MANOEUVRING DEVICE FOR A SPRAY NOZZLE
The invention relates to an operating device for manual manoeuvring of a controllable spray nozzle from an open operation platform which is surrounded by boundary side elements, particularly for deicing aircrafts, by using a swinging arm adapted to swing on a mainly horizontal plane across the upper limitation of the elements and which at its one end is adapted to pivotal suspension at one of the boundary side elements.
As an example of such an operation platform it is referred to an operation basket positioned at the free end of a lever device for raising and lowering the basket. Such facilities are for instance used when deicing aircrafts immediately before taking off. In these cases, the lever device is usually mounted on a travelling frame which also carries a deicing system with the containers, pumps and valves belonging to it, as one or more medium conductions are leading from this system to the basket where they are connected with a spray nozzle. In order to deice the air¬ craft, the travelling frame is guided to said aircraft, the basket is raised to the right working height and then, the spraying of the aircraft is carried out from the basket by manually operating the nozzle. The spraying should preferably be performed within quite a few minutes, partly to keep the involved waste of time within narrow limits, but especially also to reduce the loss of temperature of the sprayed liquid. US Patent Specifiction No. 3.439.372 discloses a device for washing airplanes. The washing is controlled from an open operation basket. On the front of the basket which is pivotally suspended about a vertical axis within a gi bal ring, there is mounted a scrubbing brush by means of a boom which is pivotal about a horizontal axis. This boom contains another rotation link. The entire rotation disposition is remote-controlled from the operation basket. There is no question of any manual manoeuvring of a nozzle- carrying swinging arm.
US Patent Specification No. 3.460.177 discloses an
The invention relates to an operating device for manual manoeuvring of a controllable spray nozzle from an open operation platform which is surrounded By boundary side elements, particularly for deicing aircrafts, by using a swinging arm adapted to swing on a mainly horizontal plane across the upper limitation of the elements and which at its one end is adapted to pivotal suspension at one of the boundary side elements.
As an example of such an operation platform it is referred to an operation basket positioned at the free end of a lever device for raising and lowering the basket. Such facilities are for instance used when deicing aircrafts immediately before taking off. In these cases, the lever device is usually mounted on a travelling frame which also carries a deicing system with the containers, pumps and valves belonging to it, as one or more medium conductions are leading from this system to the basket where they are connected with a spray nozzle. In order to deice the air¬ craft, the travelling frame is guided to said aircraft, the basket is raised to the right working height and then, the spraying of the aircraft is carried out from the basket by manually operating the nozzle. The spraying should preferably be performed within quite a few minutes, partly to keep the involved waste of time within narrow limits, but especially also to reduce the loss of temperature of the sprayed liquid.
US Patent Specifiction No. 3.439.372 discloses a device for washing airplanes. The washing is controlled from an open operation basket. On the front of the basket which is pivotally suspended about a vertical axis within a gimbal ring, there is mounted a scrubbing brush by means of a boom which is pivotal about a horizontal axis. This boom contains another rotation link. The entire rotation disposition is remote-controlled from the operation basket. There is no question of any manual manoeuvring of a nozzle- carrying swinging arm.
US Patent Specification No. 3.460.177 discloses an
aircraft washing system comprising a closed cabin from which the washing operation is remote-controlled. The cleaning brush is placed on a movable bar assembly. There is no question of any manual manoeuvring of a nozzle-carrying swinging arm.
US Patent Specification No. 4.334.649 discloses the suspension of a spraying nozzle for noncircular spraying of a coating layer on a workpiece. There is the question of an arm system the different links of which are movable in re¬ lation to each other, but not the question of any special form of the arms in relation to a working place for manual manoeuvring of the arm system.
US Patent Specification No. 2.836.013 discloses an operation basket with a sand blasting nozzle mounted on it as the operation basket should be able to carry the weight of the nozzle and to intercept the forces affecting the nozzle during the work. The nozzle is mounted in the middle of the one side wall of the basket and placed on an arm which on the horizontal plane can swing about a vertical axis. On the vertical plane, the nozzle can be swung about a horizontal axis. These two axes meet each other in a common oscillation bed for the arm. There is no bed for the swinging of the nozzle in relation to the arm.
US Patent Specification No. 3.010.533 discloses an operation cabin from the front side of which are projecting two nozzles. Each nozzle is suspended by a swivel and pro¬ vided with an operating hand grip. A medium supply conduit is running along the sides of the cabin and it is not sup¬ posed to swing on the horizontal plane in relation to the cabin, viz. in relation to the working place of the operator. The apparatus is intended for fire fighting.
US Patent Specification No. 3.064.754 also discloses a fire engine comprising an operation basket. In front of said basket is mounted a nozzle. The basket is mounted on a bar assembly which can be heated to prevent the formation of ice. There is no special swinging arm to move the nozzle
in relation to the basket.
