VARIABLE-POSITION IRONING BOARD AND GARMENT STEAMER

Abstract

In a variable-position ironing board and a garment steamer, a back side of an ironing board body is rotatably connected to a support structure to allow the ironing board body to be transformed between first and second positions; and a first link and a second link of a locating mechanism are located on the back side of the ironing board body and rotatably connected to the support structure and the ironing board body to form a quadrangle which deforms with the change of the position of the ironing board body, and at least one edge of the quadrangle is provided with a locating portion which, when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, leans against an opposite edge of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field

The invention belongs to garment ironing equipment, and particularly relates to a variable-position ironing board and a garment steamer.

2. Description of Related Art

Existing garment steamers, such as a garment steamer with an inclinable ironing board disclosed by Invention Patent Application Publication No. CN107075782A, have an inclinable structure, which allows an upper portion of a support structure to incline with respect to a lower portion of the support structure. However, the support structure is fragile; moreover, a fixing structure needs to be configured to fix the inclinable structure to a desired position, leading to a complex structure; and the support structure is instable, and operation is complex.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To overcome the defects that the mechanism for changing the position of an ironing board of existing garment steamers is complex and the ironing board cannot be stably supported, the technical issue and task to be settled by the invention is provide a variable-position ironing board and a garment steam to simplify the structure, improve the support stability of the ironing board, and allow the position of the ironing board to be changed easily.

To fulfill the above objective, the invention provides a variable-position ironing board, comprising:

• • a support structure;
  • an ironing board body, wherein at a first point, a back side of the ironing board body is rotatably connected to the support structure to allow the ironing board to be transformed between a first position and a second position; and
  • a locating mechanism, comprising a first link and a second link, wherein the first link and the second link are located on the back side of the ironing board body and rotatably connected to the support structure and the ironing board body to form a quadrangle which deforms with a change of the position of the ironing board body, and at least one edge of the quadrangle is provided with a locating portion which, when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, leans against an opposite edge of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position.

According to the variable-position ironing board, the quadrangle can be prevented from deformation to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position without a fixing structure, so the structure is simple, the support performance is good, and the support stability of the ironing board body is improved. In addition, when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, the locating portion on one edge of the quadrangle leans against an opposite edge of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body, the ironing board body just needs to be turned to change its position, and no special fixing operation is needed, such that the position of the ironing board body can be changed easily.

Preferably, the quadrangle is prevented from deformation towards a smaller area. When the quadrangle deforms towards a small area, the distance between opposite edges will decrease, the angle between two of four vertexes of the quadrangle will become smaller, and when the locating portion on one edge of the quadrangle leans against an opposite edge of the quadrangle, the quadrangle is reliably prevented from deformation.

Particularly, at a second point, the first link is rotatably connected to the back side of the ironing board body; at a third point, the first link is rotatably connected to the second link; at a fourth point, the second link is rotatably connected to the support structure; and the first point, the second point, the third point and the fourth point are four vertexes of the quadrangle. In this way, the quadrangle can deform more flexibly.

Preferably, the locating portion is arranged on the second link, and when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, the locating portion leans against the back side of the ironing board body to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position. In this structure, the second link and the ironing board body are located on two opposite edges of the quadrangle, and the locating portion can lean against the back side of the ironing board body to ensure the support stability of the ironing board body.

To improve the support stability of the ironing board body, the second link has an extended edge extending towards the back side of the ironing board body, and the extended edge is used as the locating portion.

To ensure that the locating portion securely leans against the back side of the ironing board body, a leaning edge allowing the extended edge to lean again is arranged on the back side of the ironing board body.

Preferably, the quadrangle is a parallelogram. In this way, opposite edges of the quadrangle can be kept in parallel; and particularly, because the locating portion is arranged on the second link, the locating portion can lean against the back side of the ironing board body to prevent the quadrangle so as to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position no matter whether the ironing board body is located in the first position or the second position.

Preferably, rotatable connections are realized by shafts, and an axial direction of the shaft is the same as a with direction of the ironing board. In this way, the flexibility and reliability of rotatable connections are guaranteed.

To improve stability, a width direction of the support structure and the first link is the same as the width direction of the ironing board body, and two second links are arranged and separately located on two sides of the support structure and the first link.

To maintain the positional relation between the ironing board body and the support structure when the position of the ironing board is changed, so as to prevent the ironing board body from excessively deviating from the support structure, an inclined section is arranged at an upper end of the support structure and used as an edge of the quadrangle, and the quadrangle is located above the inclined section.

