Patent Application
20240318447
The present embodiments relate to clean rooms or booths and particularly to mobile clean rooms that interface with an area upon which work and cleaning will be accomplished.
Clean rooms and associated technology are well known in the art. What is desired is a clean room with a movable portion that can provide a substantially airtight interface with, for example, a ceiling and/or wall, allowing ceiling tiles and/or wall material to be removed without exposing the surrounding area to dirt and debris that exists in the area above the ceiling and/or adjacent to a wall where maintenance work is to be performed. None of the clean rooms known to the prior art are satisfactory. While the inventions of U.S. Pat. No. 7,448,945 dramatically advanced the state of the art in this technical field, even further improvements remain desirable.
It is against this technological backdrop that the present Applicant sought a technological solution to these and other problems rooted in this technology.
In one aspect of the present embodiments there is provided a mobile clean room comprising one or both of a ceiling access and a wall access. One example includes a vertically disposed room frame having an upper and lower portion, a plurality of wall panels affixed between the upper and lower portion of the frame to define an interior space and to form an end wall and front and rear walls, a door hingedly affixed to the frame to form another end wall, a floor panel affixed to the lower portion of the frame, a plurality of wheels affixed to the lower portion of the frame for movably carrying the frame, a dust collection assembly movably attached to the upper portion of the frame and selectively positionable against a ceiling. The wall panels are formed of transparent plastic or polycarb material and the floor panel is formed of an aluminum plate. The dust collection assembly includes a horizontally disposed curtain frame carrying a ceiling seal and defining an access space and a subtending curtain affixed to the curtain frame, the curtain located interiorly of the room frame, the curtain frame being adapted to fit closely adjacent a ceiling surface with the ceiling seal being compressed. One or more wall accesses may be optionally provided in addition to and/or alternatively to a ceiling access.
A pair of spaced hollow guides are attached to the lower portion of the room carrying within a pair of spaced posts subtending from the curtain frame for guided vertical movement of the curtain frame. Locking fasteners are attached between a respective guide and post for selectively securing the post in a desired position.
A ladder is mounted between the upper portion of the room frame and the floor panel. Electrical receptacles are attached to one wall or frame for providing electrical power into the room from an external source of electric power. The floor panel includes an exhaust port therethrough for removing air from the interior space. A vacuum apparatus in the interior space has an outlet removably affixed to the exhaust port.
In another aspect of the present embodiments there is provided a mobile clean room comprising both a ceiling access and a wall access. In accordance with these aspects, one embodiment comprises a vertically disposed room frame having an upper and lower portion, a plurality of wall panels affixed between the upper and lower portions of the frame to define an interior space and to form an end wall and front and rear walls, a door mounted to the frame to form another end wall, a floor panel affixed to the lower portion of the frame, a plurality of wheels affixed to the lower portion of the frame for movably carrying the frame, a ladder disposed in the interior space mounted between the upper portion of the room frame and the floor panel, a dust collection assembly movably attached to the upper portion of said frame. The wall panels are formed of transparent plastic or polycarb material and the floor panel is formed of an aluminum plate. The dust collection assembly includes a horizontally disposed curtain frame defining an access space and a subtending curtain affixed to the curtain frame, the curtain located interiorly of the room frame, the curtain frame being adapted to fit closely adjacent a ceiling surface. A deck is affixed to the upper portion of the room frame mounted between the upper portion of the room frame and the floor panel. Electrical receptacles including a female receptacle attached to the deck are attached to one wall or frame for providing electrical power into the room from an external source of electric power. The floor panel includes an exhaust port therethrough for removing air from the interior space. One or more wall accesses are provided in addition to a ceiling access.
In a further aspect of the present embodiments there is provided a mobile clean room comprising a substantially rectangular frame having an upper and lower portion formed of a plurality of metal tube members, a plurality of transparent plastic wall panels affixed to the frame to form an end wall and front and rear walls, a floor plate affixed to the lower portion of the frame, a plurality of locking swivel wheels affixed to the lower portion of the frame, a ladder mounted between the floor plate and the upper portion of the frame, a dust guard assembly and attachment means for movably mounting the assembly to the upper portion of the frame, a door pivotally mounted to the frame.
