CA1309711C - Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus - Google Patents

Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus

Info

Publication number
CA1309711C
CA1309711C CA000595117A CA595117A CA1309711C CA 1309711 C CA1309711 C CA 1309711C CA 000595117 A CA000595117 A CA 000595117A CA 595117 A CA595117 A CA 595117A CA 1309711 C CA1309711 C CA 1309711C
Authority
CA
Canada
Prior art keywords
cable
container
gear
rotation
lid
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
CA000595117A
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
William A. Miller
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Fluid Management LP
Original Assignee
Fluid Management LP
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Fluid Management LP filed Critical Fluid Management LP
Priority to CA000595117A priority Critical patent/CA1309711C/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CA1309711C publication Critical patent/CA1309711C/en
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Abstract

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for mixing a liquid colorant in a container. A flexible cable is rotated about its length to drive rotatable agitating structure in the container. Where a plurality of containers, each having agitating structure and an associated cable are used, a motor driven gear simultaneously rotates all cables to effect rotation of the agitating structures.

Description

- ` 13~711 MIXING ST~UCTURE FOR PAINT
COLORANT IN A DISPENSING APPARATUS

sackqround of the Invention Field of the Invention This invention relates to apparatus for dispensing colorant selectively from a plurality of containers and, more particularly, to structure for agitating the colorant in the containers.

Background Art To avoid having to separately inventory different color paints, paint retailers use a common base that is tinted with a colorant on a per order basis. An elevated turntable supports a plurality of containers in which the colorant is stored in liquid form and metering structure is provided to dispense predetermined amounts of each colorant from the containers into the base as the desired color dictates.
To maintain uniformity from one paint batch to the next, it is essential that the colorant in each container be thoroughly mixed. To accomplish this, it is conventional to equip each container with a rotary paddle which is periodically operated to agitate the co~orant.

Summary of the Invention ~ he present invention is directed to an apparatus for mixing a liquid colorant in a container. A flexible cable is rotated ab~ut its length to drive rotatable agitating structure in the container.
Where a plurality of containers with separate colorant 6upplies are used, each container has its own agitator and a sociated cable connected to the agitator. A motor driven ~3(3~7~1 gear simultaneously ro~ates the cables, through a gear on each cable.
Each cable has a surrounding sheath with opposite ends connected to a fixed housing associated with the drive gear and a block on the container to thereby maintain a predetermined bend in the cable. Each cable drives a gear about a horizontal axis in mesh with a gear on the agitator rotatable about a vertical axis. The motor driven gear is spaced below the block on the container and is rotatable about a vertical axis. The gears on the cable ends in mesh with the motor driven gear are rotatable about axes parallel to the axis of the motor driven gear and spaced equidistantly therefrom.

Brief Descri~tion of the Drawinas Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a liquid colorant mixing and dispensing apparatus with a plurality of cable driven agitators for colorant containers according to the present invention;
Fig. 2 i6 an enlarged elevation view of the colorant mixing and dispensing apparatus of Fig. 1:
Fig. 3 i6 an enlarged, fragmentary section view of the connection between a drive cable and an agitator on one of the colorant containers;
Fig. 4 is an enlarged, plan view of drive structure for the cables; and Fig. 5 iB a section view of the drive structure taken along line 5-5 of Fig. ~.

Detailed Description of the Drawings Referring initially to Figs. 1 and 2, the colorant mixing and dispensing apparatus according to the present invention consists of a cylindrical base 10, having fixed 130~71l ~

