Buoys – rafts – and aquatic devices – Water rescue or life protecting apparatus – Personal flotation device
Patent
1996-11-25
1998-10-06
Swinehart, Ed L.
Buoys, rafts, and aquatic devices
Water rescue or life protecting apparatus
Personal flotation device
441 88, B63C 9125
Patent
active
058168788
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a trigger device and has been devised particularly though not solely for activating the inflation mechanism of an inflatable water safety device or triggering the release of a container holding such devices.
BACKGROUND ART
There are many types of inflatable life-saving devices such as life jackets and similar inflatable aids where it is desired to automatically inflate the device upon immersion in water. Life jackets of this type are commonly provided with trigger devices which incorporate a soluble tablet designed to dissolve quickly upon immersion in water and release a mechanism which will typically pierce the sealed neck of a CO.sub.2 bottle releasing compressed gas to inflate the life jacket or other device. Known trigger devices of this type have the disadvantage that a considerable force is needed to pierce the sealed neck of the CO.sub.2 bottle and this force must be resisted by the soluble tablet. When a force of this magnitude is applied to a soluble tablet over a period of time, the tablet is prone to breakdown either from the force alone, or from a combination of the applied force and deterioration of the tablet (eg: from air humidity) causing the inadvertent operation of the trigger device and the unintentional inflation of the life jacket. Alternatively secondary mechanisms must be used to retain the force.
There are many other situations where it is desirable to provide a trigger device where a potential operating force necessary to actuate a desired mechanism can be restrained by a much smaller control force. The control force may be a soluble tablet of the type described above or some other manually or automatically actuated force applied to remotely release the trigger device which will in turn actuate the desired mechanism.
The aim of trigger devices of this type is to resist or contain the relatively larger actuating force by a comparatively small control force.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The present invention therefore provides a trigger device adapted to actuate a desired mechanism, said trigger device comprising a primary lever mounted at one end thereof to a support structure, tensioning means connected between a force actuation point on the lever remote from the pivot and an anchor point on the support structure, arranged to bias the lever into a firing position wherein the mechanism is actuated, and restraint means operable between the lever and the support structure at a point on the lever remote from the pivot and arranged to hold the lever in a cocked position against the bias of the tensioning means until the device is fired by operation of the restraint means allowing the tensioning means to bias the lever into a firing position, and wherein the pivot, the anchor point, and the restraint means are positioned on the support means such that the distance between a line from the force application point to the anchor point and the pivot is significantly less in the cocked position than in the firing position.
In one form of the invention the restraint means comprises a water soluble tablet held between mutually facing surfaces on the primary lever and the support structure respectively.
Preferably the trigger device incorporates a cocking lever rotatable to apply tensioning force to the tensioning means.
In one form of the invention the line from the force application point to the anchor point lies on the same side of the pivot in both the cocked and firing positions.
In an alternative form of the invention the line from the force application point to the anchor point lies on one side of the pivot in the cocked position and on the opposite side of the pivot in the firing position, such that in the cocked position the lever is held in an "over centre" location against an abutment on the support structure and the restraint means is operable to rotate the lever from this position past the on-centre position permitting the tensioning means to further rotate the lever into the firing position.
Preferably the tensioning means comprise a tens
REFERENCES:
patent: 2971257 (1961-02-01), Everett
patent: 3127624 (1964-04-01), Kubit et al.
patent: 3180524 (1965-04-01), Shepard et al.
patent: 3465375 (1969-09-01), Schnell
Flube Pty. Ltd.
Swinehart Ed L.
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