GB2150515A - A vehicle washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A washing machine for washing vehicles and, particularly railway vehicles 15, comprises a fixed frame 10 supporting a rotary head assembly 13 for rotation about a fixed upright axis. The rotary head assembly 13 includes a number of upright keyways 16 mounted around the axis with the upper part of each keyway 16 being further away from the path of movement of a vehicle 15 past the machine than the lower part of each keyway 16. A series of cleaning devices 20, each of which has a key portion 21 and cleaning elements 22, are stacked one above the other in each keyway 16 so that their cleaning elements 22 extend outwards from the rotary head assembly 13. Since the keyways 16 are inclined to the vertical the cleaning elements 22 at the top of the rotary head assembly 22 have a longer length than those at the bottom. Once the cleaning elements 22 have worn down in the machine the lowermost cleaning device 20 is removed and the remainder in that keyway 16 all move down one position. A new cleaning element is then inserted at the top of the keyway. This enables the maximum usable life to be obtained from each and every cleaning device 20 in each rotary head 13. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A vehicle washing machine A washing machine for washing vehicles and, particularly railway vehicles, typically comprises one or more rotary head assemblies arranged for rotation about a vertical axis on each side of a path of a vehicle. The rotary head assemblies includes a number of cleaning elements such as flails or bristles which, upon rotation of the assembly, scrub against the side wall of the vehicle as it passes between the assemblies to remove dirt and debris from the side walls of the vehicle. The tips of the cleaning elements which scrub against the side walls of the vehicle wear away in use and to compensate for this, some adjustment is usually provided to move the cleaning elements outwards to accommodate for this wear.

In one arrangement cleaning devices which include a bobbin are mounted one above the other on vertical rods which form part of the rotary head assembly. As the cleaning elements of the cleaning devices wear, the vertical rods are moved radially outwards away from their axis of rotation to compensate for the wear. In another arrangement of vehicle washing machine the vertical axis about which the rotary head assembly rotates is itself movable towards and away from the vehicle. In this case the rotary head assembly is mounted on a pair of pivoted arms and, upon pivoting of these arms the whole rotating head assembly is moved closer to the vehicle to accommodate for wear of the cleaning elements. The first of these examples requires the use of specialist tools and the services of a skilled fitter to move the vertical rods outwards.The second example leads to the construction of a washing machine being complicated with the drive for the rotary assembly having to cope with the assembly being located at the free ends of a pair of pivoted arms and being further complicated by the addition of the pivoted arms and the means to control their location.

According to this invention a vehicle washing machine comprises a fixed frame supporting a rotary head assembly for rotation about a fixed upright axis, the rotary head assembly including a number of upright keyways mounted around the axis with the upper part of each keyway being further away from the path of movement of a vehicle past the machine than the lower part of each keyway, and a series of cleaning devices, each cleaning device having a key portion and cleaning elements, the key portions of a number of cleaning devices being stacked one above the other in each keyway so that the cleaning elements extend outwards from the rotary head assembly.

With a vehicle washing machine in accordance with this invention the cleaning elements at the top of the rotary head assembly have a longer length than those at the bottom of the rotary head assembly since the keyways are inclined to the vertical.

Once the cleaning elements have worn down in the machine in accordance with this invention the lowermost cleaning device is removed and the remainder in that keyway all move down one position. A new cleaning element is inserted at the top of the keyway. As a result of the inclination of the keyway and the downwards movement of the cleaning devices the outer tips of the cleaning elements are effectively moved further outwards by this operation to overcome the effect of the wear.

Naturally the lower cleaning device removed from the bottom of the keyway is discarded and this operation is repeated each time the cleaning elements are worn down. The washing machine-in accordance with this invention enables the maximum usable life to be obtained from each and every cleaning device in each rotary head because, eventually, each cleaning device ends up at the bottom of the rotary head assembly where it is closest to the vehicle and typically spaced at the minimum acceptable distance from the side wall of the vehicle.

