PORTABLE, COLLAPSIBLE CLOTHES DRYER

摘要

A portable, collapsible clothes dryer, for use in drying small articles of clothing while traveling and/or for use in households with limited space, is composed of a cylindrical collapsible central housing with an inlet opening at the bottom, an airflow adapter at the inlet to attach a portable hair dryer, a spin-able clothes hanger, and a removable top member with air exhaust vents. When collapsed, the assembly assumes a compact, flat disk shape. When expanded, the portable hair dryer can blow hot air into the housing, forming a vortex stream within the cylindrical enclosure that exits through the exhaust vents in the top. The top member can be removed to attach articles of clothing to the spin-able clothes hanger. The unit is designed such that the vortex air stream that flows upward within the cylindrical enclosure and out the upper exhaust vents spins the clothes hanger with the articles of clothing, thereby ensuring complete coverage of the hot air over the clothing surfaces and speeding the drying time.

主权项

1. A portable and collapsible clothes dryer adapted to operate in combination with a conventional hair dryer having a heating element, an air blower for passing air across said heating element and a hot air outlet nozzle, said clothes dryer comprising, in combination:
(a) a collapsible dryer housing having an inlet opening for the ingress of air from the hot air outlet nozzle of the hair dryer and at least one outlet opening for the egress of air, said dryer housing comprising a top member and at least one side member forming an upstanding enclosure with a top, a bottom and a central vertical axis when in an operable configuration, said housing enclosure being collapsible from top to bottom to reduce its size when in a storage configuration, at least one of said housing members being openable for insertion and removal of items of clothing into and from the enclosure; and (b) a clothes holder, configured to be removably mounted within the housing adjacent the top thereof when the housing is in the operable configuration, and having at least one clip for attaching a clothing item thereto, said holder being thereby adapted to hang at least one clothing item inside the housing; wherein said inlet opening of said housing is disposed adjacent one end and the at least one outlet opening is disposed adjacent an opposite end thereof when the housing is in the operable configuration, and wherein said inlet opening is oriented to direct hot air from the hair dryer substantially horizontally and to one side of the central vertical axis to thereby create a vortex flow of air around said axis within the housing enclosure.