Reconfigurable spray booth for train

Abstract

A reconfigurable spray booth 10a, 10b is provided for providing environmental control during repair and / or repainting of a train 58. The spray booth comprises a booth cabin 12 which defines a confined

Description

The present invention relates to a reconfigurable spray booth, particularly but not necessarily exclusively, for performing repair or repainting jobs on trains. The invention further relates to a method of use of such a spray booth. When a large vehicle becomes damaged or dented, bodywork must be carried out in order to repair or repaint. This is a problem for larger vehicles, which cannot be easily located inside confined spaces which have suitably controlled airflow for extraction of noxious fumes or gases. This is particularly a problem fortrains, where presently, rolling stock must be moved into a designated paint booth. This is a complicated and cumbersome procedure, which requires large extraction fans and significant amounts of ducting to maintain airflow within the paint booth. It is an objective of the present invention to provide a, preferably mobile, spray booth for carrying out bodywork small-to-medium area repair technology, or SMART, repair on trains and larger commercial vehicles, in a controlled environment. According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a reconfigurable spray booth for providing environmental control during repair and / or repainting of a train, the spray booth comprising: a booth cabin which defines a confined space, the booth cabin having a user entry door and at least one train-access panel which is openable to allow access to a train to be repaired or repainted from inside the confined space; ventilation means for providing an airflow through the confined space of the booth cabin in use; a supplementary roof cover; and a spray hood engaged with the booth cabin, the spray hood being adjustable between first and second said extended conditions, wherein in the first extended condition, a leading edge of the spray hood is flush to a train-facing side of the booth cabin, and wherein in the second extended condition, the leading edge of the spray hood is forward of the train-facing side of the booth cabin, and the supplementary roof cover extends over the booth cabin. The provision of a spray booth which has a plurality of different extended conditions allows for a single booth to be moved around a location where train bodywork, such as repainting or repair, is to take place. This enables the bodywork to be performed at the side or nose of the train without needing to provide different bespoke booths to capture the fumes or noxious emissions. This allows for a more compact booth to be provided to replace the dedicated spray site currently used in the art for repair of rolling stock. In order to ensure that an environmentally secure confined space is maintained in the second extended condition, a supplementary roof cover helps to inhibit or prevent fumes from escaping through the roof. 5 Optionally, the at least one train-access panel may be movable into the confined space of the booth cabin for enabling access to the train. To allow the spray booth to directly abut the train, it is preferred that in one embodiment, the train-access panels be movable into the booth cabin out of the way to access the train. 10 Two said train-access panels may be provided, the train-access panels forming side walls of the confined space below the spray hood in the second extended condition. For the second extended condition, side protection under the spray hood must be provided, and rather than using a disposable membrane for this, the train-access panels CM can advantageously be configured as side walls. CM __ 15 Preferably, the supplementary roof cover may deploy automatically when the spray hood moves into the second extended condition. The deployment of the roof cover in an automatic process, typically by slidably unfolding ensures that fumes cannot be generated whilst the roof of the booth remains open. Optionally, the spray hood may be slidably movable between the first and second 20 extended conditions. Slidable movement, typically in a purely horizontal direction, is the easiest means of making a forward extension of the spray hood for the second extended condition. The spray hood may be movable into the second extended condition only when the or each train-access panel is in a forward aligned condition. 25 The positioning of the train-access panels can be used to inhibit the entry of the spray hood into the second extended condition, which might otherwise create unnecessary stress or strain on the runners if the spray hood were unsupported. The train-access panels offer a viable means of holding up the spray hood. Preferably, the spray hood may be adjustable into a collapsed condition in which the spray hood is stowed on or adjacent to a top of the booth cabin. Stowing of the spray hood places the spray hood in a condition which allows the spray booth to itself be stowed in smaller volumes without the spray hood colliding with internal ceilings. The spray hood may be adjustable between the collapsed and extended conditions via a concertina process. A concertina type expansion has the advantage of creating a slope which naturally matches the nose shape of a