MIXING STRUCTURE FOR PAINT COLORANT IN A DISPENSING APPARATUS

DISPOSITIF POUR MELANGER DES PEINTURES DANS LEUR POT

English Abstract

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for mixing a liquid colorant in a
container. A flexible cable is rotated about its length to
drive rotatable agitating structure in the container. Where
a plurality of containers, each having agitating structure
and an associated cable are used, a motor driven gear
simultaneously rotates all cables to effect rotation of the
agitating structures.

Claims

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A liquid mixing apparatus comprising:
a container for storing a supply of liquid and
having an open upper end through which liquid can be
introduced to the container;
a lid removably press fit to the container so that
the lid closes the open container end;
an agitator;
means in the container for mounting the agitator for
rotation within the container;
a flexible cable having spaced ends;
drive means for rotating the cable about its length;
means for connecting one of the spaced cable ends to
the rotating drive means to be rotated thereby;
rotating means on the lid and extending into the
container for imparting rotation to the agitator with the
lid press fit to the container; said rotating means being
disengaged and separated from the agitator upon the lid
being removed from the container so that the agitator
remains within the container and is disabled; and
means for connecting the other cable end to the
rotating means on the lid for imparting rotation from the
cable to the rotating means on the lid.



2. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 1
including a gear, and wherein there is a second container
with a removable lid and a second agitator and a second


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flexible cable with spaced ends through which the second
agitator is driven by the rotating drive means, said drive
means comprises a motor with a rotatable shaft, means for
mounting the gear on the rotatable shaft for rotation
therewith, a gear is keyed to an end of each cable and
means are provided for mounting the gears on the cable
ends in mesh with the gear on the motor shaft so that the
cables can be simultaneously rotated by the motor shaft
gear.
3. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 2
including means for individually separating and thereby
selectively disconnecting the one ends of the first and
second cable from the drive means so that the drive means
can be operated selectively with none, either one or both
of the agitators rotating.
4. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 3
further including means for dispensing liquid from each
container, a base, a turntable, means mounting the
turntable to the base in elevated relationship to a
support surface for said apparatus and means mounting the
containers to the turntable for rotation therewith so that
the containers can be selectively positioned to dispense
liquid at a desired location.

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5. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 3
wherein there is a sheath surrounding substantially the
entire length of each cable between its ends, first and
second blocks, means mounting one block fixedly on the lid
of each container, and means securing the sheath at the
other end of each cable to a block to thereby maintain a
predetermined orientation of the other cable ends.

6. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 3 wherein said
disconnecting means includes cooperating keying means on
each of the cable gears and the one ends of the first and
second cable for selective connection and disconnection of
the one cable ends and cable gears by relative movement
thereof axially with respect to the rotational axes of the
cable gears.



7. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 6 wherein there
are sheaths surrounding each of the first and second
cables, said rotating drive means has a housing with first
and second surfaces bounding first and second bores, said
first and second bores closely receiving the sheaths on
the first and second cables so as to maintain the cables
in predetermined orientations.



8. A liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 1
further including means for dispensing liquid from said
container, a base, a turntable, means mounting the
turntable to the base in elevated relationship to a




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support surface for said apparatus and means mounting the
container to the turntable for rotation therewith so that
the container can be indexed to dispense liquid at a
desired location.

9. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 1
wherein there is a deformable sheath surrounding the
cable, a block, and means for mounting the block in fixed
position on the container lid, said block having a bore to
closely accept the sheath at the other cable end to
thereby maintain a predetermined orientation of the other
cable end.

10. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 9
wherein the agitating means has a rotatable shaft, the
means for connecting the other cable end comprises a gear
on the shaft of the agitating means and a gear on the
other cable end for meshing with the gear on the shaft,
and means journal the gear on the other cable end for
rotation in the block.
11. The liquid mixing apparatus according to claim 10
wherein said first and second gears comprise bevel gears
rotatable about axes at right angles to each other.

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12. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 1 including
means for disengaging the one cable end from the drive
means to disable the agitating means.



13. The liquid mixing apparatus of claim 12 wherein said
means for disengaging comprises means for removably press
fitting the one cable end into and frictionally
maintaining the one cable end in operative relationship
with the drive means.



