Articulated Hull Cleaner With Adjustable Buoyancy Float
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Pleasure craft hulls submerged in water often accumulate algae and marine life, requiring an effective cleaning solution that can maneuver beneath the waterline with ease and adjust buoyancy for optimal cleaning.
Innovation Solution
A boat hull cleaner comprising a telescopic pole with a knuckle joint, a float with adjustable buoyancy, and a semi-circular brush, allowing the operator to manipulate the brush against the hull while adjusting buoyancy by admitting water into the float, preventing snagging and facilitating deep cleaning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the float has high buoyancy to keep the brush at the water surface for easy operator access, then the operator can easily manipulate the cleaner from above water level, but the float cannot reach deep submerged areas of the hull including the keel
Solution Approach 1:
The float's buoyancy is made dynamically adjustable through openings that allow water to enter or exit the float chamber. The operator can tilt the float to admit water, reducing buoyancy for deep cleaning tasks, or keep it upright to maintain high buoyancy for easy surface-level operation. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between ease of operation and depth reach.
2Reliability
If the float maintains constant high buoyancy to prevent snagging on the hull, then the cleaner can be easily retrieved from snagged positions, but the float cannot maintain stable contact with the hull surface during cleaning
Solution Approach 1:
The float's buoyancy can be dynamically reduced by tilting it to admit water through the openings. This reduced buoyancy allows the float to settle closer to the hull surface, providing stable contact for effective cleaning. When retrieval is needed, the float can be tilted back to restore high buoyancy for easy extraction, resolving the contradiction between snagging prevention and contact stability.
3Strength
If the pole is rigid and straight to provide structural strength, then the cleaner maintains structural integrity, but the operator cannot effectively maneuver the brush against curved hull surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The pole is divided into multiple segments that can articulate relative to each other, allowing the pole to bend and conform to curved hull surfaces while maintaining overall structural integrity. This segmentation enables the rigid segments to flex at the joints, providing adaptability to various hull shapes without compromising the strength of individual pole sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The brush itself has a curved or semi-circular configuration that matches the curvature of boat hulls. This curved brush design allows it to conform to and effectively clean curved surfaces, compensating for the straight pole structure and providing the needed adaptability while maintaining pole strength.
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
Enables efficient cleaning of submerged areas by maintaining brush contact with the hull, reducing buoyancy for deeper access, and preventing snagging, thus improving the ease and effectiveness of hull maintenance.
Implementation Method 1
a float (6) having a buoyancy portion which gives a minimum buoyancy to the float
Implementation Method 2
the float having an opening or openings arranged to admit water into the float when it is tilted while under water with the result that effective buoyancy of the float is adjusted
Data Source
AI summary
A boat hull cleaner comprises a pole having at least two parts 2, 3 which can be set at an angle with respect to one another, a float 6, and a brush 7, the float having a buoyancy portion which gives a minimum buoyancy to the float. The float has an opening or openings arranged to admit water into the float when it is tilted while under water with the result that effective buoyancy of the float is adjusted. The hull cleaner is formed such that when it is in use a human operator can hold one end of the pole from above water level and move it to manipulate the float and the brush beneath water level such that the float encourages the brush against a boat hull to assist the operator to clean the hull.