Patent Application
20070023025
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to loaders for paintball guns. More particularly, the invention relates to a paintball loader having a motor-driven impeller for actively feeding paintballs to the infeed opening of a paintball gun.
2. Description of the Related Art
The game of paintball has enjoyed great success in recent years. In the game, each of two or more teams tries to capture the opposing team's flag. The players on the teams carry a compressed air-powered gun that shoots paintballs (i.e., gelatin-covered spherical capsules which contain a colored liquid) a considerable distance. When a player is hit with a paintball fired from a gun, the paintball ruptures and leaves a colored mark on the hit player; the hit player must leave the game. As the game of paintball has grown in sophistication, semi-automatic paintball guns (i.e., guns that sequentially fire individual paintballs as fast as the trigger can be repeatedly pulled) have become more prevalent. The high firing rate capability of semi-automatic paintball guns has necessitated the use of bulk paintball loaders in conjunction with such guns.
A conventional bulk paintball loader typically comprises a housing positioned above and slightly to one side of the paintball gun. The housing is adapted to internally store a relatively large number of paintballs and has a bottom outlet opening through which the stored paintballs can sequentially drop. Connected to the housing's bottom outlet opening, and extending downwardly therefrom, is an outfeed tube that is connectable to the paintball gun's hollow infeed tube.
During normal operation of the loader, paintballs dropped through the bottom outlet opening of the housing form a paintball stack within the outfeed tube and gun infeed tube. When the paintball at the bottom of the stack is dropped into the firing chamber of the paintball gun, it is replaced, at the top of the stack, from the supply of paintballs remaining in the loader housing, thereby replenishing the stack. In replenishing the stack of paintballs, however, jams sometimes occur within the loader housing, above its bottom outlet opening. Paintball jams of this nature prevent normal gravity-fed delivery of paintballs downwardly through the bottom outlet opening, with the result that the paintball stack can be totally depleted after several shots of the paintball gun.
One solution for clearing paintball jams involves forcibly shaking the paintball gun and attached loader to dislodge the paintballs that are causing the jam within the loader housing. This solution has proved undesirable as it interrupted the proper aiming of the paintball gun and correspondingly interrupted the paintball gun user's ability to shoot the paintballs continuously and rapidly.
Another solution is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,454, which is incorporated herein by reference. The '454 patent incorporates a jam clearing system into the paintball loader device. The jam clearing system includes an agitator disposed within the housing near the outlet, and an optical circuit for detecting the absence of paintballs at a specified location within the outfeed tube (i.e., a depleted stack). Upon detection of the absence of a paintball at the specified location within the outfeed tube, the optical circuit would close a switch to turn on a stepper motor, which would cause the agitator to rotate. Agitator rotation usually would eliminate the paintball jam within the loader, allowing paintballs to resume gravity feed into the outfeed tube. This, in turn, would replenish the paintball stack and cause the optical circuit to open the switch and turn off the motor, thus arresting the agitator. While improving delivery of paintballs to the paintball gun, the agitator solution of the '454 patent is not optimal because the agitator simply shuffles paintballs within the loader housing, which are fed only by gravity to the outfeed tube.
Yet another solution for clearing paintball jams is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232, which is also incorporated herein by reference. In the “active feed” loader of the '232 patent, a switch controlling a motor-driven impeller is turned on and off by an optical paintball detector in a manner similar to the agitator control in the '454 patent. The impeller of the '232 patent is situated in a surrounding well at the bottom of the loader housing and has curved arms that sequentially move paintballs one-by-one toward the outfeed tube. Similar active-feed paintball loaders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,110 and U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2002/0014230 A1. In all of these active-feed loaders the impeller is made of a relatively stiff, unyielding material. If the impeller should turn when there is a paintball jam, or when the stack of paintballs in the outfeed tube is static (gun not firing), the stiff impeller can squeeze and undesirably break one or more paintballs in the loader housing. This latter situation can occur if the motor does not shut off due to a malfunction, or during normal operation if motor/impeller rotation is not arrested quickly enough. U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2002/0092513 A1 recognizes this impeller over-running problem, but the solution proposed is a complex and seemingly costly spring mechanism built into the impeller.
