Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~0'~~~.0~
" 2
The present invention relates to a planing machine for
wood floors.
It is known that wood floors, after laying, must be
treated with planing machines which provide perfect
leveling, eliminating the unevennesses which are always
present in the regions of connection between one element and
the other of the floor.
The planing machines currently commercially available,
which comprise a motorized roller which presses against the
floor to be treated abrasive paper which can embrace the
roller completely or can have the shape of a belt guided
around an overlying pulley, have a severely disadvantageous
characteristic which consists in a particularly onerous
manual actuation.
These machines are.in fact~moved backward and forward
by small extents by an operator who must brake the machine
when it moves in the direction induced by the rotation of
the roller and must, with an even greater effort, overcome
he action of the roller in order to produce motion in the
opposite direction.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a
planing machine for wood floors which has maximum ease in
manual handling for the operator, so as to spare him from
any actuation effort, and can optimize its functional
g5 characteristics according to the conditions of the floors to
be treated.
This aim is achieved by a planing machine for wood
floors, according to the invention, characterized in that it
~o~~~oo
3
comprises:
- a truck which is frontally provided with a pair of
retractable floor resting wheels arid, in a rearward
position, with a floor resting wheel which is provided with
S
means suitable for automatically varying the attitude of the
machine upon the variation of the direction of motion
thereof, a handle suitable for being gripped by an operator
extending from a rear region of said truck;
- a treatment head which comprises two rollers for
supporting abrasive paper which are motorized with different
rotation directions, said head being supported by the truck
so as to be articulated with an articulation axis which is
transverse to the direction of the Inot~.on of the machine and
being provided with a portion which is in contact with
elastic contrast and positioning means which are rigidly
associated with the-truck;
an aspirator which is suitable for-conveying into a
collection bag he wood dust produced during treatment;
- at least one electric motor for moving the abrasive
paper supporting rollers and the aspirator.
Further characteristics and advantages will become
apparent from the.following description of a preferred but
not exclusive embodiment of the invention, illustrated only
by way of non-limitative example in the accompanying
drawings, wherein:
figure 1 is a perspective view of the machine;
figure 2 is a partial sectional view, taken along the
plane II-II of figure 1;
figure 3 is a partial bottom view of the extreme left
CA 02075106 2003-10-08
4
region of figure 2;
figure 4 is an elevation view of the machine at the side
opposite to the one shown in figure 1 and without the housing
for covering the kinematic systems defined therein;
figures 5 and 6 are schematic views of the different
attitudes assumed by the machine in the two opposite
advancement directions.
With reference to the above figures, the planing machine
comprises a truck 1, which is frontally provided with the
wheels 2 and 3 for resting on the floor, which can be
retracted into the truck from a more protruding position,
assumed during the idle movements of the machine, i.e. when it
is not operating, according to a per se known mechanism which
comprises an axis 4 which supports said wheels by means of
arms such as 3a for the wheel 3 and is rotated by an
appropriate angle in the presence of the spring 5 by means of
the manual actuation of a lever device, generally indicated by
the reference numeral 6, which is arranged directly below the
handle 7 of the machine.
In a rearward position, the truck 1 is provided with a
wheel 8, which is intended to rest constantly on the floor,
and said wheel is provided with means suitable for
automatically varying the attitude or plane of lay of the
machine when the direction of motion thereof changes; said
means, visible in particular in figure 2 and generally
indicated by the reference numeral 9, will be described
hereinafter.
The reference numeral 10 furthermore indicates a
treatment head which, according to an important characteristic
of the invention, comprises two rollers 11 and 12 for
supporting abrasive paper, which are motorized with different
CA 02075106 2003-10-08
rotation directions, as indicated by the arrows of figure 1;
said head is supported by brackets 13 and 14 which extend from
the truck 1 by means of two pivots 13a and 14a which are
5 inserted in flat profiled elements 15 and 16 which are rigidly
associated with the cover of said head 10: this produces an
articulated support of the head 10 with respect to the truck
1, with an articulation axis which is transverse with respect
to the direction of the motion of the machine.
The flat profiled elements 15 and 16 extend so as to
monolithically support a plane 17, on which a support 18 is
pivoted at 18a; said support 18 has a threaded contrast stem
18b and supports an electric motor 19 which supplies motion,
according to methods described hereinafter, to all the moving
elements of the machine.
