JPS6251668B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a conditioning oil application device for a bowling lane maintenance device for adjusting the lane condition of a bowling lane in a bowling alley.

The floor surface of each lane in a bowling alley requires constant cleaning and maintenance in order to maintain good pitching conditions for bowling balls and to equally adjust the characteristics of each lane during competitions. Maintenance of such bowling lanes is carried out by applying a very thin layer of conditioning oil (hereinafter referred to as "micro application") to the floor surface of each lane at a desired distribution ratio, and then applying a puff finish. In other words, applying a small amount of conditioning oil uniformly over the entire width and length of the bowling lane, or applying conditioning oil at a predetermined rate in the width direction perpendicular to the center line of the bowling lane. The coating film thickness is varied to create lane conditions that are advantageous for bowlers (high scores), for example.

As a method of applying conditioning oil to the lane floor surface, for example, a method of spraying dew-formed oil using a spray nozzle can be considered. However, there are problems with nozzle clogging, mutual interference between nozzles when a plurality of nozzles are used, and individual differences, and it is extremely difficult to create a coating film on the lane floor surface that changes at a desired rate. Another example of applying conditioning oil to the lane floor is to use multiple rotating roller drums, one partially immersed in an oil tank and the other applying roller drum above the coating surface. It is also conceivable to connect these drums with a transfer roller drum that makes rolling contact, and to apply the liquid in the tank onto the flat surface via the transfer roller drum. However, with this method, the amount of oil applied varies significantly uniformly or at a desired rate due to many factors such as the rotation of the drums, the gap between each drum, the viscosity of the liquid, and the pressing force on the coating surface. It is extremely difficult to stably apply a small amount of . Furthermore, as a conditioning oil application device for the lane floor surface, U.S. Patent No. 3604037
No. 1 is configured to once impregnate a felt member with a liquid to a saturated state through a nozzle, and then bring the felt member into contact with a cylindrical application roller to disperse the liquid from the felt member to the application roller. However, since the liquid is ultimately applied to the coating surface using a cylindrical coating roller, the amount of oil is affected by many factors such as the gap between each roller, the viscosity of the liquid, and the pressing force on the coating surface. There is no change in the fact that the coating amount tends to fluctuate and it is difficult to apply a small amount to obtain a coating film that is uniform or changes at a desired rate.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, to be able to vary the coating thickness of conditioning oil at a desired ratio in the width direction of the bowling lane floor surface, and to accurately control the amount of oil applied. It is an object of the present invention to provide a conditioning oil application device for a bowling lane maintenance device that is appropriately constructed as described above.

The present invention is a conditioning oil application device of a bowling lane maintenance device that applies conditioning oil to the floor surface of a bowling lane to maintain the condition of the bowling lane. an oil application roller for applying the oil, and a plurality of conditioning oil impregnated materials arranged on the roller in a divided manner over the longitudinal direction of the roller and supplying conditioning oil to the oil application roller; , a spring mechanism for bringing these oil-impregnated materials into elastic contact with the application roller, and a plurality of metering pumps that are connected to predetermined groups of the oil-impregnated materials and can arbitrarily change the discharge amount;
The present invention is characterized in that it includes a control section that sets the oil discharge amount of each of these metering pumps, and is capable of changing the coating thickness of the conditioning oil in the width direction of the bowling lane.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing an example of a conditioning oil application device for a bowling lane maintenance device according to the present invention. The main body 1 of the bowling lane maintenance device is designed to automatically and continuously clean each lane of a bowling alley, and to adjust and maintain the characteristics of each lane at a constant level by applying oil. After adjusting and maintaining the condition,
The lateral movement mechanism 2 automatically moves the vehicle laterally to an adjacent lane, and automatically adjusts and maintains the lane again. Such continuous automatic operation is performed by the operation control unit 4 based on input signals from the distance integration mechanism (not shown) that counts the distance traveled by the conditioning device main body 1, the lateral movement sensor 3, etc. It is done by folding. The main body 1 includes a pair of side plates 5 and 6 arranged in parallel in the longitudinal direction, and a cleaning unit 7, an oil application roller, and a buff roller 9 are arranged perpendicularly to these side plates between the side plates 5 and 6. has been done. The oil application roller 8 and the buff roller 9 are rotatably supported parallel to the side plates 5 and 6 and parallel to the side plates 10 and 11 which are rotatably supported. 12. This unit 12 includes a compressor 13a and a compressor drive motor 13.
b, compressed air tank 13c and air cylinder 1
A swing mechanism 17 consisting of 5 and 16 and an operation control section 4
As will be described later, it is configured to be selectively held at each of an oil application position, a neutral position, and a buffing position.

