EP2982443B1

EP2982443B1 - Design of a flexible cartridge for a paint spray gun

Info

Publication number: EP2982443B1
Application number: EP15151098.9A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Manuel Tarter Garro
Original assignee: Bossauto Innova SA
Current assignee: Bossauto Innova SA
Priority date: 2014-08-05
Filing date: 2015-01-14
Publication date: 2017-04-12
Anticipated expiration: 2035-01-14
Also published as: PT2982443T; ES2631810T3; ES1121280U; EP2982443A1; ES1121280Y

Description

Object of the Invention.

More specifically, the invention refers to a single-use flexible cartridge to be used with spray guns such as those preferably used for painting vehicle bodies and accessories in the automotive sector and others that carry out spray painting, with special attention to the design that determines how the different parts fit together.

State of the Art.

There are many designs of cartridges for spray paint guns, with different formal and functional characteristics and with more or less parts, which basically enable quick and simple attachment of the cartridge to the gun, and which once completely used up are discarded or if there is some paint left over, they are detached and stored for later use.
The parts found in most of these cartridges are principally a vessel containing the paint, fitted to a lid and a second vessel, which is also threaded to a lid, which has a conduit that is connected to the spray gun inlet, complementary to these parts there are seals on the lid as well as the paint outlet conduit, to stop the paint leaking out.
In this sense, document WO2007149760 discloses a connector system for attaching a liquid container to a spray gun. The connector system includes a lid with a liquid outlet and an adapter for releasably connecting the outlet with the liquid inlet port of a spray gun. The lid includes interlocking tab assemblies for releasably attaching the adapter to the lid. Each tab assembly includes two tabs, with one tab adapted to secure the adapter to the lid when the tabs are interlocked. The lid includes a flexible gasket to form a liquid tight seal with the liner.
These formal and functional characteristics vary substantially for each type of cartridge, however, they all strive for ease of use, once the cartridge is removed from the box it is supplied in, which means quick attachment of the cartridge to the gun as well as removal when the paint is finished, but these characteristics mostly require a preferred position to avoid the user making a mistake when fitting the cartridge.
In the painting operation, with its particular techniques, it may occur that the attachment of the cartridge causes surprises that include among others that the flexible vessel becomes detached from the lid while painting, the internal vessel is not firmly attached to the lid, and the same applies to the external vessel that some do not use, although it is included in the kit.
If any of the parts of the cartridge become detached it may fall to the ground, onto painted surfaces or the superficies that have not yet dried or the internal vessel may be damaged and spill the paint it contains, therefore, to help the user, all these surprises should be avoided. Thus, their layout is more important in order to avoid this than the design of the principal components that have been well known for more than 25 years.
The appropriateness of these layouts between the parts of the cartridge is more important than it would seem, as there are several manufacturers and several types of cartridges that only have in common that fact that they can be fitted to the spray guns on the market, even though they are different from each other.

Scope of the Invention.

To make a cartridge attach to any of the spray guns on the market in as secure a manner as possible, ensuring that it can attach to the gun in a single position with formal and functional characteristics that will impede any mistake when being fitted.

Description of the Invention.

The present invention is defined according to independent claim 1.
The flexible cartridge referred to here provides a device with means of safety and sealing when assembled as well as savings in manufacturing, as it uses less parts than others commonly used up to now, without reducing quality, such as the ring that the cartridge lid incorporates to join it with the internal and external vessels, seals in the ring and threads on these rings in the external vessel, and on the side surface of the external vessel, as this

A lid with its means to attach to an external vessel and an internal vessel, as well as the inlet to the spray gun.
an external vessel marked by paint or a label, on the side surface with means to fit to the lid.
A flexible internal vessel that is fitted beside the external vessel to the lid.

The lid, as one of the characteristics of the invention, incorporates means to fit to the external vessel and internal flexible vessel, and it has tabs on its external perimeter that face down, with internal teeth. To avoid inadequate pressure on the part of the user, bending the tabs excessively or damaging the lip of the lid, the tabs have a stop that limits their bending on the lid. On the top of the lid and its centre, there emerges perpendicularly a conduit, the side surface of which includes projections and depressions to attach to a spray gun, where said surface, that of the lid, has a convex configuration from which emerges a central platform.
The external protector of the cartridge is tapered in shape and it includes as a complement to the tabs, some bases diametrically opposite each other, that incorporate teeth of the same height, except the last one, which will be higher, including some projections on these bases to guide the tabs to the lid. On its upper part, the internal side surface of the external vessel may have in an auxiliary manner some ring-shaped projections that act as a double seal with the skirt of the lid.
The internal vessel is overlapped in its convection with the lid and the external vessel; therefore the cartridge leaves the factory formed by a rigid external vessel, an internal flexible vessel, a lid with its filter and an adaptor to the spray gun.
Other details and characteristics shall be shown throughout the description below referring to drawings attached to this report which are shown for illustrative but not limiting purposes only in a drawing of the invention, which can be performed in all types of suitable materials and to the standard dimensions used in the industry.

