This invention relates to walk-behind or sit-on wet concrete floor trowel machines. Also, to walk-behind or sit-on or non-sitting autonomous dry or wet concrete floor grinding and polishing machines. More specifically, to trowel-to-polisher conversion machines of slurry polishing by soft means on hard backing.
The invention aims to save on time and cost of machinery used for concrete floor troweling and consecutive polishing, for which tasks, in state-of-the-art and practice, at least two different machines are used.
Notably, a trowel machine, with rotary blades and a polisher, with polishing discs. For small jobs, these are configured as walk-behind machines, and for larger ones, as sit-on-machines. Some sit-on polishers are self-driving and some polisher heads comprise multiple disks of different grit or function, such as wiping, wetting, cleaning/vacuuming pinhole filling, densifying, “waxing” with plastic melt to seal, resin and more.
These two machines have similar or identical construction, power-need and rotational-speed and shortly follow each other (say within a day or so) on a new construction site. By themselves, each machine is expensive and requires secure storage space. Their combination is proposed here, using polishing head attachment over the trowel blades or blade replacement with polishing blades or arm replacement with grinding head/disc. Therefore, it is the object of this invention to resolve the conflicting functional means of troweling and polishing embodied in the same machine.
Furthermore, the invention is to provide for soft means polishing with slurry, including kieselguhr (DE) or such, especially for trowel-to-polisher conversion machines and processes, also not limited to such conversion machines. Also to polish with pucks, which are compressed or gel-set or sintered from diamond, ceramic, iron, copper, graphite and other suitable powders and extend the trowel machine's function to scrubbing, grinding, polishing, buffing, densifying/hardening and waxing, which require a variety of heads and fixtures, including the magnetic, twist-off (snail), bolted, doweled, pinned, clamped and hook-and-loop (Velcro) types, with grill size and other markers for identification and sequencing. In conjunction, further improvements are within the scope, which includes stationary or rotating lift-off and hang-on skirts, with venting slots, squeegee or brush vacuuming. Also, improvements in chemicals, which may include nano-silica or concrete softener, hardeners with acid softener, hardeners with or without acid softener, and hardener densifiers with lithium or potassium silicate magnesium Fluro silicate sodium silicate, and/or a combination of these.
Moreover, it is yet another object of the invention to further improve on the state-of-the-art by allowing for modular machine construction with individual electric motors turning individual polisher heads drum in clockwise, counterclockwise or mixed directions and mixed variable speeds and to reel a power cord and a water hose robotically or manned remote, without the need to carry water, slurry or chemical tanks and rechargeable batteries.
Finally, it is yet another object of the invention to further improve on the state-of-the-art by using semi-robotics or robotics. More specifically, an autonomous grinder or polisher with a magnetic ball or swivel wheel drive or hydroplaning drive or dual/triple wheel drive, with or without walk-behind worker assistance. Also, the serial coupling of such robots, either rigidly or in swivel chain, to form a robotic train or aggregate, preferably guided using LIDAR or sonar or laser.
The above problems and others are at least partially solved and the above objects and others realized in a process, uses a concrete floor trowel machine of at least two blades for polishing concrete floors, employing polishing jackets over the trowel blades or replacing said troweling blades or arms with polishing blades or grinder or polisher attachments. Additional problems are solved with trowel blade replacement with polisher disc, which preferably has steel cloth pucks, with or without slurry feed holes. Said cloth may hold dry polishing powder and may comprise the loop part of a hook-and-loop (Velcro) attachment, which however is made of stainless steel (external stainless steel plate feature) or other suitable metal. Trowel blade replacement with forced or free-turn or swivel or slowly rotating planetary polisher head is also proposed.
Additionally, it is proposed to build remote controlled robotic, walk-behind and sit-on trowel-polisher machines powered from and teetered to the electrical grid by power cord plugged in a wall or ceiling socket and reeled on said machine battery, which can also reel its water hose, supplying water with chemicals from as far as 100 feet. The locomotion of said machine could be wheel driven or hydroplaning gliding and it may be built modular, allowing for quick and easy trowel to polisher switch. Also for quick and easy polisher head switch, from dry to wet or from coarse to fine. The water and chemical feed with power chord tether incorporates control cables for programmed or manual machine guiding. The electrical powering however may be supplemented or substituted by gas or gasoline engine power. The machine guiding may be assisted by manual control or by laser, or LIDAR or sonar or ultra-sonic beams or pulses emitted and received and processed by onboard or remote computer or dedicated electronic processor.
