JPH02225160A - Car washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve safety when washing a car by detecting the shape of a car body according to the ascending and descending motion of an injection means for the upper face of a car body, and putting data on the detected shape of the car body in a memory, and controlling the motion of a brushing device during brush-washing executed after high pressure washing on the above data. CONSTITUTION:A car washing machine body 1 reciprocated on a rail 2 is provided for washing a car body with an upper face brush 6 supported by a rotating arm 8 and a pair of side brushes 7 free-movable in a direction where the brushes 7 approach and separate mutually along a rail 9 stretched above the main body 1. A upper face blower nozzle 14 supported by a link arm 18 and side blower nozzles 15 are further provided for drying the car body, and a high pressure injection nozzle 20 for the upper face of the car body is attached to the upper face blower nozzle 14. In this case, the traveling position of the main body 1 and the ascending and descending positions of the nozzle 14 are detected, and the position and shape of the car body are recognized on the above detected results, and the brushes are controlled to execute evading motion in a process where the brushes are made to function after that.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to a type of washing machine 111 that automatically washes a car wash machine body or a car body while the car is running.

[Conventional technology 1 Conventionally, as this type of VC installation, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-4674
As seen in Publication No. 5 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-147350, a high-pressure jetting means of washing water is provided, and the car can be washed without using a brush by high-pressure jetting, or if a brush is used, the car body can be washed by high-pressure jetting in advance. There is a known device that can safely wash a car without damaging the surface of the car by removing dirt and sand from the car and then washing the car with a brush.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, with this type of device equipped with a brush and a blower nozzle for drying car bodies, if there is a protruding object such as a roof carrier or various spoilers on the car body, the brush or blower nozzle can dry the protruding object. There is a risk of damaging the protruding object. For this reason, for cars with such protruding objects, it is necessary to set the brush or blower nozzle not to directly act on the protruding moving parts, or to take manual avoidance measures. It was an unnecessary hassle.

[Means for Solving the Problems 1] This invention was made in response to these problems, and focuses on high-pressure washing that is performed prior to brush cleaning and drying operations using blower nozzles. The system detects and memorizes the shape of the car body by imitating the shape of the car body, and operates the brush device and blower nozzle based on the memorized shape of the car body to completely wash the car.

[Example 1 Examples thereof will be described below based on the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 3 are explanatory diagrams showing the structure of an embodiment of the present invention, and here a so-called gate-type car wash machine is illustrated.

Wash*a Main body 1 travels back and forth on rails 2 and 2, and
・Move as if straddling the car ■ stopped at 2Fffj. 3.3 is the driving motor of the car wash machine main body 1, and the wheel 4.
4 is chain driven. Reference numeral 5 denotes a rotary encoder attached to the output shaft of the motors 3, 3, which outputs a pulse every time the shaft rotates at a constant rate, and is used to detect the traveling position of the main body 1.

6, 7, and 7 are all brush devices for washing the car body, 6 is an upper brush supported swingably by rotating arms 8, 8, and 7 and 7 are in contact with each other on a rail 9 extending above the main body. A pair of side brushes supported so as to be movable in the direction of separation, each rotating in contact with the vehicle body and moving to follow the shape of the top or side surface of the vehicle body. Reference numeral 10 denotes an air cylinder for raising and lowering the upper brush 6;
When the upper brush 6 is not in operation, the air supply is extended and the upper brush 6 is placed on standby above. Reference numerals 12 and 12 indicate air cylinders that operate in a direction to separate the side brushes 7 and 7 from each other, and 13 and 13 indicate weights that bias the side brushes 7 and 7 in a direction that causes them to approach each other.

14, 15, and 15 are all blower nozzles for car body drying, and are connected to blowers 16 and 16 through a duct 17. 14 is an upper blower nozzle that is supported by a link arm 18 so as to be able to be raised and lowered, and 15 and 15 are blower nozzles for car washing. Side blower nozzles fixed on both sides of the machine body 1 blow air toward the top or side of the car body, respectively, to scatter water droplets attached to the car body after cleaning and dry the car body. The structure of the upper blower nozzle 14 will be described later.

