PNEUMATIC PAINTBALL LOADER DRIVE
A pneumatic drive for an active paintball loader capable of supplying paintballs to a paintball marker at a sufficiently high rate that is coordinated with firing the marker using compressed gas to a provide the motive power.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a paintball loaders and, more specifically to a pneumatically operated drive mechanism for rotating a drive cone in an active feed paintball loader.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The sport of paintball war games continues to grow in popularity. During these war games, participants shoot frangible plastic balls full of a liquid dye at their opponents. The games are sometimes intensely competitive, requiring a participant to aim a gun, known also as a marker, at an opponent while pursuing, fleeing, dodging, or running for cover. Participants are excluded from further play once they have been hit and marked by a paintball. Success in the game requires the capability to fire a large number of paintballs in a short amount of time. A participant might discharge between several hundred and one thousand or more paintballs during the typical game lasting only a few minutes. Success in the game also requires player agility, which include being able to move run, dive, and roll for cover while carrying the marker.
Agitating paintball loaders are well known in the art of paintball sports, and operate by having a paintball agitator advance balls from the bottom of a loader into an outfeed tube. Active or force feeding paintball loaders are technologically advanced loaders that use battery-operated motors to forcibly drive paintballs from the loader, into an outfeed tube, and into the breech of a paintball marker. Examples of such loaders can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,213,110, 6,502,567, 6,701,907, and 6,792,933. As paintball loaders have evolved into electronically controlled devices capable of actively or forcibly feeding increasingly greater numbers of paintballs into a paintball gun, the demands upon the electric storage devices powering such loaders has increased accordingly. One problem now arising in such active paintball loaders occurs when the batteries powering the drive mechanisms become discharged, rending the paintball loader, and indeed the entire marker, effectively inoperable.
It would therefore, be a great advantage to provide a paintball marker drive mechanism using a more capable motive power supply. It is also desirable that such a mechanism utilize an energy supply already present in conventional paintball markers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pneumatic mechanism that uses compressed gas to operate the loader drive mechanism. Paintball markers typically carry substantial volumes of compressed gas in cylinders to supply the paintball marker firing mechanism. The cylinders may be recharged following each paintball game thereby providing an easily replenished source of motive power for both the marker and the loader.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pneumatically driven, active paintball loader capable of supplying paintballs to the marker at least as rapidly as the marker's firing rate. Many modern paintball markers are capable of firing up to 25 paintballs per second. The present invention receives input from the marker firing mechanism causing the drive to advance, moving paintballs to the marker inlet each time a paintball is discharged.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pneumatically driven, active paintball loader capable of supplying a quantity of paintballs to the marker sufficient to allow a participant to continue firing at a high rate for the duration of a paintball war game. A participant might discharge over one thousand paintballs during such a paintball game.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pneumatically driven, active paintball loader offering highly reliable performance. Many paintball games continue for only a few minutes during which time participants discharge thousands of paintballs. A participant with a non-functional marker is quickly “marked” and eliminated from the competition.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a pneumatic mechanism for advancing the drive cone in an active paintball loader that is compatible with a variety of known active loader designs and therefore easily retrofit as an improvement to existing designs.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a pneumatically driven, active paintball loader that is durable in construction, inexpensive of manufacture, carefree of maintenance, easily assembled, and simple and effective to use.
These and other objects are achieved by providing a pneumatic driver for an active paintball loader capable of feeding paintballs at a sufficiently high rate coordinated with firing the paintball marker using compressed gas to provide the motive power.
The advantages of this invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed disclosure of the invention, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
Many of the fastening, connection, processes and other means and components utilized in this invention are widely known and used in the field of the invention described, and their exact nature or type is not necessary for an understanding and use of the invention by a person skilled in the art, and they will not therefore be discussed in significant detail. Various components shown or described herein for any specific application of this invention can be varied or altered as anticipated by this invention and the practice of a specific application of any element may already by widely known or used in the art by persons skilled in the art and each will likewise not therefore be discussed in significant detail. When referring to the figures, like parts are numbered the same in all of the figures.
Operation of marker 10 is selectively controlled by trigger 20 which directs the admission of compressed gas, supplied by storage cylinder 30 via gas supply line 32, to a marker firing control apparatus (shown in
Referring now to
Referring now to
Rotation of drive gear 80 is transferred by drive shaft 70 to the input of slip clutch 76. Engaging structure 100, including first engaging pawl 102 is constructed of a flexible material, such as plastic, to allow the engaging structure 100 to flex slightly as the advancing shaft 94 retracts into the pneumatic cylinder 92 drawing the engaging structure across the perimeter of drive gear 80. This slight flexing is essential to enable the engaging pawl 102 to move away from the perimeter of the drive teeth 82 and slip past a drive tooth without causing the drive gear 80 to be rotated in a reverse direction. In the preferred embodiment, the advancing structure 100 is made from delrin.
