The present invention relates to a device and a method for moving a jet member having a nozzle according to the preambles of the appended independent device and method claims.
This treatment of the material layer is first of all intended to be a material removing treatment. Although the layer may consist of other material a concrete layer is preferably concerned herein. Primarily, the treatment is intended to have the purpose to remove weakened material from the layer. It may then be a question of removing weakened concrete from concrete layers on roads, bridges and a variety of building structures, whereupon the removed concrete may be replaced by new concrete. It is in this connection especially preferred that the treating member is constituted by a jet member so as to direct a high pressure jet of liquid against the material layer. Thus, it is this high pressure jet of liquid which executes the material removing treatment. Preferably, the high pressure liquid consists of water.
A device of the type defined in the introduction is already known through for instance EP 1 029 127 B1 of the applicant.
By moving the carriage and by that said jet member in said first rectilinear path between two opposite end positions and when moved at least once between these end positions indexing the carriage with jet member as defined in the introduction and repeating this procedure it is possible by means of devices of this type already known to obtain treatment of a continuous surface of said layer having a substantially rectangular shape. However, it is sometimes desired or even required to treat a continuous surface of said layer having another shape than that of a rectangular by a said jet member.
For illuminating but not in any way restricting the scope of the present invention the use of a device of this type for removing weakened material in connection with joints of bridges may be described as an example. Such joints do normally extend obliquely across the extension of the road surface on the bridge. These joints may for instance make an angle of approximately 60° with said extension. When weakened material is to be removed for repairing the road surface layer in connection with such a joint material has to be removed over a surface extending along the joint and on both sides thereof, which in fact means a surface with a shape similar to a parallelogram with first sides extending in the direction of the road and second sides extending substantially in parallel with said joint.
There are several options to obtain treatment of such a surface to be treated by means of known devices of this type, but problems are adhered to all of them.
One way to proceed is to direct the device so that indexing is carried out in the longitudinal direction of the bridge and removing weakened material from the road surface according to a rectangle enclosing said parallelogram. However, this means that considerably more material than needed is removed, which makes the repair rather costly.
Another way to proceed is to carry out indexing in the longitudinal direction of the bridge but removing material through the operation of the device from a rectangular road surface layer only partially covering said parallelogram and after that using water jet hand tools for removing material for parts of said parallelogram, as opposite acute corners thereof. Such a procedure is time consuming and by that costly.
A further way of proceeding when using devices of this type already known is to change the direction of said indexing several times while directing the indexing directions obliquely with respect to the extension of the bridge and possibly combine this with the use of said hand tools or erecting special structures on and/or outside the bridge for obtaining treatment of road surface regions belonging to said parallelogram to be treated.
Which one of these procedures being preferred in a particular situation depends upon the conditions of said situation, but it will mostly result in considerably higher costs than would said joint have an extension being substantially perpendicular to the extension of the bridge.
It is pointed out that the same problems arise when a surface layer of another shape than a rectangle is to be treated by a jet in another way than for removing material from said layer, and also when material is to be removed over surface layers with any other shape than a rectangle, not only with a shape of a parallelogram.
The object of the present invention is to provide a device and a method of the type defined in the introduction reducing said problems described above of such devices already known.
This object is according to the invention obtained by providing a device according to the introduction with means configured to enable input of data relating to the geometrical shape of a surface of said layer to be treated by the jet member, and means configured to use said data for calculating end positions of said impact point of the jet member for a plurality of consecutive stripes extending substantially perpendicularly to said second path for indexing, each having a width substantially corresponding to said indexing step and together forming said geometrical shape, and by configuring said arrangement to control said first and second drive means to coordinate movement of the impact point of said jet member between said end positions calculated of the respective of said stripes and said indexing of the jet member so as to treat a surface of said layer having said geometrical shape by said jet member.
