Nozzle adapter

Claim 1

In an agricultural irrigation apparatus having a wheeled frame, a water discharge pipe swingably supported on said frame for substantially horizontal angular displacement, and nozzle means mounted on the discharge end of said discharge pipe, the improvement wherein said nozzle means comprises: a tapered elongated one-piece sleevelike nozzle body having thread means associated with the large diameter end thereof for threadably attaching said nozzle body to said discharge pipe, said nozzle body having an elongated flow passage extending therethrough which is of a truncated conical configuration, said flow passage having a large diameter inlet opening at the rearward end thereof which is of a diameter substantially equal to the diameter at the discharge end of said discharge pipe, said flow passage having a smaller diameter discharge opening at the other end thereof, said flow passage being of uniform slope as it extends between said inlet and discharge openings, said nozzle body also having a shallow annular recess extending inwardly from the small diameter end thereof in surrounding relationship to said discharge opening so that said recess forms a substantially annular seating surface which is within a plane substantially perpendicular to the axis of said nozzle body; said nozzle body being of substantially uniform radial wall thickness throughout the circumferential and axially extending length thereof except for enlarged cylindrical portions formed at the large and small ends thereof, the enlarged cylindrical portion at the large end of said nozzle body being internally threaded for receiving therein the discharge end of said discharge pipe, and the cylindrical portion at the small end of said nozzle body being externally threaded; a plurality of tip members each of different size, said tip members being individually interchangeably mountable on the small diameter end of said nozzle body; each said tip member comprising a substantially cylindrical one-piece body member having an enlarged annular flange at one end thereof, said flange being of a size compatible with the recess formed in the small diameter end of said nozzle body, each said tip member also having a flow passage extending axially therethrough, said flow passage being of a truncated conical configuration and having an inlet orifice at one end of said cylindrical body which is of a diameter equal to the discharge opening formed in said nozzle body, each said tip member also having a discharge orifice formed at the other end thereof which is of a substantially smaller diameter than said inlet orifice, said discharge orifice being located directly in the axial end face of said cylindrical body as defined at said other end, and said flow passage being of uniform slope as it extends between said inlet and discharge orifices, the slope of the flow passage in said tip member being identical to the slope of the flow passage in said nozzle body; said plurality of tip members being identical except for each tip member being of different axial length from all of the other tip members so that each tip member of said plurality has a different diameter discharge orifice, the cylindrical body forming each said tip member being of substantially uniform external diameter throughout the axial length thereof except for said annular flange which projects radially outwardly from said cylindrical body at said one end thereof, the discharge orifices defined by said plurality of tip members being of progressively increasing diameters so that the difference between the discharge orifices of the adjacent sizes of tip members is thus a preselected differential amount, the length of said plurality of tip members progressively decreasing as the diameters of the respective discharge orifices progressively increase, and the diameter of the discharge opening formed in said nozzle body being larger than the largest discharge orifice by said preselected differential amount, whereby said discharge opening can itself be utilized as a discharge orifice when a tip member is not mounted on said nozzle body; and an annular one-piece nut encircling and being threadably connected to the externally threaded cylindrical portion at the small diameter end of said nozzle body, said nut having an annular flange which projects radially inwardly so as to overlap the axial end face of said nozzle body at the small end thereof, the flange on said nut also projecting radially inwardly so as to overlap the annular flange on each of said tip members for fixedly holding the flange on a selected tip member in snug bearing engagement with the seating surface on said nozzle body.