Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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APPARATUS FOR MACHINING THE CIRCUMFERENTIAL SURFACE
OF A CYLINDRICAL OBJECT
The present invention relates to an apparatus for the
cleaning of the peripheral surface on a cylindrical part,
such as a pipe portion forming a part of a pipe conduit,
said apparatus comprises a rotor mounted for rotation
about a central rotation axis by means of a stator engag-
ing the rotor at the periphery thereof, including power-
driving arrangements located on the stator and power-
driven arrangements located on the rotor, the rotor
comprises a pair of semi-annular members separated in the
peripheral direction and apted to be joined together into
a rigid, annular rotor, each of the semi-annular members
having a semi-circular inner surface and a semi-circular
outer surface and in their joined together condition
defining a hollow spacing for receiving the cylindrical
part therein, the rotor (15,67) is supported by means of
roller means on the stator (12,63-65).
The cylindrical part is shown herein in the form of
a rectilinear pipe member, which can form a part of a pipe
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conduit or a pipe conduit arrangement, a hand rail of pipe
members or the like. The apparatus can also be employed in
bent or curved conduit paths. Alternatively the apparatus
can be employed on arbitrary objects haviizg substantially
cylindrical peripheral portions.
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Hitherto it has been a problem to achieve a simple
and effective operation of the rotor together with a
simple and rapid fixing of a cleaning apparatus in engage-
ment with the object which is to be cleaned. This is
especially the case where it is desirable to clean a pipe
member in a pipe conduit or similar cylindrical member in
a larger construction, where the apparatus is readily able
to be mounted and dismounted with a simple grip by manual
handling. Further it has been a problem tc> achieve a
proper and accurate cleaning effect.
In US-A-3 820 184 it is showri an apparatus of the
type described above. An annular rotor is at a local upper
portion thereof supported on bearings located at a lower
portion of a house shaped stator. A local gear rimmed
section of the rotor is being clamped between an upper
gear rim of a driving pinion within the stator and said
bearings at the lower portion of the stator. If not
supported by separate support means, the apparatus is to
be supported locally on the part to be treated by means of
brush bristles suspended at the inner rim of the annular
rotor. This means that a brushing effect is dependent of
the gravity of apparatus and that the brushing effect is
mainly obtained by means of a gravity force acting locally
in the apparatus. In practice the brushing effect is
provided by one or two brush bristles at a time.
Apparatuses of the afore-mentioned kind are also
shown in U.S Patents 2 299 523, 2 635 270, 2 657 409,
2 715 235, 4 124 914 and 5 001 801, which all have a
holder member which is supported directly against the
cylindrical part by means of support wheels mounted in the
holder member.
In US Patent 4 124 914 the apparatus is supported
directly against the cylindrical part to be treated by
means of a first upper forward pair of wheels and a second
upper rearward pair of wheels. An apparatus of this kind
has a rather voluminous and heavy structure and according-
ly a restricted application in practice. Such structure
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require extra working space and allows the apparatus to
operate solely on rectilinear parts, i.e. cylindrical
parts without curvatures or bendings. A double-arm lever
having a tool at one end thereof and a counterweight at
the opposite end thereof provides cleaning by centrifugal
forces developed at the counterweight during rotation of
the rotor. This means that the rotor of the apparatus is
accurately supported on the cylindrical part to be treated
and that the cleaning is provided by separate cleaning
means acting independently of the support but being
dependent of said accurate support to operate properly.
With the present invention the aim is to provide a
cleaning apparatus for scraping off or like removal of
rust, paint or other deposits from the peripheral surface
on a cylindrical or substantially cylindrical part. More
precisely the apparatus is particularly designed for
accurate and circumferentially evenly distributed clean-
ing effect on a great variety of different cylindrical
parts, including rectilinear parts and parts with curva-
tures, bendings and other irregular surfaces. In this
respect the aim of the present invention is to provide an
adjustable scraping or like removal effect on the part to
be treated and simultaneously to provide an adjustable
wheel or roller support in combination therewith.
The main aim of the present invention is in this
respect to provide a cleaning apparatus which has a simple
and effective structure and has an efficient action on the
part to be treated simultaneously as it is efficiently
supported on the part to be treated and thereby is easy to
handle in practical use.
