JP2896389B2 - Vacuum suction cup for wall or window glass cleaning 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 cleaning apparatus for cleaning a very smooth surface such as a window glass, and more particularly to a cleaning apparatus having a vacuum suction cup which is attracted to a glass surface or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional apparatus for cleaning a window glass having a vacuum suction cup is designed to clean a glass surface by a separate cleaning tool attached to the main body while suctioning a main body of the cleaning apparatus by a flat circular suction cup. there were.

[0003]

It is preferable that the cleaning device for cleaning a vertical or inclined window glass has the smallest possible weight. Therefore, what has been desired has a simple structure and can surely clean the glass surface. With it
It is preferable that every corner of the window glass can be cleaned.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention provides a vacuum suction cup of a cleaning device which has a simple structure and contributes to weight reduction.
He noticed that the rectangular vacuum suction itself should also serve as a glass surface cleaning part, so that cleaning could be performed while reliably contacting the glass surface, and based on this, the following invention was devised. . That is, in the vacuum suction cup of the wall or window glass cleaning device of the present invention, a plurality of vacuum suction cups which are removably adsorbed to a smooth surface such as a glass surface are respectively attached to ends of a plurality of extendable and retractable driving bodies. . In addition, it has a spray nozzle for supplying cleaning water to the smooth surface. Here, a feature of the vacuum suction cup of the present invention is that a knife edge portion 5 is protrudingly provided on the periphery of the suction side of each of the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3, and the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are formed in a rectangular plane. At least on the smooth surface contact side, each corner of the square is chamfered in an arc. Then, at least one of the vacuum suckers is configured to slide on the smooth surface 1 while adsorbing to the smooth surface. Next, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a means for preventing deflection of the knife edge portion is provided adjacent to the inside of the knife edge portion.

[0005]

The pair of rectangular vacuum suction cups 2 shown in FIGS.
3 by evacuating the inside of the device 3
Absorb on top. Next, cleaning water is sprayed from the spray nozzle 4 onto the glass surface for a very short time. At the same time, the contact resistance between one of the vacuum suckers and the glass surface is made smaller than the contact resistance of the other vacuum sucker (FIG. 6 in this embodiment).
For example, the lifting wheel 9 of the vacuum suction cup 2 is lowered to the right side, and a part of the contact portion between the suction cup 2 and the glass surface (the suction state is maintained) is separated from the glass surface, thereby forming a part of the contact resistance. From the state of static friction to the rolling friction between the lifting wheel and the glass surface to reduce the contact resistance of the suction cup 2 to that on the left), and then extend the piston rod of the cylinder which is the sliding contact moving means 6. Then, only the vacuum suction cup having a small contact resistance moves in the extension direction of the piston rod. As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, this vacuum suction cup has an edge portion formed at the knife edge portion 5 and is formed in a flat rectangular shape and its four corners are chamfered. Along with the water film 17 on the smooth surface 1 as shown in FIG. 7, the dust on the smooth surface 1 is moved linearly to smoothly clean the glass surface to every corner of the window frame as shown in FIG. I do. Further, since the bending prevention means 35 is formed adjacent to the knife edge portion 5, the vacuum suction cup is prevented from being abnormally deformed during use, thereby preventing vacuum leakage and ensuring high reliability and safety. It becomes a cleaning device. According to the experiment, when the above-mentioned bending prevention means 35 is not provided, the whole suction cup is deformed by the negative pressure, especially the knife edge portion 5 is abnormally deformed as shown in FIG. It was found that a gap was formed, the sealing performance was deteriorated, and a part of the sliding contact portion of the suction cup was left uncleaned. However, by providing the above-described deflection preventing means 35, such inconvenience was prevented, and efficient cleaning was ensured. Similarly, even if the four corners of the vacuum suction cup are not cut off in an arc, the four corners are abnormally deformed, a partial gap is formed between the glass surface, and the sealing performance is deteriorated. It was found that some parts of the garbage were left uncleaned. However, since the four corners of the vacuum suction cup of the present invention are chamfered in an arc, the sealing performance is good and the cleaning operation can be performed smoothly.

