GB2428086A

GB2428086A - Workstation for refinishing automobile wheels

Info

Publication number: GB2428086A
Application number: GB0513890A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Richard J Wheeler; Matthew Wortley; Michael Sewell-Rutter
Original assignee: SMARTFIX UK Ltd
Current assignee: SMARTFIX UK Ltd
Priority date: 2005-07-06
Filing date: 2005-07-06
Publication date: 2007-01-17
Anticipated expiration: 2025-07-06
Also published as: GB0513890D0; GB2428086B

Abstract

A workstation C for refinishing automobile wheels 18 comprises a working region W enclosed by a cabinet having two booths B1, B2 each having an opening allowing access to the working region W and a suction fan (3, fig 2), 3' rearward of the opening to reduce the escape of airborne pollutants from the working region W. Each opening may have an array of apertures 12 disposed around its periphery to direct laminar air jets inwardly. Air may be blown into each booth B1, B2 by blowers 15 and may be heated. Each booth B1, B2 may have a hinged door D1, D2 with UV protective viewing panels V1, V2. Booth B2 may have a heat lamp 10 moveable on a cantilevered support 11 for curing a paint or lacquer finish of a wheel 18 disposed on an inclined work rack (9, fig 5) and rotated by rollers 20 driven by a motor 33. Booth B1 may be for machining operations of the wheel 18, which is supported on a turntable chuck (7, fig 2). Air leaving the working region W may pass through disposable filters 28 held in trays T1, T2 and pass through a corrugated paper 5 and charcoal filter 6 so that air does not have to be exhausted to an external environment.

Description

WORKSTATION FOR REFINISHING AUTOMOBILE WHEELS

The present invention relates to a workstation for refinishing automobile wheels, particularly involving working the surface of a cast aluminium or alloy s wheel e.g. by machining, polishing, cleaning or buffing.

Integrated wheel refinishing machines are known, e.g. from GB 2,341,568A and have certain advantages over the use of conventional separate tools for this purpose. However a major problem arising from any refinishing operations carried out on motor vehicle wheels is the escape of dust, fumes and other pollutants into the working environment which is normally enclosed or semi- enclosed, e.g. in a garage orworkshop. This represents a potential health hazard.

An object of the present invention is to provide a workstation which alleviates or overcomes such problems. In its preferred embodiments, it can be provided as a self-contained unit which can be installed in a variety of work places.

Accordingly the invention provides a workstation for refinishing an automobile wheel, the workstation comprising a working region partially enclosed by a cabinet, the front of the cabinet having an opening allowing access to the working region, means for generating a substantially laminar airflow inwardly from the edge of the opening, and suction means arranged to apply suction rearwardly of the opening thereby to reduce escape of airborne pollutants or the like from said working region through said opening.

Preferably a blower is arranged to direct a substantially laminar airstream towards said working region, said airstream merging with said laminar airflow in use.

Preferably said blower is arranged to generate a heated airstream (e.g. for drying paint or lacquer finishes and the like). Preferably the blower is arranged to direct said airstream downwardly and rearwardly so as to augment the rearward airflow from said opening toward said suction means.

Preferably the means for generating a substantially laminar airflow comprises a plurality of inwardly facing apertures regulatly disposed about said opening and arranged to direct jets of air across said opening. It has been found that such an arrangement substantially eliminates escape of paint fumes and the like from the cabinet whilst allowing an operative to repair an automobile wheel.

This dramatically reduces the exposure of the operative to harmful fumes, solvent vapour and the like and represents an important safety advantage.

The above arrangement can be improved by arranging for the blower to direct said airstream downwardly and rearwardly so as to augment the rearward airflow from said opening toward said suction means. Thus the substantially laminar airstream from the blower has the dual function of drying a paint or lacquer coating and preventing escape of fumes or solvent vapour towards the face of the operative.

In a preferred embodiment the workstation comprises two booths in an integral cabinet, one booth providing said partially enclosed working region and the other booth providing a further, separate partially enclosed working region for machining operations on an automobile wheel, the front of said cabinet having a further opening allowing access to said further working region.

