Abstract:
An automatic car wash with a high pressure wand moves the wand slightly back and forth when the wand is spraying to provide a direct spray at an angle to horizontal and lateral axis of the car. The high pressure wand is used only once during each car wash, the other fluids being applied by low pressure pipes and nozzles attached to an overhead gantry which moves from one end of the car to the other usually applying a different type of solution with each pass.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/614,794, filed Sep. 30, 2004. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to automatic car washers, and more particularly, to automatic car washers with high pressure wands.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     Automatic car washers have used high pressure wands in the past. Such types of car washers have several objectives including minimizing the cost of each car wash, low maintenance, protecting the care from damage during the washing operation, and providing a clean car at the end of the wash cycle.  
         [0004]     It is a principal object of the present invention to improve on prior art automatic car washers by minimizing the cost of each car wash, providing an automatic car wash with relatively low maintenance, protecting the car being washed from damage by the high pressure wand, and providing a more effective cleaning action when the car is being washed.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     Briefly described is a method of washing a car in an automatic car wash by applying soap to the car with a low pressure spray using an overhead gantry which moves from one end of the car to the other end of the car. Allowing the soap time to chemically act on the dirt on the car and rinsing the car with a low pressure spray while the gantry is moving. A high pressure spray is applied from a wand that moves slightly from side to side while applying the spray. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]     The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become appreciated and be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a car entrance or end end view of an automatic car wash according to the present invention;  
         [0008]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged end view of a portion of an overhead gantry used in the car wash of  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0009]      FIG. 3  is the cross-sectional side view of the portion of the gantry shown in  FIG. 2 ;  
         [0010]      FIG. 4  is a side view of side cleaning pipes and nozzles used in the car wash of  FIG. 1 ; and  
         [0011]      FIG. 5  is cross-sectional view of the obstruction detection apparatus shown in  FIG. 2 . 
     
    
       [0012]     It will be appreciated that for purposes of clarity and where deemed appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated in the figures to indicate corresponding features, and that the various elements in the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale in order to better show the features of the invention. Also, the term “car” as used herein is meant to include other vehicles such as pickup trucks, SUVs, etc.  
       DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0013]     Turning now to the drawings,  FIG. 1  is an entrance or end view of an automatic car wash  10  according to the present invention which includes an overhead gantry  12  mounted on side rails  14  and  16  which, in turn, are mounted on brackets  18  and  20  secured to a concrete enclosure  22 . The car wash  10  also includes two side panels  24  and  26  which partially enclose five plastic pipes  28  holding cleaning, rinsing, and waxing solutions. The five plastic pipes  28  run under the gantry  12  to span across the width of the car wash  10 . The five plastic pipes  28  have various nozzles  30  for spraying the solutions onto a car or other vehicle being washed. The side panels  24  and  26  are attached to brackets  32  and  34  which slide along rails  36  and  38  that are secured to the enclosure  22  by brackets  40  and  42 , respectively. An electric eye has a light emitter  44  attached at the bottom of a bracket  46  mounted to the side panel  24 , and a photo detector  48  is attached to the bottom of another bracket  50  mounted to the side panel  26 .  
         [0014]     Advantageously, the light emitter  44  is positioned near the floor of the enclosure  22  while the photo detector  48  is mounted at the height of a door handle of a car  49 . With this arrangement, the car wash gantry  12  movement is able to stop a little past each end of the car  49  using the electric eye to detect when the gantry  12  has reached a position where the high pressure wand  52  can move across the width of the car  49  in close proximity to the front end and rear end of the car  49 . The diagonal electric eye can detect attachments to the front or rear of a vehicle such as, for example, a snow plow which a horizontal beam might not detect.  
         [0015]     The high pressure wand  52  is movable across the gantry  12  and has one high volume nozzle  54  and nine smaller volume nozzles  56 , the bottom one being turned at an angle to spray up at the bottom of the car. The high pressure line attached to the wand  52  is also attached to a high pressure line  57  whcih runs across the bottom of the gantry  12  and has nine nozzles  58  which provide high pressure spray to the top of the car.  
         [0016]     A motor and gear box  60  is mounted in the center of the gantry  12  to a first cross beam  62 . The motor and gearbox  60  selectively turns a drive shaft  64  attached to a gear  66  mounted on the left end or the gantry  12 . The gear  66  engages a toothed rail  68  which is attached to the rail  14 . Thus, the motor and gear box  60  move the gantry forward and backward in the enclosure  22 .  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged end view of the left portion of the gantry  12 . The high pressure wand  52  is selectively turned by a second motor and gear box  70  to direct the high pressure spray toward the car  49  regardless of the position of the high pressure wand  52  with respect to the enclosure  22 . An advantage of the present invention is that the motor and gear box  70  move the high pressure wand  52  back and forth slightly when the wand  52  is in use so that the spray is not only directly onto the car  49 , but also the spray moves slightly left and right so that parts of the car that are shadowed by the direct spray are nevertheless sprayed directly with the high pressure spray.  
         [0018]     Since the high pressure wand  52  moves around the car, and the wand is positioned based on electronic devices which sense where the car is positioned in the enclosure  22  with respect to right and left and forward and backward, the misreading by one of the sensors or other malfunction is possible which might cause damage to the car  49 . To help prevent such damage the high pressure wand  52  is covered with a foam jacket  72  shown in  FIG. 1 . As further protection to the car an obstruction detection apparatus  74  detects if the wand  52  has made a significant contact with the car. The obstruction detection apparatus  74  is shown in cross section in  FIG. 5 .  
