This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/919,764, filed Mar. 23, 2007
Car wash rollers have been known for many years in the industry. Generally, car wash rollers are completely made of a metal ie., body, rollers, shafts, etc. The metal outboard roller engages a track in the car wash while the inboard roller engages a vehicle wheel being pushed through the car wash system. The prior art also included metal idle wheels that roll along the lower track portion of the conveyer system. Adjacent to the idle wheels is arranged a metal carrier link that connects to a chain or other device that moves along the conveyer system within the car wash. Most of these prior art systems used all metal components for the entire roller. This created very heavy and hard to manufacture rollers that increased the costs to the car wash operator. Also metal on metal wearing or rubbing may have caused grinding and reduce the effectiveness, durability and life of the roller system within the conveyer system of the automatic car wash.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved conveyerized car wash roller. There is also need in the art for an improved car wash roller that is ultra light weight and corrosion resistant. There is also a need in the art for a car wash roller that has its body made of a plastic material and its shafts or rods sleeved with a plastic material to ensure a plastic on plastic interface. The concept of plastic only riding on plastic within the car wash industry and metal only riding on metal is in and of itself novel and will increase the durability and effectiveness of the conveyerized car wash roller of the present invention. Furthermore, there is a need in the art for a conveyorized car wash roller that has outer wheels or outboard rollers that will ride on the conveyer deck that include a pressed on metal ring assembly over a plastic wheel to increase the durability of the outboard roller or wheel and also reduce the weight and manufacturing complexity of the overall roller assembly. There is also a need in the art for a low weight, easier to manufacture and lower cost roller that is as durable as the prior art metal rollers and even increases the durability of the rollers through less corrosion of the operating parts. There is also a need in the art for a roller that has injection molded body that will reduce the costs of manufacturing such rollers.
According to the present invention, the forgoing and other objects and advantages are obtain by a novel design for an improved conveyerized car wash roller. The car wash roller includes an ultra light weight corrosion resistant roller body that generally is made of plastic material, in one preferred embodiment the plastic material is an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene plastic, however any other plastic may also be used for the body. The body also may include a predetermined number of orifices therethrough for connecting rollers and idle wheels at opposite's ends thereof. The roller also may include a steel shaft arranged through an orifice at one end thereof and an inboard roller or wheel arranged over the shaft and outboard roller or wheel arranged over an end of each shaft and in contact with the inboard roller on one surface thereof. On the opposite end of the car wash roller may be arranged a first and second idle wheel that is arranged on a shaft arranged through an orifice of one end of the roller body. Engaged with the shaft contacting the idle wheel is a carrier link that may be used with a chain within the conveyor system of the auto car wash.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a top view of a car wash roller according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows a top view of an alternate embodiment of a car wash roller according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 shows an exploded view of a car wash system according to FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 shows a body of a car wash roller according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 shows a plan view of the car wash roller according to the FIG. 2.
FIG. 6 shows a plan view of the car wash roller according to the FIG. 2.
FIG. 7 shows a partial exploded view of the car wash roller according to FIG. 1.
FIG. 8 shows a plan view of the car wash roller according to FIG. 1.
FIG. 9 shows a plan view of the car wash roller according to FIG. 1.
FIGS. 10a-10d show multiple views of a car wash body roller according to the present invention.
