GB1436294A - Handling of garment hangers - Google Patents

Abstract

1436294 Garment supports A W CAMERON 27 Aug 1974 [24 Aug 1973] 37454/74 Heading A4U [Also in Divisions B7 B8 and E2] A carrier 20 for garment hangers comprises a bar 21 engageable by hooks 28 of the hangers, and a strip 22 connected at each end to the adjacent ends of the bar 21 by spring latches 23, 24 which permit movement of the strip 22 between the position shown in which it clamps the hooks to the bar and a position in which it is spaced from the bar to allow the hooks to be engaged with or removed from the bar. The carrier is preferably a tube and the latches engage the underside of the tube when the strip is in its clamping position (as shown) and engage the inside of the tube when the strip is in its spaced position, Figs. 1 and 6 (not shown). The bottom ends of the latches may have projections preventing their total withdrawal from the tube. The carrier is used with other such carriers in a trolley conveyer system (60), Figs. 10 and 11 (not shown), a wire yoke (50) being used to suspend the carrier from a trolley bar, and the strip 22 may be of sufficient weight to swing downwardly into a pendulous position, Fig. 9 (not shown), to facilitate engagement with and removal of the hooks from the bar 21. Operation of the trolley conveyer system, (Fig. 10). Incoming garments are unpacked at a station (61) and placed upon the hangers which are removed from a carrier (80) and placed on a trolley bar (TB-1, Fig. 11). The empty carrier (80) is hung from the trolley bar (TB-1) and the trolley bar is moved to a checking station (62), a marking station (63) and a distribution station (64) where the garments on their hangers are placed on horizontal bars on wheeled hampers, Fig. 12 (not shown) for removal to sales stations, each hamper having placed in it an empty carrier 20. At each sales station the garments on their hangers are transferred to a display rack and the empty carrier 20 is mounted on a stand (90), Fig. 13 (not shown), which have sockets (93) for receiving the ends of the bars 21 of the carriers. As the garments are sold their hangers are placed on the carrier 20 and when this is full it is removed from the stand (90) and placed in an empty hamper for return to the conveyer. The stands (90) may be wheeled for use without the conveyer, the garments being unpacked, marked and put on hangers supported on carriers which are carried in the stands (90) to the sales stations, empty hangers on their carriers being returned on the stands to the unpacking station. The trolleys of the conveyer system may be run on to lengths of rail supported on hampers for direct movement to the sales stations.