US 12,116,722 B2
Clothes folding machine
Aekyung Chae, Seoul (KR); Keunjoo Kim, Seoul (KR); Chanwoo Moon, Seoul (KR); and Choongho Lim, Seoul (KR)
Assigned to LG Electronics Inc., Seoul (KR)
Appl. No. 17/624,699
Filed by LG Electronics Inc., Seoul (KR)
PCT Filed Mar. 23, 2020, PCT No. PCT/KR2020/003962
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 4, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/002566, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 7, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 10-2019-0080906 (KR), filed on Jul. 4, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0251776 A1, Aug. 11, 2022
Int. Cl. D06F 89/02 (2006.01)
CPC D06F 89/023 (2013.01) 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A clothes folding machine comprising:
a case;
a loading unit disposed at an upper portion of the case, having a plurality of grippers, and conveying a clothes item gripped by the grippers into the case;
a folding unit including a longitudinal-line folder folding both sleeves of the clothes item along longitudinal line to overlap and a transverse-line folder configured to fold the clothes item along a transverse line to overlap; and
an unloading unit disposed at a lower portion of the case and conveying the clothes item folded by the folding unit outside the case,
wherein the longitudinal-line folder is disposed at a same single stage together with the loading unit,
wherein the longitudinal-line folder includes:
a main board supporting a body part of the clothes item conveyed by the loading unit such that the body part can slide, and
a plurality of sub-boards installed to be able to transversely move with respect to the main board and folding the sleeves along the longitudinal lines, respectively, by transversely pushing the sleeves simultaneously with conveying by the loading unit,
wherein the sub-boards are mounted on a plurality of fixed plates, respectively, to be able to transversely move,
wherein the fixed plates are spaced apart from each other with different height differences under the main board,
wherein the sub-boards are smaller in size than the fixed plates, and
wherein front ends of the fixed plates protrude toward a front of the case further than front ends of the sub-boards.