train, and therefore only utilises the height required for the bodywork repainting or repair process. This in turn allows the ventilation means to have a lower power and thus energy draw. Optionally, in the collapsed condition, the spray hood may be foldable onto a roof of the booth cabin. The ventilation means may comprise at least one roof-mounted exhaust unit, the spray hood being foldably stowable onto the roof without colliding with the or each roofmounted exhaust unit. Since there is likely to be an exhaust unit on the roof of the booth cabin, the positioning of the spray hood onto the roof does not add any additional height. The booth cabin may comprise wheels. Mobility is an important feature for the spray booth. Since the booth is much smaller than existing warehouses or similar structures in which repair or repainting occur, the bodywork cannot be performed on the whole train at once. Wheels mitigate this issue, allowing the spray booth to be moved to different parts of the train. Preferably, the spray hood may comprise a filter element which allows air to be drawn therethrough via the ventilation means. If a dedicated filter element is provided in the spray hood, other gaps to the train can be more effectively sealed during the repair or repainting process. This allows for improved ventilation of the confined space. According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of providing a sealed environment for a train during repair and / or repainting thereof, the method comprising the steps of: a] providing a reconfigurable spray booth in accordance with the first aspect of the invention; b] determining a part of the train to be repaired or repainted; 5 c] based on a selected part of the train to be repaired or repainted, positioning the spray hood of the spray booth in either the first or second extended condition; and d] creating a seal between the train and the spray booth. Selectable repositioning of a spray booth where bodywork repair or repainting is required has the advantage of allowing all parts of the train to be repaired or repainted as 10 necessary without a correspondingly large increase in ventilation airflow. The invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows a front perspective representation of a first embodiment of a spray booth in accordance with the first aspect of the invention, the spray hood of the spray 15 booth being in a collapsed condition; Figure 2 shows a front view of the spray booth of Figure 1; Figure 3 shows a rear view of the spray booth of Figure 1; Figure 4 shows a side view of the spray booth of Figure 1; Figure 5 shows a plan view of the spray booth of Figure 1; 20 Figure 6 shows a front perspective view of the spray booth of Figure 1, the spray hood of the spray booth being in a first extended condition; Figure 7 shows a rear perspective view of the spray booth of Figure 1, the spray hood of the spray booth being in a second extended condition; Figure 8 shows a front view of the spray booth of Figure 7; 25 Figure 9 shows a rear view of the spray booth of Figure 7; Figure 10 shows a side view of the spray booth of Figure 7; Figure 11 shows a plan view of the spray booth of Figure 7; Figure 12 shows a perspective representation of two second embodiments of spray booths in accordance with the first aspect of the invention, respectively in use for the repainting or repairing of a train in of end-on and side-on orientations with respect to the train; 5 Figure 13 shows a rear view of the end-on spray booth of Figure 12 with the rear wall omitted to show the internal confined space; and Figure 14 shows a side view of the end-on spray booth of Figure 12 with a side wall omitted to show the internal confined space, the block arrows illustrating an airflow path through the confined space. 10 Referring to Figures 1 to 5, there is shown a spray booth, referenced globally at 10, which is suitable for providing an environmentally secure area in contact with a train to allow repainting or repair of said train. The spray booth 10 is formed having a booth cabin 12, which creates a booth structure CM to form an in-use confined space within which spray painting can occur safely. The booth £\J 15 cabin 12 preferably has a base 14, a rear wall 16, side walls 18, and a train-facing side “ 20 which can be at least in part opened. At least one train-access panel 22 is provided, of which there are two here, which allows the train-facing side 20 of the booth cabin 12 to be closed completely. Typical dimensions for the booth cabin 12 are 3.9m length, 1.8m width, and 3.65m height. 20 It is preferably formed from expanded polystyrene wall panels with an aluminium tread plate floor. LED lighting is preferably fitted inside the booth cabin 12, and a simple control panel is provided, which may advantageously provide easy identification of when filters should be replaced. A paint storage and mixing bench will typically be provided inside for a user. 25 A roof 24 is also provided which at least partly covers the booth cabin 12. In the collapsed condition shown in Figures 1 to 5, the roof 24 includes a void area 26 which is bounded at least in part by a spray hood 28. The spray hood 28 shown in Figures 1 to 5 is collapsed against the roof 24, so as to be flush or substantially flush with the top surface of the roof 24. 