14. A liquid paint colorant mixing and dispensing
apparatus comprising:
a base;
a turntable;
means mounting the turntable for rotation relative
to the base about a vertical axes and in elevated
relationship to a surface supporting the apparatus;
first and second containers for retaining separate
supplies of liquid paint colorant and each having an open
end;
means mounting the first and second containers to
the turntable at locations spaced from said vertical axis
and for rotation with the turntable;
means for controlled dispensing of colorant from the
first and second containers;
first means rotatable about a vertical axis for
agitating the colorant in said first container;





second means rotatable about a vertical axis for
agitating the colorant in said second container;
a first flexible cable having a sheath and spaced
ends,
a second flexible cable having a sheath and spaced
ends:
a drive motor;
a drive gear rotatably driven by the drive motor
about a vertical axis;
first and second gears in mesh with the drive gear
and simultaneously rotatably driven thereby about vertical
axes;
means for releasably keying the one ends of the
first and second cables to the first and second driven
gears for rotation therewith so that rotation of the drive
gear can selectively rotate one, both or none of the first
and second cables about their length depending upon
whether one, both or none of the one cable ends is keyed
to its respective first and second driven gears,
said keying means including means for
interconnecting the one cable ends and driven gears upon
the one cable ends being moved vertically relative to the
driven gears in one direction and for releasing the one
cable ends upon the one cable ends being moved relative to
the driven gears vertically relative to the driven gears
oppositely to said one direction; and

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means on each of the first and second lids for
imparting rotation from the other cable ends to the first
and second agitating means,
said rotation imparting means each including means
for disengaging the rotation imparting means from the
agitating means upon the lid associated therewith being
removed from its associated container,
said rotation imparting means each further including
means for frictionally engaging the sheath on each of the
cables to maintain the sheath in a predetermined
orientation at the other cable end,
whereby each of said agitating means can be disabled
by either removing the lid on the container associated
with each agitator or by disconnecting the one end of the
cable associated with each agitator from its associated
driven gear.

12

Description

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MIXING ST~UCTURE FOR PAINT
COLORANT IN A DISPENSING APPARATUS

sackqround of the Invention

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for dispensing
colorant selectively from a plurality of containers and,
more particularly, to structure for agitating the colorant
in the containers.

Background Art
To avoid having to separately inventory different color
paints, paint retailers use a common base that is tinted
with a colorant on a per order basis. An elevated turntable
supports a plurality of containers in which the colorant is
stored in liquid form and metering structure is provided to
dispense predetermined amounts of each colorant from the
containers into the base as the desired color dictates.
To maintain uniformity from one paint batch to the
next, it is essential that the colorant in each container be
thoroughly mixed. To accomplish this, it is conventional to
equip each container with a rotary paddle which is
periodically operated to agitate the co~orant.

Summary of the Invention
~ he present invention is directed to an apparatus for
mixing a liquid colorant in a container. A flexible cable
is rotated ab~ut its length to drive rotatable agitating
structure in the container.
Where a plurality of containers with separate colorant
6upplies are used, each container has its own agitator and
a sociated cable connected to the agitator. A motor driven

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gear simultaneously ro~ates the cables, through a gear on
each cable.
Each cable has a surrounding sheath with opposite ends
connected to a fixed housing associated with the drive gear
and a block on the container to thereby maintain a
predetermined bend in the cable. Each cable drives a gear
about a horizontal axis in mesh with a gear on the agitator
rotatable about a vertical axis. The motor driven gear is
spaced below the block on the container and is rotatable
about a vertical axis. The gears on the cable ends in mesh
with the motor driven gear are rotatable about axes parallel
to the axis of the motor driven gear and spaced
equidistantly therefrom.

Brief Descri~tion of the Drawinas
Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a liquid colorant
mixing and dispensing apparatus with a plurality of cable
driven agitators for colorant containers according to the
present invention;
Fig. 2 i6 an enlarged elevation view of the colorant
mixing and dispensing apparatus of Fig. 1:
Fig. 3 i6 an enlarged, fragmentary section view of the
connection between a drive cable and an agitator on one of
the colorant containers;
Fig. 4 is an enlarged, plan view of drive structure for
the cables; and
Fig. 5 iB a section view of the drive structure taken
along line 5-5 of Fig. ~.

