PAINT SPRAYING SYSTEM

• US 20140120251A1
• Filed: 10/08/2013
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Capstan AG Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Capstan AG Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Kolb, Troy C., Grimm, Jeffrey J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,598,826 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 427/137
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/00 Arrangements for controlling delivery; Arrangements for controlling the spray area
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 12/04 for sequential operation or multiple outlets
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 13/005 mounted on vehicles or designed to apply a liquid on a very large surface, e.g. on the road, on the surface of large containers
• CPC Class Codes: B05D 1/02 performed by spraying
• CPC Class Codes: E01C 23/222 specially adapted for automatic spraying of interrupted, individual or variable markings

Abstract

In one aspect, a system for applying painted surface markings to roads, parking lots, fields and/or any other suitable surfaces is disclosed. The system may include a plurality of valves and associated spray nozzles mounted onto and/or within a manifold, with each valve being individually controllable in order to regulate the flow of paint being dispensed from the spray nozzles. For instance, a controller may be coupled to each valve in order to control the opening and closing of such valve, thereby controlling the flow of paint supplied to the corresponding spray nozzle. In addition, information regarding the surface marking to be applied (the design, dimensions, orientation, geographical location, etc) may be stored within and/or received by the controller. The controller may then control each valve such that paint is applied to the surface to be marked via the spray nozzles in a manner that creates the desired surface marking.

Claims

1. A system for applying surface markings to a surface, the system comprising:

a manifold defining a common passage configured to receive a marking fluid, the manifold further defining a plurality of pairs of inlet channels and outlet channels, each of the inlet channels being in fluid communication with the common passage;

a plurality of valves coupled to the manifold such that a valve cavity is defined between each valve and the manifold, each valve cavity configured to be in fluid communication with one of the pairs of inlet and outlet channels;

a plurality of spray nozzles coupled to the manifold, each spray nozzle being in fluid communication with one of the outlet channels such that, when the valve is moved to an opened position, marking fluid flows from the valve cavity through the corresponding outlet channel and into the spray nozzle;

a controller communicatively coupled to the valves, the controller being configured to independently control the operation of each valve so as to regulate the flow of marking fluid supplied to each spray nozzle,

wherein the flow of marking fluid supplied to each spray nozzle is regulated such that the marking fluid is discharged from the spray nozzles in a manner that generates a desired surface marking across an area of the surface being marked.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a position sensor communicatively coupled to the controller, the position sensor configured to provide information associated with the position of each spray nozzle as the manifold is moved relative to the surface being marked.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the position sensor comprises at least one of a wheel encoder, a GPS receiver or a camera.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the controller includes a pixel data map associated with the desired surface marking, the controller being configured to correlate the pixel data map to an area of the surface being marked.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the pixel data map is correlated to the area of the surface being marked by scaling the pixel data map based on the dimensions of the desired surface marking to be applied across the area.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the pixel data map comprises a plurality of mapped pixels, the controller being configured to correlate each pixel to a location along the area of the surface being marked.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to control the operation of the valves based on the position information provided by the position sensor such that marking fluid is discharged from each spray nozzle at a location along the area of the surface being marked corresponding to a location on the pixel data map that contains a colored portion of the desired surface marking.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the manifold extends lengthwise between a first end and a second end, the common passage being defined through both the first and second ends.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising an end cap disposed at both the first end and the second end of the manifold, the end caps being configured to prevent the marking fluid from being expelled from the common passage at the first and second ends.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the manifold comprises a first manifold and further comprising a second manifold, the first and second manifolds being configured to be assembled end-to-end such that the common passage of the first manifold is in fluid communication with the common passage of the second manifold.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the spray nozzles are coupled along a bottom face of the manifold and wherein the manifold includes a first side and a second side extending from the bottom face, the valves being coupled to the manifold along the first and second sides in an alternating arrangement such that the valves associated with adjacent spray nozzles are positioned on opposed sides of the manifold.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the marking fluid supplied within the manifold is received from a non-pressurized container, the marking fluid being pumped into the manifold from the non-pressurized container.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the marking fluid supplied within the manifold is received from a pressurized container.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the manifold defines a plurality of common passages, each of the common passages being configured to receive a different colored paint.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a movable cart configured to support the manifold.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the marking fluid comprises paint.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the surface marking comprises a two-dimensional image.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the surface comprises one of a road, a parking lot, a field or a wall.

19. A system for applying multi-colored surface markings to a surface, the system comprising:

a manifold defining a plurality of common passages, each of the common passages being configured to receive a different colored marking fluid, the manifold defining an inlet channel and an outlet channel associated with each common passage, each inlet channel being in direct fluid communication with one of the common passages, the manifold further defining a mixing passage in fluid communication with each of the outlet channels;

a plurality of valves coupled to manifold such that a valve cavity is defined between each valve and the manifold, each valve cavity configured to be in fluid communication with the inlet channel and the outlet channel associated with one of the common passages;

a spray nozzle coupled to the manifold, the spray nozzle being in fluid communication with the mixing passage such that, when one of the valves is moved to an opened position, marking fluid from the valve cavity associated with the valve flows through the mixing passage and into the spray nozzle;

a controller communicatively coupled to the valves, the controller being configured to independently control the operation of each valve such that two or more of the different colored marking fluids are supplied to and mixed within the mixing passage to create a new colored marking fluid to be discharged from the spray nozzle.

20. A method for applying multi-colored surface markings to a surface using a first manifold configured to receive a first colored marking fluid and a second manifold configured to receive a second colored marking fluid, the first and second manifolds each include a plurality of spray nozzles and a plurality of valves, each valve being configured to regulate the flow of marking fluid from one of the spray nozzles, the method comprising:

receiving a pixel data map associated with a desired surface marking to be applied across an area of the surface, the surface marking including a first portion to be applied using the first colored marking fluid and a second portion to be applied using the second colored marking fluid;

scaling the pixel data map based on the dimensions of the desired surface marking;

controlling the operation of the valves of the first manifold as the first manifold is moved along the surface such that the first colored marking fluid is discharged from the spray nozzles of the first manifold in a manner that generates the first portion of the desired surface marking across the surface; and

controlling the valves of the second manifold as the second manifold is moved along the surface such that the second colored marking fluid is discharged from the spray nozzles of the second manifold in a manner that generates the second portion of the desired surface marking across the surface.