This configuration of a device of this type makes it possible to restrict treatment of a layer by said jet to only the surface to be treated irrespectively of the geometrical shape thereof without any need of changing the indexing direction of the device and going to and fro in several runs. This means that the treatment will be very costefficient. The improvement will be particularly considerable with respect to the different ways to proceed for removing material from a road surface on bridges having joints extending obliquely to the extension of the bridge described above.
Furthermore, the device according to the invention also enables creation of arbitrary new geometrical shapes of layer surfaces treated by the jet of the jet member.
It is pointed out that “means configured to enable input of data relating to a geometrical shape of a surface of said layer to be treated by the jet member” as well as “means configured to use said data for calculating end positions of said impact point of the jet member” are to be interpreted to also cover the case of having data for predetermined geometrical shapes and dimensions stored in a memory, so that a particular one of them may be chosen by only inputting a code or the like for providing the control arrangement with the data required for the proper operation thereof.
According to an embodiment of the invention the device comprises a member configured to sense the instantaneous position of said carriage and deliver information thereabout to said control arrangement for assisting this to determine that a said end position calculated has been reached by said impact point of the jet member. This means a simple and reliable way of obtaining the correct length of each said stripe of treatment for forming said geometrical shape together with other such stripes with varying lengths.
According to another embodiment of the invention the device further comprises means associated with said means for input of data and configured to displace said geometrical shape determined by said input of data. The presence of such a display makes it possible for an operator of the device to comfortably ensure that the correct geometrical shape and dimensions of the surface layer to be treated have been selected. It may also facilitate the input operation of the data.
According to another embodiment of the invention said arrangement is configured to control said second drive means to move the entire device in said indexing steps 10 mm-100 mm, 20 mm-50 mm or 25 mm-45 mm. These are suitable sizes of such indexing steps for obtaining efficient treatment of a continuous surface layer and obtaining such treatment of such a surface layer with any shape by adding consecutive said stripes to each other for obtaining this shape. It has turned out that an indexing step of 25 mm-45 mm, especially 30 mm-40 mm is suitable for the application of removing weakened concrete from a concrete layer by a high pressure jet of liquid.
According to another embodiment of the invention said jet member is pivotably connected to a base portion of said carriage, the device comprises third drive means configured to pivot said jet member with respect to said base portion for changing the attack angle of the jet upon said layer, and said arrangement is configured to control also said third drive means. It is known that the possibility of such pivoting has a number of advantages. One of the main reasons for pivoting said jet member for changing the attack angle is due to the fact that when treating concrete layers these are reinforced by reinforcement bars, normally in a lattice-like structure. By using a small attack angle, i.e. an angle of the jet being substantially perpendicular to the layer to be treated, the material may be removed quickly, but the result of the treatment will not be that uniform. However, by choosing a large attack angel of the jet the jet will easier reach under the reinforcement bars, so that it will be cleaner there-under and the result of the treatment will be more uniform and the surface treated smooth.
The pivoting of said jet member is normally carried out in the turning zones of said carriage, i.e. in the end and the beginning of said first substantially rectilinear path of the carriage close to the respective end position calculated, i.e. the turn point of the carriage, in which the carriage stops and changes direction. It is important to obtain a treatment of said layer being as uniform as possible also in these turning zones, where the attack angle is often changed and the speed and the direction of movement of said carriage is also changed. This is obtained through a further embodiment of the invention in which the control arrangement is configured to co-ordinate the control of said first and third drive means for moving said impact point of the jet with a substantially constant speed over said layer. By such a co-ordination of the control of the movement of the carriage and the pivoting movement of the jet member a uniform treatment of said layer may be obtained also during pivoting of said jet member, since it is ensured that the impact point will always move with a substantially constant speed over said layer. More details about how this may in practice be realised may be found in WO 2006/073337 A1 of the applicant, the teaching of which is included herein by reference.