Preferably, the first position is an upright position, and the second position is a horizontal position.

To fix the ironing board body, the quadrangle is provided with a shape-fixing link, and the shape-fixing link is used for fixing a shape of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to fix the ironing board body in an upright position or a horizontal position or at any inclined angle between the upright position and the horizontal position.

To allow the ironing board body to be turned easily, the quadrangle is provided with an auxiliary support rod for assisting the quadrangle in deformation.

To fulfill the above objective, the invention further provides a garment steamer, comprising the variable-position ironing board provided by the invention.

According to the invention, at the first point, the back side of the ironing board body is rotatably connected to the support structure to allow the ironing board body to be transformed between a first position and a second position; the first link and the second link of the locating mechanism are located on the back side of the ironing board body and rotatably connected to the support structure and the ironing board body to form a quadrangle which deforms with the change of the position of the ironing board body, and at least one edge of the quadrangle is provided with a locating portion which, when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, leans against an opposite edge of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position. In this way, the quadrangle can be prevented from deformation to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position without a fixing structure, so the structure is simple, the support performance is good, and the support stability of the ironing board body is improved. In addition, when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, the locating portion on one edge of the quadrangle leans against an opposite edge of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body, the ironing board body just needs to be turned to change its position, and no special fixing operation is needed, such that the position of the ironing board body can be changed easily.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an orthographic projection of a variable-position ironing board in an upright position according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a rear view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an axonometric view of the variable-position ironing board shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view along A-A in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view along B-B in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is an axonometric view of the ironing board transformed to an inclined position according to the invention;

FIG. 7 is an exploded structural view of the ironing board transformed to an inclined position according to the invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of the ironing board, shown in FIG. 4, transformed to the inclined position;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the ironing board, shown in FIG. 5, transformed to the inclined position;

FIG. 10 is an axonometric view of the ironing board transformed to a horizontal position according to the invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the structure shown in FIG. 10 from another perspective;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of the ironing board, shown in FIG. 8, transformed to the horizontal position;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of the ironing board, shown in FIG. 9, transformed to the horizontal position;

REFERENCE SIGNS

• • 100, support structure; 101, inclined section;
  • 200, ironing board body; 201, leaning edge; 202, sliding groove;
  • 310, first link; 320, second link; 321, locating portion; ABCD, quadrangle; A, first point; B, second point; C, third point; D, fourth point;
  • 401, shape-fixing link.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

To better clarify the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the invention, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the invention will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with accompanying drawings of these embodiments. Obviously, the embodiments in the following description are merely illustrative ones, and are not all possible ones of the invention. All other embodiments obtained by those ordinarily skilled in the art based on the following ones without creative labor should also fall within the protection scope of the invention.

Terms “comprise” and “provided with” and any variants thereof in the description and claims of the invention are intended to indicate non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a method or product including a series of technical features is not limited to technical features that are clearly listed, and may also comprise other technical features that are not clearly listed and can be included in the method or product.

In the description of the invention, it should be understood that terms such as “upper” and “lower” are used to indicate directional or positional relations based on the accompanying drawings merely for the purpose of facilitating and simplifying the description of the invention, do not indicator or imply that devices or elements referred to must be in a specific direction or be configured and operated in a specific direction, and thus should not be construed as limitations of the invention. Wherein “upper” is opposite to “lower” in direction.

In the description of the invention, it should be understood that terms with a sequential concept such as “first”, “second”, “third” and “fourth” are merely used for clearly describing technical features defined thereby to allow the technical features defined to be easily distinguished from other technical features, do not indicate that the technical features must be named in this way in actual implementation, and thus should not be construed as limitations of the invention.

The invention is introduced in detail below in conjunction with specific embodiments and accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1-FIG. 13 illustrate a variable-position ironing board with a good structure. Wherein, FIG. 1-FIG. 5 illustrates the ironing board in an upright position, FIG. 6-FIG. 9 illustrates the ironing board in an inclined position, and FIG. 10-FIG. 13 illustrates the ironing board in a horizontal position.

The variable-position ironing board comprises a support structure 100, an ironing board body 200, a locating mechanism and a shape-fixing link 401.

The support structure 100 is presented as a rod piece in the FIGS., and extends upwards and downwards to be in an upright state, and an inclined section 101 is arranged at an upper end of the support structure 100. As shown in the FIGS., the rod piece is wide enough to connect the ironing board body and the locating mechanism and to support the ironing board body. In a case where the rod piece has a small contour, the rod piece may be configured as a branched structure to guarantee its width to support the ironing board body.

