This application claims priority of Taiwanese Patent Application No. 107120558, filed on Jun. 14, 2018.
The disclosure relates to a spray gun, and more particularly to a paint spray gun.
When the needle member 3 is actuated by the trigger 6 to open the nozzle 2 such that the air valve assembly member 4 is transitioned from a close state to an open state, high pressure air enters a front inner space of the main body 101 through the air valve assembly member 4, the air valve hole 107, the communication space 108 and the air feed hole 106. When the high pressure air is sprayed out of the nozzle 2, negative pressure around the nozzle 2 produces a suction force that draws paint from the paint cup 5 and atomizes it through the nozzle 2 onto an object (not shown) for being painted.
However, the conventional pain spray gun may encounter the following disadvantages during use or manufacture:
1. Because the main body 101, the valve tube 102, the air passageway member 103, the feed tube 104 and the trigger connection member 105 are welded together for forming the gun body 1, it is required to perform multiple welding steps which are troublesome and increase manufacture costs. In case of faulty welding operation, it can affect the appearance and quality of painted products.
2. If the valve tube 102 and the main body 101 are poorly welded to each other, or if the air passageway member 103, the main body 101 and the valve 102 are poorly welded together, poor welded joints can tend to leak. High pressure air input from the air valve assembly member 4 around the nozzle 2 can be instable or insufficient, and the paint can be unevenly or insufficiently atomized. Uneven atomization can affect aesthetic appearance and integrity of painted products. In addition, leakage at poor weld joints can impose extra load on an air compressor (not shown) and waste energy.
3. If the feed tube 104 and the main body 101 is poorly welded to each other, paint may leak from poor weld joint of the feed tube 104 and the main body 101. In addition, external air can be mixed with the paint through the poor weld joint and form air bubbles therein. During a paint spraying operation, paint can be intermittently atomized, causing rough or incomplete atomization of the paint, which adversely affect aesthetic appearance of the painted products.
4. Generally, the gun body 1 is welded by using silver. Therefore, the gun body 1 has to be made from copper. Because an aluminum alloy cannot be used for manufacturing the gun body 1, the weight of the gun body is unable to be reduced.
Therefore, an object of the disclosure is to provide a paint spray gun that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the disclosure, a spray gun includes a gun unit, a spray unit, an air valve unit and an operation unit.
The gun unit includes a gun body, a spray cap and a nozzle. The gun body is formed as a unitary one piece structure composed of a tubular body portion, a valve connection portion, an air passageway portion and a feed connection portion. The spray cap is disposed on a tubular front end of the tubular body portion and has a cap opening. The tubular body portion has an air chamber that is disposed inside the tubular front end and covered by the spray cap and that communicates with the cap opening, and a feed passage connected to a rear end of the air chamber. The valve connection portion is integrally formed with and extends downwardly from a bottom side of the tubular body portion. The valve connection portion has a valve connecting hole. The air passageway portion is integrally formed with and extends downwardly from the bottom side of the tubular body portion and connects the valve connection portion, and has an air passageway in fluid communication with the valve connecting hole and the air chamber. The feed connection portion is integrally formed with and extends upwardly from a top side of the tubular body portion, and has a feed inlet hole in communication with the feed passage. The nozzle is received in the spray cap and has a nozzle tip extending into the cap opening. The nozzle fluidly communicates the feed passage and fluidly disconnects the air chamber.
The spray unit includes a spray needle that extends in the feed passage and the nozzle tip. The spray needle is movable axially within the tubular body portion between a non-delivery position, where the spray needle closes the nozzle tip, and a delivery position where the spray needle opens the nozzle tip.
The air valve unit is connected to the valve connection portion. The air valve unit is transitionable between a closing state where the air valve unit has no fluid communication with the valve connecting hole, and an opening state where the air valve unit is in communication with the valve connecting hole.
The operation unit is disposed on the gun body. The operation unit drives the spray needle to move between the non-delivery position and the delivery position, and actuates the air valve unit to transition between the closing state and the opening state.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which:
The gun unit 10 includes a gun body 11, a spray cap 12, a spring cap 121, a stop member 122, a tail cap 123, a needle cap 124 and a nozzle 13.
As shown in
As shown in
The valve connection portion 15 is integrally formed with and extends downwardly from a bottom side of the tubular body portion 14. The valve connection portion 15 has a valve connecting hole 151. In addition, the tubular body portion 14 further has a valve shaft passage 145 disposed between and directly connecting the needle operating space 143 and the valve connecting hole 151 of the valve connection portion 15, and a middle hole 148 disposed between the valve shaft passage 145 and the valve connecting hole 151. The middle hole 148 has a cross section larger than the valve shaft passage 145 and smaller than the valve connecting hole 151. As shown in
The air passageway portion 16 is integrally formed with and extends downwardly from the bottom side of the tubular body portion 14 and connects the valve connection portion 15, and has an air passageway 161 in fluid communication with the valve connecting hole 151 and the air chamber 141.
The feed connection portion 17 is integrally formed with and extends upwardly from the top side of the tubular body portion 14, and has a feed inlet hole 171 in communication with the feed passage 142.
The trigger connection portion 18 is integrally formed with and extends upwardly from the top side of the tubular body portion 14.