[0006]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a cleaning apparatus having a vacuum suction cup according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the same, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the vacuum suction cup 2,
FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the same. The cleaning device of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of rectangular vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 and a pair of rectangular auxiliary suction cups 14 disposed in the vertical direction are provided on both sides in the horizontal direction of the main body 13 disposed in the center, and these are used for the air cylinder. Body 13 via piston rod or its movable body
It is connected to. That is, the left and right vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are
13 are connected to piston rods of sliding contact moving means 6 each comprising a pair of air cylinders. In addition, a pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 is also provided on the main body 13 for the vertical movement cylinder.
In FIG. 1, it is configured to move relative to each other in the vertical direction via the line 12. The upper surface of each of the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 is connected to a suction cup lifting cylinder 15 as shown in FIG. 2, and the suction cup lifting cylinder 15 is connected to the movable part of the vertical movement cylinder 12.

Next, the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are made of a molded article of urethane rubber, and taking the suction cup 2 as an example, the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are formed in a rectangular shape having an elongated notch in the center as shown in FIGS. The lower side edge protrudes, and the knife edge portion 5 is formed there. That is, the knife edge portion 5 is formed over the entire periphery of the vacuum suction cup 2. In addition, vacuum sucker 2
Are formed in an arc shape so that the vacuum suction cup 2 can smoothly slide and move on the glass surface. Such a vacuum suction cup 2 is fixed to a lower end inner flange portion of a suction cup support 16 formed in a box shape having a lower end opened via a fastener 27. That is, the rectangular notch 29 of the vacuum suction cup 2
The edges are fastened and fixed by fasteners 27 via the reinforcing plate 28 and the inner flange of the suction cup support 16. The edge of the rectangular cutout 29 is formed to be thicker than the other portions. However, when the inside of the vacuum suction cup 2 is made to have a negative pressure, it comes into contact with the glass surface and the vacuum suction cup 2 This is to prevent deformation of the rectangular notch portion 29 beyond the thick portion. In the vicinity of the annular knife edge portion 5 protruding to the back side, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the roller 10 extends along both edges parallel to the longitudinal direction.
Are rotatably supported by the bearing 11.

The lower surface of the roller 10 is located at the same level as or slightly above the tip surface of the knife edge 5. This roller 10
Constitutes a deflection preventing means 35 for preventing the knife edge portion 5 from being abnormally deformed during use of the present apparatus. Instead of using the roller 10 as the deflection preventing means 35, a thick urethane rubber portion may be provided adjacent to the knife edge portion 5 as shown in FIG. When the inside of the thick portion is not under a negative pressure, the lower surface thereof is located slightly above the lower surface of the knife edge portion 5. Then, when a large negative pressure or a large external force is applied, the lower surface of the deflection preventing means contacts the glass surface or the like. Thereby,
The knife edge portion 5 is prevented from being abnormally deformed, and the sealing performance of the vacuum suction cup is ensured. In addition, vacuum sucker 2
Although a reinforcing plate 28 is provided on the upper surface, the reinforcing plate 28 and the vacuum suction cup 2 do not necessarily need to be integrally fixed.
That is, the vacuum suction cup 2 may be configured to freely move downward except for the vicinity of the rectangular notch 29.

Next, a suction cup support 16 for holding the vacuum suction cup 2 is provided.
A lifting wheel 9 is arranged in the inside so as to be vertically movable. That is, the elevating wheel 9 is arranged in the rectangular notch 29 of the vacuum suction cup 2 as shown in FIGS. The lifting wheel 9 is configured to be vertically movable by a wheel lifting mechanism 8 using a pneumatic actuator. And this wheel lifting mechanism 8
Thus, the lower surface of the lifting wheel 9 can be brought into contact with the glass surface or separated from the glass surface. Next, the tip of the piston rod 26 of the sliding contact moving means 6 is fixed to the suction cup support 16 via a reinforcing member 30. A spray nozzle 4 and a plurality of sensors 7 are protruded and fixed to the edge of the suction cup support 16 as shown in FIG. The sensor 7 detects an obstacle such as a window frame, thereby preventing the vacuum suction cup 2 from colliding with the obstacle. Although the above description has described the vacuum suction cup 2 on the right side of FIG. 1, the vacuum suction cup 3 on the left side has a similar structure. The inside of the vacuum suckers 2 and 3 is made negative pressure by a vacuum generator. The vacuum generator of the cleaning apparatus of this embodiment utilizes an ejector. That is, an air hose is provided between the main body 13 and the compressed air source 22 disposed outside the cleaning device as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14.
Connected at 24. Ejectors 31 are provided on the main body 13 at the ends of the air hose 24 by the number of suction cups.