The oil application roller 8 is rotationally driven by an oil application roller drive motor 18a and its power transmission mechanism 18b disposed outside the side plate 6, and the buff roller 9 is rotated by a drive motor 19 of the oil application roller and a power transmission mechanism 18b disposed outside the side plate 5. It is configured to be rotationally driven by the power transmission mechanism 20 disposed in the. The drive motor 19 also connects the drive wheel 21a of the main body 1 from its output shaft 19a through a sprocket 19b, a chain 19c, and a sprocket 19d.
It is configured to drive a drive shaft 22 of
Together with the pair of driven wheels 21b of the main body 1, the main body 1 is moved forward or backward along the lane.

On the other hand, a coating oil supply unit 23 for supplying conditioning oil to the oil coating roller 8 is arranged on the oil coating roller 8, and three metering pumps 25b, 25c,
25d, a predetermined amount of oil is transferred to the application oil supply unit. That is, the application oil supply unit supplies six blocks 23a, 23b, 23c, 23d, 2 in the longitudinal direction of the roller 8, and therefore in a direction perpendicular to the center line of the bowling lane.
3e and 23f, and prevents oil from moving between each block. Block 23
a, 23f to the metering pump 25b via the pipe 23g.
The blocks 23b and 23e are connected to a metering pump 25c through a pipe 23h, and the blocks 23c and 23d are connected to a metering pump 25d through a pipe 23i. Metering pumps 25b, 25c,
25d is connected to the oil tank 24 by a pipe (not shown). Further, these metering pumps are assumed to be driven by a pulse motor 25a, and the input pulses can be arbitrarily controlled to arbitrarily adjust the flow rate ratio.

1 is an enlarged plan view of the oil application roller 8, buff roller 9, and application oil supply unit 23 shown in FIG. It is a schematic side view.
The application oil supply unit 23 having the blocks 23a to 23f is fixed to the other end of six leaf springs 27, one end of which is fixed to the upper plate 26 connected between the side plates 10 and 11, and is connected to the oil application roller 8. The application oil supply unit 2 is arranged in parallel.
The lower surface of 3 is pressed against the upper surface of the oil application roller 8 with constant pressure by a leaf spring 27. Further, the coating oil supply unit 23 has felts 29a to 29f filled in its cover 28 for impregnating the blocks 23a to 23f with coating oil.
The oil application roller 8 and the lower surface of each of the felts 29a to 29f are in contact with each other with a constant pressure over the entire length of the roller through an opening 30 on the lower surface of the cover 28. Inside each felt 29a-29f, pipes 32a-32f each having a number of oil supply holes 31 extend in the longitudinal direction of the unit. These pipes are connected to oil supply unit 2, respectively.
Entrances 33a~ extending above each block of 3.
33f, and the tube 23g has blocks 23a, 23
connected to inlets 33a and 33f at f, respectively;
Pipe 23h is connected to inlets 33b and 33e in blocks 23b and 23e, respectively;
i is the entrance 3 in blocks 23c and 23d, respectively.
3c and 33d. Therefore, the input pulses to be supplied to each pulse motor are set as desired by the control unit 4, and the three metering pumps 25b to 25b.
By adjusting the discharge amount of 25d, each block 23a~
The amount of oil supplied to 23f can be adjusted.

The oil application roller 8 and the buff roller 9 are rotatably supported by bearings 8b and 9b provided on side plates 10 and 11, respectively, with rotation shafts 8a and 9a, respectively. Therefore, the fixing point of the leaf spring 27 on the upper plate 26 side,
The relative position of the rotating shaft 8a of the oil application roller 8 does not always change, and the contact force between the felt 29 of the application oil supply unit and the oil application roller 8 is kept constant.

