US20040244787A1

US20040244787A1 - Structure of a paintball gun

Info

Publication number: US20040244787A1
Application number: US10/849,815
Authority: US
Inventors: Lien-Chao Hsiao; Yue-Shiu Hung
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2003-05-21
Filing date: 2004-05-21
Publication date: 2004-12-09

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.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

However,

current paintball gun

10 is inherited many drawbacks without practical solution. These inherent drawbacks in use are manifested as below:

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.

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.

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.

In fact, after firing the paintball pellet B out, some bit portion of the compressed gas A 1 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.

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.

Therefore, the flux of A 3′ 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

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.

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.

The other object of the present invention is to provide a ┌ Improvement in the structure of Paintball Gun┘, 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

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a conventional paintball gun. [0016]
FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the 3-way valve in the conventional paintball gun. [0017]
FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball gun. [0018]
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. [0019]
FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball gun, illustrating the firing and ejecting of the paintball pellet. [0020]
FIG. 6 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball gun, illustrating the reversing flow of compressed gas after firing. [0021]
FIG. 7 shows a sectional view of a conventional paintball gun, illustrating the “jamming” of the paintball pellet during feeding the paintball pellet. [0022]
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. [0023]
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. [0024]
FIG.[0025] 10 shows a sectional view according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG.[0026] 11 shows a perspective view of the 3-way valve according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 12 shows a sectional view according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, illustrating the status after firing and ejecting. [0027]
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. [0028]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

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 [0029] 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.
For the ejecting [0030] 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.
For the [0031] 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.
Referring to FIGS. 11 and 12 of the drawings, in operating mode of the [0032] 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.
Moreover, the firing [0033] 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.
Furthermore, before the paintball pellet B being ejected out by the [0034] 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.

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:

(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.