Mobile, armor spray-coating transform structure

• US 8,061,752 B2
• Filed: 10/04/2006
• Issued: 11/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: High Impact Technology, LLC
• Original Assignee: High Impact Technology, LLC
• Inventors: Ohnstad, Thomas S., Monk, Russell A.
• Primary Examiner(s): PEDDER, DENNIS H
• Application Number:
  US11/543,960
• Publication Number:
  US 20070090629A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,875 Days
• Field of Search: 296/26.15, 296/26.04, 296/26.02, 296/104, 296/24.32, 296/24.33, 296/36, 296/13, 296/14
• US Class Current: 296/26.15
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 16/40 Construction elements specially adapted therefor, e.g. floors, walls or ceilings ceiling elements filtering inflow of air into the booth B05B16/60; walls specially adapted for promoting separation of excess material B05B14/44
• CPC Class Codes: B05B 16/80 Movable spray booths
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 63/061 Foldable, extensible or yielding trailers foldable caravans B60P3/34; adjustable chassis frames B62D21/14

Abstract

A mobile transform structure having an openable/closeable trailer body which is reversibly transformable between a closed, transportable, tractor-trailer mode and an open, ground-stabilized, spray-booth mode for receiving, and armor spray-coating, a selected surface in a subject wheeled vehicle at the location of that vehicle. The transform structure includes, in addition to the trailer body, a deployable canopy structure useable, with the trailer body open, to form a canopied spray enclosure for receiving a subject vehicle, and a trailer-self-contained, armor spray-coating system operable, when a wheeled vehicle is received in the enclosure, to armor spray-coat a selected surface in that vehicle. The method of the invention includes (a) transporting the closed trailer body to the site of such a vehicle, (b) opening that body at that site to transform it to a spray enclosure adapted for the entering and exiting of such a vehicle, and (c) and within the enclosure, and utilizing an armor spray-coating system which is self-contained on the trailer body, armor spray-coating a received vehicle.

Claims

1. A mobile transform structure having a tractor-trailer structural mode which is reversibly transformable into a spray-booth structural mode for receiving and armor spray-coating a surface in a subject wheeled vehicle at the location of that vehicle comprising

trailer structure including an elongate, openable/closeable trailer body having (a) base with opposite lateral sides and a pair of opposite, lateral, trailer-body side panel assemblies, including side portions and top portions, which are reversibly switchable by swinging in a clamshell manner between (a) a closed, ground-traveling, tractor-towable condition which defines the mentioned tractor-trailer structural mode for the transform structure, and (b) an open, stabilized, ground-anchored condition which defines the mentioned spray-booth structural mode for the transform structure, said side and top panels, in their open conditions, including portions cooperating with said base to form therewith co-extensive, generally co-planar, lateral extensions thereof collectively with said base to form a wheeled-vehicle supporting deck with lateral, personnel walk-around regions,

selectively stowable-deployable canopy structure carried on said trailer-body in a stowed condition when the trailer-body is in its said closed condition, and deployable with the trailer-body in its said open condition to form a canopied enclosure in cooperation with the trailer body, with said canopied enclosure being designed to receive therein a subject wheeled vehicle having a surface which is to be armor spray-coated, and

a self-contained, armor spray-coating system also carried on said trailer body, operable, when such a wheeled vehicle is received in said enclosure, to effect armor spray-coating of a selected surface in that vehicle.

2. The transform structure of claim 1, wherein said trailer body has a towing end, and which further includes a stowable-deployable ramp hinged to said base adjacent the trailer body'"'"'s towing end, swingable from a stowed condition within said body when the body is in its said closed condition, to a deployed, sloping condition when the trailer body is in its said open condition, thus, in the open condition of the trailer body, to accommodate, for a wheeled subject vehicle, wheeling entrance thereof into, and subsequent wheeling exit from, said enclosure in relation to armor spray-coating of a surface in that vehicle.

5. The transform structure of claim 1 wherein the canopy structure includes plural support hoops and a canopy surface fabric for deployment over said support hoops, said canopy structure being formed with said support hoops fixed in said side panel assemblies in the top portion thereof, and with said canopy surface fabric deployed over said support hoops.

3. A method for armor spray-coating a surface in a subject wheeled vehicle at the location of that vehicle comprising

transporting, as a part of a trailer-structure, the closed body of an elongate trailer to the site of the subject wheeled vehicle having a surface intended to be armor spray-coated, wherein the closed body has an elongate base and sides and top, which sides and top are openable, and, when so opened, form, with the elongate base, an elongate deck, thereby providing a walk-around region, and wherein the top forms a perimeter wall partially surrounding the elongate deck,

opening, in a clam-shell-like manner, the trailer body at that site, and transforming it to an elongate, open-ended spray enclosure adapted for the wheeling-in and wheeling-out of that vehicle, and

when the subject wheeled vehicle is within the spray enclosure, armor spray-coating a selected surface in that vehicle utilizing an armor spray-coating system which is self-contained on the trailer structure.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said transporting is performed by a coupleable/uncoupleable tractor coupled to the trailer structure for towing the same with the included trailer body to the site of the subject wheeled vehicle, and said armor spray-coating is preceded by uncoupling of the tractor and the trailer body at the site of the subject vehicle, and then using the just-uncoupled tractor to shift the subject wheeled vehicle into the spray enclosure.

6. The transform structure of claim 3 wherein said transforming includes attaching plural canopy supports hoops to the open clam-shell-like side and top and covering the hoops with a canopy surface fabric, thus forming an enclosure about and over the deck.