BODY OF VEHICLES

DESCRIPTION

The present patent concerns the sector of equipment for repairmen and in particular it concerns a new lamp holder.

Stands are presently known that are provided with a tripod and a rod suited to support a lamp necessary to light a vehicle to be repaired.

A wide sector of activity for car body repair shops is represented by repairs made on the body of vehicles that have been damaged by hail; it is known that hail causes a series of small dents on vehicles, commonly called dings, that are distributed in various ways and have different sizes and depths.

Said dents are generically circular in shape and their depth may vary from less than one millimetre to one or two centimetres.

One of the techniques that are most used for repairing said dents consists in beating them out from the inside, taking care to control the force and position of the beating action.

An expert panel beater can perfectly repair the hoods, the roof or the sides of a car in just a few hours, using special little hammers and beating the various dents out from the inside.

In order to perform this operation it is necessary to identify precisely the points that must be beaten out with the hammer and for this purpose an artificial lighting source is used, which is substantially positioned level with the surface to be repaired and through the movement of shadows makes it possible to locate with precision all the hollows present on the plate, even very small ones.

As all the parts of a vehicle's body, meaning the hoods, the sides, the roof are not flat, rather, they are always curved or convex, usually towards the outside, it is necessary to continuously modify the position of the lamp by lifting or lowering it. In many cases the height of the lamp must be adjusted dozens of times.

Consequently, to perform this job a repairman working alone is forced to keep moving between the lamp and the car, or two operators are necessary, one of which will beat the dents out while the other will adjust the height of the lamp, the latter being forced to stand on the opposite side of the vehicle with respect to the panel beater.

In order to overcome all the above mentioned drawbacks, a new type of lamp holder has been designed and constructed, whose height can be adjusted through a radio control to detect hail dents.

The new lamp holder comprises, in its main parts, a base or tripod having over it a telescopic rod that slides in a main fixed cylinder. The upper end of the rod is provided with devices for fixing the lamp or a further extension tube.

The lamp holder also comprises devices for lifting and lowering the telescopic rod. An electric motor, integral with said main cylinder, sets a gear motor rotating, said gear motor being provided with gears applied to horizontal or slightly inclined teeth obtained on the vertical telescopic rod. In this way the motor, powered by a small battery, causes the translation of the vertical rod according to the rotation direction of the motor.

The motor start, in one direction or the other, is controlled through a radio control. In this way, the panel beater uses the radio control to lower or lift the lamp positioned on the other side of the vehicle and thus he can check the progress of his work at any moment and from any position.

The panel beater can thus use the radio control to vary the height of the lamp, so that during its translation it can light any point of the roof or side or curved hood with grazing light.

According to the invention, the base or tripod that supports the lamp can be provided with wheels that allow it to be comfortably moved.

The electric energy necessary for the operation of the motor that sets the rod translating can be obtained from a battery that is integral with the motor or the tripod or can be obtained from the power mains, by means of an interposed transformer, through the cable that powers the lamp.

According to the invention, the base or tripod can be provided with a battery capable of powering both the lamp and the rod translation motor.

The new lamp holder makes it possible to reduce the repair costs and times, since a single operator can adjust the correct position of the lamp by means of a radio control, with no need to move continuously to and fro.

In fact, the radio control and the presence of the gear motor make it possible to position the lamp with millimetric precision directly from the panel beater's operating position. The new device allows a single operator to achieve better results than those obtained by two operators, since even the vertical translation of the lamp is controlled by the same operator.

These and other direct and complementary objects are achieved by the new lamp holder with variable height, even exceeding one metre, suited to be used to eliminate hail dents from vehicles and comprising a base or tripod that supports at least one sliding vertical telescopic rod provided with horizontal or slightly inclined gears that mesh with a gear motor, integral with the tripod, that is set rotating by an electric motor controlled through a radio control, in one direction or the other.

The characteristics of the lamp holder are highlighted in greater detail in the following description, with reference to the attached drawing that is enclosed by way of non-limiting example.

Figure 1 shows the main parts of the lamp holder, which include a stand or tripod (C) with a fixed cylinder (F), inside which the main vertical rod (Al) slides. Said rod (Al) is provided with slightly inclined teeth (D) on which the gear of the gear motor (R) rests, said gear motor being set rotating by the motor (M) that causes the same rod (Al) to translate upwards or downwards. A further rod (A2) is fixed at the top, through a locking device or joint (Z), to said main rod (Al) and can be locked at different heights or so that it faces different directions in such a way as to adapt to the type and size of the vehicle to be repaired, wherein said rod (A2) comprises at its upper end devices (S) suited to fix and support one or more lamps (L).

Said further rod (A2) can be telescopic and slide in said rod (Al) or can be hinged to an upper joint (Z) so that it can be oriented upwards or downwards or laterally in order to allow also the sides of vehicles to be repaired.

The electric motor (M) is powered by the battery (B) that can be replaced and/or recharged through a cable connected to the power mains.

A radio receiver device (T) is interposed between the motor and the power source, so that using a radio control (K) it is possible to start or stop the motor (M) and also to set its rotation direction.

To set the gear motor rotating it is also possible to use a traditional drill whose spindle rotates the gear motor and whose rotation direction can be selected through a radio control.

Said lamp holder is visible also in Figure 2 together with the car to be repaired and the panel beater standing on the side opposite the lamp holder. The panel beater uses the radio control to lift or lower the lamp holder, thus modifying the height of the lamp (L, L') with respect to the ground and to the car roof.

Therefore, with reference to the above description and the attached drawings, the following claims are expressed.