WO1996006551B1

WO1996006551B1 - Hanging garment dryer

Info

Publication number: WO1996006551B1
Application number: PCT/US1995/010628
Authority: WO
Filing date: 1995-08-25
Publication date: 1996-09-06

Abstract

A hanger for drying clothes thereupon constructed from plastic or other rust resistant material. The hanger is constructed to be hung from a stationary object or member which will commonly be a door or wall. The hanger includes an extension arm which is connectable at one end nearest the door or wall to a suspender. Oppositely and on a distal end, a collapsible hanger is installed. The hanger has a connector (47) that is installable upon the extension arm and the hanger also has hanger arms (48) which are jointed and extendable within a piece of clothing. In use, the hanger will be emplaced within a wet garment to be dried and additional jointed members will be installed at distal ends of the hanger arms so as to fully support and expand the hanging wet article for drying. In this manner, wrinkle-free and expedited drying of durable, as well as fragile wearing apparel may be accomplished while the original shape of the garment is maintained.

Claims

20AMENDED CLAIMS[received by the International Bureau on 25 June 1996 (25.06.%); original claims 1-20 replaced by amended claims 1-20 (5 pages)]I Claim:

1. A garment hanger suspended from a stationary member for vertically dependingly suspending a fully extended garment for wrinJle-free drying, said garment hanger comprising in combination:

(a) an extension arm extending from the stationary member;

(b) a hanger connector supported by said extension arm and including means for preventing rotation of said hanger connector in a vertical plane relative to said extension arm; and (c) a pair of hanger arms detachably attachable to said hanger connector to extend in opposed directions for penetrable insertion into the respective shoulder and sleeve portions of the garment to be suspended.

2. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 1 wherein each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms includes an upper cross-section defining a vertically upwardly oriented apex extending along the length of each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms for forming a crease in the adjacent material of the garment drying upon said garment hanger.

3. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 1 including suspension means for detachably attaching said extension arm to the stationary member.

4. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 3 wherein said suspension means includes means for dependingly supporting each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms to the stationary member after detachment from said hanger connector.

5. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 4 wherein said suspension means includes means for attaching said hanger connector to the stationary member.

6. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 1 including a jointed member for attachment to each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms to extend the garment supporting length of said pair of hanger arms.

7. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 1 wherein the garment includes a collar and including a collar tab extending vertically upwardly and positionable upon each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms to bear against and to position the collar of the garment relative to said hanger connector.

8. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 1 including locking means for securing each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms with said hanger connector.

9. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 8 wherein said locking means comprises a pair of hollow receivers formed in said hanger connector and a stub disposed at one end of each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms for penetrable engagement with the respective one of said pair of hollow receivers. 22

10. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 8 wherein said locking means comprises opposed pairs of slots formed in opposed sides of each one of said pair of hollow receivers and a pin extending in opposed directions at one end of each hanger arm of said pair of hanger arms for engaging the respective one of said pairs of slots.

11. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 10 including a channel disposed in said hanger connector intermediate the slots of each pair of said pairs of slots for supporting the respective one of said one end of said pair of hanger arms.

12. A garment hanger suspended from a stationary member for vertically dependingly suspending a garment for wrinkle-free drying, said garment hanger comprising in combination:

(a) an extension arm extending from the stationary member;

(b) a hanger connector supported by said extension arm and including means for preventing rotation of said hanger connector in a vertical plane relative to said extension arm; and

(c) at least one hanger arm detachably attachable to said hanger connector to extend laterally for penetrable insertion into the garment to be dried to support the garment while the garment is drying.

13. The garment hanger as set forth in Claim 12 wherein said at least one hanger arm includes an upper cross-section defining a vertically upwardly oriented apex extending along the length of said at least one hanger arm for forming a crease in the 23

adjacent material of the garment drying upon said garment hanger.

14. A method for vertically dependingly suspending a fully extended garment from a garment hanger secured to a stationary member to dry the garment wrinkle-free, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) extending an extension arm from the stationary member; (b) preventing rotation of a hanger connector supported by the extension arm in a vertical plane relative to the extension arm; and

(c) penetrably inserting into the respective shoulder and sleeve portions of the garment to be suspended a pair of hanger arms detachably attachable to the hanger connector and extending in opposed directions.

15. The method as set forth in Claim 14 wherein each hanger arm includes an upper cross- section defining a vertically upwardly oriented apex extending along the length of each hanger arm and including the step of forming a crease in the material of the garment drying upon the garment hanger adjacent the apex.

16. The method as set forth in Claim 14 wherein the garment includes a collar and including a collar tab extending vertically upwardly and positionable upon each hanger arm and including the step of positioning the collar tabs adjacent and relative to the collar of the garment.

17. The method as set forth in Claim 14 including the step of serially stretching downwardly -

2 A

each side of the garment to remove any wrinkles or folds in the garment prior to drying of the garment, said step of preventing resisting rotation of the garment in the vertical plane during exercise of said step of stretching.

18. A method for vertically dependingly suspending a wet garment to dry wrinkle-free from a garment hanger suspended from a stationary member, said method comprising the steps of: (a) extending an extension arm from the stationary member;

(b) preventing rotation of a hanger connector supported by the extension arm in a vertical plane relative to the extension arm; and (c) penetrably inserting at least one hanger arm detachably attachable to the hanger connector into the garment to be suspended.

19. The method as set forth in Claim 18 wherein each hanger arm includes an upper cross- section defining a vertically upwardly oriented apex extending along the length of each hanger arm including the step of forming a crease in the material of the garment adjacent the apex and drying upon the garment hanger.

20. The method as set forth in Claim 18 including the step of stretching downwardly the garment supported by the at least one hanger arm to remove any wrinkles or folds in the garment prior to drying of the garment, said step of preventing resisting rotation of the garment in the vertical plane during exercise of said step of stretching.