Tinting device
United States Patent 1 1 Morick 1 1 TINTING DEVICE [75] Inventor: Ulrich Morick, Rinkerode, Germany [73] Assignee: Bast Farben &amp; Fasern Aktiengesellschait, Hamburg, Germany [22] Filed: Sept. 25, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 509,034  
 [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 28, 1973 Germany 2348791 [52] US. Cl. 177/70; 222/140; 222/1685, 141/83; 141/100 [51] Int. Cl GOlg 19/22 [58] Field of Search 177/60, 70, 83; 222/140,  
 [ Apr. 22, 1975 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,848,019 8/1958 Corbin ct a1. 177/70 X Primary E.\&#39;aminerGeorge H. Miller, Jr. Attorney, Agent, or F irm--Krafft &amp; Wells ABSTRACT A tint mixing apparatus having a supply shelf in the form of a lazy-susan and having a plurality of vertically disposed rotating supply decks for the paint containers holding the basic tints. The supply decks can be moved vertically and the lower decks are provided with recesses at their rims which are larger than the support platform of the scale and bypass this platform when the lower decks are moved in a vertical direction.  
 9 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures TINTING DEVICE CROSS REFERENCE TO A RELATED APPLICATION Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. ll9 for Application P 23 48 791.4, filed Sept. 28, 1973 in the Patent Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.  
 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a tinting device with a lazysusan type supply shelf of two rotating decks, each paint container holding the basic tints provided with a controlled outlet valve, stirring equipment associated with each paint container, a vessel located underneath the outlet valve for receiving the paint mixture, and each paint container provided with a metering scale with a receiving platform.  
  In many fields of the color or painting industry, but especially with respect to automobile painting, one encounters the problem of the ready and ever-present availability of a plurality of paint mixtures, for instance for the purpose of repairs by means of the color mixture which is adapted to the object of the repair. It is conventional practice in car painting to prepare the color mixtures fitted to the particular bodies by mixing the various basic colors in the proper volume or weight ratios. The recipes are found in tabular form in the ap-&#39; propriate literature. Each recipe contains data about vehicle type, year of make, color tint and coding of mixture, the information being arranged with respect to quantities. In this manner the automobile painting facility is able to prepare itself any desired tint from about 30 to 40 basic colors.  
  So-called tint mixing devices for performing these mixtures are known, which essentially consist of a lazysusan type supply shelf wherein the various basic colors will be adjusted. The painter containers are equipped with stirrers to prevent pigment sedimentation. This supply shelf is combined with a suitably adapted scale which may be located underneath a supply deck of the supply structure to allow automatic refilling from the paint container into a mixing vessel. When use is made of a supply structure with several decks above the paint containers, this supply structure located underneath the scale, the paint must be moved to a level above the container when employed, and therefore time-costly manual labor is involved.  
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses the problem of improving the automation of the paint mixing apparatus to such an extent that the desired basic color will move over the paint mixing vessel located on the scale.  
  This object of the invention is achieved by designing the supply decks carrying the paint containers to be movable in both vertical directions and in providing a recess in the peripheral area of the lower story, this recess being larger than the seating platform of the scale. This allows mounting the scale in stationary manner below the uppermost supply deck, and eliminating shifting of the scale when the supply vessels of the lower supply deck are being used. When the paint containers of the lower supply deck are needed, the rotatable supply deck will be moved until the recess provided therein is located underneath the scale platform seating the mixing vessel, whereupon this rotatable supply deck is lifted and rotated again until the desired LII paint container is above the seating platform of the scale. Obviously, one may also provide more than two superposed supply decks, the only requirement being to further apply the basic principle of the invention.  
  Because that part of the supply shelf which supports the supply decks may be vertically moved in penumatic or hydraulic manner, the use of an explosion-proof electrical motor, which would increase the cost of the equipment, is not required.  
  The superposed supply decks may be moved vertically as a single unit, but obviously they may also, if desired, be so designed that they may further move with respect to each other.  
  The up and down motion of the supply decks, the rotational motion of each single one and the actuation of the outlet valves may be controlled in conformity with a characteristic of the invention individually and indepently from one another. Similarly, and with respect to a preferred embodiment, the up and down motion of the supply deck, the rotational motion of each supply deck and the actuation of the outlet valve is obtained by means of program control with the metering scale acting as a signal generator. In this latter instance, completely automatic programmed mixing is allowed by a built-in program card reader. This program holds not only the values of components and weights in clear text, but also in the form of holes which can be read by automation, so that upon inserting the card into the card reader, all ensuing operations take place automatically as a function of the signals generated by the scale.  
  The rotation of each supply deck may take place by means of a ratchet circuit, but preferably by means of a reversible drive motor, so that a to and fro motion of the supply stores with respect to the rotation is feasible. dr  
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The drawing illustrates an embodiment of the invention, wherein:  
  FIG. 1 is a graphical and diagrammatical view of the paint mixing apparatus of the present invention; and  
  FIG. 2 is a top view of the apparatus, namely the lower supply deck.  