30 The spray booth 10 includes ventilation means to provide an airflow through the confined space. In the Figures, this can be visualised via the exhaust units 30 which are positioned on the roof 24 of the booth cabin 12. The exhaust units 30 project upwardly from the roof 24, defining a vertical region into which the spray hood 28 can be collapsed without adding to the height of the spray booth 10 in the collapsed condition. Ventilation filters 32 of the ventilation means can be seen in Figure 1 inside the confined space, which 5 lead to extraction fans of the ventilation means. Air is sucked through the ventilation filters 32 and out of the exhaust units 30. Preferably, the extraction fans of the ventilation means are located within the corners of the booth cabin 12, minimising space lost to the ventilation apparatus. In the depicted embodiment, the ventilation means is a powerful corner extraction system 10 with 4-stage filtration, including active carbon, to recirculate the air back into the working environment. A 3-phase belt-driven fan is utilised. The booth cabin 12 is preferably mobile. In Figure 1 to 5, wheels 34, ideally castor wheels, can be seen which can be raised or lowered between movable and fixed positions to allow the spray booth 10 to be relocated at a site to be used. 15 The booth cabin 12 includes at least one user entry door 36, via which a user can gain access to the confined space. Here, this is provided on the rear wall 16, but could just as easily be provided on the side walls 18. The train-access panels 22 are here formed as folding doors, each having paired sections 38 which are foldable relative to one another to open the train-facing side 20 of 20 the booth cabin 12. Runners or guide rails 40 may be provided to ensure smooth operation of the folding of the train-access panels 22. Windows may be provided in the train-access panels 22. Figure 6 shows first extended condition is possible for the spray booth 10. If the spray hood 28 is pivoted, preferably via a pivot axis which runs flush to a forward edge 42 of 25 the booth cabin 12, then the spray hood 28 can be extended upwards in an arc, preferably via a concertina style opening, to increase the height of a train-accepting potion of the spray booth 10 which is at or adjacent to the train-access panels 22. In this first extended condition, a leading edge 44 of the spray hood 28 is therefore flush or substantially flush with the train-facing side 20 of the booth cabin 12. In use, the spray 30 booth 10 can be pushed directly up to a train, and the spray hood 28 provides a height advantage which allows the upper parts of the train to be repainted or repaired. It will be appreciated that a spray booth could be provided in which the first extended condition was the only extended condition. Furthermore, a spray booth could be provided in which the spray hood was not collapsible; in other words, the spray hood defines a fixed vertical height. 5 Figures 7 to 11 show the spray booth 10 in a second extended condition, which is designed to accept the nose of a train into the contained space. In the second extended condition, the spray hood 28 is positioned forwards when compared with the first extended condition; that is, the spray hood 28 is closer to the train in-use, and / or more distal from the rear wall 16. 10 The spray hood 28 can be seen in more detail in Figures 7 to 11, in that it is formed at least in part from a filter element 46 which is permeable to air. Other parts of the spray hood 28 may be formed from an impermeable material 48 which is impermeable to air. The spray hood 28 may preferably be connected to runners 50 or similar sliding means which allows the spray hood 28 to be moved in a horizontal direction. When the spray 15 hood 28 is moved into a forward condition, a supplementary roof cover 52 is provided which ensures that a roof seal is made when the spray hood 28 moves. Preferably, the supplementary roof cover 52 deploys automatically when the spray hood 28 moves forwards, for instance, by being ruched when not deployed inside the spray booth 10. However, it will be appreciated that the supplementary roof cover 52 could be 20 installed manually, or could be moved into a deployed state separately to the forward motion of the spray hood 28. This may improve sealing capabilities of the supplementary roof cover 52. It will be appreciated that moving the spray hood 28 forwards so that it no longer is positioned over a footprint of the booth cabin 12 will cause issues for providing a confined 25 space; a lateral void will exist below the spray hood 28 if no action is taken. This can be mitigated by moving the train-access panels 22 into a forward-aligned condition, that is, extending outwardly from the train-facing side 20 of the booth cabin 12. This may typically be in parallel with the side walls 18 of the booth cabin 12, or perpendicular to one or both of the rear wall 16 and train-facing side 20. 