US2407922A - Wringer - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 17, 1946. D K, FERRlsv 2,407,922

WRINGER Filed May 28, 1943 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 BY I wwwi p 6. D. K. FERRIS 2,407,922

' IRINGRR Filed lay 2a, 1943 4 Shasta-Sheet 3' Patented Sept. 17, 1946 WRINGER Donald K. Ferris, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Application May 28, 1943, Serial No. 488,840

This invention relates to power driven clothes wringers.

In order to make power driven clothes wringers more safe, there has been devised the so- Fig. 3 is a sectional view showing a modificav Claims. (Cl. 68-4549) 2 tion of the floating bearing as it would appear in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 i another sectional view showing another modification of the floating bearing as it called instinctive type of wringer in which a 5 would appear in Fig. 2;

tug on the clothes or any substantial movement 'Fig. 5 isa sectional View taken along the line of the body of the wringer will release the pres- 5 5='of Fig. 1; sure on the rolls. Despite the safety value of Fig. 6 is a sectional View taken along the line this instinctive feature, few Wringers have been t6 of Fig. 1;

made incorporating it principally because of the Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic view showing a means complicated and expensive construction emfor releasing the pressure upon the rolls by inployed. stinctive movement of the wringer;

It is an object of my invention to provide a Fig. 8 is a sectional view along the line 8-8 simple inexpensive clothes wringer of the instincof Fig. 7; and tive type. Fig. 9 is a sectional view along the lines 9- 9 It is another object of my invention to provide of Fig. 1. an instinctive type of W r which W ll diS- Referring now to the drawings and more parconnect the power from the rolls and/or release ticularly to Fig. 1, there is shown the usual the pressure on the rolls upon a predetermined supporting post containing a power driven ma imum Wri ger l adtubular drive shaft 22. The supporting post It is another object of my en o to mp oy 29 is provided with a flange 2| containing rethe latch pin of the swing lock meehanism as cesses 27, for receiving the lower end of the a pivot for the instinctive movement of the swing lock latching pin 23. The swing lock w e latching pin 23 is supported by an ear 30 and a It is still another Obje 0 m invention to 25 boss 32 projecting from one side of thetubu- Provide a Wringer in Which t P w is s onlar floating bearing housing extension 34 of the neeted from the Pressure se upo gear case 36'. The upper end of the drive shaft the rolls W there is a predetermined Orq e Z2 is provided with a pair of slots which receive a ppl e by t e d ving mechanism. transverse pin 38 provided in the lower end of These o ts a ta n d by pr vidi g a fioatthe gear shaft to. This gear shaft 40 is rotating h ring between the wringer frame and the ably mounted in bearing in the top and bottom wringer post to permit limited rotation of the of the gear case 36 and rotatably mounted on entire W about the latch D 0 t Sw ng the shaft 40 are the bevel gears 42 and 44 which look mechanism. The relative movement bemesh with the crown bevel gear 46. This crown tween t W frame d t W g l post bevel gear 46 is connected by the coupling 48 is p y to nn ct the power from the with the drive shaft 50 of the lower roll of the rolls and/or operate the wringer pressure release wringer. The gear case 35 is provided with propreferably upon a greater amount of relative jections 52 which connect to the roll frame 54 movement. This relative movement may be which includes the side stiles and the connectcaused by an unusual amount of torque being ing frame members (see Fig. 7). applied to the wringer by the power drive or by Each of the bevel gears 42 and 44 is provided tugging the clothes or pushing the wringer. ith a wound spring clutch for connecting either F r her o j s nd advan of th pr n to the gear shaft 40. These clutches are identiinvention will be apparent f the following cal with theexception that their clutch springs p i n, reference b i h d o h omare wound in op osite directions. For example, De yi i -Win s, wherein a preferred form a d the wound spring 56 is located between the sleeve o h r forms of the p n nve ti n are clearly fixed to the gear 42 and the double-ended sleeve shown. i 58 fixed by the pin 66 to the gear shaft 40. The

In the drawings: wound spring 56 is provided with blunt ends, the

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view through the lower end resting'again'st a projection (it! .upon wringer head and upper portion of the post of the gear lwhile the upper end may be engaged a'wringer embodying one form of my invention; by the sliding key 62 carried by a shifting collar Fig. 2 is a sectional View taken along the line 64 whichsurrounds the double ended sleeve 58.

