Method and apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment device, preferably a mangle

An apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment device, in particular a mangle, comprising:

• a feed conveyor (17) for transporting the items of laundry in the feeding direction (10) to the laundry treatment device;
• a plurality of loading stations (11) lying next to one another in a row running transversely with respect to the feeding direction (10);
• a pair of transfer clips (21), which is assigned to each loading station (11), with two transfer clips (20) for taking over a respective item of laundry from the loading station (1) assigned to them;
• and
• a spreading device (12) having spreading clips (14) to which a transfer can be made from the transfer clips (20) of adjacent corners of a front edge of the respective item of laundry,
• wherein the transfer clips (20) of outer loading stations (11) are moveable on obliquely directed rails (23, 24) in the direction of a center of the feed conveyor (17), and the rails (23, 24) of the outer loading station (11) end at a distance next to the center of the feed conveyor (17) such that, for the transfer of laundry items to the spreading clips (14), the pairs of transfer clips (21) of the rails (23, 24) are moveable to the center of the feed conveyor (17) only to the extent that, for transferring the item of laundry to the spreading clips (14), the center of the respective pair of transfer clips (21) is spaced by 1 to 1½ times the distance of the two transfer clips (20) of the respective pair of transfer clips (21) from the center of the feed conveyor (17).

An apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment device, in particular a mangle, comprising:

• at least one loading station (11);
• a feed conveyor (17) transporting the items of laundry in the feeding direction (10) to the laundry treatment device;
• a spreading device (12), which is arranged upstream of said feed conveyor, for spreading out the respective item of laundry upstream of the feed conveyor (17);
• and
• at least one loading station (11) upstream of the spreading device (12),
• wherein each loading station (11) has a loading conveyor (18) with two belt conveyors (27, 28) arranged one above the other, an upper belt conveyor (27) leaves free a front part of a lower belt conveyor (28) in order to form an placing-on region (29), and the front part of the lower belt conveyor (28) forming the exposed placing-on region (29) is adjustable, and
• wherein the inclination of the placing-on region (29) is adjustable by pivoting a front deflecting drum (47) of the lower belt conveyor (28) about an imaginary pivot axis in the region of the rearmost point of the placing-on region (29), as seen in the feeding direction (10).

An apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment device, in particular a mangle, comprising:

• at least one loading station (11);
• a feed conveyor (17) transporting the items of laundry in the feeding direction (10) to the laundry treatment device;
• a spreading device (12), which is arranged upstream of said feed conveyor, for spreading out the respective item of laundry upstream of the feed conveyor (17);
• and
• at least one loading station (11) upstream of the spreading device (12),
• wherein each loading station (11) has a loading conveyor (18) with two belt conveyors (27, 28) arranged one above the other, an upper belt conveyor (27) leaves free a front part of a lower belt conveyor (28) in order to form an placing-on region (29), and the front part of the lower belt conveyor (28) forming the exposed placing-on region (29) is adjustable, and
• wherein the height of the start of the placing-on region (29) is adjustable by a change in height of a front deflecting drum (47) of the lower belt conveyor (28) about an imaginary pivot axis in the region of the rearmost point of the placing-on region (29), as seen in the feeding direction (10).

A method for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment device, preferably a mangle, comprising:

• supplying the items of laundry at at least one loading station (11);
• transferring one item of laundry in each case by adjacent corner regions of a front edge to spreading clips (14) of a spreading device (12), the spreading clips being moveable transversely with respect to the feeding direction (10) of the item of laundry;
• and
• stretching and centering the front edge of the item of laundry by the spreading clips (14) with respect to the center of the feed conveyor (17),
• wherein the at least one loading station (11) can be shifted as required in order to provide operators with access to a front depositing region of the feed conveyor (17), and
• wherein the at least one loading station (11) additionally together with the spreading device (12) and transfer clips (20) with associated rails (13;
• 22, 23, 24) can be shifted when required.

A method for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment device, preferably a mangle, comprising:

• supplying the items of laundry at at least one loading station (11);
• transferring one item of laundry in each case by adjacent corner regions of a front edge to spreading clips (14) of a spreading device (12), the spreading clips being moveable transversely with respect to the feeding direction (10) of the item of laundry;
• and
• stretching and centering the front edge of the item of laundry by the spreading clips (14) with respect to the center of the feed conveyor (17),
• wherein the at least one loading station (11) can be shifted as required in order to provide operators with access to a front depositing region of the feed conveyor (17), and
• wherein the at least one loading station (11) additionally together with the spreading device (12) and transfer clips (20) with associated rails (13;
• 22, 23, 24) can be pivoted upwards when required by a common pivoting device (59) in order to release a depositing region at the front end (16) of the feed conveyor (17).