Expansible Patents (Class 223/74)
  • Patent number: 8186546
    Abstract: An adjustable dress form has a plurality of body panels and adjustment mechanisms securing between each of the body panels. There are a total of at least four body panels, and the adjustment mechanisms include preferably twelve adjustment mechanisms. A neck girth adjustment mechanism has four extension loops. The four extension loops are attached to an upper portion of each body panel. A turn button is mechanically connected to a plurality of gear teeth on four gear tooth arms that make up the four extension loops. The four gear tooth arms are attached to the upper portion of each at least four body panel. The four extension loops comprise the plurality of gear teeth on the four gear teeth arms. The gear teeth arms engage at about 90° angle to each other and are vertically staggered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Inventor: Xiaoman Wang
  • Patent number: 8118200
    Abstract: A device for removing the wrinkles from the sleeve of a garment. A working surface defines a plurality of openings. Each of first and second sleeve holders are secured proximate an opening at a proximal end of each sleeve holder. First and second air bags are each configured to substantially surround a cooperating sleeve holder. Each sleeve holder and cooperating air bag is adapted to be received within a sleeve of the garment to extend the sleeve from the working surface. In one embodiment, a steam transfer device is configured to selectively transfer steam into each air bag and outwardly through each air bag to an interior surface of the sleeve. In another embodiment, a heated air transfer device is configured to selectively transfer heated air into each air bag and outwardly through each air bag to an interior surface of the sleeve.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Forenta
    Inventors: Ernest J. Hickle, Joe Brogan, Kevin W. Cliff
  • Patent number: 8112917
    Abstract: An ironing aid for assisting in ironing of clothing including at least pants and shirts by extending inside of a sleeve or pant leg.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Inventor: Michael N. Tameo
  • Patent number: 7901756
    Abstract: The invention provides a functional stretch laminate composite puckered fabric which is robust, laundry-durable and adaptable for securing about any three dimensional body, and a method for forming such puckered fabric. The functional stretch laminate fabric is provided with at least one functional element which can conduct electricity, conduct light, provide electromagnetic fields or provide shielding from electromagnetic fields. Generally, the functional stretch laminate fabric is sufficiently robust for incorporation into garments and for applications in so-called wearable electronics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: Textronics, Inc.
    Inventors: Stacey B. Burr, Claudia Schultze, Roger Armitage
  • Patent number: 7464840
    Abstract: A garment-pressing device for shirts or blouses employs a buck having shoulder extenders which are movable between a retracted position and one or more extended positions. The shoulder extenders have a soft element that may be made from one or more air bags or chambers, or of a plurality of layers of flexible material, and can be driven pneumatically, mechanically and/or electrically in a stepped or continuous manner. The shoulder extenders are mover simultaneously with buck side air bags. Platen side extenders that operate in conjunction with the shoulder extenders to press shirt shoulders are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2008
    Inventor: Kwang Hun Park
  • Patent number: 6868996
    Abstract: This invention relates to an apparatus for extending the side portions of the shirts put on the dummy toward a side. An object of the present invention enables the side portions of the shirts to be protruded toward the side strictly in compliance with the curved lines by a simple configuration without increasing its cost and further enables the body part of the shirts to be tensioned. The present invention is comprised of side pressing members arranged longitudinally at both sides of the dummy, and driving devices for protruding the side pressing members toward the sides of the dummy. The side pressing members are formed into a bow-like shape with their concave surfaces being faced to the side portions of the dummy. In addition, flexible wire members abutted against the inner surfaces of the side portions of the shirts are applied in tension in a chord-like manner at an upper end and a lower end of each of the side pressing members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2005
    Assignee: San Kousha Co., Ltd
    Inventor: Mitsuyuki Uchikoshi
  • Patent number: 6186377
    Abstract: Shirt pressing apparatus capable of pressing long or short sleeve shirts. The apparatus includes a buck for receiving a shirt to be pressed and a sleeve expander assembly mounted on each side of the buck, the sleeve expander assembly being adjustable for use with either long or short sleeve shirts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 13, 2001
    Assignee: Hoffman/New Yorker, Inc.
