Regulated fluid tap particularly useful as water trickler nozzle

Abstract

A regulated fluid tap particularly useful as water trickler nozzle includes an inlet tube, a housing enclosing the tube outlet, and a regulating member disposed within the housing and set into vibratory movement, by the flow of the fluid, toward and away from the tube outlet to close and open the outlet. The flow of the fluid is thereby regulated to a slow trickle without the need for a circuitous path or small openings which can be easily clogged. Two embodiments are described: in one, the regulating member is of ring-shape and vibrates radially of the tube; in the other, the regulating member is of disc-shape and vibrates axially of the tube. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a regulated tap for fluid conduits such as water pipes, and particularly to a tap useful as a water trickler nozzle. There are many applications for regulated taps for fluid conduits. One such application gaining widespread use is in trickle irrigation, wherein a trickler nozzle is tapped to a water supply pipe to provide a slow flow or trickle of irrigating water. The trickler nozzles presently used are generally characterised by the provision of a circuitous path or small openings for the water in order to have the water exit in a slow trickle. Such nozzles are costly to produce and easily become clogged. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In the above referenced Divisional Application, there are described fluid-flow control devices comprising a conduit member connectable to a source of pressurized fluid to be controlled and including an inlet opening, an axial passageway, and an outlet opening through which the fluid flows; and a regulating member movable towards and away from the conduit member outlet opening to close and open same and thereby to control the flow of fluid therethrough. An important feature of the devices therein described is that the face of the conduit member in which the outlet opening is formed is curved, and the face of the regulating member closing the outlet opening is also curved but with a different curvature from that of the conduit member face. The arrangement is such that the curved regulating member face diverges from the curved conduit member face outwardly from the periphery of the outlet opening formed in the latter face to provide a spacing between the two curved faces which increases from the periphery of the outlet opening outwardly thereof. Thus, as the regulating member moves away from the conduit member outlet opening, the velocity gradient produces a pressure gradient which is lower at the periphery of the outlet opening than outwardly thereof, and which therefore tends to move the regulating member towards the conduit member outlet to close same. This pressure gradient acts with the fluid force to set the regulating member into vibratory movement towards and away from the conduit member outlet opening during the flow of fluid therethrough. The present invention provides fluid-flow control devices of the foregoing type which are particularly useful as water trickler nozzles. According to the present invention, the regulating member is unattached and is freely supported so as to be freely movable with respect to the conduit member, the latter being a tube formed with the axial passageway. The device further includes a housing enclosing the regulating member and the outlet of the conduit member tube, the housing being formed with an outlet opening and the regulating member being freely movable between the tube and the housing. In one described embodiment of the invention, the tube is formed with a radial passageway extending through its wall and communicating at its inner end with the axial passageway, the outer end of the radial passageway consituting the tube outlet opening. In this embodiment, the regulating member is in the form of a ring having an inner diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter of the tube and surrounding same at the radial opening, the vibratory movement of the ring being in a radial direction with respect to the tube to close and open the radial opening thereof. In a second preferred embodiment described below, the tube axial passageway extends completely through the tube and forms an axial outlet therefrom, and the regulating member is disposed within the housing axially of the tube so as to be set into vibratory movement axially of the tube toward and away from the tube outlet.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.