COVIZZI, Gianpaolo (Via Cornaggia 58, Cinisello Balsamo, I-20092, IT)
| CLAIMS 1. Painting booth (10) comprising a painting chamber (11) which is provided with a conveyor (12) supporting inside the chamber objects (13) to be painted, a walkable floor (14), painting robots (15) and devices (19) for circulating an airflow through the chamber, characterized in that the floor is formed by at least one roll-up surface (20) consisting of a series of hinged elements and in that it can be slidably operated between an access position, where it forms a horizontal flooring of the chamber, and a retracted position, where the interior of the chamber is freed during painting. 2. Booth according to Claim 1, characterized in that the retracted position is substantially vertical and is below the level of the access position. 3. Booth according to Claim 1, characterized in that the roll-up surfaces (20) extend on both sides of the conveyor (12), which passes through the centre of the chamber, and slide towards the retracted position moving away from the conveyor. 4. Booth according to Claim 3, characterized in that several roll-up surfaces (20) are arranged on each side of the conveyor (12), alongside each other. 5. Booth according to Claim 4, characterized in that lateral guides (22) are present between the adjacent roll-up surfaces for sliding between the access position and the retracted position. 6. Booth according to Claim 1, characterized in that the roll-up surface slides inside lateral guides (22) having a first section which is arranged horizontal inside the chamber and which supports the roll-up surface in the access position, and a second section which is arranged inclined downwards and which houses the roll- up surface in the retracted position. 7. Booth according to Claim 6, characterized in that in the retracted position the roll-up surface (20) is folded inside said second section so as to form at least two parallel branches. 8. Booth according to Claim 6, characterized in that motorized drive chains (23), which are endlessly wound and fastened to the roll-up surface (20) so as to move it between the two positions, slide inside the lateral guides (22). 9. Boolli according to Claim 8, characterized in that several adjacent roll-up surfaces (20) are driven by means of the same electric motor (30) which causes rotation of a shaft (31) which carries crown gears (26) meshing with the chains (23) for driving said several roll-up surfaces. 1.0. Booth according to Claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a door (32) for access to the chamber, which is provided with locking means operated by a control device (34) which prevents opening of the door when the roll-up surfaces are in the retracted position. |
PAINTING BOOTH WITH RETRACTABLE FLOOR
DESCRIPTION
The present invention relates to an automated painting booth provided with a retractable floor.
In the prior art painting booths are known where painting robots perform automatically the painting operations, while a travel path conveys the objects to be painted, for example motor vehicle bodies, inside and outside of the painting chamber.
Inside the booth an air flow is maintained so as to pass through a grilled floor and has the function of evacuating the overspray from the booth and conveying it to devices for eliminating and recovering the paint for disposal thereof.
The grilled floor is useful for access to the booth by personnel, for example in order to carry out plant maintenance and inspection operations, but in turn requires periodic maintenance since it may become easily soiled with paint to the point of becoming a serious obstacle to through-flow of the air. Moreover, walking over the floor soiled with fresh paint is awkward and may result in soiling externally.
In the prior art floors have been proposed where segments slide on each other so as to be stacked up along the inner sides of the painting chamber. Such a stacked floor system, however, occupies a large amount of space within the booth and soiling of the segments is not entirely avoided since the segments remain in any case within the booth during painting. Moreover, completely extracting the floors when not required, even if they are reduced to stacked segments, results in a large volume occupied externally and an unacceptable complication. For example, the outer sides of the painting booths are usually already occupied by various supporting equipment which cannot be easily positioned elsewhere.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a painting booth provided with a retractable floor which has compact dimensions, is safe for personnel and has a limited complexity.
In the light of the above object the idea developed according to the present invention is to provide a painting booth comprising a painting chamber which is provided with a conveyor supporting inside the chamber objects to be painted, a walkable floor, painting robots and devices for circulating an air-flow through the chamber, characterized in that the floor is formed by at least one roll-up surface consisting of a scries of hinged elements and in that it can be slidably operated between an access position, where it forms a horizontal flooring of the chamber, and a retracted position, where the interior of the chamber is freed during painting.