    Inventors: John T. McCormick, Michael J. King, Robert A. Hadsall
  • Patent number: 6095384
    Abstract: A garment tool for expanding a garment sleeve or pant-leg for the injection of steam therein, to thereby optimally prepare the garment for the pressing operation associated with the dry-cleaning of garments. The garment tool opens the sleeve or pant-leg of a garment, without excessively stretching the garment sleeve or pant-leg, and traps steam injected therein to prepare the garment for the pressing operation associated with dry-cleaning, without disfiguring the garment in any way.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2000
    Inventors: Sang-Jo Kim, Chun S. Shin
  • Patent number: 5729909
    Abstract: A clothes drying apparatus has the general shape of a drying sleeve with sufficient length and width to hold an article of clothing for drying. The article of clothing is placed in the drying sleeve and synch lines on each end of the drying sleeve are closed thereby retaining the article of clothing inside of the drying sleeve. The drying sleeve can then be hung out to dry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 1997
    Date of Patent: March 24, 1998
    Assignee: Chesnutt Engineering
    Inventor: Jackie L. Chesnutt Robison
  • Patent number: 5497908
    Abstract: A crease keeper for maintaining trouser creases and mitigate wrinkling including a pair of spring loaded trouser leg expanders hung from a support system having a hook for hanging the entire assembly with trousers attached in a closet or other location. One embodiment employs a wirelike frame having coil spring cartridges affixed thereto providing crease maintenance forces tending to stretching trouser legs. An alternate embodiment employs a wirelike frame having a first and second portion thereof formed into springs providing crease maintenance forces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 12, 1996
    Inventors: Robert B. Cheek,III, Albert E. Cheek
  • Patent number: 5415330
    Abstract: A feeder for guiding stockings in a looping machine includes a mechanism for rapid adjustment of the opening width between two mutually facing guide bars provided with two horizontal mutually parallel rods loaded by respective springs pressing the rods against an actuating element mounted rotatably about a horizontal axis running perpendicular to the rods and provided with an angularly displaceable grip for displacing the rods and one of the guide bars connected fixedly therewith toward and away from the other guide bar.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1993
    Date of Patent: May 16, 1995
    Assignee: Rosso Industrie S.p.A.
    Inventor: Pietro Rosso
  • Patent number: 5361516
    Abstract: Device and method for drying pants wrinkle-free by closing the waist and leg openings of the pants and by blowing pressurized air into the pants through an opening in an impermeable member which supports the waist of the pants. Pressurized air inside the pants simultaneously stretches the pants free of wrinkles and causes air to flow through the permeable pants to carry away moisture. A portable hair dryer preferably generates a static pressure of from 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) of water to 0.3 inches (7.6 mm) of water in order to stretch wrinkles from the pants without overly stretching any part of them. The impermeable member supporting the pants is preferably an adjustable disk assembly capable of fitting a large size range of pants, which is hung from a clothes line by a cord with a hook.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 1993
    Date of Patent: November 8, 1994
    Inventor: John A. Dahman
  • Patent number: 4991756
    Abstract: A device is taught for drying wet gloves or mittens or for drying portions of other wet clothing having inside openings therein which are substantially circular in cross-section and which are of a depth of at least about three inches. The device is a hollow cylindrical dryer or is slightly tapered from cylindrical to slightly conically shaped. The main portion of the dryer between its ends preferably consists of a grid of many square or diamond shaped ventilation holes to facilitate evaporation of moisture. The dryer can be made of flexible plastic material and molded into its final shape (and also into such a shape that a number of said dryers can be "nested" inside each other); or the dryer can be molded in an essentially planar condition and then forced by the user into its shape described above, by slight exertion of hand pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 1989
    Date of Patent: February 12, 1991
    Inventor: John R. Benjamin
  • Patent number: 4602389
