Fluid sprinkling – spraying – and diffusing – Including supply holder for material – Fluid pressure discharge means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-17
2001-09-18
Scherbel, David A. (Department: 3752)
Fluid sprinkling, spraying, and diffusing
Including supply holder for material
Fluid pressure discharge means
C239S337000, C222S321900, C222S631000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06290145
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus for spraying liquid using a manually operated spray pump.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP-A8-230,961 discloses a suction type spray device which is used in the state that the device is fitted to an opening of a neck portion of a container and which has a structure for spraying a liquid material inside the container.
Such a suction type spray device has a cylinder unit including an upper large-diameter air cylinder hung into the container and a small-diameter liquid cylinder continued to a lower side of the air cylinder and an operating member including a large-diameter cylindrical piston gas-tightly and slidably held at an inner peripheral face of the large-diameter air cylinder. The spray device also has a stem that is gas-tightly engaged in the small-diameter liquid cylinder, upwardly urged and extended upwardly from the liquid cylinder, gas-tightly passing a central hole of the air cylinder, and provided with a check valve at an upper inner side thereof. The operating member has a press-down head fitted with an upper portion of the stem, having a lower end portion of a peripheral wall connected to the large-diameter cylindrical piston and provided with a spray nozzle hole at a tip portion thereof, a liquid flow-out path for communicating the interior of the stem with the spray nozzle of the press-down head, and an air ejecting path communicating the air cylinder with the spray nozzle hole of the press-down head. When the operating member is pressed down, air is ejected through the ejecting nozzle hole to suck the liquid in the container and spray it.
In a conventional vertical spray device, the liquid is sprayed while being rotated at a high speed. However, according to the conventional spray unit, as the air is ejected at a high speed, a negative pressure is generated due to the high speed of the air. The suction is necessary to suck the liquid, mix it with the air and atomize the liquid. Therefore, this method is useful in that even a liquid having a relatively high viscosity is easily atomized, but there is a problem in that the mixture of air and liquid does not begin to spray until after air is continuously ejected for a while by pressing down the operating member, so that the start of the ejection of the liquid is delayed.
Although the factor which delays the start of the spraying of the air/fuel mixture is not clear, it is necessary that the air reaches a given high speed so as to suck out the liquid through the suction created by the air, and that a given time is required for the air speed to reach the high speed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is a spray unit which solves the problems of the above-mentioned conventional suction type spray unit and which can feed an appropriate amount of a liquid to an air ejecting path almost simultaneously with ejection of air instead of sucking the liquid with only a negative pressure. Due to the ejection of air, the liquid is mixed into the air and sprays the resulting mixture of air/liquid through a spray nozzle.
A spray unit according to the invention is used in a gas-tight state attached to an opening at a neck portion of a container for spraying a liquid material in the container. The spray unit has a cylinder unit and an operating member.
The cylinder unit is adapted to be hung inside the container and includes an upper large-diameter air cylinder and a small-diameter liquid cylinder connected to the lower side of the air cylinder. The cylinder unit has, at a lower end portion, a valve hole to communicate with an interior of the container;
The operating member has a large-diameter gas-tight cylindrical piston slidably held at an inner peripheral face of the large-diameter air cylinder, a gas and liquid tight stem engaged in the small-diameter liquid cylinder, upwardly urged and extended upwardly from the liquid cylinder and gas-tightly passing a central hole of the air cylinder, and a press-down head fitted to an upper portion of the stem, having a lower end portion of a peripheral wall connected to the large-diameter cylindrical piston and provided with a spray nozzle hole at a tip portion thereof. The liquid flow-out path and an air-ejecting path come together via a small gap inside the spray nozzle. The liquid is sprayed when the operating member is pressed down, wherein the stem has in it a liquid flow path communicating with the valve hole of the liquid cylinder, a check valve that allows the liquid to flow from a lower side to an upper side only is provided midway in the liquid flow path, a liquid reservoir portion is defined upward of the check valve inside the stem, and the liquid reservoir communicates with the liquid flow-out path via a through-hole.
An air flow path is provided between an interior of the air cylinder and the air ejecting path of the press-down head, an air introduction path is provided between the interior of the air cylinder and the outside of the spray unit. When the operating member is pressed down, the air flow path communicates the interior of the air cylinder with the air ejecting path of the press-down head to eject air through the spray nozzle; when the press-down head is positioned in an upper, non-pressed down location, communication between the interior of the air cylinder and the air ejecting path of the press-down head is interrupted. On the other hand, when the press-down head is positioned in the upper, non-pressed down location, the air introduction path communicates the interior of the air cylinder with the outside of the spray unit; when the operating member is pressed down, communication between the interior of the air cylinder and the outside of the spray unit is interrupted, thereby pressurizing air inside the air cylinder.
The spray unit also includes a flow rate control valve which comprises a valve seat provided at an upper face of a surrounding of the valve hole of the liquid cylinder and a valve body that is positioned above the valve seat and to be seated on or released from the valve seat, at least one of the valve seat and the valve body is provided with such a small flow path that is not closed even when the valve body is seated on the valve seat and that always communicates the interior of the container with the interior of the liquid cylinder, and the flow rate control valve is provided with such a large flow path that is opened when the valve body is released from the valve seat and closed when the valve body seats the valve seat; a sectional area of the small flow path is smaller than an open area of the valve hole of the air cylinder and that of the valve hole of the check valve provided inside the stem.
When the operating member is pressed down, high pressure is applied to the interior of the air cylinder and the liquid cylinder, a part of the liquid inside the liquid cylinder can be returned into the container through the small flow path, an appropriate amount of the liquid can be atomized and mixed into the air ejected in the small gap through which the air ejecting path and the liquid flow-out path come together, and the atomized mixture of air and the liquid can be ejected through the nozzle hole; and when the press-down head is upwardly moved to the upper, non-pressed down location, the liquid is fed to the liquid flow path inside the stem through the always non-closed small flow path and the large flow path. The feature “continued to a lower side of the air cylinder” in the above not only involves the case where the air cylinder is formed integrally with the liquid cylinder, but also the case where the air cylinder and the liquid cylinder are separately formed and connected to each other to form the cylinder unit.
According to the spray unit of the invention, when the operating member is pressed down, the cylindrical piston and the stem are moved downward, applying pressure inside the air cylinder and the liquid cylinder, the interior of the air cylinder and the air ejecting path are connected to each other through the air flow path to eject pressurized
Chiku Masami
Iwata Risa
Kuwahara Katsuhito
Mizushima Hiroshi
Kim Christopher S.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Scherbel David A.
Yoshino Kogyosho Co. Ltd.
LandOfFree
Spray unit that atomizes liquid at the start of the spray... 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 unit that atomizes liquid at the start of the spray..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Spray unit that atomizes liquid at the start of the spray... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2497146