Reversible life raft comprising removable shelters
OwnerClaire-Lise Boujoninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dual-sided, or reversible, inflatable rescue and safety raft consists of an inflated grille provided with mesh netting spanning open regions to accommodate personnel, manually releasable locking devices that close access openings in the netting to permit personnel to board from underneath the floating grille, both surfaces of the grille being provided with fasteners for safety handles and belts; one or more containers with compactly folded modular floor and shelter units that can be fastened to the surface of the grille (or removed from the raft for use as tents on land) are repositionably secured to the grille in the event that the containers are submerged when the raft is initially disposed in the water.
Claims21
A rescue and safety apparatus for receiving personnel in aquatic environments of the type having an inflatable grille structure formed by one or more peripheral members defining an enclosed area and a plurality of internal members to thereby define a plurality of regularly-spaced open regions within the enclosed area, the peripheral and internal members being tubular and formed from a flexible, collapsible watertight material, and having a flexible open-mesh netting extending over the open regions and secured to at least one of the one or more peripheral members and the internal members, said netting being provided with at least one resealable personnel access opening that is located in an open region between the adjacent members, the inflatable grille structure having substantially similar opposing surfaces when inflated,
- a) a plurality of fastening elements secured to each of the opposing surfaces of the grille structure,
- b) at least one floor and shelter forming module releasable secured to the inflatable grille structure in a compactly folded configuration,
- whereby said floor and shelter forming module, when released and unfolded, is attachable to the upper surface of the inflated grille to provide a modular personnel shelter having a floor panel supported by the open-mesh netting, the shelter extending upwardly over the floor panel.
A rescue and safety device, comprising:
- an inflatable grille forming a periphery of said device and having a plurality of meshes coupled within the inner periphery of said grille, each mesh having a netting disposed therein, wherein said plurality of meshes and corresponding nettings form opposing and reversible underside and topside surfaces of said device;
- at least one bag removably coupled to one of the surfaces of said device, each bag including a first membrane being extendable from said bag across one of the meshes and corresponding netting and defining a floor surface along the topside surface, a second membrane being expandable from said bag and positioned over said floor, and a plurality of posts positioned in an upright direction between the floor surface and the second membrane to maintain said second membrane over the corresponding floor surface and define a shelter area therebetween;
- a plurality of handles removably attached to said opposing underside and topside surfaces of the device;
- and
- wherein each netting includes a sealable opening to provide access there through from either of the underside or topside surfaces.
The device of claim, 10, wherein said second membrane includes three sides formed by panels having accordions for extending said panels to adjacent spaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.