A wing or contact position 15a extends monolithically
from the profiled element 15 and extends into a disk 15b,
which is in contact with elastic positioning and contrast
means, since it is inserted between the facing ends of springs
20 and 21 which are in contact, at their other end, with disks
22 and 23 which are coupled to a threaded rod or stem 24 which
is pivoted in a downward position on the structure of the
truck l; by acting on the disks 22 and 23 it is possible to
both determine the position of the treatment head 10 with
respect to the truck 1 and to adjust the contrast force which
said treatment head encounters when, during operation, it
tends to perform rotations about the articulation constituted
by the pivots 13a and 14a.
An aspirator 25 is accommodated within the truck 1 and
CA 02075106 2003-10-08
6
has its intake connected, by means of the flexible hose 26, to
the treatment head 10, so as to convey the wood dust which
forms during treatment into a tube 27 which supports the
handle 7 and leads, at its end, into a collection bag 28.
As previously mentioned, the electric motor 19 powers
both the aspirator 25, by means of a first belt 29 which is
put under tension by a belt tensioner 30, and the abrasive
paper supporting rollers 11 and 12, which rotate in opposite
directions, by means of a second belt 31 which acts on pulleys
32 and 33 which are respectively keyed on the shafts of the
rollers 11 and 12, in the presence of transmission pulleys 34
and 35; a housing 36, which is illustrated only in figure 1,
constitutes the protection of said belts.
With particular reference to figures 2 and 3, the means
9, with which the wheel 8 is provided and which are suitable
for automatically varying the attitude of the machine when its
direction of motion changes, are now described.
Said means thus comprise a support 37, which is provided
with the wheel 8 which is pivoted at pivot axis 38 and which
rotates freely about a pivot 39 at a rotation axis 40 which
does not pass through the pivot axis 38 and is connected to an
arm 41; said arm is pivoted, at one end, at a mounting axis
42, on the structure of the truck 1, and is provided, at the
other end, with a fork or fork-like member defined by a pair
of secondary arms 43 and 44 which are connected to wings 45
and 46 of a block 47 which has a through hole for a stem 48 of
a traction screw with a self-locking nut 49 and actuation knob
50, which is mated with a female thread which is included in a
disk 51 which is rigidly associated with the structure of the
truck 1.
2~'~~1~6
..
The automatic operation of the means 9 is based on the
fact that, due to stability reasons, the support 37 rotates
about the pivot 39 so as to always move the point of contact
of the wheel 8 with the floor into a rearward position with
respect to the axis of said pivot, as can be seen in figures
5 and 6, wherein an arrow indicates the direction of motion
of the machine.
When the pivot 39 is in the condition of figure 2, with
the axis 40 perpendicular to the floor, the position of the
1o support 37 on one side or on the other with respect to said
pivot is obviously indifferent in terms of the attitude of
the machine.
If instead one wishes the attitude of the machine to
vary when its direction of motion varies, for example so
x5 that the abrasive paper supporting roller which is arranged
further forward in the direction of motion is lower than the
subsequent one, it is sufficient to act on the knob 50 and
produce a rotation of the~ar~n 41, with the consequent
inclination of the axis 40 ofwthe pivot 39 by the extent
most suitable for optimizing th~ functional characteristics
in relation to the conditions of the floor to be treated.
When the axis 40 of the pivot 39 is inclined, the
situation visible in figures 5 and 6 occurs, i.e. when the
machine moves to .the left, as in figure 5, the roller which
25 exerts its action more deeply in the floor is the roller 11,
which is the one arranged.further forward in this direction
of motion, whereas when the machine moves to the right the
attitude thereof is changed, and the lowest roller is the
roller 12, which in this direction of motion is indeed the
roller arranged further forward.
,.--,
20'~51p6
8
From all the above description it can thus be deduced
that the machine according to the invention has a
particularly easy actuation, since the balance of the
thrusts exerted on the machine by the two rollers of the
treatment head, which rotate in opposite directions, allows
the operator to move the machine in both directions with
minimal effort.
The machine operates in optimum conditions also from
the point of view of the quality of 'the obtained work,
particularly by virtue of the presence of the articulation
between the truck and the treatment head, and also by virtue
of the possibility of varying the attitude of said machine,
providing a floor levelling which is fully free from
scratches and undulations.
The described invention is susceptible to numerous
modifications and variations, all of which are within the
scope of the inventive concept; all the details may
furthermore be replaced with other technically equivalent
elements.
In the practical embodiment of the invention, the
materials employed, as well as the shapes and dimensions,
may be any according to the requirements.
