JPS601062B2 - Underwater painting equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an underwater coating device, which can be used underwater to apply paint to an underwater surface, such as the hull of a ship, by remote control from above the water surface.

In normal cases, it was necessary to move the ship to dry dock in order to apply a corrosion-resistant and anti-fouling paint to the hull below the waterline.

However, this is expensive and time consuming, and the ship cannot be used while the painting work is being carried out, which can significantly reduce the shipowner's income, especially in the case of large ships such as oil tankers. was. In order to alleviate the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, some marine paints that cannot be used underwater have been developed in recent years.

However, such coatings have only been applied with the aid of divers who are required to operate underwater coating equipment for applying the coatings. Since a diver is thus required, there is a limit to the usefulness of the underwater coating device, and the economical effectiveness of the underwater coating device is also halved compared to normal dry docking devices. Therefore, it has been desired to develop an apparatus that can apply marine paint to underwater surfaces underwater without the need to rely on divers.

The present invention comprises a remotely controllable vehicle body which can be propelled along an underwater surface while attached to the underwater surface, and a remotely controllable vehicle body positioned at the rear of the vehicle body for applying underwater paint to the underwater surface by brush means. The present invention provides an underwater coating device comprising a remotely controllable coating means.

The remotely controllable painting means is preferably removably mounted on the remotely controllable vehicle body for easy maintenance and/or replacement.

The underwater coating device can also advantageously be combined with a device for exploring underwater structures.

The vehicle body includes a housing forming a container having an upper opening and a lower entrance, and a housing disposed at the lower opening to create a water flow that discharges water sucked from the lower opening through the upper entrance, compared to the pressure outside the container. A pressure reduction device capable of continuously maintaining the inside of the container at a reduced pressure, and a bottom surface with a lower opening of the container directed toward the underwater surface to attach the vehicle body to the underwater surface and propel the vehicle body along the underwater surface. The vehicle may consist of a steerable wheel mounted to allow steering, a steering device for steering the steerable wheel, and a motor for driving the wheel.

The vehicle body can be operated remotely from the surface of the water, for example by means of a control cable trailing to a surface work boat and a junction box on the vehicle body. As used herein, the terms "upper side" and "lower side J" should be understood to refer to the side of the vehicle body that attaches to the underwater surface as the lower side, and the opposite side as the upper side.

The steerable wheels of the vehicle body can be mounted within the container so that their running surface projects beyond the bottom surface of the container with the lower entrance.

In addition to the steerable wheels, the vehicle body can also include two or more support wheels. The drive motor can drive the steerable wheels, other support wheels, or all wheels on such a vehicle body.

The drive motor can be an electric motor or a motor operated by a hydraulic medium under pressure.

The pressure reduction device may be a propeller pump having propeller blades located in a discharge conduit in the vessel wall.

The propeller pump can be an oil-cooled electrically conductive motor, and the cooling oil under pressure can be used as a fluid power source for other pumps and motors in the system. The edge area of the lower opening in close contact with the underwater surface can be provided with a series of corrugated edges to create turbulence and reduce the amount of water flowing into the container when the device is in use.

This is because it does not require as much power to maintain a lower pressure inside the container than the pressure outside the container. The waveform shape may be discontinuous, but a continuous waveform is preferable. The corrugations may be discontinuous, but are preferably continuous. The vehicle body may include a device for detecting the position of the container relative to the underwater surface, as well as a device for detecting and indicating the attitude of the body.

Preferably, the device of the invention is slightly buoyant or neutrally buoyant.

In order to control the device of the invention by remote control, it is desirable to provide a control box above the water surface.

Further advantageously, the control box can be placed on a floating work vessel in close proximity to the underwater surface on which the underwater painting operation is to be carried out (for example a section of the fuselage of a large ship).

Alternatively, the control box can be installed on the ship itself, which has underwater surfaces to be painted. Also in the control box,
Application pressure gauges, flow meters connected to individual paint brushes when required, equipment for controlling the supply of paint to the painting equipment,
Devices may be included to control the movement of the brush to the inconvenient state, and controls to move and position the device on the underwater surface to be painted. If the underwater surface needs to be clean during painting, it is effective to clean it before painting.

Once the underwater surface is clean, the apparatus of the invention can be used to paint the underwater surface. A remotely controllable painting means mounted at the rear of the vehicle body (with respect to normal forward movement) comprises a plurality of rotatable brushes, means for rotating the brushes, and means for delivering underwater paint to each said brush. It can be made up of the following.

The brushes may consist of needle bristles that are preferably substantially parallel to the axis around which each brush is rotatable. Preferably, the coating means comprises means for moving each brush in a direction substantially perpendicular to the surface to be coated and ensuring that each brush is held with substantially constant pressure on said surface. .

