JPH10129430A - Upper face of car body drying device for car washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively dry an upper face of a car body in a stable condition at all times without frequently repeating the elevating operation of a blower nozzle, by controlling the blower nozzle in such manner that the blower nozzle is held at a fixed position for a specific period after it is risen, without being quickly turned to be lowered. SOLUTION: A blower nozzle 5 is risen in a condition that a three way solenoid valve is switched to an air supply side, and a three way solenoid valve is switched to an air opening side, and a timer is set to count the time of the rising operation. When a detecting condition of a light receiving unit 16b is released in accompany with therewith, both of the three way solenoid valves are switched to the air supply side, the blower nozzle 5 is held at a fixed position, and the timer is set to count the time from the start of the holding operation. The blower nozzle 5 is lowered after the holding operation has been continued by the time of the timer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a car washer for cleaning and drying a car or a car as the car is running. The present invention relates to a device for drying the upper surface of a vehicle body, which lifts and lowers the air and blows air to the upper surface of the vehicle body to dry the air.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of apparatus, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-103561, a plurality of photoelectric switches are mounted integrally with a blower nozzle, and a body surface is detected by the photoelectric switch to form a blower nozzle. 2. Description of the Related Art A device that acts on a vehicle body surface in a non-contact manner is known.

In such an apparatus, the blower nozzle is raised when the vehicle body is detected by the photoelectric switch on the front side of the blower nozzle in the operation direction, and the blower nozzle is held when the vehicle body is detected by the photoelectric switch on the rear side. For example, it operates to lower the blower nozzle.

[0004]

However, in a car such as a wagon car having a steeply inclined body surface and facing the direction of action of the blower nozzle, only the front photoelectric switch repeats detection and non-detection. There is a problem that the blower nozzle cannot be operated stably by moving up and down in small increments. Furthermore, if there is a protrusion such as a taxi indicator light or a mirror on the vehicle body surface, even if the front photoelectric switch detects this protrusion and avoids ascending, if the photoelectric switch is not detected, the blower nozzle gets over this protrusion. There was a danger that it would begin to descend before it came in contact with the protrusion.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to stabilize the blower nozzle as much as possible to increase the drying effect and to make it possible to operate the blower nozzle safely without touching a protrusion on the vehicle body surface. is there.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a car washer of the type for washing and drying a car or a car as it travels, comprising a drying blower nozzle for blowing air onto the upper surface of a car body; Means for moving the blower nozzle up and down; means for moving up and down integrally with the blower nozzle to detect the vehicle body; and operating the lift means based on a signal from the vehicle body detecting means to operate the blower nozzle in a non-contact manner with the vehicle body surface. A vehicle body upper surface drying device, the vehicle body upper surface drying device comprising:
Detecting means, and a second detecting means whose detection position is set on the rear side with respect to the action direction from the first detecting means,
The control means comprises at least two detection means,
When the vehicle body is detected by the detecting means, the blower nozzle is raised, when the vehicle body is detected by the second detecting means, the blower nozzle is held, and when the first and second detecting means are not detected, the blower nozzle is lowered. When the detection means turns to non-detection after raising the blower nozzle in accordance with the detection of the vehicle body by the first detection means, the lowering of the blower nozzle is prevented only for a certain period of time or a certain distance of the car washing machine body or the automobile. To solve the problem.

In the following embodiments, the first detecting means corresponds to the photoelectric switches 16a and 16b, and the second detecting means corresponds to the photoelectric switches 17a and 17b.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of one embodiment of the present invention, showing a so-called portal type car washer. The car washer body 1 reciprocates on the rails 2.2 and moves so as to straddle a car stopped between the rails 2.2. The washing brush 3
A washing water injection nozzle (not shown), including a blower nozzle 3.3, a blower 4.4, and a blower nozzle 5, 6, 6, etc. are provided. Drying by blowing air from a blower nozzle by a blower operation is sequentially performed. Of these, the drying operation is always performed with the return of the car washer body 1 as the last step, and the body 1 performs drying while returning, returns to the standby position at the start of the car wash, and ends the car wash. Reference numeral 7 denotes a traveling motor, which drives the wheels 8 to move the car washer body 1 back and forth.