Description of the drawings.

Below is a list of the different parts of the invention, indicated in the attached drawings with their respective numbers; (10) cartridge, (11) lid, (12) external vessel, (13) internal vessel, (14) tabs, (15) base of (14), (16) extension, (17) hooks, (18) conduit, (19) mouth of the conduit (18), (20) upper base of the lid (11), (21) side body, (22) base, (23) lip, (24) structural projections, (25) teeth on the anchoring base (27), (26) mouth of the external vessel (12), (27) anchoring base, (28) rails, (29) inner surface of the extension (16), (30) teeth on the inner surface (29), (31) convex ring area of the lid (11), (32) elevated platform above the ring area (31), (33) projections and depressions in the conduit (18), (35) neighbouring area, (36) skirt of the lid (11), (37) circular skirt in the internal vessel (13), (38) projections on the skirt (36), (39) projection on the anchoring base (27), (40) depression in the extension (16), (41) lip on the base (20) of the lid (11), (42) projections on the surface (15) of the tab (14), (44) stop end.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the cartridge (10) assembly, which comprises an external vessel (12), the internal vessel (13) and the lid (11).
Figure 2 is a perspective view of the lid (11), from the upper base (20) of which emerge the hooks (17) of the conduit (18) and means to attach the lid (11) to the external vessel (12).
Figure 3 is a perspective view of the external vessel (12) of the cartridge (10), on the side surface of which are the bases (27) with the teeth (25) and the guides (28) and on the side surface of the external protector (12) with circular projections (24).
Figure 4 is a front elevation view of the external vessel (12), and the structural projections (24) on its side surface, and the bases (27) diametrically opposed close to the mouth (26).
Figure 5 is another front elevation view of the external vessel (12), with the toothed (25) base (27).
Figure 6 is an upper plan view of the external vessel (12), in which the ends of the base (27) of the guides (28) can be seen.
Figure 7 is a detail by "1" according to Figure 4.
Figure 8 is a detail by "2" according to Figure 5.
Figure 9 is a perspective view from a lower point of the external vessel (12), in which the bases (27) and the guides (28) can be seen.
Figure 10 is a detail by "3" according to Figure 9, in which the detail of the teeth (25) and guides (28) located at the end of the bases (27) can be seen.
Figure 11 is a detail by "4" according to Figure 6.
Figure 12 is a front elevation view of the cartridge assembly (10) completely fitted, with the three pieces that it is comprised of; the external vessel (12), the internal vessel (13) inside marked as a dotted line (12-13) and the lid (11) on the top, secured (12-13) by the tabs (14), formed by the base (15) and the extensions (16).
Figure 13 is another front elevation view of the cartridge (10) completely fitted, with the three pieces that it is comprised of; the external vessel (12), the vessel (13) inside, crowned (12-13) by the lid (11).
Figure 14 is a top plan view of the cartridge (10) object of the invention.
Figure 15 is (a) a detail by "5" according to Figure 12, in which the different width of the lower tooth with regard to the two upper teeth of the toothed part (25) can be seen, the skirt (37) of the internal vessel (13) and the separate extension (16) of the toothed part (25), and (b) is identical in figure 15(a) but with the toothed part (30) in contact with the toothed part (25).
Figure 16 is a detail through "6" according to Figure 13, in which the toothed part (30) of the inner face of the tab (16) fits to the toothed part (25) of the base (27) in the external protector (12).
Figure 17 is a perspective view of the lid (11) from above, in which the hooks (17), the conduit (18), the tabs (14) and the skirt (36) of the circular projections (38) can be seen.
Figure 18 is a perspective view of the lid (11) from below, showing the convex ring area (31) of the lid (11) from which the platform (32) emerges.
Figure 19 is a front elevation view of the lid (11), opposite the tabs (14), the convex ring area (31) of the lid (11) from which the platform (32) emerges and the conduit (18) is perpendicularly to (32).
Figure 20 is a top plan view of the lid (11), with means to attach to the spray gun, such as the hooks (17).
Figure 21 is a detail by "7" according to Figure 19, in which the circular projections (38) on the external surface of the skirt (36) can be seen enlarged.
Figure 22 is a detail by "8" according to Figure 17.
Figure 23 is a detail by "9" according to Figure 18.
Figure 24 is a perspective view of the internal vessel (13), the area close to the mouth (35) being cylindrical and the circular skirt (37) facing out horizontally.