According to another embodiment of the invention said jet member is movably connected to a base portion of said carriage so as to enable it to oscillate in a direction being transversal to said first path, and said arrangement is configured to control the jet member to carry out oscillations transversal to said first path while controlling the first drive means to move said carriage in said first path so as to determine said width of a said stripe of the layer treated. The possibility of carrying out such oscillations facilitates to reliably ensure that consecutive stripes of layer treated by the jet of the jet member will connect to each other and possibly overlap each other slightly.
The invention also provides a method for moving a jet member according to the independent appended method claim, and the function and advantageous features thereof and of embodiments thereof according to the appended dependent method claims appear clearly from the discussion above of the device according to the invention.
However, the particular embodiment of providing data in step a) relating to a geometrical shape in the form of a parallelogram having two first sides being substantially in parallel with said second path for indexing and two second sides making an angle being not zero with said first path, such as above 5°, above 10°, above 20° or above 30° and below 90° may be mentioned, since this is a particular preferred application of the invention when removing concrete material from for instance bridges.
According to an embodiment of the invention said data may then in step a) be provided as position co-ordinates of corners or said parallelogram, although of course also other data may be used for defining the surface layer parallelogram to be treated, such as said angle and the length of the sides thereof.
The method according to the present invention is well suited to be carried out by a computer program making a computer or processor controlling the steps of said method, and the invention also comprises such a computer program.
Furthermore, the invention also comprises the use of a device according to the present invention for material removing treatment of a material layer, especially a concrete layer.
Further advantages as well as advantageous features of the invention appear from the following description.
With reference to the appended drawings, below follows a specific description of a device and a method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
In the drawings:
The device according to the invention may, as illustrated in
On the vehicle 1 is arranged an elongated guide member 3 and a carriage 4 movable in first a substantially rectilinear path to and fro along said guide member for carrying out so called traverses. A base portion 5 constitutes a part of the carriage 4. A tube-type jet member 6 or lance is arranged on the base portion 5 for directing a high pressure jet of liquid against the bedding. The guide member 3 in operation is intended to make an angle, preferably substantially a right angle, with a motion direction of the vehicle. The jet member 6 communicates through a conduit 7 with a source for delivering high pressure liquid, especially water, to the jet member. This high pressure source may be arranged on the vehicle 1 or on a separate carriage or the like.
The jet member 6 is arranged pivotably in relation to the base portion 5 about an axis 8 (see simplified
A first drive means in the form of an hydraulic motor 9 is arranged for moving said carriage along the guide member 3 as indicated by the arrows A, whereas a third drive means in the form of an hydraulic motor 10 is arranged for pivoting the jet member 6 with respect to the base portion for changing the attack angle of the jet upon the layer to be treated. Such pivoting is substantially carried out in the turning zones close to the respective end position of the carriage 4 along said rectilinear path. The location of these end positions may vary as will be described more in detail further below.
Means, such as rubber rollers 11 are arranged to bear on the bedding and restricting a space within which said treatment is carried out for protecting the surroundings of the vehicle 1 against material removed by the jet of the jet member 6 and thrown away. It is shown in
A control arrangement adapted for controlling the drive means 9, 10, for example a suitable computer, is adapted, when the carriage 4 has reached a turning zone close to an end position along the guide member 3, to control the drive means 10 to pivot the jet member 6 so that its nozzle during the motion of the carriage in both directions of motion will be pointing in these motion directions. The end positions of the carriage 4 may be defined by sensor members connected to the control arrangement. The hydraulic motor 9 may be controlled to the move the carriage 4 one or several times, i.e. in one or more traverses, to a fro between said end positions before said driving tracks 2 are controlled to move the entire vehicle and by that the carriage 4 with the jet member 6 a step forwards, so called indexing, for treating a new area of the layer to be treated. The jet member may also oscillate in a direction being transversal to the movement path of the carriage, but this oscillation has not to be considered when calculating the total speed of said impact point over said layer or when assuring that said mouth is moving in one and the same plane. Such oscillations results in a broader stripe of the layer surface treated by the jet when moving this along said first path.
