US2107686A - Spray gun for spraying fabrics - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 8, 1938. s BRAMSEN ET AL 2,107,686

SPRAY GUN FOR SPRAYING FABRICS Filed Sept.l 27, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l Cfvenr/rdmfel] and Friki Z//f,7

Fb 8, 1938. s. BRAMSEN ET AL SPRAY GUN FOR SPRAYING FABRICS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 24 lnve/z-af-f Cfu/end Brdmffn MJ FH@ A4/"7 @ZM Filed Sept. 27, 1935 .Patented Feb. 8, 1938 yPATENT GFFICE 2,107,686 SPRAY GUN FOR. SPRAYING FABRICS Svend Bramsen and auignors to Bink:

Fritz Wahlin, Chicago, Ill., Manufacturing Company,

cago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Application September 27, 1935, Serial No. 42,412 17 Claims. (Cl. 299-88) Our invention relates to a spray gun for spraying liquids on horizontal surfaces, particularly adapted for use in moistening cloth or wash goods before ironing the same', for applying starch to such goods, and for use by dry-cleaners in applying cleaning liquids.

In the heretofore customary spray gun the handle usually has its axis at a rearwardly open angle'of approximately 75 degrees to the axis of the spray head, so that the spray will be discharged along a horizontal axis when the handle is comfortably gripped by a hand of the horizontally disposed fore-arm of the user, thereby making the gun convenient for spraying upright surfaces. Moreover, the needle valve which con` trols the discharge of material usually extends horizontally so that it can be moved to its open position by an arm of a trigger which depends from the gun body and which trigger also is disposed for rearwardly moving an air valve to open the latter.

To spray downwardly with the Same appliance, the gun must be rocked ninety degrees, so that the handle slopes rearwardly upward, thereby obliging the user to raise his elbow and to twist his Wrist to an .extent which soon proves tiresome." Such a disposition of the gun also brings the usual suspending hook or eye far from a vertical line through the center of gravity of the gun, so that the user cannot be relieved by a suspension cord from supporting most of the weight of the gun. Moreover, the weight of a modern commercial gun, as constructed of the durable materials needed for handling materials which often have gritty constituentsnamely a pound and a half, or even more-makes it prohibitive for use by the average female employee in a textile, clothing, laundry or dry-cleaning establishment.

So also, the high cost of such spray guns has greatly deterred the adoption of spray guns by the just mentioned industries, as also the tiring effect required by the customary spray gun for opening its valves by the pressure of only two lingers on the trigger.

Our present invention aims to overcome all of the just recited objections by providing a spray gun which will be unusually light, easily manufactured and inexpensive; which will require only a quite light digital pressure for maintaining the spraying after this is started; which can have its handle conveniently grasped by a comfortable extended fore-arm, while directing the spray' forwardly downward or even squarely downward; and which can readily have substantially all of a slot s opening its weight supported by a cord when thus disposed.

Illustrative of the manner in which we accomplish the above recited objects,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a spray gun em- 5 bodying my invention. /ff' Fig. 2 is an enlarged centralpvertical and longitudinal section through the same gun. taken v when the air nozzle has been rotated 90 degrees.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary section allied to Fig. 2, 10 taken when the grip link has been retracted to open the valves.

Fig. 4 is a view looking downwardly and rearwardly at the same gun from the line 4-4 of Fig. 1, drawn on a scale intermediate that of 15 Figs. 1 and 2 and with the mechanism cover removed.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the snap-on mechanism cover.

Fig. 6 is a section, of Fig. 2.

Fig. 7 is a greatly enlarged section taken along the line l-'l of Fig. 1, showing the detachable unit for controlling the spray-flattening air.

Fig. 8 is a central, vertical and longitudinal 25 section through the upper portion of the body of the spray gun, drawn on a scale intermediate that of Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 9 is a horizontal line 9 9 of Fig. 8.

Fig. 10 is a section Fig. 2.

Fig. l1 is a view of the forward end of the body, looking from the line II-li of Fig. 8.

Fig. 12 is a section through the forward end 35 portion of the body, taken along the line EZ-IZ of Fig. 11.

Fig. 13 is an elevation unit when detached from smaller scale than Fig. 7. 4

Fig. 14 is a section taken along the line M-Ifi of Fig. 7 through the same control unit and the adjacent part of the head of the gun body.

