US 5,960,793 AGranted

Breathing device for diving

AssigneeGrand Bleu, Inc.

InventorsShunsuke Matsuoka, Kiyoshi Hashimoto

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Abstract

A mouth piece unit (6) for a semi-closed type breathing device (1) in which when pressing down a start button (102), the entirety of a movable assembly (70) moves and an external opening (73) opens, whereby a mouth piece (62) is caused to protrude, allowing a diver to hold it in his/her mouth. Since the movable assembly (70) is held at that position even if the start button (102) is restored, an inhalation gas supply valve (21) is held in an open state by an engagement bar (74), whereby the supply of inhalation gas is continued. When the mouth piece (62) comes out of the mouth of the diver, the movable assembly (70) is restored and the external opening (73) is automatically closed, thereby preventing water from entering the inside therethrough from the outside. To drain water, when the start button (102) is kept pressed down, purge gas is supplied from a purge gas supply valve (22), a water draining opening (120) opens, and a breathing air hose connecting port (61a) is closed, this allowing water to be automatically drained. Thus, it is possible to realize a mouth piece unit for a semi-closed type breathing device that can easily be used by a novice.

Claims4

Dependent claims

A breathing device for diving, comprising:

a unit case provided therein with an inhaled/exhaled air circulation chamber which has an exhalation air hose connecting port communicated with an exhalation air hose for circulating exhaled gas and an inhalation air hose connecting port communicated with an inhalation air hose for circulating inhalation gas;
a movable assembly having a mouth piece and an external opening for communicating the inhaled/exhaled air circulation chamber to the outside, the movable assembly is movably mounted in the unit case so that the movable assembly can be moved between a retracted position wherein the mouth piece is retracted into the unit case and a projected position wherein the mouth piece is projected out from the unit case to allow the mouth piece to be held in a diver's mouth;
a stationary assembly having an external opening shut-off valve which is arranged at a fixed position in the unit case so as to face the external opening;
a resilient means for pressing the movable assembly against the side of the stationary assembly to hold the mouth piece in the retracted position in order to close the external opening by means of the external opening shut-off valve;
and
a manually operating assembly which is mounted in the unit case so as to move from an initial position to an operated position and is normally held in the initial position by means of resilient force, and which forces to move the movable assembly so that the mouth piece reaches the projected position in response to the movement from the initial position to the operated position thereof, while it returns to the initial position from the operated position by the resilient force without interlocking the movable assembly.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.