Hand-held spraying apparatus

A hand-held hand-powered bottle top spraying apparatus for pneumatic spraying of a liquid, said apparatus comprising:

• a nozzle assembly, said nozzle assembly comprising a chamber for retaining a substantially unpressurized quantity of liquid available for spraying, an outlet, and a first passageway for forcing a gaseous fluid through said quantity of liquid and out said outlet;
• a first pump for pumping liquid;
• a means for attachment to a bottle;
• a supply tube extending downwardly from a bore in said means for attachment to a bottle;
• a second passageway extending from said bore to said chamber, wherein at least one one-way valve is positioned in said second passageway so that said chamber and said supply tube communicate unidirectionally from said supply tube toward said chamber, and wherein said second passageway also communicates with said first pump;
• a second pump for pumping gaseous fluid, wherein said second pump is in communication with said first passageway;
• and
• a trigger mechanism operably associated with said first pump and second pump wherein upon a single actuation of said trigger mechanism gaseous fluid is forced out said outlet, followed by a combination of gaseous fluid and liquid, followed by gaseous fluid, such that said liquid is consistently atomized throughout a single spray stroke.

A method of pneumatically spraying a viscous liquid from a hand-held apparatus comprising the steps of:

• providing a hand-portable container having a viscous liquid therein;
• providing a spraying apparatus removably mounted on said container, said apparatus comprising a nozzle assembly, a trigger mechanism and a first and second chamber, said first chamber for delivering said viscous liquid to said nozzle assembly, said second chamber for delivering a jet of air to said nozzle for causing pneumatic atomization of said viscous liquid, said jet of air having a greater volume than said viscous liquid delivered to said nozzle assembly per spray stroke;
• and
• actuating said trigger mechanism to perform said pneumatic atomization in a single spray stroke.

A method of pneumatically atomizing a viscous liquid from a hand-held apparatus comprising the steps of:

• providing a nozzle assembly, said nozzle assembly comprising a chamber for retaining a substantially unpressurized quantity of liquid available for spraying, an outlet, and a first passageway for forcing a gaseous fluid through said quantity of liquid and out said outlet;
• providing a first pump for pumping liquid;
• providing a means for attachment to a bottle;
• providing a supply tube extending from a bore in said means for attachment to a bottle;
• providing a second passageway extending from said bore to said chamber, wherein at least one one-way valve is positioned in said second passageway so that said chamber and said supply tube communicate unidirectionally from said supply tube toward said chamber, and wherein said second passageway also communicates with said first pump;
• providing a second pump for pumping gaseous fluid, wherein said second pump is in communication with said first passageway;
• providing a trigger mechanism operably associated with said first pump and second pump wherein upon a single actuation of said trigger mechanism gaseous fluid is forced out said outlet, followed by a combination of gaseous fluid and liquid, followed by gaseous fluid, such that said liquid is consistently atomized throughout a single spray stroke;
• and
• actuating said trigger mechanism to perform pneumatic atomization in a single spray stroke.

A hand-held manually actuated spraying apparatus for pneumatic spraying of a viscous fluid comprising:

• a nozzle assembly;
• a hand actuatable apparatus, said hand actuatable apparatus comprising a first pump for delivering of a gaseous fluid to said nozzle and a second pump for delivering a viscous liquid to said nozzle;
• said first and second pump being operably associated such that pneumatic atomization of second viscous liquid is provided and said gaseous fluid and liquid are delivered to said nozzle in a ratio of greater than one to one;
• said first pump beginning pumping of gaseous fluid immediately prior to and after said second pump pumping liquid to said chamber.