Fig. 15 is a perspective view of the rocking lever. In the illustrated embodiment, our spray gun has a single-piece body comprising a generally horizontal stock S having its forward end formed as a forwardly and upwardly opening fork (as shown in Fig. 8) presenting an upper fork shank 50 U and a lower form shank H which is thickened to form a head. This stock has a recess R extending rearwardly i'nto it from the said fork, downwards from the bottom of and has a suspending eye E in taken along the line 6 6 20 section taken along the 30 along the line Ill- I0 of of the side-air control the gun, drawn on a.

the said recess,

The fork in) the stock has its upper and lower Shanks provided (as in Fig. 8) with alined bores b and b1 having their common axis 4 (Fig. 8) at a rearwardly vand upwardly opening angle of about 45 degrees to the said plane, and the lower shank H h its lower face h at right angles to the said axi l. Screwed upwardly into the lower end of the b re b' in the said lower shank of the body fork is t tubular stemof a material nozzle 5, upon which nozzle an air nozzle 6 is clamped by a retaining ringjl threaded on the lower end of the head-formingiower fork shank H.

Liquid material is supplied to` the bore of this material nozzle from an lnl'efnipple N at the lower end of the handle I (to which the usual hose connection is made) through a liquid bore L (Fig. 2) in the handle opening into a longitudinal bore L1 in the turn leads to a bore b in the lower and headforming shank of the said body fork.

Extending into the bore of the material nozzle 5 and controlling the discharge of material from that nozzle is a needle valve 8 extending slidably through a. valveguide 9 threaded into the upper end of the bore b in' the lower fork shank. The upper portion of this valve guide together with a perforated cap I conjointly clamp a packing l l around a part of the needle valve.

The needle valve 8 has its upper end portion threaded through a sleeve l2 (Fig. 2) which slides in the bore of a cap i3 threaded into the bore b1 of the upper fork shank, and the needle valve is locked to the said sleeve by a cap-like locknut i6 threaded on this valve above the said sleeve. This needle valve and sleeve assembly is continually pressed downwards toward its Amaterial-discharge closing position by between the said sleeve and the head of the cap i3.

VTo supply air for the air nozzle we provide the handle l with an air bore l opening into a rear chamber l1 in the stock of the gun from which an air continuation bore A leads forwardly (Figs. 9 and l2), to an air chamber I8 shown in Figs. 2,7 and 8. Leading forwardly from this air chamber are two ports I9 (Figs. 11 and 12) which open into a rearwardly open groove 20 in the material nozzle 5, from which groove the air thereafter flows through nozzle ports 2l (Fig. 2) to issue around and in merging relation to the material projected by the material nozzle 5.

To control the supply of air, we provide an air valve having its head 22 (Fig. 2) disposed in the air inlet bore l5 and continually urged toward its closure positionby a spring 23 which is interposed between the said valve and a thrust-receiving sleeve 24 threaded into the said bore. This valve head 22 is fastened to a stem 22a which extends slidably through va valve guide 25 and a stuffing box 26 in the rearward portion of the bottom of the recess R as shown vin Fig. 2, and which stem presents its upper end portion within the said recess.

To open both this air valve and the needle valve 8 against the resistance of the springs re stock, which latter bore in a spring di interposed y spectively A@associated with them, we provide a rocking lever' which is disposed in the said recess and journaled on a horizontal shaft 21 extending transversely through the stock of the gun. which lever is shown separately in Fig. 15. This lever includes a rearward arm 28a overhanging the upper end of the air valve stem 22a, and a forward arm formed as a vertically slitted fork for straddling the needle valve 8, thereby presenting twov arm tips 28h adapted for simultaneously engaging the lower end of the slidable sleeve l2 through which the needle valve is threaded. The said lever also desirably has its forward arm provided with a depending lug 28o disposed for engaging the bottom R1 of the recess in the stock (Fig. at opposite sides of the upper end of the slot s, so as to halt the valve closing movement of the lever in a position in which the fork 28h of the lever is freely spaced (as in Fig. 2) from the packing-clamping cap I0, thereby permitting a considerable adjustment of the effective length of the needle valve 8. In addition, the rear lever arm 28 may have a depending lug 281 disposed for engaging the adjacent part of the recess bottom, as in Fig.. `3, to limit the valveopening movement of the lver.

Thus arranged, a clockwise. movement of the rocking lever (in Fig. 2) about the shaft 21 will open both the needle valve and the air valve. To move the lever for this valve-opening purpose against the considerable resistance of the two springs and to reduce the digital eiort required for holding the valves open, we interpose two links in toggle-joint disposition between` the lower portion of the handle and the forward arm 28h of the rocking lever, and dispose the two links so as to diverge rearwardly at a quite large obtuse angle toward the handle I. In addition, we make the lower link of ample length and dispose it suiciently close to the handle so that this lower link can be easily gripped by all four other ngers of a hand which is holding the handle l between the palm and the thumb of that hand.