22 of Fig. 1; The shifting collar 64 is raised or lowered by an eccentrically located pin 58 which is received within the annular groove provided upon the shifting collar. The eccentrically located pin 68 is supported by and extends from the face of a cam member "ill to which is connected a shaft l2 provided with a handle 74 on the outside of the wringer casing it. The cam member is provided with vertical cam arms 92 and S4 and horizontal cam projections ll which are vertical and horizontal respectively when the handle I4 is in the neutral position and which turn clockwise or counterclockwise as a unit with cam membe '10 for forward or reverse wringer driving. A spring pressed pin extends transversely through the member 1i! and a portion registers with notches provided in the bearing surface for resiliently latching the cam member it in forward reverse and neutral positions.

The movement of the handle 14 in either direction from that shown in Fig. 1 raises or lowers the shifting collar 54 to raise or lower the sliding key 62. When the sliding key 62 is raised it will engage one end of the upper wound spring clutch to connect the gear shaft 43 with the bevel gear 44- to turn the crown gear 45 and the lower roll shaft 59 in one direction. If the handle 14 is moved in the opposite direction the shiftingcollar 64 and the sliding key 62 will be lowered to cause it to engage one end of the wound spring clutch 56 to force the spring into gripping engagement with the double-ended sleeve 58 to connect the gear '42 through its projection 60, the wound spring 56, the sliding key .62, the doubleended sleeve 58 and the pin 66 to the gear shaft 40.

In order to provide the instinctive feature in a simple way, I pivot the entire wringer upon the .latch pin 28 of the swing lock mechanism and provide a floating bearing between the floating bearing housing 34 and the upper portion of the wringer post 20 which it surrounds. The latch pin 28 is provided with a compression type coil spring 18 concentric'with' it, extending between the ear Biland a shoulder 88 upon the latch pin. The lower end of the latch pin 28 is conically pointed so that it may readily enter the latching recesses 2.! provided in the flange 21 upon the wringer post 28. To move the wringer to another angular position, the latch pin 23 may be raised against the force of the spring 18 by the swing look lever 82 which is pinned by the pin 84 to the latch pin 28. This swing lock lever 82 is pivoted upon the pints to the side of the bearing housing 34. A knob 88 projecting through an opening in the casing 16 may be used for operating the forked swing lock lever 82 to raise the swing lock latch pin 28.

The floating bearing support between the housing 34 and the upper portion of the post 20 is provided by a soft rubber member 90 provided between their adjacent walls. This rubber member 90 is preferably fastened to the walls of the portion 34, but is not fastened to the post 20, so that it may rotate upon the outer walls of the post 20 when it is desired to swing the wringer to another angular position provided by any of the latching recesses 21. As is better shown in Fig. 2, the :portion 3415 made substantially square in cross-section so as to increase its ability to hold the rubber member 96. -By this arrangement when the swing lock latch pin 28 is in position as shown in Fig. 1 the entire wringer will pivot upon this latch pin, but this pivoting will be resisted by the compression of the portion of the rubber member 90 upon one side of the post The rubber member 90 resists the normal torque reaction due to the torque applied by the drive shaft 22 to the gearing and the rolls as well as the movement which may be caused by feeding clothes into the wringer.

