Automatic vehicle washing equipment

摘要

Equipment for automatically washing a vehicle as it is being moved by a conveyor through a treatment area. A horizontal spray bar is movably mounted on the vertical legs of an inverted U-shaped frame for vertical movement along the frame to maintain a generally constant spacing from the vehicle surface as it is being moved beneath the spray bar by the conveyor. The spray bar frame is pivotally mounted on a main stationary support frame to enable the spray bar to pivot out of the path of a moving vehicle in the event of malfunction of the spray bar raising mechanism. A sensing station having a plurality of vertical spaced sensors is located at the entrance to the treatment area and directs a plurality of horizontal sensing beams across the path of the vehicle. The beams are broken and closed in relationship to the profile of the moving vehicle and send signals to a programmable controller. The controller also receives signals from the conveyor representing the linear horizontal movement of the vehicle caused by movement of the conveyor. The combination of the signals from the conveyor and sensors is correlated by the controller which supplies signals to the spray bar drive motor to control the vertical movement and speed of the spray bar to maintain the predetermined maximum efficient spacing of the spray bar from the vehicle surface. Signals are also sent by the controller to a second motor which rotates the spray bar so that the spray nozzles are maintained generally perpendicular to the vehicle surface in addition to the desired spacing to obtain the maximum cleaning results.