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US 4,335,986 AGranted
Vehicle body surfacing and dolly assembly
OwnerDonald A. Fahrnerinventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerDonald A. Fahrnerinventor
Estimating the term…
In one embodiment, a sender unit is attached to the portion of the body corresponding to the damaged opposite portion and a surfacing unit is attached to the damaged portion. A sending head is traversed horizontally and vertically, either separately or simultaneously in a composite motion, over the undamaged portion of the body and this sender head is provided with a plurality of surface contacting probes which follow the contour accurately. Each probe moves upwardly and downwardly following the contour of the body and transmits these movements by flexible cable to the surfacing unit. The surfacing unit is provided with a surfacing head which also traverses the damaged area horizontally and vertically in synchronization with the movement of the sending head. The surfacing head is provided with a plurality of chisel like cutters which are moved upwardly and downwardly by the vertical movement of the sender probes so that the cutters follow the contour of the undamaged surface and cut away filler material which has been placed on the damaged surface. This enables the filler material to be contoured rapidly and easily using the undamaged corresponding body portion as a template. In another embodiment, the cutters are replaced by small anvils which once again traverse the damaged portion and act as a dolly for initial straightening of the damaged portion.
A vehicle body surfacing assembly for use with a source of power and upon a vehicle body comprising in combination a sending unit and surfacing unit, means to detachably secure said surfacing unit over the area of the associated vehicle body requiring repair and means to detachably secure said sending unit over means having contours similar to the contours of the portion of the vehicle body requiring repair, each of said units including a rectangular frame, a carriage mounted on each of said frames for movement relative thereto in one direction between the ends of the frame and in another direction between the sides of the frame, means operative to move said carriages connected to said source of power, a plurality of movable surfaces sensing element assemblies mounted in said carriage of said sending unit and contacting the means having contours similar to the contours of the portion of the vehicle body requiring repair, said assemblies each including a surface sensing element movable in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the frame of said sending unit, a plurality of surfacing components mounted in the carriage of said surfacing unit movable in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the frame of said surfacing unit, and contour transmitting drive cable means operatively extending between each of said surface sensing elements and a corresponding surfacing component whereby movement of each of said surface sensing elements, in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the frame, is reproduced in the corresponding surface component, each of said surfacing components having surface treatment means on the lower end thereof operatively engaging the surface of the vehicle body requiring repair.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.