Hunter Industries Incorporated

Mike L Clark

Roger Wilby

Richard M Dunn

Don Michael Kearby

Kyle R Capen

Pine Vu

A pop-up rotor type irrigation sprinkler has a pivotable butterfly valve body located in its riser just below the nozzle. The valve body is selectively pivotable between fully open and fully closed positions by manually turning a drive member mounted in the upper end of the riser with a hand tool. The drive member is connected to the valve body with a linkage that extends within the riser outside of the water flow path to avoid adversely affecting the water stream ejected from the nozzle. The valve body has an elliptical shape and is curved in section and downwardly concave when in its closed position. Due to its curved shape, the valve body can pivot to its vertical open position in which it rests parallel with the curved cylindrical interior wall of an internal flow tube to minimize flow resistance. Due to its elliptical shape, the valve body can pivot to its substantially horizontal position in which its peripheral edges are snug up against the cylindrical interior wall of an internal flow tube in order to achieve a substantial seal. Tolerance problems that would otherwise be associated with a circular butterfly valve are avoided. The downwardly concave shape of the valve body when in its closed position and its over-the-center pivotal mounting result in the water pressure acting to hold the valve body in its filly closed position until manually pivoted to its open position.

Irrigation sprinkler with pivoting throttle valve

A pop-up sprinkler includes an outer cylindrical fixed housing for subsurface mounting and a riser reciprocally mounted in a central bore of the housing. Pressurized water causes the riser to extend and place a nozzle at its top end above the surface of the ground. A radially retractable and expandable containment ring is mounted at an outlet end of the housing and engages an annular inner shoulder of the housing for retaining a coil spring. The spring retracts the riser when the pressurized water is turned OFF. The containment ring includes a substantially rigid support ring and an elastomeric sealing ring co-molded thereto. The support ring is split to enable radial expansion and retraction due to its resiliency. The elastomeric sealing ring spans the gap between the opposite ends of the support ring. The elastomeric sealing ring has a tapered edge that extends radially inwardly to engage the riser. When the containment ring is installed in its retaining position, the elastomeric sealing ring prevents dirt and/or other debris from entering the clearance space between the outer housing and the riser that might otherwise impair full extension and/or retraction of the riser.

Co-molded split containment ring for riser retraction spring of a pop-up

A pop-up rotary sprinkler with adjustable arc limits has a memory arc mechanism separate from its arc adjustment and head reversing mechanisms for automatically returning the head to oscillation between its pre-set sector limits should its head be twisted or held against normal rotation by a vandal. The sprinkler may optionally include a throttling valve for substantially reducing the flow of water from the nozzle in the head until the head has rotated back within its pre-set arc limits. The amount of water that would otherwise be sprayed onto walkways and highways, for example, is greatly reduced, thereby eliminating safety hazards.

Rotary sprinkler with memory arc mechanism and throttling valve

A pop-up rotary sprinkler with adjustable arc limits has an arc adjustment tool engaging member slideably mouted in a guide sleeve in the head of the sprinkler that has a progressively narrowing diameter. The member includes a radially expandable and contrastable collet at the upper end thereof and a pinion gear at a lower end thereof for engaging the teeth of a bull gear for setting at least one of the end limits of the desired arc. When the tool is inserted into the member, it moves downwardly, and a pair of flanges of the tool are locked into slots in the collet. The tool cannot be removed until it is pulled upwardly to permit the collet to expand radially to allow the flanges of the tool to be pulled past a ring at the upper end of the collet.

Arc adjustment tool locking mechanism for pop-up rotary sprinkler

A sprinkler unit comprises a housing having an inlet for connecting to a source of water, a rotating head mounted in an upper end of the housing and including an outlet for distributing a stream of water outward from the housing, a passage connecting the inlet to the outlet, and a pressure responsive inlet valve including a damper mounted in the passage at the inlet, the damper controlling the rate of opening of the valve for controlling flow of fluid through the valve to the nozzle.

Rotary sprinkler with velocity controlling valve

A sprinkler unit comprises a housing having an inlet for connecting to a source of water, an outlet, passage means connecting the inlet to the outlet, a nozzle detachably mounted in the outlet for distributing a stream of water outward from the housing, and a valve in the passage selectively operable for selectively stopping flow of water through the passage means to the nozzle and an actuator operable from the exterior of the housing for selectively operating the valve.

Sprinkler unit with flow stop

A pop-up sprinkler unit for mounting beneath the surface of a soil formation includes an outer cylindrical housing for subsurface mounting, with an inner housing carrying a nozzle and drive turbine reciprocally mounted in the outer housing for extending up through a portion of the soil and pressure responsive seals disposed between the inner and outer housings for sealing at predetermined pressures.

Growing community of inventors

San Marcos, CA, United States of America

Mike L Clark