Description of an embodiment of the invention.

In one of the preferred embodiments of the invention, as can be seen in Figures 1, 12, 13, and 14, the cartridge (10) has as main elements a transparent or translucent tapered external vessel (12), to the upper part of which a lid (11) is fitted, and a second flexible internal vessel(13), with the same characteristics. The external vessel (12) is painted, silkscreen printed or similar, marked with measurement units to facilitate an indication of paint finished or paint remaining for the user, as it totally conventional.
The external vessel (12), as one of the characteristics of the invention, has been designed with some ring projections (24) for structural reinforcement spaced according to height, around the mouth (26) and diametrically opposite the mouth (26), there are some means for fitting the external vessel (12) to the lid (11), comprising an anchoring base (27), means for guiding, such as guides (28), that, as can be seen in Figures 5 to 11, include horizontal teeth of different height or width (25), which is another characteristic of the invention, and can be seen in Figures 15a and 15b.
Functionally, the design of the toothed part (25) on the base (27) of the external vessel (12) enable, in combination with the tab (14), the inner surface (29) of the extension (16), provided with the toothed part (30), slides along the toothed part (25) of the base (27) of the external vessel (12) producing sounds or clicks, the last one being different from the previous, as it corresponds to the highest tooth of the toothed part (25), as can be seen in Figures 16, 21 and 22, for example.
The tab (14) is formed by the base (15) and the extension (16) to the base (15), and on its outside it has some projections (42), the tab (14) ending at its bottom in twisted perimeter, the projection (39) on the base (27) fitting into the depression (40) of the extension (16) of the tab (14).
The external vessel (12) has a lower base (22) that offers support to the internal vessel (13) if necessary. This lower base (22) of the external vessel (12) can be formed with a surface that closes the external vessel (12) or by a base formed by ribs that join the side body (21) laterally or diametrically. In addition, the base has alternative designs of the lip (23) used commonly for supporting the surface of the cartridge (10).
The flexible internal vessel (13), as can be seen in Figure 24, is tapered, except in the area close (35) to the mouth, where it is cylindrical, this mouth extends over the ring skirt (37).
On its upper part, the lid (11), as can be seen in Figures 2 and 17 to 22, has the base (20), the most external part of which is a convex ring area (31) and an elevated area or platform (32) and emerging from the centre of this platform (32) is a cylindrical conduit (18) with an opening (19), the side surface of which includes projections and depressions (33) that enable the fitting of the lid (11) and consequently the fitting of the cartridge (10) to a spray gun, not shown in the drawings, by means of hooks (17).
At the end of the upper part of the base (20) there are some tabs (14), which have an upper part, the base (15) and a lower part of the extension (16). The extension (16) in turn, has a toothed part (30) on its inner surface (29), which end in the twisted perimeter (440).
The skirt (36) also emerges perpendicularly and facing downwards from the base (20) of the lid (11), which has ring projections (38) on its surface that fit to the inner surface of the external vessel (12), making one of the closures of the cartridge assembly (10), the other closure being made in the ring area (31), from which a lip (41) that presses against the skirt (37) emerges downwards.
Alternatively, there may be some ring projections (24) on the internal face of the external vessel (12) or internal vessel (13) protector in order to increase the closure points and improve sealing.
From the lower face of the lid (11), which is in contact with the rest of the elements (12 and 13) of the cartridge (10), a skirt (36) emerges perpendicularly, facing downwards, with projections (38) and, between the skirt (36) and the extension (16) of the tabs (14), the mouths (35 and 26) of the external vessel (12) and the flexible internal vessel (13) are fitted.
Fitting a cartridge (10) to a conventional spray gun, not represented in the drawings, requires firstly the positioning of the tabs (14), more specifically, of the extensions (16), initially at their lower part, between the guides (28) of the anchoring base (27) of the external vessel (12), then pushing the lid (11) on to the external vessel (12) and the flexible internal vessel (13), sliding the toothed part (30) of the extension (16) over the toothed part (25) of the anchoring base (27), so that thanks to the different height between the teeth of (25), the user will hear some clicks of different strength, until reaching the last of the closure of the lid (11) over (12-13), the closure culminating by the pressure of the lip (41) on the lower part of the skirt (36) onto the skirt (37) of the flexible internal vessel (13).
If the extensions (16) of the tab (14) are not vertically aligned with the guides (28), the user can turn the lid with fingers and tighten the bases (15) of the tabs (14) with stops (44) inwards with a small horizontal force, modifying their inclination, facing the tabs (14) between the guides (28).
The sealing of the external vessel (12) and of the flexible internal vessel (13) with the lid (11) is achieved (which is another characteristic of this invention), by the pressure of the skirt (36) of the lid (11) and the projections (38) on one side, and the pressure of the tab (14) and the extension (16) with its toothed part (30) on the toothed part (25) of the base (27), and finally by the pressure of the lip (41) on the skirt (37) of the internal vessel (13) on the base (20) of the lid (11).
When the parts of the cartridge (10) are fitted, the cartridge (10) and the conduit (18) and its opening (19) are aligned with the inlet of the spray gun, not shown in the drawing, thus finishing the assembly of (10) onto the spray gun.
It must be highlighted that in contrast to the state of the art, there is no ring to fit the vessels to the lid, the sealing gasket that appears in current designs at the lower part of said ring is not used, neither are the threads on the inside of the ring used, and the outside of the external vessel, avoiding a frequent fault that occurs when the user does not correctly thread the ring that joins the lid to the vessels resulting in leaks, a situation that can be avoided with the toothed parts (25) and (30), as in addition to a different sounding click, the last one needs more force, to overcome, as the last toothed part (30) is higher than the rest.
Having sufficiently described this invention using the figures attached, it is easy to understand that any modification may be made to the detail which may be deemed to be appropriate, whenever these changes do not alter the essence of the invention summarised in the following claims.

