Valve gun for a high-pressure cleaner

Abstract

A valve gun for a high-pressure cleaner is provided, including an inlet channel with an inlet for supplying a pressurized liquid and an outlet channel with an outlet for discharging the liquid, a valve arranged in the flow path between the inlet and the outlet, a triggering member manually movable between a rest position and a release position for opening and closing the valve, a first locking member manually movable between a locking position and an unlocking position for locking the triggering member in the rest position, and a handgrip graspable by the user. In order to further develop the valve gun such that it is easier to handle, the triggering member can be arranged at the rear side of the handgrip that faces away from the outlet, and that the first locking member can be arranged at the front side of the handgrip that faces the outlet.

Claims

1. A valve gun for a high-pressure cleaner, comprising an inlet channel with an inlet for supplying a pressurized liquid and an outlet channel with an outlet for discharging the liquid, a valve arranged in a flow path between the inlet and the outlet, a triggering member manually movable between a rest position for closing the valve and a release position for opening the valve, a first locking member manually movable between a locking position and an unlocking position for locking the triggering member in the rest position, and a handgrip graspable by the user with his hand to hold the valve gun, wherein the triggering member is arranged at a rear side of the handgrip that faces away from the outlet, and wherein the first locking member is arranged at a front side of the handgrip that faces the outlet, wherein the handgrip is constructed in the manner of a pistol grip and forms a fixed component, which is arranged between the triggering member and the first locking member, and wherein the actuation of the triggering member occurs in the direction opposite to the actuation of the first locking member.

2. The valve gun in accordance with claim 1, wherein the triggering member is mounted so as to be pivotable about a first pivot axis.

3. The valve gun in accordance with claim 2, wherein the handgrip has an upper end region allocated to the thumb and the index finger of the user and a lower end region facing away from the upper end region, the first pivot axis being arranged in the lower end region.

4. The valve gun in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first locking member is mounted so as to be pivotable about a second pivot axis.

5. The valve gun in accordance with claim 4, wherein the handgrip has an upper end region allocated to the thumb and the index finger of the user and a lower end region facing away from the upper end region, the second pivot axis being arranged in the upper end region.

6. The valve gun in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first locking member comprises an actuating arm and a locking arm, the actuating arm, in the locking position of the first locking member, protruding from the front side of the handgrip, and the locking arm, in the locking position of the first locking member, blocking movement of the triggering member from the rest position to the release position.

7. The valve gun in accordance with claim 6, wherein the locking arm has a freely rotatable roller at its free end.

8. The valve gun in accordance with claim 6, wherein the locking arm, in the unlocking position of the first locking member, extends into a recess of the triggering member.

9. The valve gun in accordance with claim 1, wherein the valve gun comprises a second locking member which is movable back and forth between a locking position and an unlocking position, the triggering member being lockable in the locking position and releasable in the unlocking position by the second locking member.

10. The valve gun in accordance with claim 9, wherein the second locking member is movably mounted on a region of the triggering member which, in the rest position of the triggering member, protrudes from the handgrip, the second locking member, in its locking position, protruding from the triggering member, and, in its unlocking position, extending fully into the triggering member.

11. The valve gun in accordance with claim 10, wherein the second locking member is displaceably mounted in an opening of the triggering member.

12. The valve gun in accordance with claim 1, wherein the valve comprises a closing body which, in a closed position, lies tight against a valve seat and is adapted to be acted upon by a valve plunger with an opening force to move the closing body into an open position at a distance from the valve seat, and wherein the triggering member is coupled to the valve plunger via a coupling lever mounted so as to be pivotable about a coupling lever axis, the coupling lever comprising an actuating element via which the valve plunger is adapted to be acted upon with the opening force, and the coupling lever comprising a first and a second force receiving element, the first force receiving element being acted upon first and the second force receiving element subsequently with a triggering force when the triggering member is moved from the rest position into the release position, the first force receiving element being at a greater distance from the coupling lever axis than the second force receiving element.

13. The valve gun in accordance with claim 12, wherein the triggering member comprises a first and a second force application element, the first force receiving element being positionable on the first force application element, and the second force receiving element being positionable on the second force application element.

14. The valve gun in accordance with claim 13, wherein the first force receiving element and the first force application element form a first guide surface and a first contact element contacting the first guide surface and movable along the first guide surface, and wherein the second force receiving element and the second force application element form a second guide surface and a second contact element contacting the second guide surface and movable along the second guide surface.

15. The valve gun in accordance with claim 14, wherein the angle of inclination of the tangent of the first guide surface at the momentary contact point of the first contact element in relation to a reference line oriented parallel to a longitudinal axis of the outlet channel is smaller than the angle of inclination of the tangent of the second guide surface at the momentary contact point of the second contact element in relation to the reference line.

