Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

U.S. Philips Corporation

Tang Pong Har

Yong Jiang

Boon Khian Ching

Mun Thoh Ma

Mohankumar Valiyambath Krishnan

Lanying Ji

Nyik Siong Wong

Mong Hua Tan

Leo Hubert Maria Krings

Xiaoming Jia

Sundaram S Arun

Albertus P Michels

Adeline Teo

A steam ironing device includes a steam iron, a steam generator for generating steam and supplying steam to the steam iron, and a supply device for supplying water to the steam generator. During operation of the steam ironing device, scale is formed in the steam generator, and the water in the steam generator gradually gets contaminated with ions. In order to clean the steam generator and replace the water with fresh water, the steam generator is regularly subjected to an auto-rinsing process. A moment at which this process needs to take place is a moment at which an amount of scale and/or a concentration of ions have exceeded a predetermined maximum. The amount of scale and/or the concentration of ions are indirectly monitored by keeping account of a total quantity of water that has been supplied to the steam generator since a set starting point.

Measures for keeping a degree of contamination of a steam generator including its contents below a predetermined maximum

A steam generating apparatus () is described, comprising a boiler () provided with electric heating means () and current controlling means () for controlling the current in the heating means; the apparatus further comprising at least one temperature sensor () and a pressure sensor (); the apparatus being capable of generating steam at a variable steam output rate; wherein the controlling means () are designed, at a relatively low steam output rate setting, to control the current in the heating means on the basis of a temperature measurement signal (T) from the temperature sensor (), and wherein the controlling means () are designed, at a relatively high steam output rate setting, to control the current in the heating means on the basis of pressure.

Device for generating steam

An ironing appliance () comprises an ironing device such as a steam iron and an ironing board () for supporting articles () to be ironed. In the ironing board (), Radio Frequency Identification readers () are arranged, which serve for identifying the fabric type of the articles () to be ironed, which are provided with a tag () containing this information. The ironing board () has a heater () for heating the articles to be ironed, and is also adapted to supplying steam to these articles. In an ironing process of a given article, the characteristics of the supply of steam and the temperature of the heater () are determined on the basis of the information obtained from the tag () of the article by the readers (). Due to the fact that the readers () are arranged in the ironing board (), the identification process and the process of determining appropriate ironing settings take place in a fast and accurate manner.

Ironing appliance comprising identification means for identifying the fabric type of articles to be ironed

An electric iron having a housing () and a soleplate () in which at least one outlet opening () is provided, means () for generating a fine liquid spray or foam or steam, and means () for delivering said generated fine liquid spray or foam or steam through said outlet opening. According to the invention, the iron is provided with detection means () for detecting the presence of a surface () in the proximity of the sloplate () and for generating a detection signal in response to said detection, and with control means () for controlling the delivery of said fine liquid spray or foam or steam in response of said detection signal. For example, the detection means comprise a movable spring-loaded contact element () located in the soleplate (), said element () activating a switch () for generating said signal when the soleplate is positioned against said surface () and thus depresses said element ().

Iron with fabric contact detector

An electric steam iron includes an electrically heated soleplate ( ). The soleplate ( ) has at least one steam vent ( ). The iron also includes a controllable steam generator ( ) for supplying steam to the steam vent ( ). The iron further includes a controller ( ) for controlling the steam generator ( ) and a temperature sensor ( ) for sensing the tempature of the soleplate ( ). The temperature sensor ( ) supplies a temperature dependent signal to the controller ( ). The controller ( ) is adapted to activate the steam generator ( ) in accordance with a predetermined steam pattern. The steam pattern includes at least a first phase of a first predetermined duration, in which steam is supplied a substantially constant peak steam rate, and at least a second phase, in which team is supplied at a substantially constant lower steam rate. At least the peak steam rate depends upon the temperature of the soleplate (

Steam iron

An ironing machine is provided which includes an iron 1 and a stand 2. The iron 1 includes a steam generator 11 in the sole plate 15 of the iron 1. The stand 2 includes a reservoir 21, which is connected to the steam generator 11 by a duct 3. The ironing machine further includes a pump 22 in the duct 3, which pump 22 can be driven by an electric current, and flow-rate adjustment device 41. The flow-rate adjustment device 41 has at least three settings corresponding to different flow-rates of water into the steam generator 11 and includes a control unit 41 and a driver 45 to control the electric current supplied to the pump 22 in dependence on the setting. The control unit 41 has a manually adjustable selector 42 for selecting a setting and a trigger 43 for activating the pump 22. During use the user can depress the trigger 43 when steam operation is required. This causes the pump 22 to be activated, thus producing a flow rate of water into the steam generator 11 depending on the setting selected by the adjustable selector 42.

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Singapore, Singapore

Tang Pong Har