US3541306A - Electric pressing iron - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 17, 1970 L. A. BARNAS, JR, ET

ELEGTRIC PRESSING IRON 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 1, 1968 Nov. 17, 1970 L. A. BARNAS, JR ETFAL 3,541,308

ELECTRIC PRESSING IRON Filed May 1, 1968 j 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 fizz/awacfuzls J9. ficuvuw, fezacy Nov. 17, 1970 s, JR" ETAL 3,541,305

ELECTRIC PRESSING IRON Filed May 1, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 8 O20 fizveniozs; 72113] 7544; wax

United States Patent O 3,541,306 ELECTRIC PRESSING IRON Louis A. Barnas, Jr., Cary, and Jerry P. Gronwick, Park Ridge, 11L, assignors to Sunbeam Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed May 1, 1968, Ser. No. 725,801 lint. Cl. D0613 75/40 US. Cl. 219--245 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISOLOSURE An electric pressing iron having a handle which improves the stability of the iron in its upended position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to electric pressing irons and, more particularly, to an improved iron having a handle providing good stability against being tipped over when the iron is in its upended position.

According to a recent survey, over ninety-nine percent of the electrically wired homes in this country have an electric pressing iron, and it is evident that this appliance is considered to be a necessity for the efiicient operation of a household. Though electric pressing irons are available with different visual stylings and various features such as steam producing system, spray mechanism, water level gauge and the like, nearly all of the irons follow the standard construction of providing a base having an electric resistance element for heating a sole plate, the temperature of which is controlled by a thermostat. A plastic handle which is resistant to heat is secured to the base and has a hand gripping portion for the user to grasp the iron while in use. To iron effectively, it is necessary for the sole plate to be heated to a relatively high temperature. Since a hot sole plate can cause considerable damage, irons are normally constructed with some provision for supporting the iron in an upended position wherein the sole plate is raised above the supporting surface which is normally an ironing board. While ironing, it is frequently necessary to place the iron down in order for the user to manipulate the clothes on the ironing board or to perform some other task. Furthermore, when the ironing operation is completed, the iron is normally stored in the upended position so that the hot sole plate cannot cause any damage while it is cooling.

Most of the weight of an electric iron resides in the sole plate which is normally formed of aluminum, steel or some metallic laminate. The fact that a large proportion of the weight of the iron resides in the sole plate does not present a problem when the iron is being used. However, when the iron is stored in its upended position, the relatively heavy sole plate causes the center of gravity to be positioned a considerable distance above the supporting surface and frequently is not centered with respect to the supporting portions of the iron. Most irons are supported in the upended position by the rear portion of the base and the rear portion of the handle engaging the supporting surface at three points, namely, the laterally spaced ends of the base and the upper center of the rear end of the iron handle which is spaced a considerable distance from the iron base. As a result, the iron in the upended position has very little stability against being tipped over sideways and possibly towards either the front or back depending upon the location of the center of gravity for the specific iron. Inasmuch as irons in their upended positions are normally placed on rather narrow ironing boards, the tipping over of the iron can result in the iron falling onto the floor and being damaged. Depending on the orientation of the iron as it strikes the floor, damage can occur to the internal components of the iron or to the outwardly exposed parts or to both.

There is a serious risk that when an iron accidentally drops form the ironing board to the floor due to its instability in its upended storage position, the plastic handle may be broken exposing current carrying components. This situation is particularly dangerous when the iron is still operable since the user may continue to operate the iron with exposed current conducting parts or with a loose electric power cord.

Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an iron which is stable in its upended storage position. The improved stability characteristic of the iron should not materially increase its cost nor detract from its attractive appearance or aethetic qualities. Obviously, the improved stability should not come at the expense of the utility or maneuverability of the iron.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an electric pressing iron having a base which includes a heatable bottom surface for pressing clothes and a handle secured to the base. The handle has a hand gripping portion for the user to grasp while operating the iron. Both the base and handle are provided with rearwardly facing portions adapted to support the iron in its upended storage position wherein the heated bottom surface does not engage the supporting surface. The rear supporting portion of the handle extends laterally a substantially greater distance than the handle gripping portion to provide stability against tipping over when the iron is in its upended position.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electric pressing iron which has improved stability against being tipped over when it is in its upended position.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an electric pressing iron having a handle with stabilizing means reducing the likelihood of the iron being tipped over sideways when in its upended position.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electric pressing iron having an improved handle with a rear portion to lessen the likelihood of the iron being tipped over in its upended position, and also, said rear portion secures the electric power cord to the iron in selectable positions.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an electric pressing iron with an improved handle having first means to improve the stability of the iron in the upended storage position and with second means to lessen the likelihood of an electrical hazard if said first means is broken exposing internal components of the iron handle.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features of novelty which characterize the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specifica tion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING For a better understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electric pressing iron embodying the present invention and which is illustrated with a portion of the electric power cord removed;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary exploded assembly view of the rear of the iron with the rear portion of the handle deleted;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary section view taken substantially along line 4-4 of FIG. 3, assuming that the iron is as sembled together;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along line 5--5 of FIG. 2, assumming that FIG. 2 discloses the complete structure;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the iron in its upended position and discloses the approximate location of the center of gravity of the iron;