16. The valve gun in accordance with claim 14, wherein the first guide surface and the second guide surface are of flat configuration.

17. The valve gun in accordance with claim 16, wherein at least one of the first guide surface and the second guide surface is aligned parallel to the coupling lever axis.

18. The valve gun in accordance with claim 14, wherein the first guide surface and the second guide surface are arranged on the triggering member, and wherein the first contact element and the second contact element are arranged on the coupling lever.

19. The valve gun in accordance with claim 14, wherein the first guide surface and the second guide surface are arranged at an end face of the triggering member that faces the coupling lever.

20. The valve gun in accordance with claim 15, wherein the second contact element, in the release position of the triggering member, lies against a support surface, with the angle of inclination of the tangent of the support surface in relation to the reference line being smaller than the angle of inclination of the tangent of the second guide surface at the momentary contact point of the second contact element in relation to the reference line.

21. The valve gun in accordance with claim 20, wherein the support surface is of flat configuration.

22. The valve gun in accordance with claim 20, wherein the support surface is arranged at an end face of the triggering member that faces the coupling lever between the first guide surface and the second guide surface.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 shows a schematic side view of an advantageous embodiment of a valve gun;

(2) FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the valve gun taken along line 2-2 in FIG. 1, with a second locking member assuming a locking position;

(3) FIG. 3 shows a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 2, with the second locking member assuming an unlocking position;

(4) FIG. 4 shows a schematic sectional view of the valve gun from FIG. 1, with a triggering member assuming a rest position;

(5) FIG. 5 shows a schematic sectional view of the valve gun from FIG. 1, with the triggering member assuming an intermediate position; and

(6) FIG. 6 shows a schematic sectional view of the valve gun from FIG. 1, with the triggering member assuming a release position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(7) An advantageous embodiment of a valve gun in accordance with the invention is shown schematically in FIGS. 1 to 6 and denoted therein in its entirety by reference numeral 10. The valve gun 10 comprises a housing 12, which is formed by a first housing shell 14 and a second housing shell 15. The housing 12 has a central housing region 16 arranged between a front housing region 18 and a rear housing region 22. The front housing region 18 accommodates a valve 20, and a handgrip 24 which the user can grasp with his hand protrudes from the rear housing region 22. The handgrip has an upper end section 25 allocated to the thumb and the index finger of the user and adjoining the rear housing region 22. Facing away from the upper end region 25, the handgrip 24 has a lower end region 26 from which a guard bracket 28 extends to the front housing region 18. The guard bracket 28, the central housing region 16 and the handgrip 24 surround a grip opening 30 which the user can engage with his fingers when grasping the handgrip 24.

(8) The central housing region 16 accommodates a coupling lever 32, and arranged in the handgrip 24 is a movable triggering member which, in the advantageous embodiment shown, is configured as triggering lever 34. The triggering lever 34 is mounted on the two housing shells so as to be pivotable about a first pivot axis 36 and can be pivoted by the user with the heel of his hand from a rest position shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 via an intermediate position shown in FIG. 5 to a release position shown in FIG. 6. The first pivot axis 36 is arranged in the lower end region 26 of the handgrip 24. In its rest position, the triggering lever 34 protrudes with a rear lever region 37 from the rear side of the handgrip 24 that faces away from the valve 20.

(9) The triggering lever 34 is acted upon by a first return spring 38 with a spring-elastic reset force.

(10) The triggering lever 34 can be locked in its rest position shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. For this purpose, a first locking member 39 is arranged at the front side of the handgrip 24 that faces the valve 20, and a second locking member 40 is arranged at the rear lever region 37.

(11) The first locking member 39 is of substantially L-shaped configuration and is mounted so as to be pivotable about a second pivot axis 41. A first leg 42 of the first locking member 39 forms an actuating arm and, in the locking position of the first locking member 39 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, protrudes from the front side of the handgrip 24 that faces the valve 20. Arranged at the free end 44 of a second leg 46 of the first locking member 39 is a freely rotatable locking roller 45 which, in the locking position of the first locking member 39, lies loosely against the triggering lever 34 and prevents pivotal movement thereof. The second leg 46 forms a locking arm of the first locking member 39.

(12) When the user grasps the handgrip 24 with his hand, with his fingers he intuitively pivots the first locking member 39 against the spring-elastic reset force of a second return spring 48 to an unlocking position shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, in which the second leg 46 of the first locking member 39 extends into a recess 50 of the triggering lever 34, and so the triggering lever 34 can be pivoted from its rest position to its release position. When the user releases the handgrip 24 again, the triggering lever 34 is automatically pivoted by the first return spring 38 to its rest position, and the first locking member 39 is automatically pivoted by the second return spring 48 to its locking position, and so the triggering lever 34 is locked again.