In order to cause such a movement of the 'en-,

tire wringer to move the shifting collar 64 to its middle or off position, ometimes called the neutral position, the cam member 7Q isprovided with the vertical cam arms or projections 92 and 9A as shown in Fig. 5, which in their angular po- .sitions may be engaged by the projections 96 and QBprovided. upon opposite sides of an aperture in the top portion of a vertical strap member Hll. This strap member l fll is provided with a bottom portion extending at right angles to its vertical upper portion. This right angle portion 'surrounds and forms a bearing upon the upper portion of the post 20 and is located between the flange 2| and the bottom of the floating hearing housing extension 34 of the gear case. It is pivotally connected with the boss 32'by a sleeve I93 which forms a pivotal connection between the two, which might otherwise be formed by the latch pin 28. The lower portion of the vertical strap member It does not surround therubber member 96 but fits as a bearing member directly against the upper portion of the post 20 and rotatesupon the post 29 with the wringer when the latch pin 28 is withdrawn from the flange 2|.

However, when the latch pin 28 engages ene'of I pin 58, the shifting collar 54, and the sliding key 62, from one of its driving positions into the neutral or .off position in which both of the bevel gears 42 and 44 are declutched from the gear shaft-40.

To prevent the release of the swing lock mechanism when one of the clutches is engaged, there is provided a vertical link it! loosely connected at its lower end to the swing lock lever '82 and provided with a vertical slot H3 at its upper end which is received within a groove in the cam member T0. The upper end of this link -l H is bent 180 and is provided with a pair of humps H5 which, when the swing lock lever 82 is moved to release'the latch pin 28, will engage the horizontally extending cam projections H1 when in inclined position, as shown by the dot and dash lines in Fig. 6, and move them to the horizontal position shown in full lines in Fig. 6, to move the handle 14 and the shifting collar'64 from one of the driving positions to the neutral, or declutched position in which the gear shaft -40 is disconnected from the bevel gears 42 and 44.

In Fig. 3 the portion I34 corresponding to the portion 34 in Figs. land 2,-is made oval in shape rather than square shape and the rubber member I90 corresponding to the rubber member 99 in Figs. 1 and 2 fills in the space between :the housing I34 and the top of the post; "This form provides a more even distribution of the compres- Jsion of the rubber. In Fig. 4 the rubber is rejusting screws 292 preferably of the Allen head type by which the tension of the springs 290 may beso adjusted to regulate the exact force required to be applied to the wringer in pivoting it about the latch pin in order to cause it to engage the projections upon the vertical strap member I ill to move the control mechanism from one of the driving positions to the neutral or stopping position. The setting of the Allen adjusting screws 292 determines the torque required of the drive shaft 22 about the latch pin 228 to move the wringer to the stopping position. The Allen screws 292 may be adjusted to set the springs 299 to different tensions so as to compensate for the torque action of the drive shaft 22. This is possible because the torque action of the drive shaft 22 does not change in direction with the reversing of the wringer control. By this arrangement it is possible to make the force to push or pull the wringer frame, which is required in order to move the normal control means to the neutral position, substantially the same regardless,of the direction of the operation. In the form shown in Fig. 4 it is essential that the interior walls of the portion 234 provide a floating bearing for the upper end of the post 20 by engaging the left and right sides of the post 20 as shown in Fig. 4. These interior wall surfaces designated by the reference characters 235 and 231 preferably have that portion of their surfaces which is in engagement with the post 20 during movement of the wringer about the swing lock latch pin 228 in the form of an are having its center concentric with the swing lock latch pin 228.

This same instinctive mechanism may also be used to release the pressure upon the rolls as is shown in the form illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8. For this purpose, without any other change, the vertical strap member Isl, designated in Figs. '7 and 8 as 301, is projected upwardly and provided at its upper end with a roller 382. When the entire wringer is in its normal position, this roller rides upon a flange 304 at the bottom of a strap member 3% fastenedto and extending down from the top of the top section 308 of the casing it. The top section 398 supports the pressure spring am which applies the pressure to the upper bearing blocks 352 which receives the shaft ends of the upper roll 3M. The opposite end of the upper section 308 is pivotally connected to an end section 318 which is connected by an overcenter toggle link connection 3E8 with a portion of the wringer frame 54. Thus the over-center toggle link mechanism (8 holds the one end of the top section 363 in operating position while the roller 302 by its engagement with the flange 3M holds the other end in position against the tension of the pressure spring 3 I ll.