In addition, the painting means preferably comprises remotely controllable means for retracting the brushes from the position of use into a position of inconvenience and, if necessary, returning the brushes by their own weight to the position of use.

In order to obtain a large width of the underwater surface to be coated in a single movement of the device, a plurality of rotatable brushes are arranged spread out in the direction of advancement of the device, so that the area covered by adjacent brushes overlaps. This should be done so that the required wide width of the underwater surface is coated.

In this case, for example, the brushes may be arranged in two alternating and parallel rows to ensure the above-mentioned overlap. In such an arrangement, it is desirable to have the brushes in one row rotate in the opposite direction to the brushes in the other row to reduce the tendency of the rotating brushes to create lateral creeping forces on the coating device.

Commercially available paints that can be applied underwater can be used.

If necessary, the clean underwater surface can be preceded by application of a suitable underwater anti-fouling coating. The paint supply and the pump that supplies the paint to the brushes are usually installed on work vessels (
(with a control box, etc.) or attached to the ship itself to be painted. As mentioned above, the device according to the invention can also be equipped with devices capable of carrying out underwater exploration operations.

Under normal circumstances, underwater exploration is not carried out at the same time as underwater painting due to the harmful effect of coating the sensitive parts of the exploration equipment. However, underwater painting and exploration can be carried out simultaneously by taking the necessary precautions. Various types of underwater exploration devices that can be attached to the coating device of the present invention are available for sale. This exploration equipment is capable of carrying out various exploration tasks, such as measuring the thickness of a ship's body, detecting eaves or recesses in a ship's body.
The nature of the exploration equipment depends on the nature of the exploration work to be performed. Next, in order to easily understand the present invention, preferred embodiments of the underwater coating apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, the underwater coating apparatus is constituted by a car body 1, and a coating means 2 is connected to the rear of the car body 1.

This vehicle body 1 has a substantially hollow housing 9, and this housing is provided with an upper opening (not shown) and a lower opening 9a, and the impeller 3 is disposed in the lower opening 9a (see Fig. 2). reference)
, this impeller 3 is driven by an electric motor 7. The rotation of the impeller 3 draws water from the lower entrance 9a into the upper opening□
(not shown) causes a water flow to flow out. This water stream is discharged to the outside from the top of the vehicle body 1 shown in FIG. 1 (the electric motor 7 is disposed at the top opening). This causes the pressure inside the container created by the housing to be less than the pressure outside. Due to this water flow and the negative pressure inside the housing generated by the water flow, the car body 1 attaches to the underwater surface with the bottom surface having the lower entrance 9a directed toward the underwater surface to be painted. A steering wheel 4 and two support wheels 5 and 6 are provided. All three wheels are driven by independent external hydraulic motors. As is clear from FIGS. 1 and 2, the vehicle body 1 is approximately It has a D"-shaped outer profile, and the straight end of this D" constitutes the rear part (or tail) of the vehicle body, designated by the reference numeral 8'.

The vehicle body has a housing 9 which is generally hollow except for various mechanical components housed inside. The housing 9 has a plurality of columns 10 supporting rails 11 to which ropes for connecting the devices can be fixed. In use, the coating equipment is typically remotely controlled on the water from a work boat, which is equipped with a control box, a paint dispenser for supplying paint to the equipment's paint brushes, and a motor.

This motor can be an electric sump pump. The control box is connected to the painting device by a composite conductor cable connected to a junction box 12, which in turn activates the device to retract the painting brush 15 from the used state to the unused state. Each paint brush is connected by another cable 13 to an electrical junction box 14 which supplies an output for operating a current meter provided in the control box. 3 and 4, the coating means for an underwater coating device comprises nine rotatable brushes 15 arranged in two rows, one row of five brushes and the other row of four brushes; These brushes are staggered as can be seen in FIG.

This brush can be made from pig hair, nylon or horse hair. Each brush 15 is fixed by a bolt 16 to a universal joint 17 driven by a hydraulic motor 18 operated by hydraulic fluid delivered by a supply pipe 19 and withdrawn by a return pipe 201. Under water, paint can be delivered to the brush 15 from the paint manifold 21 through a flexible feed tube 22 connected to the brush 15 via a hollow shaft in the motor 18. Each hydraulic motor 18 has an upper leaf spring 24 in each pair.
is supported in a predetermined position by two pairs of leaf springs consisting of
Each of these leaf springs 23 and 24 is connected to an upper base plate 25 and a lower base plate 26, respectively, which are attached to a steel back plate 27 attached to the rear part 8 of the vehicle body. A support arm 28 for the paint manifold 21 is fixed to this back plate 27. A coil spring 29 extends between the end of the leaf spring 23 adjacent to the motor 18 and the eccentric shaft 30. This spring is provided to keep the pressure of the brush 15 almost constant against the surface to be painted. Ram 3 operated by water pressure
1 (only one of the pair is shown in the figure and the others are not shown) is fixed to the back plate 27 at one end by a bracket 32, and at the other end is fixed to the lever 33 by a pivot bolt 34. Fixed by

