Abstract:
A sprinkler apparatus  10  for providing more even coverage of a sprinkled area with water which is achieved by a different speed of rotation of a water deflector  13  relative to a water diffuser  12  in a wobbling sprinkler head. A diffuser head  11  is rotatably attached to a base  16  and has a water diffuser  12  for diffusing water passing therethrough. A water deflector  13  is rotatably attached to the rotatable diffuser head  11  for directing water emitting from the nozzle  21  through the water diffuser  12 . A viscous fluid brake  15  couples the water deflector  13  to the water diffuser  12  to vary the speed of rotation of the water diffuser  12  relative to the water deflector  13  to obtain a more even coverage of the area being sprinkled.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to an irrigation sprinkler that will apply an evenly distributed pattern of water over a given area and has a rotating water deflector deflecting water through a rotating water diffuser in a wobbling sprinkler diffuser head. 
   The present invention relates to irrigation sprinklers and especially to sprinklers of the type having a fixed nozzle directing water from a water supply under pressure against a water deflector head which deflects the water into a sprinkling pattern while forcing the deflector head to rotate. The present invention also includes a water diffuser or interrupter which uses diffuser vanes to diffuse the water passing therethrough when the vanes are placed in the water path leaving the water deflector. It has been common in the past to provide wobbling sprinkler heads to wobble the sprinkler head for a better distribution of the water being deflected. Sprinkler heads have also occasionally been provided with various types of brakes to slow the rotation of the water deflector head to prevent rotation at a high speed. 
   Typical prior U.S. patents for wobbling sprinkler heads can be seen in Applicant&#39;s U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,927 to Elliott et al. for a wobbling sprinkler head for use in irrigation systems so that instead of being rotated in a smooth rotation, a water distribution head wobbles in a rotating fashion to provide a more even distribution of water. In Applicant&#39;s Sullivan U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,960, a wobbling irrigation sprinkler head includes a magnet to provide for an initial tilt of the sprinkler head. The sprinkler head has a base for attaching to a pipe, such as in a central water supply conduit, which base has a nozzle mounted therein for directing water against a wobbling water deflecting head movably attached to the base. The water deflecting head causes the deflector to rotate and wobble. 
   In the Hunter U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,666, a stream rotor sprinkler has a rotating head and a crown configured stream deflector positioned about the spray head to deflect water spray from a nozzle in the spray head. The deflector is moved in an eccentrically revolving and rotating motion relative to the sprinkler housing and spray head in response to spray head rotation imparted by a cam on the spray head. In the Sweet U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,174, a nutating sprinkler is provided having a body portion having a nozzle on one end and a cap assembly at an opposite end. A spray plate is used to deflect and distribute water and the distribution distributing grooves are formed to rotate the spray plate which is supported on a universal joint in a manner to cause the spray plate to wobble in one direction of rotation when struck by the stream emitted from the nozzle. This sprinkler is provided with conical gear teeth having stator gear teeth meshing with rotor gear teeth. The Sesser U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,886 is a rotary sprinkler stream interrupter. The stream interrupter is mounted loosely for eccentric rotation about the center axis and has a plurality of stream deflector fingers. This patent also provides a viscous brake or rotor motor of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. RE 33,823 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,811 and is used to slow the rotation of the rotor plate. A similar Sesser U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,307 shows a similar rotary sprinkler stream interrupter. 
   The present rotating sprinkler head is of the wobbling type which includes a sprinkler base attachable to a water supply and having a fixed nozzle for directing water therefrom against a water deflector which is rotated by the water hitting the deflector surface of the deflector. 
   The present invention incorporates the water deflector into a water diffuser head for diffusing water being deflected by the water deflector and interconnects the water deflector and the water diffuser through a viscous brake which thereby varies the speed of rotation between the water deflector and the water diffuser, resulting in a more even distribution of water over one area while eliminating a shadowing effect behind a diffuser&#39;s blades. The wobbling rotation is controlled by a set of meshing gears including a fixed set of gear teeth on the base and a rotating pair of gear teeth attached to the rotating diffuser head. An uneven number of gear teeth forces a deflection of the diffuser head while also forcing a rotation of the entire diffuser/deflector head. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the written description and the drawings in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a sprinkler head in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a cutaway perspective view of the sprinkler head of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 3  is a sectional view of the sprinkler head of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 4  is an exploded perspective view of the sprinkler head of  FIGS. 1-3 ; and 
       FIG. 5  is a sectional view taken through the base of the sprinkler with the gears partially meshed. 
