Abstract: A chest ironer having a chest, a cylinder, displacement means for displacement of the chest and the cylinder relatively each other, and rotation means for rotation of the cylinder around an axis of rotation. The chest has a curved metal plate with a concave side which faces the cylinder and a convex side opposite the concave side. The chest ironer further includes at least one induction arrangement for heating of the metal chest. The induction arrangement includes at least one electrical conductor arranged electrically isolated from the chest at the convex side of the chest, the at least one electrical conductor being connectable to a high frequency power source.

Abstract: A laundry mangle has at least one mangling roller held in a working position inside a heatable trough by at least one carrying arm. The mangle roller and the trough are held in relative moveable positions by at least one adjusting member, delimiting together the inlet and outlet sides of a passage for laundry pieces. The adjusting member allows a force to be exerted on the mangling roller and/or trough that counteracts the frictional force generated during operation of the mangle, so that a constant or increasing ironing pressure towards the outlet side is set. The frictional force (R) generated during mangling is thus compensated, so that a gentle, wear-free mangling process is achieved. In addition, the mangling capacity is increased, compared with known mangles.

Abstract: A method for recognizing and providing an output corresponding to a character is disclosed. The character is received by an imager, digitized and transmitted to a buffer memory. Data in the buffer memory is read in a sequence which circumnavigates the test character. Only data representative of the periphery of the character are read. During the circumnavigation character parameters, such as, height, width, perimeter, area, calipers, programmable penetrators and waveform are determined. The character parameters are compared with reference character parameters and the ASCII code for the reference character which matches the character is provided as an output.