A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to any reproduction by anyone of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates to a sprinkler for garden irrigation, and more particularly to an oscillating range adjusting module used in a sprinkler for garden irrigation.
A sprinkler is an essential tool for horticultural irrigation, used for the widespread spraying of water to trees, flowers and grass in a nursery garden. The most common sprinklers for garden irrigation available now include impact sprinklers, sprinklers, rotary sprinklers and swing arm sprinklers.
Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 9,764,340, a sprinkler is revealed. A perspective view of a conventional sprinkler is shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, a sprinkler 100′ mainly includes an input port 102′ connected between a hose 104′, which extends to a water source, and a drive motor 106′ that is configured for oscillating movement of a nozzle 108′. The distance in the arc of travel for the nozzle 108′ is set by an oscillation range limiting module shown in FIG. 2 and composed of a first limit switch 180′ and a second limit switch 182′. As shown in FIG. 2, the first limit switch 180′ is a first cylindrical body which includes a first spacer 184′ on the peripheral sides thereof and a first stop 186′ at the end of a first arcuate path 188′. The first arcuate path 188′ is on the surface of the first cylindrical body. Similarly, the second limit switch 182′ is a second cylindrical body which includes a second spacer 190′ on the peripheral sides thereof and a second stop 192′ at the end of a second arcuate path 190′. The second arcuate path 194′ is on the bottom surface of the second cylindrical body.
While assembling the above oscillation range limiting module into the sprinkler 100′, an inlet tube of a cylinder housing 110′ as shown in FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 9,764,340 B2 is connected to a central opening of the first limit switch 180′ (the first cylindrical body) and a central opening of the second limit switch 182′ (the second cylindrical body) through riveting. Thereby the first limit switch 180′, the second limit switch 182′, and the inlet tube are assembled simultaneously in this way. However, the sprinklers available now have a modular design which allows easy and direct assembly of any two of the adjacent modules without using any other assembling processes such as riveting. Since the oscillation range limiting module and the inlet tube of the cylinder housing are connected through riveting, the sprinkler with such design is not suitable for the modular assembly line.
Thus, there is room for improvement and there is a need to provide a novel design of an oscillating range limiting module of a sprinkler, which is able to be assembled with a water inlet tube of a water inlet module without tools.
Therefore it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an oscillating range adjusting module with modular design, which is used in a sprinkler and able to be mounted between a water-in control module and an oscillation driving module in a tool-less manner.
In order to achieve the above object, an oscillating range adjusting module, configured to be used in a sprinkler and connected between a water-in control module and an oscillation driving module according to the present invention, includes a first adjusting unit and a second adjusting unit. The first adjusting unit comprises a first circular plate, a first circular side wall disposed on a top surface of the first circular plate, a hollow connecting cylinder which is formed on a center of the first circular plate and used for being connected to an inlet tube of the water-in control module, and a first curved slot which is disposed on the first circular plate and located beside the hollow connecting cylinder, close to the first circular side wall. The first adjusting unit further has at least one connection surface formed on an edge at the bottom of the hollow connecting cylinder. The second adjusting unit comprises a second circular plate having a top surface connected to a bottom surface of the first circular plate, a second circular side wall formed on a bottom surface of the second circular plate, an assembly hole which is formed on a center of the second circular plate and connected to the bottom of the hollow connecting cylinder, and a second curved slot which is disposed on the second circular plate and located beside the assembly hole, close to the second circular side wall. The assembly hole of the second adjusting unit is used for connection to a water inlet of the oscillation driving module. The second adjusting unit further includes at least one snapping member which is formed on the top surface of the second circular plate and used for being engaged with the connection surface of the first adjusting unit so as to connect the first adjusting unit and the second adjusting unit.
The oscillating range adjusting module further includes an O-ring clipped between the bottom of the hollow connecting cylinder and the edge of the assembly hole.
During assembly, the first adjusting unit is mounted on an inlet tube of the water-in control module and then the O-ring is connected to the first adjusting unit. Next, the second adjusting unit is fitted on the inlet tube and connected to the first adjusting unit by at least one snapping member of the second adjusting unit being engaged with at least one connection surface of the first adjusting unit. Then, a water inlet of the oscillation driving module is connected to the second adjusting unit. Thereby, the modular assembly of the oscillating range adjusting module between the oscillation driving module and the water-in control module is achieved.
The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
In order to learn structure, features, functions and advantages of an oscillating range adjusting module of the present invention more clearly, please refer to the following embodiments with reference to the related drawings.
Referring to
Referring to
As shown in
Referring to
Particularly, the second curved slot 1025 and the fourth curved slot 1024 are disposed on the second circular plate 1021. As shown in
When the top surface of the second circular plate 1021 is connected to the bottom surface of the first circular plate 1011, the O-ring 103 is clipped between the bottom of the hollow connecting cylinder 1013 and the edge of the assembly hole 1023. And the limiting curved protrusion 1027 is inserted into the limiting curved groove 1017. Furthermore, a first insertion member 1051 and a second insertion member 10S2 are formed on the top surface of the second circular plate 1021. The first insertion member 1051 is located between the fourth curved slot 1024 and the assembly hole 1023 while the second insertion member 10S2 is located between the second curved slot 1025 and the assembly hole 1023. The first insertion member 1051 and the second insertion member 10S2 are arranged opposite to each other and respectively inserted into the third curved slot 1014 and the first curved slot 1015 when the second adjusting unit 102 is connected to the first adjusting unit 101.
The number of the snapping member (10C) is not limited and so is the number of the insertion member (10S). The number of the snapping member (10C) is not necessary the same as the number of the connection surface (10P). For example, there can be two snapping members (10C1, 10C2) engaged with the same connection surface (10P).
How the oscillating range adjusting module 10 of the present invention works is described in detail below with reference to
As shown in
Referring to
In summary, the oscillating range adjusting module 10 according to the present invention has the following advantages:
An oscillating range adjusting module 10 which comprises a first adjusting unit 101 and a second adjusting unit 102 can be assembled into a sprinkler 1 easily due to its modular design. The oscillating range adjusting module 10 is disposed between an oscillation driving module 11 and a water-in control module 12 in the sprinkler 1. While being assembled, firstly the first adjusting unit 101 is fitted on an inlet tube of the water-in control module 12 and then the O-ring 103 is connected to the first adjusting unit 101. Next the second adjusting unit 102 is mounted on the inlet tube and connected to the first adjusting unit 101 by the first and the second snapping members 10C1, 10C2 of the second adjusting unit 102 being engaged with the first and the second connection surfaces 10P1, 10P2 of the first adjusting unit 101. Lastly a water inlet of the oscillation driving module 11 is connected to the second adjusting unit 102. As a result, a modular assembly of the oscillating range adjusting module 10 between the oscillation driving module 11 and the water-in control module 12 is achieved.
Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details, and representative devices shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalent.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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1112271 | Demuth | Sep 1914 | A |
3430860 | Ho | Mar 1969 | A |
4568023 | Hayes | Feb 1986 | A |
4919337 | Van Leeuwen | Apr 1990 | A |
7086609 | Wang | Aug 2006 | B2 |
7226000 | Huang | Jun 2007 | B2 |
9764340 | Zhu | Sep 2017 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20210260610 A1 | Aug 2021 | US |