thereto a disk-shaped support 12 for a turntable 14 carrying sixteen separate cylindrically-shaped colorant containers 16, each of which is identical in construction. Bearings 17 are provided on the support 12 to smoothly guide rotation of the turntable 14. Each container 16 has a supply of liquid cGlorant and structure at 18 for dispensing a metered quantity of liquid from its associated container 16.
In operation, an open can 20, or other suitable receptacle containing a liquid base, is placed on a support surface for the apparatus so that the can 20 is beneath the turntable 14 in the path of the metering/dispensing structure 18. The turntable 14 is indexed to situate the desired colorant container 16 over the can 20. A plunger (not shown) associated With the metering/dispensing structure 18 i6 controlled by a vertically movable handle 22 Which iS raised a predetermined amoUnt~ gauged by a scale 24, to force a measured amount Of the colorant into the can 20 upon release Of a valve (not shown) through an associated crank handle 26. ~he operation i5 repeated for each required colorant until the desired proportions are deposited into the can 20 after which the contents thereof is mixed to produce a uniform, deslred color.
The present invention is concerned with structure for mixing the colorant in each container 16. A rotary shaft 28 is mounted in coaxial relationship with each container and carries a lower paddle 30 and upper paddle 32 for stirring the colorant in the container 16 as the shaft 28 rotates.
As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the shaft 28 has a pin 34 extending therethrough at right angles to the length of the shaft 28. The pin 34 is driven by a downwardly opening U-8haped yoke 36 carried on a shaft 38 which is coaxial with shaft 28. Rotation of the shaft 38 is imparted by a drive 7 ~ 1 motor 40 through a flexible cable 42 having an inner rotatable core 44 and an outer protective sheath 45.
A lid 46 is removably press fit over the open end 48 of each container 16. The lid 46 has a cylindrical body 50 with an upwardly facing surface 51 to which a block 52 is secured by a bolt 54. The block 52 has a hollow 56 in which first and second meshing bevel gears 58, 60 on the shaft 38 and cable 42 reside. The lid 46 carries a bushing 62 in which the shaft 38 is journalled for rotation. The bevel gear 58 is carried on the shaft 38 and resides between the bushing 62 and a stop pin 64 and is biased upwardly into engagement with the gear 60 by a wave washer 64.
The gear 60 has a reduced diameter sleeve 66 which is journalled for rotation in a reduced diameter portion 67 of a stepped through bore 68 in the block 52. The larger diameter portion 70 of the bore 68 closely accepts the end 72 of the cable sheath 45 so that the cable 42 is held in a generally horizontal orientation in the vicinity of the block 52. ~ecause the cable 42 i8 flexible, the lid 46 on the container 16 can be readily removed with the block 52 as a unit to facilitate checking and repleni6hing of the supply of colorant in the container 16. The U-shaped drive element 36, upon the lid 46 being removed, 61ides freely off of the pin 34 and, upon the lid 46 being replaced, slides readily back over the pin 34 for driving engagement therewith.
The drive for the individual cables 42 will now be described with respect to Figs. 1, 2 4 and 5. The motor 40 is fixed to the bottom of the support 12 as by bolts 74.
Through a speed reduction mechanism 76, rotation is imparted to the shaft 78, which is ~ournalled for rotation in bushing 80 extending vertically through both the support 12 and the turntable 14. Supported above the bushing 80 and in fixed relationship thereto is a gear housing 82 consisting of an ~ ~0~7~ ~

upper, inverted ~up-shaped half 84 and a disk-shaped base plate 86. The upper hou6ing half 84 aDd cover plate 82 cooperati~ely capture and ~upport gear~ 88 for rotation relative thereto. The gears 88 correspond in number to the cables 42 and each is in mesh with a central drive gear so carried by motor shaft 78. The axes of rotation of gears 88 are spaced equidistantly from the axis of rotation of shaft 78. Each gear 88 has a cylindrical fit~ing 92 journalled for rotation in a bore 94 in a boss 96 depending from an upper, flat wall 98 of the housing half 84. Each fitting 92 has a blind bore 100 with a square cross section. The fitting 92 makes keyed connection with the end 102 of the cable core 44 60 that the cable rotates with the gear 88 about its length. The cable sheath 45 is press fit into a reduced diameter portion 104 of the bore 94 in the boss 96 so that the cable extends generally vertically upwardly from the gear housing 82. The gear housing half 84 and base plate 86 are held together by bolts 106, thereby facilitat-ing assembly and repair of the gear housing 82 and associat-ed gears 88, 90.

