JPH08282451A - Vehicle body surface washing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a vehicle body oversurface washing device which can wash the surfaces of a vehicle efficiently without giving scratches to the coated surface of the vehicle body and without damaging any projected matter such as a fender mirror. CONSTITUTION: A washing assembly for the surfaces of a vehicle body is composed of a rotary supporting shaft 1 and a plurality of washing elements W installed on the shaft 1 in inclination, wherein the washing elements W are formed by laminating a material W' consisting of non-woven cloth pieces and sewing together N1, N2, N3 of their middle parts in the radial direction so that its waist on the base side is made stronger than in the peripheral part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle body surface cleaning apparatus for cleaning a vehicle body surface of a vehicle such as an automobile by rotating the cleaning assembly so that the cleaning assembly is brought into contact with the surface of the vehicle while the cleaning assembly is rotated. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional car body surface cleaning apparatus, a car body surface of a vehicle is cleaned with cleaning water. It is well known to use a fixed one.

However, this rotating brush is effective in enhancing the cleaning effect of the vehicle body, but on the other hand, there is a problem that some scuff marks may be applied to the vehicle body surface, that is, the painted surface by the car wash brush bristles. To solve
It is already known that a flexible sheet is used instead of the brush bristles. (See Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-63232 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,444).

Further, in a glazing device for glazing a vehicle surface, a technical means for fixing a ring-shaped buff body for glazing the vehicle surface by inclining it with respect to a rotation axis of a rotation shaft is also known. (Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 48-113245).

[0005]

Generally, in a vehicle body surface cleaning apparatus, the cleaning body fixed to the rotary support shaft is as follows. The length from the rotation support shaft to the outer peripheral edge is set to a dimension that does not damage a protrusion such as a vehicle mirror of the vehicle due to contact with the rotation support shaft. Regardless of the shape or size of the vehicle, it is a necessary design requirement that there be no unwashed residue.

However, when such a cleaning body rotates, a plurality of cleaning body materials constituting the upper surface cleaning body are spread in the outer peripheral direction to maintain an appropriate space between the vehicle body surface and the rotation support shaft. In order to bring this cleaning body material into contact with the vehicle surface with an appropriate contact pressure and perform good cleaning, it is necessary for the plurality of cleaning body materials themselves to have an appropriate degree of elasticity (power to hold).

However, the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 60-63232
According to the one disclosed in the publication, since the waist of the cleaning body is the same on the outer peripheral side and on the center side mounting portion side (side mounted on the stiff plate 2 '), the outer peripheral side becomes stronger. There was a risk that the sand, mud, etc. that had adhered to the vehicle body surface would be pressed strongly against the vehicle body surface and scratch the painted surface. In addition, one cleaning body is made of one cleaning body material, and as described above, since the outer peripheral portion of the cleaning body is strong, it is difficult to deform along the unevenness of the vehicle body surface of the vehicle. Therefore, there is a problem that the cleaning body has poor contact with the vehicle body surface and the cleaning effect is poor, and there is also a problem that the cleaning body may damage the windshield wiper.

The above-mentioned US Pat. No. 3,067,444 has the same problem as described above, and in the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 48-113255, a rotary buff is used as a cleaning body. However, there is a problem similar to the above.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is a first object of the present invention to solve all of the above problems and to further enhance the cleaning effect on the vehicle body surface, that is, the painted surface without damaging the surface. It is a thing.

A second object of the present invention is to prevent damage to or damage to auxiliary equipment such as a wiper attached to the vehicle body surface and to further enhance the cleaning effect on the vehicle body surface.

[0011]

To achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized in that a cleaning assembly is rotated on a frame movable relative to a vehicle to be cleaned. It is supported freely, and by the relative movement of the vehicle and the frame and the rotational drive of the cleaning assembly, the cleaning assembly is made to follow and contact the vehicle body surface of the vehicle to clean the vehicle body surface. In a vehicle body surface cleaning apparatus, the cleaning assembly includes a rotation support shaft rotatably supported by the frame, an inclination of the rotation support shaft with respect to the rotation axis, and an interval in the axial direction. And a plurality of cleaning bodies that are fixed to each other, each cleaning body is formed by laminating cleaning body materials composed of a plurality of sheets, and integrally joining the radial middle portions of these cleaning body materials. The outer circumference of the waist on the radial base side of the cleaning body There that was stronger than that of.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention also provides:
A feature of the described invention resides in that in the first aspect, the cleaning assembly is an upper surface cleaning assembly for cleaning an upper surface of a vehicle body of a vehicle.

