The present invention relates to clothes drying, dewrinkling and ironing systems, and more specifically to clothes drying, dewrinkling and ironing cabinets intended mainly for domestic use, as well as to devices relating to conventional ironing.
It is a proven fact that one of the most disagreeable household chores is the process that initiates when clean clothes (garments, sheets, etc.) are taken out of the washing machine and finishes when they are stowed away in the respective wardrobe duly ironed. This process includes such operations as hanging out the washing taken out of the washing machine, bringing it in when dry, organizing the ironing thereof, etc.
There have been many attempts to expedite and simplify this process, but no household domestic appliance has been developed to date offering a complete and final solution.
EP1146162 discloses a cabinet for clothes drying and dewrinkling, as well as a method for carrying out said drying and dewrinkling. Said invention facilitates the task of ironing to a considerable extent, as the level of dewrinkling that is achieved is such that subsequent use of the iron is only necessary for a small number of garments and for only very localized parts thereof.
The fact however that it is still necessary to resort to conventional ironing (even though it is only for a few garments) means that the user cannot dispense with the ironing board and cannot avoid the problems stemming from the need to use the iron (take the ironing board out of the place where it is stored, set it up in a suitable place, take it down and stow it away again after use, etc.).
There are a wide variety of ironing board units. U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,681 describes a folding ironing board that is kept in a purpose built cabinet for its storage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,860 discloses an ironing board unit that can be mounted on a door. The invention includes an upright member with a hook that is hung from the frame of the chosen door, a transverse member fixed to said upright member, an ironing board hingedly attached to said transverse member, and a leg hingedly attached to said ironing board.
The main object of the invention is to provide a household appliance that offers a complete, global and integrated solution to the domestic chore that commences when clean clothes are taken out of the washing machine and concludes when they are duly ironed and stowed away.
Said household appliance is a clothes drying, dewrinkling and ironing cabinet that comprises a main enclosure for housing clothes, with access to said main enclosure by way of a door, means for drying and dewrinkling said clothes in said enclosure, and an ironing board unit. This ironing board unit is a folding one and is mounted on the inside face of the cabinet door.
In this way, once the cabinet drying and dewrinkling program is concluded, the user has the possibility of opening said cabinet, setting up the ironing board unit housed on the inside face of the cabinet door and ironing those garments that are considered to need pressing.
This means that the user of this invention:
Versus the user of an ironing board with a collapsible underframe, has the advantage of not having to take the ironing board unit out of the place where it is stored and set it up in a suitable place, nor of having to take it back to its place again once ironing is completed.
Versus the user of a fold-down ironing board in respect of a fixed support, has the advantage of not having to take the clothes from the drying and dewrinkling cabinet to the place where the folding board unit is located.
Furthermore, since the invention makes it possible for the ironing board not to have to be kept somewhere else in the house (it is inside the drying and dewrinkling cabinet), it also affords a saving in time and effort as well as saving space.
Apart from the ironing board unit, the rest of the equipment needed for ironing, such as the actual iron itself, will also be kept in the drying and dewrinkling cabinet.
Another object of the invention is to provide the cabinet covered by the invention with an ironing board unit that comprises a board that is automatically placed in a predetermined height when the user folds it down.
The ironing board unit of the invention comprises:
a board;
a support movably connected to the inside of the door, one end of said board being hingedly connected to said support;
a leg hingedly connected to the under side of said board; and
pushing means for displacing said support upwards while said board is being folded down.
The pushing means make force upwards against the support. When the board is folded away, said force is balanced by way of the weight of the support and the board. When the user begins to fold the board down, the gravity center of the board is displaced from the end that is hingedly connected to the support towards the opposite end. So, as the force of the pushing means becomes bigger than the weight that the pushing means are bearing, said pushing means displace the support upwards. Thus, the end of the board that is hingedly connected to the support (and the support itself) is higher when the board is folded down than when the board is folded up. When the board is folded away by the user, the weight of said board overcomes the force of the pushing means and said board is placed back in its original position.
Considering that 0.90 m is a standard height for the board when it is in its working position and that a standard length for an ironing board is 1.20 m, if there was not an upwards displacement while folding the board down, the door of the cabinet should be higher than 2.10 m in order to store the board when folded away. With the ironing board unit of the invention, the door of the cabinet and the cabinet itself do not have to be so high, and said ironing board unit can be adapted to cabinets of different height.
The ironing board unit of the invention further comprises fixing means for fixing the support in a predetermined height while the user is folding the board down. In this way, said fixing means will make said support stop in said predetermined height when said board is being folded down. Said predetermined height may be previously adjustable by the user.