The blower nozzle 5 among the blower nozzles
Is configured to move up and down in accordance with the shape of the upper surface of the vehicle body. The configuration will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

The blower nozzle 5 has arms 9.9 extending on both sides and provided with carriers 10 on its ends, and rails 11 formed on both front sides of the car wash machine body 1 in the carriers 10.10. Engage, blower nozzle 5
Guides the lifting operation. Also, blower nozzle 5
Is the chain 12.1.
2, it is suspended from the top of the car washer body 1, and is lifted and lowered by the operation of an air cylinder 14 that is interlocked with the chains 12 and 12 via a sprocket 13. 15.1
Reference numerals 5 and 15 are guide sprockets for the chain 12.

Reference numerals 16a and 16b and 17a and 17b denote photoelectric switches which operate in pairs, each of which is fixed to the carriers 10 and 10 and constantly emits light.
The optical signals X and Y output from 17a are respectively
6b and 17b, and outputs a detection signal when the optical signals X and Y are interrupted. That is, the relative position between the blower nozzle 5 and the vehicle body is detected based on whether the optical signals X and Y are blocked by the vehicle body.

The photoelectric switches 16a and 16b are located below the blow-out port 5a of the blower nozzle 5 and inside the car washer body 1 from the blow-out port 5a, that is, when the main body 1 goes back and performs the drying step, the blower nozzle 5 Is located on the front side in the working direction. The photoelectric switches 17a and 17b are
a, 16b, and is outside the main body 1 from the outlet 5a, that is, the blower nozzle 5
Is located on the rear side in the working direction.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a control system of the embodiment centering on the air cylinder 14. As shown in FIG. Air cylinder 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a double-acting air cylinder having two ports 20 and 21, which receives air supplied to the first port 20, retracts the piston rod 22 and urges the blower nozzle 5 to rise, and the second port 21. Receiving the air supply, pushes out the piston rod 22 and urges the blower nozzle 5 to descend. Reference numeral 24 denotes a three-way solenoid valve for switching between supply and opening of the atmosphere to the first port 20, and reference numeral 25 denotes a three-way solenoid valve for switching between supply and opening to the atmosphere of the second port 21. The valve 24 is set on the air supply side and the valve 25 is set on the air release side, and the blower nozzle 5 is held at the upper standby position.

Reference numeral 26 denotes a first pressure regulator for setting the supply pressure to the first port 20 to a predetermined value P1, and 27 denotes a second port 2
This is a second pressure regulator that sets the supply pressure to 1 to a predetermined value P2. The air pressure P1 set by these pressure regulators 26 and 27
P2 has the following relationship.

P1> PU> P1-P2> PD

Here, PU indicates the minimum pressure at which the blower nozzle 5 starts to rise when the supply pressure to the first port 20 is gradually increased with the second port 21 of the air cylinder 14 opened. Indicates the maximum air pressure at which the blower nozzle 5 starts lowering when the second port 21 is opened and the air pressure in the first port 20 is gradually reduced. That is, the air supplied to the first port is 4 kg / cm 2
If the blower nozzle starts rising at the time of, and starts lowering when lowered to 2 kg / cm2, P1 is 4 kg / cm2.
2 and the difference between P2 and P1 is 2 kg / cm2.
What is necessary is just to set each so that it may become in the range larger than 4 kg / cm <2>.

