U.S. patent application number 10/849815 was filed with the patent office on 2004-12-09 for structure of a paintball gun.
Invention is credited to Hsiao, Lien-Chao, Hung, Yue-Shiu.
Application Number | 20040244787 10/849815 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 33493298 |
Filed Date | 2004-12-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040244787 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Hsiao, Lien-Chao ; et
al. |
December 9, 2004 |
Structure of a paintball gun
Abstract
An Improvement in the structure of Paintball Gun means to put an
additional O-ring onto the perimeter of the front distal end of the
firing plunger in order to block off the reversing flow of
compressed gas after firing and ejecting, and to enhance the
stability of to-and-fro gliding smoothly of the firing plunger as
well as to decrease the wearing and abrading of all O-rings on the
firing plunger. Moreover it prolongs the service life of the firing
plunger. Thus, it implements multiple purposes and effects
aforesaid.
Inventors: |
Hsiao, Lien-Chao; (Tainan
County, TW) ; Hung, Yue-Shiu; (Pingtung County,
TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BACON & THOMAS, PLLC
625 SLATERS LANE
FOURTH FLOOR
ALEXANDRIA
VA
22314
|
Family ID: |
33493298 |
Appl. No.: |
10/849815 |
Filed: |
May 21, 2004 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60472134 |
May 21, 2003 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
124/73 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F41B 11/73 20130101;
F41B 11/50 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
124/073 |
International
Class: |
F41B 011/00 |
Claims
1. Canceled.
2. A paintball gun comprising: (a) a barrel including an activating
tube and an ejecting tube, the tubes being disposed in parallel and
separated by a wall having a venting hole for providing gas
communication between the tubes; (b) a hand grip extending from the
barrel and having a trigger mounted therewith; (c) the activating
tube having disposed therein a control assembly and a piston
assembly for receiving and directing compressed gas through the
venting hole and into the ejecting tube when the trigger is pulled;
(d) the ejecting tube for receiving paintballs fed into the
ejecting tube by a paintball feeder, a firing plunger slidably
disposed within the ejecting tube and in engagement with the piston
assembly, the plunger including an inlet vent for receiving
compressed gas from the venting hole, a pair of intermediate
O-rings extending around the plunger and spaced on opposite sides
of the inlet vent, a front distal end and a firing hole at the
front distal end for ejecting paintballs fed into the ejecting
tube; and (e) a front O-ring extending around the front distal end
of the plunger and positioned adjacent the firing hole for reducing
friction and wear of the plunger and preventing backflow of
compressed gas into the paintball feeder after each paintball is
ejected by the plunger.
3. A paintball gun comprising: (a) a barrel including an activating
tube and an ejecting tube, the tubes being disposed in parallel and
separated by a wall having a venting hole for providing gas
communication between the tubes; (b) a hand grip extending from the
barrel and having a trigger mounted therewith; (c) the activating
tube having disposed therein a control assembly and a piston
assembly for receiving and directing compressed gas through the
venting hole and into the ejecting tube when the trigger is pulled;
(d) the control assembly includes a compressed spring, a base seat
and a striking rod, and the activating tube further includes a
3-way valve disposed therein, the valve including a transverse
orifice through which the striking rod of the control assembly is
slidably received, an exhausting orifice for directing compressed
gas to the venting hole, and a plurality of passages extending
through the valve and spaced around the transverse orifice for
receiving and directing compressed gas to the exhausting orifice;
and (e) the ejecting tube for receiving paintballs fed into the
ejecting tube by a paintball feeder, a firing plunger slidably
disposed within the ejecting tube and in engagement with the piston
assembly, the plunger including an inlet vent for receiving
compressed gas from the venting hole, a pair of intermediate
O-rings extending around the plunger and spaced on opposite sides
of the inlet vent, a front distal end and a firing hole at the
front distal end for ejecting paintballs fed into the ejecting
tube.
4. A 3-way valve for disposition within the activating tube of a
paintball gun, the valve having a transverse orifice for receiving
a striking rod therethrough and an exhausting orifice for directing
compressed gas to an ejecting tube of the gun, the improvement
comprising a plurality of passages extending through the valve and
spaced around the transverse orifice for receiving and directing
compressed gas to the exhausting orifice.
