Spray Gun System

This invention relates to spray gun systems and to an air valve useful therewith.

One type of spray gun system employs a gun that sprays resin and catalyst at a workpiece and an air-operated chopper for chopping fiberglass and projecting it onto the workpiece. The spray gun typically utilizes a mechanical linkage between a trigger and each of two valve opening members to draw back the valve members and allow pressured resin and catalyst to be sprayed from the gun. An air hose typically extends to the chopper, and an air valve near the chopper must be opened to begin the chopping and deployment of fiberglass or other wire material. A workman typically pulls the trigger with his right hand to begin spraying resin and catalyst, and a short while later opens the air valve to the chopper with his other hand to begin spraying fibers at the workpiece. The operation is often cumbersome because of the need for utilizing both hands to begin spraying, the need for continually applying large forces to the trigger to overcome a spring that will return the valve members to a closed position, and the need to use the left hand to close the chopper valve at the end of spraying. Two separate valve assemblies are typically used to spray the resin and fiberglass, with the two assemblies angled towards each other so that the two sprays cross and merge a short distance in front of the gun. The use of two separate valve assemblies, each with its own linkage and material-holding tube, increases the complexity and size of the spray gun.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a spray gun system is provided which is of relatively simple and compact construction and which can be easily operated. The system includes a spray gun for spraying resin and catalyst, and an air-powered chopper for chopping and deploying fiberglass or the like. The spray gun includes an air-energized piston with a pair of valve members fixed thereto, which can be drawn back to open the resin and catalyst valves upon the application of air pressure to the piston. The gun also includes a trigger operated air valve which controls the flow of air to both the air piston and to the chopper. When the trigger is pulled back a small amount, air is delivered only to the air piston, to begin spraying resin and catalyst, and when the trigger is pulled back further air is supplied to the chopper to also begin the spraying of fibers. A workman operating a single trigger can therefore control the start of resin and catalyst spraying, and can separately control the beginning of air chopper operation.

Resin and catalyst are carried through two laterally spaced tubes that lead to a valve plate at the front of the gun. The valve plate has a pair of passages that couple the tube to closely-spaced valve seats that lead to forwardly-opening nozzle holes, the valve seats being opened and closed by the two valve members on the air piston. A nozzle plate mounted in front of the valve plate, has a pair of insert holes that receive nozzle inserts to control the shape of the resin and catalyst sprays. The rear surface of the nozzle plate is convex, while the forward surface of the valve plate is concave. The insert holes are formed perpendicular to the convex surface of the nozzle plate so that the sprays intersect and merge a small distance in front of the gun.

The novel features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention will be best understood from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a spray gun apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the spray gun taken on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view taken on the line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a view taken on the line 5--5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a view taken on the line 6--6 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the front portion of spray gun of FIG. 2.

FIG. 1 illustrates a spray gun apparatus 10 which includes a spray gun 12 and a chopper 14 mounted on top of the spray gun. The gun 12 receives resin and catalyst from two material hoses 16, 18, and receives air from an air hose 20. When a workman pulls on a trigger 22, he causes material valves in the gun to open so that resin and catalyst are sprayed out of two nozzles 24, 26 towards a workpiece, and he also causes operation of an air motor 28 on the chopper so that the chopper pulls in wires 30 of fiberglass and deploys or sprays out chopped wire or fibers 32 at the workpiece. The spray gun has a frame 33 which includes a body 40 and a handle 34 at the rear end of the body. A workman normally grasps the handle 34 to hold the gun, and places his index finger on the trigger 22 to operate an air control valve 36 located at the upper portion of the handle. When the trigger 22 is pulled back a moderate amount, the valve 36 allows air to flow to an air cylinder 38 in the body 40 of the gun to open material valves and permit the spraying of the resin and catalyst materials. When the workman pulls the trigger 22 back further, he causes the air valve 36 to also supply air to the chopper 14 so that fibers are sprayed at the workpiece. Air to the chopper flow through a chopper-input passage 37 that leads to the air motor.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the front of the gun includes a nozzle plate 42 containing a pair of nozzle inserts 44, 46 which control the spray pattern, a valve plate 48 positioned behind the nozzle plate and forming a pair of valve seats 50, 52 across which the resin and catalysts material must flow to reach the nozzles, and a guide plate 54 positioned between the valve plate 48 and gun body 40 of the gun frame to guide a pair of valve closing members 56, 58 that can move against and away from the valve seats 50, 52 to control the flow of material. The valve closing members 56, 58 ar part of an air piston 60 which has an air-driven portion 62 mounted in the air cylinder 38 which is formed as a bore in the gun body. When pressured air is delivered through an air cylinder passage 66 to the cylinder 38, the piston portion 62 is urged rearwardly against the force of a piston return spring 68, to move the piston and the valve closing members 56, 58 thereof rearwardly. As a result, valve tips 70, 72 at the front ends of the valve closing members are drawn back, away from the valve seats 50, 52, to allow resin and catalyst fluids to be sprayed through the nozzles 40, 46 at the workpiece. When air in the cylinder bore or cylinder 38 is exhausted therefrom, the return spring 68 moves the piston and the valve tips 70, 72 thereof against the valve seats 50, 52 to stop the spraying of fluid.