The rotary head assembly may rotate about a fixed vertical axis and, in this case the keyways are arranged tangentially to a conical surface and are closer together at the top of the rotary head assembly than at its base. However, it is preferred that the rotary head assembly rotates about a fixed upright axis which is inclined to the vertical and, in this case, the keyways are arranged tangentially around a cylindrical surface. The inclination of the keyways may be as much as 10 to the vertical but typically it has been found that an angle of 40 to the vertical gives satisfactory results. The angle of inclination depends, at least in part, on the length of each of the cleaning devices and on the degree of wear of the cleaning elements that can be accepted before movement of the cleaning elements is required.Typically the cleaning devices are 300 millimetres in length and equally typically the cleaning elements should be moved as soon as their overall length has been reduced by 50 millimetres.

When the side wall of the vehicle to be cleaned includes a re-entrant portion, typically a re-entrant portion towards the base of the side wall, it is preferred that the rotary head assembly includes a number of additional keyways mounted around its base, the additional keyways being located at a greater distance from the axis of rotation of the rotary head assembly than the remainder of the keyways. It is also preferred that the additional keyways are inclined at a greater angle to the vertical than the remainder of the keyways. Naturally the additional keyways must not interfere with the removal of a cleaning device from the base of the keyways and a convenient arrangement is for the additional keyways to be pivotally connected to the base of the other keyways.In this case the additional keyways preferably include an abutment which, in one position closes the lower end of the other keyways to prevent the key portions of the cleaning elements from moving downwards but which, when the additional keyways are pivoted outwards permits the key portion of the lowermost cleaning device to leave the bottom end of the keyway. Preferably, the other ends of the additional keyways are connected to a base plate of the ro tary head assembly by a locking pin which, additionally, retains a cleaning device in place in the additional keyways. In this case, to change the position of the cleaning elements the locking pin is first removed and then the additional keyways are pivoted outwards away from the rotary axis of the head assembly.The cleaning device held in the additional keyway is removed and then the lowermost cleaning device from the other keyways is also removed downwards. The cleaning device removed from the other keyways is then inserted into the additional keyway and the additional keyway is pivoted downwards and locked in position with the locking pin. The cleaning devices in the keyway slide downwards until the lowermost one engages the abutment on the additional keyway and the, finally, a new cleaning device is inserted at the top of the keyway.

The cleaning elements may be formed as flails by strips of material but preferably they are formed by nylon bristles. Naturally the washing machine includes means to rotate the head assembly about its axis and whilst this may be formed by an electric motor it is much preferred that the head assembly is driven by a hydraulic motor. Where the vehicle washing machine includes more than one rotary head assembly and these are all driven by hydraulic motors, the hydraulic motors may be ganged together and fed from a single hydraulic supply.

The present invention provides a particularly simple and foolproof way of replenishing the cleaning elements of a vehicle washing machine which can be performed by unskilled labour and without the need of any specialist tools whatsoever. Because the replenishment is so simple it can be performed rapidly without interfering with the operation of the machine unduly. Another advantage of the present invention is that the cleaning elements tend to move downwards throughout their life. The part of a vehicle which is most likely to be contaminated by grease and oil is the lowermost part of its side wall and it is this part which is contacted by the cleaning elements immediately before they are discarded.The average time for which the cleaning elements remain in their lowermost portion is considerably less than the typical time for which the cleaning elements in this position remain in a conventional vehicle washing machine where the cleaning elements are simply moved bodily towards the side wall of the vehicle.

Consequently, the cleaning elements in the lowermost position are less likely to spread contamination from one vehicle to another.

A particular example of a vehicle washing machine in accordance with the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic front elevation illustrating the machine in use; Figure 2 is a typical section through a central part of the rotary head assembly; and, Figure 3 is a front elevation of the base of the rotary assembly illustrating a change of brushes.

This example of a vehicle washing machine is intended to wash the sides of rail vehicles and particularly wash the side walls of railway coaches.

The machine comprises a frame 10 which supports, in journal bearings 11 and 12 a rotary head assembly 13. The rotary head assembly 13 is driven via a hydraulic motor 14 and is mounted with its axis inclined at 40 to the vertical as shown in Figure 1. The profile of a typical railway coach is shown by reference numeral 15.

The head assembly 13 comprises six keyways 16 each of which is formed by two opposed C-shaped channel section members 17 connected together and to an axially extending shaft 18 by spiders 19.

The central shaft 18 is received in the journal bearings 11 and 12.

