The present invention relates, in general, to hand-held clothes pressing devices and, more particularly, this invention relates to two-sided clothes pressing and steaming.
Prior to the conception and development of the present invention, those wishing to press wrinkles out of clothing have typically used a one-sided iron in combination with an ironing board. It is common now for these irons to optionally produce steam as well as heat. Removal of wrinkles from clothing is also accomplished sometimes with a steamer that generates steam and directs it up against the fabric of a hanging clothing item. The steamer applies no pressure to the clothing; hence, the fabric is not as smooth as it would be by ironing with pressure, steam, and heat.
Allvin in U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,724 teaches a hand tool for pressing garments that has triangular-shaped jaws, only one of which is heated, and there is not steam. Frank et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,309 teaches a hand-held steam press consisting of two opposing short press plates from which steam can emanate, but there appears to be no heat supplied other than by the steam. Clevenberg in U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,024 discloses a two member hand-held clothing presser which may have heating plates on one or both or the two members that are hinged at one end.
Carballada et al in U.S. Pat. No. 7,380,556 teaches the electrical elements for a hair straightener that produces steam and heat, but only on one arm of the apparatus provides steam. A common shortcoming of all this prior art is the relatively narrow path that these devices smooth as they are drawn across a larger clothing item such as a shirt. Making the arm members longer may seem like an answer to that, but another problem this creates is additional drag as more surface area of cloth is pinched between the two arm members. Clevenberg refers to this problem in column 17, line 35 by referring to the need to limit the clamping force so that it “is not so tight as to prevent moving the dual iron device 10 along the fabric 48”. This drag becomes even more of a problem if the heat plates of the ironing device are not exactly parallel to the cloth surface as the ironing device is pulled along it.
The present invention provides a hand-held clothes steam ironing apparatus including first and second elongated substantially rectangular arm members having an inner portion and an outer portion, a hinge mechanism rotatably connecting the two arm members at one narrow end of each such that said inner surfaces are substantially opposing. Imbedded in inner portions of each arm members is at least one heat plate, this heat plates containing a plurality of steam orifices distributed longitudinally along the heat plate with fluid communication between the orifices. An electrical power supply is wired in adjacent the hinge mechanism and electrically connects to the heat plates with power control capability between the two for regulating the amount of power supplied to the heat plates. Water tanks with removable caps are attached to outer portions of each of the arm members, and water conduits run between each water tank and the heat plates in the corresponding body members.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each heat plate further contains an elongated rolling pin rotatably imbedded longitudinally and slightly protruding above the top surface of the heat plates. In another embodiment, the heat plates are simply flat and fixed within the arm members with a multiplicity of steam orifices spread over the heat plates.
It is, therefore, one of the primary objects of the present invention to provide an effective compact clothes-pressing steam iron which requires no ironing surface to press against.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hand-held clothes-pressing apparatus which employs heat, steam, and pressure to smooth clothing items hung in a vertical position.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a more effective hand-held apparatus for removing wrinkles from clothing quickly from relatively large fabric areas with minimal effort.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a clothing pressing apparatus which delivers both steam and heat to two sides of the clothing items simultaneously.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a dual arm hand-held steam pressing apparatus for clothing which can be drawn across and smooth a large area of clothing with minimal frictional drag from pinching the fabric.
In addition to the various objects and advantages of the present invention described with some degree of specificity above, it should be obvious that additional objects and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent to those persons who are skilled in the relevant art from the following more detailed description of the invention, particularly, when such description is taken in conjunction with the attached drawing figures and with the appended claims.
Prior to proceeding to the more detailed description of the present invention it should be noted that, for the sake of clarity and understanding, identical components which have identical functions have been identified with identical reference numerals throughout the several views illustrated in the drawing figures.
Referring initially to
While a presently preferred and various alternative embodiments of the present invention have been described in sufficient detail above to enable a person skilled in the relevant art to make and use the same, it should be obvious that various other adaptations and modifications can be envisioned by those persons skilled in such art without departing from either the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.
This patent application is related to and claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/152,116 filed Feb. 12, 2009.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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984673 | House | Feb 1911 | A |
3068598 | Johnston | Dec 1962 | A |
3703042 | Smith | Nov 1972 | A |
4219724 | Allvin | Aug 1980 | A |
4817309 | Frank et al. | Apr 1989 | A |
4848868 | Tierney et al. | Jul 1989 | A |
6173718 | Okumoto et al. | Jan 2001 | B1 |
7121024 | Clevenberg | Oct 2006 | B1 |
7188442 | Fernandez | Mar 2007 | B2 |
7380556 | Carballada et al. | Jun 2008 | B2 |
20100018084 | Segrete | Jan 2010 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20100199528 A1 | Aug 2010 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61152116 | Feb 2009 | US |