The ironing board body 200 is a plate, one side of the ironing board body 200 is used for supporting garments for ironing, and the other side (the back side) of the ironing board body 200 is connected to the inclined section and the locating mechanism. At a first point A, the back side of the ironing board body 200 is rotatably connected to the support structure 100 by means of a shaft, such that the ironing board 200 is allowed to rotate around the shaft to be transformed between a first position and a second position. The first point A, and a second point B, a third point C and a fourth point D mentioned below refer to projections of corresponding rotatable connection portions on planes perpendicular to corresponding shafts, and are reflected as vertexes of a quadrangle ABCD in the sectional views shown by FIGS. 4-5, 8-9 and 12-13. Particularly, two leaning edges 201 extending in a length direction and allowing locating portions 321 to lean against are arranged on the back side of the ironing board body. The leaning edges 201 are equivalent to ribs and used for improving the strength and rigidity of the ironing board body.

The locating mechanism comprises a first link 310 and second links 320. A width direction of the first link 310 is the same as a width direction of the ironing board body 200. The number of the second links 320 is two, and the two second links 320 are separately located on two sides of the inclined section 101 and the first link 310. The two second links 320 have extended edges extending towards the back side of the ironing board body, such that the outer contour of the second links is trapezoidal. The extended edges are used as the locating portions 321. At the second point B, the first link 310 is rotatably connected to the back side of the ironing board body 200 by means of a shaft; at the third point C, the first link 310 is rotatably connected to the second links 320 by means of shafts; and at the fourth point D, the second links 320 are rotatably connected to the inclined section 101 of the support structure 100 by means of shafts. In this way, the quadrangle ABCD is formed with the inclined section 100, the ironing board body 200, the first link 310 and the second links 320 as four edges respectively, and the first point A, the second point B, the third point C and the fourth point D are used as four vertexes of the quadrangle ABCD, that is, the four vertexes of the quadrangle are located in the same plane, opposite edges of the quadrangle do not intersect, and after a line where one edge is located is determined, the other edges will be all located on the same side as the line. In FIGS. 4-5, 8-9 and 12-13, the four edges of the quadrangle ABCD are indicated by dotted lines. Because rotatable connections are realized at the four vertexes of the quadrangle ABCD by means of shafts, the shape of the quadrangle is unstable, the quadrangle ABCD will deform with the change of the position of the ironing board body. In addition, the quadrangle ABCD is located above the inclined section 101, thus being able to deform without being affected by the inclined section 101.

According to the structure shown in the FIGS., when the ironing board body 200 is transformed between the first position and the second position, the locating portions 321 lean against the leaning edges 201 on the back side of the ironing board body to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body 200 in the first position or the second position. In addition, the quadrangle is prevented from deformation towards a smaller area. The quadrangle ABCD is set as a parallelogram, which deforms regularly and has opposite edges always being in parallel. When the area of the parallelogram becomes smaller, the distance between opposite edges will decrease; and no matter whether the ironing board body 200 is located in the first position or the second position, the extended edges used as the locating portions 321 will lean against the leaning edges 201 on the back side of the ironing board body. Wherein, an axial direction of the shafts for realizing rotatable connections is the same as the width direction of the ironing board body, and the shafts at the points are reflected as the vertexes of the quadrangle ABCD in FIGS. 4-5, 8-9 and 12-13. According to user's ironing habits, the first position is an upright position where garments can be hung to be ironed, and the second position is a horizontal position where garments can be horizontally ironed.

To prevent the ironing board body 200 in the upright position shown in FIGS. 4-5 from descending under the action of gravity, the extended edges used as the locating portions 321 lean against the leaning edges 201 on the back side of the ironing board body, such that the ironing board body is located and kept stable.

When the ironing board body 200 is turned anticlockwise from the position shown in FIGS. 4-5, the extended edges used as the locating portions 321 will be separated from the leaning edges 201 on the back side of the ironing board body, and then the ironing board body 200 can be transformed to the inclined position shown in FIGS. 8-9.

When the ironing board body 200 is further turned anticlockwise from the inclined position shown in FIGS. 8-9, the extended edges used as the locating portions 321 will lean against the leaning edges 201 on the back side of the ironing board body again to prevent the ironing board body from descending under the action of gravity, and at this moment, the ironing board body is located in the horizontal position shown in FIGS. 12-13 and is kept stable.

On the contrary, the ironing board body can be clockwise turned from the horizontal position shown in FIGS. 12-13 to the inclined position shown in FIGS. 8-9 and then to the upright position shown in FIGS. 4-5.

