Dry brush assembly and method of operating dry brush assembly for cleaning solar panel modules

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10130165-B2
Application number	US-201514800170-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2015
Priority date	Jul 15, 2014
Publication date	Nov 20, 2018
Grant date	Nov 20, 2018

Abstract

A solar panel cleaning brush assembly including a trolley frame having parallel first and second side frame members. A first guide member is connected to the first side frame member. A second guide member is connected to the second side frame member. A first belt rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the first guide member directly contacts a first array edge of a solar panel array. A second belt rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the second guide member directly contacts a second array edge of the solar panel array. At least one brush set is connected to the trolley frame, the at least one brush set having multiple fixed, non-rotating brushes each frictionally contacting and spanning across a module face of individual ones of multiple solar panel modules defining a solar panel array.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A solar panel cleaning brush assembly, comprising:
a trolley frame having first and second side frame members;
a first guide member releasably connected to one of the first or second side frame members;
a first belt rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the at least one guide member and directly contacting a first array edge of a solar panel array, the first belt rotating about the perimeter of the at least one guide member as the trolley frame is displaced along the solar panel array; and
at least one brush set connected to the trolley frame, the brush set having at least one brush frictionally contacting and spanning across a module face of a solar panel module of the solar panel array.

2. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 1 , wherein the trolley frame includes first and second cross frame members fixedly connected at opposite ends of both the first and second side frame members to complete and rigidly retain a rectangular shape of the brush trolley frame.

3. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 2 , further including:
a first tire set connected to the first cross frame member; and
a second tire set connected to the second cross frame member, wherein one tire of each of the first and second tire sets is in direct contact with one of the module faces of each of the multiple solar panel modules of the solar panel array.

4. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 3 , wherein the second tire set includes a quantity of tires equal to a quantity of tires of the first tire set with individual ones of the tires of the second tire set longitudinally aligned with individual ones of the tires of the first tire set.

5. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 2 , further including:
first and second spacer bars connected to each of the first and second cross frame members; and
a tire set having first and second tires both rotatably connected to each of the first and second spacer bars, each of the first and second tires in direct contact with one of the module faces of the multiple solar panel modules of the solar panel array.

6. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 2 , wherein the first brush set is connected to the first cross frame member and the second brush set is connected to the second cross frame member.

7. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 2 , wherein the at least one brush set includes first and second brush sets, the first brush set connected to the first cross frame member, the second brush set connected to the second cross frame member, each of the first and second brush sets including multiple brushes each having an oval shape having brush portions on opposed first and second perimeter walls.

8. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a second guide member connected to the other one of the first or second side frame members in a mirror image configuration to the first guide member.

9. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 8 , further including a second belt rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the second guide member directly contacting a second array edge of the solar panel array.

10. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 1 , further including first and second manual force application devices each releasably connected to one of the first or second side frame members, the dry brush trolley assembly being manually displaced in either a first cleaning direction or an oppositely directed second cleaning direction by manual force applied using the first and second manual force application devices.

11. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first and second cross frame members each include multiple cross frame sub-members, the at least one brush set having two brushes connected to each of the cross frame sub-members.

12. A solar panel cleaning brush assembly, comprising:
a trolley frame having parallel first and second side frame members;
a first guide member connected to one of the first or second side frame members;
a first belt rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the first guide member directly contacting a first array edge of a solar panel array;
first and second cross frame members releasably connected to the first and second side frame members, each of the cross frame members including multiple releasably connected cross frame sub-members; and
at least one brush set connected to each of the cross frame sub-members, the at least one brush set having multiple fixed, non-rotating brushes each frictionally contacting and spanning across a module face of individual ones of multiple solar panel modules defining a solar panel array.

13. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 12 , wherein the at least one brush set includes first and second brush sets connected to the trolley frame, the first and second brush sets each having multiple fixed, non-rotating brushes each frictionally contacting and spanning across a module face of individual ones of multiple solar panel modules defining a solar panel array.

14. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 13 , wherein the first brush set is connected to the first cross frame member, and the second brush set is connected to the second cross frame member.

15. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 14 , further including:
a brush support arm rotatably connecting each of multiple individual brushes of the second brush set to the second cross frame member; and
a rotational fastener rotatably connecting each of the brush support arms to the second cross frame member such that a weight of each of the brushes of the second brush set act to maintain direct contact between multiple brush portions of each of the brushes of the second brush set and the module face of the individual ones of the multiple solar panel modules.

16. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 12 , further comprising:
a second guide member connected to the other one of the first or second side frame members; and
a second belt rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the second guide member directly contacting a second array edge of the solar panel array.

17. A solar panel cleaning brush assembly, comprising:
a trolley frame having two parallel side frame members;
a first guide member connected to one of the side frame members;
a second guide member connected to the other one of the side frame members;
a flexible first tread rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the first guide member directly contacting a first array edge of a solar panel array;
a flexible second tread rotatably disposed about a perimeter of the second guide member directly contacting a second array edge of the solar panel array; and
first and second brush sets connected to the trolley frame, the first and second brush sets each having multiple fixed, non-rotating brushes each frictionally contacting and spanning across a module face of individual ones of multiple solar panel modules defining a solar panel array.

18. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 17 , wherein the trolley frame includes multiple cross frame sub-members releasably connected to each other having two of the multiple cross frame sub-members connected to the side frame members.

19. The solar panel cleaning brush assembly of claim 18 , further comprising:
multiple sets of first and second spacer bars connected to each of the cross frame sub-members; and
multiple tire sets each having first and second tires both rotatably connected to one of the multip

Assignees

• First Solar Inc

Inventors

• Bugg Eddie

Classifications

• H02S40/10

  Cleaning arrangements · CPC title

• Y02E10/40

  Solar thermal energy, e.g. solar towers · CPC title

• F24J2/461

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• A46B13/08 Primary

  hand-driven · CPC title

• A46B13/00

  Brushes with driven brush bodies {or carriers}(power-driven toothbrushes A61C17/16) · CPC title