US2372753A - Laundry extractor - Google Patents

Description

April 3, 1945. WATSON LAUNDRY EXTRACTOR Filed July 6, '1942 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 & 8 m m MM mwfim 8 9A m QM M w n a a 4- W 3 a m 7w a w w .1

April 3, 1945. T. s. WATSON LAUNDRY EXTRACTOR Filed July 6, 1942 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 IZJVENTOR.

Qua/1 9 f uuk ATTUIPNEY-S.

Patented Apr. 3, 1945 LAUNDRY EXTRACTOR Thomas S. Watson, Milwaukee, Wis; assignor to Huebsch Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee,

Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application-.luly s, 1942, Serial No. 449,869

4 Claims.

The invention relates to clothes driers and mo e particularly to a drier of the hydraulic pressure extractor type.

One of the main objects of the invention is to' provide an hydraulically operated laundry extractor with improved means for locking the cover which may be readily applied and released by the operator. ent invention the cover is firmly locked to the body of the container by a plurality'of latches formed or mounted on a ring carried by the cover and mounted for oscillatory movement relative to said cover to a locked or unlocked position.

A further object of the invention is to provide a simple but eiiective arrangement between the cover, locking means, and frame for disposing of the water extracted from the laundry by the apparatus.

A further object of the invention is to simplify and improve the clothes drier shown and described in my copending application Serial No. 369,553, dated December 11, 1940, now U. S. Letters Patent No. 2,336,428, dated December '7,

1943, and in this connection to'reduce the number of parts forming a control for the hydraulic fluid supply valve of a plurality of extractor units using a single cover for all said units.

The invention further consists in the several features hereinafter set forth and more particularly defined by claims at the conclusion hereof.

In the drawings: 1

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a clothes drier embodying the invention, the section being taken on the line l--| of Fig. 3;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail sectional view of the cover, parts being broken away;

Fig. 3 is a .plan view of the drier apparatus, parts being broken away and parts being shown in section;

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 5 is a detailed sectional view taken on the broken line 5--5 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged bottom view of the "cover, parts being broken away;

. Fig. 7 is a detailed sectional view taken on the broken lines '|-.-'l of Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 9 designates, in each instance, a metal walled container having a grooved rim 9 at its top and an .opening 10 in its bottom connected by a pipe II with a source of hydraulic fluid. The container is cylindrical with a conically curvedbottom for More particularly, in the presstrength, and preferably the depth of this casing or container should not exceed its diameter.

A bag [2 of flexible material fits within the container, and its rim I3 is adapted to fit in the "a 'groove of the rim 9 and a mating groove l4 formed in a clamping ring l5 secured to the rim 9 by a plurality of screws l6.

A cover IT has a rim portion it that registers with the rim l5 above described and has a foraminous lining member l9 spaced from the main body parts of the cover by a series of spacers 20, this lining providing a series of holes 2! .through which the waste water from the laundry may escape into the space 22 between said mem- -T her and the cover and including the space between said member and the rim I8. The rim I8 is adapted to be secured over the top of the container in a position to prevent escape of laundry therefrom during the extraction process by lock- 2 ing mechanism hereinafter described.

, The containers 8 are bound together by a frame plate 23 fastened thereto and to which legs 24 are secured acting to support said containers in an elevated position and adjacent each other, so

2 that the one cover structure above described may be used with one or the other container. The plate 23 may have formed integral therewith or suitably secured thereto a vertically extending portion 25 to form a drain basin 26 for both containers and provided with a drain opening 21 to collect waste liquid draining off from the space 22 in the cover.

Each of the pipes ll connects with a common I valve housing 28 of a disk type so-called four way 3 rotary valve in which the disk has three positions,

to wit: a completely closed position, an "on position for one of the containers while draining the other, and an on position for the other container while draining off the first container,

this valve being of well known construction, and

therefore, not shown in detail, said valve having a stem 29 to which the forked end 30 of a crank arm 3| is clamped by a screw 32. The hydraulic .fiuid from a suitable source of pressure supply is carried to the valve by a pipe 93, and the waste liquid is released through the pipe 34 connected to the housing 28.

