Patent Application
20200238752
The present invention relates to personal and mini paint dispensers that are high on convenience and low on cleanup.
Choosing the right paint color is usually the main deciding factor for interior and exterior decoration of structures. Color selection of Color selection is usually a lengthy process, involving much planning, forecasting, predicting and generally fussing about matchups, coordination, mood, lighting, etc. Typically, parties will spend many hours involving many trips to the hardware store for tester sets until a selection is finalized.
The current process of identifying the right color and combination is actually quite difficult, messy and wasteful. The smallest available tester jar of paint is about eight ounces, which should cover about sixteen square feet. This is obviously an overkill. It is well known that when testing paint, one only needs about two square feet. But a smaller tester jar is not available, in part because the quality of paint will suffer, and it is economically impractical. A further reason is that a tester jar is generally designed accommodate a conventional paint brush. This shortcoming in the prior art leads to the majority of paint being purchased for testing purposes being discarded and wasted, thus hurting the environment, and contributing to the costs of remodeling in a significant way.
Besides the conventionally available testing jar, one will also need to acquire a mixing tray, a small roller or a paint brush. There are at least three preliminary steps that are required before a speck of paint hits any surface. First, one must vigorously shake the jar or use a stirrer to mix the paint upon opening. The jar of paint is then emptied into a paint tray. A brush or roller is then saturated with paint from the paint tray and only then rolled onto the surface. As a prerequisite, it is generally recommended to rinse a never before used roller or brush before prior to its first use. Once a test is completed, one would still need to thoroughly wash the roller or the brush and the tray, or risk needing to purchase new samples of these items for further testing.
While some attempts have been made to improve the present state of the art, none of the testers are truly single use disposable jars, and do not merge applicator with paint in the same effective manner as when using the disclosed device.
The present invention comprises a disposable cartridge that stores paint and paint applicator together or in close proximity with each other. Several embodiments of the novel device are shown. In some embodiments the application roller has been saturated with a paint solution but is kept in a vacuum pack to prevent drying and hardening of paint. In other embodiments, the applicator roller is separate from the paint, but is saturated with paint as soon as the test cartridge is opened or otherwise activated prior to applying a layer of paint on a designated surface.
The basic elements of the device disclosed with this application is a container or sleeve holding a paint roller and an amount of paint required to saturate the roller but not enough to produce undesirable runs and drips when a roller is removed from the sleeve. The paint may be kept in a separate chamber from the roller. The partition between the applicator chamber and the paint chamber is then removed in the process of opening and activating the disclosed device, such that upon removal, the applicator is ready to use while the sleeve may be immediately discarded or recycled.
A roller is the preferred applicator for the purpose of the present invention, since the roller is the most efficient applicator, producing an even stroke even when used by a novice. However, a brush may be utilized as the applicator using the same sleeve and paint saturation techniques described for a roller.
The disclosed device has many useful purposes. One such purpose as a testing device capable of dispensing small amounts of colorant on surfaces using a roller or brush. The dispensing process is highly controlled, precisely calibrated to avoid overfilling the paint applicator to a point were undesirable spills and paint runs are generated. The disclosed device is preferably prefilled with a quantity of colorant that may be stored for extended periods of time without drying or undermining the quality of the enclosed applicator.
There are many variations of a device which enables concepts disclosed herein. In some cases the applicator is kept separate from a quantity of colorant. The colorant is then not introduced until a user is ready to deploy the device from within a protective sleeve that surrounds the applicator and the chamber with paint. In other cases, the applicator may be pre-loaded with a quantity of colorant and stored in a saturated state inside the sleeve ready for deployment.
The color of the colorant may be set at the time that the disclosed device is fashioned or adjusted at the time of retail sale to a color requested by a consumer, much like it is done with existing canisters of paint, which always start out as shades of white and are then modified with by adding a small measure of dye.