5. A firing plunger for slidable disposition within the ejecting
tube of a paintball gun having a feeder for feeding paintballs into
the ejecting tube, the plunger including an inlet vent for
receiving compressed gas from an activating tube of the gun, a pair
of intermediate O-rings extending around the plunger and spaced
therealong on opposite sides of the inlet vent, a front distal end
and a firing hole at the front distal end for ejecting paintballs
fed into the ejecting tube, the improvement comprising a front
O-ring extending around the front distal end and adjacent the
firing hole for reducing friction and wear of the plunger and
preventing backflow of gas into the feeder after each paintball is
ejected.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to the structure of paintball
gun and more particularly to a paintball gun being capable of
immensely decrease the wearing and abrading of parts, which made up
the gun. Moreover it expands the service life of each part by means
of improving in mechanism of the conventional prior art paintball
gun.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Referring to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, the convention paintball gun
10 consist of a barrel 11, a handgrip 12 and an inlet conduit 13
wherein the barrel 11 comprise an activating tube 14 and an
ejecting tube 15. Said activating tube 14 comprises a control
assembly 16 at its front distal end, which comprises a base seat
161, a striking rod 162 and a compressed spring 163.The rear breech
end of activating tube 14 is embedded a piston assembly 17, between
which and control assembly 16, a 3-way valve 18 is inserted. On the
perimeter wall of 3-way valve 18 said comprises a transverse
orifice 181 and an exhausting vent 182, where the transverse
orifice 181 said is to accommodate the striking rod 162 of the
control assembly 16 being plunged therein. The ejecting tube 15
said is parallel attached right above the activating tube 14, whose
bore wall facing the exhausting vent 182 of the 3-way valve 18, a
venting hole 151 is drilled through thereon. For the ejecting tube
15 said, at the front distal end, a paintball feeder 152 is fixed
on its perimeter wall; at the rear breech end, a firing plunger 19
is accommodated in it; in the middle section, it is connected with
piston assembly 17. The barrel 11 said comprises a handgrip 12 at
the breech bottom end, where a trigger 121 is mounted on it, and an
inlet conduit 13 at the front distal end, which is engaged with the
bore wall of the activating tube 14 in manner of same passage.
[0003] In operating mode of the paintball gun 10, a compressed gas
A (as pointed by the arrowhead in FIG. 3) will flow into the
activating tube 14 through inlet conduit 13.
[0004] Due to the transverse orifice 181 of the 3-way valve 18,
which facing the front bore of the activating tube 14, having been
hermetically blocked by the base seat 161 of the control assembly
16, the compressed gas A can not flow into the 3-way valve 18.
[0005] After the user pulls the trigger 12, the piston assembly 17
will be pushed to strike the control assembly 16 to let it move off
the hermetically contacting with the transverse orifice 181 of the
3-way valve 18. Thus, the compressed gas A can flow into the firing
plunger 19 through the venting hole 151 of the ejecting tube 15,
then fire and eject the paintball pellet B out, which is
pre-deposed in the firing plunger 19 therein.
[0006] However, current paintball gun 10 is inherited many
drawbacks without practical solution. These inherent drawbacks in
use are manifested as below:
[0007] 1. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, for the structure of the
current paintball gun 10, there is a gap between the inner surface
of the ejecting tube 15 and the outer surface of the firing plunger
19. Two O-rings 192 are wrapped on the perimeter surface at both
side of inlet vent 191 of the firing plunger 19 in order to prevent
the compressed gas A from leaking partially out of the gap said
above. By means of the O-ring 19 protrusion over the firing plunger
19, it keeps the perimeter surface of the firing plunger 19 a bit
distance away from the bore surface of the ejecting tube 15. It is
to avoid the friction in between during to-and-fro gliding of the
firing plunger 19 in the ejecting tube 15. Actually, the O-ring 192
is made of wearable materials such as rubber so that being going to
be abraded and worn out due to friction over the bore wall of
ejecting tube 15. This causes a gap between the bore surface of the
ejecting tube 15 and the perimeter surface of the firing plunger 19
and makes the compressed gas A leak partially out of the gap
wherein.
[0008] Moreover, by lacking of sufficient support of two O-rings
192 between the ejecting tube 15 and the firing plunger 19, the
bore surface of the ejecting tube 15 will be abraded and worn out
due to friction. The friction (as indicated by dash-line in FIG. 4)
is happened by the to-and-fro gliding of the firing plunger 19 with
bore wall of the ejecting tube 15.
[0009] 2. As shown in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, for the structure of the
current paintball gun 10, a paintball feeder 152 is designed to
continuously load the paintball pellet B into the ejecting tube 15
to enable the firing plunger 19 to eject the paintball pellet B
out.
[0010] In fact, after firing the paintball pellet B out, some bit
portion of the compressed gas A1 in the firing plunger 19 will run
into the paintball feeder 152 by way of front distal end of the
firing plunger 19 (as indicated by arrowhead in FIG. 6). And it
will push the next paintball pellet B up. This not only retards and
delays the paintball pellet B to feed downward into the ejecting
tube 15, but also collides the feeding paintball pellet B by the
travelling firing plunger 19 in consequence of "jamming" of the
paintball pellet B (as indicated by arrowhead in FIG. 7). More
seriously, the feeding paintball pellet B is crushed and causes the
viscose paint in pellet B to spread over inside of the paintball
gun 10. This makes the user have to clean the paint smut in the
paintball gun 10 before he can reuse it again.