Thus, the drawings show thelppper link 38 as pivoted at its upper end to 'the forward arm 28h of the rocking lever on a horizontal pin 3l extending transversely of the gun. This upper link extends downward through the upright slot s (Fig. 8) in the bottom of the recess R in the stock of the gun and has the upper endV of the relatively much longer grip link 32 pivoted to it on a horizontal pin 33. This grip link has its lower vend pivoted to a forwardly projecting lug 34 on the lower end of the handle on an also horizontal pin 35, all three of the said pins being coparallel with the shaft 21 on which the lever rocks.

These two links are sumciently greater in their joint eiective length than the spacing between the leyer pin 3i and the handle pin 35 so that the two links diverge from each other at a quite large rearwardly open obtuse angle even when the lower link is not retracted-as for example at an angle 46 of 150 degrees as shown in Fig. 2. When the user digitally retracts the (lower) grip link 32, the two links swing towardan axially alined disposition, as shown. in Fig. 3, thereby increasing the spacing between the lowest pin 35 and the lever pin 3l so that the upward thrust on the forward lever arm 28h rocks the lever from its inoperative position of Fig. 1 to its valveopening position of Fig. 3, in which latter position engagement of the lever lug28c with-the recess bottom has halted the movement of the lever when the angle between the axes of the said two links is 150 degrees.

To close the frontal opening of the recess R we desirably provide a U-sectioned cover C (Fig. of resilient metal which has its mouth portion snapped upon opposite side portions ha of the gun body adjacent to the said frontal recess opening, as shown in Fig. 6.

To adapt ourspray gun for projecting a flattened spray, we desirably use an air nozzle 5 hav-A ing both longitudinal passages 2| through which air is supplied by passages I9 from the chamber I8 in the gun head H to which the main air passage L leads, and also longitudinal passages 48 leading from the bottom recess 38 (Fig. 7) in the said chamber to the usualside air passages in the two horns 61 of the air nozzle.

To control the admission of air to the said re- Vcess 38 we desirably employ the detachable con- -ftrol unit of Fig. 13, shown on a larger scale in section in Fig. 7. This control unit comprises a body v5I Ihaving its shank 52 threaded into a lateral bore in the gun head H, into the inner end of' which body a sleeve 55 is threaded.

This 'sleeve has a bore of polygonal section slidably fitting a hexagonal part 56 of the stem of the screw 51 which has its tip adapted to seat in the mouth end of the bottom recess 38 (as shown in Fig. 7) and which presentsy a knurled exterior head 58. The screw 51 is clamped to the sleeve 55 by a nut 39 threaded on the screw inward of the said sleeve, thereby latching the sleeve 55 to the screw so that rotation of the said screw will rotate the sleeve to move the tip of the screw towardA or away from its seat.

In practice, the body member of our gun desirably is either a die casting of a light alloy, or a hot pressed molded plastic. In either case, the recesses R. and I'I, slot s, stock passages A1 and M1, fork shank bores b and b1, the handle bores L and I5, and the recess I8 for receiving the side-air control unit can all be formed during the making of this body member. The guide bore BI (Fig. 8) for the stem of the air valve can be formed later by a drill inserted upwardly through the air bore I5 of the handle, and the rear recess I I permits access for inserting a plug 62 in the rear end of the material passage portion M1 in the stock. This recess has its rear end normally closed by a plug 60.

To prevent unintentional rotation of the screw y 5l, we also dispose a compression spring 54 between the sleeve 55 and an annular packing 53 which bears outwardly against an annular portion of the unit body 5I, a metal ring 6I being desirably interposed between this spring and the said packing. Thus arranged, the spring also serves to press the packing firmly against the main cylindrical part 51a of the screw to prevent air leakage.

With our gun thus constructed, we obtain the following important advantages over the conventional spray guns:

(1) Enabling the user to direct the spray downwardly without raising the elbow of the arm which holds the hand, and without bending his Ywrist, thereby greatly reducing the tiring eiect on the user.

(2) Enabling the user to use all four lingers of his handle-grasping hand for retracting the grip lever, instead of using only the two fore lingers as required with a conventional gun, thereby also reducing the manual strain.

(3) Making it easy for the user to eject momentary puis of spray, as for spot-cleaning, by`

merely using the pressure of one or two lingers oi' his hand.

(4) Greatly reducing the weight of the gunas for example by fully one-third-so that it can easily be held and manipulated for long periods oi' time by the average female worker in a textile establishment or laundry.

` (5)Utilizing the jamming tendency of a toggle arrangement for greatly reducing the digital retracting eilort required for keeping the gun in operation after the valves have been opened.