The roller unit 12 consisting of the side plates 10, 11 and the upper plate 26 has bearings 3 attached to the side plates 5, 6, respectively.
It is rotatably supported by 4 and 35. A shaft 36 is passed through the hollow bearing 35 and supported by a bearing 37 fixed to the side plate 6. A gear 38 that meshes with the gear 8c of the rotating shaft 8a is fixed to one end inside the shaft 36, a sprocket 18c is fixed to the other end of the shaft 35, and a sprocket 18d attached to the output shaft of the drive motor 18a and a sprocket 18c A chain 18e is placed between the two to form a power transmission mechanism 18b.

On the other hand, the shaft 39 is passed through the hollow bearing 34, and the side plate 5
It is supported by a bearing 40 fixed to. A gear 41 that meshes with the gear 9c of the rotating shaft 9a is fixed to one end inside the shaft 39, and the other end of the shaft 39 is connected to the power transmission mechanism 2.
Connect to 0.

The roller unit 12 has two parts perpendicular to the side plates 5 and 6.
An arm member is disposed between the two partition plates 43 and 44, has one end fixed to the upper plate 26 of the unit, and extends through the notch 45 of the partition plate 44 to the side of the partition plate 44 opposite to the unit. 46 and the two air cylinders 15 and 16 that move this arm member constitute a swing mechanism 17. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, one end of the main body of the first air cylinder 15 is rotatably fixed to the partition plate 44 by a hinge 46a, and the tip of the piston of the cylinder 15 is fixed to the end of the arm member 46. Rotatably connected to the section. The arm member 46 also has a protrusion 47 that extends parallel to the partition plate 44, and the end of the piston of the positioning air cylinder 16 similarly fixed to the partition plate 44 is connected to the protrusion 47.
make contact with the top surface of the These air cylinders are connected to a compressed air tank 13c, and the control unit 4 selects the arm member 46 and therefore the roller unit 12 to any one of oil application position A, neutral position B, or buffing position C. position.

The operation of the conditioning oil application device of the bowling lane maintenance device having such a configuration will be explained. The main body 1 is placed at one end of the bowling lane, and the control unit 4 sets conditions such as a predetermined oil application area from the foul line to the front of the pin zone, the number of lanes, and a predetermined ratio of the conditioning oil coating film in the width direction of the bowling lane. and start adjusting each lane. First, the main body 1 moves forward, and after cleaning the lane floor surface with the cleaning unit 7, in a predetermined oil application area,
The air cylinders 15 and 16 are operated, the brush roller unit 12 is set at the oil application position A, and the oil application brush roller 8 is brought into contact with the lane floor surface.

The control unit 4 controls each metering pump 25b to 2 according to the rate of change in the oil coating film thickness in the lane width direction.
The input pulse waveform to 5d is controlled to control the discharge amount of each metering pump. That is, the metering pump 25b
pumps oil at a predetermined rate every hour through pipe 23g and inlet 33.
The oil is supplied to each of the oil-impregnated materials 29a and 29f through the oil supply holes 31 of these pipes. The oil-impregnated materials 29a, 29f are located on both sides of the bowling lane floor surface. Further, the metering pump 25d supplies oil at a predetermined rate every hour to each of the oil-impregnated materials 29c and 29d through the pipe 23i, the inlets 33c and 33d, the pipes 32c and 32d, and the oil supply holes 31 of these pipes. The oil-impregnated materials 29c and 29d are located at the center of the bowling lane floor surface. Further, the metering pump 25c supplies oil at a predetermined rate every hour to each of the oil-impregnated materials 29b and 29e through the pipe 23h, the inlets 33b and 33e, the pipes 32b and 32e, and the oil supply holes 31 of these pipes. Oil impregnated material 2
9b and 29e are located on the middle part between both sides of the lane and the center part. Each block 23a to 23f
Felt 29a which is each oil-impregnated material in
Reference numeral 29f denotes an oil that contains conditioning oil up to a saturation amount and that rotates while contacting the felts 29a to 29f through the power transmission mechanism 18b at the opening 30 of the cover 28. Transfer it to the application roller. Even in the oil application position A, the application oil supply unit 23 has a constant contact force on the roller due to the leaf spring 27, and therefore each felt also has a constant contact force on the roller, so that from the felt to the roller The amount of oil transferred to each felt is uniform at each location in the longitudinal direction of the roller. Also, the amount of oil transferred to the cover 2
Since the felt in 8 is in a saturated state, it is equal to the oil discharge amount by each metering pump. Therefore, by changing the electric pulse input to the pulse motor 25a, the amount of oil transferred to the roller can be adjusted as desired. Furthermore, changing the pump discharge amount instantly changes the transfer amount. Since the rollers 8 have only a small amount of hygroscopicity, all of the transferred oil is applied to the lane floor surface.

