Resurfacing apparatus and process

A method of resurfacing a regulation tennis court comprising the steps of:

• (a) applying removable strips over existing court boundary lines;
• (b) applying a mass of resurfacing material along, and outside of, at least one outer boundary of said court;
• (c) spreading and smoothing said material to a uniform thickness with a resurfacing device by moving the device across said court once in a single pass and direction to form a first coating on said court;
• and
• (d) after said tennis court is resurfaced, removing said strips of material from said boundary lines.

Resurfacing apparatus comprising:

• frame means;
• a plurality of freely rotatable, non-driven wheel means mounted on the underside of said frame means;
• self-contained, selectively engageable drive means for effecting driven movement of said frame means, said drive means including drive wheels and means for moving said drive wheels between a ground disengaged transport position, a neutral ground engaging position, and a positive traction resurfacing position;
• free floating flexible blade means mounted on, and extending along a front face of said frame, and free floating brush means mounted on, and extending along a rear face of said frame, said flexible blade and brush means adapted to engage a mass of resurfacing material applied to a surface and to spread and smooth said material as said frame means traverses said surface.

Resurfacing apparatus comprising:

• a frame;
• freely floatable spreading and smoothing means pivotally mounted on front and rear faces of said frame;
• drive means mounted on said frame;
• drive wheels operatively connected to said drive means and mounted on said frame for movement between operative and inoperative positions;
• and
• steering means mounted on said frame for selectively lifting one or the other of said drive wheels off the surface.

A method of resurfacing a pair of adjacent regulation tennis courts having prescribed length and width dimensions, the length dimension bifurcated by a net line, comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing a resurfacing device including a frame having front and rear faces, each face provided with flexible spreading and smoothing means, said frame having a width which exceeds one half the length dimension of the courts;
• (b) aligning the resurfacing device outside one of said courts, and substantially parallel to a lengthwise boundary line of one of said courts, such that one end of the device is located approximately at the net line of one of the courts, and extends beyond first end lines of said courts;
• (c) applying a mass of resurfacing material in front of the front face of the resurfacing device;
• (d) moving the resurfacing device across the adjacent pair of tennis courts in a first direction substantially transverse to the length dimension so that the spreading and smoothing means spreads and smooths the resurfacing material across at least one half of the pair of adjacent tennis courts in a first pass;
• (e) realigning the device outside the other of said courts, and substantially parallel to a lengthwise boundary line of the other of said courts, such that one end of the device is located approximately at the net line of the other of the courts and extends at least beyond second end lines of said courts opposite said first end lines;
• (f) applying a mass of resurfacing material in front of the front face of the resurfacing device;
• and
• (g) moving the device across the adjacent pair of tennis courts in a second direction opposite said first direction substantially transverse to the length dimension so that the spreading and smoothing means spreads and smooths the resurfacing material across at least the other half of the pair of adjacent tennis courts in a second pass.

Resurfacing apparatus for uniformly spreading material across a surface comprising:

• a frame including a front face and a rear face;
• a leading material applicator extending from said front face and including leading squeegee-type blade means and trailing brush means;
• a trailing material applicator extending from said rear face and including at least leading brush means;
• said leading and trailing applicators mounted for free floating pivotal motion relative to said frame;
• wherein said frame and said leading and trailing applicators are constructed in three separable, and substantially axially aligned sections, including a center section and two side sections;
• and wherein said leading and trailing applicators are provided with additional squeegee means and brush means, respectively, for sealing gaps between the axially aligned center and side frame sections.