Adjustable-Depth Data Buoy With Telescoping Instrument Tubes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional buoys lack depth-adjustability while protecting instruments, often exposing them to environmental damage, and are prone to rolling, heavy, and incur oversize shipping fees.
Innovation Solution
A buoy design featuring a telescoping aluminum inner and outer tube configuration with an elastomeric disk for protection and depth adjustment, combined with a safety stop and anti-rolling features, allowing compact and lightweight deployment with standard shipping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional buoys use fixed length tubes to protect instruments, then instrument protection is provided, but depth adjustability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a nested tube configuration where an inner tube is positioned within an outer tube. The inner tube can be extended or retracted relative to the outer tube, allowing depth adjustment while maintaining instrument protection. The instrument remains enclosed within the inner tube throughout adjustment, ensuring continuous protection while achieving variable depth positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The buoy system transitions from a static fixed-depth design to a dynamic adjustable-depth system. The inner tube is designed to move vertically within the outer tube, enabling the instrument depth to be changed after deployment. This dynamic mechanism allows the same buoy to adapt to different measurement depths while maintaining reliable protection through the enclosing tube structure.
2Adaptability or versatility
If conventional buoys use open cages for depth adjustment, then depth setting flexibility is improved, but instrument protection reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The instrument is nested within the inner tube, which itself is nested within the outer tube. This double-nesting provides enclosed protection while the relative movement between inner and outer tubes enables depth adjustment. The instrument never暴露 to the external environment, maintaining protection reliability while achieving depth flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The tube structure acts as a flexible protective shell that can move relative to another tube. The inner tube serves as a movable protective enclosure for the instrument, allowing depth adjustment while maintaining continuous protection. This replaces the rigid open cage approach with a flexible, enclosed tube system that provides both protection and adjustability.
3Ease of manufacture
If buoys are made rotationally symmetric for simplicity, then manufacturing ease is improved, but rolling stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces asymmetric elements to the otherwise symmetric buoy structure. Anti-rolling fins or surfaces are added to the buoy body, creating asymmetric geometry that generates stabilizing moments when the buoy attempts to roll. This asymmetric feature prevents unwanted rolling motion while maintaining the overall simplicity and manufacturability of the buoy design.
4Strength
If buoys are made heavy for structural robustness, then strength and durability are improved, but portability and shipping cost deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The buoy system is divided into separate deployable components including the outer tube, inner tube, and instrument assembly. This segmentation allows the buoy to be disassembled into smaller, lighter sections for easy transport and handling by a single person. When deployed, these segments assemble into a structurally robust configuration that provides sufficient strength for marine deployment while maintaining overall lightweight characteristics for portability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The buoy provides reliable, repeatable depth adjustment and protection for instruments, prevents rolling, and avoids oversize shipping charges, ensuring accurate water quality measurements.
Implementation Method 1
a floatable support configured to provide a buoyant force
Implementation Method 2
The lower end of the inner tube is formed by an elastomeric disk
Data Source
AI summary
Provided herein are buoys comprising a floatable support having an upper surface and a lower surface, the upper surface formed from a plurality of outer faces and a central orifice, wherein at least one outer face has a surface shape that is flat to prevent rolling of the floatable support around a longitudinal axis of the floatable support; an outer tube connected to the floatable support that is positioned in the central orifice having: an upper portion extending past the upper surface, and a lower portion extending past the lower surface; and an inner tube telescopingly connected to the outer tube so that a depth of a lower end of the inner tube relative to the floatable support is controllably adjustable, wherein the inner tube comprises a depth-adjustable instrument receiving volume configured to protectably receive a water quality instrument.