The present invention relates to the technical field of equipment, in particular to a portable electric car washer.
Most of the existing portable electric car washers adopt a rigid open water tank which is provided with a water pipe having several meters in length and capable of surrounding a car by a circle to spray water. In use, the electric car washer is connected to a car cigarette lighter for power connection, the water tank is stationary, and the water gun surrounds the car to spray water along with a user. The example is “Cylindrical portable electric car washer” with the application number of 201120254219.6.
The existing car washer has the following disadvantages of:
1. Large volume and poor portability; 2. arduous work for taking water by hand, especially for women; 3. small volume; if the volume is made to be large, the portability is much poorer, and it is difficult for putting the car washer into trunks of some small cars; 4. a bucket has to be placed under a tap for collecting water, so it is troublesome to take water and picky about the source of water; for example, the water cannot be directly taken from a wash basin in the public toilet at a gas station but a gourd ladle is needed instead to fetch water; 5. it is troublesome to collect the water pipe due to the lengthiness of the pipe as well as wear and water and dirt stains due to drag on the ground in use; and 6. when a car washer with flexible castors is placed in the trunk of a car, it is easy to cause shake and abnormal noise which will thus interfere with driving. The present invention aims to solve these problems as well as the following problems at the same time.
1. Based on the appeal for energy conservation and environmental protection, the government calls on people to wash their cars with such non-drinking water as collected rainwater, pond water and river water instead of drinking water. However, such appeal receives rare responses due to the main reason as follows: the above non-drinking water has low cleanliness, so tiny impurities in the water can easily block the strainer of the car washer and cause a failure, while frequent strainer cleaning and replacement also increases time and economic cost, 2. People tend to wash their cars by the source of water due to tiring and inconvenient water fetching so that waste water after car washing pollutes the source of water.
The present invention is designed based on the starting point that a car washer moves around a car along with a user. Castors are mounted below the outer box of the car washer to assist in movement, and a wire capable of surrounding the car by at least half a circle in length is used, which is convenient for matching with a short water pipe to facilitate storage. The present invention has the novelty that: a manual reversing water valve is added on the water way, which makes it possible to use a soft water bag on the car washer. The reversing water valve can change the direction of a water flow, so that a water pump not only can fill water into the water bag, but also can draw water from the water bag to spray and wash a car.
The traditional water bags cannot achieve such full closing work. Each of the traditional water bags has an openable cover to facilitate water filling. For the convenience of lifting the water bag during water filling, a handle type device beneficial for hand touch is also designed usually.
As shown in
The outer box with castors in
In the above basic scheme, a wire is connected with a car cigarette lighter socket to supply power to the car washer. The length sum of the wire and the water discharging pipe (5) can at least surround the car by half a circle. The wire is coiled via a take-up reel (6). Of course, a battery can be directly installed on the car washer as a power source. Alternatively, the cigarette lighter power supply mode and the battery power supply mode are combined. The scheme can also be further perfected based on the following reasons and demands to achieve better effect. The scheme will be described below in detail.
I. Series and Parallel Enhanced Water Pump
Reason: A large flow is needed to fill water into the water bag, otherwise waiting time is long, while a great water pressure is needed during spraying for car washing so as to enhance washing capability. These two demands are contradictory. A water pump with large flow consumes too much water for car washing, while the flow of a water pump with great pressure is not certainly large.
Measure: Two or more than two water pumps the quantity is preferably an even number) are equipped for the car washer; the water feeding and discharging openings of the car washer are connected to another change valve, and the switching of the change valve makes the water pumps connected in parallel or in series. The switch of the change valve is linked to the change valve in
As shown in
Effect: Water pumps connected in parallel can increase the flow to meet the water filling demand, while water pumps connected in series can increase the water pressure to meet the washing demand.
II. Hinged Door to Support Water Bag
Reason: The height of the outer box is desired to be designed as low as possible in order to make the car washer small in volume and portable, for example, to be placed below a seat in the car without occupying any space. The volume of the water bag is desired to be as large as possible in order to hold more water. However, these two demands are contradictory. Because the water bag is soft, a larger water bag needs to be supported by a higher outer box side wall, otherwise the water bag will collapse and even fail to the ground.
Measure: Two door panels like a hinged door (in top view) are installed in the open surface of the outer box. One side of the panels is fixed on the inner side wall of the outer box via a hinge, and a rotating shaft of the hinge is lower than the outer edge of the outer box. In this way, when the water bag is filled with water to expand, the water bag drives the door panels to open outwards and rest against the side wall so as to perform the function of supporting the water bag. Further, the inner surfaces of the door panels and the outer surface of the water bag need to be adhered. In this way, when the water bag is empty and collapsed, the door panels can be pulled to be closed.