Thus, if only the three-way solenoid valve 24 is on the air supply side, the blower nozzle 5 rises, and both solenoid valves 24.
If 25 is on the air supply side, the lifting and lowering of the blower nozzle is stopped and held, and if both solenoid valves 24 and 25 are on the atmosphere opening side, the blower nozzle can be lowered by its own weight.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a control unit which drives the traveling motor 7 via an inverter 31 to variably control the traveling of the main body 1 and also controls the photodetectors 16b and 17b of the photoelectric switch.
The three-way solenoid valves 24 and 25 are operated in response to the detection signal from the air cylinder 14 to move the blower nozzle 5 up and down via the air cylinder 14. The control unit 30 includes a microcomputer, and gives the operation shown in FIG. 5 during the drying process of the car washer 1.

When the car washer is executed and the car washing machine main body 1 goes back to the drying step following the washing step with the brushes 3, 3, 3, first, both of the three-way solenoid valves 24, 25 are switched to the atmosphere open side. The blower nozzle 5 is lowered (1).

When the optical signal X of the photoelectric switches 16a and 16b located on the front side in the operating direction is blocked by the vehicle and detected by the light receiver 16b (2), the three-way solenoid valve 24
To the air supply side and the three-way solenoid valve 25 to the air release side to raise the blower nozzle 5,
U is set and the time for this ascent operation is counted (3). Accordingly, when the detection state of the light receiver 16b is released (4), both the three-way solenoid valves 24 and 25 are switched to the air supply side to hold the blower nozzle 5 at a fixed position,
The timer TH is set and the time from the start of the holding operation is counted (5).

Further, in step (4), the timer time TU (for example, 1 second) is maintained without detecting the detection state of the light receiver 16b.
(6), the output frequency of the inverter 31 is reduced, the motor 7 is decelerated, and the main body 1 is driven at a low speed for a certain period of time (for example, a period of 40 to 60 cm) (7).

When the holding operation in step (5) is continued for the timer time TH without turning on both the photoelectric switches 16 and 17 in the detection state (12), step (1) is executed to lower the blower nozzle 5. . The timer time TH has a relation of TH> T1 with respect to a time T1 required for the car wash machine body 1 to travel a distance L (see FIG. 3) from the photoelectric switch 16 to the photoelectric switch 17.

On the other hand, with the lowering of step (1), the optical signal Y of the photoelectric switches 17a and 17b is blocked by the automobile, and when this is detected by the photodetector 17b (8), the three-way solenoid valve 24
Switch both of 25 to the air supply side to stop the lowering of the blower nozzle 5 and hold it at a fixed position (9). Thereafter, when the detection state of the photoelectric switches 17a and 17b is released (1
0), the step (1) is executed again, and the blower nozzle 5 is lowered.

The drying operation is performed in this manner, and when the car washer 1 returns to the position at the start of car washing and detects the end of the operation (1).
1), the three-way solenoid valve 24 is switched to the air supply side, and the three-way solenoid valve 25 is switched to the open side to raise the blower nozzle 5 (1).
3) End a series of operations.

FIG. 6 shows the operation of the blower nozzle 5 in accordance with such a control operation. The blower nozzle 5 is given a three-stage operation of ascending / holding / descending, so that the upper surface shape of the blower nozzle 5 does not come into contact with the automobile A. By tracing up and down, the body surface can be effectively dried.

When the surface of the rear window or the like facing the direction of operation of the blower nozzle 5 is relatively steeply inclined as in the case of the automobile A, this surface is detected by the photoelectric switches 16a and 16b and the blower nozzle 5 is quickly raised. When the ascending operation is continued for a certain period of time TU (for example, one second) or more, the blower nozzle is driven at a low speed for sufficiently following the steeply inclined surface for a certain period of time to prevent the blower nozzle 5 from contacting the vehicle body.

Further, even if the photoelectric switches 16a and 16b are in the non-detection state due to the rise of the blower nozzle 5, the blower nozzle 5 is held at a fixed position without descending for a fixed time TH, and it is necessary to move the blower nozzle 5 up and down. Minimal.