20 to 25 are all nozzle pipes equipped with a plurality of liquid discharge nozzles, 20 and 21 are high-pressure injection nozzles that spray cleaning water at high pressure toward the front and side surfaces of the vehicle body, respectively;
2 is a detergent nozzle that mainly releases detergent water, 23 is a wax nozzle that mainly releases a wax aqueous solution, 24 is a 7 ohm/xle that mainly releases foamed detergent water, and 25 is a rinsing water nozzle. This is a rinse nozzle. Among these, the high-pressure injection nozzle 20 for the upper surface of the vehicle body is attached to the upper blower nozzle 14 and is configured to be able to move up and down together with the blower nozzle 14.

The piping configuration of the nozzle pipes 20 to 25 will be explained using diagram tjS4. A water supply device 30 is provided separately from the car wash main body 1, and is composed of a water storage tank 31 and a water supply pump 32, and pressure-feeds wash water to the car wash main body 1 via a hose 33. 34 is a high pressure pump consisting of a plunger pump etc.
Washing water fed from the water supply device 30 is further pressurized and discharged from the high-pressure injection nozzles 20 and 21. 35・36
are high-pressure pipes leading from the high-pressure pump 34 to the high-pressure injection nozzles 20 and 21, each of which is equipped with electromagnetic valves 37 and 38.

On the other hand, pipe lines 37 to 40 are connected to other nozzles 22 to 25.
The water supplied from the water supply device 30 is sent as is through the nozzles, and the water discharge from the nozzles is controlled by electromagnetic valves 41 to 44 provided in each of the pipes 37 to 40. 45-47
Both are liquid agent tanks; tank 45 stores detergent liquid, tank 46 stores wax liquid, and tank 47 stores foaming detergent liquid. The liquids in the liquid tanks 45-47 are brought to the pipes 37-39 via liquid pipes 48-50, mixed with wash water from the water supply device 30, diluted, and discharged from the nozzles 22-24. 51 to 53 are electromagnetic valves provided in the liquid agent pipes 48 to 50, and 54 to 56 are flow rate control valves. Reference numeral 57 denotes a pneumatic source, which is connected to the conduit 39 leading to the 7-ohming nozzle 24 via a solenoid valve 58, and is used for foaming the foaming detergent.

5 and 6 are enlarged explanatory views of the upper blower nozzle 14 section. 60 is a hydraulic cylinder connected to the link arm 18 via a wire 61, and connected to the upper blower nozzle 1.
4 is faked going up and down. 62 is a pneumatic/hydraulic humbator, 63
is a solenoid valve provided between the converter 13 and the hydraulic cylinder 60; 64 is a three-way solenoid valve for supplying and exhausting air to the pneumatic/hydraulic converter 13; the hydraulic cylinder 60 is controlled by air pressure from the pneumatic source 57; The circuit is configured to allow this.

A rotary encoder 65 is attached to the pulley 66 of the wire 61, which detects the rotation of the pulley 66 and outputs a pulse, and is used to detect the vertical position of the upper blower nozzle 14. 67 and 68 are beam transmitters attached to the blower nozzle 14 via an arm 69;
° and 68゛ are beam receivers installed symmetrically to this, and these emitters and receivers are 67 and 67°, and 68 and 68゛ are facing each other, and the lower emitter and receiver is 67 and 67°.
A beam signal a is exchanged between them, and a beam signal a is exchanged between the other transmitter/receiver 68 and 68'. The beam receivers 67'' and 68'' receive the beam signal a.
- detects that b is blocked by the vehicle body and outputs a signal,
This signal is used to recognize the positional relationship between the vehicle body and the upper blower nozzle 14 and to control the hydraulic sill 60 so that the upper blower nozzle 14 does not come into direct contact with a heavy object.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the control system of the above embodiment.