Further preferred features are defined in the dependent claims.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described below by way of example only with reference to Figures 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view, shown reduced in height for ease of illustration, of a workstation in accordance with the invention; Figure 2 is a schematic side elevational view of the left hand "further" booth BI of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a schematic side elevation of the booth B2 of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a schematic side elevation of the booth B2 showing an automobile wheel supported on the work rack beneath a heat lamp, and Figure 5 is a partial schematic side elevation of booth B2.

Referring to Figure 1, the workstation is in the form of a self-contained module C comprising a common cabinet with two booths BI and B2 with front openings allowing access to working regions within the booth which are at substantially waist height. The booths have vertically hinged doors DI and D2 s respectively with UV-protective viewing panels VI and V2 respectively. These doors can be closed when access is not required to these working regions within the booths, e.g. when an automobile wheel lacquer or paint finish is being cured or dried. In normal use the doors Dl and D2 will be open as shown. This allows machining operations and subsequent buffing and polishing to be carried out on an automobile wheel horizontally disposed and located on a turntable chuck 7 in booth B1 or allow painting, lacquering or other finishing operations to be carried out in the cleaner working environment of booth B2. It will be apparent that these working regions are kept completely separate.

In order to minimize escape of fumes or dust from booth BI or escape of fumes and solvent vapour from B2, each booth is provided with an array of apertures 12 regularly disposed in a linear array extending around the periphery of its front opening. This array thus extends across the front of the upper interior wall and left interior side wall of each booth as well as across the front of the lower interior wall and right interior side wall as shown in Figure 1. The apertures 12 can also be seen in Figures 2, 3 and 4. The interior walls of the booths are spaced apart from the external cabinet wall and the space between the two walls communicates with blowers 15 which suck in ambient air and pressurise this space, to form inwardly directed air jets which escape from apertures 12 and generate a substantially laminar inward airflow which is parallel to the common plane of the two front openings of the booths. This airflow is then drawn rearwardly and downwardly through apertures (not shown in Figure 1) in the bottom interior wall 100 of each booth and then sucked rearwardly through filters 5, 6 as indicated by arrow A in Figure 1. Filter 5 is suitably a corrugated paper filter and filter 6 is suitably a charcoal filter.

Referring now to Figure 2, a drive motor 2 having a vertically projecting left-handed threaded drive axle is mounted beneath the bottom wall of booth Bi and engages a wheel adaptor 7 (shown disconnected from the axle) also with left-handed thread.

The hub of an automobile wheel can be mounted on the adaptor 7 and rotated in the horizontal plane for conventional painting and finishing operation. A cantilevered tool mounting 4 is provided for mounting a machine tool to carry out machining operations on an automobile wheel (not shown in Figure 2) mounted by its hub on adaptor 7.

A main suction fan 3 is provided in the lower region of the booth and supported on a horizontal partition wall and sucks air through apertures at the rear of the working region W downwardly towards the inlet of fan 3 through a disposable filter mounted in a tray TI. The filtered air is then expelled through corrugated paper filter 5 and then charcoal filter 6 at the bottom rear portion of booth Bi. The air expelled from the cabinet is sufficiently clean to be expelled into a working environment and thus the workstation does not require connection to an external ventilation shaft or the like. As best seen in Figure I, the tray TI can be opened forwardly by a user to allow the replacement of the filter. A similar tray T2 is provided for booth B2.

The filtering arrangements of the two booths are similar in all respects.

In order to supplement the laminar airflow from the front edges of the interior walls of the booth, a full width louvered vent LV is provided along the top edge of the front opening and receives air from an air curtain fan 16 which draws in ambient air through the top wall of the cabinet as indicated by arrow a".

Louvered vent LV directs a curtain of air downwardly and rearwardly onto the working region W as indicated by arrows a". This air curtain constitutes a substantially laminar airstream. This protects the face of an operative from particles, dust and fumes generated during machining operations.

As can be seen in Figure 3, a similar louvered vent LV and air curtain fan 16 are provided in booth B2 and provide a similar downwardly and rearwardly directed air curtain a" which tends to drive fumes and solvent vapours away from the front opening of the booth and similarly protects the operative.