(6) Eliminating all exposed movable parts except -the grip lever and a small but effectively guarded portion of the thrust link, so as to reduce the chance of damage if the gun is dropped.

(7) Providing easy access to the interior of the gun body (by digitally removing the said cover) for lubricating the pivotal connections to the trigger and for tightening the cap I Il of the sltiliilng box through which the needle valve s es.

(8) Eliminating the y need of any spring or other auxiliary means for retaining the lever and link assembly in its inoperative disposition of Fig. 2 when. the grip link is not digitally retracted; since gravity then tends to swing the grip link 32 further forward, thus cooperating with the weight ofthe thrust link 38 to resist accidental movement of the mechanism so long as the gun is held approximately in its operative position.

However, while we have heretofore described our invention in connection with the particular embodiment here illustrated, many changes might be made without departing either from the spirit of our invention or from the appended claims.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a pneumatic spraying appliance having a slidable needle valve controlling the discharge of material from the appliance and a slidable air valve spaced rearwardly vfrom the said needle valve and controlling the admission of air, and also having separate springs normally closing both of the said valves, valve opening means including a member extending between the two valves and disposed for opening both valves when the said member is moved in one direction, and digitally actuable means for moving the said member in the said direction; the digitally actu able means including two interpivoted links extending in toggle formation at an obtuse angle to each other and disposed so that the said angle increases during the actuation of the said digitally actuable means.

2. In a spray appliance of the class in which the body of the appliance has a rearward and depending handle, in which a spray head is mounted on the forward end of the body, and in which a needle valve and an air valve respectively control the discharge of material from the spray head and the supply of air to the spray head: a grip link extending in front of the handle and pivoted at its lower end to the handle, the grip link being adapted to be retracted toward the handle by fingers of a hand grasping the handle; and a mechanism interposed between the grip link and the two valves whereby retraction of the grip link opens the said valves; the mechanism including a lever pivoted to the body member and end of the grip link and pivoted at its upper end Y to an arm of the lever; the two links having their longitudinal axes intersecting at an obtuse angle opening rearwardly toward the said handle, whereby the two links cooperate after the manner of a toggle for exerting an upward thrust through the upper link when the grip link is retracted toward the handle.

3. A spray appliance as per claim 2, including means for halting the movement of the mechanism 'by retraction of the grip link before the said angle unduly approaches an angle of 180 degrees.

4. A spray appliance as per claim 2, in which both valves and both links have their axes: in-

the plane in which the lever rocks.

5. A spray gun as per claim 2, including two springs respectively continually urging the two valves to their closure positions; and means associated with the mechanism for limiting the movement of the lever, in the direction in which the leverA moves during the closing of the valves, to a position freely permitting the said springs to close both valves.

6. A spray appliance as per claim 2, in which the body has a chamber housing the said lever and a slot opening downwardly from the bottom of the said chamber, through which slot the thrust link extends.

7. In a spray gun, a body comprising an upper hollow body portion, a head portion and a handle portion depending respectively from the forward and rear end parts of the said upper body portion with the axes of the said head and handle' portions diverging downwardly; a material and air emitting spray head attached to the said head portion coaxial with the latter, the body member having a material passage and an air passage both leading to the spray head; a material-discharge-controlling valve coaxial with the spray head and slidably supported by the said body portion, an air Valve slidably mounted in the handle and controlling the admission of air to the air passage; two springs respectively urging the two valves to their closure position; a

. unitary valve actuating member supported within the hollow body portion and movable in one direction for substantially simultaneously moving the said valves to open both valves against the resistance of the said springs; and two inter-pivo ted links disposed in tandem one above the other and extending at a rearwardly open large obtuse angle to each other, the outer ends of the two links being respectively pivoted to the said member and to a relatively low portion of the said handle; the lower of the links extending in front of the handle'and being disposed for retraction by ngers of a hand grasping the handle.

8. A spray gun of the class comprising a body member including a rearward depending handle, a spray head including a material nozzle having its discharge controlled by a slidable needle valve, an air nozzle having its supply of air controlled by an air valve, and spring means continuously tending to close each valve; the gun being characterized by also including a multi-armed rocking lever pivoted upon the body member; the lever having two arms respectively disposed for imparting an `opening movement to the said valves when the lever is rocked in one direction, and having an arm disposed for moving upward during the rocking of the lever in the said direction; and the gun also including two links disposed forward of the said handle, namely a thrust link pivoted at its upper end to said upwardly moving lever arm, a grip link pivoted at its upper end to the lower end of the aforesaid link and at its lower end to the handle, all of the said pivoting being on axes parallel to the axis about which the lever rocks on the body member, the said levers diverging toward the handle at a large obtuse angle and the grip link having a part thereof disposed so that it can be retracted by all four lingers of a hand which 'grasps the handle between the palm and the thumb of the hand.

