EP2651574B1 - Rotary device for the storage and distribution of liquid products, such as base colours for automotive paint - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a rotary device for storing and dispensing liquid products.

The invention finds a particularly advantageous application in the field of storage, selection and dosage of basic colors for paint, especially for paints prepared on demand by automotive repair professionals.

In this field, bodybuilders develop the quantities of paint needed to repair a body by mixing a number of basic colors. Each mixture is determined from a formula defined by the paint manufacturer, this formula giving the mass of each base color to be incorporated for a given quantity of mixture to be obtained. This preparation commonly involves mixing five to six base shades to obtain the particular shade prescribed by the paint manufacturer.

To carry out these operations, it is known from the WO 2009/153504 A1 (Fillon Technologies), which describes a device according to the preamble of claim 1, a rotating liquid product dispensing device comprising a plurality of containers storing different respective base colors. A container is constituted, for example, of a cell defining an enclosed interior volume adapted to seal a deformable bag containing one of the base colors. Each pocket is provided with a metering valve for expelling the corresponding base tint to a collection container of the device when the internal volume of the cell is pressurized.

The containers are fixed, in a circumferential configuration, on a carousel with horizontal axis of rotation. The carousel is indexed in rotation so that the metering valve of a selected container is brought into a sampling position, opposite the collecting container. Dosing means then control the expulsion of a predetermined dose of hue into the collection container.

The metering valves are arranged along the carousel along one or more parallel circumferential rows, the valves of each row describing a circular path when the carousel of the dispensing device is rotated.

A metering valve comprises an end-ended conduit, generally spherical in shape, pierced with a through-hole communicating with the inside of the deformable pouch so as to permit the expulsion of the basic shade contained to the collecting container. in the pocket.

The passage hole can be opened or closed at will by means of a shutter coupled to an electromagnetic coil placed around the valve duct and adapted to drive the shutter in a translation movement parallel to the duct under the action of the control means. aforementioned dosage. In practice, it is found that after sampling there may be traces of paint on the spherical tip of the valve at the passage hole and the shutter. By drying, these soils may clog the passage hole and thus cause dosing problems related to a valve whose passage hole is partially or completely plugged.

Added to this are splashing paint splashes at the time of the ejection of the paint dose in the collecting container, which can come to soil the valve. In particular, such projections are likely to cause problems in the operation of the machine by fouling of the valve duct at the coil, which can cause collages or even tearing valve.

To remedy these difficulties, the rotating devices for dispensing liquid products are generally provided with so-called "wet" cleaning means which consists in washing the ducts and the spherical valve ends by means of brushes or sponges having a humidification system with a solvent, which can be water, so as to dilute the remaining paint and facilitate cleaning.

However, this known cleaning system has a number of disadvantages. It must indeed think to fill the solvent tank, especially since it must be taken into account the tendency to evaporation. There are also risks of solvent dripping and therefore pollution of the various organs of the dispensing device. Finally, the cleaning of the valves is carried out only intermittently, without the possibility of being able to react quickly to the formation of soiling or leaking valves.

Also, one of the aims of the invention is to propose a rotary device for distributing liquid products which makes it possible, on the one hand, to avoid the disadvantages which have just been reported with regard to "wet" cleaning, and on the other hand, to be able to make disappear immediately the residues or projections of paint as they form on the valves.

This object is achieved, according to the invention, by means of a rotary device for dispensing liquid products according to claim 1 comprising metering valves arranged in at least one circumferential row so that the valves of a circumferential row describe a circular path during the rotation of the dispensing device, this device being remarkable in that it further comprises a valve cleaning system comprising at least one fixed dry brush during cleaning, arranged on at least one circular path so as to come into operation. frictional contact with the valves of at least one circumferential row of valves.

Thus, it is understood that the cleaning system of the invention implements one or more so-called "dry" brushes in the sense that the cleaning of the valves is achieved by the only friction on the bristles, excluding any solvent additional.

On the other hand, during cleaning the dry brush or brushes are fixed relative to the rotating elements such as the carousel valves driven by a rotational movement, these brush then being secured to a frame of the dispensing device. This configuration has the advantage of ensuring a permanent cleaning of the valves because the carousel of the device is always driven by a rotational movement in which the valves necessarily come into contact with the cleaning brush or brushes. Indeed, as described by the WO 2009/153504 A1 above, the rotation can be operational when indexing means rotate the carousel to bring the selected containers in the sampling position. Without indexation, the carousel is also rotated, continuously or at intervals, in order to produce a rotating gravity field capable of preventing the sedimentation of the particles present in suspension in the basic colors contained in the pockets of the containers.

The brushes may possibly be retracted outside the cleaning periods, when the device is not used, especially for reduce the wear of the spherical tips of the valves after they have been cleaned. The retraction can be triggered automatically after a given period of time (for example one hour) or a predetermined number of revolutions of the carousel after the last use of the device.