30 The forward movement of the spray hood 28 is designed to be equal to a distance created when the train-access panels are in the forward-aligned condition. In this manner, the leading edge 44 of the spray hood is flush or substantially flush with the outer edges 54 of the train-access panels 22 when they are in the forward-aligned condition. Indeed, the top edges 56 of the train-access panels 22 may act as runners for the spray hood 28, so that the spray hood 28 can only be moved into the second extended condition when 5 the train-access panels 22 are in the forward-aligned condition. The guide rails 40 of the train-access panels 22 may assist with holding the train-access panels 22 rigidly when in the forward-aligned condition, once hinged out of the booth cabin 12. It is noted that the sliding motion of the spray hood 28 requires some physical space on 10 the roof 24 of the booth cabin 12, and as such, it is preferred that the or each exhaust unit 30 of the ventilation means be provided at an edge of the roof 24, such that the spray hood 28 moves in a space between or adjacent the or each exhaust unit 30. To stow the spray booth 10, the user collapses the spray hood 28 against the roof 24 of the booth cabin 12, and the spray booth 10 can bewheeled to a desired storage location. 15 Figure 12 shows two use conditions of a second embodiment of the spray booth 10a, 10b adjacent to a train 58, in which only one exhaust unit 30 is provided on each spray booth 10a, 10b. The spray booths 10a, 10b are otherwise identical to that described above. A first spray booth 10a is provided as a side-on spray booth, and is thus positioned so 20 as to be adjacent to a side 60 of a train 58 to be repainted or repaired in the service shed 62. This use case has the spray booth 10a having its spray hood 28 in the first extended condition, allowing the spray booth 10a to abut the side of the train 58. In this arrangement, the train-access panels 22 are pivoted completely outwardly so as to lie flat against the side 60 of the train 58. A temporary seal can then be attached to the train 25 58 during use to complete the sealed environment of the confined space inside the spray booth 10a. A second spray booth 10b is provided as an end-on spray booth, and is thus positioned so as to encapsulate the nose 64 of the train 58, which can be seen in more detail in Figure 13. The slope of the spray hood 28 thus accommodates the shape of the nose 64 30 of the train 58. The sealing can be seen form Figure 13 more easily. To prevent fumes from escaping adjacent to the train body, a sealing membrane 66 is provided which is engagable with the spray hood 28 and train-access panels 22. Typically, the sealing membrane is provided as a polythene sheet which is taped in place to form the seal, and thus can be 5 easily removed when desired. Figure 14 shows the airflow pathway through the spray booth 10b. Air is drawn through the filter element 46 in the spray hood 10, through the ventilation filters 32 and out of the exhaust units 30. This creates a consistent air flow so that fumes do not accumulate to dangerous levels inside the spray booth 10b during use, but that there is no dangerous 10 fume leakage to the exterior of the spray booth 10b. Air quality is thus maintained. The ventilation apparatus creates a negative air pressure within the booth cabin 12, pulling air through the filter element 46 in the spray hood 10. The air is filtered by the ventilation filters 32 in the corner ventilation units, so that clean air is exhausted. 15 20 25 30 Whilst the spray hood has been defined thus far as being an awning type hood, it will be appreciated that alternative forms of hood could be considered. For example, pop up hoods which move purely in a vertical direction, rather than pivoting about an axis, would produce a similar effect, and are considered to fall within the scope of the invention. An onboard ventilation system is used in the present invention, but it will be apparent that an external ventilation means could be connected to the booth, for example, via standard ducting tubes. The invention has been prepared with train repair and repainting in mind. However, the apparatus is entirely suitable for use with other types of large vehicles, such as HGVs or even large boats which are docked. It is therefore possible to provide a reconfigurable spray booth which is able to be adapted for use with a train or similarly large vehicle. The spray booth may have a spray hood or awning which can be lifted up and down to alter the height of the booth at the train, and / or which is horizontally movable to allow for different parts of the train to be repaired or repainted without needing a different type of spray booth. This significantly improves the ease with which bodywork can be performed on a train, for instance. The words ‘comprises / comprising’ and the words ‘having / including’ when used herein with reference to the present invention are used to specify the presence of stated CM features, integers, steps or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof. It is appreciated that certain features of the invention, which are, for clarity, described in the context of separate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a single 5 embodiment. Conversely, various features of the invention which are, for brevity, described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be provided separately or in any suitable sub-combination. The embodiments described above are provided by way of examples only, and various other modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the field without departing from 10 the scope of the invention as defined herein.