9. A spray gun as per claim 8, in which the gun body has two portions respectively disposed for engaging two arms of the lever to halt the movement of the lever in opposite directions in posi-` tions ln which the grip link extends respectively at an angle of approximately 150 degrees and approximately 165 degrees to the thrust link.

10. In a spray gun, a body comprising al stock and a handle depending from the rear end of the stock; the stock having both a forwardly opening and a rearwardly opening recess and having two longitudinal fluid passages in the part of the stock below theforwardly opening recess, both of the' recess and normally closing the rst fluid passage in the stock; and a closure member normally closing the mouthof the said rearwardly open recess.

11. In a spray gun, a body comprising a handle, a stock extending forwardly from the upper lend of. the handle and having its forward end formed as la fork presenting one fork shank at higher elevation than the other shank, and a neck extending downwardly from the said other shank of the fork?v the body having an air passage extending through the said other shank and thereafter downwardly through the neck, and also having a material passage extending through the neck, both of the said passages opening at the lower end of the neck; a material nozzle and an air nozzle both supported by the lower end of the neck and to which the material passage and the air passage respectively lead; -a needle valve controlling the outlet of the material passage and extending through the neck and Vboth shanks of the said fork; spring means mounted in the upper shank of the fork and continually urging the said valve to its closure position; an air valve controlling the admission of air to the -air passage;` a second spring means resisting the opening of the air valve;

and actuating means, operable by a hand holding the handle, for opening both valves.

12. A spray gun as per claim 11, including two means respectively mounted in the two shanks of the said fork for guiding the needle valve.

13. In a spray gun, a body including a stock presenting a forwardly open fork having its fork shanks vertically spaced and having alined bores in the said shanks, the body also having an interior chamber behind the opening of the said fork; two alined valve guides respectively mounted in the said bores; a material nozzle supported by one of the said shanks and having its discharge bore alining with -the valve guides; a needle valve extending slidably through the said guides and controlling the discharge of material from the said nozzle; and a mechanism for moving the needle valve to open the discharge of material from the said nozzle, the

mechanism including a rocking lever disposed in the said chamber and arranged for moving the valve; the body also including a handle depending from the rear end of the stock; and two interpivoted links disposed one above the other in toggle-like formation and interposed between the lever and` the handle, the lower link being disposed in front of the handle and adapted to be digitally moved by fingers of a hand grasping the handle.

14. A spray gun Vas per claim 13,in which the needle valve has a diametric enlargement disposed within the said fork, and in which the said lever has a forked arm straddling the needle valve and adapted to engage the said enlargement for opening the needle valve when the lever is rocked in one direction.

15. In a pneumatic spray gun. a body including a stock provided with an nteriorchamber. and a handle depending from the rearward end of the stock; a spray-head mounted. on the forward end of the stock and including a materialdischarge nozzle disposed for projecting material downwardly; an upwardly openable needle valve controlling the said nozzle and extending into the forward portion ot the said chamber; a downwardly openable air valve having a part thereof extending into a rearv portion ofthe said chamber, the said valves having their axes in a common vertical plane longitudinal of: the handle, stock and material nozzle; two springs respectively urging the two valves to their lclosure positions; a valve-opening mechanism lncluding a lever rockingly supported by the body within the said chamber for movement about a horizontal axis transverse of the said plane, the lever having a forward arm and a rearward arm respectively disposed for raising the needle valve and for depressing the air valve when the lever is rocked so that the forward arm moves upwardly; and two relatively superposed and pivotally connected links disposed in toggle formation between the forward arm of the lever and a relatively lower portion of the body, the lower link having a part thereof disposed in front of the handle and adapted to be swung toward the handle by a hand grasping the handle; the two links having their axes diverging at a large obtuse angle and disposed so that the said swinging of the lower link increases the said angle.

v16. A spray gun as per claim 15, in which the body member has stop portions disposed for limiting the rocking movement of the lever in one direction to a position permitting each spring to close the valve with which the spring is associated, and in the other direction to a position in which the said angle between the link axes is still materially less than 180 degrees.

17. A spray gun as per claim 10, in which the said stock has a downwardly opening slot leading from the said forwardly opening recess and disposed between the two iluid passages. through which slot an actuating member can extend for operating a mechanism housed by the said forwardly opening recess.

SVEND BRAMBEN. FRITZ WAHLIN.

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