Additionally, it is proposed that each rotating part touching the floor, including trowel head and polisher disc, central or planetary, may be driven individually, not belted or geared or chained to each other or to a central shaft, thus allowing for improved grinding or polishing due to adjustable and variable polisher disk rotation speeds, programmed or controlled manually, though belt, chain or gear or switch-gear drive coupling may be retained. Means are proposed to allow the use of engine driven trowel conversion machines to individually driven active or passive planetary polisher disks, including engine driven power generator powering electrical motors driving the disks of 3″, 4″, 5.5″, 6″, 9″, 12″ or 14″+ made of semimetal, resin-metal, plastic, ceramic and compressed steel-wool or rock fiber (volcanic spun wool) in random, woven or twisted orientation or 3-D printed, some of which pucks, by the push of a button, may be lifted off individually or in groups, while leaving the rest down to polish or grind.
Finally, it is also proposed to build remote controlled semi-robotic or robotic autonomous grinder or polisher with a magnetic ball or swivel wheel drive or other drive means or hydroplaning drive with or without walk-behind worker assistance, and ultimately, also proposed the serial coupling of such robots, either rigidly or in swivel chain, to form a robotic train, which may be controlled via Wi-Fi Bluetooth app, using mobile electronics, such as cellphones or be guided by GPS or laser or LIDAR or sonar or ultra-sonic beams or pulses.
Attention is now turned to
Machine 10 has four trowel blades 1, rigidly attached to four spider arms 2, a bumper rim 3, a safety cage 4, a powering engine 5, two handles 6, controls 7, optional stash-away hardware 8 and optional stash away roller 9. While blades 1 are shown to be short and wide, they can be long and narrow, as they are in most of the modern power trowels. Engine 5 is shown as a gasoline engine. However, other engines and hybrids, including electrical motors with onboard battery were also proposed before.
The worker walks behind such a machine with the expectation that his footprint will not show off. With proper timing and care, it does not. That is the state of the art of concrete floor troweling with much sophisticated machines. Some, for instance, have four rotary heads, each having four trowel blades and the operator sits on the so configured, self-propelling machine. Such machines are used for large concrete floor area troweling.
The state of the art of the concrete floor polishing is similar, using polisher machines, having rotary disks with polisher heads or pads. For simplicity, such polisher is not illustrated here.
To the skilled in the art, the similarity of these two kinds of machines is striking—even more so to the power-trowel operator, who may need to come back the next day with a similar size and speed power-polisher. Rather than bring a separate machine, this invention allows the operator to, for example, switch the power-trowel to polisher mode; say by pulling a polishing jacket over the trowel blades. Such jacket is disclosed next.
Attention is now turned to
Jacket 20 is cut from a consumable plastic mat of hard foam, cloth or sponge consistency, which may comprise of plastic insert balls melted with diamond powder at some distribution (not shown for clarity). Underside 21 of jacket 20 polishes the concrete floor, wet or dry. A mist system may keep floor wetting uniform, while at dry polishing, a vacuum may sweep up the dust. Such means are common in contemporary polishers. Their illustration is omitted here for simplicity.
The leading and trailing edges of jacket 20 are not distinguished, for these may be interchanged, even in between two polishing steps or passes. Reinforced holes 22 allow for trowel blade attachment, say bay rubber straps (not shown).
Note that jacket 20 is to be of sufficient, but not of excessive compressibility and flexibility. It shall be able to hold water, when soaked and its plastic inserts shall be able to melt by friction and seal the pores. The materials shall be the same as used in disc shape on common floor polishers. However, not all blades of a four-blade machine need to have the same composition. For instance, one may be the wetting jacket, the other one, the grit polisher; the next one is the melt sealer, and the last one, the wiper.
