DE2323606A1 - DEVICE FOR APPLYING PROTECTIVE COATING TO SURFACES UNDER WATER - Google Patents

Description

Patent attorneys

Dip! .-! Ng. Richard Müüer-Börner

Dipl.-ing. Hans-Hemricfi Wey BerKn-Dehlem, Podbielskiallee 68

Berlin, May 8, 1973 25 315

BATTELIJS MEMORIAL INSTITUTE, Carouge / Geneve (Switzerland)

"Device for applying a protective coating to surfaces lying under water"

The invention relates to a device for applying a protective coating to underwater lying areas, especially of ships.

The maintenance of ship hulls brings with it considerable problems, which up to now could only be partially solved. At present, the maintenance of ship hulls is carried out in such a way that the ship's hull is kept during the lay times of the The ship is regularly scraped off with brushes in the harbors in order to remove the layer of dirt that has left on the ship The hull of the ship is actually growing after the ship has been at sea for several months. By scraping off the layer of dirt the hydrodynamic resistance of the ship's hull is then reduced and brought back to the target value. Since this

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Scraping has to be done negligently, as a result Gradually the layers of paint on the ship's hull are destroyed and then the sheet metal cladding of the Ship exposed to corrosion. Hence, the most essential parts of the ship become beneficial in time at the time completely or partially repainted.

In order to completely overhaul a ship, it must be brought into dry dock. The cost of such an overhaul and the loss of profits resulting from the decommissioning of the ship amounts to considerable sums, so that one general overhaul of the ship generally only takes place every 15 to 18 months. Such a rare overhaul of the ship, however, affects its performance, because after ten to twelve months of uninterrupted service a ship whose hull is poorly maintained loses 6-8 $ of its nominal speed with the same propulsive power.

Recently, paints have been developed for painting ships that dry and cure underwater. These colors can be divided into two groups, namely a first group of colors with only one component and a solvent that dissolves in water, and a second group of colors that result from several by reaction Compose hardening components based on synthetic resin.

Such a color is known, for example, under the registered trademark "Uwatex". This color hardens chemical reaction and not by evaporation of a solvent.

However, there is still no satisfactory means for applying such a color on a submerged surface. With the conventional means of this type, three kinds of difficulties have been encountered, namely the transport of the paint

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to the submerged surface to be painted, the adhesion the color on this surface and the smoothing of the applied color layer.

In order for the paint to adhere to the underwater surface, two conditions must be met, namely firstly, the surface must be clean and not too rough and secondly, the boundary layer between the liquid and the surface to be painted be interrupted.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a device to apply a protective coating to underwater surfaces with which the aforementioned Difficulties are at least partially overcome.

The device according to the invention is characterized by at least a rotatable brush, means for rotating the brush, a space connected to the brush, at least one flexible one Line that connects this room with the working area of the bristles of the brush and through means for feeding the room with the paint under pressure.

Three exemplary embodiments of the device according to the invention are described in more detail below with reference to the drawings.

Show it:

Fig. 1 is a view, partly in section, of the first embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1 of the second embodiment; FIG.

Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram, and

4 and 5 sectional views of the third embodiment in the working and rest position.

Fig. 1 shows a paint container R, the output of which is connected via a line C ₁ to a pump P, which via a

Line C 'and one in the cover B of a housing B 1 c

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The attached passage C communicates with the space E inside the housing B. On the bottom The tuft of bristles P of the brush is attached to the housing B.

The cover B of the housing B is attached to a plate G, c

which are firmly connected to the drive shaft of a drive motor M. is. On its way to the room E, the line C 'runs through the housing and the drive shaft of the motor M, which is coaxial with it the passage C * which leads to the interior of the room E.

In the embodiment shown, the motor M and the housing B are arranged in the liquid L, for example can consist of salt or fresh water. The end of the tuft of bristles P is in contact with the surface S to be painted. The paint container R and the pump P can, for example, outside the liquid L, preferably on a ship, not shown, be arranged.

In the schematic representation according to FIG. 3, the hardness is. I. the bristles of the brush F on the ordinate and the diameter D of the brush on the abscissa. From the curve £ is

It can be seen that the bristles in the area Z of the brush F are harder than in the annular peripheral area Z - Z ^{T surrounding this central area Z.}

As can be seen from Fig. 1, are in the interior of the tuft of bristles F of the brush in the central area Z flexible pipes t, t, ... t arranged, which the space E with the Connect directly with the liquid L in contact with the surface S to be painted.

