US 5,349,160 AGranted

Iron comprising a humidity detector for controlling the heating element and also providing a motion indication

AssigneeU.S. Philips Corporation

InventorsJean-Pierre Hazan, Remy Polaert, Jean-Louis Nagel

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Abstract

An iron comprises a heating element (97) and heating-control means (96) for the heating element. It has a humidity detector (60) which measures the degree of humidity of the fabric and which influences the electric power dissipated in the heating element. In order to measure the degree of humidity a circuit (99) measures the resistivity of the fabric between two contact electrodes (62a, 62b) and subsequently averages the electric signal resulting from the movement of the iron on the fabric. A circuit (89) may be added which measures the rhythm of the variations of said electric signal and which thus detects whether the iron is in use or not in use.

Claims10

Dependent claims

An iron comprising a heating element (97), heating-control means (96) for the heating element, and a substantially flat soleplate (31) adapted to slide on a fabric, wherein the iron has a humidity detector (60) comprising:

means (62a, 62b) for measuring a resistivity of the fabric, which means are flush with the soleplate of the iron to enable it to be brought into contact with the fabric and produce an electric signal (I) in response to movement of the said means (62a, 62b) on the surface of the fabric,
means (99), operatively associated with said heating control means (96), for determining an average degree of humidity of the fabric by measuring said electric signal (I) produced by said means (62a, 62b) resulting from variations of the resistivity caused by a movement of the iron over the fabric.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.