As shown in
III. Built-in Sponge in Water Bag
Reason: Because the water discharging pipe is filled with air when water is pumped into the water bag, it is easy to cause difficult water pumping or slow water pumping at the beginning. It is well-known that water pumping can only be optimized when the water feeding pipe of the water pump is usually injected with priming water. For the product in the basic scheme, if the change valve is switched to spray water for filling the water discharging pipe with water first and is then switched to the water pumping position before water pumping each time, water pumping will be efficient and convenient. However, the prerequisite is that water remaining last time must be left in the water bag.
Measure: A sponge is placed in the water bag. To prevent the sponge from blocking the water feeding and discharging openings due to shaking, the sponge shall be fixed on the inner wall of the water bag, for example, fixed on the top of the inner wall of the water bag;
Effect: After car washing is finished each time, water absorbed in the sponge is reserved as priming water for next time. The sponge only needs to be extruded by hand for use next time.
IV. Upper and Lower Dual Pipes of Water Bag
Reason: In the basic scheme shown in
Measure: As shown in
V. Lighting for Car Washing
Reason: Users are too busy in working to wash cars in the daytime; it may be so hot in the daytime that car washing is tiring; during car washing in the sun, water drops are easy to focus sunlight to burn car paint, just like lenses. Therefore, the measure of facilitating users to wash cars in the night time shall be adopted.
Measure: A charging cell (battery) can be carried on the car washer as a power source. A lamp is installed on the water gun. The light of the lamp covers water splashes sprayed by the water gun. The lamp is connected with the power source of the car washer via a wire. The wire is wound around the outer wall of the water discharging pipe. The wire is connected with the outer box of the car washer and the lamp on the water gun via plugs. A switch is arranged on the circuit for controlling the lamp.
Effect: It is not necessary to wash a car under a street lamp even in the night time, and the light illuminates the water splashes, and the water splashes play the action of refraction to enhance the coverage of the light.
VI. Train Series Connection Technique
Reason: As a result of the limited size of the portable car washer and particularly its limited size of the water bag, it is difficult for the car washer to cope with certain large vehicles such as a bus. If the car washer is made to be larger, due to the limited sales of non-portable products, the production cost will be increased because of small yield. Thus it is good to place these small car washers in series connection to become a large one.
Measure: Hooks are arranged at the tail and the head of each car washer so that the car washers are connected end to end, like a train when connected in series. Water way connection: The water discharging openings of all train carriages are gathered with another thicker water pipe. It is preferable to mount two hooks at the front and the back ends of the upper cover so that the upper cover can cover the outer box when stored, and the hooks can be hanged as hanging buckle for buckling the box body.
Effect: Even a bus driver does not need to buy a dedicated car washer but only needs to buy a few more portable car washers and a gathering water pipe, and then connect the car washers in series into a train for intensive water discharging and spraying, with much higher water pressure and more water quantity.
VII. Water Discharging Pipe as Pull Rope
A movable car washer with castors in similar products is usually provided with a handle for people to drag. The handle is not necessary for the car washer of the present invention. When people hold the water gun to spray around the car, the water discharging pipe (5) is not long enough to surround the car by half a circle, and the water discharging pipe (5) sustains tension by the user to drag the car washer to move along with the user, as shown in
The car washer has other characteristics that:
1. The car washer is provided with four castors, wherein two front castors are steerable castors capable of rotating on a horizontal plane, and the two rear castors are fixed.
2. The water pump is provided with a pressure switch. The switch can control the on-off of the water pump circuit according to water pressure. The pressure of the switch is set to be smaller than the water pressure at which the water bag is broken.
3. The water discharging pipe sustains tension during car washing to move around the car along with people to spray.
4. No openable water filling opening cover or handle is arranged on the water bag; no pulling handle or pushing handle is arranged on the outer box.
5. The water discharging pipe, the water gun, etc. can be placed in the outer box.
Product advantages: 1. Small size and portability. 2. Less power to take water. 3. Good compatibility with a water source. The car washer can take water from both washbasins in public toilets and streams or ponds. 4. The car washer is easy to be stored due to an automatic take-up reel and a shorter water pipe. 5. Because the water feeding and discharging pipes are combined into a whole, bidirectional water flows perform the effect of preventing the screen from blocking, and the car washer has low requirements for the cleanness of the water source. 6. The car washer does not require manually injecting water to start water pumping. 7. When a car falls into water, the water bag can be filled with air to play the action of a rescue balloon to help the driver who cannot swim to escape, or the water bag emerges from water to help indicating the position where the car falls into water.