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The drawing shows a supply shelf 1 provided with two supply decks 2 and 3 designed as rotating disks. A turntable known per se is located on each supply deck to seat one paint container 4 per turntable. The paint containers 4 may be placed in the turntables and be coupled to a stirring system shown at 5 in FIG. 1. The turntable may be connected with a gear by means of a shaft, said gear revolving in a gear ring so that the turntable will execute a planetary motion, and hence also the paint containers 4, upon rotation of supply deck 2 or 3, causing stirring of the paint and constantly ensuring even distribution of the pigment. Clearly any other stirring system known in the paint industry also may be used, preferably already known systems being used in order to allow as economical a construction of the overall paint mixing equipment as possible.  
  Paint containers 4 are provided with a metering valve 6 at their bottoms and preferably at the outer rim of latter, this valve also being known in the paint industry and allowing filling by heavy, medium or fine flow. This valve may be actuated by a lever system controlled as low.  
 function of the scale proper. Theindividual containers 4 provided with&#39;valve(s) 5 may also be used manually,  
 sothat the equipment may be used in many more applications.  
  Whereas the upper supply deck is filled along its entire periphery with paint container 4, the lower supply deck 3 is provided with a recess 7 designed in conjunction with the weighing system, which is explained be- FIG. 1 shows scale 8, which is equipped with a seating platform 9 supporting a mixing vessel 10. The scale is fixed and by means of its seating platform 9 penetrates the fictitious cylinder defined by the outer rims of support discs 2 and 3. Therefore. lifting of supply deck 3 is only feasible if recess 7 is located precisely underneath support platform 9.  
  The control equipment further comprises switching weights indicating the reference weight(s) on the side ofthe ,scale beam opposite support platform 9. Several switching weights of various values areprovided for each decimal location (0 to 0.9; O to 9 gm; 0 to 90 gm; 0 to 900 gm; 0 to 9 kg). By setting up the weights in the binary code, 4 weights will suffice for each set. Use of the weights and hence setting the references may be obtained by manually selecting the switching weights or by means of a punched card.  
  A control system 11 is provided with the required switching parts for the various individual operational sequence and it may further comprise a card reader loadedwith corresponding programming cards through insert slit 1 2.  
 lfabasic color is required. which is contained in a pain t container of upper supply deck 2, then the latter is moved over the mixing vessel by rotating the sup ply deck and subsequently outlet valve 6 is actuated, either by hand or automatically. After the various basic colors have been placed in accordance with the desired codinginto mixing vessel 10, the latter contains the desired paint mixture. If a basic color contained in a paint vessel on supply deck3 used, the latter is automatically rotated, upon actuationof its associated switch, so that recess 7 arrives below support platform 9, then supply deck&#39;3 is lifted until it is above mixing vessel 10, whereupon the required rotation automatically takes place to move the corresponding paint container over the mixing vessel.  
 FIG. 1 shows individual switches in switching strips l3 and 14, each switch being associated with a given basic color. Such an arrangement is advantageous if the 4 equipment is meant to operate by means other than programming.  
 I claim:  
  1. In a tint mixing apparatus with a supply shelf in the form of a lazy-susan, comprising a plurality of vertically disposed rotating supply decks for the paint containers holding the basic tints, each deck being provided with a controllable outlet valve, and further comprising a stirring system for each paint container and a metering scale with a support platform for the vessel receiving the paint mixture, said vessel being located underneath the valve(s) of the paint containers, the improvement comprising:  
 said supply decks (2,3) of supply shelf l) supporting the paint containers (4), have means for moving vertically, and in that lower decks (3) are provided with recesses (7) at their rims, said recesses being larger than the support platform (9) of scale (8).  
  2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein two superposed supply decks are provided.  
  3. The apparatus asdefined in claim 1, wherein said superposed supply decks have means for moving together along the vertical direction.  
  4. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the portion of said supply shelf (1) which supports supply decks (2,3) is moved vertically by hydraulic means.  
 5. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the portion of said supply shelf (1) which supports supply decks (2,3) is moved vertically by pneumatic means.  
  6. The apparatus as defined by claim 1, wherein the vertical motion of supply decks (2,3), the rotation of each supply deck (2,3) and the actuation of the outlet valve (6) is controlled manually and independently from each other.  
  7,. The apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein rotation of each supply deck (2,3) takes place by means of a reversible drive motor.  
  8. The apparatus as defined by claim 1, wherein the vertical motion of supply decks (2,3), the rotation of each of supply decks (2,3) and the actuation of the outlet valve (6) is adapted to programming control with insertion of the metering scale (8) as a signal generator.  
  9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein said programming control is provided with switching weights indicating the reference weight at the power arm of metering scale (8), said weightsallowing control by data cards or manually with respect to their reference indication.