[0011] 3. As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, for the mechanics in firing
process of the current paintball gun 10, by means of the striking
of the piston assembly 17 onto the striking rod 162 first and push
it a bit distance away. This moves the base seat 161 of the control
assembly 16 off the hermetically contacting with the transverse
orifice 181 of the 3-way valve 18. And the compressed gas A can
flow into the gap between the striking rod 162 of the control
assembly 16 and the transverse orifice 181 of the 3-way valve 18.
Then it flows into the firing plunger 19 through the venting hole
151 of the ejecting tube 15. However, this conventional stricture
not only limits the flux of the compressed gas A flowing into the
3-way valve, which is determined by the gap breadth between the
striking rod 162 of the control assembly 16 and the transverse
orifice 181 of the 3-way valve 18. But also it reduces the flux of
the compressed gas A flowing into the firing plunger 19 in
consequence of decreasing the ejecting pressure and power of the
compressed gas A, which acting on the paintball pellet B. Moreover,
after the compressed gas A flowing into the transverse orifice 181
of the 3-way valve 18, a partial compressed gas A2 runs into the
firing plunger 19 through the venting hole 151 of the ejecting tube
15. And another partial compressed gas A3 acts onto the piston
assembly 17 to push it to the original position. However, the flux
of the compressed gas acting on the upper portion of the piston
assembly A3' is reduced due to forward direction of the exhausting
vent 182 of the 3-way valve 18.
[0012] Therefore, the flux of A3' is not as that of the A3", which
is the compressed gas acting on the lower portion of the piston
assembly, i.e. the acting force of the A3' and the acting force of
the A3" is not equal. Thus, not only the piston assembly 17 is
pushed back to its original position in skew manner, but also the
piston assembly 17 is abraded and worn to some degree due to its
friction with the activating tube 14.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
[0013] It is the primary objective of the present invention is to
provide an Improvement in the structure of Paintball Gun, which by
means of putting an additional O-ring onto perimeter of the front
distal end of the firing plunger of the present invention, it
enhances the stability of to-and-fro gliding of the firing plunger
in the ejecting tube By sharing the friction between original two
O-rings and wall surface of the eject tube, it prolongs and
decreases the wearing and abrading of all O-rings on the firing
plunger. Thus, it reduce the possibility of friction between the
perimeter surface of the firing plunger and the bore surface of the
ejecting tube in order to extend the service life of the firing
plunger.
[0014] Another object of the present invention is to provide an
Improvement in the structure of Paintball Gun, which by means of
putting an additional O-ring onto perimeter of the front distal end
of the firing plunger of the present invention, it blocks off the
reversing flow of compressed gas into the paintball pellet feeder
through gap, which exists between the perimeter surface of the
front distal end of the firing plunger and the bore surface of the
ejecting tube, after firing, and to result in properly loading the
paintball pellet into pellet feeder. Thus, it completely eliminates
the "jamming" and "crushing" of the paintball pellet.
[0015] The other object of the present invention is to provide a
.left brkt-top. Improvement in the structure of Paintball Gun.right
brkt-bot., which by means of distributing several through holes on
the perimeter wall of the 3-way valve in manner of equal space, it
allows the compressed gas to flow into the exhausting vent of the
3-way valve without limitation of the gap breadth, which exists
between the striking rod of the control assembly and the transverse
orifice of the 3-way valve. Thus, after the compressed gas gets out
those through holes said, it can evenly act on the piston assembly
in consequence of returning to its original position smoothly and
stable without any abrading and wearing from its friction with the
activating tube.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a conventional paintball
gun.
[0017] FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the 3-way valve in the
conventional paintball gun.
[0018] FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball
gun.
[0019] FIG. 4 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball
gun, illustrating the friction between the perimeter surface of the
firing plunger and the bore surface of the ejecting-tube.
[0020] FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball
gun, illustrating the firing and ejecting of the paintball
pellet.
[0021] FIG. 6 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball
gun, illustrating the reversing flow of compressed gas after
firing.
[0022] FIG. 7 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball
gun, illustrating the "jamming" of the paintball pellet during
feeding the paintball pellet.
[0023] FIG. 8 shows an enlarged sectional view of a conventional
paintball gun, illustrating the compressed gas to flow into the
3-way valve during firing and ejecting.
[0024] FIG. 9 shows an enlarged sectional view of a conventional
paintball gun, illustrating the compressed gas to react with the
piston during firing and ejecting.
