Patent Application
20160107185
Many items on a machine or device have elements thereon which are remote and difficult to access. Some of these remote elements have a requirement to be coated by any of a host of materials, including, but not limited to, any and all coatings, fluids, adhesives, paints, anti-corrosive agents, insecticides, herbicides, pesticides, waxes, fungicides and the like. It would be useful to have a spray device with the versatility to reach such remote and difficult to access areas, which would include means to capture overspray and errant particles. Current practice includes flooding the area with spray which is both imprecise and wasteful.
The invention is an attachment for a spray device which includes an elongated flexible vacuum hose which has an internal coaxial line there-within. The internal coaxial line is also flexible, and attaches to the spray device on the proximal side, and terminates on the distal side with a nozzle. The nozzle resides in a removable spider. A removable spider is simply a removable support element which is adapted to receive the nozzle centrally therein. The removable support element or spider is shown in the figures to have a specific configuration. This configuration may be optimal for some applications, however, the invention is not limited to such a configuration. The use of the word spider or removable support element are interchangeable.
The spider is adapted to center and support the internal coaxial line at the distal side. The removable spider may be taken off of the invention, and the elongated flexible vacuum hose may be retracted back toward the proximal side to permit even deeper penetration into a hard to reach area. The elongated flexible vacuum hose would, when retracted, still generates a sufficient vacuum to remove overspray or errant particles when the elongated flexible vacuum hose is in it's retracted state.
The internal coaxial line is surrounded by the elongated flexible vacuum hose along the entire length of the coaxial line. Near the connection point of the coaxial line to the spray device, the proximal side of the flexible vacuum hose mates with an inverted L-shaped element or elbow. The inverted L-shape element has a connection point co-linear with the internal coaxial line where the spray device would be attached. The long end of the inverted L-shaped element points generally downward and is attached to a vacuum hose. The elongated flexible vacuum hose which surrounds the coaxial line, the inverted L-shaped element or elbow, and the downwardly oriented vacuum hose are all in communication with each other creating a continuous passageway for the evacuation of overspray from the nozzle at the distal end of the internal coaxial line. A pump or other means to create a vacuum is provided further down the passageway to exhaust the overspray to an exit. A filter may be placed intermediate the portion of the downwardly oriented vacuum hose proximal the inverted L-shaped element or elbow and the exit to create an a governmental compliant exhaust.
Other structural elements and additional embodiments of the Invention will be introduced and discussed in the Detailed Description of the Figures.
Referring now to
The attachment 5 to the spray device 10 includes a hollow inverted L-shaped element 30 which is solid and does not bend. The top or shorter portion 40 of the hollow inverted L-shaped element 30 is integral with and generally perpendicular to the bottom or longer portion 50 of the hollow inverted L-shaped element 30.
The proximal end 74 of the upper elongated flexible tube 60 is attached to the front side 42 of the top or shorter portion 40 of the hollow inverted L-shaped element 30.
The distal end 72 of the upper elongated flexible tube 60 is removably attached to the to the back portion 72 of the spider 80. The spider 80 holds a nozzle 90 centrally in place at the distal end of the upper elongated flexible tube 60. The spider 80 is a removable support structure for the nozzle 90.
Interior of the elongated flexible tube 60 is an elongated flexible coaxial tube 100 which connects to the nozzle 90 on the distal end 72 and traverses the interior length of the elongated flexible tube 60 to and beyond the distal end 74 where it is in position to attache to the spray device spider 7610 at a mating coupling 110. The mating coupling 110 may be, but is not limited to, a threaded fastener, detent coupling, and the like. Further, the mating coupling 110 may be sized and toleranced to fit any commercially available spray device 10.
The hollow inverted L-shaped element 30 includes an upper portion 40 through which the flexible coaxial tube 100 passes through until it is mated to the spray device 10 by the mating coupling 110.
The hollow inverted L-shaped element 30 also includes a downward portion 50 which is generally perpendicular in a downward fashion to the upper portion of the hollow inverted L-shaped element 30. Depending from the bottom 52 of the downward portion 50 is a second elongated flexible tube 120. The second elongated flexible tube 120 is further connected to a vacuum generating device (not shown) as well as a filtration device or devices, including. but not limited to, a prefilter, a HEPA filter and a Carbon filter (not shown).
Referring now to
Referring to
As, before, when the spray device 10 is activated, whatever coating is being employed travels down the elongated flexible coaxial tube 100 until it reaches the nozzle 90 where it is atomized and the atomized material spreads out into the hard to reach area on workpiece 150. Concurrently, a vacuum is created by the vacuum generating device (not shown) which creates a vacuum which action proceeds from the second elongated tube 120, through the hollow inverted L-shaped element 30, and further through the elongated flexible tube 60. Despite the fact that the elongated flexible tube 60 is now a greater distance from the nozzle 90, a vacuum is still created in the smaller and more difficult to access area. Sufficient vacuum or negative air pressure would remove any overspray or errant particles which did not adhere to the workpiece 150, such as those that would be floating in internal cavities 160 even with the elongated flexible tube 60 in it's retracted position. This overspray and such would be caused to flow down the airway, past the nozzle 90, into the elongated flexible tube 60, down through the the inverted L-shaped element 30, and into the second elongated tube 120. At this point the vacuum generating means (not shown) would pull the contaminated air through an appropriate filter and then once the air has been remediated, exhaust it into the environment.
Referring now to
This shows a cut away view of the upper elongated flexible tube 60 in relation to the flexible coaxial tube 100 residing centrally or co-axially inside of the upper elongated flexible tube 60. Between the upper elongated flexible tube 60 and the flexible coaxial tube 100 is a generally cylindrical airway 170. This airway 170 permits the vacuum to egress any particulates, overspray or errant particles which did not adhere to the workpiece 150.
Both the upper elongated flexible tube 60, the second downward elongated tube 120, and the inverted L-shaped or elbow element 30 should be cleaned to prevent fouling.
Referring now specifically to
Referring now specifically to
Referring now to
While the invention has been described in its preferred form or embodiment with some degree of particularity, it is understood that this description has been given only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction, fabrication, and use, including the combination and arrangement of parts, may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