The cover structure is quite heavy, and in order that it may be easily lifted and swung from side to side over one container or the other it is counbearing housing 40 .On theframe .portion H. A

sheaves 48 and 41 on each side hollow counterweight 42 surrounds the upper straight portion of the standard 35 and is connected by metal straps 42 to a mounted on said standard and looped cable 45, whose runs to the end of a pass over guide whereby the cable hangs down from the top of the standard or derrick mast 35 as a loop in which a pulley 48 is mounted, said pulley being connected with the cover H by a post 49 anchored yoke 44 slidably lever Si in a horizontal plane the standard 85 may of the standard to the cover and having thepulley block memher It secured to its upper end. The counterweight 42 is suspended by the cable 45, so that it is free to move up and down relative to the standard 35. The actual raising and lowering of the cover is accomplished by the operator through a lever Bl pivoted to the standard at one end 52 and having a handle 52 projecting out to a position in front of the two containers 8, this lever having a lost motion connection with the post '49 by provision of elongated slots l4 in said lever in which the pin 55 on the post works. Y

For locking the cover I! in operative position over the top 01' either container I provide a locking ring 58 of generally channel shaped form to provide a continuous stop flange 51 at its upper edge for abutting engagement with the ring 8 and to provide a series of small flanges or lugs 58' at its lower edge adapted to cooperate with a series of fixed locking lugs'is formed on the outer side or the rim 8 of each container; The spacing of the locking lugs 88 of the ring 58 is such that in one position of'the ring these lugs are free to pass between the fixed lugs 59 of the container and then by a rotation of the ring 88 relative to the container the lugs 58 thereon are brought into registering position beneath the fixed lugs 59, so that when pressure is put on the cover l1 during the extraction process tending' to move the cover away from the container, the ring being in. abutting engagement with the cover and in abutting engagement with the lugs 59 will prevent the release of the cover though a certain amount of vertical movement of the cover relative to the container is permitted and preferred, and this opens up a gap between the cover and the upper end of the container which allows waste water in addition to waste water passing through the space 22 to \pass between the cover and the container and be deflected by the sides 01' the ringinto the drain chamber 28 from which it is free to pass into the drain 21. The ring is turned to locking or unlocked position by means of a handle 80 mounted thereon, and the two extreme positions 0! the ring are determined by the fixed stops GI and 62 on the cover. With the handle 40 in the position shown in Fig. 3 and the cover lowered as shown in Fig. 1, the locking ring 66 is in a locked position, and under these conditions hydraulic fluid may be introduced through its pipe H into the space between the container and' the bag I2 thus forcing the bag l2, previously charged with wet clothes, upwardly toward the cover, so that the water in the clothes will be squeezed out of them and flow through the openings 2! into the space between the part I! and the cover I! and thence downwardly past the ring -58 into the chamber 28.

, After this water extracting operation is finished and the water has been released or allowed to drain from the space between the bag l2 and the container 8, the operator turns the ring 58 to an unlocked position and then lifts the cover structure upwardly by the upward swinging be rotated to bring the cover into position over the other container I whose bag structure has been charged during the time the charge in the first container was undergoing its extracting operation, and the lever II is then swung downwardly to a cover closing position so as to position the cover I! over the other container and permit its locking thereto by the movement of the ring 56 to its locked position to permit the extracting operation to be carried out in this second container. Thus the same cover and its locking and control mechanism can be used for tainer is being a plurality of containers without interfering with the operation of either since the uncovered coneither emptied or charged while the extraction operation is going on in the covered container, but if with two containers and one cover mechanism the operator should accidentally turn on the hydraulic pressure fluid to the uncovered container, it might cause the bag to be emptied of its charge and also injury to the bag which is an expensive item in the equipment. In order to prevent such a thing happening, means have been provided acting automatically or incidentally to the operation of the cover to prevent opening of the pressure supply to that container which is uncovered.