Another useful application of the disclosed device is as a touch up, repair and finishing tool. Micro-batches of paint that are conveniently and cleanly packaged to include an applicator may be extremely useful for small job, where a quantity of paint is required to remove a scuff mark, a scratch or crayon doodles. While existing small batch paint packages may be used for such situations, touch ups and small repairs rarely require sixteen square feet or more of paint, which will ultimately end up collecting dust or being discarded.
Another useful application of the disclosed device is to include an applicator as part of the repair or tester kit. A user obtaining the disclosed device may then wash the applicator and reuse it for other small jobs and applications.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Identical elements in the various figures are identified with the same reference numerals.
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiment of the present invention. Such embodiments are provided by way of explanation of the present invention, which is not intended to be limited thereto. In fact, those of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate upon reading the present specification and viewing the present drawings that various modifications and variations can be made thereto.
The present invention presents a device where paint and paint applicator 4 are ready to dispense a small quantity of paint upon emerging from the storage container or sleeve 2. The disclosed device will be able to provide adequate storage and convenient dispensing to about two to six ounces of paint. The storage container 2 may be discarded or recycled as soon as the applicator 4 is removed therefrom. The applicator 4 is discarded once a quantity of paint saturating it have been dispensed. The applicator 4 may also be cleaned and reused in future paint applications. The desired quantity of paint stored, may be stored within a cavity 30, should be sufficient to cover approximately two to four square feet or about a dozen short strokes, or what is necessary to adequately demonstrate the effect of a particular color on an application surface.
In an embodiment shown on
The applicator 4 is preferably a roll as shown, which may be made from a nap or foam. The roller 4 preferably expands to an average thickness that is intended to create a smooth coat of paint on a target surface.
A peeler ribbon 16 attaches to a point along the protective membrane 31 on one end and to the bottom panel 26 of the bottom cover 12 of the other end. Along its length, the peeler ribbon 16 passes through an opening in the divider 14. The bottom cover 12 comprises the bottom wall 32, and the sidewall 24. When the bottom cover 12 is mounted on the sleeve 2, the sidewall 24 overlaps and surrounds the bottom flange 26. Alternatively, the bottom flange 26 overlaps and surrounds the sidewall 24. The sidewall 24 and the bottom flange 26 are in a substantially tight coupling with each other but will permit axial rotation of the bottom component 12 around the sleeve 2. The attachment between the bottom component 12 and the sleeve 2 that enables this rotation may originate from the coupling of the sidewall 24 and the flange 26 or may contain a pivot connecting the center hollow 39 to the divider 14. The divider component 14 is a structural part of the sleeve 2.
The sleeve 2 is covered with a top cover 10 at the top lip 20. The top cover 10 completely covers the cavity 30 and the applicator 4 from the top of the device. The core 6 provides structural rigidity to the applicator 4 for accepting the leading rod 34 of the roller frame 33, which is mounted into the inner cavity 8 by way of the opening 19. The flange 13 may be part of the core 4 or may be a part of the leading rod 34.
To activate the disclosed device for dispensing, one would need to insert the leading rod 34 into the inner cavity 8, then turn the bottom cover 12 and the sleeve 2 in axially opposite directions of each other. This will cause the peeler ribbon 16 to get dragged with the cover 12 through the opening 17 and create a strain on the protective membrane 31, which will eventually tear to allow the applicator 4 to expand into the paint cavity 30 and the paint in the cavity 30 to begin getting absorbed into the applicator 4. The bottom cover 12 and the peeler ribbon 16 are external activators which cause the paint to adhere to the applicator 4 prior to applicator 4 being removed from the cavity 30. After giving the paint a chance to saturate the applicator 4, the top cover 10 may be peeled off to allow for removal of the sleeve 2. Once the sleeve 2 is removed, the applicator 4 may function as an ordinary roller, or may be discarded after the supply of absorbed paint has been exhausted. The applicator 4 may be reinserted into the sleeve 2 for temporary storage or to capture any residual paint dye within the cavity 30. In an alternative embodiment shown in
The cover 28 forms a window over the aperture 29 and may be used to determine the color of the paint inside the cavity 30. The cover 28 may be resealable to provide an opportunity to add a dye to an existing quantity of paint through the aperture 29.