The valve body 40 is a largely triangular-shaped member with a pair of widely-spaced fluid bores or tubes 74, 76 (FIG. 7) extending longitudinally therealong. A pair of separate material tubes 78, 80 extend through each of the bores 74, 76 in the gun body to carry the resin and catalyst to the front portion of the gun. Each material tube such as 78 has a rearward end 82 (FIG. 2) exposed at the rear of the gun for connecting to a fitting on a corresponding material hose 16, and has a front end 84 forming a pipe (tapered) thread which is screwed into the guide plate 54. The guide plate has a pair of holes 86, 88 that carry the fluid from the tubes forwardly to aligned holes 90, 92 in the valve plate 48. The valve plate 48 (FIG. 6) has a pair of material passages 94, 96 which extend laterally, or in other words perpendicular to the longitudinal axis 98 of the gun to couple the material-carrying tubes to the valve seats 50, 52. The valve plate forms nozzle holes 100, 102 in front of the valve seats through which material passes towards the nozzle inserts 44, 46, the material from the nozzle inserts being sprayed from the gun.

The air piston 60 (FIG. 2) includes a central rod 104 with a rearward end which carries the piston portion 62. Pressured air presses rearwardly against the piston portion and the piston return spring 68 presses forwardly against it. The rod 104 also has a forward end with a plate 106 upon which the two valve closing members 56, 58 are mounted. The rod 104 extends through a retainer block 108 which is held in the cylinder bore 64 of the gun body by a retainer ring 110. The front portions of the valve closing members 56, 58 are guided in longitudinal sliding motion by a pair of guides 112, 114 of a low friction plastic such as acetyl plastic, to direct the valve tips 70, 72 accurately against the valve seats 50, 52. The valve closing members 56, 58 include rods with threaded forward ends 116, 118, and the tips 70, 72 threadably fit onto the threaded ends. The tips 70, 72 are constructed of a cold flowable material such as Teflon, while the valve plate 48 and the valve seats 50, 52 thereof are formed of aluminum. The soft cold flowable material of the tips conform to the exact shape of the valve seats, to provide good sealing thereat which minimizes or or prevents dripping of material from the nozzles when material is not being sprayed. The Teflon tips can wear faster than tips of hard material such as tungsten carbide, but they can be easily replaced, and the fact that they do not have to be precision ground reduces the cost of the gun.

Replacement of the valve tips 70, 72 is accomplished by removing a front bolt 120 which extends through a central hole in the nozzle plate 42 and valve plate 48 and which is threaded into a central hole 122 in the guide plate. A pair of additional bolts 123 which pass through holes in the valve plate and which are threaded into holes 125 of the guide plate 54 then are removed. The nozzle plate and valve plate then can be removed to expose the tips 70, 72, and the tips can be screwed off and new tips installed at the ends of the valve closing members 56, 58. The guide plate 54 is securely held to the valve body 40 by the two material tubes 78, 80 whose front ends are screwed into the guide plate and whose rearward ends are held in place by a pair of nuts 124.