Daylight fluorescent tubes are provided in the roof of the cabinet for illuminating the work region W and a heat lamp 10 is provided on a retractible/extendible parallelogram linkage cantilevered from a support II. As shown in Figure 4 this can be swung downwardly and forwardly and the parallelogram linkage extended (and the lamp 10 rotated about its pivotal connection of the parallelogram linkage if necessary) to cure a paint or lacquer finish on an automobile wheel 18.

Referring again to Figure 3, work rack 9 is in the inclined position shown to support an automobile wheel on motorised 33 rollers 20 (Figures 1 and 3) for conventional painting and other finishing operations. With the inclined work rack 9 the hub of an automobile wheel can be mounted on rack 9 and rotated by rollers 20 for conventional painting and finishing operations.

As noted above, the configuration of work rack 9 is shown in Figure 4 and the hub 19 of automobile wheel 18 is shown disposed beneath heat lamp 10 to enable a paint or lacquer finish to be irradiated and cured. The fan 15 is suitably provided with a heater and also a pre-filter (not shown) to enable the airstream from louvered vent LV to be heated and directed onto the hub 19. The air from the work region W is exhausted by a fan 3' through various apertures (not shown) in the floor of the work region, through a disposable filter 28 held in tray T2 (Figure 1) and thence expelled through a paper filter 5' and a charcoal filter 6'.

A fixed inclined work rack 9 with a central aperture 27 is disposed in booth B2 and is shown in Figure 5.

A motorised wheel 20 and a motor 33 are connected to the work rack 9.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A workstation for refinishing an automobile wheel, the

workstation comprising a working region partially enclosed by a cabinet, the front of the cabinet having an opening allowing access to the working region, means for generating a substantially laminar airflow inwardly from the edge of the opening, and suction means arranged to apply suction rearwardly of the opening thereby to reduce escape of airborne pollutants and the like from said working region through said opening.
2. A workstation according to claim 1 wherein a blower is arranged to direct a substantially laminar airstream towards said working region, said airstream merging with said laminar airflow in use.
3. A workstation according to claim 2 wherein said blower is arranged to generate a heated airstream.
4. A workstation according to any claim 2 or claim 3, wherein said blower is arranged to direct said airstream downwardly and rearwardly so as to augment the rearward airflow from said opening towards said suction means.
5. A workstation according to any preceding claim wherein said means for generating a substantially laminar airflow comprises a plurality of inwardly facing apertures regularly disposed about said opening and arranged to direct jets of air across said opening.
6. A workstation according to claim 5 wherein said cabinet is doublewalled, said apertures are disposed near the front edges of inner walls of said cabinet, and the space between the inner and outer walls of the cabinet communicates with a source of pressurised air.
7. A workstation according to any preceding claim further comprising a heat source for curing a paint or lacquer finish of an automobile wheel in said working region.
8. A workstation according to any preceding claim further comprising a work rack for supporting an automobile while in said working region.
9. A workstation according to claim 8 wherein a turntable is disposed beneath said work rack and has a chuck projecting upwardly through an opening in said work rack for engaging the hub of said automobile wheel.
10. A workstation according to any preceding claim having at least one filter disposed downstream of said working region in the air flow path of said suction means.
11. A workstation according to claim 10 wherein said at least one filter comprises a disposable filter disposed between said working region and said suction means, said disposable filter being located in an externally accessible tray which can be opened by a user to allow replacement of the filter.
12. A workstation according to claim 10 or claim 11 wherein said at least one filter includes a chemical filter disposed in an outlet of the workstation.
13. A workstation according to any preceding claim, a operable door which can be closed across said opening or opened to allow access to said working region.
14. A workstation according to any preceding claim, comprising two booths in an integral cabinet, one of said booths providing said partially enclosed working region and the other of said booths providing a further separate partially enclosed working region for machining operations on an automobile wheel, the front of said cabinet having a further opening allowing access to said further working region.
15. A workstation according to claim 14 including means for generating a substantially laminar airflow inwardly from the edge of said further opening and suction means arranged to apply suction rearwardly of the opening thereby to reduce escape of airborne pollutants and the like from said further working region out of said further opening.

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16. A workstation according to claim 14 or claim 15 wherein said booths are located side by side in an integral cabinet.
17. A workstation for repairing and finishing an automobile wheel, the workstation being substantially as described hereinabove with reference to Figures 1 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.