Paintball loading device

Abstract

An adaptive, force-fed paintball loading device capable of delivering paintballs to a paintball marker against the force of gravity is disclosed. The paintball loading device preferably includes a refillable compartment that is generally an oblong elliptical container holding a plurality of paintballs. Paintballs are able to flow through an opening in the lower portion of the compartment and in between two synchronously geared counter-rotating helical augers. The geometry of flutes on the counter-rotating augers causes the paintballs in the lower portion of the container to be engaged between the augers and then pushed along a channel between the augers and out through a feed tube, which is attached to a paintball marker. A DC electric motor is used to drive the augers. A speed reduction unit is employed to reduce the motor shaft speed to a level practicably used by the synchronously geared augers. A feedback control loop and dynamic coupling element are also employed to enhance the response of the loading system to changing rates of fire of the attached paintball marker. Input signals from sensors on the paintball marker and the paintball loading device may also be employed to enhance the responsiveness of the paintball loading device to the demands of the paintball marker.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION [0001] The present invention generally relates to paintball loading devices, more specifically, it relates to a paintball loader used to forcefully deliver paintballs to a paintball marker against the force of gravity. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0002] The game of paintball usually involves the participation of two teams. Players on each team are armed with paintball markers that shoot small paint filled gelatin balls. The object of the game is for either of the teams to capture the opposing team's flag while at the same time eliminating as many of the opposing team's players as possible. An elimination occurs when a player is struck by a paintball. The paintball must rupture on the player to count as a “hit”. A “hit” on a player's equipment, such as their marker, also counts as an elimination. The game of paintball has experienced tremendous growth in technological advancements over the past several years. With the advent of semi automatic markers there arose a requ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Although all of the above mentioned patents achieve their intended purpose, they do so only satisfactorily.

There are three disadvantages to all of these designs.

Primarily, they fail to completely eliminate jamming (and hence do not eliminate the root cause of the problem).

Secondly, all are designs that still rely on gravity to effectively deliver paintballs to the breach of the paintball marker as the agitating devices only partially prevents jamming.

In the sport of paintball, a hit on the marker counts as a hit on the player, thus the added height profile is a disadvantage.

Thirdly, relying on gravity to deliver paintballs to the breach introduces an obvious limitation.

It is also incapable of effectively feeding paintballs up through a feed tube against the force of gravity and is therefore still partially dependent on gravity.

Furthermore, should a paintball break within the loader during use, cleaning out the feed mechanism is not easily accomplished.

While the loading device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232 does impart a directional force on the paintballs via a horizontally mounted rotating paddle wheel which forcibly engages paintballs, this force is insufficient to feed the paintballs reliably against the force of gravity.

Although this particular loader effectively feeds paintballs without the aid of gravity, it has four key limitations.

This particular design will not function on any other marker and thus has limited functionality.

Another major drawback with this design is speed.

By virtue of its many mechanical linkages it is not capable of the rapid rate of fire demanded by tournament players.

It is also limited in capacity, and must have additional compartments added to accommodate more paintballs.

Lastly, like many of the previously mentioned designs, it is very difficult to clean out both on and off the field.

Lastly, it also suffers from being difficult to clean out during play should a paintball break within its internals.

Although this design would appear to be effective in feeding paintballs at a reasonable rate to the marker, it has some inherent flaws.

Firstly, due to the size of the paddle wheel the frontal area is quite large, presenting an enlarged target to an opponent.

Secondly, the internals

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