It is schematically illustrated in
Reference is now made to
It may in this way be ensured that the speed of the impact point I of the jet upon the layer to be treated is always constant and the same as a predetermined set speed. However, the carriage may very well be controlled to increase its speed in the turning zones rather much for making these turning zones shorter and by that the quality of the treatment at the turn points may be improved.
It is also shown in
The device described so far is already known through WO 2006/073337 A1, and the new features of a device according to the present invention will now be described.
In the device according to the invention the hydraulic motor 24, 25 forming second drive means are configured to move the entire device and by that said guide member in a second substantially rectilinear path being substantially perpendicular to the extension of said guide member when indexing, although other way of moving the device may be possible but not used for carrying out a method according to the present invention. The device according to the invention further comprises means 30, here in the form of a keyboard, configured to enable input of data relating to a geometrical shape of a surface of said layer to be treated by the jet member. These means 30 may have any conceivable construction, such as being an encoder in the form of a knob that may be turned for obtaining different data of said shape, which are then validated by pushing a button in the respective position of the knob associated with a specific piece of information. Means 31 in the form of a screen are associated with the means 30 for input of data and configured to display said geometrical shape 32 determined by the input of data. These data are sent further to means 33 configured to use said data for calculating end positions of the impact point of the jet member for a plurality of consecutive stripes extending substantially perpendicularly to said second path for indexing, each having a width substantially corresponding to said indexing step and together forming said geometrical shape. The calculating means 33 is configured to send the result of the calculation further to the control arrangement 21.
The control arrangement 21 is configured to control the first drive means 9 and the second drive means 24, 25, and here in the case of third drive means 20 also this, to co-ordinate movement of the impact point of the jet member between said end positions calculated by the calculating means 33 of the respective of said stripes and said indexing of the jet member so as to treat a surface of said layer having said geometrical shape by said jet member. Information from the member 18 for sensing the instantaneous position of the carriage 4 will also be used for assisting the control arrangement to determine that a said end position calculated has been reached is shown in
This results in a possibility to obtain treatment of a continuous surface of a layer to be treated having any geometrical shape by in this way adding layer stripes treated with varying lengths for forming the geometrical shape aimed at. Although it should from the above be clear how this is done, it will now be further explained while making reference to also
We do now assume that a surface with a geometrical shape in the form of a parallelogram is to be treated by the jet of the jet member as may be the case for a bridge joint extending obliquely to the extension of the bridge, such as making an angle of 60° with respect thereto, as shown in
The control arrangement 21 will then control said first 9 and second 24, 25 drive means to co-ordinate movement of the impact point of the jet member between the end positions calculated of the respective of said stripes S and said indexing of the jet member so as to treat the surface of said parallelogram, as shown in
It is illustrated in
The invention is of course not in any way restricted to the embodiment described above, but many possibilities to modifications thereof would be apparent to a person with ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
It is pointed out that the invention is not at all restricted to a device or a method in which the impact point of a jet member is moved with a constant speed on the layer treated. Neither is the invention restricted to devices in which it is possible to change the attack angle of the jet or doing this by keeping the distance between the nozzle of the jet member and the material layer to be treated substantially constant.
It is also within the scope of the invention to form shapes of surfaces treated being constituted of several surface shapes combined. An individual surface shape of such a combination may then be obtained while indexing in a different direction than for another/other surface shape(s).
The surface layer to be treated may have any orientation and may for instance have a vertical extension, such as being a part of a wall of a building or a pier of a bridge.
The input of data relating to a geometrical shape may also take place by moving the jet member to point on different points of the surface to be treated, such as the corners of a parallelogram, and then confirm and store the co-ordinates of these points by for instance pushing a button.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/SE08/51216 | 10/27/2008 | WO | 00 | 4/26/2011 |