According to a first embodiment, the cleaning system comprises at least one brush disposed on a circular path of valves. In other words, each circumferential row has one or more brushes that are specific to it.

According to a second embodiment, the cleaning system comprises at least one brush disposed on a plurality of circular valve paths. In this case, several circumferential rows share one or more same brushes.

Advantageously, said brush is configured to have a variable depth of penetration of the valves in the brush. In this way, a gradual cleaning of the valves is achieved, for example by a coarse cleaning where the depth of penetration into the brush is important to finish by a finer cleaning of the spherical tip of the valves by outcropping on the ends of the bristles. of brush.

The invention also provides that said brush is placed at the outlet of a liquid product sampling station of the dispensing device, that is to say near and downstream of the sampling station with respect to the rotation of the carousel, in order to that the selected valves can be cleaned at the earliest after expulsion of the paint and before it has had time to dry or flow along the spherical tip.

For the same purpose, the device according to the invention comprises two brushes placed on either side of the liquid product sampling station of the dispensing device. This arrangement is particularly advantageous when the dispensing device comprises means for reversing the direction of rotation, since the early cleaning of the valve can be obtained at the outlet of the sampling station irrespective of the direction of rotation of the carousel. In addition, it is possible to perform a symmetrical cleaning of the ball end of the valves by reversing the direction of rotation.

Finally, according to a particular embodiment of the invention, a dust collector is located under the brush, to collect dust released by the friction of the bristles on the valves and prevent them from dispersing and eventually pollute and affect the operation of certain sensitive organs of the dispensing device.

An advantage of the cleaning system proposed by the invention is its ease of design and implementation, which translates into a reduced cost.

Another advantage is that it requires only a very limited maintenance, since there is no reserve of solvent to maintain level and wiper system to keep wet and clean.

• La Figure 1a est une vue de face d'un dispositif rotatif de distribution de produits liquides conforme à l'invention.
• La Figure 1b est une vue en perspective du dispositif de la Figure 1 a.
• La Figure 2 est une vue de détail du dispositif de la Figure 1 a.
• La Figure 3 est une vue en perspective d'une brosse incurvée destinée à équiper le dispositif des Figures 1 a et 1 b.

An embodiment of the device of the invention will now be described with reference to the appended drawings in which the same reference numerals designate identical or functionally similar elements from one figure to another.

• The Figure 1a is a front view of a rotary device for dispensing liquid products according to the invention.
• The Figure 1b is a perspective view of the device of the Figure 1 at.
• The Figure 2 is a detailed view of the device of the Figure 1 at.
• The Figure 3 is a perspective view of a curved brush for equipping the device with Figures 1 a and 1 b.

On the Figures 1a and 1b there is shown a rotary device for dispensing liquid products, in particular base colors for paint, of the type described in FIG. WO 2009/153504 A1 supra.

This device is built around a fixed frame 10 including in particular a sampling station 11 comprising a collecting container, not shown, in which are collected the basic colors of the paint to be produced. These base colors are contained in deformable pockets 21, 22, 23 from which they can be expelled through the valves 31, 32, 33 Figure 1b , which are referenced globally on the Figures 1 a and 2.

The deformable pockets 21, 22, 23 and the valves 31, 32, 33 for dosing the Figures 1a, 1b and 2 are mounted in three parallel circumferential rows on a rotating carousel around the fixed frame 10. Of course, the number of circumferential rows can be any.

Given the paint color to be reproduced, a number of deformable pockets are automatically selected by the dispensing device from the prescriptions of the paint manufacturers. The pockets thus selected are successively brought by indexing means opposite the sampling station 11. The expulsion of a predetermined amount of color into the collection container of the sampling station 11 is then controlled by dosing means.

In the rotational movement imposed on them by the carousel 20, the valves of each circumferential row describe a circular path marked respectively TC1, TC2, TC3 on the Figure 1b , and overall TC on the Figure 1a .

In order to solve the problems related to the cleaning of the dosing valves 31, 32, 33 referred to above, the rotary dispensing device shown on the Figures 1a, 1b and 2 is equipped with a cleaning system comprising, in general, at least one dry brush fixed to the fixed frame 10 of the device disposed on at least one circular path so as to come into frictional contact with the valves of at least a circumferential row of valves.

In the particular embodiment shown in the above figures, the cleaning system comprises five brushes, namely the brush 41 to which the brush 42 corresponds by rotation of 180 °, the brush 51 to which is also rotated by 180 ° the brush 52, and a central brush 60.

These brushes are used without the addition of any solvent, hence their term "dry". The cleaning of the conduit 301 and the spherical tip 302 of the valves is obtained only by friction with the bristles of the brushes. To limit the abrasive effect on the valves, the bristles are preferably nylon.

On the other hand, these brushes are fixed in the sense that, being fixed to the frame 10, their position is independent of the rotation of the carousel 20. The friction between the valves and the brushes results from their relative rotational movement.