The setting of the discharge amount of each metering pump is determined so that the bowling lane has desired lane characteristics. For example, in the width direction of the lane, the coating thickness of the conditioning oil may be made smaller or larger in order from both sides of the lane to the middle and then to the center. Furthermore, in the present invention, the discharge amount of the metering pump, and therefore the amount of oil applied from the oil application roller to the lane floor surface, is
Since it can be controlled numerically accurately, such changes in the oil coating film thickness can be accurately numerically adjusted. It is clear that a small amount of oil can be uniformly applied over the entire lane by making the discharge amount of each pump the same.

When the main body 1 has passed the oil application area, the swing mechanism 17 moves the roller unit 12 to the buff finishing position C, and the buff roller is rotated while the main body 1 is moved backward to finish the lane surface. The roller unit 12 is held at the neutral position B at times other than these oil application and buffing processes, and none of the rollers is brought into contact with the lane floor surface.

As is clear from the above description, according to the conditioning oil application device of the bowling lane maintenance device according to the present invention, conditioning oil is applied onto the roller that applies conditioning oil to the lane floor surface in the longitudinal direction of this brush roller. A plurality of oil-impregnated materials are divided and arranged over the area, and these oil-impregnated materials are brought into elastic contact with each other by a spring mechanism, and a plurality of metering pumps are connected to a predetermined group of each oil-impregnated material. Since the amount of conditioning oil supplied to the oil-impregnated material can be arbitrarily set numerically by changing the discharge amount of the metering pump by the control unit, the amount of conditioning oil supplied to the oil-impregnated material can be set arbitrarily numerically by changing the discharge amount of the metering pump by the control unit. The thickness of the cutting oil coating film can be arbitrarily changed, which has the effect of imparting desired lane characteristics to the bowling lane. Rate of change in oil coating thickness,
Since the coating amount can be set numerically, many lane floor surfaces can have the same lane characteristics. This also applies when a plurality of such oil applicators are used. Another advantage is that the thickness of the oil coating film can be changed instantaneously by changing the input pulse to the metering pump.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially enlarged plan view of FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing an example of a conditioning oil application device for a bowling lane maintenance device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 3A and B is the second
FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view taken along line - in the figure and a schematic side view thereof. 1...Main body of lane conditioning device, 2
... Lateral movement mechanism, 3... Lateral movement sensor, 4... Control unit,
5, 6... Side plate of main body, 7... Cleaning unit, 8... Oil application roller, 9... Buff roller, 1
0, 11...Side plate, 12...Roller unit, 15...
Air cylinder, 16... Air cylinder, 23... Application oil supply unit, 25b to 25d... Metering pump, 26... Top plate, 27... Leaf spring, 28... Cover,
29a-29f...Felt, 30...Cover opening, 31...Oil supply hole, 32a-32f...Pipe, 33a-33f...Inlet, 34, 35, 37,
40...Bearing, 38, 41...Gear, 43, 44...Partition plate, 45...Notch, 46...Arm member, 47...Protrusion part.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Apply conditioning oil to the floor of the bowling lane to maintain the condition of the bowling lane. Apply conditioning oil to the floor of the bowling lane using the conditioning oil applicator of the bowling lane maintenance equipment. an oil application roller, a plurality of conditioning oil-impregnated materials arranged on the roller in a divided manner over the longitudinal direction of the roller and supplying conditioning oil to the oil application roller; a spring mechanism for bringing the oil-impregnated material into elastic contact with the application roller; a plurality of metering pumps that are connected to a predetermined group of the oil-impregnated materials and whose discharge amount can be arbitrarily changed; and the oil discharge amount of each of these metering pumps. 1. A conditioning oil application device for a bowling lane maintenance device, characterized in that the conditioning oil application device is equipped with a control unit for setting the conditions, and is capable of changing the coating thickness of the conditioning oil in the width direction of the bowling lane.