The apparatus according to the invention is charac-
terised in that the rotor comprises a set of scraper
means, each of which is located at a first end of and a
counterweight at the opposite end of a double-armed lever
and each of which is movable in direction towards and away
from said rotation axis by means of a centrifugal force
provided by rotation of the rotor, the rotor is supported
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on the stator by a first set of mutually spaced,
stationary support rollers, that the rotor is to be
supported on the cylindrical part by a second set of
adjustable support rollers, that each support roller of
said second set of rollers is located, together with an
associated one of said scraper means, at said first end of
said double-armed lever, and that each support roller of
said second set of support rollers is separately
adjustable in radial direction in respect of the rotation
axis of the rotor by means of centrifugal'forces provided
by rotation of the rotor, causing said rotation axis to
coincide with the axis of the cylindrical part.
According to the invention an apparatus is provided
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which can be subjected regulatably to a cleaning effect by
subjecting the associated scraper means to a regulatable
tension force based on a regulatable centrifugal force in
connection with regulating the rotational speed of the
rotor which carries the scraper means. In practice the
support of the weight of the apparatus will be evenly
distributed on the part to be treated by a number of
support wheels or rollers and a number of scraper means
caused by a centrifugal force actirig on the latter,
provided by the rotation of the rotor.
According to the invention the possibility exists of
effecting ready movement of the apparatus in the longi-
tudinal direction of the cylindrical part as a consequence
of the floating mounting of the apparatus on the cylindri-
cal part. In this connection an effective centering of the
apparatus can be ensured relative to the cylindrical part
together with an effective scraping effect with equivalent
centering of the scraper means.
In connection with said centering effect one can
according to the invention mount support wheels or rollers
and associated scraper means about one and the same pivo-
tal axis and/or actuate these jointly by rneans of a common
weight means. It is also possible to control the centering
movements of each and all of the support wheels or rollers
with a common annular control means, so that the support
wheels or rollers are moved jointly towards and away from
the cylindrical part.
Further features of the present invention will be
evident from the following description having regard to
the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Fig. 1 shows the apparatus according to the inven-
tion ready for use for the cleaning of a cylindrical pipe
member.
Fig. 2 shows in perspective two rotor parts, which
form a part of the apparatus according to Fig. 1, illu-
strated separately.
Fig. 3 and 4 show the two rotor parts in two
successive mounting steps.
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Fig. 5 shows the apparatus in part viewed substan-
tially parallel to the plane of rotation of the rotor.
Fig. 6 shows a cross-section through the one rotor
part and its one support wheel and scraper means
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mechanism.
Fig. 7 shows a longitudinal section through the
rotor and the associated, four support wheel and scraper
means mechanisms illustrated.
Fig. 8 shows on a larger scale a support wheel and
scraper mechanism according to Fig. 7.
Fig. 9 shows in cross-section an apparatus according
to the invention, designed for relatively thin pipes, for
example pipes of hand rails and the like.
In Fig. 1 a cylindrical part 10 is shown, which is
to be cleaned of rust, oxide scale, paint or like depo-
sits, by means of an apparatus 11 according to the inven-
tion.
The cylindrical part 10 is shown herein in the form
of a rectilinear pipe member, which forms a part of a pipe
conduit or a pipe conduit arrangement. The apparatus can
also be employed in bent or curved conduit paths. Alterna-
tively the apparatus can be employed on arbitrary objects
having essentially cylindrical peripheral portions.
In the illustrated embodiment turbine operation is
employed, that is to say pneumatic operation based on a
current of compressed air, shown by the arrow P, from a
compressed air nozzle (not shown further), but alterna-
tively electrical, hydraulic or other power-driven drive
means (not shown further) can be employed.
It is evident from Fig. 1 that the pneumatically
driven apparatus 11 consists of a holder means 12 having
associated compressed air conduit 13, which with a nozzle
opening discharges internally into a housing i.art 14 in
the holder means. Housing part 14 of the holder means 12
engages and locally surrounds a cleaning means 15 in the
form of a rigid annular member, which forms a rotor, while
the holder means 12 in the form of a simple light weight
construction forms a stator in the apparatus 11. Just by
the housing part 14 the compressed air conduit 13 is in
the form of a rigid hand grip portion 13a. In the con-
struction illustrated the apparatus 11 is floatingly
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mounted on the part 10, so that it can be moved unhindered
longitudinally along the part 10 and can be swung un-
hindered about the periphery of the part 10. In practice
the apparatus can be manually retained in established
5 positions or manually moved sideways along the part 10.
