Pneumatic support
AssigneeProspective Concepts AG
InventorsMauro Pedretti, Rolf Luchsinger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A pneumatic support comprises a long hollow body, tapering towards the ends and two pressure/tension elements. The hollow body is embodied by a sleeve of gas-tight, flexible, non-stretch material. Said sleeve can be formed from two layers, an external non-stretch, flexible sleeve and an inner gas-tight elastic bladder. The hollow body can be pressurised with compressed gas by means of a valve. The both pressure/tension elements lie along diametrically opposed surface lines of the hollow body on the same and are partly or completely frictionally connected to the hollow body along said surface lines. The ends of the pressure/tension elements are frictionally connected to each other.
Claims16
A pneumatic support comprising:
- a gas-tight elongated hollow body of a flexible material adapted to be pressurized with compressed gas;
- at least one compression bar which, responsive to application of a transverse operational load, is axially compressed;
- at least one tension element which, responsive to application of the transverse operational load, is axially tensioned;
- wherein the hollow body has a tapered shape toward both of ends of the hollow body;
- wherein the at least one compression bar and the at least one tension element are connected to one another at a common node located at respective ends of the hollow body;
- wherein, when the hollow body is inflated, the at least one compression bar and the at least one tension element lie on a generator line of the hollow body;
- and
- wherein, relative to the application of the transverse operational load, the at least one substantially rigid compression element lies on a near side of the hollow body and the at least one tension element lies on a far side of the hollow body.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.