Rain Bird Sprinkler Mfg. Corp.

Hans D Christen

Richard D Brown

Howard E Thornton

Edward J Pitchford

David E Robertson

Charles A McMillen

Octavian P Dumitrascu

Robert J O'Neill

Mathias Plotkin

A spinner type irrigation sprinkler having a support bridge to which is coupled a spinner assembly for rotation about a vertical axis, the spinner assembly including a spinner body and an adjustable trajectory nozzle assembly with a removable nozzle member, the spinner body coupled to a brake module attached to the bridge and employing viscous fluid shear to control the speed of rotation of the spinner assembly and attached nozzle member.

Speed controlled rotating sprinkler

Rotating spinner irrigation sprinkler

Ground support stake for irrigation tubing

A mini-sprinkler stake assembly including an elongated ground penetrating stake having an adapter for permitting easy and reliable mounting and replacement of mini-sprinkler units. A new and improved mini-sprinkler unit having a novel tree deflector is also disclosed, the mini-sprinkler unit having a separable nozzle element and dual pattern deflector element, one deflector surface of which includes a recessed for producing a generally V-shaped spray pattern for effectively and efficiently watering the root zone area of a tree.

Mini-sprinkler stake assembly and mini-sprinkler unit and deflector

A constant drive nozzle for use in combination with an impulse or impact drive sprinkler includes a tubular nozzle body with a drive orifice and a range orifice formed in its outlet end. The stream issuing from the nozzle is formed into a drive stream portion and a range stream portion by the drive and range orifices. Since only the drive stream portion intercepts the drive spoon of the arm which impacts and rotates the sprinkler body, various diameter range orifices can be used in conjunction with a single diameter drive orifice without affecting the rotational speed of the sprinkler body.

Constant drive nozzle for impulse irrigation sprinklers

A continuous tube emitter comprises an elongated flexible plastic tube with internal pressure-responsive flow control units to control the flow rate of irrigation water through outlet openings in the tube. The flexible plastic tube is formed from an elongated thin film web having one or more relatively thicker valve members on one side thereof defining a plurality of valve faces, wherein each valve face includes at least one shallow drip emission groove leading into a valve reservoir of wider cross section and communicating respectively with the outlet openings cut through the web. One longitudinal margin of the web is trimmed to form laterally projecting flaps at longitudinal positions generally corresponding with the valve faces. The web is then rolled upon itself about a longitudinal axis and longitudinally seamed to form the continuous tube emitter with the flaps each internally overlying the valve reservoir and a portion of the drip emission groove of a respective valve face to define one of the flow control units. In a preferred form, the flaps include structure for maintaining the flaps in close overlying relation with the valve faces. In use, water pressure within the tube forces the flaps into engagement with the aligned valve faces to restrict and control the rate of water flow through the outlet openings.

Continuous tube emitter

A sprinkler of the impact drive type is constructed substantially of plastic and includes a separate cap which is snap-fit over a pair of upwardly extending legs from a sprinkler body to form a bridge for an impact mechanism window. Provision of the separate bridge-forming cap facilitates automated assembly of the sprinkler, and also allows protective bearing-surface shields to be formed integrally with other sprinkler components and positioned about critical wear regions of a fulcrum pin for pivotally supporting an impact drive arm. When a plastic fulcrum pin is used, these bearing-surface shields protect the pin from abrasives, such as dirt, which can otherwise become lodged between the pin and the drive arm to cause accelerated pin wear.

Sprinkler having two-piece drive arm bridge

Impact drive sprinkler

An impact drive sprinkler is provided for projecting a water stream in a generally upward and outward direction from a water supply riser. The sprinkler includes a sprinkler body formed from a length of tubing mounted for rotation on the riser wherein the tubing is bent at a selected angle to define a smooth, substantially uninterrupted flow path from the riser to a discharge nozzle. An impact drive assembly is mounted on the tubing and includes a spring-biased drive arm formed preferably from inexpensive stamped metal parts for interrupting the projected water stream at regular intervals and for impacting the tubing to rotate the tubing in increments about the riser. The drive assembly is mounted on the tubing at a position downstream from the tubing bend such that the construction and operation of the drive assembly is unaffected by the magnitude of the angular bend in the tubing.

Sprinkler nozzle

Sprinkler drive arm

An improved trickle irrigation unit is provided having a resilient valve flap within a pressure chamber to control flow of irrigation water through an outlet port. The valve flap overlies the outlet port and a shallow channel including a small central outlet groove wherein the flap, channel, and groove cooperatively define a water flow path from the pressure chamber to the outlet port. The valve flap deforms into this flow path in response to water pressure within the pressure chamber to vary the flow path cross-sectional area to correspondingly control water flow to the outlet port. In accordance with the invention, the outlet port has a relatively narrow and elongated configuration extending preferably in longitudinal alignment with the outlet groove, wherein this narrow geometry prevents excessive valve flap deformation into the outlet port which could otherwise block the downstream end of the outlet groove to interfere with proper operation of the irrigation unit.

Growing community of inventors

La Verne, CA, United States of America

Hans D Christen