On the other hand, on a surface inclined in the opposite direction, such as a front window, the photoelectric switches 17a and 17b detect this surface, hold the blower nozzle 5 at a constant height, and operate so that the blower nozzle 5 does not contact the vehicle body surface. I do. Also,
On a relatively flat surface such as a hood or a roof, first, the photoelectric switches 17a and 17b detect this surface and hold the blower nozzle 5 at a constant height. When the blower nozzle 5 further approaches the vehicle body surface, the photoelectric switches 16a and 16b Upon detection, the blower nozzle 5 is raised, and the blower nozzle 5 operates so as to always act within a predetermined range near the vehicle body surface.

In the above-described embodiment, the program is performed so that the vehicle travels at a low speed for a predetermined time in step (7) of FIG. Control may be performed so as to return to normal running when the detection state is released.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation example other than the above. The difference from FIG. 5 is that when it is detected in step (6) that the rise of the blower nozzle has been continued for a certain amount or more, the main body 1 is turned off. The traveling is stopped, and the traveling of the main body 1 is resumed after the detection is not performed in step (4) (step (8)).
On the point.

In this case, the control of the traveling motor 7 is ON /
This is a two-stage control of OFF, so that the inverter 31 can be omitted, and a more inexpensive device can be obtained.

Although the above embodiment is an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a so-called portal type car washer, the present invention can also be applied to a type in which an automobile runs on a bogie or a conveyor. In this case, the control may be performed so that the running of the vehicle is decelerated or stopped when the rise of the blower nozzle continues for a predetermined time or more.

[0033]

The present invention is constructed as described above. After the blower nozzle is raised, the blower nozzle is controlled to be maintained at a fixed position for a predetermined period without immediately turning down.
The operation of raising and lowering the blower nozzle is not repeated little by little, and effective drying can be always performed in a stable state. In addition, if the vehicle has a protrusion such as a taxi indicator light or a mirror, the protrusion is detected and detected by the first detecting means. Since it is held at the position, there is no danger that the blower nozzle descends immediately after the first detection means is not detected and comes into contact with the protrusion. In addition, in such processing, the detection state of the vehicle body detection means provided integrally with the blower nozzle for raising and lowering the blower nozzle is monitored, and after the blower nozzle is raised in accordance with the detection of the vehicle body by the first detection means, the detection means turns off. Since it is sufficient to perform the process on the condition that the detection is started, a separate detection device or the like is not required at all, and the structure can be achieved simply and inexpensively.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an example of a car washer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a main part of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a main part of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a control circuit diagram according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an operation explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Car wash machine main body 5 Blower nozzle 5a Same blow-out port 14 Air cylinder 16a, 16b, 17a, 17b serving as a lifting / lowering means Photoelectric switch serving as a vehicle body detecting means 30 Control means serving as a control means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A car washer of the type for washing and drying an automobile as the car washer body or an automobile runs, comprising: a blower nozzle for drying which blows air onto an upper surface of a vehicle body; and means for raising and lowering the blower nozzle; Means for detecting the vehicle body by moving up and down integrally with the blower nozzle, and operating the lifting means based on a signal from the vehicle body detecting means,
Means for controlling the blower nozzle to act on the vehicle body surface in a non-contact manner. The vehicle body upper surface drying device, wherein the vehicle body detecting means has a first detection position in which a detection position is set in front of the direction of operation of the blower nozzle outlet. Means, and at least two detection means, the detection position of which is set rearward of the first detection means with respect to the action direction, the control means comprising: first detection means The control is performed such that the blower nozzle is raised when the vehicle body is detected, the blower nozzle is held when the vehicle body is detected by the second detection means, and the blower nozzle is lowered when the first and second detection means are not detected. When the detection means turns to non-detection after raising the blower nozzle in accordance with the detection of the vehicle body by the detection means of Distance vehicle body upper surface drying device in car washes, wherein the controller controls so that only prevent the lowering of Burowanozuru while traveling.