[0013]

According to the present invention, the plurality of cleaning bodies of the cleaning assembly can clean the upper surface of the vehicle body uniformly without scratching the painted surface of the vehicle. Further, even if a protrusion such as a fold mirror enters the joint portion on the base side of the cleaning body, the protrusion is not damaged or damaged.

Further, the cleaning body does not damage or damage the wiper on the upper surface of the vehicle body.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. This embodiment is a case of cleaning the upper surface of the vehicle body of the vehicle by the cleaning apparatus of the present invention. First, the structure of the cleaning assembly itself for cleaning the upper surface of the vehicle body of the vehicle will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 is an overall front view of the cleaning assembly, FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway enlarged partial view thereof, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG.

A cleaning assembly AW for cleaning the upper surface of a vehicle body of a vehicle by spraying cleaning water comprises a rotary support shaft 1 and a plurality of fixing members 2 fixed to the outer periphery of the rotary support shaft 1 by means of fittings 2. It is composed of a cleaning body W.

The rotary support shaft 1 is formed of a hard vinyl chloride pipe into a hollow cylindrical shape, and both ends of the rotary support shaft 1 are swingably supported by a traveling frame F as described later.

The washing body W is made of a non-woven fabric produced by partially thermocompressing nylon long fibers by a spun bond method. As such a non-woven fabric, for example, "ELTAS (registered trademark) N1130" manufactured by Asahi Kasei Co., Ltd.
There is.

In manufacturing the cleaning body W, first, the nonwoven fabric is cut to obtain a cleaning body material W'having a circular sheet. Next, eight sheets of the cleaning body material W'are stacked to form a circular laminated body, and the radially intermediate portion of the laminated body, that is, the portion outside the mounting hole 4 to be opened later is concentrically spread over three rows. Sutures N ₁ , N ₂ and N ₃ are performed. Next, a mounting hole 4 through which the rotary support shaft 1 is inserted is formed in the center of the circular laminated body, and four bolt holes for fixing the mounting tool 2 are provided on the outer peripheral portion of the mounting hole 4. 5 is drilled. The cleaning body W is produced as described above.

In order to assemble the cleaning assembly AW, the cleaning body W constructed as described above has a small diameter (outer diameter 800 mm), a medium diameter (outer diameter 850 mm) and a large diameter (outer diameter 900 mm). 3) are prepared.

The "Eltus N1130" used as the cleaning material W'has different tensile strengths in the longitudinal and lateral directions. Therefore, when laminating a plurality of cleaning material W ', Adjacent cleaning material materials W'are stacked such that the directions of strong tensile strength are shifted by approximately 90 ° so that their tensile strengths alternate with each other. That is, FIG.
In the above, in the direction of high tensile strength, the first sheet is laminated in the XX direction, the second sheet is laminated in the YY direction, and the third sheet is laminated in the XX direction.

A plurality of the cleaning bodies W are attached to a rotary support shaft,
The fixture 2 for fixing to the PVC pipe 1 is
Sleeve part 2 to be inserted into support shaft 1₁On both sides of the
Change part 2₂, 2₂Is integrally formed, which is
Flange part 2₂, 2₂As shown in Figure 2, three
Part 2₁Vertical axis L of₁-L₁Orthogonal line L orthogonal to₂-L
₂They are tilted 7 ° relative to each other and are substantially parallel to each other,
Flange part 2₂, 2 ₂Is the same as the bolt hole 5.
Four bolt holes 6 are formed on the same circle. Mounting
Left and right flanges 2 of the tool 2₂, 2₂On the outside of the
The pair of cleaning bodies W are clamped by the holding plate 3,
Are fastened and fixed together by bolts and nuts 8.