(13) The second locking member 40 is mounted in an opening 43 of the rear lever region 37 so as to be displaceable back and forth between a locking position shown in FIG. 2 and an unlocking position shown in FIG. 3 parallel to the first pivot axis 36. Owing to its positioning in the rear lever region 37, the opening 43 is arranged behind the handgrip 24 in the rest position of the triggering lever 34. Therefore, in the rest position of the triggering lever 34, the second locking member 40, which is constructed in the manner of a bolt, can be moved into the locking position in which it protrudes with a partial region 49 from the opening 43 and lies against a rear edge 47 of the handgrip 24. The triggering lever 34 is thereby blocked and cannot be pivoted from its rest position to its release position. To release the triggering lever 34, the second locking member 40 must be fully pushed into the opening 43 so that the second locking member 40 releases the rear edge 47 of the handgrip 24. In this unlocking position, the triggering lever 34 can be pivoted to the release position without being impeded by the second locking member 40.

(14) The triggering lever 34 has at its end face 52 facing away from the first pivot axis 36 and facing the coupling lever 32 a first force application element in the form of a first flat guide surface 54 and a second force application element in the form of a second flat guide surface 56, and arranged between the first guide surface 54 and the second guide surface 56 at the end face 52 of the triggering lever 34 is a flat support surface 58.

(15) The coupling lever 32 is pivotable about a coupling lever axis 60. The coupling lever axis 60 is aligned parallel to the first pivot axis 36 and arranged on a valve housing 62 of the valve 20. At a short distance from the coupling lever axis 60, the coupling lever 32 has an adjustable actuating element 64 in the form of an adjustment screw, which lies against a valve plunger 66. The valve plunger 66 is mounted for displacement in the valve housing 62 and lies with its end facing away from the actuating element 64 against a spherical closing body 68 of the valve 20, which is acted upon by a third return spring 70 with a spring-elastic closing force in the direction towards a valve seat 72.

(16) The valve housing 62 forms an inlet channel 73 of the valve gun 10 with an inlet 74 and an outlet channel 75 of the valve gun 10 with an outlet 76. The inlet 74 protrudes from an underside 78 of the front housing region 18 and the outlet 76 protrudes from a front side 80 of the front housing region 18. A liquid supply line, for example, a pressure hose, can be connected to the inlet 74, and pressurized liquid can be supplied to the valve gun 10 via the liquid supply line. A spray lance, for example, can be connected to the outlet 76, and the pressurized liquid can be discharged via the spray lance.

(17) The valve seat 72 is arranged in the flow path between the inlet 74 and the outlet 76. When the closing body 68 is in its closed position shown in FIG. 4, it lies tight against the valve seat 72, and so the flow connection between the inlet 74 and the outlet 76 is interrupted. In its closed position, the closing body 68 is acted upon by the pressure of the liquid prevailing upstream of the valve seat 72. By means of the valve plunger 66, the closing body 68 can be lifted off the valve seat 72 against the reset force of the third return spring 70 and against the pressure of the liquid acting on the closing body 68, so that it releases the flow connection between the inlet 74 and the outlet 76. The liquid pressure prevailing upstream of the valve seat 72 in the closed position of the closing body 68 is thereby reduced.

(18) The coupling lever 32 has at its end facing away from the actuating element 64 a first force receiving element in the form of a first contact element 82 which, in the illustrated embodiment, is configured as first contact roller 84 freely rotatably mounted on the coupling lever 32.

(19) At a distance from the first contact element 82, the coupling lever 32 has on its underside facing the handgrip 24 a second force receiving element in the form of a second contact element 86 which, in the illustrated embodiment, is configured as second contact roller 88 freely rotatably mounted on the coupling lever 32. The distance of the second contact roller 88 from the coupling lever axis 60 is smaller than the distance of the first contact roller 84 from the coupling lever axis 60. Expediently, the distance of the second contact roller 88 from the coupling lever axis 60 is approximately 40% to 80% of the distance of the first contact roller 84 from the coupling lever axis 60.

(20) The distance between the actuating element 64 and the coupling lever axis 60 is preferably about 10% of the distance between the first contact roller 84 and the coupling lever axis 60.

(21) In the rest position of the triggering lever 34 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the first contact roller 84 lies against the first guide surface 54 of the triggering lever 34 or assumes a short distance from the first guide surface. When the triggering lever 34 is pivoted from its rest position about the first pivot axis 36, the first contact roller 84 rolls along the first guide surface 54 until the first contact roller 84 reaches the rear end of the first guide surface 54 that faces away from the support surface 58. The region of the first guide surface 54 in which the first contact roller 84 momentarily contacts the first guide surface 54 forms a momentary first contact point 90. With the change in position of the first contact roller 84, the position of the momentary first contact point 90 also changes. During this first phase of the pivotal movement of the triggering lever 34, the coupling lever 32 is pivoted about the coupling lever axis 60 to such an extent that the closing body 68 is lifted off the valve seat 72 and, as a result, the pressure of the liquid prevailing upstream of the valve seat 72 is reduced.

