JP2878230B2 - Car wash equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a car washing apparatus of the type in which an automobile is conveyed by a conveyor and the body of the automobile is automatically washed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a conveyor-type device of this type is configured as follows.
Since it is relatively large and has an elongated shape along the conveyor and cannot be freely moved by ordinary transportation means, for example, as shown in JP-A-49-51775, it is configured so that it can be divided into a plurality of units. Devices configured to be assembled on site are known.

[0003] By the way, in the conventional apparatus as described above,
The structure itself can be easily completed by assembling the divided units on site, but electrical connection work must be performed together to link each unit, and it is complicated to complete the device In addition, there was an inconvenience requiring a long operation.

[0004] This point will be described based on the conventional example shown in FIG. 1 is a car washing apparatus main body, 2 is a conveyor. The car wash apparatus main body 1 is configured to be able to be divided into a first washing unit a, a second washing unit b, a wax unit c, and a drying unit d.

The first cleaning unit a has a rinse nozzle 3 for discharging fresh water and a detergent nozzle 4 for discharging detergent water.
And a pair of side brushes 5.5 are provided,
Is provided with a pair of rocker brushes 6 and a top brush 7. The wax unit c is provided with rinse nozzles 8 and 9 for discharging fresh water, a wax nozzle 10 for discharging wax water, a pair of side brushes 11 and 11, and a top brush 12. The drying unit d includes a blower 13 13 and blower nozzles 14, 15 and 15 are provided.

Each of the units a to d includes an electromagnetic valve for opening and closing each of the pipes of the liquid agent discharge nozzles 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10, a motor for driving a brush and a blower, and an air cylinder for moving the brush and the blower nozzle. Various controlled devices such as operating devices are provided, and relay boards 16a to 16d for energizing these controlled devices are provided.
Reference numeral 20 denotes a control unit which controls various controlled devices including the conveyor 2 in accordance with a predetermined sequence, and transmits control signals to the respective units via signal lines to the relay board 16a.
To 16d.

[0007]

In the conventional apparatus having the above construction, upon assembling, after assembling the units and assembling the apparatus main body 1, the control unit 20 and the relay boards 16a and 16d are connected to each other. As many as the number of control devices had to be connected by signal lines, which required complicated and time-consuming work. In addition to the connection with the relay board, the connection work with many sensors provided in each part of the device body such as the vehicle body detection device, the proximity switch, the overload detector, etc. must be performed, and the assembly of the structure is relatively difficult. Even if it is completed in a short time, it takes a long time to see the completion of the apparatus.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a conveyor for moving an automobile, and an apparatus main body in which a liquid agent discharge nozzle, a cleaning brush, a blower nozzle and the like are arranged along the conveyor, and the automobile moves within the apparatus main body. In the car washing apparatus of the type that automatically cleans the vehicle body with the above, the apparatus main body can be divided into a plurality of units in a direction substantially perpendicular to the conveyor, and the liquid agent discharging nozzle, the cleaning brush or A unit control means for controlling a controlled device such as a blower nozzle is provided for each unit. The unit control means is connected to each other via a common system bus. an operation board for receiving an operation input such as specified, is attached to the conveyor movement of the car due to the driving And means for detecting a release, the operation contents of the input and the moving distance of the vehicle is delivered to the system bus, wherein each unit control means, content and vehicle operation given input through the system bus The above problem is solved as a configuration for controlling the controlled device based on the moving distance of the control device.

Each of the unit control means sends the output content to the controlled device and the input content from the connected sensor to the system bus, and based on the output content and the input content, the progress of the car washing and the abnormality. It is desirable that a car wash monitor for notifying the occurrence location is connected to the system bus.

Here, the system bus means a common line for serially transmitting various data and control signals.

[0011]

By connecting the divided units along the conveyor and connecting the unit control means by a system bus, a control system of the entire car washing apparatus is constructed. Also,
Since the contents of the operation input such as car wash course designation and vehicle type designation on the operation board and the travel distance are shared by each control means via the system bus, the washing operation according to the operation input content can be executed according to the movement of the car Becomes
It can be controlled as a single car wash device at a controlled timing.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is an explanatory plan view showing an example in which the present invention is applied to a car washing apparatus having a structure similar to that of FIG.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a central control unit, 31a to 31d denote unit control units provided in each unit, and 32 denotes an operation board connected to the central control unit 31. A cable 33 connects these control units, and functions as a system bus for transmitting various data and control signals. Therefore, each of the unit control units 31a to 31d transmits and receives a control signal to and from the central control unit 30 via the system bus 33, outputs a signal to the relay boards 16a to 16d based on the control signal, and receives signals from the units. Controls the energization of control equipment.

The conveyor 2 is provided with a drive motor 34 at the rear of the apparatus main body 1, and a unit controller 31 of the drying unit d.
d. 35 is the drive motor 34
A rotary encoder attached to the transmission unit outputs a pulse every time the conveyor 2 moves a unit distance. This pulse signal is counted in the unit control unit 31d and used for detecting the moving distance of the conveyor 2.

Reference numeral 36 denotes a vehicle body detector provided at the entrance of the apparatus main body 1, which is constituted by a well-known photoelectric switch, and detects entry of the vehicle into the apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the above embodiment. The central control unit 30 includes a unit control unit 31a
A main board 30 ₁ for transmitting control and ～31D, sub-board 30 that receives an input in the operation board 32
_{It consists of two} . One of the unit control sections 31a-3
1d is a main board 31 ₁ connected to the central control unit 30 via the system bus 33, and relay boards 16a to 16a.
The input board 31 ₃ for accepting sensing input or the like from the output board ₃₁₂ and each part sensor for signal output to d are provided, respectively.

