BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The invention generally relates to toys, particularly to water guns.
2. Related Art
Children delight in water guns. A water gun particularly suitable for use in swimming pools, named Water Stix™, is shown in FIG. 1. It can suck considerable water from a swimming pool rapidly. The water gun is composed of a sleeve 51 and a pushing rod 52. A piston is fixed at an end of the pushing rod 52. Vacuum pressure is generated inside the sleeve 51 to suck water through an aperture 511 at the front end of the sleeve 51 when the pushing rod 52 is pulled outwards. The water in the sleeve 51 is shot off through the aperture 511 when the pushing rod 52 is pushed inwards. U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,642 discloses another water gun similar to the Water Stix™. That water gun also has a sleeve and a pushing rod but differs from the Water Stix™ by adding a sponge layer on the sleeve and grip for being floatable. However, both of they have only one single water storage room, i.e. the inside of the sleeve, so their water capacity is insufficient. The stored water tends to be exhausted. An action of sucking water is required frequently. In other words, shooting water also has to be interrupted frequently. The only solution to solve this problem is to enlarge or prolong the sleeve. The enlarged or prolonged sleeve, however, will cause cost increase of manufacture and transportation. Furthermore, an oversized water gun is not agile enough when in use and is disadvantageous to storage when not in use.
Therefore, conventional water guns are needed to improve.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to substantially increase water storage capacity without changing exterior size. That is to say, more water may be stored in a single sucking action. Thus frequency of sucking water can be effectively reduced. On the other hand, the production cost and transportation cost also can be reduced. And a larger storage space is not required when not in use.
To accomplish the above object, the water shooting toy of the invention includes an outer sleeve, an inner sleeve and a pushing rod. The outer sleeve is a hollow cylinder with an open end and a closed end with an aperture. The inner sleeve is a hollow cylinder with an open end and is slidably accommodated within the outer cylinder. The open end of the inner sleeve is in the outer sleeve. The pushing rod includes a rod penetrating a closed end of the inner sleeve, a piston at inner end of the rod and a grip at an outer end of the rod. When the grip is pushed or pulled, the piston axially slides in the inner sleeve and the inner sleeve also slides in the outer sleeve to generate a change of water capacity formed by the two sleeves.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a conventional water gun;
FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C are longitudinal sectional views of the invention in different stages;
FIG. 3 shows sucking water of the invention in the first stage;
FIG. 4 shows sucking water of the invention in the second stage;
FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C are longitudinal sectional views of the invention when shooting water; and
FIGS. 6A and 6B are longitudinal sectional views of the second embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 2A is a longitudinal sectional view of a preferred embodiment of the invention. The water shooting toy of the invention includes an outer sleeve 1, an inner sleeve 2 and a pushing rod 3. Each of the two sleeves 1, 2 is a hollow cylinder with one open end and one closed end. An aperture 111 is provided at an end side 11 of the closed end of the outer sleeve 1. The open end of the outer sleeve 1 is inwards disposed with a flange 12. A hole is formed within the flange 12. The outer sleeve 1 is penetrated by the inner sleeve 2 through the hole, and the sleeves 1, 2 are axially slidable to each other. An open end of the inner sleeve 2 is within the outer sleeve 1. A first O-ring 21 is put around the open end of the inner sleeve 2 and is sandwiched between the two sleeves 1, 2 to make airtight. The interior rooms of the two sleeves 1, 2 constitute a communicating space. The inner sleeve 2 is blocked by the flange 12 to be not able to escape from the outer sleeve 1 when the inner sleeve 2 is moved outwards. An end side 22 of the closed end of the inner sleeve 2 is provided with a through hole 221.
The pushing rod 3 is composed of a rod 32, a piston 31 at one end of the rod 32 and a grip 33 at the other end of the rod 32. The rod 32 passes through the through hole 221. The piston 31 is within the inner sleeve 2 and the grip 33 is out of the inner sleeve 2. A second O-ring 311 is put around the piston 31, i.e. the second O-ring 311 is sandwiched between the piston 31 and the inner sleeve 2 to make airtight. The piston 31 is moved in the inner sleeve 2 while the grip 33 is pushed or pulled. And the piston 31 will be blocked by the end side 22 of the inner sleeve 2 to be not able to escape when the piston 31 is moving outwards. The length of the inner sleeve 2 is substantially equal to that of the outer sleeve 1, so that the inner sleeve 2 may be completely accommodated in the outer sleeve 1 as shown in FIG. 2B. And the exposed portion of the rod 32 may also be accommodated in the inner sleeve 2 as shown in FIG. 2C. Preferably, a layer of sponge may be disposed around the outer sleeve 1 and/or the grip 33 to increase safety and to avoid sinking in water.
Please refer to FIG. 3. When the outer sleeve 1, inner sleeve 2 and pushing rod 3 are completely retracted, the water shooting toy of the invention may be put in water with the aperture 111 down. At this time, the piston 31 is outwards moved in the inner sleeve 2 when the pushing rod 3 is pulled up. Water will be sucked into the inner sleeve 1 through the aperture 111 because of vacuum formed in the sleeves 1, 2. When the piston 31 keeps moving up to reach the end side 22 of the inner sleeve 2, the piston 31 will push the inner sleeve 2 to slide out of the outer sleeve 1 and water will keep being sucked into the outer sleeve 1 until the first O-ring 21 will be blocked by the flange 12. At this time, the two sleeves 1, 2 are filled with water as shown in FIG. 4. In comparison with conventional water guns, the invention increase a storage space of the inner sleeve 2. Please further refer to FIG. 5. When the pushing rod 3 is pushed, the inner sleeve 2 and piston 31 is moved inwards to compress the water to be shot off through the aperture 111 until the inner sleeve 2 and pushing rod 3 are completely accommodated in the outer sleeve 1 as shown in FIG. 2C.
FIGS. 6A and 6B show a longitudinal sectional view of the second embodiment of the invention. The water shooting toy of the invention may also serve as an air gun for shooting projectiles. Its main structure is the same as the abovementioned embodiment. The end side 11 of the outer sleeve 1 is additionally provided with a tube 112 extending inwards and outwards. An aperture 111′ is formed at the outer end of the tube 112. At least one passing hole 113 is disposed on the end side 11 and around the tube 112. Two passing holes 113 are shown in the figures as an example. An inner end of the tube 112 is covered by a cap 114. The cap 114 has a passage 1142 communicating with the tube 112. A flexible valve 1141 is disposed around the cap 114. The flexible valve 1141 normally abuts against the inner side of the end side 11 for preventing the passing holes 113 from communicating with the outer sleeve 1. A projectile 115 is put around the tube 112. The projectile 115 seals up the tube 112. When the pushing rod 3 is pulled outwards, as shown in FIG. 6A, the outside air enters the passing holes 113 to force the flexible valve 1141 to leave the end side 11 because of vacuum pressure. Thus the inner sleeve 2 and outer sleeve 1 are filled with air. When the pushing rod 3 is pushed, as shown in FIG. 6B, the flexible valve 1141 is forced to seal up the passing holes 113 and the inside air must pass through the passage 1142 and tube 112 to escape from the sleeves 1, 2. Thus the projectile 115 is shot off. Of course, in the embodiment, the air also can be replaced with water. In other words, the projectile 115 may be shot off by water.
While the forgoing is directed to preferred embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof. As such, the appropriate scope of the invention is to be determined according to the claims.
Patent Application
20110159779