In order to illustrate more clearly the innovative principles of the present invention and its advantages compared to the prior art, an example of embodiment applying these principles will be described below, with the aid of the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:
- Figure 1 shows a schematic front view of a painting booth provided according to the i nvention;
- Figure 2 shows a schematic and partial plan view of the booth according to Figure 1;
- Figure 3 shows, on a larger scale, a side view of a detail of the drive system for the floor of the booth according to Figure 1;
- Figure 4 shows a schematic cross-sectional view along the line IV-IV of Figure 3;
- Figures 5a and 5b show schematic cross-sectional views, along the line V-V of Figure 3, of two constructional variants.
With reference to the figures, Figure 1 shows a painting booth, denoted generally by 10, designed according to the invention.
The booth 10 comprises painting chamber 11 which is provided with a known conveyor 12 which supports inside the chamber objects 13 to be painted. The objects may be, for example, motor-vehicle bodies which are introduced one at a time into the chamber in order to undergo the painting process.
The chamber 1.1 is bounded at the bottom by a walkable floor 14, which is advantageously in the form of a grille, and also contains painting robots 15 which are advantageously arranged on opposite sides of the booth, as required.
Suitable known devices 16 for circulating an air flow through the chamber ensure circulation of air in order to evacuate the overspray from the chamber. Advantageously, the flow inside the booth is directed from the top downwards, with an inlet 17 in the ceiling of the chamber and a bottom outlet 18 at the base of the chamber, with discharge ducts 16. A known system 19 for separating the particles of paint of the overspray is advantageously provided underneath the outlet 18 in order to eliminate and recover the paint and perform subsequent disposal thereof. The air thus purified may be introduced into the environment or recirculated inside the chamber.
For the sake of simplicity, the devices 19 are schematically shown in Figure 1 underneath the painting chamber, but (as may be easily imagined by the person skilled in the art) they may also be arranged all or partly in other positions along the air circulation path.
The floor 14 is formed with at least one roll-up surface 20 which can be slidably operated between a chamber access position and a retracted position. In the access position, the roll-up surface forms a horizontal flooring of the chamber, so as to allow entry of the personnel into the chamber. In the retracted position, the walkable surface disappears. The floor is thus not subject to soiling. Moreover, it is thus ensured that the path of the air flow towards the outlet 18 is direcl. During painting, the overspray is in this way efficiently evacuated by the air flow.
Advantageously, as shown in Figure 1, the retracted position is substantially vertical and below the level of the access position.
In the advantageous embodiment shown in Figure 1 , the roll-up surfaces extend on both sides of the conveyor, which passes through the centre of the chamber, and slide towards the retracted position moving away from the conveyor, in Figure 2, for greater clarity, the left-hand surface is shown in its access position, while the right-hand surface is shown in its retracted position. Usually, the surfaces are in any case all in the access position or in the retracted position, depending on whether the booth is inoperative or operative. In the retracted position the roll-up surfaces are advantageously housed on the two sides of the air conveyors of the outlet IS inside a vertical space within the plant which is usually free or can be easily freed and easily maintained.
The roll-up surfaces are formed by a series of long and narrow elements 21 which are hinged together, as will be explained below. Advantageously, these elements are formed with a grille-like surface so as to allow the air flow to pass through even when the floor is closed in the access position.
As shown schematically in Figure 2, advantageously several roll-up surfaces are arranged on either side of the conveyor (shown only in broken lines for greater clarity), alongside each other, so as to reduce the width of the individual surfaces and, among other things, provide a modular system. The roll-up surfaces on the two sides may nearly meet in the centre of the chamber or may be separated by the width of the conveyor, also depending on the structure of the specific conveyor and its support system inside the chamber.
Lateral guides 22, which define the path of the roll-up surfaces for sl iding of the surface between the access position and the retracted position, are present on the sides of the roll-up surface (or between the adjacent roll-up surfaces). The lateral guides support the opposite ends of the transverse elements which form the roll-up surfaces, at least in the horizontal access position.
