Household iron with lift mechanism

Abstract

A household iron assembly has a mechanism for lifting and supporting an iron above a supporting surface when the iron is not in use. The lift mechanism includes a stand having support arms which are pivoted away from the iron by a lift spring. A hold-down spring is placed under tension by manually moving the iron downwardly until the soleplate of the iron engages the supporting surface. The hold-down spring also draws the support arms upwardly above the bottom surface of the soleplate so as not to interfere with the movement of the iron along a piece of fabric being ironed.

1 . A household iron assembly comprising an iron and a lift mechanism, said lift mechanism comprising:
 a mounting assembly fixed in relation to said soleplate;   a support stand assembly comprising a stand having an generally horizontal iron support member and an upright arm assembly fixedly mounted on said support member, said stand assembly being pivotally mounted on said mounting assembly for movement relative to said soleplate about a first axis which is parallel to the plane of the bottom surface of said soleplate and transverse to the longitudinal axis of said soleplate;   a lift spring acting between said stand assembly and said mounting assembly to bias said soleplate to move upwardly away from said stand about said axis;
 a contact member supported at the upper end of said upright arm assembly; and 
   a stand control assembly comprising:   a compression spring which, when compressed, biases said iron downwardly about said axis;   a spring-compressing lever supported by said mounting assembly for pivotal movement about a second axis parallel to said first axis, said spring-compressing lever having an upper surface engaged with the bottom of said compression spring and having a lower surface engaged by said contact member;   a spring stop member movably connected to said spring-compressing lever and having a top plate supported by the upper end of said compression spring so that said compression spring is confined between the top surface of said lever and the bottom surface of said top plate;   a hold-down member on top of said top plate normally resisting upward movement of said compression spring so that upward movement of the spring-compressing lever causes said compression spring to be placed under tension; and   an actuating assembly comprising:
 comprising an actuating lever pivotally mounted on said mounting assembly and connected to said hold-down member; 
 an actuating spring biasing said actuating lever toward said hold-down member; 
 a manual actuating member accessible by a user of the iron; 
 an actuating connector connecting said actuating member to said actuating lever and operable to overcome said actuating spring and move said hold-down member off of said top plate.