Trowel blades are made of thin plate or sheet metal, including stainless steel. They, themselves are flexible enough to attach rigid plastic polisher blocks to function as polisher disks. Such configuration, as another preferred embodiment of this invention, is illustrated next.
Attention is now turned to
Head 30 comprises of attachment plate 31, edge-stems 32 One at the leading and one at the trailing edges), hold-down lips 33 (one for each stem), holes for attachment 34 (may be threaded for screws), and a multiplicity of polisher blocks 35 through 38, integrated with or attached to plate 31.
Head 30 is shown as being short because it is only needed at the trowel tips, where blocks 35-38 attain the highest speed and where the trowel is the most flexible.
It shall be obvious to those skilled in the art that blocks 35-38 may be staggered in-plane and may have a different function, surface feature, and composition thereof.
For instance, if blocks 35 are near to the leading edge, hitting first the floor, their job may be hard grit material removal. Behind these, block 36, may have the same function but with smaller grits for smoothing. Block 37 may be the melting resin type with fine diamond powder, while block 38 is magnetized powder or grit. Grit sizes vary between 80 and 6000. Blocks 35-37 may be selected for scrubbing, grinding, polishing, buffing and waxing made of semimetal, resin-metal, plastic with grits, ceramic and 3-D printed or compressed from rock-wool (volcanic spun wool) or metal-wool of random or twisted fibers, preferably with impregnated diamond.
Just like a polisher head block has various surface features, materials and compositions, block 35-38 may have the same variety for the same reason. According to the needs, pads and jackets (say for buffing) may be secured to adjacent blades of the same trowel machine.
The preferred material of parts 31-34 is hard plastic, but aluminum and steel is also suitable.
In any case, it shall be obvious by now, that trowel jackets and attachments constructed according to the specifications of this invention, can save considerable expense and time in construction and maintenance jobs; at least as much as employing one machine, instead of two, can save.
Attention is now turned to
Attention is now turned to
Attention is now turned to
Attention is now turned to
Attention is now turned to
Machine 100, has a framed hollow-inside sheet metal body 101 to house selectable trowel or polisher module inserts (shown further on separate), electronic and electrical controls, motors, sensors, drivers or actuators, battery and other incidental apparatuses, common in robotics.
Body 101 has corner frame 102, front panel 103, outside panels 104, inside panels 105, removable panels 106, left control panel 107, right control panel 108, water hose reel control 109, power cord reel control 110, motor controls 111, sensor-actuator controls 112, glide control arm 113, motion control arm 114, water hose reel 115, power cord reel 116, adjustable driver seat 117, left brake pedal 118 and right speed pedal 119.
Machine 100 may be controlled remotely as a robot or may be controlled by a driver sitting on it. The robotic control may be assisted by GPS, laser, LIDAR, sonar or ultrasonic beam or pulse guiding or preprogrammed guiding (auto scrubber buffer). The left and right compartments may house electric motors, battery, sensors and actuators. It may also house a petrol or diesel engine with power generator. When the power is generated onboard, reel 116 may be dedicated to slurry line or steam. Anything above the pedals level may be omitted when machine 100 is a battery operated robot with remote control. The reels however may be retained, in which case, the battery is unnecessary. Body 101 incorporates a shroud, but is not shown for clarity herewith. It may incorporate various trowel or polisher modules. That will be illustrated further on. Alternative to tethered electrical cord powering, rechargeable onboard battery may power machine 100, configured either as trowel or as grinder/polisher or combined. When machine 100 is configured to be autonomous, body 101 also incorporates liquid vessels for water and chemicals.
Attention is now turned to
Modular insert 140 comprises base socket 141, hub 142, arms 143 and blades 144. The space between socket 141 and machine 100, may contain the shroud and the sprinkler or mist heads. 3, 4, 5, or 6 or other number of arms and blades are proposed herewith.
Attention is now turned to
Modular insert 160 comprises base socket 141, central hub 162, central polisher disk 163, planetary hubs 164 and planetary polisher disks 163. Three (3), four (4), six (6), or other number of disks are proposed herewith with marker or label identification of grit size on the edge.
