Flexible Gas Bladder for Automatic Life Jacket Inflation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing personal flotation devices (PFDs) face challenges in achieving flexibility and foldability due to the use of heavy, protruding pressurized gas containers, which hinder movement and storage, and often require user activation, which may not be feasible in emergency situations.
Innovation Solution
The use of a flexible, pneumatic tube as a pressurized gas storage container that is integrated into the device, allowing for automatic inflation and conforming to the user's body, while also serving as a safety rope or handle, and employing gases with lower thermodynamic pressures for improved flexibility and longer gas retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional pressurized gas containers are used in PFDs, then flotation support is provided, but the device becomes heavy and bulky, reducing flexibility and ease of storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the gas storage function from a traditional rigid pressurized container and relocates it to a flexible bladder integrated into the PFD structure. This separation allows the gas storage function to be maintained while eliminating the heavy, bulky external container, thereby reducing overall device weight and improving flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible gas storage bladder is nested within the PFD structure itself, rather than being a separate external component. The bladder is positioned within the vest's interior space, allowing the gas storage capacity to be contained within the overall device envelope, reducing external dimensions and improving portability.
2Reliability
If traditional pressurized gas containers are used in PFDs, then flotation support is provided, but the device becomes bulky and difficult to store
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the gas storage function from a traditional rigid pressurized container and relocates it to a flexible bladder integrated into the PFD structure. This separation allows the gas storage function to be maintained while eliminating the heavy, bulky external container, thereby reducing overall device weight and improving flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The flexible gas storage bladder is nested within the PFD structure itself, rather than being a separate external component. The bladder is positioned within the vest's interior space, allowing the gas storage capacity to be contained within the overall device envelope, reducing external dimensions and improving portability.
3Ease of operation
If user activation is required for inflation, then device control is maintained, but the device cannot be used effectively in emergency situations where the user is unconscious or incapacitated
Solution Approach 1:
The PFD incorporates an automatic activation system with water-soluble seals positioned at the gas bladder outlet. When the device contacts water, the seals dissolve automatically, triggering gas discharge and inflation without requiring any user action. This self-service mechanism ensures the device functions reliably in emergencies regardless of the user's conscious state or physical capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The gas bladder is pre-filled with compressed gas during manufacturing, and the water-soluble seals are pre-positioned at the outlet. All preparation is completed in advance, so that upon contact with water, the system immediately activates without requiring user intervention. The preliminary preparation of the gas charge and seal positioning enables automatic emergency response.
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 solution enables PFDs to be lightweight, flexible, and easily storable, with automatic inflation capabilities, ensuring effective flotation support without bulky gas containers, and maintaining gas integrity over time.
Implementation Method 1
a flexible pressurized gas container adapted to contain a volume of pressurized flotation gas sufficient, when in its gaseous phase, to inflate the hull of the lifeboat
Implementation Method 2
a valve connecting the flexible pressurized gas container with the internal volume of the foldable inflatable hull, such that when the valve is opened, the volume of pressurized flotation gas flows into the internal volume of the hull
Implementation Method 3
the foldable inflatable hull having an internal volume adapted to be inflated with a gas... sufficient to inflate the hull of the lifeboat such that the lifeboat can float on water
Data Source
AI summary
Flexible lifesaving devices, such as life vests, pilot suits, lifeboats, lifebuoys, providing flotation to their users. An internal inflation space, integral to the device, has a volume sufficient when inflated, to provide flotation to a person or persons having up to a predetermined weight, using the device. Pressurized flotation gas, having a volume in its gaseous phase sufficient to inflate the internal space, is contained in a flexible pressurized gas container, such as a length of tubing or a pouch in a wall of the device, and enables the device to be both flexible and foldable. A valve connects the flexible container with the internal inflatable space of the device, such that when the valve is opened, the volume of pressurized flotation gas flows into the internal space. The flexible container is a regulatory required part of the device, which is thus flexible and foldable.