Claims

1. A reconfigurable spray booth for providing environmental control during repair and / or repainting of a train, the spray booth comprising:a booth cabin which defines a confined space, the booth cabin having a 5 user entry door and at least one train-access panel which is openable to allowaccess to a train to be repaired or repainted from inside the confined space;ventilation means for providing an airflow through the confined space of the booth cabin in use;a supplementary roof cover; and10 a spray hood engaged with the booth cabin, the spray hood beingadjustable between first and second said extended conditions, wherein in the first extended condition, a leading edge of the spray hood is flush to a train-facing side of the booth cabin, and wherein in the second extended condition, the leading edge of the spray hood is forward of the train-facing side of the booth Xl 15 cabin, and the supplementary roof cover extends over the booth cabin.CM£\J 2. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one train-T"— access panel is movable into the confined space of the booth cabin for enabling accessto the train.1— 203. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein two said train-access panels are provided, the train-access panels forming side walls of the confined space below the spray hood in the second extended condition.25 4. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the supplementary roof cover deploys automatically when the spray hood moves into the second extended condition.

5. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, 30 wherein the spray hood is slidably movable between the first and second extended conditions.

6. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the spray hood is movable into the second extended condition only when the or 35 each train-access panel is in a forward aligned condition.

7. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the spray hood is adjustable into a collapsed condition in which the spray hood is stowed on or adjacent to a top of the booth cabin.5 8. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in claim 7, wherein the ventilation means comprises at least one roof-mounted exhaust unit, the spray hood being foldably stowable onto the roof without colliding with the or each roof-mounted exhaust unit.

9. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in claim 7 or claim 8, wherein the spray 10 hood is adjustable between the collapsed and extended conditions via a concertina process.

10. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein in the collapsed condition, the spray hood is foldable onto a roof of the booth cabin.1511. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, CM wherein the booth cabin comprises wheels.CM12. A reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, 20 wherein the spray hood comprises a filter element which allows air to be drawn therethrough via the ventilation means.

13. A method of providing a sealed environment for a train during repair and / or repainting thereof, the method comprising the steps of:25 a] providing a reconfigurable spray booth as claimed in any one of thepreceding claims;b] determining a part of the train to be repaired or repainted;c] based on a selected part of the train to be repaired or repainted, positioning the spray hood of the spray booth in either the first or second 30 extended condition; andd] creating a seal between the train and the spray booth.

Images