Spreading Device
OwnerAtli Mar Josafatssoninventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A spreading device for spreading gear, including fishing gear or seismic survey gear, towed behind a vessel in water, comprising a hollow body of concavo-convex shape and made of plastics material. The body has a general mirror symmetry about a plane which is substantially mid-height and/or mid-length in the body in use. The body has a fore-and-aft to top-to-bottom aspect ratio of between 1:2 and 4:1, and an inner concave side and an outer convex side. The device has a forward towing point on the inner concave side for a tow line to the vessel and aft towing point for attachment of the gear to be towed. The plastic material of the hollow body renders the body buoyant in water and enables ballast or additional buoyancy to be added.
Claims18
A spreading device for spreading gear towed behind a vessel in water comprising:
- a hollow body of plastics material, the body being of concavo-convex shape and having:
- general mirror symmetry about a plane which is substantially mid-height and/or mid-length in the body in use,
- a fore-and-aft to top-to-bottom aspect ratio of between 1:2 and 4:1,
- an inner concave side;
- and
- an outer convex side;
- at least one forward towing point on the inner concave side of the body for a tow line to the towing vessel;
- at least one aft towing point for the towed gear or a line to it,
- wherein the forward and aft tow points are interconnected through the body;
- the plastics material of the body renders the spreading device buoyancy in water;
- and
- wherein the body is moulded by rotational moulding or extrusion or 3D printing;
- wherein the device further includes righting ballast at least in a lower part of the device, whereby in use the spreading device is deployable outwards of a launching side of the vessel, spreading the gear in the direction of the convex outer side opposite from the forward towing point on the inner concave side, the righting ballast being ballast material arranged inside the body of plastics material or on the outside of the body.
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A pair of spreading device, each as claimed in any 1, wherein one is a starboard device and the other is a port device, the bodies of the pair of spreading devices being from the same mould, the bodies of the two devices:
- being arranged oppositely fore and aft with respect to their mid-length plane,
- being thickest substantially at their mid-length plane and preferably
- having their sides substantially circularly curved with the inner concave sides being less curved than the outer convex sides.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.