Herbert Kannegiesser Gmbh

Jürgen Sielermann

Engelbert Heinz

Wilhelm Bringewatt

Friedhelm Mehrhoff

Lars Herzog

Peter Holtz

A method and device for supporting the isolating of pieces of laundry from a pile of laundry by means of an imaging apparatus. A further imaging apparatus serves for raising a front edge region of the piece of laundry onto the feed conveyor in an aligned manner. Furthermore, the gripping of corners or also edges, in particular the alignment thereof, can be detected by means of an imaging apparatus. The gripping and aligning of the pieces of laundry can be controlled or regulated by way of the positions and edge contours of the same which are determined by the imaging apparatuses. As a result, reliable, fully automated isolating of pieces of laundry and/or fully automated, targeted feeding of pieces of laundry to a folding machine or another such laundry subsequent handling apparatus is ensured.

Method for feeding pieces of laundry to a laundry subsequent handling apparatus and device

For washed laundry items, such as flat laundry items, that have been separated into singles, spread out and fed to a mangle or the like, for automating these processes a method and device for pulling the singles onto a belt conveyor with a front transverse edge region transversely to the feed direction. Using a guide means in front of the belt conveyor, a front transverse edge of the laundry item is aligned at right angles to the feed direction when being pulled. Once pulled on, the laundry item is centered with respect to the track center of the following transfer conveyor by the belt conveyor. From the belt conveyor the laundry item is placed on a following transfer conveyor where the front transverse edge of the laundry item is aligned at right angles to the feed direction and a sagging of the transverse edge of the laundry item is eliminated.

Method and device for feeding laundry items to a mangle or the like

A method and apparatus for transferring items of laundry after being separated first of all to a transfer device which then transfers the individual items of laundry to a loading device. The items of laundry are then hung individually by clips of the loading device into a clip which is in each case held ready and is to be loaded on the conveyor. Items of laundry can thereby be rapidly and reliably hung fully automatically into the clips to be loaded.

Method and apparatus for loading a clip with an item of laundry, in particular an item of laundry to be sorted

The automatic sorting of laundry items requires a knowledge of all sorting criteria. One strives to read these out from data storage media attached to the laundry items. The problem is when laundry items lack data storage media, or they are not readable because they have been damaged, for example. The invention calls for deriving sorting criteria which cannot be otherwise obtained from at least one imaging recording of an imaging device, such as a 3D-camera. Such sorting criteria, which cannot be derived from the picture or recording of the 3D-camera, are derived from supplemental information which can be obtained in different ways. Thus, it is also possible to sort laundry items without data storage medium or with damaged data storage media in a fully automatic or at least largely automatic manner.

Device for sorting of laundry items, preferably laundry items for cleaning

A method and apparatus for a transfer operation of items of laundry to be automated by a handling device, which is designed for example in the form of a handling robot. Up until now, items of laundry have been transferred usually manually from a supply conveyor to loading conveyors of, for example, feeding machines. This is work-intensive and time-consuming.

Method and apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a laundry-treatment device, in particular to at least one loading conveyor

Method and device for sorting of laundry items, preferably laundry items for cleaning

Items of laundry are fed from an input machine to a mangle or some other laundry-treatment arrangement. Operating personnel are employed to feed the input machine with the items of laundry. This is costly in terms of time and personnel. The invention makes provision for determining surface profiles of the items of laundry by means of imaging installations. From these surface profiles a location for the automatic gripping of the item of laundry or of a corner of same, and preferably also the position of the location or corner, is determined by electronic image processing, whereby the location or corner of the item of laundry can be securely gripped in an automatic and targeted manner. By virtue of the described measures, hitherto manual activities in front of the input machine can be easily performed in a reliable and fully-automatic mode.

Method and apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a mangle or to some other laundry-treatment arrangement

The sorting of laundry items, in particular dirty laundry items, has hitherto been carried out manually in most cases, which is costly in terms of personnel and time. High sorting capacities are therefore only possible with the corresponding personnel expenses. The invention provides that, at the start of sorting, specifically during their separation, and prior to their further transport to the individual sorting sites, the dirty laundry items are scanned by imaging techniques and, as a result of the appropriate image analysis, it is possible to determine the areas of the dirty laundry items to be preferably gripped and/or at least a number of sorting criteria, such as size and color. These measures result in a largely automated sorting procedure. These measures can be extended so as to achieve a fully automatic sorting procedure.

Method for sorting laundry items, in particular dirty laundry items

A clamp for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment machine that can be easily actuated and that can enhance performance and reliability when items of laundry are fed, for example, to a mangle or the like, by configuring at least one clamping element of the clamp as a clamping lever having an insertion aid with a guideway for the sliding insertion of a section of the item of laundry into a clamp mouth.

Clamp for an item of laundry

Laundry articles are spread out by input machines in front of a feed conveyor which feeds the spread-out laundry article to a mangle. The respective laundry article is previously fed by a transfer device to a draw-on device onto which the laundry article is drawn. In known input machines, relatively complicated transfer devices are provided. According to the invention, the transfer device is provided with a rectilinear conveying section ascending to the draw-on device. The laundry article is thereby transported to the draw-on device by the transfer device in the plane in which it is transferred to the transfer device. Such a transfer device needs to have only a simple set-up. Since the laundry article remains in the plane in which it is fed to the transfer device, it can be brought by the transfer device into a favorable initial position for being drawn reliably onto the draw-on device.

Method and apparatus for feeding a laundry article to a mangle or the like

Items of laundry have to be stretched out by a spreading device () before they are inserted into a mangle or any other laundry treatment device. To this end, the spreading device () has spreading clips () which can be moved away from one another. In the case of relatively large items of laundry, the spreading clips () have to cover a relatively large distance in order to spread out the item of laundry. This reduces the insertion rate. The invention provides for the items of laundry to be preliminarily spread out before being passed to the spreading clips (), so that the spreading clips () receive the item of laundry in a state in which it is already virtually spread out. The spreading clips () only have to cover a small residual distance in order to spread out the item of laundry completely. As a result, the spreading device () can spread out the item of laundry very quickly. It is particularly advantageous to measure the width of the item of laundry and to then preliminarily spread out the item of laundry as far as possible as a function of the measured width.

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

An apparatus for feeding items of laundry to a mangle having loading clamps () arranged on conveyors () having endless toothed belts (), the loading clamps () being driven in circulation, and if the respective toothed belts () are assigned a plurality of the loading clamps (), the cycle times can be reduced.

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Heubach, Germany

Jürgen Sielermann