That is, in this embodiment, four ejectors 31 are provided (only two are shown in FIG. 13. One ejector may be used for a plurality of suction cups).
The diffuser 21 of each ejector 31 is formed in a cylindrical shape having a throttle portion inside as an example as shown in FIG. 14, and the tip of the air nozzle 20 is arranged near the throttle portion. The end of the suction pipe 25 communicates with the diffuser 21 so as to face the outer periphery of the air nozzle 20. The zero end of this suction pipe 25 is a check valve
It communicates with the inside of the vacuum suckers 2, 3 and the auxiliary sucker 14 via 18. This check valve 18 keeps the inside of the vacuum suction cup at a vacuum even if the compressed air source 22 is temporarily stopped, and prevents the cleaning device from dropping. Next, FIG.
A vacuum break valve 19 is provided as shown in FIG. This vacuum break valve
19 is for reducing the pressure inside two vacuum suckers out of the four vacuum suckers attached to the apparatus so that only the suckers can be easily separated from the glass surface and the entire apparatus can be easily moved. Things.

[0011]

Next, a method of using the cleaning device having a vacuum suction cup according to the present invention will be described. First, in FIG. 1, the device is suspended by being hooked to a wire or a rope in the suspension hole 33 at the uppermost end of the present device. Then, a compressor (not shown) and the main body 13 are connected by an air hose.
At the same time, a control device (not shown) and the main body 13 are connected via various connectors by various connectors. Further, a hose for washing water is connected to the main body 13. After such preparation, the compressor is driven, and the inside of the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 is made to have a negative pressure via the ejector, and is sucked on the smooth surface 1 which is a glass surface as shown in FIG. At this time, the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 are separated from the smooth surface 1. Therefore, the cleaning water is intermittently sprayed from the spray nozzle 4 onto the smooth surface 1 and, as shown in FIG. 6, when the right side is cleaned, the lifting wheel 9 of the vacuum suction cup 2 is lowered to the right side by the wheel lifting mechanism 8. The lower surface is brought into contact with the smooth surface 1. Note that the lifting wheel 9 of the left vacuum suction cup 3 is located away from the smooth surface 1. Then, the contact resistance between the left vacuum suction cup 3 and the smooth surface 1 becomes larger than the contact resistance of the right vacuum suction cup 2.

Then, the four air cylinders, which are the sliding contact moving means 6, are driven to extend the respective piston rods 26. Then, in FIG. 6, the vacuum suction cup 2 moves to the right by twice the extension length of each piston rod 26. At this time, since the knife edge portion 5 of the vacuum suction cup 2 is in contact with the smooth surface 1, dust moves together with the water film 17 on the smooth surface 1 as shown in FIG. By doing so, the glass surface is cleaned in a strip shape with the width in which the vacuum suction cup 2 is sucked. Then, as shown in FIG. 9, the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 is adsorbed on the glass surface, and then the pair of vacuum suction cups 2, 3 are separated from the glass surface as shown in FIG. To do this, first, the suction lift cylinder 15 is operated, its piston rod 26 is extended, and the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 is attracted to the glass surface. Next, the inside of the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 is brought to atmospheric pressure via a vacuum break valve, and the suction cup lifting cylinder 15 is further driven to extend the piston rod 26. Thereby, the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are separated from the glass surface. Then, the main body 13 is moved up and down in FIG. 8 by driving the vertical movement cylinder 12 connected to the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14. Thus, the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 can be moved in the vertical direction.

Next, only the left and right vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are attracted to the glass surface again, and are moved in the left and right direction, whereby the wide glass surface can be cleaned in a meandering manner. Next, in order to move the present apparatus beyond the window frame 34 at the edge of one glass surface, the following may be performed. First, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, when the cleaning device is moved to the position closest to the window frame 34 at the edge of one glass surface, it is projected and fixed to the edge of the suction cup support 16 of the vacuum suction cup 2, for example. Sensor 7
Detects the window frame 34 and temporarily stops the cleaning device from moving rightward. Next, as shown in FIG.
Is operated to extend the piston rod 26 to separate the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 from the glass surface. Then figure
11, the respective piston rods 26 connected to the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are extended so that the vacuum suction cup 2 exceeds the window frame 34. Next, the piston rod 26 of the suction cup lifting cylinder 15 is reduced, and the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are sucked to the glass surface. Then, further sucker lifting cylinder 15
Is driven to raise the auxiliary suction cups 14 and separate the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 from the glass surface. Then, the lifting wheel 9 (FIG. 3) of the left vacuum suction cup 3 is brought into contact with the glass surface and the sliding contact moving means 6 is moved. The piston rod 26 is contracted. Then, the left vacuum sucker 3
Moves to the right in FIG. Thereby, the device body
13 can be moved to the right. After that, the cleaning device is slid and moved to a position where the vacuum suction cup 3 is closest to the window frame 34, and then the above operation is performed again. It is possible to move to the surface.