Also shown in
In an alternate embodiment, return spring 96 may be removed, a second inlet opening into the pneumatic cylinder 92 added opposite end to first inlet opening 91, and a second pressurized gas pulse supplied drives piston 98 to retract advancing shaft 94 into pneumatic cylinder 94. A schematic for this alternate embodiment is provided in
In yet another embodiment, advancing mechanism 90 and drive gear 80 are replaced by a pneumatic stepper drive (not shown). The stepper drive is a commercially available item that provides a predetermined amount of rotational movement in response to a pneumatic input signal or pressure pulse. The amount of rotation provided by the stepper drive is selected to provide sufficient rational of the drive cone 60 to urge a paintball into the marker inlet 16, but not so much rotation that excessive slip of slip clutch 76 occurs. Commonly available units include those providing 90 and 180 degrees of shaft rotation when supplied with the pneumatic pulse. One preferable stepper drive is the vane type rotary actuator series NCRB1BW by SMC Corporation having a 180 degree rotation per pulse. Stepper drives generally require slightly larger gas volumes for operation compared to the preferred embodiment, but offer greater simplicity in design and improved reliability.
In
Marker firing control apparatus 200 is selectively actuated by a person using trigger 20. Firing control apparatus 200 is connected to pneumatic gas supply 30 from a regulated supply line 32. Firing control apparatus 200 directs a pneumatic firing signal to marker firing mechanism 210. It also directs pneumatic signals to marker cocking/loading mechanism 220 along pneumatic cocking line 222 and pneumatic loading line 224 to manage the position of a firing bolt within the marker. The position of the firing bolt determines when marker is ready to receive a paintball through inlet opening 16 (not shown in
Although the invention has been described in connection with specific examples and embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the present invention is capable of other variations and modifications within the scope of the invention but beyond those described herein. Changes in the details, materials, steps and arrangements of part which have been described and illustrated to explain the nature of the invention will occur to and may be made by those skilled in the art upon a reading of this disclosure within the principles and scope of the invention. The foregoing description illustrates the preferred embodiment of the invention, however, concepts, as based upon the description, may be employed in other embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as presented in the following claims.
Claims
1. A drive mechanism for use with an active paintball loader comprising:
- a drive shaft positioned along a central axis and rotatable about said central axis;
- a feeder structure positioned along said central axis and rotatable in one direction about said central axis;
- a slip clutch controlling the connection between said drive shaft and said feeder structure;
- a drive member connected to said drive shaft and rotatable about said central axis generally in unison with said drive shaft;
- a compressed gas supply; and
- an advancing mechanism moved by gas from said compressed gas supply with a controller selectively coordinating the gas supplied to said advancing mechanism, said advancing mechanism rotating said drive member.
2. The drive mechanism as described in claim 1, further comprising a paintball marker generating a signal indicating the said marker is ready to receive a paintball and sending said signal to said controller, said controller upon receiving said input signal causes a loading signal to be directed to said advancing mechanism.
3. The drive mechanism as described in claim 1, wherein said advancing mechanism is a pneumatic actuator connected to said drive shaft that causes said drive shaft to rotate.
4. The drive mechanism as described in claim 3, wherein said pneumatic actuator is a pneumatic stepping motor and said drive member connects said pneumatic stepping motor to said drive shaft.
5. The drive mechanism as described in claim 1, wherein said slip clutch is a friction clutch.
6. The drive mechanism as described in claim 1, wherein said slip clutch is a serrated clutch.
7. The drive mechanism as described in claim 1, wherein said slip clutch has a magnetic coupling.
8. The drive mechanism as described in claim 1, wherein said drive member is a generally circular planar structure having a perimeter with a plurality of ratchet teeth extending radially from said perimeter.
9. The drive mechanism as described in claim 8, wherein said advancing mechanism further comprises:
- a cylinder containing a piston;
- at least one inlet opening into said cylinder;
- an elongate link linearly movable in first and second opposing directions and having first and second opposing ends, said first end connected to said piston; and
- a first pawl and a second pawl connected to said second end of said elongate link, said first pawl and second pawl separated by said drive member and arranged to interact with said drive member on opposite sides of said perimeter, movement of said link in said first direction engages said first pawl into at least one tooth of said plurality of ratchet teeth and said second pawl at least one tooth thereby rotating said drive member in a feeding rotational direction, movement of said link in said second direction engages said second pawl into at least one tooth of said plurality of ratchet teeth and said first pawl moves past without engaging from said ratchet teeth and thereby causing rotation of said drive member in said first rotational direction.