Detailed Description of the Drawings
Referring initially to Figs. 1 and 2, the colorant
mixing and dispensing apparatus according to the present
invention consists of a cylindrical base 10, having fixed

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thereto a disk-shaped support 12 for a turntable 14 carrying
sixteen separate cylindrically-shaped colorant containers
16, each of which is identical in construction. Bearings 17
are provided on the support 12 to smoothly guide rotation of
the turntable 14. Each container 16 has a supply of liquid
cGlorant and structure at 18 for dispensing a metered
quantity of liquid from its associated container 16.
In operation, an open can 20, or other suitable
receptacle containing a liquid base, is placed on a support
surface for the apparatus so that the can 20 is beneath the
turntable 14 in the path of the metering/dispensing
structure 18. The turntable 14 is indexed to situate the
desired colorant container 16 over the can 20. A plunger
(not shown) associated With the metering/dispensing
structure 18 i6 controlled by a vertically movable handle 22
Which iS raised a predetermined amoUnt~ gauged by a scale
24, to force a measured amount Of the colorant into the can
20 upon release Of a valve (not shown) through an associated
crank handle 26. ~he operation i5 repeated for each
required colorant until the desired proportions are
deposited into the can 20 after which the contents thereof
is mixed to produce a uniform, deslred color.
The present invention is concerned with structure for
mixing the colorant in each container 16. A rotary shaft 28
is mounted in coaxial relationship with each container and
carries a lower paddle 30 and upper paddle 32 for stirring
the colorant in the container 16 as the shaft 28 rotates.
As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the shaft 28 has a pin 34
extending therethrough at right angles to the length of the
shaft 28. The pin 34 is driven by a downwardly opening
U-8haped yoke 36 carried on a shaft 38 which is coaxial with
shaft 28. Rotation of the shaft 38 is imparted by a drive

7 ~ 1


motor 40 through a flexible cable 42 having an inner
rotatable core 44 and an outer protective sheath 45.
A lid 46 is removably press fit over the open end 48 of
each container 16. The lid 46 has a cylindrical body 50
with an upwardly facing surface 51 to which a block 52 is
secured by a bolt 54. The block 52 has a hollow 56 in which
first and second meshing bevel gears 58, 60 on the shaft 38
and cable 42 reside. The lid 46 carries a bushing 62 in
which the shaft 38 is journalled for rotation. The bevel
gear 58 is carried on the shaft 38 and resides between the
bushing 62 and a stop pin 64 and is biased upwardly into
engagement with the gear 60 by a wave washer 64.
The gear 60 has a reduced diameter sleeve 66 which is
journalled for rotation in a reduced diameter portion 67 of
a stepped through bore 68 in the block 52. The larger
diameter portion 70 of the bore 68 closely accepts the end
72 of the cable sheath 45 so that the cable 42 is held in a
generally horizontal orientation in the vicinity of the
block 52. ~ecause the cable 42 i8 flexible, the lid 46 on
the container 16 can be readily removed with the block 52 as
a unit to facilitate checking and repleni6hing of the supply
of colorant in the container 16. The U-shaped drive element
36, upon the lid 46 being removed, 61ides freely off of the
pin 34 and, upon the lid 46 being replaced, slides readily
back over the pin 34 for driving engagement therewith.
The drive for the individual cables 42 will now be
described with respect to Figs. 1, 2 4 and 5. The motor 40
is fixed to the bottom of the support 12 as by bolts 74.
Through a speed reduction mechanism 76, rotation is imparted
to the shaft 78, which is ~ournalled for rotation in bushing
80 extending vertically through both the support 12 and the
turntable 14. Supported above the bushing 80 and in fixed
relationship thereto is a gear housing 82 consisting of an

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upper, inverted ~up-shaped half 84 and a disk-shaped base
plate 86. The upper hou6ing half 84 aDd cover plate 82
cooperati~ely capture and ~upport gear~ 88 for rotation
relative thereto. The gears 88 correspond in number to the
cables 42 and each is in mesh with a central drive gear so
carried by motor shaft 78. The axes of rotation of gears 88
are spaced equidistantly from the axis of rotation of shaft
78. Each gear 88 has a cylindrical fit~ing 92 journalled
for rotation in a bore 94 in a boss 96 depending from an
upper, flat wall 98 of the housing half 84. Each fitting 92
has a blind bore 100 with a square cross section. The
fitting 92 makes keyed connection with the end 102 of the
cable core 44 60 that the cable rotates with the gear 88
about its length. The cable sheath 45 is press fit into a
reduced diameter portion 104 of the bore 94 in the boss 96
so that the cable extends generally vertically upwardly from
the gear housing 82. The gear housing half 84 and base
plate 86 are held together by bolts 106, thereby facilitat-
ing assembly and repair of the gear housing 82 and associat-
ed gears 88, 90.

Representative Drawing