The distance between the pair of cleaning bodies W is about 100 mm.
It is designed to be.

As shown in FIG. 2, a fixture 2 to which a pair of cleaning bodies W are fixed is inserted into a rotary support shaft 1 and fixed to the rotary support shaft 1 with mounting bolts 9 at equal intervals. To be done. Then, a plurality of cleaning bodies W fixed to the rotary support shaft 1
Have an interval of about 100 mm, and their cleaning body W
Are arranged and fixed to the rotary support shaft 1 made of a PVC pipe so that the inclination directions of the are parallel to each other. As described above, each cleaning body W is formed by stacking eight cleaning body materials W'and stitching the radial middle portions thereof with stitches N ₁ , N ₂ , and N ₃ so that the waist of the cleaning body W It is possible to make the outer peripheral portion of the outer peripheral portion in contact with the upper surface of the vehicle body soft and soft.

A cleaning assembly AW constructed as described above
In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the plurality of cleaning bodies W have an outer diameter of 900 mm for each of the three left and right outer end portions, and an outer diameter of 850 mm for each of the two inner portions. Eight of them have an outer diameter of 800 mm, and the contour lines formed by the outer edges of all the cleaning bodies W come to follow the lateral upper surface shape of the vehicle V.

Next, the cleaning assembly A constructed as described above.
A case where W is used as a cleaning assembly of a mobile car washer will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6. FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of the mobile car washer, and FIG. 6A, 6B, and 6C are side views showing the operating state of the cleaning body.

[0027] on a pair of travel rails R being laid on the ground, the traveling frame F of the portal provided for reciprocal travel by travel drive motor M _1, a pair of swing arm 12 _1, 1
2 ₂ is swingably supported, and these swing arms 12
Both ends of a rotary support shaft 1 made of a vinyl chloride pipe of the cleaning assembly AW are supported by the tip ends of ₁ , 12 ₂ and a swing drive motor M ₂ is attached to the base of _one swing arm 12 _1. When the motor M ₂ is driven, the swing arm 12 ₁
The cleaning assembly AW can be driven to rotate in the forward and reverse directions via a transmission mechanism provided therein. The other swing arm 1
The 2 _second base balance weight 13 is attached. When the outer peripheral surfaces of the plurality of cleaning bodies W come into contact with the upper surface of the vehicle body of the vehicle V due to the traveling of the traveling frame F, the pair of swing arms 12 ₁ and 12 ₂ swing, and the cleaning assembly A
Due to the balance between the weight of W and the weight of the balance weight, the cleaning body W is brought into contact with the upper surface of the vehicle body with an appropriate pressure contact force. In addition, a cleaning assembly AW and a cleaning water injection nozzle 14 for injecting cleaning water onto the vehicle V are provided at appropriate positions on the traveling frame F.

Since the supporting structure of the cleaning assembly AW is conventionally known, its detailed description is omitted.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 6 will be described.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, the vehicle V to be cleaned is placed in the car wash position between the pair of travel rails R while the travel frame F is on standby at the start position.

Next, while the cleaning water is jetted from the cleaning water injection nozzle 14 toward the cleaning assembly AW and the vehicle V, the rotary drive motor M ₂ is driven to move the cleaning assembly AW in one direction (FIG. 4, FIG. 4). The traveling drive motor M ₁ is driven to rotate the traveling frame F forward (in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 4). According to this approach, the cleaning assembly AW moves up and down following the shape of the upper surface of the vehicle body of the vehicle V to clean the upper surface of the vehicle body.

