Surgery – Antigravational systems – Body suits
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-18
2001-12-04
Lacyk, John P. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Antigravational systems
Body suits
Reexamination Certificate
active
06325754
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a suit for protection against the effects of acceleration, as arise in high performance aircraft when flying in curves, in accordance with the preamble to Claim
1
.
Several such protective suits have become known. They can essentially be divided into two categories:
the first class comprises protective suits, which work on the hydrostatic force principle,
the second category comprises protective suits, which are inflated with compressed air.
The construction of suits in the first class rests on the inventive concept of compensating the acceleration induced fluid pressure of the inner body, increasing downwards, by an essentially similar fluid column built up in the protective suit, which works on the body from the outside.
Examples of this category of protective suits are known from EP 0 376 027 (D1) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,938 (D2). Further in this class, three applications, which relate to such protective suits, are known from the same applicant as the present patent application: PCT/CH98/00160 (D3), PCT/CH98/00161 (D4), PCT/CH98/00534 (D5).
In the protective suits of the second category an air pressure is built up in the at least partly double walled construction of the protective suit. This is either the same size over the whole suit or so directed via controlled valves that it is larger for the lower parts of the body than for the upper parts. The control of these valves and of the prescribed air pressure is effected by an on-board computer.
Examples of documents, which give these two categories of the state of the art are EP 0 646 523 (D6), JP 0 9011 996 (D7).
Although it has been shown that the idea of hydrostatic compensation in itself represents an excellent solution for the problem, difficulties arise in its conversion into practice. These lie on the one hand partly in the high additional weight of such protective suits, further difficulties arise in the characteristics of the textiles used and finally the comfort of the wearer of such known protective suits is insufficient and the mobility of the pilot is thereby greatly restricted. Furthermore high requirements are placed on the sealing of such suits, on the one hand because a fluid loss leads to functional impairment, and on the other hand because an outflow of fluid into the cockpit of a high performance aircraft is entirely undesirable.
The solutions of the second category of inventions rest upon the build up of pressure in the, at least in part, double walled construction of the protective suit, which corresponds somewhat to the anticipated hydrostatic pressure of the body fluid—especially the blood. Somewhat for the reason that the hydrostatic pressure increases linearly from above to below, and the pneumatic compensation in general is limited to one or a few pressure values.
In order to generate these pressure values, the on-board compressed air supply is fed to the appropriate parts of the protective suit via one or more acceleration dependent controlled valves, as for instance is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,320.
The build up of the required pressure always demands a certain time. To compensate for this delay, computerised means are proposed, as known from D6. The disadvantage of the known protective suits which rely on purely pneumatic pressure lies on the one hand in the narrow differentiation of the compensating pressure, in an often clumsy construction and the large outlay for the controller. High cost is always associated with this.
The aim which is to be addressed by the present invention, comprises the provision of a suit for protection against the effects of acceleration, which arise in curved flight in high performance aircraft, firstly in the instantaneous and local Z-axis, further the protective suit to be provided is to be lighter than those previously known, should be possible for the wearer to put on and take off without help and facilitate his climbing into and leaving the aircraft without assistance, and allow the wearer to have normal mobility outside the aircraft, all this combined with a reduced outlay in apparatus and finance.
The addressing of the stated aim is given in Claim
1
as regards its essential characteristics, in the further claims regarding further advantageous embodiments.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2228115 (1941-01-01), Holste
patent: 3523301 (1970-08-01), Davis et al.
patent: EP 0348835 (1990-01-01), None
patent: FR 2581964 (1986-11-01), None
patent: GB 959350 (1962-07-01), None
patent: WO 91/03278 (1991-03-01), None
patent: WO 99/54200 (1999-10-01), None
patent: WO 99/54201 (1999-10-01), None
patent: WO 99/54202 (1999-10-01), None
Egli Wendelin
Reinhard Andreas
Jenkens & Gilchrist
Lacyk John P.
LSS Life Support Systems AG
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