Attention is now turned to
Modular insert 180 comprises base socket 181, central hub 182, planetary hubs 183 and planetary polisher blades 184. Three (3), four (4), six (6), or other number of blades are proposed herewith.
To those skilled in the art, it shall be obvious that machine 100 may not necessarily take the illustrated hexagonal base prismatic shape. Triangular, square, round and other shapes are equally suitable. Also, that some combination of the prosed polishing heads are viable and may be advantageous. Finally, that body 101 is so light that two or a few individuals can easily lift it off from any of the presented modular inserts.
Attention is now turned to
Modules 191 are serviceable through doors on its sides and top (not shown for clarity) and contain power modules, electric with battery or power generator for powering polisher discs; for instance, 100 grit fine in the first and 200 grit fine in the second module. Casters 192 are retracted during grinding-polishing and the coupled modules move by hydroplaning, which is explained further on as illustrated in
Attention is now turned to
Modules 201 are coupled via hinged joints 202. The first and the last module has control units 203 with antennas. The first of the train module 201 may have 100 grit discs, the second one 200 grit, the third one 400 grit. The last module 201 may have slurry suck up and/or squeegee wiper built-in. That can be in the last module, but one module and the last one could be a hardening finisher or waxing polisher. The first and second may have water and chemical tanks. The units may share water and chemicals via flexible pipes. The first module 201 may be driven by magnetic ball drive as that is illustrated in
Attention is now turned to
Sockets 215 receive mating portions 214 of handle 213. Robot 211 is manual or autonomous with guidance.
Attention is now turned to
Robot 221 is identical to robot 211 but with two more sockets 215. Coupler bars 222 ensures semi-rigid robot module coupling. Robot 211 may grind with coarse grit and robot 221 may grind with fine grit. When used for polishing, module 211 may polish and 221 may wax. The two procedures follow each other, hence the serial coupling designation.
While bars 222 are semi-rigid, rigid and flexible robot coupling is also needed. For instance, for rough surface finishing with coarse discs, flexible coupling is needed and low pressure on the discs. For fine finishing, rigid coupling with high pressure is more practical. Both cases are illustrated next.
In
Coupled rigid or flexible, robots as per
Coupling trowel conversion machines equipped with remote control and may be assisted by handle as a walk-behind unit is also proposed and illustrated in
Attention is now turned to
Front robot 211 is coupled to rear robot 211, each having 5 polisher discs rotating in the direction indicated by the curved arrows and labeled A1, B1, C1, D1 and E1 in the front and A2, B2, C2 D2 and E2 in the rear. The hydroplaning forces are shown by straight arrows next to each disc. These forces arise from friction and viscosity between pairs of counter-rotating discs. The resultant force is shown in the center tilted by 17 degrees as a resultant of all forces (dot-dash arrow) provided that all discs rotate with the same speed (a tan(2/8)=17°). That however is not required. Speeds are controlled individually or by groups and thus any angle can be dialed. 90 degrees, for instance, would convert this parallel coupling hydroplaning drive into a parallel coupled hydroplaning drive. Zero degrees would require slowing down A1 and speeding up A2 discs. Turning thus can be achieved just by altering the speeds of A1 and A2. True parallel coupling could be formed by counter-rotating discs-pairs of B1-C1, E1-D1, D2-E2 and C2-B2 while keeping deviatory disk pair A1-A2 for directional control. When hydroplaning drive is on, the other drive shall be off.
The gliding may also be controlled by spraying water or other suitable liquid to the polisher discs or in between them in a coordinated fashion executed by spray nozzles or water feed holes s1, S2 and S3. Spraying for instance on disks C1 and B1 by nozzle S2 with forces shown on the left side of polisher 280, which would facilitate polisher 280 turning to the right. Notice that left and right interchange in bottom view.
Two drives are disclosed next, which may be used as primary or secondary drives, which assist hydroplaning.
