Patent DE-102005055714-B3 (DE)
Title: Wash water collecting mechanism for vehicles, comprises a water collecting mechanism, a wash water reservoir, a water supply line, filters for single- or multi-level filtration of the collected water, and valve arranged in the supply line
IPC: B60S1/46
Filed: 2005-11-23
Granted: 2007-03-08
Abstract: Wash water collecting mechanism for vehicles, has a water collecting mechanism (1), a wash water reservoir (5), a water supply line (2), filters (4) for single- or multi-level filtration of the collected water, valve (3) arranged in the supply line, an automated production of an ambient-temperature dependent mixture of wash water, and antifreeze alcohol agent for the cleaning of vehicle windshields and windows. The wash water collecting mechanism collects the rain-/vehicle wash water falling on the vehicle via the water collecting mechanism. Wash water collecting mechanism for vehicles, has a water collecting mechanism (1), a wash water reservoir (5), a water supply line (2), filters (4) for single- or multi-level filtration of the collected water, valve (3) arranged in the supply line, an automated production of an ambient-temperature dependent mixture of wash water, and antifreeze alcohol agent for the cleaning of vehicle windshields and windows. The wash water collecting mechanism collects the rain-/vehicle wash water falling on the vehicle via the water collecting mechanism and supplies the water to the wash water reservoir via the supply line. The wash water collecting mechanism comprises further cleaning stages, such as wax-removal- and a deionization step. The valve closes the inlet of the supply line. The water is led into the environment, during the closure of the valve. The collected water in the collecting trap is first roughly filtered by the filtration process. The rough filtration takes place with filters of descending pore sizes. The collected water is finely filtered via a further filter and/or a filter element and is chemically cleaned to separate sediments. The fine filtration and a sediment chamber are intended between the filter screens. Minerals and salts are extracted from the collected water over a mixed bed deionizer. The mixed bed deionizer is a cation and/or anion exchanger. The liquid wax is removed from the collected water over a wax absorber. The wax absorber consists of a fine filter paper, chromatography paper and/or fleece. The cleaned water arrives in a wash water reservoir. The antifreeze agents and surfactant from a separate antifreeze agent container are added to the water of the wash water reservoir. The wash water reservoir and the antifreeze agent container are connected. The collected water is mixed with an appropriate dosage of antifreeze agent and the surfactants dependent on temperature and on the liquid level of the antifreeze agent container and the wash water reservoir. An electronic control unit with the help of an antifreeze agent sensor, recognizes the mixing ratio between water and antifreeze agent in the wash water reservoir. The electronic control unit further recognizes the outside temperature over the outside temperature signal through the data bus interface. The electronic control unit controls the valve for the water supply and turns on a blender pump in order to create an appropriate water/antifreeze agent-mixing ratio in the wash water reservoir. The measurement of the content of the antifreeze agent of the wash water takes place with the help of the antifreeze agent sensor over a conductance- and dielectric constants of the antifreeze agent water mixture. Depending on the antifreeze agent/water-mixing ratio, the dielectric and the resistance in the sensor change themselves and this change is converted by an attached RC-oscillator into a variable frequency, which is evaluated by the electronic control unit. The electronic control unit is an electronic control system with a microprocessor and that the characteristic line of the sensor is subjected in the electronic control unit to linearization to compute the concentration of the antifreeze agent and connected frost resistance of the wash water mixture. The outside temperature is compared with the freezing point temperature of the liquid of the wash water reservoir over a bus signal of the vehicle from the electronic control unit. The antifreeze agent sensor is built from two pole plates with an intermediately placed dielectric and two resistive layers and is composed of capacitance-variable part and of a resistance-variable part. In the capacitance-variable part of the antifreeze agent sensor, a glass fiber-like material is used as the dielectric. In the case of falling outside temperature, the blending pump, which supplies further antifreeze agent from the antifreeze agent container to the wash water reservoir, is activated by the electronic control unit.