70 is a control board, which includes input/output circuits 1. It has a built-in microcomputer consisting of a CPU 72 and a memory 73. 74 is a relay board that operates output devices such as a motor, a pump, and a solenoid valve provided in the car wash machine in response to signals from the control board 70. The control board 70 includes the rotary encoders 5 and 65 and the beam receiver 67 described above.
Recognizes the vehicle body shape etc. based on the signal from ゛・68゛,
The operation of each part is controlled via the relay board 74 to execute the car wash.

An example of the car wash operation programmed in the control board 70 will be described below with reference to FIG. The car wash operation illustrated here is one in which the car wash main body 1 makes three reciprocations to complete a series of operations, and consists of a six-step car wash process from the first outbound trip A to the third return trip F.

A first outbound: As the car wash main body 1 moves out, the high-pressure pump 34 is driven and the solenoid valve 37 is opened to inject high-pressure wash water from the high-pressure injection nozzle 20 toward the upper surface of the automatic ILv. At this time, the high-pressure injection nozzle 20 descends together with the blower nozzle 14, and moves up and down following the shape of the upper surface of the vehicle body.

B 1st return trip: As the car wash machine main body 1 returns, high-pressure pump 34
At the same time, the solenoid valve 38 is opened, and the high-pressure injection nozzle 21 injects high-pressure cleaning water toward the side of the automobile (2).

C 2nd outbound trip: As the car wash machine main body 1 goes out, the brush devices 6, 7, and 7 are activated, and the solenoid valves 41, 44, and 51 are activated.
When opened, the detergent water and water are discharged from the detergent nozzle 22 and the prince nozzle 25, and the brush cleaning of the car body is performed. When the operating state is released, the brush devices a6, 7, and 7 come into contact with the vehicle body and move to follow the shape of the vehicle body.

D Second return trip: As the car wash main body 1 returns, the brush devices 6, 7, and 7 are activated, and the solenoid valves 41, 43, and 53 are activated.
58 is opened to discharge water and foaming detergent from the detergent nozzle 22 and the 17-year-old mixing/throwing device 24 to perform brush cleaning of the vehicle body.

E 3rd outbound trip: As the car wash machine main body 1 goes out, the brush devices 6, 7, and 7 are activated, and the solenoid valves 42, 44, and 52 are activated.
The vehicle body is waxed by opening the wax nozzle 23 and blower nozzle 25 to discharge wax water and water.

F 1st trailing: As the car wash machine main body 1 returns, the blower 16
16 to blow out air from the blower nozzles 14, 15, and 15 to dry the vehicle body. Here, the hydraulic cylinder 60 is operated to move the upper blower nozzle 14 up and down following the shape of the vehicle body.

As mentioned above, during the first round trip, the car body was high-pressure washed to remove mud and sand that had adhered to the 11 car surfaces.
On the second round trip, the car is cleaned with a brush to remove oil stains and water scales that have stuck to the car body, and on the third round trip, the car is waxed and finished by drying.

Here, the control board 70 monitors and stores the top surface shape of the vehicle body while moving the high-pressure injection nozzle 20 up and down to perform high-pressure cleaning in the first outbound trip A, and uses this stored data as a basis for subsequent steps. It functions to control the operation of the upper surface brush 6 and the upper surface blower nozzle 14. The specific operation will be explained below using FIGS. 9 to 13.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the main functional parts of the control board 70. The running position detection section (A) counts pulse signals from the rotary encoder 5 and provides the running position of the car wash machine main body 1. In other words, for each pulse signal from the rotary encoder 5, when the main body 1 is moving forward, the pulse signal is +1.
, during the go-around, the count is decremented by one, and the count is given with the standby position when the main body 1 is normally stopped as the starting point.

The elevation position detection section (b) is the rotary encoder 6
Counting the pulse signal from 5, the upper blower nozzle 1
4 (high pressure injection nozzle 20). That is, for each pulse signal from the rotary encoder 65,
When descending, the count is +1, and when ascending, it is counted -1, and as shown in FIG. 5, the count is given as α when the standby position is raised.