According to the structure shown in FIGS., the shape-fixing link 401 has a variable length, and has one end of the shape-fixing link 401 is connected to the inclined section 101, and the other end of the shape-fixing link 401 is connected to the back side of the ironing board body 200. When the ironing board body is turned, the length of the shape-fixing link 401 will change accordingly. By fixing the length of the shape-fixing link 401 (for example, by locking two link sections), a stable triangle can be formed by the ironing board body 200, the inclined section 101 and the shape-fixing link 401 to fix the ironing board body in a corresponding position, and at the same time, the shape of the quadrangle ABCD is fixed to prevent the quadrangle ABCD from deformation. Alternatively, the shape-fixing link 401 has a fixed length, one end of the shape-fixing link 401 is connected to the inclined section, the other end of the shape-fixing link 401 is connected to a sliding groove 202 in the back side of the ironing board body and slides along the sliding groove when the ironing board body is turned, and by fixing this end of the shape-fixing link 401 in the sliding groove in the back side of the ironing board body (for example, by clamping it in a corresponding locating slot), a stable triangle can be formed to fix the ironing board body in a corresponding position, and at the same time, the shape of the quadrangle ABCD is fixed to prevent the quadrangle from deformation. Under the enlightenment of this technique, when the ironing board body is located in the upright position or the horizontal position or at any inclined angle between the upright position and the horizontal position, a stable triangle can be formed by means of the shape-fixing link to prevent the ironing board body from being turned and at the same time fix the shape of the quadrangle ABCD to prevent the quadrangle from deformation, Therefore, it is foreseeable to fix the shape of the quadrangle ABCD by changing the connection form of the shape-fixing link.

In other embodiments, the shape-fixing link shown in FIGS. can be replaced with an auxiliary support rod which is, for example, a pneumatic support rod having two ends connected to the inclined section and the ironing board body respectively. When the ironing board body is turned to change its position, the auxiliary support rod provides an auxiliary force to assist the quadrangle (ABCD) in deformation, such that the ironing board body can be turned more easily.

The variable-position ironing board can form a garment steamer together with an ironing device, and the support structure is used as a support rod of the garment steamer.

Claims

1. A variable-position ironing board, comprising: a support structure;an ironing board body, wherein at a first point (A), a back side of the ironing board body is rotatably connected to the support structure to allow the ironing board to be transformed between a first position and a second position; anda locating mechanism, comprising a first link and a second link, wherein the first link and the second link are located on the back side of the ironing board body and rotatably connected to the support structure and the ironing board body to form a quadrangle which deforms with a change of the position of the ironing board body, and at least one edge of the quadrangle is provided with locating portion which, when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, leans against an opposite edge of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position.

2. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein the quadrangle is prevented from deformation towards a smaller area.

3. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein at a second point, the first link is rotatably connected to the back side of the ironing board body; at a third point, the first link is rotatably connected to the second link; at a fourth point, the second link is rotatably connected to the support structure; and the first point, the second point, the third point and the fourth point are four vertexes of the quadrangle.

4. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein the locating portion is arranged on the second link, and when the ironing board body is transformed between the first position and the second position, the locating portion leans against the back side of the ironing board body to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to locate the ironing board body in the first position or the second position.

5. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 4, wherein the second link has an extended edge extending towards the back side of the ironing board body, and the extended edge is used as the locating portion.

6. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 5, wherein a leaning edge allowing the extended edge to lean again is arranged on the back side of the ironing board body.

7. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 4, wherein the quadrangle is a parallelogram.

8. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein rotatable connections are realized by shafts, and an axial direction of the shaft is the same as a with direction of the ironing board.

9. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 8, wherein a width direction of the support structure and the first link is the same as the width direction of the ironing board body, and two said second links are arranged and separately located on two sides of the support structure and the first link.

10. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein an inclined section is arranged at an upper end of the support structure and used as an edge of the quadrangle, and the quadrangle is located above the inclined section.

11. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein the first position is an upright position, and the second position is a horizontal position.

12. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein the quadrangle is provided with a shape-fixing link, and the shape-fixing link is used for fixing a shape of the quadrangle to prevent the quadrangle from deformation so as to fix the ironing board body in an upright position or a horizontal position or at any inclined angle between the upright position and the horizontal position.

13. The variable-position ironing board according to claim 1, wherein the quadrangle is provided with an auxiliary support rod for assisting the quadrangle in deformation.

14. A garment steamer, comprising the variable-position ironing board according to claim 1.