The object of the invention is to provide an operating device making it possible to accomplish the spraying task in a safe, rapid and comfortable way.
According to the invention, this object is attained by the fact that the swinging arm is concave angular-shaped on the horizontal plane and that at the same time, the length of the swinging arm is greater than any cross dimension of the operation platform which is enclosed by boundary side elements and furthermore, that the angular-shaped swinging arm at its other end is provided with a pivotal bed for the spraying nozzle which is connected with an operating hand grip projecting in the direction along the swinging arm.
Hereby is provided an operating device supposed to make it possible by manually operating a swinging arm carry¬ ing the nozzle from an open operation basket to reach a large working field for the swinging arm on the horizontal plane without the operator because of his position in the basket being in the way for it. The swinging arm is also able to swing a great way around at that side of the ope¬ ration platform where the operator has to stand between partly a boundary side element and partly the swinging arm, as the concave angular-shape makes it possible to swing the uttermost nozzle-carrying end of the swinging arm a further step sideways past the operator.
The invention will be explained in the following detailed description, reference being made to the accompa¬ nying drawing on which
Fig. 1 schematically shows a vehicle with a link rod device and an operation platform in the form of a basket mounted thereupon and enclosed by boundary side elements,
Fig. 2 on an enlarged scale an oblique view of an embodiment of the basket with an embodiment of the operating device according to the invention, and
Fig. 3 schematically shows different working positions of the operator in the basket, seen from above.
Fig. 1 shows a vehicle in the form of a lorry carrying an engine housing 2 in which is placed a deicing system with containers, pumps and valves belonging to..it. On the roof of the housing is placed a parallel arm mechanism 3 bearing a link rod 4 which can be swung up and down by means of a hydraulic piston 5. By means of a rotating stool 6, the link rod 4 at its upper end is connected with another link rod 7 which can be swung up and down by means of a hydraulic piston 8 and can also be swung on a horizontal plane by means of the rotating stool 6. At its outer end, this link rod bears an operation platform in the form of a basket 9.
As shown in Fig. 2, the bottom platform of the basket is enclosed by the side wall elements 10, 11 and 12 on three sides. Midtways between the ends of the wall element 12, a supply conduit 13 for a deicing medium coming from the engine housing 2 is ending at the bottom of the basket. By means of a swivel 14, the conduit 13 is connected with the inlet end of a tubular swinging arm 15, which in its entirety is designated with 15. The arm comprises an upward part 16 which by means of two bearing beds 17 is pivotally suspended along the middel of the wall element 12. The horizontal part 18 of the swinging arm 15 is concave angular-shaped and at its free end it bears a swivel 19 on which the actual spraying nozzle 20 is mounted. Fig. 3 shows two opposite directed angular-shapes, the one at the suspension end of the swinging arm, the other at the free end of the arm. The nozzle 20 is connected with an operating hand grip 21 pro¬ jecting along the direction of the part 18 of the swinging arm.
During the spraying work, the recoil pressure from the sprayed medium is conveyed from the nozzle via the swinging arm 15 to the anchoring of the arm with the basket 9. As indicated in Fig. 3, the operator can concentrate on the manual control of the desired distribution of the sprayed liquid. As it appears from the same Fig. , the concave
angular-shape of the part 18 of the swinging arm 15 permits that the operator freely can control the direction of the spraying across an arc of an angle of at least 180° without being inter erred with the swinging arm. In all the three typical working positions which in Fig. 3 are designated with A, B and C, the recoil pressure from the spraying nozzle is , as a result of the angular-shape of the swinging arm, lead past the operator to the bearing beds 17. In the outer positions A and C, the operator is able to stand very close to the basket wall without being interferred with the swin¬ ging arm 15, as said arm with its angular-shaped part 18 in position A is extending outside the basket wall, while it in position C for the same reasons is remaining at a distance from the basket wall 12 in such a way that the operator may stand between the basket wall 12 and the part 18 of the swinging arm and at the same time, the nozzle 20 practically can extend in the extension of the basket wall 12. Thus, the operator is able to keep full control over the nozzle 20 in all possible positions occuring during the practical work, and at the same time it is possible to change the spraying direction in an easy and rapid way. By combining the mobility of the angular swinging arm with the mobility of the nozzle suspension, it is practically possible to reach a working field of 360°, thus it is for instance possible to work on the tail as well as a wing of an aircraft from a single position of the vehicle. Minor changes of the spraying direction can be carried out by means of the swivel 19 alone, while greater changes easily can be carried out by swinging the swinging arm 15 into other starting positions as indi¬ cated in Fig. 3.
The invention has been explained above in connection with a system for deicing aircrafts. However, the invention is not limited to that field of application but can also be used to other spraying tasks, especially to such tasks where large surfaces have to be sprayed rapidly.