[0025] FIG.10 shows a sectional view according to the preferred
embodiment of the present invention.
[0026] FIG.11 shows a perspective view of the 3-way valve according
to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.
[0027] FIG. 12 shows a sectional view according to the preferred
embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the status after
firing and ejecting.
[0028] FIG. 13 shows an enlarged sectional view according to the
preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the
compressed gas to flow into the 3-way valve during firing and
ejecting.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0029] Referring to FIGS. 10 and 11 of the drawings, an Improvement
in the structure of Paintball Gun according to the preferred
embodiment of the present invention comprises a barrel 20, a
handgrip 30 and an inlet conduit 40, wherein said barrel 20
comprises an activating tube 21 and an ejecting tube 22. For said
activating tube 21 further comprises a control assembly 23, which
comprises a base seat 231, a striking rod 232 and a compressed
spring 233. At the rear breech end of the activating tube 21
further comprises a piston assembly 24 thereat, which comprises a
piston head 241 and a compressed spring 242. Between the piston
head 241 of the piston assembly 24 and the base seat 231 of the
control assembly 23, a 3-way valve 25 is disposed therein, which
comprises a transverse orifice 251 and an exhausting vent 252. The
transverse orifice 251 accommodates the striking rod 231l of the
control assembly 23 to be plunged therein. And, near to the
perimeter of the transverse orifice 251, several through holes 253,
which is engaged with the exhausting orifice 252 in manner of
multiple passages, spread in manner of equal space.
[0030] For the ejecting tube 22 said, it is parallel attached right
above the activating tube 21. And, it comprises a venting hole 221,
which located on its wall facing the exhausting vent 252 of the
3-way valve 25, a paintball feeder 222 at its rear breech end and a
firing plunger 26 at the perimeter of its front distal end. In the
middle section of the firing plunger 26 said, it is engaged with
the piston head 241 of the piston assembly 24 in manner of same
passage. And, it comprises an inlet vent 261, which is located on
its perimeter wall facing the venting hole 221 of the ejecting tube
22; A pair of O-rings 262, which are respectively wrapped at both
side of the outer perimeter; A firing hole 263 between the inlet
vent 261 and the front distal end of the firing plunger 26.
Besides, an O-ring 265 is wrapped on the outer perimeter of the
front distal end of the firing plunger 26.
[0031] For the handgrip 30 said, it is disposed at the rear breech
bottom portion of the barrel 20. And, it comprises a trigger 31
therewith. For the inlet conduit 40 said, it is disposed at the
front distal end of the barrel 20. And, it is connected with the
bore wall of the activating tube 21 of the barrel 20 in manner of
same passage.
[0032] Referring to FIGS. 11 and 12 of the drawings, in operating
mode of the paintball gun 20 of the present invention. After
pulling the trigger 31 and ejecting the paintball pellet B out by
firing plunger 26, the compressed gas Al flowing reverse from the
front distal end of the firing plunger 26 is blocked by the O-ring
265. And the compressed gas A1 is unable to flow into the paintball
feeder 222 by way of gap between the outer perimeter of the front
distal end of the firing plunger 16 and bore inner wall of the
ejecting tube 15. Thus, the paintball pellet B in the paintball
feeder 222 is properly loaded, and completely eliminates the
"jamming" and "crushing" of the paintball pellet.
[0033] Moreover, the firing plunger 26 in the process of to-and-fro
gliding within the bore of the ejecting tube 22, after ejecting the
paintball pellet out, the firing plunger 26 travels more smoothly
and stable in the bore of the ejecting tube 22 by using the O-ring
265 as supporting tip. And, by means of the O-ring 265 to share
evenly the friction with the existing O-ring 262, it makes the pair
of O-ring 262 enable to reduce the abrading and wearing. Thus, the
service life of the firing plunger 26 is prolonged by means of
greatly decreasing the possibility of friction between the firing
plunger 26 and the ejecting tube 22.
[0034] Furthermore, before the paintball pellet B being ejected out
by the paintball gun 20, the compressed gas A flows directly into
the exhausting vent 252 of the 3-way valve 25 by way of the through
hole 253 of the 3-way valve 25. Then, it gets into the inlet vent
261 of the firing plunger 261 finally. Thus, the flux of the
compressed gas A, which is to fire and eject the paintball pellet
B, is free form limitation of the gap between the striking rod 232
of the control assembly 23 and the transverse orifice 251 of the
3-way valve 25. And, the compressed gas A, after getting out of the
through hole 253, can evenly act on the piston assembly 24 as well
as make it return back to its original position so that completely
eliminates abrading and wearing due to friction with the activating
tube 21.
* * * * *