry-treatment arrangement, wherein the transport system is assigned at least one pair of rollers for the passage of at least one part of an item of laundry, wherein the two rollers of the pair of rollers are rotatable about parallel axes of rotation that is brought at least into a nearly upright position, and wherein the axes of rotation of the rollers of the pair of rollers are pivotable synchronously while maintaining a parallel alignment to each other.

19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the axes of rotation of the rollers of the pair of rollers are pivotable from an at least nearly upright alignment to an at least nearly horizontal alignment while maintaining the parallel alignment.

20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18 , wherein the rollers of the pair of rollers are drivable to rotate in opposite directions.

21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the rollers of the pair of rollers are drivable to rotate at the same rotational speed.

22. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the item of laundry is spread out at diagonally opposite corners, namely the held corner and the lowest corner, and of the other corners thus formed, selecting one of the other corners that is adjacent to the held corner and the lowest corner, both of which are now held corners.

23. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein, for the item of laundry that is held at the diagonally opposite corners, one of the other corners formed during the spreading out process is gripped and at least the held corner is released.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23 , wherein, for the item of laundry that is held at the diagonally opposite corners, one of the other corners formed during the spreading out process is gripped which is intended to be part of the front edge of the item of laundry.

Assignees

• Kannegiesser H Gmbh Co

Inventors

• Sielermann Jürgen
• Bringewatt Wilhelm
• Heinz Engelbert

Classifications

• D06F95/00 Primary

  Laundry systems or arrangements of apparatus or machines; Mobile laundries  (D06F31/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• D06F67/04 Primary

  Arrangements for feeding or spreading the linen · CPC title

• B65G47/90 Primary

  Devices for picking-up and depositing articles or materials · CPC title

• G01B11/24

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title

• D06F45/00

  Wringing machines with two or more co-operating rollers; Similar cold-smoothing apparatus · CPC title