GB2148154A - Manual roller painting equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

Manual roller painting equipment comprises a roller 11 and a handle 30. The roller is rotatably mounted on an end of a feed pipe 25 having radial apertures. The other end of the pipe 25 is mounted in the handle. The handle 30 is hollow, hydraulically connected to said pipe and internally provided with a manual telescopic device 38 comprising a suction piston 39 for drawing paint from a reservoir in one movement direction 60, and for causing the paint to flow from said handle toward said roller in the other movement direction, non-return devices 35, 58 being provided for the two movement directions. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Manual roller painting equipment This invention relates to manual roller painting equipment for applying surface coatings of flowable liquid materials, normally paint but also bonding agents, insulating materials, etc.

Known painting rollers of the manual type solve the problem of painting in a simple, fast and easy manner only partly; they require in fact a considerable amount of skill for impregnating the roller with a correct quantity of paint without causing repeated drips which, besides daubing the room, do not permit to obtain a uniform painting.

Further, said rollers offer some difficulties in their cleaning, for example when changing the colour of the paint.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a roller painting equipment permitting to solve the aforementioned problems, by assuring a continuous feeding of the paint. In addition, said equipment is required to be of small dimensions, lightweight, easily handled and cleanable and not subject to cause drips when in use.

Said objects are achieved according to this invention by means of manual roller painting equipment comprising a roller having a permeable cylindrical outer member, means rotatably mounting the roller on an end portion of a feed pipe, said end portion having radial apertures, a handle, means mounting the other end of said feed pipe on the handle, said handle being substantially hollow, hydraulically connected to said pipe and internally provided with a manually operable telescopic device comprising a suction piston for drawing paint from a reservoir in one movement direction, and for causing the paint to flow from said handle toward said roller in the other movement direction, non-return devices being provided forthe two movement directions.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. lisa longitudinal eievation view, partly in section, of a roller painting equipment according to the invention, Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the assembled roller, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view, partly in section, of a cup, Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the roller, and Fig. 5 is a view of a tool for assembling and disassembling the roller.

Referring to the drawings, manual roller painting equipment 10 comprises a roller 11 and a handle 30.

The roller 11 is a cylindrical hollow roller formed by an outer permeable member 13 for example of foam material, internally supported by a thin tubular member 12 having a plurality of longitudinal slots 14 in the wall thereof, the member 13 overlapping the ends of the tubular member 12 and being inwardly bevelled to avoid paint drips and ribbiness at the edges of a rolling pass.

A pair of cup shaped members 15, for example of semirigid plastics, have "V" shaped recesses 16 in their outer lateral walls, the recesses 16 extending in the direction of the generating lines; the members 15 are suitable for snap fitting opposed one another within the tubular member 12 so as to form a chamber 17 therebetween.

Near the outer rim 18 each member 15 is slightly enlarged with respect of the lateral surface and is there provided with an outwardly ledge 19 and an internal thread 20. On the circular base wall 21 each member 15 is provided internally with a bushing 22 and externally with a seating 23 for a seal 24, both said bushing and seating being coaxial with the tubular member 15.

Within the bushings 22 is fitted an end portion of a pipe 25 which is provided with circumferentially arranged apertures 26 and an external retaining ring 27. A locking plug 29 is a snap fit into the end of the pipe, a threaded dead hole 29 being formed in the central outer portion of said plug.

Pipe 25 is "U" shaped in elevation and the other end of the pipe is secured to one end of the handle 30. The handle 30 is hollow and contains a paint feeding device. The handle 30 comprises a substantially tubular member 31 which has a closed enlarged end 51 with a seat 52 suitable for receiving therein the shank 53 of a plug 32. Said end 51 and said plug 32 are removably connected together and also cooperate as a pipe coupling to support the pipe 25 fitted in a hole 33 formed in said plug and said end. Plug 32 is internally hollow and communicates with a chamber 34 formed within the enlarged end 51 wherein a check valve 35 and an associated spring 36 are positioned, normally closing a conduit 37 directed toward the internal part of tubular member 31.

A chamber 40 is formed within the tubular member 31 and contains a piston 39 located towards one end of a hollow stem 38. The piston 39 is sealed with respect to the chamber 40 by packings 45. The stem 38 is positioned and connected in the handle 30 by a threaded locking ring 41. The chamber 40 receives paint from a reservoir (not shown) carried by the operator through a hose 42.

The free end 43 of stem 38 is enlarged and is provided with a starting seat 4 for the paint flow, said seat including means 46 preventing a hollow duct provided in said stem from being closed.

A sleeve 54 having an internal screw thread 55 and an external screw thread 56, protrudes from said portion 43 and receives internally the complementary threaded end of a hollow fitting 57, a check valve 58 being included inside said fitting.

A tubular internally threaded handgrip 59 is screwed on the external thread 56 so as to protect the hose 42 connected to the fitting 57.

A substantially cylindrically auxiliary tool 47, Figure 5, is provided at one end with a threaded spigot 48 and at the other end with an annular enlarged portion 49 from which a threaded portion 50 protrudes axially.

The above equipment operates as follows.

The reservoir (not shown) suspended for example from the operator's waist and filled with the selected paint, is connected through hose 42 to the fitting 57 of the painting equipment 10.

In the position shown in Figure 1, the operator takes hold of the handle 30 with one hand, and with the other hand takes hold of the handgrip 59 which is screwed on the enlarged portion 43 of stem 38.

