Herbert Kannegiesser Gmbh

Pharmagg Systemtechnik Gmbh

Kannegiesser Aue Gmbh

Wilhelm Bringewatt

Engelbert Heinz

Jürgen Sielermann

Falk F Mehrmann

Thomas Klarhorst

Peter Holtz

Eduard Regier

Jürgen Wolf

Markus Nolte

Arthur Malikowski

Jürgen Hildebrand

Ted Andrews

Mathias Wöhler

Heinz Engelbert

Used laundry items are delivered unsorted to laundries. It has previously been usual to initially sort the laundry items after delivery and treat the sorted laundry items, at least by washing, drying, mangling and folding. The preliminary sorting is labor-intensive and time-consuming. The invention proposes to treat unsorted at least those laundry items which must be mangled. Only before folding are the still unsorted laundry items identified and folded in targeted fashion accordingly. After folding, the identified laundry items are sorted according to their identified criteria, in that folded laundry items with the same criteria are stacked on a respective stack of similarly treated and folded laundry items. This reduces the complexity of sorting laundry items.

Method for treating laundry items

A method for preparing and/or monitoring the wet treatment of items of laundry wherein the items of laundry are counted using their electronic data carriers. An electronic data carrier of the item of laundry is determined. If more than a single electronic data carrier is detected, this indicates that there are multiple connected items of laundry which do not permit washing. The electronic data carriers can be used to determine the number of items of laundry loaded into a washing machine and the number of items of the same unloaded batch of laundry. If the unloaded batch of laundry has a lower number of electronic data carriers than during loading, this indicates that not all the items have been unloaded from the washing machine and there is a risk of the washing machine becoming blocked.

Method for preparing and/or monitoring the wet treatment of items of laundry

Laundry items are spread out and deposited on a feed conveyor which inserts the laundry item into a mangle. The front edge of the laundry item is stretched by a spreading device, wherein spreading clamps are moved apart on the basis of a measured length of the front edge. Until now, the front edge length item has been measured at the spreading device, which increases the duration of the spreading operation. The invention measures the front edge length upstream of the spreading device when the laundry item is still hanging in two loading clamps of a loading station. So that the front edge length can be contactlessly determined from the lowest point of the sag of the front edge, the distance between the loading clamps is a greater distance than previously. As a result, a V-like sag is formed, the lowest point of which can be contactlessly determined.

Method and apparatuses for feeding items of laundry to a laundry machine, such as in particular a mangle

Laundry pieces are to be gripped at various locations in laundries. This is labor-intensive. For this purpose, efforts are being made toward automating the gripping of laundry pieces. A camera has previously been used for this purpose. The automatic gripping of laundry pieces is implemented by way of a plurality of cameras, in that a plurality of cameras simultaneously record image data of respective laundry pieces to be gripped. On account thereof, the cameras always provide exploitable image data of the relevant laundry piece even when one camera is momentarily obscured, for example, or is defective or the viewing direction of a camera is not directed toward the face of the laundry piece. Image data of the laundry piece can always be generated by virtue of the plurality of cameras, said image data enabling a handling installation to automatically grip the laundry piece in a reliable manner.

Method for gripping textile items

A method that facilitates the automatic identification of the long edge or the short edge of the item of laundry by determining the lengths or the angles of the edge areas of the item of laundry extending from a lower corner of the item of laundry. It may be derived from the determined angles or lengths of the edge areas whether the respective edge area belongs to the long edge or to the short edge of the item of laundry. With this information, a targeted transverse or longitudinal feed of rectangular items of laundry may be carried out to a downstream inserting machine. The fully automated feeding of items of laundry to, for example, an inserting machine is carried out in a targeted way with either the long edge of the item of laundry extending transversely to the feed direction or the short edge extending transversely to the feed direction.

Method for determining the shorter and/or longer edge of items of laundry and for feeding items of laundry to a laundry treatment apparatus

A method that provides to partially automate the feeding of pieces of laundry to an insertion machine by steps which necessitate long distances to be traveled being performed manually. With large pieces of laundry such as, for example, tablecloths and bed sheets, for complete automation a large amount of space is required and the clamps holding corners of the pieces of laundry are required to travel long distances. To achieve this, it is provided to temporarily store the respective piece of laundry after it has been separated and before it is delivered to an insertion machine. It is furthermore provided that in a first corner of the piece of laundry is supplied or held ready by an automatic separator for an operator to manually locate the second corner of the piece of laundry. Partial automation can be achieved without the cycle time being adversely affected owing to manual handling processes.

