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US 7,321,807 B2Granted
Robotic wash cell using recycled pure water
AssigneeABB AB
InventorStephen J. Laski
Life of this patent
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AssigneeABB AB
InventorStephen J. Laski
Estimating the term…
A robotic wash cell is provided and includes a six-axis robotic arm and end effector equipped with nozzles that spray unheated, solvent free, pure water at high-pressure to clean or debur objects by maintaining the nozzles in close proximity and substantially normal to each surface being cleaned or edge being deburred. The robotic cell wash is particularly useful for cleaning contaminants such as oil and grease from items having more complex shapes. The six-axis robotic arm positions the nozzles and their sprays substantially normal to each surface being cleaned or deburred. The nozzles produce a multi-zone spray pattern with a continuous effective cleaning zone. A water recycling and pressurizing system collects the used water, separates out the oil and grease contaminants to a level of about 5 ppm, and pressurizes the pure water to about 3,000 psi for washing operations or about 6,000 psi for deburring operations.
A robotic wash cell for washing a contaminant from a surface of an object, said wash cell having a supporting surface and a source of high-pressure fluid, the object being placed relative to specific predetermined coordinates inside said robotic wash cell, said robotic wash cell comprising:
The robotic wash cell of 1 wherein said dispersing spray has a predetermined effective working range.
The robotic wash cell of 1 wherein said fluid is water.
The robotic wash cell of 1 wherein said dispersing spray has an increasing width dimension which is substantially normal to said path of travel and said spray has an effective working range.
The robotic wash cell of 4, and wherein said object has a variety of surfaces and said six-axis robotic arm moves said end effector and nozzle along a series of particular paths in a multi-directional manner along each of said variety of surfaces, each of said particular paths maintaining said nozzle a desired distance within said effective working range of said spray from the surface of the object, and said robotic arm articulating said end effector and nozzle and their said direction of aim to remain substantially normal to the surface of the object as said robotic arm moves said end effector along each of said particular paths of travel.
The robotic wash cell of 5 wherein said robotic arm includes component members and said component members include a base, first and second arm members, a wrist, and a mount with said proximal end, said base being rotatably connected to said supporting surface about a central axis of said base, said first arm member being pivotally connecting said to said base, said second arm member being pivotally connected to said first arm member, said second arm member having a first portion that is rotatably connected to a second portion along a central axis of said second arm member, said wrist being pivotally connected to said arm member, and said mount being rotatably connected to said wrist about a centerline of said mount.
The robotic wash cell of 6 wherein at least one of said paths of travel is arcuate.
The robotic wash cell of 1 wherein said end effector has an adjacent nozzle aligned parallel to said direction of aim and producing an adjacent spray, said sprays overlapping in said effective working range, and said sprays being slightly rotated to avoid intersection of said adjacent sprays.
The robotic wash cell of 8 wherein said effective working range has an effective cleaning zone with a depth of about two inches.
The robotic wash cell of 9 wherein said effective cleaning zone extends from about eight inches to about ten inches from said nozzle.
A robotic wash cell for cleaning a contaminant from a surface of an object comprising:
A robotic wash cell using water for cleaning a contaminant from a surface of an object comprising:
The robotic wash cell of 12 further comprising a pump to pressurize a portion of said water supply to a predetermined pressure.
The robotic wash cell of 13 further comprising a filter to remove solids from said water supply to a predetermined purity level.
The robotic wash cell of 12 further comprising an oil separator to separate oil from said water supply to a predetermined oil purity level.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.