Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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The present invention generally relates to a
device for producing decorative patterns on clothing by a
method commonly referred to as splash painting~
The art of splash painting on paper is well-
known. Such devices for spinning pieces of appear to make
splash art drawings, are disclosed, for example, in U.S.
Patent No. 2,557,348, U.S. Patent No. 3,Z80,792, U.S.
Patent No. 3,323,491 and U.S. Patent No. 3,373,717.
llowever, with the increasing popularity of individualized
clothing, there is a developing market for shirts and other
clothing made by the splash art technique. One of the
important desired features of splash art clothes is that
purchasers can make the designs themselves in a short
period of time on equipment located, for example, in a
retail clothing establishment. In order to make splash art
clothes commercially feasible, a device is required that
can be easily installed in a commercial establishment, is
easy to operate by a novice, will support clothing in a
flat position, keeping paint from bleeding through to the
back side of the clothing and will protect the operator
from being splashed by paint inadvertently spun off the
clothing during the painting process.
Generally speaking, the prescnt invention
provides a device for producing decorative patterns on
clothing comprising a housing, a motor mounted to the
housing, stretcher carrier means operatively engaged with
the motor, the stretcher carries means including a first
support arm, a second support arm, a first end block
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mounted proximate to the end of the first support arm, a
second end block mounted proximate to the end of the second
support arm, means for adjustably suppor-ting the first arm
support relative to the second arm support to permit the
distance between the first and second end blocks to be
varied, a plurality of stretcher means releaseably engaged
with the first and second end blocks of the stretcher
carrier means, the stretcher means being formed of
different sizes to support vario~ts sized articles of
clothing while the decorative patterns are produced on the
clothing, cover means mounted to the housing, the cover
means including at least one port, pliable flap means
mounted to the port providing a closeable access to the
interior of ~he device to receive the nozzle portion of a
container of decorative paint to permit the application of
decorative paint to the interior of the device and allow
the decorative paint to be applied to the clothing to be
decorated from various angles, and activation means
electrically engaged with the motor and adapted to cause
the stretcher carrier means to rotate within the housing
while the paint is applied to the clothing to permit
decorative patterns to be created on clothing.
Furthermore, the present invention may be
considered as providing a device for producing decorative
patterns on clothlng, comprising in combination: stretcher
means for receiving an article of clothing thereabout and
maintaining at least a predetermined portion of the article
in stretched condition for receiving pattern producing
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media thereon, a carrier for releasably engaging the
stretcher means with an article of clothing supported on
the stretcher means and constructed to position the
stretcher means with the predetermined portion in a media
receiving position, motor means coupled in driving
relationship to the carrier for rotating the carrier to
rotate the stretcher means about a spin axis such that a
liquid coloring medium applied to the predetermined portion
of the article i9 distributed by centrifugal Eorce upon
rotation of the carrier, and housing means Eor surrounding
at least an area around the spin axis for catching and
confining any liquid thrown Erom the rotating article.
In a specific embodiment of the present
invention, directed to a device for decorating shirts, a
variable speed motor is enclosed in a housing and coupled
to rotate an adjustable stretcher carrier in the horizontal
plane. Various lengths of stretchers are provided
(depending on the size of the shirt to be painted) for
mounting into the adjustable stretcher carrier. A
transparent cover, such as a dome, fits over the motor
housing and fully encloses the stretcher carrier. A
plurality of ports are provided in the transparent dome so
that containers holding decorative paints can be inserted
through the ports to apply paints to the surface oE the
shirt, either when the shirt is stationary or when it is
rotating. By varying the speed of the motor and tlle time
at which the paint i9 applied to the shirt (during rotation
~ of the shirt or when the shirt is stationary), the type of
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design capable of being produced on the shirt can be
varied. A further feature of the preferred embodiment of
the invention i9 a disposable splash liner, removably
mounted inside the transparent cover, to catch exce~s paint
which i9 centrifugally thrown off shirts during the
painting process to prevent the
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build up of paint on the device. The liner can be periodically
discarded to clean the device. The inlet ports provided in the
transparent dome are formed with pliable plastic closures so that
wilen a paint container is not inserted into a port the port
automatically closes to protect the operator from paint inadver-
tently thrown off of a garment.
These and other objects of the invention will become more
apparent to a worker skilled in the art upon reading the following
detailed description taken in conjunction with the following draw-
ings, of which:
Fig. 1 is an external view of the device for producingsplash art clothing showing a shirt installed on a stretcher which
is mounted in a stretcher carrier;
Fig. 2 is a sectional view oE the splash art device taken
along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 showing the motor connected to the
rotating stretcher carrier in which a stretcher is mounted fitted
with a shirt about to be painted;
Fig. 3 is a side-sectional view of the device taken along
the line 3-3 of Fig. 2 showing the mounting oE the stretcher carrier
and the transparent dome in both the open and closed positions;
Fig. 4 is a view o~ a specific embodiment of a stretcher
fitted with a shirt and being installed into a specific embodiment
of a stretcher carrier;
Fig. 5 is a front view taken along the line 5-5 of Fig. 3
showing paint being applied directly to a shirt while the device is
in the stationary mode with the stretcher installed in the stretcher
carrier;
Fig. 6 is a view of a paint bottle inserted into a port in
the transparent dome of the device;
Fig. 7 is a view of decorative paint applied to a station-
ary shirt whicll is fitted on a stretcher;
E`ig. 3 is a representatiorl of the design produced by the
paint applied in Fig. 7 after tl-e shlrt was rotated in the device;
and,
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Fig. 9 shows a stretcher, fitted with A shirt, installed
into the drawer of a conventional drying oven.
