Sprinkler head with improved brake and bearing assembly

Claim 1

In a sprinkler head of the type including a fixed housing structure having means thereon for fixedly securing the same to a riser pipe or the like in communicating relation with a source of water under pressure communicated with the riser pipe, a rotatable housing structure having an inlet portion journaled in said fixed housing structure for rotation about a generally vertically extending axis and an outlet portion extending above said fixed housing structure, said rotatable housing structure having interior surfaces for confining water under pressure communicating with said fixed housing structure to flow in at least one stream directed upwardly and outwardly therefrom, an impulse arm pivotally mounted on said rotatable housing structure for movement through repeated oscillatory cycles of operation, means carried by said impulse arm engageable with said stream during the operative cycle thereof for effecting repeated operative cycles of said impulse arm and for imparting to said rotatable housing structure during each operative cycle thereof an instantaneous force having a component tangential to the axis of rotation of said rotatable housing structure, and brake means acting between said housing structures for controlling the amount of rotational movement of said rotatable housing structure in response to each application of said instantaneous force the improvement which comprises said brake means including an annular brake element carried by one of said housing structures in a position with its axis concentric with the axis of rotation of said rotatable housing structure, brake shoe means carried by the other of said housing structures in a position radially outwardly of the axis of rotation of said rotatable housing structure in frictional engagement with an arcuate segmental portion only of said annular brake element, said annular brake element being free of frictional contact other than by said brake shoe means at said arcuate segmental portion, spring means operatively associated with said brake shoe means for resiliently biasing said brake shoe means into frictional engagement with said arcuate segmental portion of said annular brake element with a continuous force, and threadedly adjustable means operable by a single manual movement for varying the magnitude of the continuous force with which said spring means biases said brake shoe means into said frictional engagement with the arcuate segmental portion of said annular brake element to thereby vary the rotational movement of said rotatable housing structure in response to the application of said instantaneous forces thereto.