The operator pulls said stem in outwardly (arrow 60), thus causing a vacuum in chamber 40 and consequently suction to draw the paint from the reservoir through hose 42, valve 58 which becomes open, hollow stem 38 to chamber 40. The volume of chamber 40 progressively increases up to the maximum capacity corresponding to the position of the locking ring 41.

As the suction operation of the stem 38 stops, the check valve 58 prevents the paint from flowing back through hose 42.

Now stem 38 is returned inside the tubular member 31 by pusing handgrip 59 toward handle 30. Such action constrains the paint contained in chamber 40 and pushed by piston 39 to flow successively through conduit 37 into chamber 34 after overcoming valve 35 and spring 36, thence through hole 33 and pipe 25 to the radial apertures 26 and finally into chamber 17.

The paint thus contained in chamber 17 and recesses 16 of the two cups 15 is under pressure, and said pressure causes the paint to spread over the internal surface of member 13 thoroughly, and to impregnate thoroughly the foam material.

The foam material causes a uniform distribution of the paint in its interior, and consequently a correct course of the ensuing painting operation. In the process of said painting operation, as soon as paint is lacking the operator repeats the above described steps to fill again with paint the chamber 40 and thus the chamber 17 under pressure.

The painting equipment constructed according to this invention permits an almost continuous painting operation with a uniform layer of paint and without drips.

It is worthwhile to note that the painting equipment 10 is easily assembled and disassembled for its setting up and cleaning, even for example when substituting the paint to change the colour.

When assembling the equipment, the pair of cups 15 are fitted manually in the tubular member 12 of roller 11, and then pipe 25 is positioned inside the two bushings 22 up to abutment of the retaining ring 27. Thereafter plug 28 is screwed onto spigot 48 of the tool 47, and plug 28 is then snap fitted in the end of pipe 25, thus locking it wihin roller 11.

By simply unscrewing spigot 48 from hole 29 of plug 28, the tool 47 is released from the painting equipment 10, and the latter is therefore ready for use.

If it is now desired to disassemble the equipment for cleaning, firstly plug 28 is removed from the end of pipe 25 following a procedure the reverse of that described above.

After removal of plug 28, the roller 11 is extracted from the end portion of pipe 25, and then the threaded portion 50 of the auxiliary tool 47 is screwed into the thread 20 in the rim of one cup 15, so as to permit extraction of said cup from the tubular member 12, since cup 15 remains connected to the tool 47.

The same procedure is followed for the extraction of the second cup 15, leaving thus the tubular member 12 alone supporting the foam wall 13; the tubular member 12 can now be easily washed and cleaned, and changed if worn-out. The painting equipment is advantageously utilized for applying paint, but is also useful for applying any bonding agent or insulating material.

The roller body can easily be washed or exchanged, or a new one can be substituted if wornout. The dimensions of the equipment can be quite small, especially for use with synthetic enamels for painting boats, window frames and door frames and other specific uses.

Also, by simple replacement of the fitting 57 with a suitable other fitting, it is possible to connect said equipment directly to a small paint container, for example a small cylinder or bottle as reservoir.

Claims (9)

1. Manual roller painting equipment comprising a roller having a permeable cylindrical outer member, means rotatably mounting the roller on an end portion of a feed pipe, said end portion having radial apertures, a handle, means mounting the other end of said feed pipe on the handle, said handle being substantially hollow, hydraulically connected to said pipe and internally provided with a manually operable telescopic device comprising a suction piston for drawing paint from a reservoir in one movement direction, and for causing the paint to flow from said handle toward said roller in the other movement direction, non-return devices being provided for the two movement directions.

2. Equipment according to Claim 1, wherein said handle comprises a tubular member closed at one end and connected to a supporting plug for said feed pipe, said one end of the tubular member has an internal chamber for hydraulic connection with a hole into said feed pipe and has non-return means for counteracting spring means, a piston in sealing engagement with and slidable within said tubular member, said piston being manually actuated from the outside by means of a stem, said piston and said stem are hollow, and said stem has means for connection to a hose or piping which is also connected to said reservoir, and non-return means.

3. Equipment according to Claim 2, including a handgrip and a fitting detachably connected to said stem, said fitting acting as connecting means to said piping.

4. Equipment according to Claim 1, wherein said roller comprises a permeable outer member of foam material, supported on a semirigid tubular member having a plurality of slots to permit the flow of paint, the paint being supplied to the roller interior through said radial apertures, said wall overlapping the ends of said tubular member and being inwardly bevelled.

5. Equipment according to Claim 4, wherein said tubular member receives and holds supporting means forthe feed pipe end portion, and said supporting means are in the form of a pair of similar cup members located opposed to one another so as to form a chamber therebetween for feeding paint to said slots, locking means are provided to lock said cup members to said pipe, and said chamber having a smaller volume than that of the chamber located in the hollow handle.

6. Equipment according to Claim 5, wherein said cup members have substantially lateral walls provided with recesses for feeding paint received from said chamber and circular base walls each provided with a bushing, said bushings being coaxially located inside the cup members, the bushings receiving the end portion of said feed pipe, between a retaining ring on the feed pipe and a locking plug.

7. Equipment according to Claim 5, wherein said cup members and said locking means are positioned in the roller and removed from the roller by means of a tool provided with retaining means liable to get loose.

8. Equipment according to Claim 1, wherein said reservoir is a cylindrical container of the bottle type.

9. Manual roller painting equipment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.