Claims

A flexible cartridge (10) for fitting to the inlet of a paint spray gun as used in the automotive industry for painting vehicle bodies, said cartridge (10) comprising:
- a lid (11),

- a protecting external transparent or translucent tapered vessel (12) marked on the side surface,

- a flexible internal transparent or translucent vessel (13),
wherein the upper part of said external vessel (12), said internal vessel (13) and said lid (11) are joined to each other to sealingly close the cartridge (10),
wherein the internal vessel (13) is tapered, except in the area close to its mouth (35), where it is cylindrical, this mouth (35) extending over a ring skirt (37) of said internal vessel (13),
characterized in that
- the external vessel (12) comprising on diametrically opposite sides of its upper part an anchoring base (27) that include horizontal teeth (25) of different height, a projection (39), and guides (28) on the ends of the base (27) for fitting said external vessel (12) to said lid (11),

- the lid (11) has a convex upper base (20) with a ring area (31) on the external part, on the centre of which there is a platform or elevated section (32), from which base (20) a skirt (36) with projections (38) emerges downwards providing a first closure means of the cartridge assembly, and a lip (41) emerging downward from the ring area (31) to press against the ring skirt (37) of the internal vessel (13) providing a second closure means,

- the lip (11) further comprises tabs (14), integrated as a single body with it, with an upper part or base (15) with a stop (44), and a lower part or extension (16) with teeth (30) and depressions (40) on its inner surface (29),
Wherein in a closed position of the cartridge (10), the extensions (16) of the tabs (14) are positioned in the guides (28) of the bases (27) so that the toothed part (30) on the inner surface (29) of the extension (16), is joined to the toothed part (25) on the anchoring base (27) of the external vessel (12), and the projection (39) of the base (27) is fitted into the depression (40) on the extension (16) of the tab (14).
The flexible cartridge (10) according to claim 1, wherein from the platform or elevated section (32) of the lid (11) opposite-facing hooks (17) emerge, and wherein from the platform (32) perpendicularly upwards a conduit (18) emerges, the side surface of which has ring projections and depressions (33).
The flexible cartridge (10) according to the preceding claims, wherein the toothed part (30) of the inner surface (29) of the extension (16) is adapted to sliding on the toothed part (25) of the anchoring base (27) issuing sounds or clicks, the last being different from the rest, as it has a higher tooth.
The flexible cartridge (10) according to claim 1, wherein on the external side surface of the external vessel (12) there are projections (24) for structural reinforcement.
The flexible cartridge (10) according to the claim 1, wherein on the inner side surface of the external vessel (12) there are locking projections for contacting the projections (38) of the skirt (36) of the lid (11).
The flexible cartridge (10) according to the claim 1, wherein the external vessel(12) has a lower base (22) formed by ribs that support the internal vessel (13), and a support lip (23) that projects from this base (22).