Marker Tag Dart With Slit Cap And Air Pump Gun
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing water guns and dart guns lack a mechanism to effectively propel water-filled darts that maintain alignment and ensure efficient water release upon impact, leading to inefficient water distribution and potential leakage.
Innovation Solution
The use of a tubular flexible foam marker tag dart with a self-sealing rubber cap and slit design, combined with a toy gun featuring a water pump and air chamber mechanism, ensures the dart remains aligned and efficiently releases water upon impact through slits in the cap, utilizing inertia to squirt water out.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a water-filled dart is propelled through the air, then water delivery is achieved, but the dart tends to tumble and misalign, causing inefficient water release
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the principle of color changes by using a visible trail (described as a colored streak or smoke trail) that follows the dart's flight path. This trail provides visual feedback to the operator about the dart's alignment and trajectory, allowing real-time correction of aim and orientation. The trail acts as a visual indicator that helps maintain proper dart alignment during flight, ensuring the dart tumbles correctly and releases water efficiently upon impact.
2Reliability
If the dart cap is made sealed to contain water, then water containment is improved, but water release upon impact becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by using a pressure-sensitive cap that changes its sealing parameter based on impact force. During normal flight, the cap maintains high sealing pressure to contain water. Upon impact, the sudden increase in pressure causes the cap to automatically open or become permeable, allowing efficient water release. This dynamic parameter change resolves the contradiction between maintaining water containment during flight and enabling efficient water release upon impact.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies dynamics by designing a cap that transitions from a static sealed state during flight to a dynamic open state upon impact. The cap incorporates mechanical elements (such as pressure-sensitive seals or impact-activated openings) that respond to changes in physical conditions. This dynamic behavior allows the cap to maintain water containment during normal operation while automatically enabling water release when the dart strikes a target, resolving the contradiction between these two opposing requirements.
3Ease of manufacture
If the dart structure is simplified for ease of manufacture, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but alignment stability during flight deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies flexible shells and thin films by using a flexible dart body constructed from materials such as plastic tubing, rubber, or flexible foam. This flexible construction allows the dart to maintain its structural integrity and alignment stability during flight without requiring complex rigid internal frameworks. The flexibility enables the dart to absorb minor disturbances and maintain stable flight characteristics while keeping the manufacturing process simple and cost-effective, thus resolving the contradiction between ease of manufacture and flight alignment stability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution ensures stable flight and efficient water distribution upon impact, minimizing leakage and maintaining alignment, enhancing the gameplay experience in water-based tag games.
Implementation Method 1
a pump in communication with the water reservoir and the hose and means for pressurizing the water in the hose and forcing the same through the hose into the forward end of the dart
Implementation Method 2
an air chamber mechanism for propelling the dart forward
Implementation Method 3
utilizing inertia to squirt water out
Data Source
AI summary
Marker tag darts, dart guns therefor, and methods which allow a toy gun to receive a marker tag dart, to put water in the forward tip of the dart and to shoot the dart. The marker tag dart itself has slits in the wall of a small chamber at the front of the dart so that on impact with a target, the inertia of the water causes deformation of the tip and opening of the slits to eject water for marking the location of the marker tag dart hit. The dart guns are spring chocked, and propel the dart with a blast of air from an air pump powered by the spring. Various embodiments and modes of operation are disclosed.