JPH0584159A - Driver of washing apparatus for wall surface or window glass - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To clean a glass surface accurately with a simple construction by a method wherein the periphery on the suction side of a vacuum sucker is formed at a knife edge part and a wheel lift mechanism of one vacuum sucker is operated to make a smooth surface of the vacuum sucker move in sliding contact while decreasing a contact resistance in the contact of the one vacuum sucker. CONSTITUTION:The inside of a vacuum sucker 2 is made to have a negative pressure to reduce a contact resistance between one vacuum sucker and a glass surface is made smaller than the contact resistance of the other vacuum sucker. For example, a lift wheel 9 of the vacuum sucker 2 is lowered to the right hand and one part of the contact part between the sucker 2 and the glass surface is separated from the glass surface so that a part of the contact resistance is turned to a rolling friction between the lift wheel and the glass surface from the state of static friction to reduce the contact resistance of the sucker 2 smaller than that of the left sucker. Then, a piston rod 26 of a cylinder as sucker moving means 6 is extended so that the vacuum sucker with a smaller contact resistance alone is moved in the extending direction of the piston rod 26. Thus, the rim part of the vacuum sucker 2 is formed at the knife edge part 5 thereby enabling cleaning with the movement of the vacuum sucker 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention mainly relates to a cleaning device for cleaning an extremely smooth surface such as a vertical window glass, and more particularly to a driving device for a vacuum sucker which sucks the glass surface or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional window glass cleaning device having a vacuum suction cup cleans the glass surface by a separate cleaning tool attached to the main body of the cleaning device while sucking the main body of the cleaning device.

[0003]

It is preferable that the weight of the cleaning device for cleaning the vertical or inclined window glass is as small as possible. Therefore, what has a simple structure and can clean the glass surface reliably was desired.

[0004]

Therefore, according to the present invention, as a cleaning device having a simple structure and contributing to weight reduction, the vacuum suction cup itself also serves as a glass surface cleaning component, and the glass suction surface is driven by the vacuum suction disk drive device. I noticed that cleaning should be done while the vacuum suction cup is in contact with
Based on this, the following invention was devised. That is, the drive device of the cleaning device of the present invention is provided with a plurality of vacuum suction cups that are removably adsorbed on a smooth surface such as a glass surface at the end portions of a plurality of expandable and contractible driving bodies, respectively, and wash water on the smooth surface. In what is provided with a spray nozzle for supplying, a knife edge portion is projected on the suction side peripheral edge of each vacuum suction cup, and a wheel is provided inside each vacuum suction cup so that it can freely move in and out in the thickness direction of the vacuum suction cup, A wheel elevating mechanism is provided that drives the wheel so that it can move in and out in the thickness direction. Furthermore, suction cup moving means for expanding and contracting the distance between the two vacuum suction cups is provided, and the wheel of only one of the vacuum suction cups is projected to make the contact resistance between the one vacuum suction cup and the smooth surface smaller than that of the other. In addition, it is characterized in that one of the vacuum suction cups is sucked onto the smooth surface by the operation of the suction cup moving means and is slidably moved on the smooth surface.

[0005]

The apparatus is sucked onto the smooth surface 1 by setting a negative pressure inside the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 shown in FIGS. Then, cleaning water is sprayed from the spray nozzle 4 onto the glass surface for an extremely short time. At the same time, in order to make the contact resistance between any one of the vacuum suction cups and the glass surface smaller than the contact resistance of the other vacuum suction cup, the elevating wheel 9 of the vacuum suction cup 2 is lowered to the right, for example, as shown in FIG. By moving a part of the contact portion between the suction cup 2 and the glass surface away from the glass surface, a part of the contact resistance is changed from static friction to a rolling friction between the lifting wheel and the glass surface, and the contact resistance of the suction cup 2 is left. Smaller than that. Next, the piston rod of the cylinder, which is the suction cup moving means 6, is extended. 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, the edge of this vacuum suction cup is formed on the knife edge portion 5. Therefore, along with the movement of the vacuum suction cup 2, the water film 17 on the smooth surface 1 as shown in FIG. The dust on the smooth surface 1 is moved and cleaned.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view of a cleaning device having a driving device of 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.
Also, as shown in FIG. 2, a pair of rectangular vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 and a pair of vertical auxiliary suction cups 14 arranged in the vertical direction are provided on both sides in the lateral direction of the main body 13 arranged in the center, and these are arranged in the air cylinder. The body 13 via the piston rod or its movable body
Is linked to. That is, the left and right vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are the main body
13 are connected to the piston rods of the suction cup moving means 6 each consisting of a pair of air cylinders. A pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 are also provided in the main body 13 for vertical movement.
It is configured to relatively move in the vertical direction in FIG. The upper surface of each of the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 is connected to the suction cup elevating cylinder 15 as shown in FIG. 2, and the suction cup elevating cylinder 15 is connected to the movable portion of the vertical movement cylinder 12.

