Patent Application
20120066942
1. Technical Field
The embodiments described herein relate to a system for retaining and storing a clothes pressing device, and more particularly, to a system for securely and conveniently retaining a clothes iron and a supporting device thereof.
2. Related Art
Conventional clothes irons are designed to have a substantially pointed forward portion and a relatively flat heal portion. During and after pressing of clothing, the hot clothes iron is usually placed on the surface of an ironing board to cool down. In addition, most consumers will typically leave the clothes iron standing on the heal portion in an upright orientation on the ironing board until the next time that clothes are to be ironed. However, since the surface area of the heal portion of the clothes iron that contacts the ironing board is relatively small and the clothes iron is usually top heavy, there is a significant chance that the clothes iron will be knocked over by a relatively minor bumping of the ironing board. As a result, the clothes iron, the ironing board cover, and the iron board can be damaged.
Moreover, ironing boards are notoriously unstable, thereby increasing the likelihood that the minor bumping of the ironing board will cause the clothes iron to tip over and possibly fall to the floor. Here, the clothes iron will undoubtedly become damaged due to the impact with the floor and, if just recently used, the still-hot iron will burn the floor surface and may cause the floor surface to catch fire.
In addition, due to their configuration, a clothes iron is difficult to store with a folder ironing board. Although there are many different arrangements for individually storing both the clothes iron and the ironing board, there exists no convenient way to simultaneously store the ironing board with the clothes iron attached.
Accordingly, a system for retaining and storing the clothes iron is needed that prevents the clothes iron from being inadvertently knocked to the ground both during and after the ironing of clothes. In addition, a system is needed that will provide safe storage of the clothes iron between time periods when clothes are to be ironed.
A system for securely and conveniently retaining a clothes iron is described herein.
In one aspect, a system for retaining a clothes iron includes a base plate having vertically offset front and rear portions configured to support a nose sole plate portion and a heal portion of the clothes iron, respectively, and lateral side portions configured to support opposing lateral side sole plate portions of the clothes iron, and a pair of holding arms configured to move from a first position below the base plate to a second position above the base plate and to contact side body portions of the clothes iron.
In another aspect, a support device for a clothes iron retaining system includes a base plate having a rear support portion configured to support a heal portion of the clothes iron, a front support portion configured to support a front shoe plate portion of the clothes iron, and opposing lateral side portions, each including a supporting portion configured to support opposing lateral shoe plate portions of the clothes iron, wherein the rear support portion and the front support portion are offset along a vertical direction corresponding to a height difference between the heal and front shoe plate portions of the clothes iron.
These and other features, aspects, and embodiments are described below in the section “Detailed Description.”
Features, aspects, and embodiments are described in conjunction with the attached drawings, in which:
Each of the side portions 110 may include an insert 114 that may be removably attached to the surface portion 112a and supporting portion 112b from beneath the base plate 100. In addition, the insert 114 may include a plurality of raised members 116 having different geometrical shapes or lines. For example, as shown in
The insert 114 may be formed of resilient heat resistant material(s), such as silicone rubber. In addition, the insert 114 may be formed of combinations of materials such that the plurality of raised members 116 are formed of material(s) different from the insert 114. Moreover, the plurality of raised member 116 may be molded from the same material(s) of the insert 114, or may be formed as individual pieces that may be inserted into the insert 114.
In
In addition, the supporting portions 112b extend below the front portion 130. The front portion 130 may formed as an integral part of the base plate 100, or may be formed as a separate member and joined to an underside of the base plate 100. Here, as shown in
In
The pair of attachment arms 200 may be attached to an underside of the base plate 100 to extend along the direction ‘d’ for attachment to an ironing board, or for attachment to another platform used to provide a supporting surface for ironing of clothing. In addition, the pair of attachment arms 200 may be adjustably spaced apart to accommodate for various ironing board configurations. Moreover, although the pair of attachment arms 200 are shown to be substantially parallel members 202, each of the members 202 may have substantially bent portions to provide additional vertical and lateral support when the iron holder 10 is attached to the ironing board. Alternatively, instead of a pair of attachment arms 200, a single member 202 may be provided to extend from a central region of the rear portion 120. Here, use of the single member 202 would preferably include substantially bent portions.
For example, the pair of attachment arms 200 may extend beneath a rear portion of an ironing board and be affixed to the underside of the ironing board such that the upper surface of the base plate 100 may be substantially coplanar with an ironing surface of the ironing board. Alternatively, the pair of attachment arms 200 may be formed to include adjustable offset portions (not shown) to either raise or lower the upper surface of the base plate 100 substantially above or below the ironing surface of the ironing board.