In some embodiments, the means for slideably mounting the ladder includes a bracket attached to the upper portion of the room and another bracket attached to the ladder. The brackets form an upwardly facing groove and a downwardly facing groove located with one groove supporting another bracket.
These and other aspects and features of the present embodiments will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying figures, wherein:
The present embodiments will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings, which are provided as illustrative examples of the embodiments so as to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and alternatives apparent to those skilled in the art. Notably, the figures and examples below are not meant to limit the scope of the present embodiments to a single embodiment, but other embodiments are possible by way of interchange of some or all of the described or illustrated elements. Moreover, where certain elements of the present embodiments can be partially or fully implemented using known components, only those portions of such known components that are necessary for an understanding of the present embodiments will be described, and detailed descriptions of other portions of such known components will be omitted so as not to obscure the present embodiments. Embodiments described as being implemented in software should not be limited thereto, but can include embodiments implemented in hardware, or combinations of software and hardware, and vice-versa, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, unless otherwise specified herein. In the present specification, an embodiment showing a singular component should not be considered limiting; rather, the present disclosure is intended to encompass other embodiments including a plurality of the same component, and vice-versa, unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. Moreover, applicants do not intend for any term in the specification or claims to be ascribed an uncommon or special meaning unless explicitly set forth as such. Further, the present embodiments encompass present and future known equivalents to the known components referred to herein by way of illustration.
With reference now to the drawings, a front view of the booth or room in accord with the present embodiments is shown at numeral 10 in
Three hinge joints 24, 24A attach door 23 to frame 11. Frame members 25, 27, 28 are metal tubes similar to members 11. Door handle lock assembly 26, 31, 32 is conventional as understood in the art. A fitted transparent vinyl cover or hood 30 is used to cover assembly 20 when the booth 10 is moved or stored (
Rubber seal 33 is mounted on the frame 11 and not on the door 23.
The lower portion of room 10 shown in
Optional vacuum cleaner 47 includes a HEPA filter and exhausts through exhaust port 34 and is operated to continuously clean the air in the interior space 12A of the room.
In some embodiments, the construction of the room 10 involves mounting vinyl material on the outside of 1″ hollow box members 11. Over the vinyl material, metal strips 41A are placed to sandwich the vinyl material between a strip 41A and an associated frame member 11 via rivets 12B. This particular construction results in defining a plurality of wall panels 12 and door 23. It is to be understood that the three walls could be formed of either a single piece of vinyl or separate vinyl portions as desired in the circumstances. The location, spacing and number of rivets 12B is shown only representatively. In addition, the wall construction details are omitted in
In alternative embodiments, the construction of room 10 involves attaching polycarb material with 3M double sided tape, in which case some or all of rivets 12B are not needed.
It should be apparent that any combination of accesses 102 and/or 104 may be provided in a given room according to embodiments. For example, one room may only include one or two accesses 102 and no accesses 104. Another room may include one or two accesses 102 on one side, and one access 104 on another side. Another room may include more than two accesses 102 on more than one side, and one access 104 on another side. As another example, one room may only include one or two accesses 104 and no accesses 102. Another room may include one or two accesses 104 on corresponding sides, and one or more accesses 102 on another side. Another room may include more than two accesses 104 on more than one side, and one access 102 on another side.
The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are illustrative, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “operably connected,” or “operably coupled,” to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “operably coupleable,” to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably coupleable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactable components.
With respect to the use of plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.
It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.).
Although the figures and description may illustrate a specific order of method steps, the order of such steps may differ from what is depicted and described, unless specified differently above. Also, two or more steps may be performed concurrently or with partial concurrence, unless specified differently above. Such variation may depend, for example, on the software and hardware systems chosen and on designer choice. All such variations are within the scope of the disclosure. Likewise, software implementations of the described methods could be accomplished with standard programming techniques with rule-based logic and other logic to accomplish the various connection steps, processing steps, comparison steps, and decision steps.
It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation, no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations).
Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general, such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood to include the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”
Further, unless otherwise noted, the use of the words “approximate,” “about,” “around,” “substantially,” etc., mean plus or minus ten percent.
Although the present embodiments have been particularly described with reference to preferred examples thereof, it should be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that changes and modifications in the form and details may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. It is intended that the appended claims encompass such changes and modifications.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/487,054 filed Feb. 27, 2023, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63487054 | Feb 2023 | US |
