1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to battery operated fluid pumps. More particularly, this invention relates to a battery operated fluid pump contained in a spray head.
2. State of the Art
Many household and industrial products are sold in containers that include a sprayer. These products include cleansers, insecticides, polishes, waxes, etc. There are several kinds of sprayers used with these products. Perhaps the most common is the manual push button or trigger operated pump which is seen most frequently on liquid cleansers. It has the advantage of being environmentally friendly (i.e. it does not require a propellant) but the disadvantage of delivering fluid in a series of pulses rather than in a continuous spray. Another well known sprayer is the aerosol can which is sealed and charged with a gas propellant. This sprayer has the advantage that it dispenses fluid in a continuous spray, but has several disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the can cannot be refilled. Another disadvantage is that depending on the gas used to charge the container, the propellant can be environmentally unfriendly. While environmentally friendly propellants do exist, generally, they do not charge as well as the unfriendly gases. Still another popular sprayer is the air pump sprayer seen most frequently with insecticides and liquid garden products. The pump sprayer includes a hand operated air pump which is used to charge the container with compressed air. After it is charged, it operates much like an aerosol can. The pump sprayer is environmentally friendly but requires considerable effort to keep charged because air is not as efficient a propellant as environmentally unfriendly gases such as FREON or hydrocarbon gasses.
In recent years there has been some experimentation with battery powered pump sprayers. Most of these devices include a spray mechanism which is similar to the ubiquitous push button (or trigger) pump sprayer but which is coupled to a battery powered electric motor by some type of linkage which converts the rotary action of the motor into an oscillatory motion to drive the pump piston. Many of these battery operated pump sprayers are designed to work only with a specially constructed bottle, i.e. they are not retrofittable to existing pump spray bottles. Many also have weight distribution problems, i.e. they cause the bottle to which they are attached to tip over. Many of these battery powered pumps have large priming volumes, thus causing a delay between the time the pump is activated and the time liquid begins to be dispensed. Significantly, these pumps do not really provide a constant spray. They provide a continuous pulsed spray like that obtained by repeatedly squeezing the trigger or pushing the button on a hand operated spray pump. This is apparently one reason why such battery operated sprayers have not had commercial success.
Parent application Ser. No. 11/034,600 discloses a battery operated spray pump which includes a piston pump having a double end cam which is pushed by a pair of rotating cam pushers coupled to the electric motor via a gear transmission. The double end cam has an unequal duty cycle, i.e. takes more time to expel fluid from the piston cylinder than it takes to fill the cylinder. The cam pushers rotate at a speed which, in conjunction with the duty cycle of the cam, produces a low pressure nearly constant stream. According to the presently preferred embodiment, the duty cycle of the cam is approximately 270° and the speed of the cam pushers is approximately three rpm.
While the battery operated pump sprayer of the parent application provides significant improvement over the art, in order to obtain commercial success, not only do the pumping issues need to be addressed, but other issues regarding the batteries need to be properly addressed. For example, it is important that the battery cover protect the batteries from liquids. It is also important that the battery cover not easily detach unintentionally.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a battery operated spray head.
It is another object of the invention to provide a battery operated spray head housing which protects the batteries from liquid.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a battery operated spray head housing with a battery compartment cover that resists inadvertent removal.
In accord with these objects, which will be discussed in detail below, a battery operated spray head according to the invention includes an electric pump assembly with a drive train, an inlet and outlet port assembly, an inlet tube, a trigger, a microswitch, battery contacts, a threaded closure, and a closure retainer. A three part housing contains the pump assembly, drive train, most of the inlet and outlet port assembly, the microswitch, and two AA batteries. The trigger is coupled to the bottom front of the housing. The closure retainer is coupled to the bottom of the housing behind the trigger with the closure and the inlet tube depending therefrom.
The three part housing includes a left half shell, a right half shell and a hinged top. The batteries are located in the upper portion of the housing below the hinged top (battery cover). The left half shell and the right half shell are coupled to each other by three self tapping screws which extend through three holes in the right half shell and engage three cylindrical posts in the left half shell. An additional post located at the bottom rear of the housing acts as a hinge axle for the top. Thus it will be appreciated that the hinged top covers most of the back of the housing as well.
According to one aspect of the invention, the inner front of the top is provided with a downward depending latch member and a spring biased latch member is provided inside the housing. The spring biased latch member is actuated by inserting a pin (or stylus) through a hole in one of the half shells. This prevents accidental opening of the battery cover. It also prevents children from opening the cover and accessing the interior of the housing. As used herein, the term “stylus” shall means any object which is dimensioned to fit into the hole and actuate the latch member.
According to another aspect of the invention, the upper edges of the half shells are provided with flanges which are received inside the cover when the cover is closed. The left and right half shells are also provided with a gutter-like structure (hereinafter “gutter”) adjacent to the battery cover which extend across the sides and down the back of the housing.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the detailed description taken in conjunction with the provided figures.
Turning now to
Before turning to the details of the housing, it is noted that
The three part housing includes a left half shell 36, a right half shell 38 and a hinged top 40.
The left half shell 36 is illustrated in
Referring now to all of the figures, when the three pieces are assembled as shown in
When the cover is closed as shown in
There have been described and illustrated herein a battery operated spray head having an improved housing. While particular embodiments of the invention have been described, it is not intended that the invention be limited thereto, as it is intended that the invention be as broad in scope as the art will allow and that the specification be read likewise. It will therefore be appreciated by those skilled in the art that yet other modifications could be made to the provided invention without deviating from its spirit and scope as claimed.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/034,600, entitled “Battery Operated Spray Head Retrofittable onto Existing Pump Spray Containers and Producing Substantially Continuous Spray,” filed Jan. 13, 2005, the complete disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 11034600 | Jan 2005 | US |
Child | 11128840 | May 2005 | US |