Although the pair of attachment arms 200 are shown in
The accessory bars 300 are shown to extend along the direction ‘d’ and correspond to the side portions 110. The accessory bars 300 include curved portions 310 and rounded ends 320. The curved portions 310 include alternating upper and lower regions 310a and 310b along an entire length of the accessory bars 300. Here, the upper regions 310a delineate the accessory bars 300 such that hangers can be retained in the lower regions 310b. Moreover, each of the lower regions 310b may be provided such that a plurality of hangers may be retained. Accordingly, as a piece of clothing is ironed, it may be placed onto a hanger and then hung on one of the lower regions 310a.
In addition, the curved portions 310 may be used to hang various other items that may be used during the ironing of clothes. For example, the squeeze handle portion of a spray water bottle may be hung from the curved portions 310. In addition, the electrical cord of a clothes iron can be wound around the rounded ends 320 of the accessory bars 300 for storage, or during ironing when the electrical cord is too long.
As shown in
In
The holding bars 400 may be formed of material(s) having substantially high mechanical strength, such as metal and composites. In addition, the holding bars 400 may be configured to freely move from the rest position to the raised position by manipulating the attachment strap 500. Here, in
In
In the event that the attachment strap 500 is formed of one integral piece, the bar attachment members 510 may be mounted onto the holding bars 400 by inserting the holding bars 400 through openings in the bar attachment member 510. Then, the bar attachment members 510 can be slid into place at desired locations on the opposing portions of the holding bars 400, and the ends 410 of the holding bars 400 may be positioned onto the underside of the base plate 100 using the clamps 150.
An exemplary method for using the iron holder 10 (in
As shown in
Next, due to the spring bias of the holding arms 400, the holding arms 400 are pressed against side regions 640 of the clothes iron 600. Here, the holding arms 400 are laterally spaced apart from the iron shoe plate 630. In addition, the tension within the attachment strap 500 maintains a downward force upon a handle portion 640 of the clothes iron 600. Moreover, the pull handle 530 can include can include a recess on an underside of the pull handle 530 that will trap the attachment strap 500 and lead the attachment strap 500 onto the handle portion 650 of the clothes iron 600, thereby keeping the attachment strap 500 away from the iron shoe plate 630. Accordingly, the clothes iron 600 is positively retained onto the iron holder 10 due to the spring bias of the holding arms 400, as well as the tension within the attachment strap 500 as it crosses over the handle portion 650.
As detailed above, since the rear portion 120 is disposed above the front portion 130 of the base plate 100 by the distance ‘x’ (in
As detailed above, placement of the clothes iron 600 onto the iron holder 10 may be performed immediately after the ironing of clothes. Here, since the base plate 100 is formed of heat conductive material(s), and the front portion 130 of the base plate 100 makes direct contact with the front portion 630b of the iron shoe plate 630, residual heat from the just-used clothes iron 600 will be quickly and safely dissipated via conduction by the base plate 100. Moreover, the open region 140 (in
Accordingly, by placement of the clothes iron 600 onto the iron holder 10, a cool-down period with the clothes iron 600 sitting on the heal 610 on the ironing board is not necessary, thereby reducing the possibility of damaging the clothes iron 600, the ironing board, and the floor by simply resting the clothes iron 600 on its heal 610 on the ironing board. In addition, when a user has completed ironing of the clothes and positioned the clothes iron 600 into the iron holder 10, the ironing board along with the iron holder 10 can be immediately closed, moved, and placed upright into storage without having to wait for completion of a cool-down period. In most instances, the iron board is collapsed and either hung on a wall or rested on its end region on the floor. Here, the iron holder 10 is positioned at the end region of the ironing board.
Then, when a user needs to iron clothes, the ironing board and attached iron holder 10 can be simultaneously removed from storage and set-up. Next, the user may pull upward on the pull handle 530 to partially remove the clamping forces of the holding arms 400 on the side regions 640 of the clothes iron 600, and slide-out the clothes iron 600 from the iron holder 10. As a result, the holding arms 400 will be placed into their rest position, as shown in
When the user has again completed the task of ironing clothes, a simple pull upward on the pull handle 530 will place the holding arms 400 in the raised position and the clothes iron 600 may be slide into place onto the iron holder 10. Here, the user may use only one hand to raise the holding arms 400, and at the same time use the other hand to slide the clothes iron 600 into place onto the iron holder 10 to store the clothes iron 600. Similarly, removal of the clothes iron 600 from the iron holder 10 only requires the user's two hands in a relatively quick and efficient maneuver.
As will be understood by one skilled in the art, the present application is not limited to the precise exemplary embodiments described herein and various changes and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit or scope of the application. For example, elements and/or features of different illustrative embodiments may be combined with each other, substituted for each other, and/or expanded upon within the scope of the present disclosure and the appended claims. In addition, improvements and modifications which become apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art after reading the present disclosure and appended drawings are deemed within the spirit and scope of the present application.