Every time there is a pulse input from the rotary encoder 5, the vehicle body detection section (c) stores the traveling position given by the traveling position detection section (a) and the elevation position given by the elevation position detection section (b) into a vehicle shape storage section. (d) At the same time, the vehicle body position and body shape are recognized based on the signals from the beam receivers 67' and 68', and the body shape is determined to be an obstacle in the subsequent brush cleaning or drying process. If it is determined that the problem will occur, the car shape memory section (
d). The specific processing in this vehicle shape detection section (c) is as shown in FIG.

The brush control unit (e) controls the elevation of the upper brush 6 via the air cylinder IO, and as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, the blower nozzle control section (c) that performs the avoidance moves the upper blower nozzle up and down via the hydraulic cylinder 60 based on the signal from the vehicle shape detection section (c). As shown in the figure, the operation is performed in the same manner as in FIG. 11 based on the data stored in the vehicle shape storage section (d).

Pls 10 is a flowchart showing the processing operation of the vehicle body detection section (c) during the first outbound movement A in FIG.

When the first outgoing process is started, the solenoid valve 63 is opened, the three-way solenoid valve 64 is switched to the exhaust side, and the upper blower nozzle 1 is opened.
4 (high-pressure injection nozzle 20) is outputted (1), as the lower beam emitter/receiver 67 and
When the beam signal a between 67° and 67° is left on the car and is detected by the beam receiver 67° (2), the solenoid valve 63 is switched to m and the three-way solenoid valve 64 is switched to the air supply side to lower the upper blower nozzle 14. Outputs a signal to stop and hold (3).

After this, the beam signals between the upper beam emitter and receiver 68 and 68 are also blocked by the car body, and are transmitted to the beam receiver 6.
When detected at 8° (4), the solenoid valve 63 is opened and a signal is output to raise the upper blower nozzle 14 (5). When the detection state of the beam receiver 68° is released as it rises (6), the electromagnetic A signal is output to close the valve 63 to stop and hold the rise (7).

On the other hand, when the detection state of the lower beam receivers 67 and 67' is released (8), the upper surface blower/
Lower the glue 14 (9). Here, if it is recognized that the downward transition occurred within a certain period of time T1 after the previous upward movement, as shown in the X and Y sections of Fig. 11 (10), then the Lou 7 carrier, etc. It is determined that the protrusion is a protrusion that may cause damage to the vehicle, and the current running position and lifting position are read from the detection parts (a) and (b) and stored in the vehicle shape storage part (d) (11). As shown in the second part of Figure 11,
If the period of descent is found to be within a certain time period T1 (12), it is determined that the slope is too steep for rear protrusions such as a rear spoiler or brushes to move smoothly, and the current running position and elevating position are determined. is read by the detection parts (a) and (b) and stored in the vehicle shape storage part (d).

In this way, the high-pressure injection nozzle 20, which is integrally formed with the upper blower nozzle 14, moves up and down while spraying cleaning water at high pressure to high-pressure wash the automobile body, and in parallel with this, the high-pressure injection nozzle 20, which is formed integrally with the upper blower nozzle 14, It monitors the shape and checks and memorizes any areas that are at risk of breakage during subsequent brush cleaning and drying operations. Therefore, in the subsequent brush cleaning, the avoidance position of the upper brush 6 is set based on the data given by the vehicle shape storage section at the beginning of the process, and the avoidance position of the upper brush 6 is set according to the traveling position given by the traveling position detection section (a). a) Perform brush cleaning including avoidance operations as in (b).

In addition, in the vehicle shape detection section (c), in addition to the processing shown in FIG.
For each pulse input from the rotary encoder 5, the traveling position and the corresponding lifting position are stored in the vehicle shape storage section (d). As a result, in the drying process, the 13th
As shown in the figure, the movement is exactly the same as the first outbound, and the 11th
The blower nozzle can operate safely even in locations like the Z part in the diagram without getting caught.

