Tank safety valve

Abstract

A safety valve for a tank of a pressurized gas provides a check valve that shuts off gas flow from the tank if the shutoff valve receives a damaging lateral impact. The safety valve is retrofittable in existing tanks with existing shutoff valves, wherein the shutoff valve is unscrewed from the tank and screwed into the top of the safety valve, and the bottom of the safety valve is screwed into the tank. The safety valve features a breakaway stem that sacrificially breaks more easily than the remainder of the safety valve and the shutoff valve in response to a damaging lateral impact. When the breakaway stem is broken, the check valve shuts off gas flow from the tank. The breakaway stem can be replaced with a new breakaway stem without losing the pressurized gas remaining in the tank, thereby returning the tank to normal use after the breakage.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.