Abstract:
A paint pan for use with a paint roller is in the form of an open topped pan with a bottom, upturned ends, and upturned sides. A movable grid is located between the sides and ends of the paint pan and is normally biased to a position located a predetermined distance above the bottom of the pan. The grid may be pressed down toward the bottom of the pan upon application of a predetermined pressure, whereupon release of the pressure allows the grid to return to the first position spaced from the bottom of the pan.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
   This application is related to and claims priority from now abandoned U.S. provisional application Ser. Nos. 60/495,867 filed Aug. 18, 2003 and 60/499,218 filed Sep. 2, 2003. 

   BACKGROUND 
   Open top paint pans for use with paint rollers have challenged professional painters and laymen alike for many years. The basic problem has been that the paint roller slips and slides on the bottom of the paint pan when the roller should be rolling to properly load the roller with paint. In addition, some portions of the roller are loaded with greater quantities of paint than other portions, causing uneven application on the wall. Manufacturers have tried to address this issue by placing bumps, ridges or nipples on the bottom of the paint pan. While these efforts alleviate the problem to some extent, they do not provide a complete solution. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  is a top perspective view of an embodiment of the invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a partial rear perspective view of the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 3  is a diagrammatic flow chart illustrating details of the embodiment shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 ; and 
       FIG. 4  is a top perspective view of another embodiment of the invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
   In the various figures of the drawing, the same reference numbers are used to designate the same or similar components.  FIG. 1  is a top perspective view of an embodiment of a paint pan utilizing an adjustable grid for facilitating the even application of paint to a roller, and for facilitating the removal of excess paint from the roller. Reference first should be made to  FIG. 1 , which shows the basic paint pan  10  in the form of an elongated rectangular tray or pan  10  which may be made of any suitable material, such as aluminum or plastic. 
   The pan  10  has a flat rectangular bottom and first and second opposite ends and first and second opposite sides, which are attached at their bottom edges to the bottom of the tray and extend upwardly from it to form an open top. Each of the four corners of the tray are provided with legs  12  which assist in providing a stable platform for the tray when it is placed on a floor or other surface. 
   An adjustable grid  14 , which also has a rectangular shape designed to substantially overlie the bottom of the tray, is normally biased to a position near the top of the tray, spaced from the bottom. The grid  14  may be in any number of forms including a perforated plate, or a screen-like configuration which has sufficient apertures through it to allow paint to drop through it back into the paint pan formed by the bottom, sides and ends described above. 
   In contrast with standard paint pans, which typically have a sloping bottom in them, deeper at one end and shallower at the other, the paint pan  10  illustrated in the drawings is designed with a bottom which typically is held in a horizontal position from end-to-end whenever the pan  10  is placed on a surface supported by the legs  12 . The pan preferably is of uniform depth from end-to-end and from side to side. 
   As illustrated in  FIGS. 1 ,  2 , and  3 , the grid  14  is supported at its left-hand end (as viewed in  FIG. 1 ) on a pivot assembly by a pair of hooks  18 . The pivot assembly includes two spaced pivot arms  20  tied together by a bar  22  and pivoting on pivots  21  extending into the top ends of vertical posts  24  and  25  inserted into channels  34  and  35 , respectively, on the outside of the left-hand end of the paint pan, as illustrated on  FIGS. 1 and 2 . Normally, the arms  20  are pivoted in the counterclockwise direction (as viewed in  FIGS. 1 and 2 ) against a stop to hold or bias the movable grid plate  14  in its uppermost position near the upper edges of the sides and ends of the pan  10 , as illustrated in FIG.  1 . This is accomplished under the force of a pair of coil springs  26  and  27 , which are attached to the left-hand or short ends of the arms  20  and to hooks at the lower ends of the channels  34  and  35 , as illustrated most clearly in  FIG. 2 . The tension of the springs  26  and  27  establishes a predetermined biasing force which is to be overcome in order to press the movable grid  14  downwardly toward the flat bottom of the paint pan  10 . 
   It should be noted that when the grid  14  is pressed downwardly, the arms  20  rotate in the direction of the arrows shown in  FIG. 1  to cause the right-hand end of the arms  20  to rotate downwardly and toward the left-hand end wall of the paint pan  10  as the rotation increases. In order to hold the movable grid  14  in a horizontal position or in a position parallel to the bottom of the pan, throughout the downward travel of the grid  14 , a pair of angled guide rails  16  are provided on the inside of the right-hand end of the paint pan. The angle of these guide rails  16  is selected to cause the right-hand end of the movable grid  14 , as it moves down and slightly toward the left, to maintain that end parallel to the left-hand end attached to the ends of the pivot arms  20 . Although the guide rails  16  maintain the desired parallelism of the grid  14  reasonably well when a constant slope or angle is employed, a concave curvature of the guide rails  16  matched to the rotated path of travel of the ends of the arms  20  provides even better parallel travel of both ends of the grid  14 . 
   The relative dimensions of the paint pan shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2  are selected to permit the movable grid  14  to be pressed downwardly into contact with the bottom of the pan, or nearly into contact with the bottom of the pan. As is readily apparent from an examination of the enlarged portion of Step  70  in  FIG. 3  showing the assembly steps of the pan, the movable grid  14  is readily lifted out of the paint pan by lifting the hooks  18  from the corresponding pivots at the end of the arms  20 . 
   In order to use the paint pan  10 , the movable grid  14  initially is removed from the paint pan. All of the other parts are assembled as shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . In  FIG. 3 , a manner of removably assembling the pivot mechanism to the pan  10  is shown in Step  60 . In this step, the legs  24  and  25  are permanently pivotally attached to the pivot assembly including the arms  20  and the bracket  22 . The springs  26  and  27  are also attached to the short ends of the arms  20 , as shown most clearly in  FIG. 2  and in step  60  of  FIG. 3 . 
   The first step in assembling the paint pan is to insert the posts  24  and  25  into the corresponding channels  34  and  35  attached to the outside of the left-hand of the pan  10  as viewed in  FIGS. 1 and 2  (the right-hand end as viewed in Step  60 ). Once the pivot arm assembly has been attached, as shown in Step  60  of  FIG. 3 , the movable grid  14  is releasably attached to the pivot arms  20  by means of the hooks  18  engaging short pivots in the ends of the arms  20 , as shown in the enlarged section at Step  70  of  FIG. 3 . The next step in the assembly of the paint pan is to attach the springs  26  and  27  at their upper and lower ends to the corresponding holes or attachment hooks, which may be of any suitable type, as shown in Step  80  of  FIG. 3 . 
   After the tray has been assembled as illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the movable grid  14  may be removed or pivoted upwardly toward the left on the hooks  18  to allow paint to be poured into the paint pan  10  to the desired level. This level is selected to be below the upper or normal biased position of the movable grid  14 ; so that the grid  14  is out of contact with the paint when the grid  14  is returned to the position shown in  FIG. 1 , causing the right-hand end to rest on the upper ends of the guide rails  16 . 
   To use the paint pan, the painter presses a paint roller with a downward force onto the top of the movable grid  14  to overcome the bias of the springs  26  and  27 , pushing the grid down by rotating the pivot arms  20  in the direction of the arrows shown in  FIG. 1  and causing the right-hand end (as viewed in  FIG. 1 ) of the movable grid  14  to slide downwardly and toward the left, or toward the pivot arm end. While maintaining this downward pressure, the paint roller then can be rolled across the grid  14   loading the roller with paint, since the grid is pressed downwardly into the paint to the desired level. The length of the grid  14  is designed to assure that the paint roller which is to be used with the paint pan  10  will roll at least one complete revolution. This allows the paint roller to be properly loaded with as little as one revolution of movement. 
   After the paint roller has been properly loaded, it is lifted and pressure on the grid  14  is relaxed. The springs  26  and  27  pivot the arms  20  in a counterclockwise direction, opposite the direction of the arrows shown in  FIG. 1 . This lifts the grid  14  back to its rest or normal position above the paint in the pan  10 . With the grid in its original position, a paint roller can be rolled lightly on the grid  14  to remove any excess paint. This process is repeated for reloading the roller with paint, and then removing excess paint until the paint in the reservoir in the pan  10  is depleted, whereupon it can be replenished. 
   The retraction/pressure of the grid  14  is created by the springs  26  and  27  which hold the grid in place; and the grid  14  is kept level by the guide rails  16  on the opposite end of the pan  10 . It should be noted that a desirable design is to have the bottom of the pan  10  horizontal or level and the movable grid  14  also in a horizontal plane throughout its movement from the position shown in  FIG. 1  to the lowermost position which can be reached by the grid  14 . This assures the most even application of paint to the roller, and the most uniform removal of excess paint. The movable grid  14  is designed to maintain the plane of the grid  14  parallel to the plane of the bottom of the pan  10  for best results. 
     FIG. 4  illustrates an alternative embodiment of the invention. The paint pan  10  in the embodiment of  FIG. 4 , however, is divided lengthwise substantially at its middle by a wall or partition  82 , which is parallel to the first and second opposite sides of the paint pan  10 . The partition  82  is attached to both of the opposite ends and to the bottom of the pan  10  to form two separate reservoirs for paint in a single pan. Instead of a single movable grid, such as the movable grid  14 , two movable grids  84  and  94  are provided for each of the separate compartments formed in the paint pan  10  of  FIG. 4 . The grids  84  and  94  are attached substantially at the centers of one end to each of the two different arms  20  of the pivot mechanism, and slide on guide rails  16  (with additional guide rails on each side of the wall  82 , as illustrated in the right-hand end of  FIG. 4 ). In all other respects, the paint pan  10  of  FIG. 4  operates in the same manner as the one described above in conjunction with  FIGS. 1 and 2 ; and assembly of the paint pan  10  is the same as described in conjunction with the diagrammatic flow chart of  FIG. 3 . 
   The paint pan of  FIG. 4  allows the pan to have two different colors of paint placed in the two different compartments, if desired, for application by a narrower rollers such as the rollers  86  shown in  FIG. 4 . It also is possible to have a bifurcated roller operating off a single handle, with the two different parts  86  as shown in  FIG. 4 , if for some reason such a tool with its corresponding pattern of paint application would be desirable. 
   It would should be noted in conjunction with the embodiments which have been described that paint pan liners may be used with the paint pans of both  FIGS. 1 and 4 . This facilitates cleaning of the paint pan  10  to the same extent as for liners used with conventional paint pans. In addition, however, liners may extend the life of the paint pan  10 , since the movable grid  14 , or  84  and  94 , will slide on corresponding portions of removable paint pan liner, rather than directly on the guide rails  16  formed into the pan itself. This may extend the life of the paint pan  10  because the paint pan itself will not become worn from the sliding action of the grids  14 ,  84  or  94  sliding up and down on the guide rails  16 . Obviously, any paint pan liner, manufactured to follow the general contours of the inside of the paint pan  10 , can be used as is commonly done with paint pans of other configurations. 
   Although aluminum and plastic have been mentioned for the fabrication of the paint pan  10  and of the movable grid  14 , other materials also may be readily suited for fabricating any of these parts without changing the operating characteristics of the disclosed embodiments in any way. It should be noted that the embodiments which have been disclosed are not to be considered as limiting, but rather are illustrative of the invention. Various changes and modifications will occur to those skilled in the art for performing substantially the same function, in substantially the same way, to achieve substantially the same result without departing from the true scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.