[0014]

According to the vacuum suction cup of the apparatus for cleaning a wall or a window glass of the present invention, a rectangular vacuum suction cup which is detachably attached to a smooth surface such as a glass surface is formed on a knife edge, and the rectangular vacuum suction cup is formed. Is configured to slide on the smooth surface, so that only the vacuum suction cup moves on the smooth surface, so that it is possible to clean the window frame to every corner of the window frame. Therefore, the structure is simple, there is no failure, and the sliding surface surely comes into sliding contact with the smooth surface, so that it is possible to efficiently clean the sliding locus. This is because the rectangular vacuum sucker moves while adsorbing to the smooth surface, so that the contact with the smooth surface is reliably maintained. In addition, since the vacuum suction cup is rectangular, the corners can be aligned with the corners of the window frame and the corners can be cleaned to every corner. Further, since the four corners of the vacuum suction cup are chamfered in an arc shape, the four corners are prevented from being abnormally deformed with the sliding movement, and the sealing performance is ensured and a smooth cleaning operation is performed. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the cleaning device.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the cleaning device.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a vacuum suction cup 2 of the cleaning device.

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the vacuum suction cup 2;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a use state of the cleaning device having the vacuum suction cup.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of cleaning the vacuum suction cup 2;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory plan view of a first step in which the cleaning device passes over a window frame.

FIG. 9 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory front view of a second step in which the cleaning device passes over a window frame.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory plan view of a third step when the cleaning device exceeds the window frame 34.

FIG. 12 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of an air pipe used in the present vacuum suction cup.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of an ejector 31 used in the present vacuum suction cup.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram in a case where a deflection preventing unit is not provided in the vacuum suction cup.

FIG. 16 is a plan view showing a relationship between the main vacuum sucker 3 and a window frame 34.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the deflection preventing means applied to the vacuum suction cup of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Smooth surface 2 Vacuum suction cup 3 Vacuum suction cup 4 Spray nozzle 5 Knife edge 6 Sliding contact moving means 7 Sensor 8 Wheel elevating mechanism 9 Elevating wheel 10 Roller 11 Bearing 12 Vertical movement cylinder 13 Body 14 Auxiliary suction cup 15 Suction cup lifting cylinder 16 Suction cup support Body 17 Water film 18 Check valve 19 Vacuum break valve 20 Air nozzle 21 Diffuser 22 Compressed air source 23 Filter 24 Air hose 25 Suction pipe 26 Piston rod 27 Fastener 28 Reinforcement plate 29 Rectangular cutout 30 Reinforcement body 31 Ejector 33 Suspension Hole 34 Window frame 35 Deflection prevention means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A47L 1/02 A47L 11/38 B62D 57/02 B25J 5/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of vacuum suckers (2) and (3) which are detachably attached to a smooth surface (1) such as a glass surface, respectively, are provided at ends of a plurality of extendable and retractable driving bodies, respectively. In a vacuum suction cup of a cleaning device having a spray nozzle (4) whose surface is supplied with cleaning water, each of said vacuum suction cups (2),
(3) The knife edge portion (5) is projected from the peripheral edge of the suction side, and the plane of the vacuum suction cup is formed in a square shape, and at least the four corners of the square are formed in an arc at least on the suction side. A device for cleaning a wall surface or a window glass, wherein corners are cut off, and at least one of the vacuum suckers is configured to slide on the smooth surface (1) while adsorbing to the smooth surface (1). Vacuum sucker. 2. The vacuum suction cup according to claim 1, further comprising means for preventing deflection of the knife edge portion adjacent to the inside of the knife edge portion.