Should the entire wringer be moved a sufiicient amount about the index latch pin as a pivot, the roller 302 being mounted upon the strap member 35!, which in turn is latched to the post, will not move with the wringer body. The flange 384, however, will move with the wringer body and will move relatively to the roller 302. When the wringer body is moved sufiiciently the roller will reach the end of the flange 334 and will release the flange and in so doing will release that end of the top section 398 allowing it to move upwardly to release the tension of the pressure spring 3! thereby releasing the pressure upon the rolls. A chain 309 loosely connects the top section 308 with the casing 6 to limit the upward movement of the top section 308. The width of the flange 304 as viewed in Fig. 8 will govern the point of the pivotal movement at which the pressure will be released. Preferably this is made wide enough so that release of the pressure will not occur until after the control mechanism is moved to the neutral position, so that the release of the pressure will only occur upon an extreme movement while movement of the control mechanism to neutral position will be accomplished by a more moderate movement of the wringer upon the swing lock latching pin as a pivot.

This instinctive arrangement has afurther advantage if there should be an excessive opposition to the movement of the rolls. For example, if a hand or arm should be caught in the wringer, without applying the lateral force necessary to move the wringer about the latch pin as a pivot, this movement will be accomplished by the torque reaction of whichever bevel gear 42 or happens to be in driving engagement with the crown gear 46. The torque reaction will tend to cause the bevel gear to move laterally and in so doing will pivot the entire wringer bodily about the latch pin as a pivot to operate the instinctive stop and pressure release mechanism.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form and several other forms, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A wringer having a wringer frame, rolls mounted in the frame, a pressure means for the rolls, a driving mechanism for driving the rolls, a swing lock mechanism including a removable latching pin eccentric to said driving mechanism forming a pivot for said frame, and means responsive to a pivotal movement of said frame mounted in the frame, a pressure means for the rolls, a driving mechanism for driving the rolls, a swing lock mechanism including a removable latching pin eccentric to said driving mechanism forming a pivot for said frame, and means responsive to a pivotal movement of said frame about said pin for releasing the pressure from the rolls.

3. A wringer having a wringer frame, rolls mounted in the frame, a pressure means for the rolls, a driving mechanism for driving the rolls, normal control means having forward, reverse and neutral positions for controlling said driving mechanism, means providing a floating support for said frame, and means responsive to a movement of said frame with respect to its floating support for first moving said normal control means to its neutral position for disconnecting the driving mechanism from the rolls and thereafter upon further movement of said frame for releasing the pressurefrom the rolls.

4. A wringer having a wringer frame, rolls mounted in the frame, a pressure means for the rolls, a wringer post for supporting said frame, gearing for driving said rolls, said post being provided with movable drive shaft means for driving said gearing, movable bearing means permitting both relative rotation and relative lateral move ment between said post and said frame, a swing lock mechanism including a removable latching pin providing a pivot between said fram and. said post and preventing relative rotation upon said movable bearing means but permitting relaframe with said latching pin as a pivot, and means operated by the relative lateral movement between said post and said frame for varying the operation of said wringer.

5'. A wringer having a wringer frame, rolls mounted in the frame, a pressure means for the rolls, a Wringer post for supporting said frame, gearing for driving said rolls, said post being providedwith movable drive shaft means for driving said gearing, movable bearing means permitting both relative rotation and relative lateral movement between said post and said frame, a swing lock'mechanism including a removable latching pin providing a pivot between said frame and said post and preventing relative rotation upon said movable bearing means but permitting relative lateral movement between said post and said frame with said latching pin as a pivot, means operated by the relative lateral movement between said post and said frame for varying the operation of said wringer, and means responsive to the removal of said latching pin for rendering said wringer inoperative.

' DONALD K. FERRIS.

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