When the cleaning body W of the cleaning assembly AW contacts the upper surface of the vehicle body, the cleaning body W inclined to the right contacts the upper surface of the vehicle body as shown in FIG.
Bends to the left. As the cleaning assembly AW continues to rotate, the cleaning body W gradually stands up in the vertical direction, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (B), when the tip of the cleaning body W reaches a substantially right angle with respect to the upper surface of the vehicle body, the tip of the cleaning body W bends left and right. Then, when the cleaning assembly AW further rotates, the plurality of cleaning bodies incline to the left from the vertical position and come into contact with the upper surface of the vehicle body as shown in FIG. 6C, and their tips bend to the right. Then, in the operation of the cleaning body in FIGS. 6A to 6C, the upper surface of the vehicle body, the fixture 2 and the holding plate 3
And are kept at an interval that does not hit a protrusion such as a fan mirror FM. Further, since the soft and flexible tips of the plurality of cleaning body materials W'constituting the cleaning body W come into contact with the upper surface of the vehicle body, the plurality of cleaning body materials W'are arranged along the uneven shape of the vehicle body upper surface. Deform. Further, when the cleaning body W comes into contact with the upper surface of the vehicle body at a substantially right angle, the cleaning body material W'can be spread to the left and right to widen the contact range. Therefore, even if the cleaning body W is fixed to the rotary support shaft 1 with a space, the cleaning body W can be brought into uniform contact with the upper surface of the vehicle body. Further, since the tip of the weak cleaning material W'contacts the vehicle body surface, it does not strongly push sand, mud, etc. adhering to the vehicle body surface to the vehicle body surface, and thus does not damage the painted surface. Furthermore, the cleaning effect can be further improved by the synergistic effect of the deformation of the cleaning material W along the uneven shape of the vehicle body surface and the wide contact of the cleaning material W with the vehicle body surface.

In FIG. 4, the cleaning assembly AW is moved by the forward movement of the traveling frame F so that the cleaning assembly AW of the vehicle V has a fold mirror FM.
When reaching the position P ₁ equipped with, the flexible tip of the cleaning body W is easily deformed as described above, so that the ender mirror FM is not damaged. Further, since the upper surface of the vehicle body and the fixture 2 and the holding plate 3 are spaced so as not to hit the ender mirror FM as described above, the folder FM and the fixture 2 or the holding plate 3 come into contact with each other, so that the folders are contacted. It does not damage the mirror FM. In addition, the cleaning body W has its waist on the base side strengthened by sewing the middle portion in the radial direction, and its deformation is suppressed.
Even if M gets in, its mirror mirror FM
Does not hurt.

Further, when the traveling frame F continues to move and the cleaning assembly AW reaches a position P ₂ where the front wiper FW is located as shown in FIG. 4, the cleaning wiper material W is attached to the front wiper FW. Since the weak tip end of ′ is in contact and the outer periphery of the cleaning body material W ′ is substantially continuous and the cleaning body material W ′ does not get entangled with the front wiper FW, the cleaning body W is It can ride over the front wiper FW well and will not damage or damage it.

As described above, while the traveling frame F starts traveling from the start position to the traveling end position, the cleaning assembly AW smoothly follows and contacts the upper surface of the vehicle body as shown in FIG. The entire upper surface of the electrode can be cleaned efficiently. Further, as in this embodiment, a plurality of cleaning body materials W'having different tensile strengths in the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction are used, and the tensile strengths of the cleaning body materials W'are alternately changed in strength and weakness.
When the material W'is piled up, the waist of the cleaning material W'is also slightly different, and as shown in FIG. 5 (B), when the cleaning material is in a substantially vertical position with respect to the upper surface of the vehicle body, the material easily separates. Also, the cleaning effect can be improved by this.

Next, a second embodiment of the cleaning assembly of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 7 is a front view of the cleaning assembly of this embodiment,
FIG. 8 is a front view of the cleaning body taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 7.

This embodiment is the same as the first embodiment, except that the plurality of cleaning bodies are made to have the rotation supporting shafts with their inclined axes aligned with each other in the axial direction, that is, the cleaning support bodies are parallel to each other. In contrast to the second embodiment, in the second embodiment, the phases of the inclined axis lines of the adjacent cleaning bodies W are gradually shifted in the circumferential direction, and the cleaning bodies are fixed to the rotation support shaft. That is, that is, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, eighteen cleaning bodies W have an inclination axis I ₁ -I of 7 °.
_With reference to the leftmost one in which ₁ coincides with XX, the inclination axes I ₂ -I ₂ , I ₃ -I ₃ from the following ones.
Are sequentially fixed in the circumferential direction (clockwise direction) to the rotary support shaft 1 by shifting the phase by 10 °. As a result, the cleaning body W on the right end
Is 180 degrees out of phase with the cleaning body W at the left end, and the inclination direction is opposite. In this embodiment, the method of manufacturing the plurality of cleaning bodies W is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the mounting structure of these cleaning bodies W on the rotary support shaft 1 is the same as that of the first embodiment. Is the same.

