Cleaning and liquid contact with solids – Processes – Including regeneration – purification – recovery or separation...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-15
2001-10-16
Carrillo, Sharidan (Department: 1746)
Cleaning and liquid contact with solids
Processes
Including regeneration, purification, recovery or separation...
C134S006000, C134S021000, C134S034000, C134S037000, C134S040000, C134S109000, C015S320000, C015S321000, C015S353000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06302967
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a mobile cyclonic power wash system that uses sprayed water for cleaning flat surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, and other various hard surfaces, and more particularly, to a power wash system having a system which reclaims and filters the sprayed water and recycles the filtered water to the system for further use in cleaning. The present invention also relates to a mobile cyclone sprayer that has an improved rotary union, which passes high pressure, high temperature water to a spray bar which rotates at high speeds, and more particularly, to an improved leakproof rotary union seal formed between a non-rotatable silicon carbide seal surface and a rotatable silicon carbide seal surface which prevents the water from leaking through or around the seal. The power wash system with these new and improved features provides more effective and convenient cleaning of flat surfaces.
2. Discussion of Background and Prior Art
Apparatus and methods for selectively cleaning flat surfaces using a mobile cyclonic power wash system have been well known in the art. The mobile cyclonic power wash system generally sprays water at high rotating speeds to clean the surfaces. A typical mobile cyclonic power wash system includes a water storage means for holding the water to be used for cleaning, a water pumping system used for pumping and pressurizing the water from the storage means, and a water cyclone sprayer for spraying the water onto the surfaces. This power wash system can further include a water heating system for heating the water so that high temperature as well as high pressure water is provided for cleaning surfaces.
Halls et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,589 (“Halls”) and Sundheim U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,590 (“Sundheim”) each disclosed a power wash system that uses a vacuum system, and these systems were designed to be used for cleaning carpets and hard surfaces such as streets and floors. Goerss U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,784 (“Goerss”) disclosed a high pressure water system that is designed to be used for cleaning floor surfaces and floor gratings.
One of the problems with the prior art power wash systems is that none of them provided any means for recovering, filtering, and recycling the water sprayed by the power wash system. The prior art systems were not designed to be independent, self-contained systems in which the water is continuously reclaimed, filtered, and recycled for further use by the power wash system. Therefore, the operation of the prior art systems is limited by the amount of water that can be stored or transported by the system (i.e. by the capacity of the water storage means), and the operator of the system was inconvenienced in having to replenish additional water from an outside source when the stored water was depleted. In effect, these prior art systems required the use of large amounts of water, and these systems wasted the stored water since they did not have the capability of reclaiming and re-using it. Moreover, environmental objections are increasingly being raised to harmful wastes being dumped into local drainage systems. Thus, there is a need to reclaim the sprayed water used in outdoor cleaning systems.
Rotary unions used in water cyclone sprayers of mobile cyclonic power wash systems have been well known in the art.
As shown in
FIG. 6
, one typical prior art rotary union
200
comprised simply a circular housing
210
and a hollow rotary spindle
220
. The spindle
220
has a flat radial seal ring flange
240
to support it in the housing
210
. A spray bar
54
is attached to the bottom of spindle
220
. A packing gland
250
is placed on the inlet side of flange
240
, and a packing unit and nut
260
is placed on the outlet side of flange
240
. Packing unit
260
is screwed to the housing
210
by screw threads in order to support the flange
240
and to seal the bottom end of the rotary union
200
. As the glands
250
wore out, the nut on the packing unit
260
had to be continuously tightened to prevent leaking in the rotary union
200
. Under high pressure and high temperature, the glands wore out rapidly.
The use of o-rings or similar sealing means to seal a rotating shaft are well known in the prior art. However, due to the high pressure and high temperature and high rpm environment in a cyclone power wash sprayer of the present invention, the prior art o-rings themselves cannot function as the primary sealing means between the stationary and rotating members of the sprayer. Moreover, when positioned directly in the high pressure, high temperature water flow path as a bypass seal, the prior art fails to disclose the additional means required to prevent the o-ring itself from being carried away with the water flowing past it.
Beck U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,450 disclosed a shaft seal that uses two seal surfaces, one rotatable and the other stationary to provide the seal for the rotary union. The problem with this system is that it uses a hard material, such as silicon carbide, for the rotating seal surface, while using a softer material, such as boron nitride, for the stationary seal surface. Thus, the softer seal surface rapidly wears out against the harder seal surface. Therefore, a more effective means for sealing the rotary union is desired to overcome these problems.
High water pressure and high speed rotation of the spray bar is required in mobile power washers in order to remove ground in dirt, grease, oil, grime, and the like from the surfaces. The main purpose of the rotary union in such devices is to act as a coupling for passing the high temperature, high pressure water to the high speed rotating spray bar without leaking through or around the rotary union. The problem with the prior art rotary unions described above is that the parts of the rotary union wore out very fast because the device was operated under high pressure, high temperature and at high rpm. The rapid wearing out of these parts caused the seal of the rotary union to leak with the result that the water cyclone sprayer could not function properly or effectively.
In overcoming the problems and limitations of the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to clean flat surfaces using a mobile cyclonic power wash system with a water reclamation and filter recycling system, which reclaims and filters the water sprayed by the power wash system and has the capacity to return up to 100% of the water used by the power wash system as filtered water to be further used for cleaning by the power wash system.
It is a further object of the present invention to clean flat surfaces using a mobile cyclonic power wash system with an improved rotary union seal formed between a non-rotatable sealing surface engaging a high speed rotatable sealing surface with the high pressure, high temperature water flowing through a central bore through the union.
It is another object of the present invention to clean flat surfaces using a mobile cyclonic power wash system with an improved rotary union having an o-ring preventing bypass of the high pressure, high temperature water around the high speed rotary union.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Set forth below is a brief summary of the invention in order to solve the foregoing problems and achieve the foregoing and other objects, benefits, and advantages in accordance with the purposes of the present invention as embodied and broadly described herein.
One aspect of the invention is in a cyclonic power wash system which uses high pressure water for selectively cleaning flat surfaces. The system includes a water storage means for holding water to be used for cleaning, a water pumping system for pumping and pressurizing the water from the storage means and a water cyclone sprayer for spraying the water onto the surfaces. The improvement in the system includes a water reclamation and filter recycling system for reclaiming and filtering water that is sprayed by the system and recycling the filtered water into the storage means so that it can be further used for cleaning by the
Jacobson Judith Mae
Rohrbacher Richard David
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Carrillo Sharidan
Cyclone Surface Cleaning Inc.
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