Claims (14)

1. A liquid mixing apparatus comprising:
a container for storing a supply of liquid and having an open upper end through which liquid can be introduced to the container;
a lid removably press fit to the container so that the lid closes the open container end;
an agitator;
means in the container for mounting the agitator for rotation within the container;
a flexible cable having spaced ends;
drive means for rotating the cable about its length;
means for connecting one of the spaced cable ends to the rotating drive means to be rotated thereby;
rotating means on the lid and extending into the container for imparting rotation to the agitator with the lid press fit to the container; said rotating means being disengaged and separated from the agitator upon the lid being removed from the container so that the agitator remains within the container and is disabled; and means for connecting the other cable end to the rotating means on the lid for imparting rotation from the cable to the rotating means on the lid.
2. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 1 including a gear, and wherein there is a second container with a removable lid and a second agitator and a second flexible cable with spaced ends through which the second agitator is driven by the rotating drive means, said drive means comprises a motor with a rotatable shaft, means for mounting the gear on the rotatable shaft for rotation therewith, a gear is keyed to an end of each cable and means are provided for mounting the gears on the cable ends in mesh with the gear on the motor shaft so that the cables can be simultaneously rotated by the motor shaft gear.
3. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 2 including means for individually separating and thereby selectively disconnecting the one ends of the first and second cable from the drive means so that the drive means can be operated selectively with none, either one or both of the agitators rotating.
4. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 3 further including means for dispensing liquid from each container, a base, a turntable, means mounting the turntable to the base in elevated relationship to a support surface for said apparatus and means mounting the containers to the turntable for rotation therewith so that the containers can be selectively positioned to dispense liquid at a desired location.
5. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 3 wherein there is a sheath surrounding substantially the entire length of each cable between its ends, first and second blocks, means mounting one block fixedly on the lid of each container, and means securing the sheath at the other end of each cable to a block to thereby maintain a predetermined orientation of the other cable ends.
6. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 3 wherein said disconnecting means includes cooperating keying means on each of the cable gears and the one ends of the first and second cable for selective connection and disconnection of the one cable ends and cable gears by relative movement thereof axially with respect to the rotational axes of the cable gears.
7. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 6 wherein there are sheaths surrounding each of the first and second cables, said rotating drive means has a housing with first and second surfaces bounding first and second bores, said first and second bores closely receiving the sheaths on the first and second cables so as to maintain the cables in predetermined orientations.
8. A liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 1 further including means for dispensing liquid from said container, a base, a turntable, means mounting the turntable to the base in elevated relationship to a support surface for said apparatus and means mounting the container to the turntable for rotation therewith so that the container can be indexed to dispense liquid at a desired location.
9. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein there is a deformable sheath surrounding the cable, a block, and means for mounting the block in fixed position on the container lid, said block having a bore to closely accept the sheath at the other cable end to thereby maintain a predetermined orientation of the other cable end.
10. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 9 wherein the agitating means has a rotatable shaft, the means for connecting the other cable end comprises a gear on the shaft of the agitating means and a gear on the other cable end for meshing with the gear on the shaft, and means journal the gear on the other cable end for rotation in the block.
11. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 10 wherein said first and second gears comprise bevel gears rotatable about axes at right angles to each other.
12. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 1 including means for disengaging the one cable end from the drive means to disable the agitating means.
13. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 12 wherein said means for disengaging comprises means for removably press fitting the one cable end into and frictionally maintaining the one cable end in operative relationship with the drive means.
14. A liquid paint colorant mixing and dispensing apparatus comprising:
a base;
a turntable;
means mounting the turntable for rotation relative to the base about a vertical axes and in elevated relationship to a surface supporting the apparatus;
first and second containers for retaining separate supplies of liquid paint colorant and each having an open end;
means mounting the first and second containers to the turntable at locations spaced from said vertical axis and for rotation with the turntable;
means for controlled dispensing of colorant from the first and second containers;
first means rotatable about a vertical axis for agitating the colorant in said first container;

