The invention relates to an apparatus for wash¬ ing a vehicle tyre. The apparatus comprises a housing forming a washing space, in which the tyre is placed, at least one movable nozzle on both sides of the tyre in the housing for spraying wash liquid on the tyre and pump means for delivering the wash liquid to the nozzle means. Nowadays a vehicle tyre, i.e. a tyre-rim unit, is typically washed in an open space by means of a high-pressure washer. However, it is difficult to carry out the washing in this way with water splash¬ ing around and the tyre to be turned manually all the time. Further, the pump aggregates of high-pressure washers get expensive, if the amount of water used per time unit is big. Washing apparatuses with rotat¬ ing nozzles supplied by a centrifugal pump (low pres¬ sure) are also known, which apparatuses spray warm wash liquid on the tyre in the washing space. Such a soak wash consumes, however, very much hot water. Efforts have been made to reduce the water consump¬ tion by letting the container liquid circulate back to the centrifugal pump. The natural consequence is that the washing result is worse and the washing ap¬ paratus does not remain in working order because of the dirty wash liquid.

The object of the present invention is to get rid of the drawbacks mentioned above and to provide a a new type of washing apparatus, in which the defects in water consumption and washing result are solved. This is achieved by means of the apparatus described in the beginning in such a way that said at least one nozzle is provided with means for moving it to and fro at least between the middle part and the outer

periphery of the tyre.

The basic idea of the invention is to arrange the nozzles in such a way with respect to the tyre that the area forming both side surfaces of the tyre can be covered with as few narrow nozzle sprays as possible. In addition to that a good washing result is achieved, the water consumption can in this way be made low also in high-pressure wash, which again leads to a cheaper pump construction. The washing power is also influenced by the fact that, due to low consumption, it is not necessary to let the water circulate, but the water used can be allowed to flow into the drain.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the apparatus also has means for rotating the tyre about its axis. In this way, it is possible to carry out the movement of the nozzles as simply as possible, because they do not need to rotate around the side surface of the tyre simultaneously. The invention is described more accurately be¬ low referring to the example according to the at¬ tached drawing showing a perspective view of a wash¬ ing apparatus according to an advantageous embodiment of the invention. Figure 1 shows a washing apparatus according to the invention comprising a housing 1 forming a wash¬ ing space, the front wall of the housing being pro¬ vided with a door 2. The upper part of the housing is provided with a separate pump space 3, in which is arranged a high-pressure pump 4. In the front wall of the pump space are arranged control and regulating means 5 of the apparatus. A water inlet pipe 6 lead¬ ing to the high-pressure pump 4 has a connection 7 in the side wall of the housing, in the rear part of the pump space. The water inlet is indicated by an arrow

A. An outlet pipe 8 coming from the high-pressure pump runs downwards in the rear part of the housing and branches into two branches 8a and 8b in the lower part of the housing, the branches leading to the op- posite sides of a tyre 10 brought into the housing. At the ends of the branches 8a and 8b there are mo¬ vable nozzles 9a and 9b. In the outlet pipe 8 is ar¬ ranged a connection lead 11 of a three-way valve 11a, in which case the apparatus can be used as separate high-pressure washer. The water outlet is indicated by an arrow B. Also solvents and detergents can be used in the apparatus. A container for solvents is indicated by the reference numeral 27.

In the lower part of the housing 1 there are two transverse axles 13 and 14, both at their ends mounted in bearings on the side walls of the housing. The axles are arranged at a certain distance from each other so that the tyre 10 can be placed to rest on them in the manner shown in the figure. In this case, the axle 14 is freely rotatable, but the axle 13 is driven by a motor 16 fastened to the side wall of the housing 1 outside the housing. Thus it is pos¬ sible to bring the tyre into rotation inside the housing. The rotation motion of the tyre is shown by an arrow C. The motor 16 is arranged to move also the nozzles 9a and 9b. For this, the motor has another outlet, to which is connected a nozzle lever mecha¬ nism 17a to move the nozzle 9a. A similar nozzle le¬ ver mechanism 17b is connected to the axle 13 end opposite to the motor to move the nozzle 9b. The nozzle lever mechanism 17a comprises a substantially horizontal and transverse crankshaft 18a arranged in one of the outlets of the motor, on the outer end of which crankshaft is hingedly mounted a connecting rod 19a, at its opposite end hingedly mounted on the

outer end of another crankshaft 20a located above the first crankshaft and mounted in bearings on the wall of the housing. To the inner end of the crankshaft 20a is fastened a nozzle rod 21a, at its upper end fastened to the nozzle 9a. The nozzle lever mechanism 17b on the opposite side of the housing has a similar structure and its respective parts are indicated by the same numerals, but provided with the letter b. The rotating motor 16 moves the nozzle 9a through the lever mechanism 17a and the nozzle 9b through the axle 13 and the lever mechanism 17b in such a way that the nozzles move to and fro over the side surface of the tyre. The nozzle moves according to an arrow D from below, from the level of the outer periphery of the tyre, upwards so that its path of motion extends from the outer periphery at least to the middle part of the tyre, thus cleaning the whole tyre because the tyre is rotating at the same time. It is preferable to arrange at least the nozzle situ- ated towards the inside of the tyre, in the case of the figure the nozzle 9a, to move in such a way that it simultaneously moves towards the tyre, whereby it pushes into the rim space in the upper part of its path of motion. It is thus possible to clean effici- ently the cavities inside the rim, generally belong¬ ing to the dirtiest parts of a tyre. The path of mo¬ tion of the nozzles can be adjusted by regulating the points of attachment of the nozzle rods 21a and 21b at the ends of the crankshafts 20a and 20b. The mo- tion of the nozzles can naturally extend over the whole side surface, but as already mentioned above the whole tyre can be washed even by means of a smaller motion, because the tyre is rotating at the same time. As practical example shall be mentioned a solution, according to which the rotation speed of

the tyre is about 1 revolution per minute, the nozzle moves parallel to the radius of the tyre about 20 times per minute and the breadth of the nozzle sprays is about 15°. To support the tyre the axles have side sup¬ ports 15 and in the upper part of the housing is ar¬ ranged a rod 23 provided with two side support rolls 22, which rod is at its rear end hingedly mounted on the back wall of the housing. To the rear part of the rod is fastened a helical spring 24, at its lower end fastened to a lug 25 formed on the housing wall. The spring draws the rod downwards in such a way that the side support rolls press against the tyre in the man¬ ner shown in the figure. Thanks to the flexible pi- voting of the rod, tyres of various sizes can be sup¬ ported inside the housing for washing. The water used flows out of the housing through a drain connection 26 made in its bottom.

Though the invention is described above with reference to the example of the enclosed figure, it is clear that the invention is not restricted there¬ to, but can be modified in many ways within the scope of the inventive idea presented in the claims enclos¬ ed. For instance, it is not necessary to rotate the tyre, but the nozzles can, except doing the motion described above, also move along a circular path. The structure becomes thus more complicated, however. There can also be more than one nozzle on both sides of the tyre, but then the pressure decreases or a more expensive pump construction is needed to main¬ tain the same pressure. The principle of the inven¬ tion can naturally be used also in connection with low pressure pumps. The washing apparatus can also be provided with air-drying devices known per se.