Attention is now turned to
Polisher robot 291 is moved around by ball 293 which turns in telescopic socket 293 and polishes or grinds with discs 294. Ball 293 may be coated with a layer of elastomeric for better traction and turns in any direction in its spherical socket, hydroplaning on feed water used in polishing or grinding. The ball has a multiplicity of permanent magnets and surrounded by electrical coils which powers and controls the magnets. Retracting in part ball 293 releases pressure on disco 294. Retracting it fully, lifts off that pressure completely, allowing for robot movement by hydroplaning on discs 294, which are preferably driven independently. Disks 294 have holes in the middle through which water with chemicals is fed for polishing or grinding. Curtains with magnetic inserts may enshroud robot 291 (not shown for clarity). Just by looking at assembly 290, one cannot tell, which way it is going before it moves. The next disclosed drive makes that direction clearly visible.
Attention is now turned to
Robot 301, polishing or grinding with discs 304, has removable water-chemical storage pot 302, shown with lid 303 off. Wheel drive 310 is rigidly attached to both ends of robot 301.
Drive 310 comprises socket 311, robotic swivel arm 312, wheel axle 313, wheel 314 controls setting adjustment buttons 315, 316 and 317 for X, Y and Z controls and pin 318, which pegs arm 312 into socket 311.
Wheels 310 align in front and rear as shown, thus assembly 300 goes on a straight path. Turning in curve is illustrated in
Further accessories, tools, tool attachment devices and machine configurations are disclosed next. These were reduced from practice or development and can be used in conjunction with or instead of the ones disclosed before.
Attention is now turned to
Assembly 330 comprises drive socket 331, mounting disk 332, mounting hole 333, board 334, elastomeric plate 335, magnetized plate 336, tool ring 337, mounting hole 338, tool retainer lip 339, fine grinding puck 340, coarse grinding puck 341, puck gap cuts 342, retainer gap cut 343.
Socket 331 is rigidly formed from disk 332. It may accept round, hex, square, flat and other type of shaft ends. Assembly 330, assembled, is driven by engine or motor drive through socket 331. Disk 331 has perimeter lips for rigidity and mounting holes 333. Board 334 is pressed wood of low density with epoxy coating on the exposed perimeter for water sealing. Elastomeric plate 335 is under or above board 334 (preferably above) and is made of rubber or polyurethane. Plate 335 may be dense but soft (Durometer 35-45 Shore A) or thicker foam rubber to better comply with uneven floor surface waves. Plate 336 is magnetized to hold ferromagnetic ring 337, in which case, holes 338 are not utilized. Otherwise, assembly 330 is through bolted between holes 333 and 338. In case of magnetic ring holding, holes 333 are threaded to catch screws from under holding magnetized plate 336. Velcro plate may substitute plate 336. Ring 337 is articulated with protrusions 339 with gaps 343, serving as a grinding/polishing puck retainer for either pucks 340 or 342, which both are Velcro hook-and-loop) mounted to ring 337. Puck 340 is smooth while puck 341 is articulated, having slots 342. Slots 342 and 343 allow the passage of slurry. Articulated pucks are typically used for coarser grinding or polishing than smooth pucks. Gaps 342 and 343 are also allow for spray water or chemical passage from inside of ring 337. Feed water for such watering must pass through socket 331 (not shown).
Attention is now turned to
Assembly 36 comprises base plate 351 with centering hole 352 and countersunk mounting holes 353 and weld-on keyways 354 in wedge shape angular orientation forming two wedges in 90° off, and wedge bottom polishing pad holders 355 to match with said keyways 356 (shown disassembled).
During the rotation of plate 351 around hole 352, the centrifugal force presses key 356 into keyway 357, ensuring quick toll change. Plate 351 however may be a machined part comprising keyways 357. Plate 351 can be circular with keyways for four tool holders 355. The simplest balanced configuration is illustrated in
Attention is now turned to
Assembly 370 comprises cross bar tool holder 371 with threaded holes 372, through holes 373 and centering counter bores 374, and further comprises detachable mounting sockets 375 with centering threaded hole 376 and side-mounting threaded holes 374, and further comprises ball joint treaded stud 378 with matching top semispherical socket 379 (shown in reverse order) and bottom semi spherically socketed polisher pad holder disk 380.
Socket 375 on the top center is to mount bar 371 to the drive shaft of said machine. The two sockets 375 under the bar 371 is for mounting other polisher disks matching in elevation to disk 380 when assembly 370 is assembled (assembly bolts and locknuts are not shown for clarity).