second means rotatable about a vertical axis for agitating the colorant in said second container;
a first flexible cable having a sheath and spaced ends, a second flexible cable having a sheath and spaced ends:
a drive motor;
a drive gear rotatably driven by the drive motor about a vertical axis;
first and second gears in mesh with the drive gear and simultaneously rotatably driven thereby about vertical axes;
means for releasably keying the one ends of the first and second cables to the first and second driven gears for rotation therewith so that rotation of the drive gear can selectively rotate one, both or none of the first and second cables about their length depending upon whether one, both or none of the one cable ends is keyed to its respective first and second driven gears, said keying means including means for interconnecting the one cable ends and driven gears upon the one cable ends being moved vertically relative to the driven gears in one direction and for releasing the one cable ends upon the one cable ends being moved relative to the driven gears vertically relative to the driven gears oppositely to said one direction; and means on each of the first and second lids for imparting rotation from the other cable ends to the first and second agitating means, said rotation imparting means each including means for disengaging the rotation imparting means from the agitating means upon the lid associated therewith being removed from its associated container, said rotation imparting means each further including means for frictionally engaging the sheath on each of the cables to maintain the sheath in a predetermined orientation at the other cable end, whereby each of said agitating means can be disabled by either removing the lid on the container associated with each agitator or by disconnecting the one end of the cable associated with each agitator from its associated driven gear.
CA000595117A 1989-03-30 1989-03-30 Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus Expired - Lifetime CA1309711C (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA000595117A CA1309711C (en) 1989-03-30 1989-03-30 Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CA000595117A CA1309711C (en) 1989-03-30 1989-03-30 Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CA1309711C true CA1309711C (en) 1992-11-03

Family

ID=4139821

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CA000595117A Expired - Lifetime CA1309711C (en) 1989-03-30 1989-03-30 Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CA (1) CA1309711C (en)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN106732156A (en) * 2016-12-13 2017-05-31 成都聚智工业设计有限公司 A kind of power supply thread supplying apparatus for being applied to displacement mixing plant

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN106732156A (en) * 2016-12-13 2017-05-31 成都聚智工业设计有限公司 A kind of power supply thread supplying apparatus for being applied to displacement mixing plant

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US4813785A (en) Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus
US4953985A (en) Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus
EP0617998A1 (en) An agitator for mixing or blending various products, in particular paints, varnishes or the like
CN111453464B (en) Automatic demonstration equipment for accurate feed raw material proportioning and working method
US5507574A (en) Variable speed mixer
JPH0731860A (en) Dispersion apparatus
CN112999910A (en) Fish feed mixing stirring equipment for aquaculture
CA1309711C (en) Mixing structure for paint colorant in a dispensing apparatus
EP0955081A1 (en) Mixing machine for mixing or amalgamating varnishes, paints and the like
CN209093365U (en) A kind of electric heating reacting kettle
CN211868281U (en) At uniform velocity blendor
US3740026A (en) Liquid agitator and dispensing system
CN113280902A (en) A laboratory is with accurate weighing device for remote control
EP0694330B1 (en) Apparatus for mixing liquid products to prepare coloring substances for paints and the like
JPH0622421Y2 (en) Stirrer
CN112387148A (en) Pharmacy is with jar that dispenses
CN217511746U (en) Novel coating stirring device
CN217646272U (en) Nanometer coating compounding device
CN217777363U (en) Protection type cement mortar mixer
JPH0236379Y2 (en)
CN216171515U (en) Batching experiment stirring appearance
JPH08224455A (en) Mixer and mixing device
CN219404782U (en) Stirring bin structure of mortar stirrer
CN215782926U (en) Quick blending device of plain paint for varnish spraying
CN219815921U (en) Colloidal gold solution stirring device for kit

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
MKLA Lapsed