FIG. 7 is a schematic sketch of the geometric relationship of the points of contact of the iron with a supporting surface in order to depict the factors effecting the stability of the iron; and

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view of the iron in its upended position to relate its points of contact.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, there is shown an electric pressing iron designated by the reference numeral 20. As viewed in FIG. 1, the iron 20 includes a base 22 and a handle 23 secured to the base. For supplying electrical power to the iron 20, an electric power cord 25 is attached to the handle 23. The base 22 includes a sole plate 27 having a pointed forward end 28 and having a fiat rear end 29 and an inverted cup-shaped cover shell 31 with a pointed forward end 32 which is complementary to the sole plate forward end 28 and a rear section or surface 33 which is slightly concave so that it is formed with laterally spaced rearwardly extending ends 34 and 35. Although not shown, the base 22 includes an electric resistance heater for heating the sole plate 27 which has a flat bottom surface 37 for engaging with the clothes to be ironed. The sole plate 27 may be fabricated from any suitable metal such as aluminum, steel or a metallic laminate. However, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the sole plate 27 is relatively heavy with regard to the overall weight of the iron. The shell 31 is fabricated from sheet metal and performs the function of covering the internal components attached to the sole plate and also spacing the handle 23 from the sole plate 27 in order to limit the amount of heat transferred to the handle from the sole plate. To support the sole plate 27 spaced above the sup porting surface when the iron is in its upended position, the shell 31 extends longitudinally a greater distance than the sole plate, and a plate 39 is held in position by screw 40 for closing the opening between the shell rear surface 33 and sole plate end 29 to prevent the entrance of material therein.

In accordance with the present invention, the handle 23 has a main portion 41 including an elongated, longitudinally extending, hand gripping portion 42 which is disposed near the top of the iron and which the user may grasp while operating the iron. It should be appreciated that the iron is shown in its horizontal operating position in FIG. 1 whereby the sole plate bottom surface 37 can easily be presented to and glided over the clothes being ironed. Preferably, the handle 23 is molded from a suitable heat resistant plastic such as a phenolic plastic. At the rear of the handle 23 is rear portion or door 45 which is secured to the handle main portion 41 by a suitable screw 46. The handle main portion 41 is formed with a rear inclined surface 48 disposed to receive a complementary surface 50 on door 45 in abutting relationship when the screw 46 is tightened. The joining of surfaces 48 and 50 defines a parting line 51 between these handle parts. Oppositely disposed openings 53 and 54 are defined at the parting line 51 to receive the electric power cord 25 and a suitable plastic cap 56. With this arrangement, the cord 25 can be affixed to the iron 20 so that it emerges from either side thereof to accommodate usage of the iron by either a right or left handed person. That is to say, the cord 25 is oriented in FIG. 1 for a right handed person, and if a left handed person wished to use the iron, the respective positions of cord 25 and cap 56 would be reversed.

Inside the handle 23, the electric power cord 25 is provided with insulated covered conductors 58 and 59 which are electrically connected with metal terminals 61 and 62 which, in turn, are in electrical connection with the resistance heater. Although the cord 25 is fixedly held in position by being trapped between handle main portion 41 and door 45 at either opening 53 or 54, there is also provided a generally U-shaped bracket 65 which rigidly secures the cord 25 to the handle main portion 41. The bracket 65, which is preferably formed from sheet metal, includes a bight portion 66 which is clamped to the iron handle surface 48 by a screw 67 and a pair of spaced legs 69 and 70', each of which has a notched 71 and 72, respectively. When the bracket 65 is assembled to the handle 23 by means of screw 67, the legs 69 and 70 are nested within a horizontally extending handle bar 74 as seen in FIG. 2 and either notch 71 or 72, depending on which side the cord is emanating, securely holds the cord 25 to the handle 23. Therefore, if the handle door 45 should be broken for any reason so that it no longer holds the cord 25 in its proper location, the cord is still restrained and fixedly held to the handle main portion 41 by means of the bracket 65. Electric insulating sleeve 76 and 77 are slid into position over the connection between cord conductor 58 with terminal 61 and the connection between cord conductor 59 With terminal 62, respectively, and these sleeves extend a sufficient distance along the terminals so that if the handle door 45 is broken or completely removed, no electrically conducting surface is exposed.

