Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Apparatus – With means to treat gas or vapor
Patent
1982-08-04
1984-07-24
Camby, John J.
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Apparatus
With means to treat gas or vapor
34 12, 34 39, 34 60, 34225, 432 37, F26B 300, F26B 700, F26B 532, F26B 1900
Patent
active
044610947
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL AREA
The invention concerns a method and an apparatus for drying vehicles in washing establishments.
STATE OF THE ART
The most widely used method for drying vehicles in washing establishments is the use of large high powered drying blowers. In this method the water in advance of the drying step has added to it a surface tension chemical means which has the effect that the water pulls itself together into large drops which can be peeled off of the surface of the vehicle by the air current. Disadvantages are that the high powered drying blowers have a high energy consumption, create very much noise and are therefore not very environmentally acceptable. The large amount of noise produced by such blowers has made it such that washing establishments equipped with such blowers are not allowed to be set up in the middle of residential areas, but only outside of such areas, for example in industrial areas.
Indeed a method has already been made known (German Periodical "Tankstelle+Garage" Volume 11, 1969, Page 533), in which the water has added to it chemical means which chiefly lower the tension of the water so that the major portion of it runs off while the remaining portion of the water becomes partially underlaid by the chemical means to accelerate the drying and to avoid spots. In this method air drying is involved with out the use of blowers, for the vehicles are simply set in the open after washing and are left in the open until dry. A washing establishment using this drying method can be set up in a residential area since it creates no noise, but nevertheless it does have the disadvantage that the drying step requires too much time. This method in which the drying effect makes use of the surrounding air has therefore today been almost entirely surpassed.
British Pat. No. 1,029,004 discloses an apparatus for washing and drying vehicles in a portal washing establishment in which heat lamps are used for drying the vehicles. Such an apparatus has never found an entry into practice and has never appeared in a realizable form on the market. The reason for this resides in the fact that with such apparatus it is not possible to achieve such a complete drying that the vehicle after the drying is free of drops. The removal of residual drops takes too long with this apparatus in comparison to the time required for the drying of vehicles in present day washing establishments wherein the vehicles are moved with a speed of between 14 meters a minute and 18 meters a minute through the plant. In connection with this the upper surface of the drops on which the infrared energy delivered by the heat lamps works is too small for the drops to take in sufficient energy to be brought to a state of evaporation in a reasonable amount of time. A further disadvantage is that the large portion of the vehicle body not covered by the drops is struck by the infrared energy as a result of which the surface of the vehicle body is unnecessarily overheated and is moreover unevenly heated. Further, this known apparatus has the disadvantage that because of the short building length the portal arches must work with high heat lamp power which not only amplifies the danger of overheating the vehicle surface but also leads to a corresponding waste of energy. Finally there exists as yet a prejudice against infrared drying because it can burn plastic parts which are increasingly being used on automobile bodies and because it does not avoid leaving visible spots and residues on the vehicle surface after the drying process. Moreover the known portal washing establishments are not made without supplementary blower drying because the heat lamps are provided only in the two vertical portions of the portal arches and the upper side of the vehicle is dried solely by means of a blower type air current.
German OS No. 19 24 094 discloses a drying plant of tunnel construction for washed vehicles in which the drying tunnel is provided with blowers for circulating air and the damp air is withdrawn from the drying tunnel, is warmed through a heat ex
REFERENCES:
patent: 2472293 (1949-06-01), Groven
patent: 4168579 (1979-09-01), Ericsson
patent: 4327133 (1982-04-01), Rudy et al.
DE-Journal, "Tankstelle & Garage," No. 11, 1969, p. 533.
Bohm & Braunwalder KG
Camby John J.
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