As can be seen again in Figure 1 and, more clearly, in the detail of Figure 3, advantageously, the lateral guides 22 have a first section 22 which is arranged horizontal inside the chamber and which supports the roll-up surface in the access position, and a second section which is arranged inclined downwards (vertical in the embodiment shown) and which houses the roll-up surface in the retracted position.
The second section is outside the painting chamber (advantageously below it) such that the roll-up surfaces are protected against contact with the paint during operation of the booth.
Moreover, again advantageously, in the retracted position, the roll-up surface is folded inside said second section so as to form at least two parallel adjacent branches. In this way, the height of the vertical section with respect to the length of the horizontal section is reduced and the volume of the zone which must house the roll-up surface in the retracted position is reduced.
Advantageously, motorized drive chains 23 travel inside the lateral guides and are endlessly wound around transmission pulleys 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 which are arranged at the ends and at the corner where the horizontal section and vertical section of the guide meet. One of the pulleys (advantageously the bottom pulley 26, formed with a crown gear) is motor-driven for the travel movement of the chain. The elements which form the roll-up surfaces are fastened to the respective chains (as can be clearly seen in Figure 4) so as to be moved between the two end positions by means of operation of the chain drive motor in one direction or the other. It is thus possible to obtain easily the folded arrangement of the surface. Hinging together of the elements which form the surface may be achieved by means of the same drive chains, although the facing edges of the elements may be hinged directly together, for example in order to ensure greater flexural resistance of the floor.
For a greater load strength, the elements which form the surfaces may be made with metal plates which are arranged edgewise and welded in the form a grille, as known in the case of normal grilled floors.
As can be seen in the figures, the guides and the chains are contained inside boxlike elements (advantageously, suitably shaped sheet-metal housing) in order to protect the mechanisms from the paint inside the chamber and prevent persons making accidental contact with the parts situated outside the chamber. As can again be seen in the figures (for example, in position 35 of figure 3), the entire zone which houses the roll-up surfaces may be enclosed inside protective box-like housing which can be easily removed for maintenance purposes.
As can be clearly seen in Figures 5a and 5b, several roll-up surfaces 20 arranged alongside each other are advantageously driven by the same electric motor 30 which causes rotation of a horizontal shaft 31 (for example by means of a chain transmission 29) carrying the crown gears 26 meshing with the chains 23 driving these roll-up surfaces. The position of the drive system may be advantageously central or at the end of the shaft 31. This is shown in Figures 5a and 5b, respectively.
As shown schematically in Figure 1, an access door 32 to the chamber for personnel is provided with known locking means 33 (for example an electric lock) operated by a control device 34 which prevents opening of the door when the roll- up surfaces are in the retracted position. This ensures that a person cannot enter the chamber when no floor is present and only when the space is completely closed. The control device (advantageously an electronic system such as a known apparatus with programmed microcontroller) may also control the activation/deactivation sequence of the robots and the air circulation system so that the robots are disabled before the door is opened and enabled again only after closing of the door and retraction of the floor.
At this point it is clear how the predefined objects are obtained, providing a painting booth in which the surfaces which form the walkable floor, useful for the personnel who must access the painting chamber, can be easily retracted into a concealed position when the booth is in operation. Moreover, the floor retraction system is simple and compact and may make use of spaces which are generally not used in conventional systems. It is thus possible to construct easily the booths provided with the retractable floor, without having to modify significantly the design compared to a conventional plant.
Obviously, the above description of an embodiment applying the innovative principles of the present invention is provided by way of example of these innovative principles and must therefore not be regarded as limiti ng the scope of the rights claimed herein. For example (as may be easily imagined by the person skilled in the art) the form, proportions and functions of the booth may vary depending on the specific practical requirements and likewise it is possible vary the conveyor which passes through the chamber with the products to be painted or the position and operation of the system for evacuating and recirculating the air flow in the painting chamber (for example, several adjacent conveyors may be envisaged, each with its own discharge duct). The zones for housing the roll-up surfaces in the retracted position may also vary depending on the design preferences and requirements.
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