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

{
  "publication_number": "US11377308B2",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "B2",
  "title": "Method and device for gripping rectangular textile items and/or for feeding rectangular textile items to a treatment installation",
  "abstract": "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.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A method for gripping a rectangular textile item, wherein the singularized textile item is gripped at one corner (18), the textile item, while configuring regions in which the textile item overlaps so as to form double tiers, hangs freely from this corner (18), and the textile item by a holding means (37) is reoriented so as to configure at least part of a free periphery of the textile item that emanates from the held corner (18), wherein the textile item at a spacing from the held corner (18) is pneumatically acquired by a holding means (37) at a location (42), the textile item, while entraining the pneumatically acquired location (42), is initially pulled apart by the holding means (37), the textile item thereafter is gripped in a clamping manner at or in the proximity of the pneumatically acquired location (42), and the textile item by further displacing the holding means (37) while maintaining the clamping hold is further pulled apart until at least part of a periphery of the textile item is configured below the held corner (18), wherein the location (42) which initially is pneumatically acquired by the holding means (37) is suctioned by way of a vacuum by a pneumatic suction head (38) of the holding means (37), is subsequently mechanically acquired by the holding means (37), and wherein the suction force of the suction head (38) of the holding means (37) is chosen such that in the region in which the textile item hangs from the corner (18) so as to overlap in multiple tiers only one tier (51) of the textile item that points toward the suction head (38) is suctioned and pneumatically held.",
    "2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the holding means (37) upon gripping the textile item is further displaced by the gripper (39) until at least part of the periphery of the textile item that hangs from the corner (18) has been configured.",
    "3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a portion (46) of the periphery of the textile item that has been configured under the corner (18) is gripped by a clamp (45).",
    "4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the portion (46) of the periphery of the textile item that has been configured below the corner (18) and has been gripped by the clamp (45) is pulled by this clamp (45) over a loading conveyor (27) which transports the textile item to a downstream laundry treatment machine.",
    "5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein a portion (46) of the periphery of the textile item that has been configured below the corner (18) is gripped by a clamp (45) having a width which corresponds to the length of the portion (46).",
    "6. A method for gripping a rectangular textile item, wherein the singularized textile item is gripped at one corner (18), the textile item, while configuring regions in which the textile item overlaps so as to form double tiers, hangs freely from this corner (18), and the textile item by a holding means (37) is reoriented so as to configure at least part of a free periphery of the textile item that emanates from the held corner (18), wherein the textile item at a spacing from the held corner (18) is pneumatically acquired by a holding means (37) at a location (42), the textile item, while entraining the pneumatically acquired location (42), is initially pulled apart by the holding means (37), the textile item thereafter is gripped in a clamping manner at or in the proximity of the pneumatically acquired location (42), and the textile item by further displacing the holding means (37) while maintaining the clamping hold is further pulled apart until at least part of a periphery of the textile item is configured below the held corner (18), wherein the textile item is acquired by the suction head (38) of the holding means (37) below the textile item that hangs by the corner (18), and wherein the textile item is pulled apart by the suction head (38) of the holding means (37) by laterally displacing the textile item while entraining the location (42) which is held by the suction head (38), in such a manner that the pneumatically fixed tier (51) of the textile item is exposed at least at the pneumatically held location (42), in that said tier (51) is not overlapped by any adjacent tier.",
    "7. A method for gripping a rectangular textile item, wherein the singularized textile item is gripped at one corner (18), the textile item, while configuring regions in which the textile item overlaps so as to form double tiers, hangs freely from this corner (18), and the textile item by a holding means (37) is reoriented so as to configure at least part of a free periphery of the textile item that emanates from the held corner (18), wherein the textile item at a spacing from the held corner (18) is pneumatically acquired by a holding means (37) at a location (42), the textile item, while entraining the pneumatically acquired location (42), is initially pulled apart by the holding means (37), the textile item thereafter is gripped in a clamping manner at or in the proximity of the pneumatically acquired location (42), and the textile item by further displacing the holding means (37) while maintaining the clamping hold is further pulled apart until at least part of a periphery of the textile item is configured below the held corner (18), and wherein, upon pulling apart the textile item, the textile item is mechanically gripped by the gripper (39) of the holding means (37) at the location (42) that is held by the suction head (38) of the holding means (37), and the suction head (38) is thereafter released from the textile item.",
    "8. A method for gripping a rectangular textile item, wherein the textile item hanging from a clamp (18) that holds a corner (18) is reoriented so as to form at least part of a freely hanging periphery of the textile item that emanates from the held corner (18), wherein the textile item is reoriented from the held corner (18) thereof in the state hanging in front of a wall (29) by a holding means (37) that acquires at least one location (42, 43) of the textile item, and displacing of said holding means (37) so as to configure at least part of a periphery of the textile item hanging in front of the wall (29) that emanates from the corner (18), and gripping of a portion (46) of the periphery of the textile item hanging in front of the wall (29).",
    "9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the textile item is reoriented in front of the upright wall (29).",
    "10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the textile item is reoriented in front of the upright wall (29), and the wall (29) is stationary during the reorientation of the textile item.",
    "11. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the wall (29) has a color which deviates at least from the color of the textile item.",