To provide stability of the iron in its upended storage position, the handle door 45 is molded with an integral member 80 which extends horizontally and is normal to the hand gripping portion 42. The door member 80 has a flattened V-shaped configuration With the laterally spaced ends 81 and 82 being angled slightly upwardly. Furthermore, the door member 80 which is approximately the same height above the sole plate as the hand gripping portion 42 has a rearwardly facing flat surface 84 with the central portion 85 thereof recessed for receiving an escutcheon or the like. Thus, the rearwardly facing fiat surface 84 is a peripheral surface of the member 80 When the user wishes to set the iron 20 down so that the sole plate 27 does not come in contact with the supporting surface, the iron is upended as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 8 so that the shell ends 34 and 35 and the door surface 84 engage the supporting surface. The relationship between the surface 84 and the ends 34 and 35 causes the sole plate bottom surface 37 to be angled approximately twelve degrees from a vertical plane when the iron is in its upended position in order for the center of gravity to fall well within the points of contact with the supporting surface.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 8, the iron 20 is shown in its upended storage position. The geometry of the engagement between the iron and the supporting surface is shown schematically in FIG. 7 wherein line XY represents a horizontal line through the upper edge of ends 81 and 82 with points F and G designating the upper edge of door member ends 81 and 82, respectively. Points A and C denote the bottom edge of shell ends 34 and 35. The line between points D and B represents a longitudinal plane passing through the center of the iron and point B is midway between points A and C while point D is midway between points F and G. The center of gravity denoted in FIG. 6 is projected vertically into the supporting plane containing points ACFG and is denoted as projected center of gravity point B. To clarify the locations of letters ACFG, these letters have been applied to the corresponding structure in FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8. If an iron handle is constructed so that in its upended position the handle makes a single point contact with the supporting surface, it would make contact at D so that the points of contact would be ADC which, as can be seen in FIG. 7, is an isosceles triangle. With this construction, the iron would be relatively unstable since the iron would topple over as soon as the iron was tipped so that the projected center of gravity E moved outside of the triangle defined by ACD. That is to say, the center of gravity would only have to move from E to pass either point I or K in order for the iron to be tilted to a position wherein it would topple over rather than move back under the influence of gravity to a stable upended position. [it should be noted that while the iron is very unstable with regard to side movement thereof, it has much better stability when tipped toward the handle or toward point D' and still further better stability if tilted towards the sole plate or toward point B.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the width of the hand gripping portion of the handle 42 is approximately one inch while the lateral distance between door member ends 81 and 82 is approximately three inches and the distance between shell ends 34 and 35 is slightly larger than three inches. Thus, the width of the door member 80 is substantially greater than the width of the handle gripping portion 42. The distance between the member ends "81 and 82, to shell ends 34 and 35 is approximately four inches. Referring again to FIG. 7, lines AF and CG represent an imaginary line between complementary ends of the door member .80 and the shell rear surface 33. In order for the iron 20 to topple over sideways, it would be necessary to tilt the iron until the projected center of gravity E falls outside of either line FA or GC. In order to do this, the shortest distance that the projected center of gravity B would have to move would be either along EH, which is a line normal to line AF, or along EI, which is a line normal to line CG. The schematic sketch in FIG. 7 discloses the iron 20 has the projected center of gravity E closer to the handle distance ED than the sole plate, distance EB. Since the side stability is normally poorest for an iron in its upended position, it is desirable to have the side stability at least equal to the stability against tipping toward either the handle or sole plate. 'Inasmuch as the stability of the present iron is slightly greater towards the sole plate, the stability against side tipping should be matched to the stability towards the handle so that the distance DE is equal to both EH and 1-31. It can be seen that this is accomplished because EH, ED and B1 are all radii of a common circle. Therefore, with the present iron, it is advantageous to have the distance from the projected center of gravity E to the midpoint of line PG or point D approximately equal to the distance from the projected center of gravity E to a point on line AF which also lies on a line passing through the projected center of gravity and normal to line AF. Thus, the side stability is equal to stability towards the handle. Similarly, if the projected center .of gravity E were to be closer to the sole plate than the handle so that distance DE were greater than EB, then it would be desirable to have the side stability equal to the stability of the iron towards the sole plate. In this instance, it would be desirable to have line EH and EI equal to line BB. in other words, to have good side stability with an iron having a reasonably wide base, it is desirable to have EH and EI approximately equal to the shorter dis tance of ED and EB. If this relationship is adhered to and the ends of shell rear surface ends 34 and 35 are sufliciently spread to permit good stability, the iron will not easily topple over when it is in its upright or upended position.