This means includes a valve lever lock for each container to prevent movement of the rotary valve to an "on" position, and which lock is released or rendered inefi'ective by the bringing of the cover to a locked position over the charged container. The valve locking means includes in each instance a blocking lever 83 pivotally mounted intermediate its ends on the valve housing 28 and connected by a pin and slot connection 64 with an arm 8!! vertically adjustably mounted on a vertically reciprocatory red 88 which is guided in a tubular guide 81 and is normally urged upwardly to a valve lever blocking position by a spring 88 interposed between the upper end of said guide and a shoulder on said rod, the upward movement of said rod being limited by the engagement of a stop shoulder 89 on the rod with the lower end of the guide 61. With the rod 66 in its upper position the lever 82 is in its blockin position which brings its outer end into the path of a projection H on the valve turning lever at, so that the valve cannot be turned in the direction of the lowered lever 02 until that lever is raised out of the way, and this raising of the lever takes place automatically through the action of the movement of the cover locking ring 56 t a locked position since the locking ring carries the cam H which as the ring is turned to a locked position acts to depress the rod66 against the opposition of the spring 68 and through the connection 84 moves the locking member 63 out of the path of the valve control lever. This operation takes place with the cover over either container, so that a single cam 1| sufiices for acting on either of the rods 88. Thus in anapparatus using two containers and one cover the operator can only operate the hydraulic, pressure controlling valve in such a sequence as not to cause damioraminous inner What I claim as my invention is:

1. In a device of the class describedthe combination of a container having an open end and a drain chamber below said end, a flexible bag clamped at its open end container and extending within the same, means for admitting pressure fluid between said container and bag, a removable cover for said container having a waste liquid receiving space extending to the periphery thereof on all sides, said waste liquid receiving space being in addition to any space for the escape of waste liquid between said container and the adjacent edge of the cover and a locking ring carried by the cover and rotatable relative thereto and forming a deflector to 'direct the waste liquid from said cover space downwardly into said drain chamber when fluid pressure acts on said bag;

2. In a device of the character described, the combination of a container having an open end and a drain chamber below said end, a flexible bag clamped at its open end to the open end of said container and extending within the same, means for admitting pressure fluid between said container and ba a removable cover for said container having a solid top. portion and a lining spaced from said top portion to form a waste liquid receiving space, said space extending to the outer edge of the entire peripheryof the cover and being in addition to any space for the escape of waste liquid between said container and the adjacent edge of the cover and a locking ring carried by the cover and exdownwardly into said drain in a closed position waste liquid to the open end of saidfrom said space downwardly into said drain chamber when fluid pressure acts on said bag, said container and ring having cooperative lugs to interlock with each other when the cover is in a closed position.

3. In an apparatus of the character described,

the combination of a plurality of like containers having open ends and. arranged in spaced relation, a flexible bag clamped to the open end of each container and extending within the .same,

- means for admitting pressure fluid between each container and its bag including a common supply and drain pipe and a valve controlling the passage of fluid to either container respectively, a removable cover for all of said containers, rotatable means carried by the cover for locking said cover to any one of said containers, and means including a cam on said locking means for preventing the operation of said valve to supply pressure fluid except only to the container then closed by said cover.

4. In a deviceof the class described, the combination of a frame having a tub portion provided tending over the outlet from said waste liquid I with a drain, a plurality of containers mounted on said Irame and extending up into said tub portion, each of said containers having an open end, a flexible bag clamped at its open end to the open end of each container and extending within the same, means for admitting pressure fluid between a container and its bag, a removable cover for said conta ers having a waste liquid receiving space through which waste liquid may flow to said tub portion from laundry disposed in one of said bags when it is pressed outwardly toward said cover by pressure fluid, and means for locking said cover to either of said containers.

THOMAS S. WATSON.

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