Next, the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are made of urethane rubber moldings. 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 surface side edge portion projects and the knife edge portion 5 is formed there. That is, the knife edge portion 5 is formed over the entire peripheral edge of the vacuum suction cup 2. The vacuum sucker 2
Is formed in an arc shape, so that the vacuum suction cup 2 can be smoothly slid 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 with an open lower end via a fastener 27. That is, the rectangular notch 29 of the vacuum suction cup 2
The edge portion is fastened and fixed by the fastener 27 via the reinforcing plate 28 and the inner flange portion of the suction cup support 16. The edge of the rectangular notch 29 is formed thicker than the other parts, but when the inside of the vacuum suction cup 2 is made 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. Further, in the vicinity of the annular knife edge portion 5 protruding to the back surface side, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the roller 10 is provided along both edge portions parallel to the longitudinal direction thereof.
Is 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 portion 5. This roller 10
Is for preventing the knife edge portion 5 from being deformed abnormally during use of the present device. Although the reinforcing plate 28 is provided on the upper surface of the vacuum suction cup 2, the reinforcing plate 28 and the vacuum suction cup 2 need not be fixed integrally. That is, the vacuum suction cup 2 may be freely moved downward except in the vicinity of the rectangular cutout 29. Next, the lifting wheels 9 are vertically movable in the suction cup support 16 that holds the vacuum suction cup 2. That is, the lifting wheels 9 are arranged in the rectangular notch 29 of the vacuum suction cup 2 as shown in FIGS. The lift wheels 9 are vertically movable by a wheel lift mechanism 8 using a pneumatic actuator. Then, the wheel elevating mechanism 8 can bring the lower surface of the elevating wheel 9 into contact with the glass surface or separate it from the glass surface.

Next, the tip of the piston rod 26 of the suction cup moving means 6 is fixed to the suction cup support 16 via the reinforcing body 30. Further, the spray nozzle 4 and a plurality of sensors 7 as shown in FIG.
This sensor 7 detects an obstacle such as a window frame,
This prevents the vacuum suction cup 2 from colliding with an obstacle. The above explanation is for the vacuum suction cup 2 on the right side of FIG.
However, the vacuum suction cup 3 on the left side has a similar structure. The inside of the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 is made negative by the vacuum generator. The vacuum generator of the cleaning device of this embodiment uses an ejector. That is, as shown in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the compressed air source 22 arranged outside the cleaning device and the main body 13 are connected by the air hose 24. Ejectors 31 corresponding to the number of suction cups are provided on the main body 13 at the ends of the air hose 24.

That is, in this embodiment, four ejectors 31 are provided (only two are shown in FIG. 13. Note that one ejector may be used for a plurality of suction cups).
The diffuser 21 of each ejector 31 is formed in a tubular shape having a throttle portion inside, as shown in FIG. 14, and the tip of the air nozzle 20 is arranged close to the throttle portion. The end of the suction pipe 25 communicates with the diffuser 21 so as to face the outer circumference of the air nozzle 20. The other end of this suction pipe 25 is a check valve
It communicates with the inside of the vacuum suction cups 2, 3 and the auxiliary suction cup 14 via 18. This check valve 18 keeps the inside of the vacuum suction cup vacuum even if the compressed air source 22 is temporarily stopped, and prevents the cleaning device from falling. Then, for these vacuum suckers,
As described above, the vacuum break valve 19 is provided. This vacuum break valve
19 is for making the inside of two vacuum suction cups of the four vacuum suction cups attached to the device to be atmospheric pressure, so that only the suction cups can be easily peeled off from the glass surface and the entire device can be easily moved. belongs to.

[0011]

Next, a method of using the cleaning device having the driving device of the present invention will be described. First, in FIG. 1, the wire or rope is locked in the hanging hole 33 at the uppermost end of the cleaning device,
Suspend the device. Then, a compressor (not shown) and the main body 13 are connected by an air hose in FIG. At the same time, the control device (not shown) and the main body 13 are connected via a connector by various control cables. Further, a hose for washing water is connected to the main body 13. After such preparation, the compressor is driven to make a negative pressure inside the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 via the ejector, and the vacuum suction cups 3 are sucked onto 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 when cleaning the right side as shown in FIG. 6, the lifting wheel 9 of the vacuum suction cup 2 is moved down by the wheel lifting mechanism 8 to The lower surface is brought into contact with the smooth surface 1. The lifting wheels 9 of the vacuum suction cup 3 on the left side are 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, four air cylinders, which are the suction cup 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 is moved 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 band shape with the width in which the vacuum suction cup 2 is sucked. Therefore, next, as shown in FIG. 9, the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 are attracted to the glass surface, and then the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 are separated from the glass surface as shown in FIG. In order to do so, first, the suction cup elevating cylinder 15 is operated, the piston rod 26 thereof is extended, and the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 are adsorbed on the glass surface. Then, the inside of the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 is brought to atmospheric pressure through the vacuum breaking valve, the suction cup lifting cylinder 15 is further driven, and the piston rod 26 is extended. As a result, the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 separate from the glass surface. Therefore, by driving the vertical movement cylinder 12 connected to the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14, the main body 13 is moved up and down in FIG. Thereby, the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 can be moved in the vertical direction.