In this embodiment, the spring cap 121 is disposed in the tubular rear end of the tubular body portion 14 and extends into the needle operating space 143. The stop member 122 is disposed in the needle operating space 143 in front of the spring cap 121. The tail cap 123 is connected to the tubular rear end of the tubular body portion 14 and covers the spring cap 121. The needle cap 124 is removably connected to a front end of the spray cap 12.
The nozzle 13 is received in the spray cap 12 and a front end of the feed tube 147, and has a nozzle tip 131 extending into the cap opening 146. By virtue of the feed tube 147 disposed in the air chamber 141 and the feed passage 142, the nozzle 13 fluidly communicates the feed passage 142 and fluidly disconnects the air chamber 141. In this embodiment, the nozzle 13 further has a nozzle rear end that is opposite to the nozzle tip 131 and that fluidly connects a front end of the feed tube 147.
The spray unit 20 includes a spray needle 21, a needle sleeve 22 and a first resilient member 23. The spray needle 21 extends in the feed passage 142, the feed tube 147 and the nozzle tip 131. The needle sleeve 22 is sleeved on the spray needle 21, is movably disposed in the needle operating space 143, and extends rearwardly and outwardly of the spring cap 121. The first resilient member 23 is disposed in the spring cap 121 and around the spray needle 21, and abuts the needle sleeve 22.
The spray needle 21 is movable axially within the tubular body portion 14 between a non-delivery position (see
The first resilient member 23 provides a pushing force to move forwardly the needle sleeve 22, which brings the spray needle 21 to the non-delivery position. In this embodiment, the first resilient member 23 is a compression spring.
The air valve unit 30 includes a valve housing 31, a valve shaft 32, a stopper seal ring 33 and a valve spring 34. The valve housing 31 is connected to and inserted into the valve connecting hole 151 of the valve connection portion 15, and has an air supply valve passage 311. The valve shaft 32 extends movably through the air supply valve passage 311 of the valve housing 31 into the needle operating space 143 of the tubular body portion 14. The stopper seal ring 33 is sleeved around said valve shaft 32. The valve spring 34 is disposed in the air supply valve passage 311, and abuts the valve housing 31 and the valve shaft 32 to urge the valve shaft 32 to move into the needle operating space 143. In this embodiment, the valve housing 31 further has a valve seat 36 formed around the valve shaft 32. The valve shaft 32 has a generally conical stopper portion 320 proximal to the valve seat 36. The stopper seal ring 33 is sleeved on the stopper portion 320.
The air valve unit 30 is transitionable between a closing state (see
As shown in
The slide member 41 is actuated by the trigger 42 to move to an initial position (see
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
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As shown in
As shown in
When the slide member 41 is actuated by the trigger 42 to move from the initial position (see
When the slide member 41 is actuated by the trigger 42 to move from the first operation position (see
The paint spray gun 100 has the following advantages:
1. The gun body 11 is formed as a unitary one piece structure which may be made by forging and injection molding, followed by subsequent processes for forming internal spaces and passages. Compared with the prior art, because the gun body 11 does not require any welding operations, it can be easily manufactured to reduce manufacture costs, and also possesses good appearance.
2. Compared with the prior art, because the valve connection portion 15 is integrally formed with the tubular body portion 14, and because the air passageway portion 16 is integrally formed with the tubular body portion 14 and the valve connection portion 15, when the high pressure air is delivered to the air chamber 141 from the valve connecting hole 151 through the air passageway 161, leakage of high pressure air can be avoided. Therefore, the high pressure air input from the air valve unit 30 is ensured to be stable and sufficient around the nozzle 13, and the paint can be uniformly and sufficiently atomized for effectively enhancing aesthetic appearance and integrity of painted products. In addition, the gun body 11 prevents air leakages and avoids extra load on the air compressor to save energy.
3. Because the feed connection portion 17 is integrally formed with the tubular body portion 14, when paint flows from the paint cup 70 to the feed passage 142, leakage of the paint is prevented. In addition, the external air is effectively prevented from being mixed with the paint through a joint of the feed connection portion 17 and tubular body portion 14. During a spray paint operation, not only is the paint continuously sprayed, but rough or incomplete atomization of the paint is prevented, thereby effectively enhancing aesthetic appearance of the painted products.
4. Because the gun body 11 is formed as a unitary one piece structure without welded joints, selection of a material for manufacturing the gun body 11 is not limited to the welding operations. Aside from cooper, an aluminum alloy may be used to manufacture the gun body 11 to reduce weight.
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiment. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects, and that one or more features or specific details from one embodiment may be practiced together with one or more features or specific details from another embodiment, where appropriate, in the practice of the disclosure.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the exemplary embodiment, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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107120558 | Jun 2018 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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4426039 | Kwok | Jan 1984 | A |
8066205 | Bass | Nov 2011 | B2 |
8882000 | Mehta | Nov 2014 | B2 |
20120217318 | Mehta | Aug 2012 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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290438 | May 1928 | GB |
333908 | Aug 1930 | GB |
4898282 | Mar 2012 | JP |
20050012458 | Feb 2005 | KR |
Entry |
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Search Report issued to European counterpart application No. 19151656.6 by the EPO dated Jul. 31, 2019 (9 pages). |
Search Report appended to an Office Action, which was issued to Chinese counterpart application No. 201910030023.X by the CNIPA dated Sep. 17, 2020, with an English translation thereof (4 pages). |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20190381526 A1 | Dec 2019 | US |