Military-like sporting events always have ever-increasing popular appeal among individuals. One military-like sporting event that has become increasingly popular is an event in which paintballs are propelled using compressed gases from a paintball gun.
Typical of these sporting events, a participant working either alone or in a group has as his or her objective the location and capture of other participants. The participant fires projectiles, such as paintballs, at the opposing participant. In that it is desirable to avoid injuring an opposing participant with the projectiles, paintballs are used. These paintballs are liquid filled projectiles that burst when striking a participant. The paint contained within the paintball provides readily visible indication that a participant has been struck.
During these sporting events, the participants carry their guns, which are powered by a compressed gas to propel the paintballs. In a typical arrangement, a small canister or bottle can be mounted directly to the gun to provide a predetermined supply of compressed gas. Alternately, a participant can carry a compressed gas bottle mounted, for example, to their back much like a scuba tank is carried by a diver. In this arrangement, the tank is connected to the gun by a hose to supply the compressed gas.
The quantity or weight of compressed gas that can be stored in these portable bottles is quite limited. To this end, subsequent to use, the bottle must be refilled. Typically, a bottle is refilled from a larger storage tank of a high pressure gas. Although the refilling of these portable bottles is a rather straightforward process, because the gas is at a high pressure, if it is mishandled or if filling is carried out incorrectly, there is the potential for injuring the individual carrying out the portable bottle refill.
Various types of valving arrangements have been used to carry out this refilling in a safe and cost-effective manner. There are, however, certain minimum requirements or design considerations that must be made to assure safe, portable bottle refilling. For example, such a transfer valving arrangement must be configured to assure that both the supply tank and the portable bottle can be isolated from one another. In addition, such a valving arrangement must also be configured to assure that the gas pathway between the storage tank and the bottle can be vented prior to disconnecting either the storage tank or bottle from the valving arrangement.
It has been observed that certain known valving arrangements include multiple component types that require considerable maintenance. If these components are not maintained properly, leakage can occur from the compressed gas pathway. In one known arrangement, a plurality of ball valves is used in order to interconnect the tank and to provide a venting pathway. It has, however, been found that such valves are generally not properly rated for this use and can leak, thus providing an undesirable pathway which, if not attended to, can ultimately result in personal injury.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a venting trans-fill station that is easy to use and that provides a controlled, venting pathway. Desirably, such a station is configured for use in high pressure gas transfer assemblies. Most desirably, such a trans-fill station minimizes the number of potential leakage pathways for escape of the pressurized gas.