Referring now to Figs. 1-5, the device for producing
decorative patterns on clothing 10, includes housing 12, formsd for
example, out of vacuum formed plastic, transparent cover 14, similar
to the type disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,393,807, formed with ports
16 to allow paint to be applied to a shirt during the operation of
device 10 and disposable splash liner 17 to keep paint from building
up on cover 14. Device 10 further includes motor 18, for example,
10 a standard single phase 120 volt AC motor, timer 20, for example, a
conventional power timer and motor control lever 22 attached, for
example, to conventional motor speed controller 23. Stretcher
carrier means 24 for holding a sl~irt or other clothing to which paint
is applied, is mounted on shaft 26. Also mounted on shaft 26 is
15 pulley 28 which is coupled to motor 18 by drive belt 30. Shaft 26
is supported by and freely rotates in bearings which are mounted at
opposite ends 29(a) and 29~b) of shaft bracket 29. The rotation of
motor 18 will cause stretcher carrier means 24 to rotate in a
horizontal plane. Stretcher carrier means 24 supports stretcher
20 means 32 having end tabs 34 and 36 onto which a shirt 40 or another
garment has been placed by slipping stretcher means 32 between the
front and rear surfaces thereof to maintain the garment in a
stretched position during decoration and prevent paint bleed through
to the back of the garment. To hold shirt 40 tightly onto stretcher
25 means 32, sleeves 42 are taped to the rear of shirt 40 by tape 44.
The length of stretcher means 32 is governed by the size of the
clothing to be decorated by device 10.
Referring now to ~igs. 4-5, stretcher carrier means 24 is
preferrably constructed so that arms 46, 48 can be adjusted to vary
the distance between end blocks 50, 52, depending on the size of the
stretcher means 32 to be inserted there between. Arms 46, 48 slide
relative to block 54 and arm 46 is Eorked to allow arm 48 to slide
between spaced walls 461a), 46(b). Pin 56, connectea to rod 58 and
knob 60, protrudes downward through block 54 and positioning holes
62 in arms 46, 48. Spring 63 contained in pin housing 6~ biases pin
56 in a downward direction. When knob 60 is manually pulled upward,
5 pin 56 is retracted from arms 46, 48, allowing the distance between
end blocks 50, 52 to be varied to another predetermined distance,
depending on the location of positioning holes 62. End blocks 50,
52 are formed with vertical channels 64, 66 and horizontal slots 6a,
70 respectively. Stretcher means 32 is inserted into stretcher
carrier means 24 by inserting tab 34 into slot 68, flexing stretcher
means 32 and then inserting tab 36 into slot 70. The orientation oE
stretcher means 32 in stretcher carrier means 24 is not critical, and
thus, tab 34 can be inserted into slot 70 while tab 36 is inserted
into slot 68.
ReEerring now to Figs. 2-3, and 6, cover 14 is equipped
with interlock switch 72 which allows motor 18 to be activated only
when cover 14 is in the closed position. Cover 14 is equipped with
multiple ports 16 which, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, are formed to hold
paint bottle 74 with nose 76. Ports 16 are formed with flaps 78 that
automatically close when nose 76 is removed from port 16 so that
paint inadvertently thrown off of a garment will not reach the
operator.
Referring now to Figs. 2-4, during the operation of device
10, a shirt or other garment 40 is secured onto stretcher 32, as
described above and inserted in stretcher carrier means 24. When
cover 14 is manually closed, interlock switch 72 is closed so that
motor 18 can be activated by motor control lever 22. Preferably,
motor 18 rotates stretcher 32 at about 400 RPM for proper paint
dispersion to occur on the clothing to be decorated. ~s shown in Fig.
2, decorative paint is applied to shirt 40 through ports 16 by manual
manipulation of paint bottle 74. Since the flaps 78 of ports 16 (Fig.
6) are flexible, the angle of paint spray 80 can be varied, as shown
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in phantom in Fig. 2, depending on the desired design.
Referring to Figs. 5-8, it is possible to directly deposit
decorative palnt onto shirt 56 without doing so through one of the
ports 16. Due to interlock switch 72, however, this cannot be done
while shirt 40 is being rotated. Fig. 7 is a view of shirt 40 with
decorative paint applied to it in a manner shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 8
shows the results of the paint application disclosed in Fig. 7 after
shirt 40 has been rotated in device 10.
Referring now to Fig. 9, conventional drying oven ~2 is
shown with stretcher means 32 ihstalled in drawer 84 for rapid drying
of the decorative paint on shirt 40. Shirt 40 remains on stretcller
means 32 throughout the entire production process, includlng the
drying stage, so that the possibility of either bleed through of the
paint or smearing of the paint through handling of the shirt is
eliminated.
While what has been described is the presently preferred
embodiment of the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in
the art that modifications and changes can be made to the invention
while keeping within the spirit and scope thereof which is set forth
in the appended claims.