Alternatively the apparatus 11 can be fastened in a power-
driven control apparatus (not shown further) and be moved
in an automatically controlled manner along the pipe
member 10.
From Fig. 2 it is evident that the annular cleaning
means 15 consists of two separate rotor parts 15a,15b,
which can be clamped in rigid annular form about the pipe
member 10, as is indicated in the mounting phases, as
illustrated in Fig. 3 and 4, and in the finally mounted
condition, as is illustrated in Fig. 1.
Each rotor part is constructed of an outer, rigid
rim portion 16 and two disc-shaped side pieces 17,18 which
define between them an arcuate hollow space or groove 19.
The rim portion 16 is provided on its radially outermost
peripheral side with a series of recesses 16a which in
their proper turn thrust tightly up to the nozzle mouth
internally in housing part 14 of the holder means 12. It
is possible to regulate the drive speed on the rotor 15 by
regulating the force of compressed air. This can be
effected by means of a control handle not shown further on
the apparatus or in another suitable manner.
I In the one rotor part 15a a hook-carrying first
fastening member 20 is fastened in the bottom of the
groove 19, at the one end of the rotor part. Associated
hook portion 20a of the fastening member 20 is adapted, in
the mounting phase as is shown in Fig. 3, to be hooked
into engagement with a bar-shaped second fastening member
21, which is fastened at the opposing end of the other
rotor part 15b."In the mounting phase as is illustrated in
Fig. 4, the second fastening member 21 is adapted together
with the first fastening member 20 to form at the one end
of the rotor parts a hinge-forming fastening between the
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members.
The rotor parts 15a,15b are equipped at their other
end, opposite the fastening members 20,21, with a snap
lock 22 for intermittent locking together of said other
ends of the rotor parts. The rotor part 15b is provided
with a locking head 23, in which a pair of oppositely
directed bolt members 24,25 are displaceably mounted. By
means of an intermediate compression spring (not shown
further) the bolt members 24,25 are tensioned with a
spring force in a direction from each other. The rotor
part 15a is provided equivalently in the opposite side
pieces 17,18 with locking grooves in the form of bores
26,27. On swinging together the rotor parts 15a,15b to a
closed annular form the bolt members 24,25 are snapped
into locking engagement in associated bores 26,27. The
locking engagement can be correspondingly removed by
pressing in the bolt members 24,25 from opposite sides of
the rotor 12.
From Fig. 3-5 it is evident that the housing part is
equipped with a set of radially inner support wheels 28,29
and a set of radially outer support wheels 30,31, which
are rolled off against flange surfaces on one respectively
of two opposite flanges 32,33 on respectively opposite
sides of rim portion 16 of the rotor 15. In Fig. 5 a pair
of radially inner support wheels 28,29 are shown at the
one end of the housing part 14, which are mounted on their
respective separate pivots 34, 35, and a pair of radially
outer support wheels 30,31, which are mounted on a common
pivot 36. As indicated with pivots 34 and 36 respectively
in Fig. 3 and 4 there are arranged a pair of radially
inner support wheels and a pair of radially outer support
wheels respectively at each end of the housing part 14.
The housing part can be guided endwise into place on a rim
portion 16 of the rotor part 15a, in an easy way before
the rotor parts 15a,15b are snapped together in the posi-
tion which is illustrated in Fig. 1.
As is illustrated in Fig. 6-8, an arrangement of
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four support rollers or centering mechanisms 37-40 is
arranged internally in groove 19 of the rotor 15, which in
the illustrated embodiment are combined with an equivalent
four cleaning or scraper mechanisms 41-44. The mechanisms
37-40, 41-44 are adapted during operation respectively to
centre the rotor 15 relative to the pipe member 10 and to
adjust the scraping effect according to need. The actions
of these mechanisms can be regulated by equivalent regula-
tion of the supply of compressed air and thereby regula-
tion of the rotational speed of the rotor. The greater the
rotational speed is, the greater the abutment force
obtained between the scraper means and the cylindrical
part. Correspondingly the greater the rotational speed is,
the greater the abutment force or the centering force
obtained between the support rollers and the cylindrical
part. Provision is made for placing the scraper means
axially outermost in the apparatus at opposite ends of the
apparatus, so that the support rollers lying axially
within can be supported against processed surfaces on the
cylindrical part, independently of the direction in which
the apparatus is moved longitudinally along the apparatus.