It can be seen that in the exemplary embodiment of Figures 1a, 1 b and 2 the brushes 41, 42, 51, 52, 60 are planar and are arranged transversely on all of the circular paths TC1, TC2, TC3. In other words, the valves of the three circumferential rows share the five brushes in common. In this case, the width ℓ of the brushes 41, 42, 51, 52, 60 is at least equal to the distance between the extreme circumferential rows of valves, while their length L is determined to allow sufficient cleaning, and may not concern that one valve at a time taken on each circumferential row, as shown by the Figures 1a, 1b and 2 .

Different variants can be envisaged with respect to the configuration shown in these figures.

So, as we can see on the Figure 3 , the brushes may be curved in a general shape of a circular arc of radius of curvature close to that of the circular paths TC1, TC2, TC3. In the example proposed, the angular length of the brush is about 50 °.

On the other hand, this same figure illustrates a brush 80 to be disposed on a single circumferential row of valves. The brush then has a width ℓ 'at least equal to the diameter of the valves. The bristles 81 are implanted in holes 82 staggered in three rows, the holes of the same row being angularly spaced 2 °, which gives a total number of holes of the order of 125. The number of hairs per hole can vary from 150 to 200. With this type of brush, several valves of the same row are cleaned at the same time by the same brush.

As shown more particularly in Figure 1a , the brushes 41 and 51 are placed on either side of the station 11 for picking up the basic colors. This configuration corresponds to a dispensing device equipped with means for reversing the direction of rotation of the carousel 20. In fact, whatever the direction of rotation, a brush, 41 or 51, is immediately at the outlet of the sampling station 11 , which allows an early cleaning of the valve after expulsion of the hue. Out of sampling situation, the permanent rotation of the carousel avoids the sedimentation of the hues in the pockets, and the periodic inversion of the direction of rotation makes it possible to symmetrize the cleaning of the valves and thus to treat the entire surface of the spherical tip of the valves.

In the absence of reversal of the direction of rotation, one of the brushes 41 or 51 may be omitted, as well as possibly the brush 42 or 52 diametrically opposite.

The Figure 1a shows the presence under the upper brushes 41, 51 of two trays 71, 72 for the recovery and removal of dust produced by the friction of the brush bristles on the valves.

It may be advantageous to achieve a variable depth of penetration of the valve into the bristles, for example by initially leaving the valve to penetrate to a depth of several millimeters to be roughly cleaned and then only touched to a very small depth to optimize the cleaning of the spherical tip of the valve.

For this purpose, and as indicated in Figure 2 , the brushes, in the image of the plane brush 42, can be given an inclination with respect to the tangent T of the corresponding circular path at the level of the valve 30. This inclination is represented by the angle α on the Figure 2 . The same provision applies to curved brushes.

Claims (15)

1. A rotary device for storing and dispensing liquids, in particular base tints for painting cars, having metering valves (31, 32, 33) arranged in at least one circumferential row in such a manner that the valves of a circumferential row follow a circular path (TC1, TC2, TC3) during rotation of the dispenser device,
   characterized in that it further includes a cleaner system for cleaning the valves and comprising at least one dry brush (41, 42, 51, 52, 60) that is stationary during cleaning and that is arranged on at least one circular path (TC1, TC2, TC3) in such a manner as to come into rubbing contact against the valves of at least one circumferential row of valves.
2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the cleaner system comprises at least one brush (80) arranged on a circular valve path.
3. A device according to claim 1, wherein the cleaner system comprises at least one brush (41, 42, 51, 52, 60) arranged on a plurality of circular valve paths (TC1, TC2, TC3).
4. A device according to claim 1, wherein said brush (80) is curved.
5. A device according to claim 1, wherein said brush (41, 42, 51, 52, 60) is plane.
6. A device according to claim 4 or claim 5, wherein said brush is configured to present a varying penetration depth for the valves (31, 32, 33) in the brush.
7. A device according to claim 1, wherein said brush (41, 51) is placed at the outlet from a liquid dispenser station (11) of the dispenser device.
8. A device according to claim 1, having a dust collector bin (71, 72) that is under the brush (41, 42).
9. A device according to claim 7 or claim 8, further including a second brush located substantially 180° from said brush on the circular path.
10. A device according to any one of claims 7 to 9, having two brushes (41, 51) placed on respective sides of the station (11) for dispensing liquids from the device.
11. A device according to claim 1, including means for reversing its direction of rotation.
12. A device according to claim 1, wherein the brush is made of nylon bristles.
13. A device according to claim 1, wherein the brush is made of bristles arranged in a staggered configuration.
14. A device according to claim 1, wherein the brush is a brush that is retractable outside periods of cleaning and when the device is not in use.
15. A device according to claim 14, including means for causing the brush to be retracted automatically after a given period of time or a predetermined number of revolutions after the most recent use of the device.

Images