The rotary head assembly also includes a number of cleaning devices 20 which, in this example, are formed by brushes each having a wooden head 21 of rectangular cross-section which is received in the opposed channel section members 17, and outwardly extending nylon bristles 22. Typically the bristles have four lobes when seen in cross- section and are made from material known as star section PEX material. When new the length of the bristles is approximately 750 millimetres and the typical length of the wooden backing 21 is 300 millimetres.

A domed base plate 23 is attached to the central shaft 18 at the bottom of the head assembly. Additionally keyways 24 again formed by opposed strips of C-shaped channel 25 are pivotally connected to the lower ends of the strip 17 via plates 26, shown most clearly in Figure 3. Abutment plates 27 are welded to the upper ends of the strips 25 and their lower ends are connected by a plate 28. The lower ends of the strips 25 are connected to lugs 29 attached to the domed base plate 23 via removable locking pins 30. When the strips 25 are in their lowermost position, the abutment plates 27 close off the ends of the strips 17 and so close the keyways 16 to prevent the brushes 20 from moving downwards. Equally, the locking pin 30 not only holds the strips 25 into their lowermost position but also prevents the brush 20 held between the strips 25 from moving downwards.

When the vehicle washing machine is first installed the brushes 20 which are all identical are trimmed to the overall profile shown in Figure 1.

To achieve effective scrubbing between the tips of the bristles 22 and the side wall of a coach, the tips of the bristles should overlap the profile 15 of the coach by a distance of between 50 and 100 millimetres. After a period of use when the degree of overlap has been reduced to about 50 millimetres the machine is stopped and then the locking pin 30 is removed. The additional keyway 24 is then pivoted upwards and outwards to enable the brush 20 from position number 1 to be slid outwards from between the strips 25. This brush is then discarded. The lowermost brush from the keyway 16, that is the brush 20 from position number 2 is then removed downwards from the ends of the strips 17. A support pin 31, shown in Figure 2, is inserted through an aperture in the channel 17 to engage a hole 32 formed in the backing 21 of the brush 20 to hold the brushes 20 in position 3 and subsequent positions in place whilst the brush 20 from position number 2 is removed. The brush that was formerly in position number 2 is then inserted between the strips 25 and the additional keyway 24 is then pivoted downwards and locked into position using the locking pin 30. The support pin 31 is then removed to allow the brushes 20 from positions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 all to move downwards to occupy new positions 2 to 7. A new brush is then inserted into the top of the keyway 16 into position number 8 and when this operation has been repeated for each of the keyways 16, the machine is ready to be used once again.

Claims (9)

1. A vehicle washing machine comprising a fixed frame supporting a rotary head assembly for rotation about a fixed upright axis, the rotary head assembly including a number of upright keyways mounted around the axis with the upper part of each keyway being further away from the path of movement of a vehicle past the machine than the lower part of each keyway, and a series of cleaning devices, each cleaning device having a key portion and cleaning elements, the key portions of a number of cleaning devices being stacked one above the other in each keyway so that the cleaning elements extend outwards from the rotary head assembly.

2. A vehicle washing machine according to claim 1, in which the rotary head assembly rotates about a fixed upright axis which is inclined to the vertical and, in which the keyways are arranged tangentially around a cylindrical surface.

3. A vehicle washing machine according to claim 1 or 2, in which the keyways are inclined at an angle of substantially 40 to the vertical.

4. A vehicle washing machine according to any of the preceding claims, in which the rotary head assembly includes a number of additional keyways mounted around its base, the additional keyways being located at a greater distance from the axis of rotation of the rotary head assembly than the remainder of the keyways.

5. A vehicle washing machine according to claim 4, in which the additional keyways are inclined at a greater angle to the vertical than the remainder of the keyways.

6. A vehicle washing machine according to claim 4 or 5, in which the additional keyways are pivotally connected to the base of the other keyways and the additional keyways include an abutment which, in one position, closes the lower end of the other keyways to prevent the key portions of the cleaning elements from moving downwards but which, when the additional keyways are pivoted outwards, permits the key portions of the lowermost cleaning devices to leave the bottom ends of the keyways.

7. A vehicle washing machine according to claim 6, in which the other ends of the additional keyways are connected to a base plate of the rotary head assembly by a locking pin which, additionally, retains a cleaning device in place in the additional keyways.

8. A vehicle washing machine according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the cleaning elements are formed by nylon bristles.

9. A vehicle washing machine substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.