This lever 33 is rotatable about an axis 35.
The supply of hydraulic fluid to the ram 31 through the pipe 36 is connected to the connection box 14.
It is controlled by a solenoid valve (not shown) which is actuated by an electrical power supplied via a circuit (see FIG. 1).
Upon activation, the solenoid valve directs hydraulic fluid to the ram 31.
can be flowed in one direction, and the lever 33 is rotated, thus moving the transverse bar 37 to the top, thus causing the brush 1 to flow in one direction.
5 can be retracted from the use position to the inconvenience position. The brushes can also be returned to the position of use by their own weight. A flotation member (not shown) may also be included, located behind the paint brush, if necessary to assist in flotation of the underwater painting equipment.

This floating material can be made from glass fiber reinforced polyester resin.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the remotely controllable body of the underwater coating equipment;
Fig. 2 is a bottom view of an underwater coating device having a remotely controllable coating means connected to the car body, Fig. 3 is a plan view showing a partially enlarged coating means, and Fig. 4 is a It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view along the W line. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Vehicle body, 2... Painting means, 8... Rear part of vehicle body, 1
5...Brush. Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 2 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A remotely controllable underwater coating device for applying paint to an underwater surface below the water line, comprising a remotely controllable vehicle body 1 that can be propelled along the underwater surface; The vehicle body includes a housing 9 forming a container having an upper opening and a lower opening, and a housing 9 disposed in the lower opening to generate a water flow for discharging water sucked from the lower opening out of the container from the upper opening. It has a pressure reduction device (impeller 3) that continuously maintains the inside of the container at a reduced pressure compared to the pressure, so that the bottom surface with the lower opening of the container faces the underwater surface and the vehicle body is lowered to the underwater surface. A coating means 2 that can be applied to the surface of the vehicle and can be remotely controlled at a rear position when viewed from the normal forward direction of the vehicle body.
and the coating means includes a plurality of rotating coating brushes 15 facing in substantially the same direction as the container and the bottom surface having a lower opening.
and means for rotating each painting brush (hydraulic motor 18
), and a feeding means (feeding pipe 22) for feeding underwater paint to the central axis of each rotating coating brush, and each coating brush has needle bristles that are approximately parallel to its rotating axis. and the painting means further comprises elastic suspension means (for each painting brush) comprising adjustable tension spring means (Kurui tear spring 29) for varying the pressure of the painting brush on the submerged surface. It is characterized by comprising leaf springs 23, 24) and remote-controlled hydraulic means (hydraulic hydraulic ram 31) for controlling the movement of the rotating coating brush by bringing it into contact with or separating it from the underwater surface. Underwater painting equipment. 2. The plurality of rotating paint brushes are arranged in two mutually parallel rows substantially perpendicular to the normal forward direction of the vehicle body, and these brushes are arranged alternately in a direction transverse to the forward direction, and in one row. 2. The underwater painting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said painting brushes are arranged to rotate in the opposite direction to the painting brushes in the other rows. 3. A remotely controllable underwater coating device for applying paint to an underwater surface below the water line, comprising a remotely controllable vehicle body 1 that can be propelled along the underwater surface, the vehicle body having an upper opening and a lower opening. A housing 9 forming a container having a side opening is disposed at the lower opening to generate a water flow that discharges water sucked from the lower opening to the outside of the container from the upper opening. It has a pressure reduction device (impeller 3) that continuously maintains the inside at a reduced pressure. It has a remotely controllable coating means 2 located at the rear side when viewed from the normal forward direction, and the coating means includes a plurality of rotating coatings facing approximately in the same direction as the bottom surface having the lower opening of the container. Each painting brush has a brush 15, means for rotating each painting brush (hydraulic motor 18), and feeding means (feeding pipe 22) for feeding underwater paint to the central shaft portion of each rotating painting brush. The painting means is formed by needle bristles that are approximately parallel to its axis of rotation, and the painting means further includes manually adjustable tension spring means (coil spring 29) for varying the pressure of the painting brush on the underwater surface. Elastic suspension means (leaf springs 23, 24
), and remote-controlled hydraulic means (hydraulic ram 31) for controlling the movement of the rotating coating brush so as to bring it into contact with or pull it away from the underwater surface, and furthermore, it has An underwater coating device comprising an underwater exploration device capable of detecting cavities or measuring the thickness of a ship's hull.