Due to the formation of the two areas of the tuft of bristles F, these two complementary functions, and that the area Z with the harder bristles, to which the paint is supplied, the task of the boundary layer between to break through the water and the surface to be painted

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to ensure good adhesion of the paint, while the circular area Z - Z 'with the softer bristles Its job is to smooth the color.

The mode of operation of the device is as follows: The paint container R is made up of one or more components existing paint, particularly suitable for underwater application, for example one of those described above Colors, filled. When using multi-component paint, there is a container R for each paint component provided and attached to the outlet of the container a mixing and metering device, not shown. The ones from the Housing B with the tuft of bristles F attached to one side and the same on the other side attached drive motor M existing unit is then to the surface to be painted in the shown in Fig- I Position brought. Then the pump P and the motor M are turned on at the same time and while the housing B is rotating is set, the color flows into the space E in the housing B. As soon as the space E is filled with color, the Paint under the action of the pressure generated by the pump P through the flexible pipes t, t, ... t connected to the Space E communicating, which rotates together with the tuft of bristles F. Because the flexible pipes in the area Z of the tuft of bristles F open, in which the bristles are hardest, and since these bristles rotate, the boundary layer becomes of the water in that with the central area Z of the tuft of bristles F in contact with the circular area of the surface S to be painted is broken and that from the pipelines t, t, ... t emerging paint is distributed in this area of the surface to be painted without water droplets between the paint and the area to be painted, which would affect the adhesion of the paint.

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During the exit of the paint from the pipes t-. t,

... t the brush is then shifted sideways so that the η

Bristle tuft ρ comes into a different position, where he always remains in close contact with the surface S to be painted. This creates the softer bristles of the middle area Z surrounding circular circumferential area Z - Z 'smoothing passed over the layer of paint spread out by the harder bristles. This smoothing is especially important when it comes to this the area to be painted is the outer surface of a ship's hull.

In trials that have already been carried out with a single-component paint, it has tended to half an hour after the first layer of color has been applied, the second layer of color can be applied. Four hours after When the second coat of paint was applied, the paint was dry and partially cured.

The second embodiment shown in Fig. 2 differs differs from the embodiment according to FIG. 1 only in that that they add an additional solvent or, in the case of a paint composed of several components a reaction retarder that retards the hardening of the two mixed ingredients. This solvent or the Retarder is in the immediate vicinity of the surface to be painted in the circular circumferential area of the tuft of bristles F supplied.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, R denotes

P a first container for the paint, the output of which is connected to the input of a pump ρ via a line C_. The output of the pump P "is available via a line C ¹ and an in

the lid B 'of a cylindrical housing B attached c 1

Passage C * with the one located inside the housing B.

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Room E in connection. As in the first embodiment, the underside of the housing B is provided with a tuft of bristles ρ forming the actual brush, and the cover B ^{1 of} the

1 c

Housing.B is attached to a plate G, which is connected to the Drive shaft of a drive motor M is firmly connected.

With R, a second container is designated, the einf for receiving Solvent or reaction retarder is used. The output of the container R is via a line C to the input

^s 3

a pump P connected. The output of the pump ρ is connected via lines C ¹ , C * and C to an annular space E which is provided in the housing B and which surrounds the space E. As can be seen from FIG. 2, the line C * extends from the drive shaft of the motor M to the cover 3 ¹

1 c

of the housing B penetrating and opening into the annular space E passage C.

On their way ^ u to the space E or the annular space E, they run Lines C 'and C' through the housing and the drive shaft of the drive motor M, which is coaxial with that to the interior of the room E leading passage C * is arranged.

The structure of the tuft of bristles F corresponds to that of the tuft of bristles F. That shown in Fig. 3, the hardness P in the plane of the diameter D of the tuft of bristles

The scheme therefore also applies to the embodiment shown in FIG shape.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, there are two different groups of flexible pipes within the bristle tuft F, namely the flexible pipes t 1, t ¹ , ... t 'in the middle area of the bristle tuft and the flexible ones in the outer circular circumferential area of the bristle tuft F Pipelines t to t, provided, the inner pipelines t ', t ^f , ... t' the interior E of the housing B.

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with the liquid L in direct contact with the surface S to be painted, while the outer pipes t to t connect the annular space E of the housing B with the liquid L in the circumferential area of the surface S.

During the operation of this second embodiment of the Device therefore occurs the solvent from the flexible pipes t * to t. off, while the color is off the flexible pipes t 'to t' emerges.