(22) When the first contact roller 84 reaches the rear end of the first guide surface 54 that faces away from the valve 20, as shown in FIG. 5, the second contact roller 88 then contacts the front end of the second guide surface 56 that faces the valve 20. The region of the second guide surface 56 in which the second contact roller 88 momentarily contacts the second guide surface 56 forms a momentary second contact point 92. When the triggering lever 34 is pivoted further to its release position, the second contact roller 88 rolls along the second guide surface 56, and the coupling lever 32 is pivoted further about the coupling lever axis 60 and thereby displaces the valve plunger 66 so that the closing body 68 finally assumes a significant distance from the valve seat 72.

(23) When the triggering lever 34 reaches its release position shown in FIG. 6, the second contact roller 88 assumes a position on the support surface 58.

(24) The first guide surface 54, as well as the second guide surface 56, forms an inclined plane. The first guide surface 54 has a first tangent 94 at the first contact point 90, and the second guide surface 56 has a second tangent 96 at the second contact point 92. In relation to a reference line 98 oriented parallel to a longitudinal axis 100 of the outlet channel 75, the first tangent 94 is inclined at a first angle of inclination 102. The second tangent 96 is inclined at a second angle of inclination 104 in relation to the reference line 98. The first angle of inclination 102 is smaller than the second angle of inclination 104. For example, it may be provided that the first angle of inclination 102 is 10 to 45, in particular, 15 to 35, whereas the second angle of inclination 104 is, for example, 55 to 85, in particular, 60 to 80.

(25) Since the first angle of inclination 102 is chosen smaller than the second angle of inclination 104, during a first phase of the pivotal movement of the triggering lever 34, the coupling lever 32 is pivoted about a relatively small pivot angle as long as the first contact roller 84 rolls on the first guide surface 54, and, subsequently, during a second phase of the pivotal movement of the triggering lever 34, the coupling lever 32 is pivoted about a larger pivot angle, as long as the second contact roller 88 rolls on the second guide surface 56. The consequence of the larger distance between the first contact roller 84 and the second pivot axis 60 in combination with the smaller angle of inclination 102 is that the user needs only to exert a relatively low actuating force on the triggering lever 34 to open the valve 20. This facilitates the handling of the valve gun 10. During the first phase of the pivotal movement of the triggering lever 34, the closing body 68 is lifted off the valve seat 72 to such an extent that the pressure of the liquid prevailing upstream of the valve seat 72 is considerably reduced, and, subsequently, the closing body 68 can be moved further into its open position with less opening force by the second contact roller 88 rolling on the second guide surface 56.

(26) When the triggering lever 34 reaches its release position shown in FIG. 6, in which the closing body 68 assumes its open position, the coupling lever 32 is supported via the second contact roller 88 on the support surface 58. The flat support surface 58 has a third tangent 105 which in relation to the reference line 98 has a third angle of inclination 106 which is smaller than the second angle of inclination 104. It is expedient for the third angle of inclination 106 to be about 15 to approximately 40, in particular, about 20 to approximately 35.

(27) Owing to the relatively small inclination of the support surface 58 to the reference line 98, only a relatively low holding force needs to be exerted by the user on the triggering lever 34 to hold the closing body 68 in its open position. The handling of the valve gun 10 is, therefore, very easy, in particular, the valve gun can be actuated by the user with low forces.

(28) The handling of the valve gun 10 is also facilitated by the triggering lever 34 being arranged at the rear side of the handgrip 24 that faces away from the valve 20 as the valve gun 10 is thereby pressed into the palm of the user's hand grasping the handgrip 24 under the influence of the recoil of the liquid discharged via the valve outlet 76. The user does, therefore, not have to clasp the handgrip 24 with his fingers with a high degree of force in order to hold the triggering lever 34 in its release position.

(29) Furthermore, the handling of the valve gun 10 is facilitated by the first locking member 39 being arranged at the front side of the handgrip 24 that faces the outlet 76. The first leg 42 of the first locking member 39 forms an actuating arm which can be pivoted by the user when grasping the handgrip 24 with his fingers to such an extent about the second pivot axis 41 that the second leg 46, which forms a locking arm, releases the triggering lever 34. The actuation of the triggering lever 34 and the first locking member 39, therefore, occur intuitively when grasping the handgrip 24, without the user having to change the position of his hand on the handgrip 24 to unlock the triggering lever 34. The valve gun 10 comprises the second locking member 40 in addition to the first locking member 39. The risk of the triggering lever 34 being inadvertently actuated can thereby be kept particularly low.