An alternative embodiment of the same inventive concept is shown in
The embodiment shown in
As an alternative to the removable membrane 42, the entire paint chamber 40 may be a separate component mounted onto the flange 26. The paint chamber 40 would then have a sidewall 24 and an inner sidewall 53. The inner sidewall 53 may be required to remove the possibility of paint leaking out of the paint chamber 40 along the exterior of the flange 26. The paint chamber 40 would have a top wall 45, which would be immediately adjacent to the divider 14. The top wall 45 would have openings 17. The openings 17 of the top wall 45 correspond to the openings 17 of the divider 14. When the device is being stored the openings 17 of the top wall 45 and the divider 14 are misaligned and not in communication to prevent any paint from being transferred into the cavity 30. Once the device is ready to dispense, the paint chamber 40 rotates axially in the direction 55 so that openings 17 align and the paint may travel from the paint chamber 40 into the cavity 30, to be absorbed by the applicator 4. Once adequate absorption occurs, a forward rod 34 of a roller frame 33 is inserted into the inner cavity 8, and the top cover 10 is removed to enable for the removal of the roller 4 from the cavity 30. The rotating paint chamber 40 is the external activator of the present embodiment.
While it may be desired to keep a roller 4 from coming into contact with any paint prior to its removal from the sleeve 2, there may actually be little risk of drying out since the cavity 30 is maintained in a vacuum state due to the top cover 10. Therefore, shown in a variation on
An important feature shown in
There are multiple variations of components that will enable the inventive concepts. Features disclosed in some variations are applicable to others, when if not explicitly shown in the figures. Demonstrated in
The sidewall 24 of the telescoping paint chamber 66 contains threading 64, which corresponds to the threading 62 on the wall of the sleeve 2. In this association, the cavity 76 of the paint chamber 66 is filled with a quantity of paint and threaded onto the sleeve 2, until the leading lip 71 abuts the bottom edge 73 of the safety clamp 70. The safety clamp 70 is installed below the top flange 78 that is jutting out of the sidewall 5 of the sleeve 2. The bottom edge 73 of the safety clamp 70 is designed to catch and block the leading lip 71 from further twisting up the sidewall 5 of the sleeve 2. The width 77 of the safety claim 70 is slightly greater than the length 79 of the perforating pins 72 to prevent premature or unintended perforation by pins 72 of the bottom wall 74 of the sleeve 2.
The pins 72 are anchored within the bottom wall 32 of the telescoping chamber 66. While two pins are shown, there may be just one pin, as shown in
The purpose of the perforating pins 72 is to serve as the external activator, namely, to pierce and tear the bottom wall 74 releasing paint stored within the cavity 76 into the cavity 30. The threading association (62 and 64) forces the paint up the cavity 30, in the process covering the applicator 4 with paint prior to its removal from the sleeve 2 for a subsequent application of said paint on a desired surface.
The safety clamp 70 remains in place while the device shown in
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, which is shown in
To dispense paint using the embodiment shown in
As shown in
Extrusion of pain through the inner cavity 8 using the openings 126 of in the core 6 may occur in several other ways. In
In another variation to the device described in
It should be noted that the syringe 165 and the pouch 176 may be sold separately from the sleeve 2. The syringe 165 and the pouch 176 may be the way that a quantity of paint having the desired dye is preloaded at the request of a user and then extruded unto the applicator as provided in
To deploy the device, a user unscrews the bottom cap 142 from the threaded connection 144 and removes the container 146 in the direction 150. The bottom cap 142 is the external activator of the present invention. Because of the anchor pin, the applicator remains within the sleeve 2 and rapidly expands in the direction 151, absorbing paint within the cavity 30 and preventing paint from leaking out through the opening 21. The anchoring pin 140 is then removed together with the top cover 10. The leading wire 34 is then inserted into the inner cavity 8, and the roller 4 is then lifted from the sleeve 2 to begin application of paint.
Although this invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of illustration and that numerous changes in the details of construction and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.