The nozzle plate has a rear surface 42r which is convex and which is beveled, or in other words, part of the surface of a cone. The valve plate has a mating concave forward surface 48f. The convex rear surface of the nozzle plate has a pair of insert holes 131, 135 for receiving the nozzle inserts 44, 46, and has a pair of gaskets 44g, 46g of a cold-flowable material such as Teflon behind the nozzle inserts for sealing the area around the nozzle apertures to the front surface of the valve plate 48, to prevent the leakage of material to be sprayed. The insert holes 131, 135 are formed perpendicular or normal to the convex surface 42r of the nozzle plate, so that the resin and catalyst sprays intersect and mix in the air at a short distance, such as three inches, in front of the gun. The amount of convexity of nozzle rear surface 42r is chosen so that nozzles perpendicular to the convex surface will intersect at the desired location in front of the gun; e.g. for a conical surface 42r angled at 10.degree. from the lateral direction, and for nozzle inserts spaced 1 inch apart, the sprays will intersect about three inches forward of the convey surface. A convex surface which is part of a spere can be used, and it would allow gasket sealing with less gasket deformation or cold flow, but such a surface is generally more difficult to machine. A convex surface formed by two intersecting planes could be used, but it generally is no easier to produce and requires even more deformation of the gasket. The inserts 44, 46 can be placed in the corresponding insert holes 131, 135, gaskets 44g, 46g of uniform thickness can be placed behind the inserts, and the nozzle plate can be fastened against the valve plate to form a leakproof passage between the nozzle holes 100, 102 leading forwardly from the valve seats 50, 52 and the nozzles of the nozzle inserts. Thus, the two valve closing members 56, 58 can extend and move parallel to one another, to enable mounting on the same piston, and yet the nozzle inserts 44, 46 can be angled towards one another, all without a relatively simple sealing arrangement to prevent leaking of the resin and catalyst. It may be noted that the upper nozzle insert which sprays resin, may have an opening of about thirty thousandths inch while the lower nozzle insert 46, which sprays catalyst, may have an opening of about nine thousandths inch. Also, resin in hose 16 may be maintained at a pressure of about twelve hundred psi, while catalyst in hose 18 may be maintained at a pressure of about 40 psi, so much more resin is sprayed than catalyst.

In order to facilitate adjustment of the spray patterns emanating from the spray nozzles, the nozzle plate 42 is constructed to hold three pairs of nozzle inserts. The nozzle plate has three recesses 130-132 near the top of its convex rear surface and three recesses 134-136 near the bottom thereof, each of which can hold a replaceable nozzle insert similar to inserts 44 and 46. A workman can change from one set of nozzle inserts such as 44, 46 in recesses 131, 135 to another set of nozzle inserts in another pair of recesses such as 130, 134 by merely turning the nozzle plate 42 by a few degrees to align the new set of recesses and nozzle inserts therein with the nozzle holes 100, 102 in the valve plate. In order to assure precise alignment of each nozzle insert with the corresponding nozzle holes 100, 102, the valve plate 48 is provided with an alignment pin 138 and the nozzle plate is provided with three alignment holes 140-142 which can receive the pin. In order to change the nozzles, a workman merely unscrews the central bolt 120 far enough to permit turning of the nozzle plate 42, then pushes the nozzle plate rearwardly so that the pin 138 enters a new alignment hole, and then tightens the bolt 120.

The air control valve 36 (FIG. 2) at the top of the handle 34 can be constructed economically and yet permits a workman to control both liquid (resin and catalyst) spraying and fiber spraying in a simple manner. The valve includes five ring or cylinder members 142, 144, 146, 148 and 150, which are all received in a bore 152 formed in the gun handle. The ring members form a valve chamber or bore 154, and a valve rod 156 projects through the ring member, or in other words, lies in the valve chamber 154. Each of the four forward ring members 142-148 have a radial hole 142h, 144h, 146h, 148h, for carrying air between the valve chamber 154 and a different one of four passageways. Thuss, the hole 142h in the forward exhaust ring 142 communicates with an exhaust passage 160 which exhausts air into the ambient atmosphere. The hole 144h in the air cylinder ring member 144 is in communication with the air cylinder passage 66 that carries air to and from the air cylinder bore 38. The hole 146h in the air input ring member 146 is in communication with a passage 162 that is connected to the air hose 20 that supplies pressured air to the spray gun apparatus. The hole 148h in the chopper supply ring member 148 communicates with a chopper supply passage 164 that supplies pressured air to the chopper 14. The chopper supply passage 164 communicates with the passage 37 in a chopper mount 165 of the chopper assembly, the mount 165 being fastened rigidly by a bolt 167 to the gun body 40 and the frame 169 of the chopper.

The air control valve 36 has several internal O-ring seals spaced along the length of the valve chamber 154, which can engage the outside of the valve rod 156 and form an air seal therewith. These include four internal O-rings 166-169. However, the rod has an elongated cutout, or reduced diameter portion, 172 which can lie within some of the O-rings to unseal them. The rod also has forward and rearward cylindrical seal portions 156a, 156b which are of slightly larger diameters than the O-rings to form seals with them.

The solid lines of FIG. 2 show the spray gun in a condition wherein air is supplied to the air cylinder 38 to draw back the piston and spray material from the gun, but wherein air has not yet been supplied to the chopper 14. At this position of the valve rod 156, the cutout portion 172 of the rod has moved back sufficiently so that it lies within the O-ring 167. As a result, pressured air supplied through the passage 162 and passing through the hole 146h of the air input ring member 146, passes by the O-ring 167. This air then passes out through the hole 144h of the air cylinder ring member and through the passage 66 to the air cylinder 38 to pressurize it and move back the air piston 60.