A need therefore exists for a simple and economical active-feed paintball loader that reliably feeds paintballs to the outfeed tube to ensure a rapid and steady supply of paintballs to the gun, while preventing (or at least greatly reducing the likelihood of) paintball breakage in the loader.
An impeller for an active-feed paintball loader has resilient arms that engage paintballs in the lower portion (well) of the loader and advance them to and through the outfeed tube. As used herein, the term “resilient arms” means arms that are sufficiently stiff to move unobstructed paintballs located between the arms, and sufficiently flexible to yield when forced against stationary paintballs so as not to rupture the paintball shells, the arms substantially returning to their original shape when the obstruction is removed. Accordingly, when the motor is shut off, the arms will simply flex backward as they encounter stationary paintballs. Should a paintball jam occur in the vicinity of the impeller, the arm(s) can flex around the jammed ball without breaking it, and help to dislodge it so as to clear the jam. The impeller preferably is made of a type of neoprene. It may be molded as a one-piece item, or in two mating pieces, one being a hub extension made of harder material that engages the motor shaft.
Embodiments that incorporate the best mode for carrying out the invention are described below, purely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:
Two embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawing and described below. The same drawing reference numbers are used to refer to the same or like parts of these embodiments. Except as noted below, U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232 (the '232 patent) generally depicts and describes the overall active feed paintball loader configuration used in the present invention. The differences between the present invention and the loader of the '232 patent reside in the configuration and construction of the impeller in the well at the bottom of loader that moves paintballs into and through the outfeed tube of the loader.
Referring to
Referring to
Hub extension 42 has a lower socket 54 in axial alignment with the central bore 52 in hub 53. Socket 54 is adapted to receive the motor drive shaft (not shown), and preferably has at least one flat 55 or other non-cylindrical portion that mates with a corresponding portion of the drive shaft so that the impeller will not slip relative to the drive shaft while the motor is running. The diameter of socket 54 preferably is smaller than the diameter of central bore 52, and a web 58 separates the socket 54 from the bore 52. Web 58 has a central hole 59 in axial alignment with socket 54 and bore 52. A suitable fastener, such as screw 60 with a head 62, is contained within impeller 40 and secures the impeller to the drive shaft.
The hub 53 of impeller 40 preferably has an outer diameter of about 19 mm. Each of the six arms preferably is about 4 mm thick, extends from the hub about 18 mm, and has slightly rounded upper edges, where paintball contact may occur. In this embodiment the entire impeller 40 is formed of a resilient material. Various types of resilient material may be used, such as rubber or plastic, provided the arms are sufficiently stiff to move unobstructed paintballs located between the arms, and sufficiently flexible to yield when forced against stationary paintballs so as not to rupture the paintball shells. Accordingly, in an over-running situation (impeller does not stop immediately upon motor shut-off), the arms will simply flex backward as they encounter stationary paintballs, the paintballs themselves serving to arrest the impeller and the flexed arms storing energy for rapid start-up when the motor is reactivated. If a paintball jam should occur in the vicinity of the impeller, the arm(s) can flex around the jammed ball and help to dislodge it so as to clear the jam. If there is a malfunction such that the motor continues to run even though the gun is not being fired, the arms will flex around the stationary paintballs, with little likelihood of breaking them.
A preferred material for injection-molding the impeller is manufactured by J-Von NA, LLC, 25 Litchfield Street, Leominster, Mass. 01453 (http://wwwjvon.com). The preferred J-Von material is a type of neoprene which is marketed under the product name “J-PRENE” and is listed under product No. 5110-73A. Molding of the J-P
Referring to
Upper portion 44 preferably is over-molded onto hub extension 42, which is inserted in the mold for upper portion 44 prior to injection of the J-P
Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described, the invention is not so restricted. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined by the appended claims. For example, the impeller can have fewer or more than the illustrated six arms as long as a paintball can fit between adjacent arms and a desired paintball feed rate can be maintained. Accordingly, it should be understood that the apparatus and methods described herein are illustrative only and are not limiting upon the scope of the invention.
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/650,075, filed Aug. 28, 2003 (U.S. Pat. No. 7,021,302), which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/407,007, filed Aug. 30, 2002.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10650075 | Aug 2003 | US |
| Child | 11395526 | Apr 2006 | US |