While there has been illustrated and described a single preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that numerous changes and modifications can be made without departing from the present invention. It is, therefore, aimed in the appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is considered new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An electric pressing iron comprising a heatable soleplate which is horizontally disposed when the iron is in its operating position, an inverted cup-shaped shell attached to the soleplate and formed with a rearwardly facing surface for supporting the iron in its upended position, a handle molded from plastic material secured to and positioned above said shell, said handle defining a horizontally extending hand gripping portion which is disposed near the top of the iron, said handle including a rear member extending horizontally and normal to said hand gripping portion, said rear member extending laterally a substantial distance beyond the lateral edges of said hand gripping portion on each side of the handle, said member being spaced above said shell rearwardly facing surface for providing stability when the iron is in its upended position, an electric power cord, said rear member being detachably secured to the iron and being formed with first and second recesses for alternatively receiving and locking said cord to said handle so that said cord can be selectively secured to said handle to emerge therefrom from opposite sides, a U-shaped bracket attachable to said handle under said rear member, said bracket formed with opposed notches formed in the spaced legs of said U-shaped bracket, each of said notches being positioned closely adjacent one of said recesses and receiving said cord for locking said cord to said handle for selective alignment with either of said rear member recesses, first means securing said bracket to said handle, and second means locking said rear member to the iron and being independent of said first means whereby if the rear member is broken the cord remains fixedly secured to said handle.

2. The electric pressing iron of claim 1 wherein said electric power cord is provided with conductors engageable with iron terminal means, electrical insulating means slidably received on said conductors for covering same and said terminal means whereby if the rear member is broken the conductors and terminal means are not exposed.

3. An electric pressing iron comprising a base means having a bottom for ironing clothes and a rearwardly facing section with laterally spaced ends which are adapted for supporting the iron in its upended position, a handle secured to said base means and being provided with an elongated hand gripping portion near the top of the iron and a rearwardly facing portion having outwarly extending member means, said member means defining laterally spaced ends both of which are outboard from and on opposite sides of said hand gripping portion and both of which are disposed for supporting the iron in its upended position, said section ends and said member means ends being related so that the center of gravity of the iron in its upended position projects vertically to a point in a horizontal plane which also contains said section ends and member means ends wherein the shortest distance from the projected center of gravity to a line between complementary ends of said member means and said section is approximately equal to the shorter of the distances from the projected center of gravity to the midpoint between said member means ends and midpoint between said section ends.

4. The electric pressing iron of claim 3 wherein the distance between said section ends is approximately equal to the distance between member means ends.

'5. The electric pressing iron of claim 3 wherein said rearwardly facing portion being joined to said handle at a parting line, an electric power cord extending into said handle at said parting line, fastening means securing said portion to said handle whereby said cord is locked therebetween.

6. An electric pressing iron comprising a base means having a bottom for ironing clothes and a rearwardly facing section with laterally spaced ends which are adapted for supporting the iron in its upended'position, ahandle secured to said base means and being provided with an elongated hand gripping portion near the top of the iron and a rearwardly facing portion having outwardly extending member means, said member means defining laterally spaced ends both of which are outboard from and on opposite sides of said hand gripping portion and both of which are disposed for supporting the iron in its upended position, said section ends and. said member means ends being related so that the center of gravity of the iron in its upended position projects vertically to a point in a horizontal plane which also contains said section ends and member means ends wherein the shortest distance from the projected center of gravity to a line between complementary ends of said member rrneans and said section is approximately equal to the distance from the projected center of gravity to the closer of the line between said member means ends and of the line between said section ends.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,180,399 11/1939 Clark ,219 24s 2,416,984 3/1947 Farr 219 24s 2,624,136 1/1953 Wilson 38-79 10 2,632,969 3/1953 Gerber 38-79 FOREIGN PATENTS 383,243 10/1923 Germany.

5 JOSEPH V. TRUHE, Primary Examiner -P. W. GOWDEY, Assistant Examiner

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