US 5,924,226 AGranted

Foldable ironing board with leg latch

AssigneeLeifheit AG

InventorGerhard Zuber

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Abstract

To provide an ergonometrically correct ironing board (2) which can be readily folded and retained in folded position, the legs (7, 8) of the ironing board are coupled at a cross-over shaft (9) and each connected to a spacer element (18, 19) in which the spacer element is formed with a recess or groove or notch (17). A hand-operable height-positioning lever (15) which is coupled to a height adjustment mechanism (5, 4, 12, 13, 14) is also coupled to a locking lever (16) having a locking tip (22) engageable with the recess or groove or notch (17) in the spacer elements which are coupled to the legs (7, 8) when the legs are folded together. The locking lever (16) is spring-loaded to retain the legs in folded position; upon operating the height positioning lever (15), the lock is automatically released. For universal ironing convenience, the ironing board has a straight front side (67) which has a curved blunt end (69) with a curve radius of about 350 mm. It merges over more sharply curved corners with the front side (67) and a backside (61) which has a first, straight portion (65) of at least half the length as the front side (67) and which then merges over a gentle bend (66) with a pointed tip end (64) of the ironing board. All corners are rounded, with curve radii of, for example, about 65 mm.

Claims21

Dependent claims

Foldable locking ironing board with a folded portion lock, said foldable board comprising:

an ironing board surface (2);
two support legs (7, 8) which, in erected position of the ironing board, have substantially X shape, said legs being coupled to said ironing board surface;
a connecting shaft (9) connecting said legs at a cross-over of the X;
a height adjustment mechanism (5, 4, 12, 13, 14) including a manually operable adjustment lever (15), said height adjustment mechanism effecting coupling of one of said legs (8) to the ironing board in a predetermined position;
a leg-locking arrangement (16, 17, 22);
and
a coupling means (1516) coupling together said leg-locking arrangement (15, 17, 22) and said height adjustment mechanism (5, 4, 12, 13, 14), said locking lever (16) being operable to automatically lock said legs together when the ironing board is in collapsed condition, and said leg-locking arrangement automatically releasing said lock upon operation of the height adjustment lever (15);
and
wherein the leg-locking arrangement comprises
two spacer elements (18, 19) on said connection shaft (9), one each coupled to one of said legs (7, 8) and interlocked with a respective leg;
said spacer elements (18, 19) each having a recess (17) or groove or notch thereon, located on the respective spacer element such that, when the ironing board is in folded condition, said recesses or grooves or notches (17) are in alignment;
and
wherein the locking lever (16), coupled to said height adjustment lever (15) of the height adjustment mechanism (5, 4, 12, 13, 14), is engageable with at least one of said recesses (17) when they are in alignment.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.