If the trigger 22 is pulled back to an extreme rearward position at 22r, the rod cutout 172 will also lie within the O-ring 168. This will allow pressured air passing into the valve chamber through the holes 146h of the air input ring member, to move rearwardly past the O-ring 168 and out through the hole 148h of the chopper supply ring member, and thence through passage 164 which leads to the chopper 14. Thus, when the workman pulls the trigger back all the way he causes both the liquid (resin and catalyst) and the fibers to be sprayed at the workpiece.

When the workman releases the trigger, a spring 174 moves the valve rod 156 forwardly until the trigger is at a forwaard position at 22f. The cutout portion 172 of the rod then lies only within the forward O-ring 166. At that position of the cutout, pressured air in the cylinder 38 can exhaust through the passage 66, through hole 144h of the air cylinder ring member, past the O-ring 166, out through hole 142h of the exhaust ring member, and through exhaust passage 160 to the ambient atmosphere. (If desired, separate holes, each coupled to passage 66 or separate passages leading to the air cylinder, can be provided instead of only hole 144h, one to exhaust the air cylinder and one to carry pressured air to it.) This permits the rapid escape of air from the air cylinder so that the air piston 60 can move forwardly to stop the spraying of fluid. At the forward position of the valve rod 156, the rod portion behind the cutout 172 forms a seal with the O-rings 167, 168 to prevent the flow of pressured air from the air supply hose to either the air cylinder or the chopper.

A workman can grasp the handle 34 of the gun, place his finger F through the trigger guard 176 and against the trigger to control both fluid spraying and chopper operation. When the workman pulls back the trigger from the initial position at 22f to a first position rearward thereof at 22, he causes the initial spraying of the resin and catalyst fluids but does not operate the chopper. When he pulls back the trigger further to the position 22r, he begins operation of the chopper to spray fibers at a workpiece. The gun is normally operated by initially spraying only resin and catalyst, and thereafter spraying fibers as well as the resin and catalyst. It is seldom necessary to operate the chopper without spraying fluid, although this could be done by merely shutting off pressurizing air to the resin and catalyst tanks (not shown).

The several ring members 142-150 could be replaced by a single member, except that the use of several ring members facilitate the installation and replacement of O-rings, particularly the four internal O-rings 166-169 that seal to the major diameter portions of the valve rod 156. Thus, the forward O-ring 166 lies in a groove formed at the front of the air cylinder ring member 144, while the next internal O-ring 167 lies in grooves formed at abutting ends of the ring members 144 and 146. The third O-ring 168 lies in grooves formed at abutting ends of the ring members 146, 148, while the rearward O-ring 169 lies in grooves of the ring members 148, 150. The rearward O-ring 169 serves merely to prevent the escape of air rearwardly around the valve rod. In addition to the small O-rings, additional O-rings are provided at the outside of the ring members to prevent the flow of air around the ring members, these being the large valve O-rings 181-184. It may be noted that the trigger 22 is held to the front end of the valve rod 156 by a set screw 186, the rear end of the valve rod has a flange 188 which receives force from the spring 174 and which limits forward movement of the valve rod, and all of the ring members and spring are held in place by an end cap 190.

Thus, the invention provides a spray gun apparatus which permits relatively simple operation and adjustment. The gun includes an air-operated spray control device including an air cylinder, and also includes a valve operated by a single trigger for controlling the flow of air to the air cylinder and to a chopper mounted on the gun. The air control valve includes a rod which slides along a valve chamber and which has a cutout which moves progressively along the chamber to couple the air cylinder to an exhaust passage or pressured air source, and to couple the pressured air source to the chopper while also coupling the air source to the air cylinder. The material to be sprayed passes through two widely spaced tubes that extend to a valve plate near the front of the gun, the valve plate having lateral passageways extending to two more-closely spaced valve seats. A pair of valve closing rods or members extending from an air piston to move against and away from the valve seats. A nozzle plate at the front of the gun can be turned to a plurality of different precise positions to enable a workman to choose any of a plurality of sets of nozzles, by merely loosening a screw and retightening it. The entire spray gun assembly is not only easily operated, but it encloses most of the operating parts within a relatively smooth body and provides for attachment of the chopper without flexible hoses leading thereto, to provide a neat appearance and to help maintain all parts of the gun in a clean condition.

Although particular embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated herein, it is recognized that modifications and variations may readily occur to those skilled in the art and consequently, it is intended that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents .