Joints and connections – Manually releaseable latch type
Patent
1996-06-24
1999-01-05
Dorner, Kenneth J.
Joints and connections
Manually releaseable latch type
403316, 403322, 285316, 114378, B25G 318
Patent
active
058554505
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention concerns safety equipment installed on ships, aircraft and similar equipment designed to come into action when they enter water. It is particularly concerned with the design and manufacture of a hydrostatic release device for any safety equipment that may be used when accidents occur during the type of crash mentioned above.
It is known that regulations require that ships and other vessels above a certain size and which could be completely and accidentally immersed in water must be equipped with safety devices, including particularly emergency locator beacons, rafts, etc.
Release devices with manual or automatic operation have been proposed and/or marketed for a long time, and generally consist of a rigid hollow box fitted with a flexible or membrane device sensitive to hydrostatic pressure, connected to the safety equipment support bolt and associated with a spring with a known force. When the device is immersed in water, hydrostatic pressure is exerted on the membrane thus triggering the release system (see very old invention patents GB-907.001/GB-A-883.044/GB-A-2.005.336/DE 1.245.787).
Several improvements have been suggested recently for these release devices. For example, it is recommended to use a flexible air chamber type of pocket as a deformable device instead of a membrane, which avoids some disadvantages of the membrane and eliminates use of a spring (European patent No. 0296219). However, there are a number of problems with this type of release device and it is also quite difficult and expensive to make. In particular, for a given immersion level, forces due to the pressure exerted on the air pocket or chamber are distributed over its entire surface, and not only along the line along which the device is released. Therefore the resulting force exerted to activate the safety equipment release system does not correspond to the maximum (in other words optimum) required force, although this is the case when a single flexible membrane is used.
The system of the box with a membrane together with a spring is reused in another product marketed under the name of HAMAR, the means of releasing the safety equipment consisting of a blade activated by a spring and designed to separate the support device (European patent application No. 0198805).
This type of system has a number of disadvantages, including: which rusts so that it is no longer capable of performing its function if it is not made of stainless steel, encountered.
but the major disadvantage is the fact that it will only operate once, and it is impossible to reset the cutting system. Therefore this is equivalent to using a throwaway and non-testable device which does not fully satisfy required safety standards.
The invention overcomes the various disadvantages of known devices, including those mentioned above. Its purpose is to suggest a safety equipment release device based on the known principle of a box with a lower sealed body and cover with flexible membrane associated with a spring and a means of attachment of the safety equipment, but with the major advantage that it can be reset and reused as many times as required. Furthermore, this device has a simple structure, has all required guarantees and may be tested, unlike most systems marketed at the present time.
According to its essential characteristics, the new release device according to the invention is equipped with an attachment portion for safety equipment and includes a lower sealed body onto which a cover crossed by a recess is fixed, together with a flexible membrane placed between said body and said cover and capable of being bent towards the inside of the body under the effect of pressure exerted from the outside, and a cap rigidly attached to said membrane, wherein the recess is equipped with shoulders facing the inside of the recess and located in a position with respect to the upper part of the cap such that installation of the attachment portion requires that the lower ends of said attachment portion pass through the recess, and beyond the recess shoulders and th
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Cadoux Kenny
Richard Jean-Christophe
Dorner Kenneth J.
Lev Bruce A.
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