Patent Publication Number: US-8123151-B2

Title: Sprinkling gun structure

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is related to a sprinkling gun including an adjustment member, a controlling member having a water-checking section and a water intake, and a water-guiding member having a watertight sleeve. The controlling member is drivable by the adjustment member to cooperate with the water-guiding member in shutting off/turning on the water flow. The adjustment member can be operated with less strength to micro-adjust the amount of the water flow. In addition, the components of the sprinkling gun can be easily and quickly assembled. 
     A conventional gardening-used sprinkling gun is generally equipped with a lever. In use, a user holds both the handle and the lever of the sprinkling gun and exert a pressing force onto the lever to sprinkle water. The amount of the sprinkled water is controlled by the pressing force applied to lever. After a long period of holding, the user&#39;s hand often suffers fatigue and pain. Under such circumstance, it will become difficult for the user to stably hold the handle with a true strength. As a result, the amount of the sprinkled water will randomly vary out of control. Therefore, it is inconvenient to use such sprinkling gun. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a sprinkling gun of which the components can be easily and quickly assembled. 
     It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above sprinkling gun including an adjustment member, a controlling member having a water-checking section and a water intake, and a water-guiding member having a watertight sleeve. The controlling member is drivable by the adjustment member to cooperate with the water-guiding member in shutting off/turning on the water flow and micro-adjusting the amount of the water flow. 
     It is still a further object of the present invention to provide the above sprinkling gun in which the watertight sleeve is fitted on a bottom end of the water-guiding member and has a first water-sealing section and a second water-sealing section. The first water-sealing section tightly abuts against the water-checking section of the controlling member, while the second water-sealing section tightly abuts against an inner wall face of an adaptation hole of the main body of the sprinkling gun. Therefore, in a shutoff state, the water is double-sealed to achieve a true leakproof effect. In addition, the frictional area between the controlling member and the watertight sleeve is reduced so that the adjustment member can be easily operated with less strength to drive the controlling member for shutting off/turning on the water flow and micro-adjusting the amount of the water flow. 
     The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein: 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective exploded view of a first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective exploded view of the controlling member and adjustment member of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective sectional view of the water-guiding member of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective enlarged view of the watertight sleeve of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective sectional view of the watertight sleeve of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a perspective assembled view of the first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  is a longitudinal sectional assembled view of the first embodiment of the present invention in a shutoff state; 
         FIG. 8  is a longitudinal sectional assembled view of the first embodiment of the present invention in a turn-on state according to  FIG. 7 ; 
         FIG. 9  is a perspective exploded view of a second embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 10  is a perspective exploded view of the controlling member and adjustment member of the second embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1  as well as  FIGS. 2 to 5 . The sprinkling gun structure of the present invention includes a main body  10 , a controlling member  20 , an adjustment member  30 , a water-guiding member  40  and a sprinkling head  50  having an inner thread section  51 . One end of the main body  10  is formed with a water inlet  11  having an inner thread section. The other end of the main body  10  is formed with a trumpet-shaped adaptation hole  12  opposite to the water inlet  11 . An annular stopper shoulder section  13  upward extends from the adaptation hole  12 . A fitting section  14  with larger diameter upward extends from the shoulder section  13 . Several longitudinal ribs  141  are formed on inner wall face of the fitting section  14 . An assembling tunnel  15  is transversely formed through the main body  10  between the water inlet  11  and the adaptation hole  12  to communicate therewith. Two stopper sinks  151  with larger diameter are respectively formed at two ends of the assembling tunnel  15 . One end of the controlling member  20  is formed with a fitting section  21  with smaller diameter, to which a sealing cap  22  is adapted. Another end of the controlling member  20  is formed with an annular groove  23  in which a watertight ring  231  is inlaid. In addition, the other end of the controlling member  20  has a stopper section  24  with larger diameter. Two projecting blocks  241  are respectively formed on two sides of the stopper section  24 . The other end of the controlling member  20  serves as another fitting section. A water intake  25  is formed at a middle portion of the controlling member  20 . Two least one arced plate-like water-checking section  251  are symmetrically disposed on two sides of the water intake  25  along a circumference thereof. The fitting section  21  is a tubular section formed with two symmetrical adaptation planes  211  and two symmetrical hook-shaped resilient tongues  212 . Two adaptation planes  221  and two windows  222  are symmetrically disposed on an inner wall of the sealing cap  22  and respectively adapted to the adaptation planes  211  and resilient tongues  212 . An annular groove  223  is formed on outer wall face of the sealing cap  22  and a watertight ring  224  is inlaid in the annular groove  223 . A stopper section  225  with larger diameter is formed at one end of the sealing cap  22 . Two projecting blocks  226  are respectively formed on two sides of the stopper section  225 . The adjustment member  30  is a U-shaped member defining a holding space  31  adapted to the main body  10 . The free ends of two arms of the adjustment member  30  are respectively formed with two stop seats  33  each defining a stepped fitting hole  32 . Two notches  34  are symmetrically formed on two sides of each stop seat  33 . The water-guiding member  40  is formed with a central water conduit  41 . Two engaging ribs  42  are symmetrically formed on outer wall face of lower section of the water-guiding member  40 . A substantially U-shaped bulged fitted section  43  is formed on middle section of the water-guiding member  40  to define a stepped locating seat  431 . Two V-shaped engaging notches  432  are symmetrically formed on outer circumference of the fitted section  43 . A downward tapered section  433  is formed on upper portion of the fitted section  43 . An outer thread section  44  with smaller diameter is formed above the locating seat  431  for screwing with the sprinkling head  50 . An annular groove  45  is formed above the outer thread section  44 , in which a watertight ring  451  is inlaid. At least one water outlet  46  is formed on a circumference of upper end of the water-guiding member  40  to communicate with the water conduit  41 . A pushpin-like water-figuring head  47  is assembled with the top of the water-guiding member  40 . In addition, a soft watertight sleeve  48  is fitted with the water-guiding member  40 . The soft watertight sleeve  48  is formed with a water passage. Recesses  481  are symmetrically formed on inner face of the soft watertight sleeve  48 . The engaging ribs  42  of the water-guiding member  40  are chucked in the recesses  481  to fit the soft watertight sleeve  48  on the water-guiding member  40 . One end of the soft watertight sleeve  48  is formed with a concaved attaching face  482  adapted to the water-checking section  251 . A first water-sealing section  483  integrally swells from the concaved attaching face  482 . In addition, the soft watertight sleeve  48  has a downward tapered section  484  extending from the concaved attaching face  482 . A second water-sealing section  485  is integrally positioned on the tapered section  484 . 
