Iron Stabilizer And Cord Support

Abstract

The invention discloses a stabilizing and cord support means in a single structure wherein outrigger-type arm means is attached to the iron to extend sideways from the iron. The outrigger is equipped with rearward extending ears at the ends of the arm whereby the ears are additional supports for the iron in the heel rest position. The dimension of the ears is such that a cord may be wrapped around the arm while it acts as a stabilizing means with no interference by the cord when the iron is in rest position.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention herein pertains to an improvement in stabilizing rest structure for an electric flatiron which structure is formed to provide additional stabilizing of the iron against tipping in the heel rest position and the same structure also provides a cord support or storage means on the iron with no interference to the iron when it is in heel rest position using the stabilizer means as an additional support.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Most of the electric flatirons used for general ironing purposes in the home are designed for upending the iron rearwardly when not in use. Generally, this heel rest position has comprised a three-point support whereby the top rear end of the handle and two outside rear points of the iron form a triangular support. The handle is generally cut short so that, in the upended or heel rest position, the iron tends to lean backward to overcome the turning moment of the soleplate. Because of the massive nature of the lower portions of the iron below the handle, it will be apparent that the iron may be rather easily tipped sideways by a slight bumping such as by movement around an ironing board. Various stabilizing structures have been employed to provide a wider support and prevent accidental tipping of the iron. These have included additional brackets connected to the iron cover or higher on the handle to provide wider support points or legs and the wider the points are spaced, of course, the more support for the iron. A compromise must be selected between the maximum support or stabilizing effect desired and the distance between the additional supports to avoid becoming unwieldy or interfering with operation or packaging of the iron. In order to get as wide a stabilizing effect as possible, moveable legs have been proposed that are hinged and retract into the envelope of the iron when not in use. All of these stabilizers work satisfactorily and are of various complexities depending on the stabilization desired and whether retractable members are used or a single integral bracket is used. Additionally, when the iron is put away or set aside out of use, usually the 6 to 8 foot cord presents a problem of storage. Generally, this is wound around the handle of the iron and the whole device stored. The cord bunches up on the rear portion of the handle and interferes with the upended resting position on the heel rest. This causes no great problem if the iron is cool but interferes with the heel rest stability and presents an undesirable situation with a hot iron.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Briefly described, the present invention is directed to an electric flatiron that has a connected cord and a cover over the iron soleplate with a handle attached to the iron. The rear portion is designed, with the cover, to support the iron in an upright three-point heel rest position when it is not in use. To this conventional structure, an improvement in stabilizing rest structure is provided that comprises a fixed outrigger-type arm means which may be integral and which extends sideways preferably equal distances from the iron out beyond the usual heel support points at the rear of the iron. The arm means is provided with an ear at each end that is sized to direct rearwardly a distance greater than the thickness or diameter of the cord and which terminates in a surface that lies substantially in the plane of the support points to provide at least two additional wider spaced supports. The longitudinal center of the arm may pass substantially through the center of gravity of the triangle formed by the usual three-point support. The distance of the ears from the cover is at least two cord thicknesses whereby the stabilizing structure and two additional supports all fall substantially on a common ellipse with the usual three supports and the same stabilizing structure then acts as a cord storage or support means for wrapping the cord around the iron so that the cord is disposed within the support to cause no interference with the arm means when it acts as a stabilizer in the heel rest position. Thus, the main object is to provide a stabilizing support structure that adds stability to the iron against tipping in the heel rest position and the same structure is also used as a cord storage or support with no interference in the heel rest position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an iron in the heel rest position and equipped with the invention with a wound cord in place;

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of a preferred stabilizing structure;

FIG. 3 is a partial similar view showing a modified stabilizing structure;

FIG. 4 is an elevation view of the stabilizing structure of FIG. 2 from the rear of the iron;

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view on the line 5-5 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 6 is a slightly modified integral version of the structure shown in FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown an electric flatiron 10 with the usual connected cord 12 that may come out of the top of handle 14 as shown or may be connected in any other suitable well-known manner. The handle has the usual controls generally indicated at 16 at its forward end, and the iron is equipped with the usual cover 18 over soleplate 20 with the cover extending back beyond the soleplate as shown. In such irons, it is customary to design the rear portion of handle 14 so that, with the rear portion of cover 18, the iron is supported in an upright, three-point heel rest position with support points A, B and C, as shown in FIG. 4 supporting the iron in the position of FIG. 1. Generally, the back of the handle is cut off so that the iron rests in an over-tilted position to provide a more stabilized support.

Because of the three-point A, B, C triangular support arrangement generally used, it will be apparent that the iron can be tilted about any of the lines A-B or A-C or B-C with tilting occurring most frequently along the more unstable first two lines during movements about the ironing board when the iron is turned up to its heel rest position. Of course, point A may be a rather broad surface depending on the design of the handle but still a substantially three-point triangular support is provided. The center of this triangular support, as shown in FIG. 4, is the center of gravity G of the triangle which may closely approximate the geometrical vertical center of the iron. It will be seen that overturning is resisted by a moment arm between G and a line joining A-B on one side and a similar one joining A-C on the other side thus indicating relative instability from overturning sideways from the position shown in FIG. 1. Extension of the line from G to A-B or A-C increases the support. To this end and keeping within the aesthetic and packaging requirements of the iron, the lines are effectively extended to points F and D to provide greater stability in the lateral direction. This general concept has been used before to provide additional stability.

In accordance with the invention, the improved stabilizing rest structure may take any suitable form which generally includes an outrigger-type arm means 21, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, and which preferably takes the form of a fixed arm means that is attached to and extends equidistantly sideways from the iron beyond the heel support points B and C at the rear of cover 18 as shown. While the preferable integral arm structure is desired, equivalent forms such as the gull-form of ear 22 attached to the cover as partially shown in FIG. 3 may also be used. In any case, certain parameters are required.

In order to provide a stabilizing means that does not extend beyond the envelope of the iron for packaging purposes as well as not interfering with the user because of long projections, it is desirable that the ends of the arms, forming the two additional supports F and D, fall between the maximum soleplate width and beyond the distance between the heel rest support points B and C. This also places each of the five-point supports of FIG. 4 substantially peripherally equidistant on a very stable common ellipse E through all the supports for good stability against sideways tipping. This stable support is especially enhanced when the longitudinal center line of the arm passes substantially through the center of gravity G of the triangle formed by the three point A, B & C support.

In order to use the ends of the arms as additional support points and for use of the same stabilizing structure as a cord support, each end of the arm is provided with an ear 23 that extends rearwardly a distance that is greater than the cord thickness and each ear may terminate in a surface 24 that is equivalent to a point support but is more stable and that is canted to lie substantially in the plane of the support points A, B and C when the iron is in the upright position shown in FIG. 1. Thus, the five-point support A, B, C, D and F is provided with the support points substantially on the stable ellipse base E as shown in FIG. 4.

For use of the stabilizing structure as a cord support, ears 23 are made long enough to reach the support surface and to accommodate a wound cord as shown in FIG. 1 and still leave the supporting surface 25 free of interference from a bunched cord and therefore free for stabilizing. In other words, the wound cord easily flows for winding alternately as shown in FIG. 1 and the stabilizing means with ears 22 or 23 keeps the cord in a recessed position so the cord does not interfere with the heel rest position of the iron. In order to keep the cord off of the hot cover 10, the ears are disposed at least two cord thicknesses from the cover so that a fully wound cord, as shown in FIG. 1, is separated from the cover. Generally, an iron cord of 6 to 8 feet will result in two loops around each arm as shown and the well-known plug clip not shown may attach the end to the cord for convenient on-the-iron storage.

The particular arm stabilizing means may take any suitable form, a convenient form as shown in FIG. 5, comprising two parts wherein rear cover 26 is connected to the handle by conventional screw means 28 and the stabilizing structure may be a separate hollow member 30 riveted to cover 26. A separate snap-in piece 32 may carry information indicia. Alternately, an integral arm construction may be used as shown in FIG. 6.

Thus, the single stabilizing structure of the present invention performs a dual function of stabilizing and storing of the cord in a natural convenient arrangement which, by providing dimensioned ears 22 or 23 permits cord storage on the same structure without any interference with the heel rest storage. The outrigger-type arrangement acting as a target for winding the cord inherently tends to keep the hand away from the hot iron. This results in a convenient, attractive, and useful dual purpose device for additional stability in the normally weak directions and the same means is used for cord storage directly on the iron without interfering with the heel rest function.

While there has been described a preferred form of the invention, obvious equivalent variations are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced, otherwise then as specifically described, and the claims are intended to cover such equivalent variations.

Claims

We claim:

1. In an electric flatiron having a connected cord and a cover over the soleplate with a handle attached to the iron and having a rear portion designed with the cover to support the iron in an upright substantially three-point heel rest position when not in use, the improvement in stabilizing rest structure comprising,

an outrigger-type arm means attached to and extending sideways from said iron and beyond the heel support points at the rear thereof,

said arm means having an ear at each end directed rearwardly a distance greater than the cord thickness and terminating in a surface lying substantially in the plane of the support points to provide at least two additional supports,

whereby said arm means is a stabilizer and a cord support on said iron with no interference in the heel rest position.

2. Apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein said ears on said arms are disposed at least two cord thicknesses from said cover to maintain a fully wound cord separated from said cover.

3. Apparatus as described in claim 1 wherein the distance between said ear support surfaces is greater than that between the heel support points and less than the maximum soleplate width.

4. Apparatus as described in claim 3 wherein the three-point heel supports and ear supports all fall substantially on a common ellipse through the supports.

5. In an electric flatiron having a connected cord and a cover over the soleplate with a handle attached to the iron and having a rear portion designed with the cover to support the iron in an upright three-point heel rest position when not in use, the improvement in stabilizing rest structure comprising,

an integral horizontal arm means attached to and extending sideways equal distances from said iron and beyond the heel support points at the rear thereof,

the longitudinal center of said arm passing substantially through the center of gravity of the triangle formed by the three-point support,

said arm having an ear at each end directed rearwardly a distance greater than the cord thickness and terminating in a surface lying substantially in the plane of the support points to provide at least two additional supports,

whereby said arm means is a stabilizer and a cord support on said iron with no interference in the heel rest position.

6. Apparatus as described in claim 5 wherein said ears on said arms are disposed at least two cord thicknesses from said cover to maintain a fully wound cord separated from said cover.

7. Apparatus as described in claim 6 wherein the distance between said ear support surfaces is greater than that between the heel support points and less than the maximum soleplate width.

8. Apparatus as described in claim 7 wherein the three-point heel supports and ear supports all fall substantially equally spaced around the periphery of a common ellipse through the supports.