   

   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   A sprinkler apparatus  10  for providing more even coverage of a sprinkled area with water is achieved by a different speed of rotation of a water deflector  13  relative to a water diffuser  12 . A sprinkler base  16  is connected to a water supply and has a nozzle  21  attached to the base  16  for directing water entering the base therefrom onto the deflector  13 . A diffuser head  11  is rotatably attached to the base  16  and has a water diffuser  12  for diffusing water passing therethrough. A water deflector  13  is rotatably attached to the rotatable diffuser head  11  for directing water emitting from the nozzle  21  through the water diffuser  12 . The water deflector  13  has a water deflecting surface  23  shaped to rotate the deflector and the diffuser head  11  with the water impinging thereupon from the nozzle  21 . A brake  15  couples the water deflector  13  to the water diffuser  12  to vary the speed of rotation of the water diffuser  12  relative to the water deflector  13  to obtain a more even coverage of the area being sprinkled. The diffuser head  11  is loosely connected to the sprinkler base  16  to allow the diffuser head  11  to tilt and rotate on the base  16 . The sprinkler base  16  has gear teeth  28  thereon and the diffuser head  11  has gear teeth  38  thereon positioned to engage sprinkler base gear teeth  28  when the sprinkler is activated and water from nozzle  21  impinges upon the water deflector  13 . The sprinkler base  16  and diffuser head  11  have a different number of gear teeth to prevent full engagement of the sprinkler base  16  and the diffuser head  11  gear teeth  28  and  38  and thereby causes a wobble in the diffuser head  11  during rotation thereof. The diffuser head  11  gear teeth  38  extend below the base gear teeth  28  so that the gear teeth partially engage only when water is directed against the water deflector surface  23  to lift the diffuser head  11  and gear teeth  38  into engagement with the base  16  gear teeth  28 . The brake  15  coupled between the water deflector  13  and the water diffuser  12  is a viscous fluid brake which has a brake disc  44  riding in a brake chamber  43  in the diffuser head  11 . Brake  15  is attached to a rotatable shaft  14  extending therefrom to which the water deflector  13  is fixedly attached. The viscous brake  15  uses a viscous fluid between the rotating brake disc  44  and the brake chamber  43  surface. An air bleed  44  in the top of the brake  15  is for bleeding air from the viscous fluid without allowing the fluid to escape during assembly of the brake. The viscous brake chamber  43  is also shaped to avoid the escape of viscous fluid around the shaft  14  extending from the brake disc  44  to the water deflector  13 . 
   DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
   Referring to the drawings  FIGS. 1 through 5 , a sprinkler  10  is illustrated having a diffuser head  11  having a water diffuser  12  thereon and a water deflector  13  attached to a shaft  14 . The shaft  14  is connected to a rotatable disc brake  15  located in the top of the diffuser head  11 . The sprinkler has a base  16  having external threads  17  for attaching to a water source. Base  16  has an opening or passageway  18  from the bottom  20  through the base and through a water nozzle  21  where it exits the water nozzle  21  through the opening  22  and directs water into a shaped deflector surface  23  on the water deflector  13 . 
   The base  16  has the nozzle  21  supporting portion  27  threadedly attached with threads  24  so as to allow the removal of the nozzle portion  27  from the base. The base nozzle portion  27  has a circular ring of gear teeth  28 . An O-ring  26  is positioned below the nozzle  21  so that when the nozzle holder  27  is attached to the base  16 , it forms a seal. Thus, a base nozzle holder  27  has the gear teeth  28  thereon and supports the nozzle  21  and is removably attached to the base  16 . The diffusion head  11  includes the diffuser  12  and a viscous brake shaft  14  for supporting the water deflector  13 . 
   The diffuser/deflector head  11  has a support bracket  34  which has snap attachments  35  for attaching to the diffuser  12 . The support bracket  34  has a plurality of arms  36  supporting a gear ring  37  having a plurality of gear teeth  38  thereon. There are a different number of gear teeth  38  on the support bracket  34  from the number of gear teeth  28  on the nozzle holder  27  so that when they are meshed, they can only partially mesh together which forces a wobble during the rotation of the diffuser  12 . 
   The viscous brake shaft  14  has a spring clip  40  and a shaft seal  41  for sealing the shaft  14  passageway  42  into the brake  15  brake chamber  43  having the brake disc  44  therein attached to the shaft  14 . Advantageously, the disc  44  has a bigger diameter than prior art brake disc and extends downward in a generally cone-like shape, as seen in  FIG. 3 , which places a portion of the brake disc  44  in the brake  45  below the shaft opening  42  into the brake chamber  43  so that in the event of a failure of the seal  41 , all of the viscous fluid within the brake chamber  43  will not leak out. The brake chamber  43  has a viscous fluid therein, such as a silicone fluid including dimethyl silicone. The brake disc  44  is placed within the chamber  43  and is held in place with a Teflon thrust washer  44  on the top side. A brake housing top portion  47  seals the brake disc  44  within the brake chamber  43  with O-ring  45 . The brake housing top  47  has a bleeder plug  48  in the top thereof which allows air to bleed from the brake chamber during assembly of the brake housing top  47 . 