     When assembled, as shown in  FIGS. 6 and 7 , one side of the main body  10  is fitted into the holding space  31  of the adjustment member  30  with the fitting holes  32  right positioned on two sides of the assembling tunnel  15 . The controlling member  20  is rotatably fitted through one fitting hole  32  into the assembling tunnel  15  with the stopper section  24  abutting against the stop seat  33 . At this time, the projecting blocks  241  are chucked in the notches  34  and the water-checking sections  251  and the water intake  25  are right positioned between the water inlet  11  and the adaptation hole  12 . Then the sealing cap  22  is rotatably fitted through the other fitting hole  32  into the assembling tunnel  15  and fitted with the fitting section  21 . At this time, the resilient tongues  212  are resiliently trapped in the windows  222  and the adaptation faces  211  and the adaptation faces  221  attach to each other to restrict each other. The stopper section  225  abuts against the stop seat  33  and the projecting blocks  226  are chucked in the notches  34 . The watertight ring  231  of the controlling member  20  and the watertight ring  224  of the sealing cap  22  watertight abut against inner wall faces of two ends of the assembling tunnel  15  so as to avoid leakage. Then the water-guiding member  40  is fitted into the fitting section  14  with the ribs  141  chucked and located in the engaging notches  432  of the fitted section  43 . At this time, the water-guiding member  40  just abuts against the stopper shoulder section  13  and is retained. Also, the tapered section  433  is tightly fitted in the fitting section  14 . In addition, the tapered section  484  and the second water-sealing section  485  of the watertight sleeve  48  are tightly fitted in the adaptation hole  12 . The concaved attaching face  482  is adapted to the water-checking section  251  so that the first water-sealing section  483  just tightly attaches to the surface of the water-checking section  251  to shut off the water flow. In addition, a punching force is applied to the end face of the fitting section  14  to rivet the fitting section  14  with the locating seat  431  of the fitted section  43 . Under such circumstance, the water-guiding member  40  is fixedly restricted within the fitting section  14 . Then the inner thread section  51  of the sprinkling head  50  is screwed on the outer thread section  44  to form the sprinkling gun. 
     In use, as shown in  FIG. 8 , the projecting blocks  241 ,  226  of the controlling member  20  and the sealing cap  22  are respectively chucked in the notches  34  of the adjustment member  30  so that simply by means of rotating the adjustment member  30 , the water-checking sections  251  of the controlling member  20  are synchronously driven to rotate about an axis of the assembling tunnel  15 . At this time, the first water-sealing section  483  of the attaching face  482  of the watertight sleeve  48  tightly abuts against the water-checking sections  251  and watertight rings  231 ,  224  of the controlling member  20  tightly abut against the inner circumference of the assembling tunnel  15  so as to define a closed water incoming space. Therefore, not only a true leakproof effect is achieved, but also the frictional area between the controlling member  20  and the wall of the assembling tunnel  15  and the watertight sleeve  48  is reduced. Accordingly, it is more strength-saving to rotate the adjustment member  30 . In addition, when the water-checking sections  251  are rotated along with the adjustment member  30  to disengage from the first water-sealing section  483  and the water intakes  25  respectively communicate with the water inlet  11  and the water conduit  41 , the water flow can flow into the water inlet  11  through the water intakes  25  and the water conduit  41  out of the water outlets  46 . The water flow is stopped by the watertight ring  451  to flow along the inner wall face of the sprinkling head  50  and sprinkle out from the water-figuring head  47 . By means of turning the adjustment member  30 , the controlling member  20  is driven to gradually enlarge the intake angle of the water intake  25  so as to control the amount of the water flow. Therefore, the amount of the sprinkling water of the sprinkling gun can be easily micro-controlled by means of the adjustment member  30 . Also, the first and second water-sealing sections  483 ,  485  of the watertight sleeve  48  respectively tightly abut against the water-checking sections  251  and the inner wall face of the adaptation hole  12 . Therefore, in a shutoff state, the water is double-sealed. In a turn-on state, the second water-sealing section  485  still tightly abuts against the inner wall face of the adaptation hole  12 , whereby the water flow collectively flows through the water intakes  25  into the water conduit  41  to sprinkle out from the water-figuring head  47 . 
       FIGS. 9 and 10  show a second embodiment of the present invention, in which there are only one water intake  25 ′ and one water-checking section  251 ′. The water-checking section  251 ′ is a semicircular section, while the water intake  25 ′ is a semicircular sink. 
     The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.