    "12. A method for feeding rectangular textile items to a treatment installation, wherein a respective singularized textile item is gripped at a portion (46) of a periphery and pulled onto or over a conveyor (21) of the treatment installation that transports the textile item to the treatment installation, wherein in the case of a textile item having peripheries of unequal length it is determined before or after gripping the portion (46) of the periphery of the textile item whether this is a portion of a short or a long periphery, and as a function of the result of this determination, the textile item by way of the gripped portion (46) of its periphery is pulled onto the conveyor (21) in a targeted manner so as to be transverse or longitudinal on said conveyor, wherein it is determined with the aid of at least one image-generating installation whether the portion (46) of the gripped periphery of the textile item that is acquired by the clamp (45) is a long periphery or a short periphery.",
    "13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein when the textile item is to be pulled onto the conveyor (21) or the loading conveyor (27) by way of the short periphery running transversely to the transporting direction (20), and the periphery of the textile item that is gripped by the clamp (45) is a short periphery, the clamp (45) pulls the textile item onto the conveyor (21) so as to be longitudinal in the transporting direction (20), whereas, in the case of the portion (46) of the long periphery being held by the clamp (45), the textile item is pulled over the conveyor (21) or the loading conveyor (27) transversely to the transporting direction (20) of the latter.",
    "14. A device for gripping rectangular textile items, having a clamp (19) for holding a corner (18) of the textile item, and a clamp (45) for acquiring a portion of at least part of a periphery of the textile item that hangs from the corner (18), wherein the clamp (19) that holds the corner (18) of the textile item is assigned a displaceable holding means (37) for reorienting the textile item, wherein the holding means (37) is displaceable along an oblique path, wherein the holding means (37) has a suction head (38) and a gripper (39), wherein the clamp (19) is displaceable along a vertical path, and an end of the oblique path of the holding means (37) that points toward the vertical path of the clamp (19) lies below an opposite end of the oblique path, and wherein the vertical path of the clamp (19) and the oblique path of the holding means (37) are disposed on a wall (29) in front of which the respective textile item hangs from the clamp (19).",
    "15. A device for gripping rectangular textile items, having a clamp (19) for holding a corner (18) of the textile item, and a clamp (45) for acquiring a portion of at least part of a periphery of the textile item that hangs from the corner (18), wherein the clamp (19) that holds the corner (18) of the textile item is assigned a displaceable holding means (37) for reorienting the textile item, wherein the holding means (37) is displaceable along an oblique path, wherein the holding means (37) has a suction head (38) and a gripper (39), wherein the clamp (19) is displaceable along a vertical path, and an end of the oblique path of the holding means (37) that points toward the vertical path of the clamp (19) lies below an opposite end of the oblique path, and wherein the vertical path of the clamp (19) and the oblique path of the holding means (37) are disposed on a wall (29) in front of which the respective textile item is able to be reoriented by the holding means (37).",
    "16. A device for gripping rectangular textile items, having a wall (29) that is assigned at least one image-generating installation, having a clamp (19) for holding a corner (18) of the textile item, and having a clamp (45) for acquiring a portion of at least part of a periphery of the textile item that hangs from the corner (18), wherein the clamp (19) that holds the corner (18) of the textile item is assigned a displaceable holding means (37) for reorienting the textile item.",
    "17. The device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the wall (29) is assigned at least one image-generating installation in such a manner that the at least one image-generating installation is directed onto at least part of the textile item in front of the wall (29), and image data from which it can be determined whether a short or a long periphery of the textile item hangs from the clamp (19) is able to be generated by the at least one image-generating installation.",
    "18. The device as claimed in claim 16, wherein the wall (29) is assigned at least one image-generating installation in such a manner that image data from which it can be determined whether a short or a long periphery of the textile item hangs from the clamp (19) is able to be generated by the at least one image-generating installation."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "Technical Field The invention relates to a method for gripping a rectangular textile item, wherein the singularized textile item is gripped at one corner, the textile item, while configuring regions in which the textile item overlaps so as to form double tiers, hangs freely from this corner, and the textile item by a holding means is reoriented so as to configure at least part of a free periphery of the textile item that emanates from the held corner, and to a method for gripping a rectangular textile item, wherein the textile item hanging from a clamp that holds a corner is reoriented so as to form at least part of a freely hanging periphery of the textile item that emanates from the held corner, respectively, and to a method for feeding rectangular textile items to a treatment installation. The invention furthermore relates to a device for gripping rectangular textile items, having a clamp for holding a corner of the textile item, and a clamp for acquiring a portion of at least part of a periphery of the textile item that hangs from the corner.\n\nPrior Art Textile items, in particular laundered laundry pieces and/or those to be laundered, having a rectangular shape have to be gripped such that said laundry pieces are able to be fed to a treatment installation. This applies to rectangular textile items which have mutually orthogonal peripheries of equal length as well as to those that have mutually orthogonal peripheries of unequal length. The intention is to automatically grip rectangular textile items or to automatically feed the latter to treatment installations.",
  "cpc": [
    "B65G 47/91",
    "B65G 2201/022",
    "B65G 2203/0225",
    "B65G 2203/041",
    "D06F 67/04",
    "D06F 89/00",
    "D06F 95/00"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B65G 47/91",
    "D06F 67/04",
    "D06F 95/00"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "KANNEGIESSER H GMBH CO"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "BRINGEWATT WILHELM",
    "NOLTE MARKUS",
    "HEINZ ENGELBERT"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2020-11-27",
  "publication_date": "2022-07-05",
  "grant_date": "2022-07-05",
  "priority_date": "2019-11-28",
  "application_number": "US-202017105713-A",
  "family_id": "75896694",
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}