The articulated ball joints ensure smooth grinding or polishing by accommodating angular rotation of the grinding or polishing discs coping with minute floor surface undulations. Compared to rigid mounting, ball joints and universal joints offer faster surface finishing with less waste of slurry and power. Crossbar 371 may be substituted with multi armed half spider bars, which will be illustrated further on in
Attention is now turned to
Assembly 390 comprises cart 391, non-steered front wells 392, steered or swivel rear wheels 393, tool guiding hale bar 394, switchboard and control panel 395, detachable slurry/chemicals/water will-up funnel 396, slurry/chemicals/water tanks 397, tank caps 398; furthermore battery compartment 400, polisher head 410 and hydraulic/pneumatic lifting mechanism 420 subassemblies, with under counter reach shallow lip polisher skirt 411, slurry cover 412, electric motor mount 413, electric motor 414, electrical cord junction box 415; hydraulic ram or pneumatic cylinder 421. Assembly 390, representing floor finishing machine 390, is shown with polisher head down, ready to polish floor.
Next, more trowel conversion tools and accessories will be illustrated. These are intended to complete specialized jobs.
Attention is now turned to
Attention is now turned to
Attention is now turned to
Attention is now turned to
Tank 502 may contain water or diluted hardener or softener chemicals or a skin chemical for micro- or nano-polishing. With larger dripping orifice in stud 503, it can supply nano-silica concrete softener, hardener with acid softener or hardened densifier with lithium or sodium silicate or some combination of these.
To ensure out of plane flexibility of polishing discs long-slotted holes may be used as that will be illustrated next and further on. That allows for large scale polishing blocks compounded from porous material which allows water seeping through under gravity. An exemplary material is the burned out clay or sponge brick or pressed felt impregnated or compounded with polishing grits.
Attention is now turned to
Finally, exemplary polishing pad nesting will be illustrated in
Blocks 592, 602 and 612 are retrievable to fly above the floor by 0.5-1.5″. Lift-off polisher heads may be mixed with stay-down heads in other multi head grinder-polisher head configurations disclosed above.
The present invention is described above with reference to a preferred embodiment. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that changes and modifications may be made in the described embodiment without departing from the nature and scope of the present invention. For instance, trowel-to-polisher head conversion is intuitive, and thus hereby instructive, in reverse, that is in polisher-to-trowel conversion configuration. Adding a roller leg to facilitate rolling the machine to stash away, if it does not have one already, is also considered instructive. Finally, adding a swivel arm attachment, as well as polisher head drivers to a trowel blade for a more functional polisher conversion is also considered within the scope and specifications of this invention. Also within the scope, in any combination, battery powered electrical walk-behind, sit-on and remote-controlled trowel machine conversions and standalone polishing or grinding robots. Finally, reeling cables and hoses, including slurry lines, from the wall or the ceiling are obvious modifications in any combination and thus considered within the scope of the invention.
Various further changes and modifications to the embodiment herein chosen for purposes of illustration will readily occur to those skilled in the art. To the extent that such modifications and variations du not depart from the spirit of the invention, they are intended to be included within the scope thereof. For instance, said steel wool puck may be made of plastic, at least in part, and may be attached to blades, rather than a disc and said machine may be propelled by wheels driven by electric motors as well. Slurry suction heads, hoses and canisters may also be added to any polisher-grinder robots constructed as per the specifications of the invention, without deviating from its scope. Adding slurry coloring to indicate the completeness of the job by slurry color change and making parts in contact with slurry of stainless steel or composite plastic is also considered an obvious modification.
Having fully described the invention in such clear and concise terms as to enable those skilled in the art to understand and practice the same, the invention claimed is:
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/854,424 of Priority Date Apr. 24, 2013 and Ser. No. 61/960,457 of Priority Date Sep. 19, 2013 and Ser. No. 62/283,765 of Sep. 10, 2015 and Ser. No. 14/999,254 of Mar. 28, 2016 and Ser. No. 62/499,512 of Priority Date Jan. 28, 2017 and Ser. No. 62/605,571 of Priority Date Aug. 16, 2017 which is incorporated here.