Method for feeding pieces of laundry to an insertion machine

Methods and apparatuses that provide for laundry to be washed and rinsed in a washing device in a state in which it lies spread out on an upper strand of a belt conveyor and, directly thereafter, to be dried in a likewise spread-out state on an upper strand of a belt conveyor. During the washing, rinsing and also the drying operations, the laundry rests on the belt conveyors, which also transport the laundry through the washing device and the dryer. The items of laundry here are washed, and also rinsed, by being sprayed with jets of liquid. The procedure described provides for a compact washing and drying system and is gentler on the items of laundry.

Method and apparatus for treating laundry

A method and device for feeding laundry pieces to a laundry treatment installation. Laundry pieces are fed to ironers by infeed machines. In practice, a front transverse periphery of a laundry piece is folded back on itself. In order to prevent this, infeed machines have stretching installations that have belt conveyors that lie on top of one another, one of which is briefly decelerated so as to unravel a front transverse periphery of the laundry piece that is folded back on itself. This deceleration decreases the infeed performance. One belt conveyor of the present stretching installation is at least temporarily driven at a faster speed to unravel a transverse periphery of the laundry piece that has potentially folded back on itself before the laundry piece runs into the ironer, increasing the infeed performance as it is no longer necessary for either of the belt conveyors to be decelerated.

Method and device for feeding laundry pieces to a laundry treatment installation

A method and device in which a respective laundry piece initially is automatically gripped at a location and pulled apart. The automatic gripping of laundry pieces for feeding to an infeed machine requires a plurality of handling procedures which for reliable automation have to be coordinated. The laundry piece is subsequently reoriented such that said laundry piece can be acquired in a manner which is favorable in terms of the subsequent steps, which can take place in front of a wall that stabilizes the laundry piece. Once the laundry piece has been gripped in the region of a periphery, the laundry piece, as a function of which periphery has been gripped and by way of which alignment the laundry piece is to be fed to the infeed machine, is pulled longitudinally or transversely onto a conveyor that transports said laundry piece to the infeed machine.

Method and device for gripping rectangular textile items and/or for feeding rectangular textile items to a treatment installation

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

A method and apparatus that makes provision for two identical folding machines to be arranged one beside the other, and for these to be operated synchronously, so that the large operating width which is necessary for ironing large laundry items, in particular transversely, is also available for folding such laundry items. If large laundry items are to be ironed, and folded, in particular transversely, this requires ironers and folding machines with an appropriately large operating width. Such large operating widths currently cannot be realized technologically in folding machines.

Method and apparatus for ironing and folding laundry items

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

The automatic supply of items of laundry to a feeding machine for supplying the items of laundry to a mangle requires the formation of adjacent corners of an edge of the item of laundry, which edge is to be spread upstream of the feeding machine, which hitherto has not been able to be achieved automatically with sufficient reliability. The invention brings the respective item of laundry into a U-shaped configuration before same is supplied to the feeding machine and, starting from said configuration, to stretch apart said item of laundry with a spreading device having a conveyor cascade. This reliably forms the adjacent corners of the edge, which is to be stretched out, of the item of laundry, said corners being required for automatically feeding the item of laundry into the feeding machine. A reliable automatic supply of the respective item of laundry to the feeding machine is therefore ensured.

Method and apparatuses for supplying items of laundry to a feeding machine

Providing a boiler in the interior of the mangle body, for heating up a gas in particular by an infrared radiant heater, which heats up a heat transfer medium in the cavity of a double-walled shell of the mangle body. The pressing surface of the mangle body can be heated up effectively and in a targeted manner by this heat transfer medium in the cavity of the double-walled shell of the mangle. Belt mangles are known, in the case of which a circumferentially driven mangling belt runs along the outside of the stationary mangle body, which mangling belt transports the laundry items to be mangled on the smooth pressing surface of the mangle body by entrainment. The heating of the pressing surface has been shown to be ineffective in the case of these known belt mangles.

Device for mangling laundry items

A method and apparatus that makes provision for a length of a transverse edge of a laundry item to be spread out to be measured upstream of a spreading device, to be precise preferably from above. It is thereby possible to individually determine the length of the transverse edge for each individual laundry item before the laundry item is situated in the spreading device. The length dimension of the transverse edge determined upstream of the spreading device can then be used to move apart the spreading clamps of the spreading device in a targeted and controlled manner in order to spread out the transverse edge in as gentle a manner as possible.

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Porta Westfalica, Germany

Wilhelm Bringewatt