10. The drive mechanism as described in claim 9, further comprising a spring disposed within said cylinder such that a compressed gas supplied to said at least one inlet opening of said cylinder causes said piston to move in one direction, and said spring causes said piston to move in an opposite direction.
11. The drive mechanism as described in claim 9, further comprising a first and a second opening in said cylinder such that a compressed gas supplied only to said first opening causes said piston to move in one direction, and a compressed gas supplied only to said second opening causes said piston to move in an opposite direction.
12. The drive mechanism as described in claim 8, wherein said advancing mechanism further comprises:
- a cylinder containing a piston;
- at least one inlet opening into said cylinder;
- an elongate link linearly movable in first and second opposing directions and having first and second opposing ends, said first end connected to said piston; and
- a pawl connected to said second end of said elongate link, said pawl arranged to interact with said perimeter of said drive member, movement of said link in said first direction engages said pawl into at least one tooth of said plurality of ratchet teeth thereby rotating said drive member in a feeding rotational direction, movement of said link in said second direction causing said pawl to move past without engaging said ratchet teeth.
13. In a paintball marker powered by a compressed gas supply having a firing chamber, a firing chamber inlet tube, a trigger apparatus initiating discharge of a first paintball from said chamber and introduction of a second paintball into said chamber via said inlet tube; an active loader having a container for holding a plurality of paintballs, a rotating feeder structure mounted on a bottom portion of said container, and an exit tube exiting from the bottom portion of said container and leading to said inlet tube of the paintball gun, the improvement comprising:
- a drive shaft positioned along a central axis and rotatable about said central axis;
- a feeder structure positioned along said central axis and rotatable in one direction about said central axis;
- a slip clutch controlling the connection between said drive shaft and said feeder structure, said slip clutch limiting torque transferred from said drive shaft to said feeder structure;
- a drive member connected to said drive shaft and rotatable about said central axis generally in unison with said drive shaft; and
- an advancing mechanism moved by gas from said compressed gas supply with a controller selectively coordinating the gas supplied to said advancing mechanism, said advancing mechanism rotating said drive member, rotation of said drive member being generally transferred to said feeder structure within torque transfer limits of said slip clutch, rotation of said feeder structure causing paintballs from said container to be moved into said exit tube.
14. The improvement of claim 13, further comprises an input signal generated by said marker indicating that said marker is ready to receive a paintball, said marker sending said signal to said controller, said controller, upon receiving said input signal, generates a loading signal and directs a loading signal to said advancing mechanism.
15. The improvement of claim 13, wherein said advancing mechanism is a pneumatic actuator connected to said drive shaft that cuases said drive shaft to rotate.
16. The improvement of claim 15, wherein said pneumatic actuator is a pneumatic stepper motor and said drive member connects said pneumatic stepper motor to said drive shaft.
17. The improvement of claim 16, wherein said drive member is a generally circular planar structure having a perimeter with a plurality of ratchet teeth extending radially from said perimeter, said advancing mechanism further comprising:
- a cylinder containing a piston;
- at least one inlet opening into said cylinder;
- an elongate link linearly movable in first and second opposing directions and having first and second opposing ends, said first end connected to said piston; and
- a first pawl and a second pawl connected to said second end of said elongate link, said first pawl and second pawl separated by said drive member and arranged to interact with said drive member on opposite sides of said perimeter, movement of said link in said first direction engages said first pawl into at least one tooth of said plurality of ratchet teeth and said second pawl at least one tooth thereby rotating said drive member in a feeding rotational direction, movement of said link in said second direction engages said second pawl into at least one tooth of said plurality of ratchet teeth and said first pawl moves past without engaging from said ratchet teeth and thereby causing rotation of said drive member in said first rotational direction.
18. The improvement of claim 17, further comprising a spring disposed within said cylinder such that a compressed gas supplied to said at least one inlet opening of said cylinder causes said piston to move in one direction, and said spring causes said piston to move in an opposite direction.
19. The improvement of claim 17, further comprising a first and a second opening in said cylinder such that a compressed gas supplied only to said first opening causes said piston to move in one direction, and a compressed gas supplied only to said second opening causes said piston to move in an opposite direction.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 25, 2006
Publication Date: Feb 28, 2008
Inventors: Donald Lee Kulp (Lititz, PA), Robert E. Long (Willow Street, PA), Donald A. McLean (Boiling Springs, PA)
Application Number: 11/467,456
International Classification: F41B 11/02 (20060101);