Design example of the car washer product based on the present invention: as shown in
Wherein the appearance of the cover plate outer box with castors is the same as that of a suitcase and is characterized in that four castors are mounted below the cover plate (4), and the cover plate (4) can be completely taken off, is cushioned under the box body (3) after being taken off and fixed via hooks. Thus, the cover plate outer box with castors becomes a trolley in use and becomes a suitcase in storage, so that portability is greatly increased.
Wherein the wire in the automatic take-up reel (6) must be long enough to surround the car by half a circle. Before use, the wire can be completely pulled out easily, and then the plug is inserted into a car cigarette lighter. After use, the wire can be automatically retracted via an elastic mechanism in the reel by pressing a button.
The water way connection of the change valve is shown in
For the work of the water way shown in
First way: Water is pumped to the change valve (203) via the pump 1 (204), and the opening B of the valve is communicated with the opening S to flow to the discharging opening (202);
Second way: Water flows to the change valve (203), the opening A of the valve is communicated with the opening P, and water is pumped to the discharging opening (202) via the pump 2 (205).
Water flow in series connection: At the moment, the opening B of the change valve (203) is communicated with the opening P, the opening A of the valve is communicated with the opening R, and the opening S is communicated with the discharging opening (202). Obviously, the water pipes communicated with the opening A and the opening S are not passages.
Water is pumped to the change valve (203) from the feeding opening (201) by the pump 1, and after passing through the opening B and the opening P, water is pumped to the discharging opening (202) by the pump 2 (205).
In
405 at the bottom of the figure is an upper cover of the outer box. From the sectional view, it can be seen that the appearance of the upper cover is convex just like a tray, and the concave surface is just attached to the bottom surface of the box body to support the box body. The concave surface and the box body are not fixed by using hanging buckles, but are attracted by using a magnet. The upper cover and the bottom of the box body are preferably provided with water drainage holes. 406 mounted below the upper cover are castors. The number of the castors is usually four, wherein the two front castors should be steerable castors capable of steering on a horizontal plane, and the two rear castors are non-steerable castors. In this way, the castors are flexible and convenient to use.
For the water bag shown in
A battery is installed inside the car washer, and 6012 is a power switch; 6013 is the water discharging opening of the car washer and is connected with the water discharging pipe 603 via a quick connector. The water discharging pipe is also provided with a power connection plug 6010 used for being inserted into a power connection socket hole 6011 to supply power to the lamp 3001 on the water gun 300, and 601 at the other end of the water discharging pipe is an electric plug used for connecting the lamp 3001; 602 is a water pipe quick connector and is used for connecting the water gun 300. 405 is the upper cover of the outer box and is cushioned under the box body, and the upper cover and the box body are mutually attracted via a magnet 407. 406 are castors with steering function.
The car washer in
1. The wheelbase of the front and the rear castors of the upper cover 405 is greater than or equal to the width of the upper cover, which is convenient for crossing and stacking of the upper cover in warehousing and transportation;
2. Castors can be placed in the box body when the upper cover 405 covers the outer box. The upper cover is the largest surface out of six surfaces of the outer box so that a long wheelbase and a wide tread can be created to stabilize the bearing water bag; and if the upper cover is designed to cover the box body, four castors are located outside the box body in a shape of holding the box body. It is considered that “castors can be placed in the box body” in such design;
3. The length of the water discharging pipe 603 is less than or equal to the rated suction height of the water pump, larger than the height of the car, and not enough to move around the car by half a circle, so that the car washer has to move along with a user during car washing to completely spray around the car; and
4. The water discharging pipe, the water gun, etc. can be placed in the box body.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2013 2 0324443 U | Jun 2013 | CN | national |
This application is a continuation-in-part of International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2014/076310 with an international filing date of Apr. 26, 2014, designating the United States, now pending, and further claims priority benefits to Chinese Patent Applications No. 201320324443.7, filed Jun. 6, 2013. The contents of all of the aforementioned applications, including any intervening amendments thereto, are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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1185333 | Keltner | May 1916 | A |
20090133726 | Montoya | May 2009 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20160082931 A1 | Mar 2016 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/CN2014/076310 | Apr 2014 | US |
Child | 14960383 | US |