Water blast gun support apparatus and methods
AssigneePark Technologies, LLC
InventorsTimothy A. Burnier, George E. Radcliffe, Steven C. Bast
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A water blast gun support apparatus and methods for enabling the operator to direct the gun by a joystick attached to a pneumatic sinusoidal biasing control unit. Depending upon the direction the joystick is pointed by the operator, a controlled flow of air is delivered to pneumatic motion producing actuators which move the water blast gun to the desired position and maintain this position when the operator moves the joystick to its neutral position. The support apparatus absorbs the thrust of the water so that the operator is relieved from having to physically counter the force of the water.
Claims25
A water blast gun support for automatically reducing the thrust of the water blast apparatus felt by the operator by converting signals from an operator to a pair of actuators fixed in position and attached to the support structure, said water blast gun support comprising:
- a stand;
- a substantially vertical control arm;
- a joystick attached at the bottom end of said substantially vertical control arm;
- a horizontal overhead beam, rotatably mounted to said stand;
- a first motion producing actuator coupled between said control arm and said horizontal overhead beam to move said control arm forward and backward;
- a second motion producing actuator coupled between said stand and said horizontal overhead beam to rotate said beam in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions;
- and
- a control unit having an actuator input member, said member being rigidly attached at the bottom end of said vertical control arm and operatively coupled to said first motion producing actuator and said second motion producing, said control unit comprising:
- a substantially spherical bearing which mounts the actuator input member to said control unit to provide a requisite freedom of movement of said actuator member relative to said control unit;
- wherein said joystick is rigidly attached to said actuator input member so that movement of said joystick results in movement of said first and second motion producing actuators to controllably direct said water blast gun both to the right and left and up and down directions based upon said operator signals.
A water blast gun support apparatus comprising:
- a stand;
- a beam rotatably mounted to the stand;
- a control arm pivotally mounted to the beam;
- at least one counter balance weight connected to an end of the beam opposite the end where said control arm is mounted;
- an actuator system comprising:
- a first actuator member that is of a rotary type for controlling rotation of the beam;
- a second actuator member for controlling pivotal movement of the control arm;
- and
- a biasing control unit that is attached at the lower end of the control arm and that controls the actuator system comprising:
- a joystick;
- a third actuator member including a generally spherical surface supported by spherical bearing;
- and
- a pair of proportional valves;
- wherein the joystick is connected to the third actuator member and said third actuator member engages the pair of proportional valves.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.