Then, by again adsorbing only the left and right vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 to the glass surface and moving them in the left and right direction, it becomes possible to clean the wide glass surface in a meandering shape. Then, in order to move the 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, for example, it is projected and fixed to the edge of the suction cup support 16 of the vacuum suction cup 2. Sensor 7
Detects the window frame 34 and temporarily stops the cleaning device from moving to the right. Next, as shown in FIG.
Is operated to extend the piston rod 26 and separate the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 from the glass surface. Then figure
As shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, each piston rod 26 connected to the vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 is 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 contracted to adsorb the pair of vacuum suction cups 2 and 3 on the glass surface. Then, sucker lifting cylinder 15
After driving the auxiliary suction cups 14 up to separate the pair of auxiliary suction cups 14 from the glass surface, the lifting wheels 9 (FIG. 3) of the left vacuum suction cup 3 are brought into contact with the glass surface to move the sliding contact moving means 6. The piston rod 26 is contracted. Then, the left vacuum suction cup 3
Moves to the right in FIG. As a result, the device body
You can move 13 to the right. Thereafter, the cleaning device is slidably moved to a position where the vacuum suction cup 3 is closest to the window frame 34, and the cleaning device is completely moved over the window frame 34 to be adjacent to the glass frame by performing such work again. It becomes possible to move to the surface.

[0014]

The cleaning device driving device of the present invention has at least a pair of vacuum suction cups which are detachably attached to a smooth surface such as a glass surface, and the suction side peripheral edge of each vacuum suction cup is a knife edge portion. Formed, operating the wheel lifting mechanism of one of the vacuum suction cups, while reducing the contact resistance of one of the vacuum suction cups, the vacuum suction cups are configured to slide on a smooth surface,
The vacuum sucker moves smoothly on the smooth surface and can be cleaned. For this reason, the structure is simple, there is no failure, and it is possible to surely make sliding contact with a smooth surface, and to efficiently clean the sliding contact path without leaving any space. This is because the vacuum suction cup moves while being attracted to the smooth surface, so that the contact with the smooth surface is reliably maintained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a cleaning device having the present driving device.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a cleaning device having the present drive device.

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

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

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

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a usage state of a cleaning device having the present driving device.

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 including the drive device crosses the 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 crosses the window frame.

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

FIG. 12 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of an air pipe used in a cleaning device having the present drive device.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of an ejector 31 used in a cleaning device having the present driving device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 smooth surface 2 vacuum suction cup 3 vacuum suction cup 4 spray nozzle 5 knife edge part 6 suction cup moving means 7 sensor 8 wheel lifting mechanism 9 wheel 10 roller 11 bearing 12 cylinder for vertical movement 13 main body 14 auxiliary suction cup 15 suction cup lifting cylinder 16 suction cup support 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 Hanging hole 34 window frame

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of vacuum suction cups (2), (3) which are detachably attached to a smooth surface (1) such as a glass surface are provided at the end portions of a plurality of extendable and retractable driving bodies, and the smooth surface is provided. In a driving device for a cleaning device for a wall surface or a window glass provided with a spray nozzle (4) for supplying cleaning water to (1), a knife edge portion is provided on a suction side peripheral edge of each of the vacuum suction cups (2) and (3). (5) is projected, and each of the vacuum suction cups (2),
A wheel (9) is provided inside (3) so as to freely move in and out in the thickness direction of the vacuum suction cup, and a wheel lifting mechanism (8) that freely moves in and out the wheel (9) in the thickness direction is provided. A suction cup moving means (6) for expanding and contracting the separation distance between the vacuum suction cups (2) and (3) is provided, and the wheel (9) of only one of the vacuum suction cups is made to protrude so that The contact resistance with the smooth surface is made smaller than that of the other, and the suction surface moving means (6) operates so that the one vacuum suction disk slides on the smooth surface while adsorbing to the smooth surface. A drive device for a cleaning device for a wall surface or a window glass, characterized in that