ABRASIVE BLASTING DEVICE

Description

(b) CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not Applicable

(c) STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not Applicable

(d) THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

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(e) INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM

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(f) STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR

Not Applicable

(g) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

The disclosure relates to abrasive blasting devices and more particularly pertains to a new abrasive blasting device for blasting abrasives from a portable container.

(2) Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98.

The prior art discloses various devices using pressurized gas for emitting abrasives at speed for abrasive blasting applications. However, the devices of the prior art typically separate the pressurized gas from an abrasive particulate media in different compartments or cause them to flow through different paths. The prior art fails, however, to describe such an apparatus which combines the pressurized gas and the abrasive particulate media into a single chamber of a canister and uses interior surfaces within the canister to direct the abrasive particulate media to a dispensing mechanism which releases the abrasive particulate media from the canister.

(h) BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a canister which defines a chamber therein. An abrasive particulate media and a pressurized gas are contained in the chamber of the canister and are unseparated from each other. The dispensing mechanism is mounted in the top wall of the canister and is configured to selectively release the abrasive particulate media via a pressure differential between the chamber and an exterior atmosphere outside of the canister.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.

(i) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an abrasive blasting device according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a front view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is an in-use view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a cross section view of an embodiment of the disclosure taken from Line 4-4 in FIG. 2.

(j) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through 4 thereof, a new abrasive blasting device embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 will be described.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 4, the abrasive blasting device 10 generally comprises a canister 12 which defines a chamber 14 therein. The canister 12 is elongated between a top end 16 and a bottom end 18. The canister 12 comprises a bottom wall 20, a top wall 22, and a perimeter wall 24, where the perimeter wall 24 is coupled to and extends between the bottom wall 20 and the top wall 22. The perimeter wall 24 has a cylindrical shape but may have alternative shapes in other embodiments, such as a polygonal prism shape. A bottom interior surface 26 of the canister 12 slopes downwardly and inwardly from the perimeter wall 24 with respect to the canister 12.

An abrasive particulate media 28 and a pressurized gas 30 are contained in the chamber 14 of the canister 12 and are unseparated from each other. The abrasive particulate media 28 may comprise any suitable media for abrasive blasting processes and may be tailored to the application. For example, the abrasive particulate media 28 may comprise sand, metal shot, glass beads, plastic beads, baking soda, or the like. The pressurized gas 30 may comprise air, a noble gas, nitrogen, or any other suitable gas for creating a pressure differential between the chamber 14 and the exterior atmosphere.

A dispensing mechanism 32 is mounted in the top wall 22 of the canister 12. The dispensing mechanism 32 is configured to selectively place the chamber 14 in fluid communication with the exterior atmosphere such that the pressurized gas 30 is urged out of the chamber 14 through the dispensing mechanism 32 due to the pressure differential and thereby urges the abrasive particulate media 28 out of the canister 12. The dispensing mechanism 32 comprises a valve 34 and a nozzle stem 40. The valve 34 has an inlet end 36 positioned in the chamber 14 of the canister 12 and an outlet end 38 positioned outside of the canister 12. The chamber 14 is in fluid communication with an exterior atmosphere through the inlet end 36 and the outlet end 38 of the valve 34 only when the valve 34 is open. The nozzle stem 40 is coupled to the outlet end 38 of the valve 34 such that the outlet end 38 of the valve 34 is in fluid communication with the exterior atmosphere through the nozzle stem 40. The nozzle stem 40 is operatively coupled to the valve 34.

Various structures known to the art are used to operatively couple the nozzle stem 40 to the valve 34. In some embodiments, the nozzle stem 40 may be pivoted with respect to the canister 12 to create a continuous path between the chamber 14 and the exterior atmosphere via the nozzle stem 40. In other embodiments, the nozzle stem 40 may be pressed inwardly with respect to the canister 12 to create such a continuous path. A head directing the flow of pressurized gas 30 and abrasive particulate media 28 in a desired direction (e.g., laterally with respect to the canister 12) may be mounted to the nozzle stem 40. A spring or other biasing member typically engages the nozzle stem 40 to block the continuous path. In some embodiments, a trigger or other actuator may be used to open the valve 34 and release the contents of the canister 12 through the nozzle stem 40.

A dip tube 42 is coupled to the inlet end 36 of the valve 34. The dip tube 42 has a lower end 44 positioned in a lower region 15 of the chamber 14. The lower end 44 is open such that the outlet end 38 of the valve 34 is in fluid communication with the lower region 15 of the chamber 14 via the dip tube 42.

In use, the dispensing mechanism 32 is operated to release the contents of the canister 12 through the nozzle stem 40. When the pressurized gas 30 is urged via the pressure differential to be released, it urges the abrasive particulate media 28 toward the lower region 15 of the chamber 14 into the lower end 44 of the dip tube 42. From there, the pressurized gas 30 and the abrasive particulate media 28 are urged through the dip tube 42, the valve 34, and the nozzle stem 40 out into the exterior atmosphere. The bottom interior surface 26 directs the abrasive particulate media 28 toward the lower end 44 of the dip tube 42. The abrasive particulate media 28 are released at speed from the nozzle stem 40 and may be directed at a workpiece for abrasive blasting applications such as smoothing a rough surface, roughening a smooth surface, shaping a surface, or removing surface contaminants such as paint, dirt or the like.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.