A polling transmission is performed between the two via the system bus 33. That is, the central control unit 30 transmits a normal polling sequence to prompt transmission from the unit control units 31a to 31d, and when there is transmission data from the central control unit 30, transmits a selecting sequence to transmit data.

Regarding the contents of the data to be transmitted, the central control unit 30 mainly transmits data of key input on the operation board 32, and the unit control units 31a to 31d operate the operating states of controlled devices provided in each unit. And a detection signal from a sensor provided in each unit. In particular, the moving distance of the conveyor accompanying the pulse output of the rotary encoder 35 is transmitted from the drying unit 31d, and each unit control unit controls the operation of the controlled device based on the moving distance data.

The operation board 32 comprises a display 37, a key input section 38 and a coin / card receiving section 39. According to the guide display on the display 37, a coin or a card is inserted to process a car washing fee, and It is laid out to input car wash. In the key input unit 38, 38 ₁ wash course specified key, 38 ₂ models specified key, 38 ₃ is set key, specify a wash course desired by wash course designation key 38 _1, requires avoidance operation such as a brush such if the type of motor vehicles specified in the model designation key 38 ₂ may be pressed last in the setting key 38 _3.

Reference numeral 40 denotes a car wash monitor, in which a lamp is arranged for each controlled device in accordance with the layout in the apparatus main body, the operating devices are illuminated and displayed so that the progress of the car wash can be checked, and abnormalities are detected by sensors in each section. When the detection is performed, the corresponding part is blinked and displayed to notify the abnormal part.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. Prior to car washing, a car wash input is received on the operation board 32, and if there is an input, the central control unit 30 sends the content of the input to the system bus 33.

Thereafter, when the car body detector 36 detects the entry of the car, the central control unit 30 sends a signal indicating the start of car washing to the system bus 33.

Upon receiving the car wash start signal, the unit control section 31d of the drying unit d starts counting the pulse signal from the rotary encoder 35, and sends the count value to the system bus 33 every time the counting is advanced. .

Each of the unit control sections 31a to 31d calls a registered sequence program in accordance with the content of the received operation input, and executes the program based on the count value of the pulse signal. Further, it sends the contents of each port of the output board ₃₁₂ and the input board ₃₁₃ associated therewith to the system bus 33.

On the other hand, the central control unit 30 displays the operation of each unit on the car wash monitor 40 based on the transmission data from each of the unit control units 31a to 31d. When the central control unit 30 detects the occurrence of an abnormality based on the transmission data, it sends an abnormal stop signal to the system bus 33 and displays the location of the abnormality on the car wash monitor 40.

According to the embodiment configured as described above,
The units a to d constituting the car wash apparatus main body 1 are connected to each other by the system bus 33 so that necessary data can be exchanged, so that there is no need to connect the units with a large number of signal lines as in the related art. Therefore, each unit a to d is
Controlled devices and unit control units 31a to 31 for each unit
In this case, it is only necessary to connect the unit controllers 31a to 31d with a cable 33 functioning as a system bus.

[0027]

The present invention is constructed as described above, and the contents of the operation input such as the designation of the car wash course and the designation of the vehicle type on the operation board and the moving distance of the vehicle are shared by the respective control means via the system bus. The washing operation according to the contents of the input can be executed in accordance with the movement of the automobile, so that it can be controlled at a controlled timing as a single car washing apparatus. As a result, each unit control means is connected by a system bus. It is possible to complete the car washing device with only extremely simple work, and it is not necessary to perform complicated and troublesome wiring work at the site where the device is installed as in the related art. In addition, the distance traveled by the vehicle is shared via the system bus.
The vehicle detection means is specially provided for each unit.
At least the car is operated continuously with the drive of the conveyor
Inexpensive car wash with simplified configuration of each unit
A device is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory plan view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a control system according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Car wash main body 2 Conveyor 3 Central control means 31a-31d Unit control means 32 Operation board 33 System bus 34 Rotary encoder 35 Body detector 40 Car wash monitor a-d Dividable unit

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-49-51775 (JP, A) JP-A-61-135900 (JP, A) JP-A-61-205535 (JP, A) JP-A-61-271158 (JP, A) , A) Jikkai 63-86692 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B60S 3/06

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A conveyor for moving an automobile, and an apparatus main body having a liquid agent discharge nozzle, a cleaning brush, a blower nozzle and the like arranged along the conveyor, and the vehicle body is automatically moved as the automobile moves in the apparatus main body. In a car washing apparatus of a washing type, the apparatus main body can be divided into a plurality of units in a direction substantially orthogonal to the conveyor, and a controlled device such as the liquid agent discharge nozzle, a cleaning brush or a blower nozzle in each unit is controlled. An operation board provided with unit control means for each unit, the unit control means being mutually connected via a common system bus, and being provided at an entrance of the apparatus main body and receiving operation inputs such as car wash course designation and vehicle type designation. When, it is attached to the conveyor and means for detecting a moving distance of the vehicle due to driving The a moving distance of the operation input contents and car is sent to the system bus, wherein each unit control means, the object based on the moving distance of the content and vehicle operation given input through the system bus A car washing device characterized by controlling a control device. 2. The car washing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the unit control means sends output contents to a controlled device and input contents from a connected sensor to the system bus, and outputs the output contents and the input contents. A car wash monitor for notifying the progress of the car wash and the location of the abnormality based on the system bus to the system bus.