This embodiment is configured as described above, and the shape of the vehicle is detected during high-pressure washing during the first outbound trip, and thereafter the upper brush and upper blower nozzle are controlled based on the detected vehicle shape data, so brush cleaning and drying are possible. It is possible to automatically detect and avoid areas that are likely to cause damage during washing, ensuring safe car washing at all times.

Note that this invention is not limited to the above embodiments,
Various embodiments are possible.For example, the car wash machine may be of the type in which the car itself moves, rather than the main body of the machine (also, the high-pressure injection nozzle may be provided separately from the top blower nozzle, etc.). Furthermore, high-pressure washing can be carried out in parallel with the brush operation if the structure allows it to be carried out before the brush acts on the car body, and in this way f:
It is also possible to shorten the operation shown in Figure 1IJ8 to two reciprocations.

[Effect of the Invention J] This invention is constructed as described above, and even if there is a protruding object such as a roof carrier or a spoiler on the automatic IIL vehicle body, this is detected in a process that involves high-pressure injection of cleaning water, and the subsequent brush Alternatively, avoidance operation can be performed during the process of operating the blower nozzle, so that car washing can always be carried out safely.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory front view of one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory plan view of the same embodiment. FIG. 3 is a side explanatory view of the same embodiment. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the piping configuration of the same embodiment. FIG. 5 is an explanatory side view of the main parts of the same embodiment. Figure 96 is a front explanatory view of the main part. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the control system of the same embodiment. FIG. 8 is a process chart showing an example of the car washing operation of the same embodiment. FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the control functions of the same embodiment. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the main part of the program of the same embodiment. FIGS. 11 to 13 are explanatory diagrams showing an example of the operation of the embodiment. 1 is the car wash machine body, 6, 7, 7 are the brush devices, 14, 15
・15 is a blower nozzle, 20 and 21 are high-pressure injection nozzles as high-pressure injection means, 60 is a hydraulic cylinder as lifting means, 7
0 is the control board, (A) is the traveling position detection section, (B) is the elevation position detection section, (C) is the vehicle body detection section, (D) is the vehicle shape memory section, (E) is the brush control section, ( ) is a blower nozzle system lol
Department. MK Seiko Co., Ltd. - To the enemy Figure 1 Figure J Kikusuke No. 21! Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 7n Figure 8 Figure 11 Figure 12

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a type of car wash machine that automatically washes the car body by operating the car wash machine itself or a brush device as the car runs, there is a means for spraying high-pressure washing water toward the car body; means for raising and lowering the injection means for the upper surface of the vehicle body following the shape of the upper surface of the vehicle; means for detecting the shape of the vehicle body as the elevating means moves the injection means for the upper surface of the vehicle body; and the shape of the vehicle body detected by the detection means. The vehicle is characterized by comprising means for storing data, and means for controlling the operation of the brush device during brush cleaning performed after high-pressure washing by the high-pressure injection means based on the vehicle body shape data provided by the storage means. Car wash machine. (2) In a type of car wash machine in which the main body of the car wash moves back and forth across the car, and after washing the car, air is ejected from a blower nozzle to dry the car, a means for spraying high-pressure washing water toward the car body; A means for raising and lowering the injection means for the upper surface of the vehicle body among the high-pressure injection means following the shape of the upper surface of the vehicle; a means for detecting the shape of the vehicle body as the elevating means moves the injection means for the upper surface of the vehicle body up and down; A car wash machine comprising: means for storing vehicle body shape data detected by the means; and means for controlling the raising and lowering of a blower nozzle for drying the upper surface of the vehicle body based on the vehicle body shape data provided by the storing means. (3) In the car wash machine according to claim (1) or (2), the injection means for the upper surface of the car body is raised and lowered integrally with the blower nozzle for drying the upper surface of the car body, and the elevating means for the injection means is for raising and lowering the blower nozzle. A car wash machine that doubles as a means.