Media protection system for line demarcation

Description

DESCRIPTION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to the field of roadway construction, and more specifically, roadway painting.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Public safety regarding transportation systems is an annual challenge for all DOTs. With line demarcation a mandatory expense as well as a federal safety requirement, contractors are looking for alternatives to standard line marking practices to help reduce cost, material and time loss. Today's striping trucks and hand-held equipment are more sophisticated than ever before giving us the utmost control over material output. Common practices in the line marking industry have evolved from paint pressure pots, to airless hydraulic sprayers, to trucks with computerized systems that perfectly measure quantities and pressures on the fly, and come equipped with advanced guidance systems, 3 man operations, and material transfer technologies. With all this improved technology, the reflective glass bead systems are lacking in innovation while standard bead application practices often underestimate the loss of materials due to environmental conditions. The conventional methods of applying reflective media involve the use of both pressurized and gravity fed applications with little regard for the environmental side effects of glass media application. In both application methods, the media is deflected/dispersed by a unit that sits above the ground plane, leaving the media vulnerable to any air movement such as passing traffic, overspray, pressure, application speeds, and wind conditions. The objective of the present invention is to minimize costly media overshoots and combat adverse environmental conditions, which would greatly improve today's bead application rates while reducing cost and harmful environmental side effects.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a media protection apparatus which consists of shielding reflective media as it exits a spray unit until the material imbeds itself in a previously sprayed, wet substrate.

The media is further controlled by easily accessible, external dials, which sharpen the media output pattern to widths determined by the outside edges of the paint line while eliminating operator interference of the media application.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A clear understanding of the key features of the invention summarized above may be had by reference to the appended drawings, which illustrate the method and system of the invention, although it will be understood that such drawings depict preferred embodiments of the invention and, therefore, are not to be considered as limiting its scope with regard to other embodiments which the invention is capable of contemplating. Accordingly:

FIG. 1 is an illustration showing a perspective view of the shield and dial apparatus.

FIG. 2 shows the side view of the spray system.

FIG. 3 depicts the lower portion of the apparatus showing the side and bottom wings.

FIG. 4 depicts the upper portion of the apparatus showing the cutout for the bead gun deflector.

FIG. 5 is and illustration depicting the exploded view of the apparatus.

FIG. 6 depicts the precision control dial.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is a media protection system that guards secondary media from the high-pressure emissions of a primary spray system as well as windy environmental affects on by encasing the media output by one or more shields. The top shield (1) can be made of steel, aluminum or plastic and can be opaque or clear so the operator can confirm that the media is being sprayed. The preferred embodiment of the shield would be a one-piece unit that slips over the existing bead deflecting unit (10) which comes as a standard part of existing bead gun assemblies. FIG. 2 shows a side view of the primary and secondary spray guns with a shield unit (15) with a top plate (1), the bottom plate (2), and the external dial (3) that is attached to the existing bead deflector (10). The two plates create a channel (12) for the reflective media (16) to travel through on its way to the paint (13) that has been previously sprayed on the ground (14) below the shield unit (15). The open sides (11) allow for pressure equalization between the high pressure in the channel and the low pressure outside of the shield. FIG. 3 shows the wings on the bottom plate that extend off of the shield plate and are angled to protect the channel (11) from winds that hit the shield perpendicular to the direction of spraying machine. The wings are essential to ensure that the channel is protected in 360 degrees. FIG. 4 shows the top plate, which has a cutout so that the shield assembly can mount on the existing, universal bead deflector which screws to the end of the media spray gun (17). FIG. 5 represents a potential embodiment of the shield system assembly noting the use of the bead deflector hardware to connect the shield to the deflector. The preferred embodiment is a unibody shield and deflector in one. FIG. 6 shows a detail view of one the externally accessible dial. The dial handle (8) is manipulated to move the guiding arm (9). The guiding arm moves in and out to aim the media depending on the conditions as the beads leave the shield.