   Water enters the base  16  and passes through the nozzle  21  and is directed against the deflector  13  into the deflector surface  23  which forces the deflector to rotate and since the deflector  13  is attached to the diffuser  12  through the brake  15 , the diffuser  12  is also forced to rotate with the deflector thereby rotating the entire diffuser head  11 . Since the deflector  13  is attached to the diffuser  12  through the brake  15 , it slows the rotation rate of the deflector  13  relative to the diffuser  12 . The difference in the speed of rotation thereby is constantly changing the position of the diffuser water deflecting vanes  50  relative to the motion of the water deflector  13 . The water being deflected from the deflector surface  23  passes through the openings between the vanes  50  and intermittently impinges upon them. The deflector vanes  50  diffuse the water as it passes thereby from the deflection of the water from the deflector  13 . The deflector  13  is mounted to the viscous brake shaft  14 . As the diffuser head  11  rotates, the diffuser head is pushed upwards so that the gears  38  on the support bracket  34  are lifted into engagement with the gears  28  on the nozzle holder  27  but, since an uneven number of gears are meshing, the diffuser head  11  is forced to wobble and advance rotationally. Thus, the sprinkler obtains a superior distribution of the water by the advances of the diffuser deflector head and with the different speeds of rotation of the deflector  13  relative to the diffuser  12 . 
   The gear teeth  28  and  38  are not allowed to fully mesh because of the unequal numbers of gear teeth on the nozzle holder  27  and the support bracket  34 . In one example, the nozzle holder  27  can have 18 gear teeth while the support bracket  34  can have 19 teeth which thus causes the support bracket to always be tilted to one side when the gears are meshed. The water enters the base  16  and a stream of water leaves the nozzle  21  and impacts on the deflector  13 . The deflector  13  offsets the water stream and angles it from a horizontal of between 10 and 25 degrees. The deflector groove  23  is offset from the center axis and curved radially so that the velocity of the water exerts a torsional force on the deflector as the stream impacts and exits the deflector. The deflector  13  is designed with a generally conical inlet so as to automatically reposition itself into the center of the stream even if the diffuser  13  is tilted to an unfavorable position at startup. The force from the stream of water not only causes the deflector  13  to rotate but also tips the diffuser  11  off axis from the base  16  axis, such as by seven degrees, which engages the gears underneath the stream exiting from the deflector  13 . When in a rest position, the sprinkler&#39;s diffuser head is mounted in the vertical upright position without water flowing through the unit, the axis of all parts are approximately in-line and the gears are not engaged. The support bracket  34  changes angles very slightly as it rotates due to the gear teeth engaging or disengaging and the torsional forces incurred from the stream exiting the deflector  13 . The deflector  13  is coupled to the diffuser  12  through the use of a viscous brake  15 . As the stream leaves the deflector, torque is transmitted to the viscous brake  15  through the viscous brake shaft  14 . The brake assembly is an integral part of the diffuser head  11  and is designed so as to rotate at approximately one to four RPM. It is desirable for the diffuser  12  to rotate so that there are no voids in the area sprinkled thus avoiding a leg shadow from the diffuser vanes  50 . The gearing is used to control the rotation of the diffuser  12  in such as manner that it advances one tooth per revolution of the deflector  13 . As the stream of water exits the deflector, it not only imparts torque to the brake shaft  14  but also has a side force that keeps the gear teeth engaged that are underneath the stream exiting the deflector  13 . As the deflector  13  slowly rotates, the tooth engagement between the gears follows a thrust since there is one more tooth in the support bracket  34  than in the nozzle holder  27 , one revolution of the deflector  13  advances the gear arrangement one tooth. As illustrated, there are 18 teeth on the nozzle holder  27  and 19 teeth on the support bracket  34  so that the support bracket rotates approximately 18.91 degrees per revolution of the deflector. The trajectory angle of the stream varies only slightly as the unit rotates due to the fact that there is only one water stream groove and therefore the deflector is always forcing the support bracket  34  onto the nozzle holder  27  at the same angle. 
   The invention thus creates an irrigation sprinkler that will apply an evenly distributed pattern of water over a given area to irrigate a field. The gearing is used to facilitate the unit to begin its rotational movement and to assure that the deflector  13  and the diffuser  12  and the diffuser head  11  will not slip uncontrollably in its rotation movement due to torque incurred from the water stream. The gearing on the nozzle holder  27  and a support bracket  34  are designed so that the diffuser  12 , which is attached to the support bracket  34 , rotates and assures that there are no voids in the sprinkled area. The diffuser  12  and the deflector  13  rotate at different speeds to assure even coverage over the sprinkled area. 
   The sprinkler, advantageously, has no fixed support bracket as in prior art sprinklers which have stationary legs to support the brake and in which the legs interrupt the stream as it passes, causing voids in the sprinkled area. The brake  15  slows the rotation speed for less wear and greater stream radius. The deflector  13  is coupled to the diffuser  12  through the brake mechanism  15  which allows each to rotate at a different rpm. 
   It should be clear at this time that a wobbling sprinkler has been provided which advantageously rotates the sprinkler deflector and the sprinkler diffuser together at different speeds of rotation so as to provide a greater coverage of an area being sprinkled. However, the present invention is not to be construed as limited to the form shown which are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.