    Abstract: This invention is directed at a hem retainer comprising a strip of flexible material which has a series of first and second engagement portions. At least one of the first engagement portions is engageable with at least one of the second engagement portions to hold the strip of flexible material in a circular configuration.This invention is also directed at a method of forming a cuff on a pant leg or the like, the pant leg having an inside surface, an outside surface and an opening. The operator first measures the desired length of the pant leg, turns the pant leg inside out and then turns the excess length of the leg back on the inside surface of the pant leg. The hem retainer of the instant invention is formed into a circular configuration which is then inserted within the pant leg, adjacent the opening stretching the pant leg around the hem retainer by adjusting the circumference of the hem retainer. The operator can then sew the excess pant length to the inside surface of the pants leg forming a cuff.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 1984
    Date of Patent: July 29, 1986
    Inventor: Barbara Brown
  • Patent number: 4483467
    Abstract: An apparatus for use in forming fabric into a predetermined three-dimensional shape. The apparatus includes a contoured mold having at least two parts which are movable between a retracted position and an expanded position. A fabric holding mechanism is provided for holding a fabric shell placed over the mold in fixed position on the mold when the mold parts are in expanded condition. A driving assembly is mounted on one of the mold parts and operatively associated with the other mold part for effecting relative expansion thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 1982
    Date of Patent: November 20, 1984
    Assignee: Apparel Form Company
    Inventors: John E. Hostetler, William H. Hulsebusch, I. Weir Sears, Jr.
  • Patent number: 4366907
    Abstract: A pair of leg frame members are connected in side by side spaced relationship and are adapted to be inserted in the legs of a pair of trousers to display the trousers in a selected position. Each of the leg frame members includes inner and outer seam supports formed by a plurality of elongated elements that are positioned in end to end relationship. The adjacent ends of the elongated elements are pivotally connected so that the inner and outer seam supports are formed by a plurality of spaced parallel pairs of elongated elements. Thus the pairs of elongated elements for each pair of leg frame members are independently pivotal to a preselected angular position. The pair of leg frame members can then be pivoted at a plurality of pivot points along the length thereof so as to display the legs of the trousers in a plurality of imaginative arrangements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1981
    Date of Patent: January 4, 1983
    Inventor: Malcolm D. Toy
  • Patent number: 4349137
    Abstract: A machine for pressing a garment sleeve and its associated arm hole region provided with a sleeve form for insertion into the sleeve of a garment to be pressed and a nipping member for pressing the associated arm hole region of the sleeve upon relative movement of the sleeve form and the nipping member into pressing relationship, in which the form and/or nipping member comprises a pair of sections movable generally laterally toward and away from one another to vary their respective overall sizes, that movement preferably being accomplished by wedge means inserted between the respective pair of sections.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 14, 1982
    Assignees: Richard Sussman, Wynne Everett
    Inventor: Nicholas W. Everett
  • Patent number: 4342409
    Abstract: In a device for pressing pants whereby the pants are oriented vertically, it is desired that the human operation of the device be confined to one side, and that the pants can be inserted in the device in simple fashion, from only the front side of the device. This is achieved in an arrangement wherein, with reference to FIG.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 1980
    Date of Patent: August 3, 1982
    Inventor: Gunther Brollos
  • Patent number: 4268982
    Abstract: A seam press for tubular clothing articles, comprising a free pressing beam operable to receive an article with a seam portion thereof extending along the top side of the beam, and an elongated expander member located underneath the beam and designed and suspended so as to be generally vertically movable between an upper inactive position in which it allows for easy introduction of the article onto the beam and easy withdrawal therefrom, and a lowered operative position in which it is substantially freely flexible so as to be able to rest on the inner bottom side of the tubular clothing article and thereby stretch the article substantially uniformly throughout its length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 1978
    Date of Patent: May 26, 1981
    Inventor: Holger Andersen