Ships – Sail or control means therefor – Specific sail structure or arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-21
2001-12-25
Basinger, Sherman (Department: 3617)
Ships
Sail or control means therefor
Specific sail structure or arrangement
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332420
ABSTRACT:
In the Baudet U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,784, a method is described for making a sail on mold having an adjustable profile or 3-D surface. A triangular sail is made by first applying a layer of film on the mold, applying individual adhesively coated yarns on the film with yarns extending from corner to corner in generally a curved path, and then applying a top layer of film. The film layers carry adhesive and are bonded together on the mold using heat and pressure. The resulting product is a three-dimensional, one-piece laminate having yarns which run along stress lines in the sail, generally in a curved fashion.
While molded sails of the above nature have been very successful and have been adopted by many racing sailors, there is a continuing need to provide improvements to these types of sails in terms of economy of manufacture, load handling, strength to weight ratio, and durability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,647 discloses a triangular sail, in which the body of the sail is made from flat panels of film joined together. Reinforcing tapes or ribbons are applied on each side of the film body. On one side, the tapes extend radially outwardly from the head to the foot of the sail. On the other side of the film, tapes are applied to extend radially outwardly from the clew to the luff. The use of externally applied tapes to sails made of panels is also described in earlier patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,593,639; 4,624,205; and 4,831,953.
The tapes described in the above references may be of woven fabric, or may be they are composed of a fabric or laminate having strong yarns running in a direction parallel to the length of the tape. These yarns are held together in a cross direction so that the yarns act as a flat unit. When stress is applied to a tape, one edge may be stressed more than the opposite edge, which is undesirable and inefficient. This is due to the fact that on one side of the tape, the yarns may be under tension while on the other side they will be in compression. As a result, the yarns in a tape do not act as efficiently to transmit loads as do individual yarns. Also, the tapes are flat and two-dimensional and are therefore, considered only suitable for application to a flat sail panel, with adjacent panels being connected by seams which extend through the body of the sail.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a sail is made by the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,784, with one primary difference being the layout pattern of the yarns. Individual yarns radiate from each corner of the sail with at least some of the yarns extending to and terminating at an opposite edge of the sail. It is believed that such yarn layout provides better handling of loads, as well as good durability, for example, when the sail is luffing. The yarns are laid on the mold in a 3-D fashion and follow the shape of the mold and the desired shape of the sail. At least some of the yarns may be said to be geodesic, in that they follow the shortest path between two points on a 3-D surface.
In addition to the above yarn configuration, additional or secondary load bearing elements may be introduced between the outer film layers prior to lamination. These include a layer of randomly applied individual fibers. Other potentially useful inner layers include a scrim, a woven fabric such as taffeta and the like.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3903826 (1975-09-01), Andersen
patent: 4708080 (1987-11-01), Conrad
patent: 4945848 (1990-08-01), Linville
patent: 5097784 (1992-03-01), Baudet
patent: 6260497 (2001-07-01), Keire
Basinger Sherman
North Marine Group
Pyle & Piontek
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