         [0019]      FIG. 3  is the cross-sectional side view of the portion of the gantry  12  shown in  FIG. 2 . The motor and gear box  70  set on a trolley  94  which spans between the cross beam  62  and a second cross beam  96 . A third motor and gear box  98 , also mounted on the trolley  94 , has a shaft  100  attached to a gear  102  which engages a toothed rail  104  attached to the cross rail  96  to selectively move the trolley  94  and high pressure wand  52  across the width of the front and back of the car  49 .  
         [0020]      FIG. 4  is a side view of the panel  24  and the five plastic pipes  28  with their nozzles  30 . The plastic pipes  28  deliver the solutions from rubber tubing lying  106  on the rail brackets  40 . The rubber tubing  106  has not been shown in  FIG. 1  on order to clearly show the rail  36 , bracket  32  and  40 .  
         [0021]     In operation the car  49  is driven into the enclosure  22  and two types of soap are sprayed on the car  49  from the appropriate nozzles  30  on the soap pipes as the gantry  12  is moved from the front of the car to the back of the car. After the soap has been sprayed on, the car wash machinery stops for a predetermined time to let the soap loosen and absorb the dirt. Then the gantry moves to the front of the car while straying rinse water onto the car from the appropriate plastic pipe  28 . Then the high pressure wand is turned on as the gantry again moves to the back of the car. During this time the high pressure water is sprayed from the nozzles  54 ,  56  and  58 . When the high pressure wand is near the rear of the car, the high pressure wand  52  turns with its nozzles  54  and  56  spraying the car while the gantry  12  is still moving so that the spray follows the contour of the rear corner of the car. After the rear end of the car  49  is reached the gantry  12  is stopped and the nozzles  54  and  56  are used to spray the back end of the car while the high pressure wand  52  is moving across the back end of the care  49  and while the wand  52  is still moving slightly back and forth as described above. The upper high pressure spray from the nozzles  58  is turned off to save water during this time. When the wand  52  reaches the other rear corner of the car, it again turns as the gantry starts to move forward to follow the contour of the corner. As the gantry moves to the front fo the car the upper high pressure nozzles  58  again spray the top of the car.  
         [0022]     If the customer has chosen to have the car waxed, the gantry is moved back and forth to put one or both types of waxes on the car  49  from the appropriate plastic pipes  28  and nozzles  30 .  
         [0023]     The three motors are advantageously synchronous motors which allows the car wash controller to know where the gantry  12  and high pressure wand  52  and its orientation are at all times without needing the sensors and flags used in some prior art car washers. The car wash  10  has a home position for the gantry  12  and high pressure wand  52  and its orientation which does use sensors in order to calibrate the electronics driving the synchronous motors.  
         [0024]     The car wash  10  saves time by delivering the soap rinse water and wax through the plastic pipes rather than through the high pressure wand since the gantry  12  can deliver one type of liquid when moving from the front to the back of the car  49  and another type of liquid when moving from the back to the front of the car. The fewer number of movements reduces the maintenance costs and requirements for the car wash  10  compared to some prior art car washes.  
         [0025]     Also, the operator of the car wash can shorten the wash cycle by reducing the time that the soap is left on the car  49 . For example, in the winter in areas where salt is used to melt snow and ice, car owners often use the car wash to remove the salt residue. Removing the salt residue does not require much time for the soap to remove the dirt, and the wash cycle time can be reduced. While this shortened cycle time is not important during times of slow business, it is very helpful when many cars are waiting to be washed which sometimes occurs in the winter when the weather is relatively mild and car owners have the opportunity to have the salt residue removed.  
         [0026]      FIG. 5  is cross-sectional view of the obstruction detection apparatus  74  shown in  FIG. 2 . The upper pipe of the high pressure wand  52  is screwed into a ball  110  which has a center opening  112 . The obstruction detection apparatus  74  has an upper shell  114  and a lower shell  116  which are attached by threads to encase the ball  110 . The upper shell  114  has an opening  118  that is in line with the opening  112  of the ball  110 . The pipe  80  screws into the opening  118 , and a passageway is provided for the cleaning fluids that flow into the high pressure wand  52 . An o-ring  119  is in a groove in the ball  110  at the interface between the openings  112  and  118 . The ball  110  has four indentations  120 , two of which are shown in  FIG. 5 . The other two indentations are at 45° angles around the circumference of the ball with respect to the indentations  120  shown in  FIG. 5  on the side of the lower shell  116  not shown in  FIG. 2 . The lower shell  116  has an arcuate cutout  121  shown in  FIG. 2  that allows the high pressure wand  52  to fold away from the car without damaging the car if the car is driven too far into the stall. Each of the indentations  120  partially receive a ball  122  which is pressed into the indentation  120  by a urethane spring  124  which is enclosed in a cylinder  125 . A set screw  126  in the cylinder  125  is used to adjust the static compression of the urethane spring  124 . A micro switch  128  is threaded through the bottom shell  116  and lies in an indentation  130  in the ball  110 .  
         [0027]     In operation the balls  122  are held in the indentations  120  during normal operation of the automatic car wash  10 . If the high pressure wand  52  meets an obstruction, the ball  110  turns and the micro switch  128  senses if the turning of the ball is such that the end of the micro switch  128  is no longer in the indentation  130 , in which case the high pressure wand  52  is moved away from the car  49  by a car wash controller  131 . After the high pressure wand  50  is free of the obstruction, the weight of the high pressure wand  50  rotates the ball  110  back into position. The set screws  126  are used to adjust the pressure of the balls  122  against the indentations  120  so that the amount of force on the high pressure wand  50  necessary to cause the car wash controller to move the high pressure wand  52  away from the car  49  can be controlled.  
         [0028]     The embodiments described are chosen to provide an illustration of principles of the invention and its practical application to enable thereby one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. Therefore, the foregoing description is to be considered exemplary, rather than limiting, and the true scope of the invention is that described in the following claims.