Thus, according to this second embodiment, the first
The states of (A), (B) and (C) in the embodiment are
As the cleaning body W is sequentially moved, the cleaning assembly AW can be rotated more smoothly.

In order to prevent uneven cleaning, the offset angles of the inclined axes of adjacent cleaning bodies are up to 30 °.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments and various embodiments can be made within the scope of the present invention.

For example, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the cleaning of the upper surface of the body of a mobile car washer has been described.
It is needless to say that this can be applied to other car wash machines, such as a car wash machine that conveys a vehicle by a conveyor, and can also be applied to the cleaning of the side surface of the vehicle body. Are joined together by stitching them together, but they may be joined together by any known joining means such as adhesion, welding, etc. Further, the outer periphery of the washing body is shown by a chain line in FIG. A plurality of notches 10 that are open at the outer end may be provided at intervals in the circumferential direction. In this case, the depth of cut is 1
It is preferable that the distance between the cuts is 0 mm or less and the distance between the cuts is about 25 mm. This is because when the depth of the cut is large, when the cleaning body material absorbs water, the wiper is likely to be entangled with the wiper material, which may damage or damage the wiper. Further, as the cleaning material, a nonwoven fabric produced by partially thermocompressing synthetic long fibers by a spunbond method is advantageous in that it is unlikely to fray, but a woven fabric may be used instead of the nonwoven fabric. Furthermore, although the cleaning body is sewn to three lines in the above-mentioned embodiment, it may be sewn to two lines or four lines or more.

[0043]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the plurality of cleaning bodies of the cleaning assembly cleanly clean the vehicle body surface without scratching the painted surface of the vehicle.
It can be cleaned efficiently.

Even if a protrusion such as a fold mirror may enter the joint of a plurality of cleaning body materials, the joint is stiff and resistant to deformation, and the protrusion is damaged.
It will not be damaged.

According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to the effect of the invention, the damage to the wiper can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall front view of a cleaning assembly.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged partial view of a part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of a mobile car wash machine.

5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an operating state of the cleaning body.

FIG. 7 is an overall front view of the second embodiment of the cleaning assembly.

FIG. 8 is a front view of the cleaning body taken along line 8-8 of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Rotating support shaft F Running frame N ₁ connection (sewn) N ₂ connection (sewn) N ₃ connection (sewn) TB Cleaning assembly V Vehicle W Cleaning body W ′ Cleaning material

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning assembly (AW) is rotatably supported on a frame (F) which is movable relative to a vehicle (V) to be cleaned, and the cleaning assembly (AW) is connected between the vehicle (V) and the frame (F). By the relative movement and the rotation drive of the cleaning assembly (AW),
A vehicle body surface cleaning apparatus for a vehicle, wherein the cleaning assembly (AW) is brought into contact with the vehicle body surface of a vehicle (V) so as to clean the vehicle body surface, wherein the cleaning assembly (AW) is the frame. A rotary support shaft (1) rotatably supported by (F), and a plurality of rotary support shafts (1) fixed to the rotary support shaft (1) at an interval with respect to the rotation axis and at intervals in the axial direction. Cleaning body (W), each cleaning body (W) is formed by laminating cleaning body materials (W ′) made up of a plurality of sheets, and the cleaning body materials (W ′) are arranged at an intermediate portion in the radial direction. A body surface of a vehicle, characterized by being integrally connected (N ₁ , N ₂ , N ₃ ), wherein the waist on the radial base side of the cleaning body (W) is made stronger than that on the outer peripheral portion thereof. Cleaning device. 2. The vehicle body surface cleaning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning assembly (AW) is an upper surface cleaning assembly for cleaning an upper surface of a vehicle body of the vehicle.