In Fig. 8 a first two branch lever 45 is shown,
which is tiltable about an axle pin 46 mounted between the
side pieces 17,18 and a second two branch lever 47, which
is tiltable about an axle pin 48 which passes through the
outer end of one, short branch 45a of the first lever 45.
The other, longest branch 45b of the first lever 45 has a
greater weight than its short branch 45a, which carries a
support roller 49, which is rotatably mounted on the axle
pin 48, in order to ensure thereby a desirably large
swinging moment to press the support roller 49 against the
pipe member 10. This applies especially in connection with
the centrifugal force which acts against the mechanism
during rotation of the rotor. Correspondingly provision is
made for a desirably large swinging moment in the longest
branch 47b of the second lever 47 iri that the longest
branch has a greater weight than the short branch 47a,
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which at the outer end carries a cleaning tool in the form
of a scraper means 50, in order thereby to press with a
swinging moment the scraper means 50 with a suitable
elastic force against the pipe member 10. As is shown in
Fig. 6 two parallel levers 47 are employed in each scraper
mechanism (41-44) each with its respective scraper means
50.
In practice a common scraper means can alternatively
be employed which spans over the whole breadth of each
lever 47 and also the intermediate space between these.
The choice is made to limit the tilting movement of
the first lever 45 by means of guide means 51,52. In this
connection a guide pin 51 extends from the lever 45
laterally inwards into a guide groove 52 in the guide rail
53 which is a common guide rail for all the four levers 45
illustrated. The guide rail 53 is divided into two guide
rail portions which are joint connected each with its
rotor part by means of joint connections not shown
further, so that the guide rail portions which can thrust
endwise tightly together into a coherent annular member,
are moved in the rotational movement together with the
associated rotor part, but with a certain extra swinging
movement relative to the rotor member. In practice the
levers 45, guided by respective guide means 51 and 52
together with guide rail 53, will be moved outwardly and
inwardly relative to the cylindrical part precisely in
step with each other by actuation of four separate centri-
fugal weights.
Correspondingly the choice is made to limit the
tilting movement of the second lever 47 and this is
ensured by allowing the longest lever branch 47b to form a
support abutment against the axle pin 46.
Instead of the illustrated mounting of the lever 47
about the rotary pin 48 it is possible to mount the lever
47 about the axle pin 46. In such a case there can be
arranged for example opposite stop means (not shown
further) on the lever 45 in order to ensure swinging about
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9 .
of the lever 47 in step with the lever 45, but with a
certain possibility for swinging movement relative to the
lever 47. Alternatively the lever 47 can in the end, which
faces opposite the scraper means 50, be provided with a
weight portion corresponding to the weight portion 45b of
the lever 45.
In Fig. 9 a hand tool 60 is shown, which is particu-
larly designed for use in the cleaning of the peripheral
surface on a cylindrical part, for example on a pipe-
shaped section in a hand rail or the like. A handle 61 is
shown having an internal mouthpiece (not shown further)
which communicates with an associated air feed pipe 62.
For example the mouthpiece is fashioned in and discharges
into a first clamp member 63 rigidly connected to the
handle 61. A second clamp member 64 is shown, which is
pivotally mounted on the handle 61 about an axle pin 65
together with a handle 66. In Fig. 9 the pivotable clamp
member 64 is shown in the use position by full drawn lines
and by broken lines in the inactive condition, in readi-
ness for guiding on the cylindrical part which is to be
processed. The clamp members 63 and 64 are adapted to
receive between them a rotor 67. The rotor 67 is rotated
by means of compressed air which is supplied from the
mouthpiece 62, in a corresponding manner as the rotor 15
in the embodiment of Fig. 1-8. The clamp members 63 and 64
are equipped at the outer end with their respective
support roller 63a and 64a for thrusting against the rotor
67, while a third support roller 61a for thrusting against
the rotor 67 is rotatably mounted on the handle 61 in
connection with the pin 65.
A material difference relative to the embodiment
according to Fig. 1-8 is that the apparatus according to
fig. 9 supports the rotor at three points which are dis-
placed at an angle of 120 relative to each other. Another
difference is that a carrying arm 68 is mounted for a
scraper means 69, a pipe-support wheel 70 and associated
counterweight 71 directly in the rotor 67. In addition
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fastening means 72 of the scraper means 69 and pivot 73 of
the wheel 70 are connected to one and the same carrying
arm.
5
