Diving Watch Helium Valve with Gas-Permeable Membrane
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automatic helium valves for diving watches lack effective gas evacuation during decompression, especially in humid environments, and cannot be blocked to prevent fluid entry, leading to potential damage from overpressure.
Innovation Solution
An automatic safety valve with a valve head and tube configuration, featuring a central core, lip seal, and a gas-permeable membrane that ensures fluid communication only when internal pressure exceeds external pressure, preventing liquid ingress and allowing gas escape, maintaining waterproof integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an automatic valve is used to vent helium during decompression, then gas evacuation is improved, but water resistance deteriorates when the valve is not properly sealed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a gas-permeable membrane made of porous material that allows helium gas to pass through during decompression while blocking liquid water due to surface tension effects. This resolves the contradiction by enabling reliable gas evacuation while maintaining water resistance without requiring manual intervention or complex sealing mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve incorporates a flexible membrane that can deform under pressure differential. When internal pressure exceeds external pressure, the membrane flexes to allow gas passage; when external pressure is higher (such as during diving), the membrane returns to its original position to seal the opening, thus maintaining water resistance while enabling gas evacuation when needed.
2Ease of manufacture
If a simple pressure-limiting valve is used, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but sealing reliability deteriorates in humid environments
Solution Approach 1:
The gas-permeable membrane is integrated directly into the valve structure, combining the pressure-limiting function with the sealing function in a single component. This maintains manufacturing simplicity while the porous material's unique property of allowing gas passage but blocking liquid ensures reliable sealing in humid environments during decompression.
3Reliability
If manual valve tightening is required to maintain water resistance, then sealing reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The valve operates automatically based on the pressure differential between the interior and exterior of the watch case. When internal pressure exceeds external pressure during decompression, the membrane automatically flexes to allow gas escape. When external pressure is higher during diving, the membrane automatically seals. This self-regulating mechanism eliminates the need for manual tightening while maintaining both water resistance and ease of operation.
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 provides reliable and efficient gas evacuation while maintaining the watch's waterproof seal under varying conditions, with no moving parts for enhanced reliability and cost-effectiveness.
Implementation Method 1
a membrane arranged to be permeable to gases and to establish fluid communication from the inside of the housing to the outside when the pressure inside the housing exceeds a predetermined value and impermeable to liquids flowing from the outside of the housing to the inside of the housing
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to an automatic safety valve for a timepiece, in particular for a diving watch, the valve comprising a valve head housed in a tube intended to be fixed in a case of the timepiece, the valve head comprising a discharge channel arranged to be able to communicate fluidically with the interior of the case via a passage provided in said tube when the pressure inside the case exceeds the pressure outside the case in order to discharge excess fluid, said valve head comprising a central core fixedly mounted in said discharge channel, a lip seal comprising an annular base region and lip,the lip seal being disposed around said core and arranged so that the lip bears under tension against an area of a wall of the discharge channel so as, on the one hand, to be able to disengage from said area to allow pressure equalization between the inside of the housing and the outside of the housing in the event of overpressure inside the housing and, on the other hand, to be applied against said area to ensure the sealing of the inside of the housing against the outside in the event of overpressure outside the housing, the safety valve further comprising an additional sealing element arranged inside the discharge channel between the lip seal and the inside of the housing,said additional sealing element comprising a membrane arranged to be permeable to gases and to establish fluid communication from the inside of the casing to the outside when said internal pressure exceeds a predetermined value and impermeable to liquids flowing from the outside of the casing to the inside of the casing.