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US 4,304,559 AGranted
Marine propeller defouling device
AssigneeThomas Y. Awalt, Jr.
InventorAroney M. Steward
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Flexible linear members trail between the blades of a forward-moving marine shaft-driven propeller and impinge upon the blade surface to defoul the propeller blades.
Claims7
A device for defouling and the prevention of fouling of a marine shaft-drive propeller having a plurality of blades and turbulent interblade spaces while the propeller is in motion comprising in combination:
- (a) means for disloding foreign materials which may otherwise form on the surfaces of said blades and thereby maintaining the efficiency of said propeller, including, at least one linear member having a forward holding portion and a trailing flexible blade-impinging portion, and
- (b) means for mounting the forward holding portion of the linear members forward of the propeller and in fixed relation to the shaft and the propeller
- whereby the trailing flexible blade-impinging portion of the linear member will be located so as to flexibly trail into a turbulent interblade space while the propeller is in forward motion, so flexing in the turbulence as to repeatedly impinge upon a substantial area of at least one propeller blade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.