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US 11,202,936 B1Granted
Inline deflecting swim fin
OwnerPeter L. Levyinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A foot inline deflecting swim fin with hinge coupled to a two-leaf-blade fin with embedded channel-hinge with leaves free to rotate from a perpendicular fluid flow configuration upon power stroke to parallel fluid flow configuration upon an upstroke. The hinge-leaf blade will have pivot stops, limiting leaf rotations to accommodate the two stroke swim propulsion, upstroke and power stroke. An embedded unitary elastomeric hinge having integrated channel with channel limiter stops is disclosed.
Claims12
An inline foot axis deflecting swim fin comprising:
- a swim fin with a foot compartment;
- a swim fin blade comprised of two leafs, the swim fin blade having an embedded hinge aligned with an inline foot axis said embedded hinge extending central to and coupled to a front end of the foot compartment;
- the embedded hinge coupled to the leaves, the hinge disposed central to and between the foot compartment and a blade tip center;
- the leaves pivotably coupled to the hinge and free to rotate from a position perpendicular a fluid flow upon swim fin power stroke and rotating to a parallel fluid flow for a swim fin upstroke;
- at least one hinge-leaf pivot stop, limiting a leaf rotation from substantially parallel fluid flow direction to a substantially perpendicular leaf impinging fluid flow direction;
- whereby the swim fin provides maximum fluid displacement on the power stroke and encounters minimum fluid drag upon leaf rotation parallel to fluid flow on the up stroke.
3 more elements
A method for an inline foot axis deflecting swim fin comprising the steps of:
- providing a swim fin with a foot compartment;
- coupling the foot compartment to a swim fin blade comprised of two leafs, with the swim fin blade having an embedded hinge aligned with an inline foot axis extending central to and from a front end of the foot compartment;
- coupling the embedded hinge to the leaves, with the hinge disposed between the foot compartment and a blade tip center;
- pivotably coupling the leaves to the hinge to allow the leaves to rotate from a perpendicular to fluid flow configuration upon power stroke to a parallel to fluid flow configuration on an upstroke, and
- providing at least one hinge-leaf pivot stop, for limiting leaf rotations from substantially parallel to a substantially perpendicular fluid impinging flow directions,
- such that the swim fin provides maximum fluid displacement on the power stroke with a flat plate configuration and encounters minimum fluid drag stream-line configuration upon leaf rotation parallel to the fluid flow on the upstroke.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.