Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Including valve means in flow line – Movable terminal flow member controls valve
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-20
2001-03-06
Kashnikow, Andres (Department: 3752)
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Including valve means in flow line
Movable terminal flow member controls valve
C239S530000, C239S537000, C239S589000, C251S344000, C251S346000, C251S347000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06196477
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a spray device comprising a valve and a nozzle for ejecting a jet of fluid. More specifically, the present invention relates to a spray device which can be used for cleaning by means of water and chemicals, for cleaning by means of air, for fire extinguishing, blasting, spray painting etc.
To simplify the specification, the present invention will be described based on the field of cleaning by using high-pressure sprayers, but it can of course be used for other applications in which a fluid flows through a valve. High-pressure sprayers are used industrially, for instance, when cleaning equipment in the foodstuff industry, the chemical industry etc.
There are a number of different spray devices having a nozzle and a valve and intended for high-pressure sprayers with associated control means for opening and closing the flow through the spray nozzle. A common feature of the different control means for the spray nozzles is that there must be a safety function which causes the flow to the spray nozzle to be interrupted if the user loses his grip of the spray nozzle handle. Today this safety function is so designed that the valve of the spray device opens by squeezing a control means in the form of a trigger in a loop. When the user loses his squeezing grip of the trigger, this springs back, whereby the valve closes and the jet of fluid is interrupted.
The design involving a handle with a loop and a trigger causes a great static load to the user's hand muscles when squeezing the trigger during the entire time of operation. When finishing the working day, as much as two hours may be needed for cleaning, which results in the static load on the hand muscles causing wear and industrial injuries.
To make the cleaning operation less strenuous, it happens that the safety function is eliminated by locking the trigger relative to the handle in an open position of the valve. Then the user just needs to hold the handle in a common grip and need not constantly squeeze the trigger towards the handle. If in this case the user should drop the handle in the cleaning operation, the high-pressure flow of fluid and an associated tube, through which the fluid is conducted to the spray device, may cause great damage to equipment and people standing nearby.
There are today no spray devices with nozzle and valve which provide the safety function without the design involving a trigger that is to be squeezed during the cleaning operation.
Spray devices with nozzle and valve as described above are disclosed in DE 35 27 922, DE 195 03 101, U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,074 and GB 1,593,638. A drawback of these spray devices thus is that in operation they cause great static and ergonomically incorrect load to the muscles of the hand and the forearm.
Danish Utility Model Specification 95 00285 discloses a pistol handle for high-pressure appliances and high-pressure tools. This pistol handle is characterised in that the trigger has its turning point of the activating wedge (trigger) placed behind the user's hand. With this construction, the force by which the user must press the trigger towards the handle would decrease since the hand is pressed forwards in the handle as the jet of high-pressure fluid operates. However, this construction suffers from, for instance, the drawback that the trigger must still be pressed towards the handle during the entire cleaning operation, which causes a static load to the muscles of the hand.
A further drawback of the prior-art spray devices with nozzle and valve is that the handle is not designed as a direct extension of the nozzle, which requires an unnatural position when planar surfaces are to be cleaned, which are located a distance above the plane on which the user is standing. Many users then often take a working position in which they hold the tube behind their back and across their shoulder, the handle and the nozzle being held a distance in front of their shoulder with one hand. This cannot be done with today's spray devices for high-pressure sprayers when the safety function is active.
An object of the present invention is to provide a spray device with nozzle and valve which does not have the above drawbacks.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following specification.
These objects are achieved by a spray device with nozzle and valve according to appended claim
1
. Particularly preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims.
In brief, the present invention concerns a spray device comprising a valve and a nozzle for ejecting a jet of fluid. According to the invention, the spray device has a nozzle holder
6
;
6
,
15
,
16
,
19
, which is adapted to be gripped manually when using the spray device and which is movable relative to the nozzle essentially in parallel with the direction of the jet of fluid. The spray device further comprises a valve, which is connected in front of the nozzle and is adapted to be opened when moving the nozzle holder in the direction of the jet of fluid relative to the nozzle. The nozzle is biased in the direction of the jet of fluid relative to the nozzle holder
6
, and the relative position of the nozzle holder to the nozzle is affected by the reaction power of the jet of fluid.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a pressure spring is compressed between the nozzle and the nozzle holder to effect the bias.
The nozzle holder may comprise a sleeve, which by moving in the direction of the jet of fluid is adapted to open the valve.
An advantage of the present invention is that it does not cause static load and, thus, wear to the muscles of the hand and the forearm. A preferred embodiment of the present invention further has the advantage that the nozzle holder on the spray device is a direct extension of the nozzle. This embodiment of the present invention can thus be operated in a comfortable manner also when cleaning surfaces which are positioned above the plane on which the user is standing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 623128 (1899-04-01), Bartlett
patent: 1011314 (1911-12-01), Canner
patent: 1745323 (1930-01-01), Coe et al.
patent: 1813581 (1931-07-01), Rodrigues
patent: 2758873 (1956-08-01), Leisenring
patent: 2760754 (1956-08-01), Gladstone
patent: 3219278 (1965-11-01), Santarelli
patent: 4025000 (1977-05-01), Blasnik
patent: 4128209 (1978-12-01), Johnson
patent: 4344578 (1982-08-01), Shames et al.
patent: 4613074 (1986-09-01), Schulze
patent: 4709715 (1987-12-01), Knight
patent: 5492148 (1996-02-01), Goughneour et al.
patent: 3527922 A1 (1987-02-01), None
patent: 19503101 C1 (1995-12-01), None
patent: 4445520 C1 (1996-07-01), None
patent: 1 593 638 (1981-07-01), None
Halltorp Sven Erik Ingemar
Modell Sven Jonas
Thuresson Jan Torgny Staffan
Ganey Steven J.
Kashnikow Andres
Luedeka Neely & Graham P.C.
Sven Erik Ingemar Halltorp
LandOfFree
Spray device with nozzle and valve does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Spray device with nozzle and valve, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Spray device with nozzle and valve will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2466547