1 η

The additional supply of the reading medium dissolves the color that it does when it comes into contact with the water tends to stick to the outer bristles of the bristle cluster and gradually make them harder and harder. However, it is important to avoid the hardening of the bristles in the outer peripheral part of the bristle tuft F in order to avoid the above Maintain the mentioned hardness curve E and thus a constant one To ensure the quality of the paintwork for the entire duration of its application.

For painting large areas such as ship hulls, several devices of the above-described Art attached to a common carrier and combined into a unit consisting of several rotating brushes will.

Although the device according to the invention is particularly suitable for painting ship hulls, it goes without saying that they can also be used to apply a protective coating to all other submerged surfaces, such as bridge piers, Lock gates, underwater pipes and the like. Can be used.

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According to a variant not shown, which is both for attachment to the embodiment according to FIG. 1 as in the embodiment according to Pig. 2 is suitable, the out softer bristles existing circular peripheral part of the tuft of bristles to be attached to a carrier, for example is rotatably mounted on the peripheral surface of the housing B by means of a ball bearing. With this variant, the The circular peripheral part of the tuft of bristles consisting of softer bristles is then advantageously in the opposite direction of rotation to the direction of rotation of the housing B are driven, so that between the softer and harder part of the tuft of bristles a relative movement is generated.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS the bristle tuft of the brush consists of a central area F with harder bristles, that of an annular Peripheral area F is surrounded by softer bristles, whose In the rest position of the brush, free ends extend beyond the free ends of the hard bristles, as shown in FIG. 5 can be seen. As a result of the greater length of the softer bristles, they can become too tight when the brush is applied As can be seen from FIG. 4, bend the painting surface S back to the plane of the ends of the free bristles. By the Bending back the softer bristles F is the smoothing of the surface S by the harder bristles F of the central area color layer applied after penetrating the liquid boundary layer. This embodiment can be used in conjunction can be used with the embodiment according to FIGS.

In all of the embodiments described above, the flexibility of the flexible pipes t, t, ... t, t '^, t ¹ , ... t ¹ and t ^M ... t "essentially corresponds to the flexibility of the

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Bristles of the area of the bristle tuft in which they are arranged so that the pipelines move when the Paint behave roughly in the same way as the bristles.

Furthermore, the free ends of the flexible tubing are somewhat behind the ends of the bristles, by a certain amount To enable bending of the bristles without the pipes coming into contact with the surface to be painted.

Patent claims:

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Claims (7)

- li - PATENT CLAIMS } Device for applying a protective coating to underwater surfaces, characterized by at least one rotatable brush (F, F ₁ , F-, F ₃ ) / means (M, M ₁ ) for rotating the brush, a space connected to the brush (E, E.), at least one flexible line (t ,, t "... t, t ¹ , ... t ¹ , LZ. η χ η t "... t") which this room with the work area of the Borx η Most of the brush connects and by means (R, C, C ', P, R, C_, C, P) for feeding the room with the paint negative pressure. 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that that the brush (F, F, F-, F) consists of at least two different areas (Z f Z, Z ') in which the bristles have different hardnesses, the area (Z ", Z") with the softer bristles surrounds the area (Z,) with the harder bristles and the flexible pipeline (t _n , t "... t, t '... t ¹ , L 2. η ι η t ", ... t") in the area (Z.) with the harder bristles - · - ik JL flows out. 3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that at least the harder bristles in the area (Z-) of the brush (F, F ₁ , F ", F-) are attached to a wall part of the room (B, B ₁ ). 4. Apparatus according to claim 2, characterized by a second space (E "), which is connected to the first space (E ₁ ) and serves to receive a solvent for the paint, by at least one flexible pipe (t * ... t *), which at one end thereof is in communication with the second space (E-) and which extends at its other end into the area of the softer bristles up to the vicinity of the free end of the bristles, and by means (R, C , C ', P.) for feeding this second space (E ₃ ) with the solvent under pressure. 309847/0488 5. The device according to claim 2, characterized in that for holding the area (Z_, Z ') with the softer bristles > et 2 an annular carrier is provided which is _{rotatably mounted on the carrier (B, B 1} ) for the harder bristles, and each of the carriers is provided with drive means which enable the two carriers to be driven in mutually opposite directions of rotation. ^6th Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the free ends of the bristles in the area (Z, Z ^f ) of the brush (F.,) with the softer bristles extend over the free ends of the bristles in the area (Z) of the brush ( F) extend out with the harder bristles. 7. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the flexible pipes (t, t ... t, t '... t ¹ , t * ... t ^r t "t" ... t ") about the the same flexibility as the bristles of the surrounding area (Z; Z, Z ') of the brush (F, F, F). 309847/0488 Blank page