Abstract
Horseshoe life buoy (10) for water rescue comprising a horseshoe shaped body lighter than water and between the two ends (7, 8) thereof a curved inner cavity (6) is provided which is sufficiently large to receive a subject (5) to be rescued, and for the receiving of an end of a rescue rope (3) held by a subject (4) carrying out the rescue to the horseshoe life buoy (10) an attachment means is provided, wherein the attachment means is a strap (12) mechanically connected with the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10), which is arranged at the very front of the horseshoe life buoy (10) symmetrically to the center of the body at the outer edge opposite to the inner cavity (6).
Claims
1. Horseshoe life buoy (10) for water rescue comprising a horseshoe shaped body lighter than water, having two ends, a center, a front, an outer edge, and between the two ends (7, 8) thereof a curved inner cavity (6) is provided which is sufficiently large to receive a subject (5) to be rescued, and for receiving of an end of a rescue rope (3) held by a subject (4) carrying out a rescue to the horseshoe life buoy (10) an attachment means is provided, characterized in that the attachment means is a strap (12) mechanically connected with the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10), which is arranged at the front of the horseshoe life buoy (10) at the center of the body at the outer edge opposite to the curved inner cavity (6), and wherein the strap (12) is connected to a band (11) that surrounds the center of the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10) which widens towards the curved inner cavity (6).
2. The horseshoe life buoy (10) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that on one surface of the band (11) normal to the strap (12) a transverse handle (15) is arranged that facilitates throwing the horseshoe life buoy (10).
3. The horseshoe life buoy (10) as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that respective pocket holding ribbons (17, 18) are attached to two inner sides of the band (11) that encircle the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10) and on surfaces where the transverse handle (15) is arranged respective longitudinal pockets are formed, and on the band (11) a ribbon (19) is provided that holds the strap (12) and embraces the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10) and the ribbon (19) is provided with a Velcro lock.
4. The horseshoe life buoy (10) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that to an interior of the strap (12) at a central section a loop fixing strap (16) is attached at both ends to the strap (12) and an end of a rescue rope (3) can be threaded in an opening formed between the strap and the loop fixing strap (12, 16).
5. The horseshoe life buoy (10) as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that between a widened inner surface (13) of the band (11) which is opposite to the strap (12) and an edge of the inner cavity (6) a curved force distribution plate (14) is arranged.
6. Life saving rope assembly for a horseshoe life buoy, that comprises a rescue rope (3) that can be connected by one end to the horseshoe life buoy (1, 10), characterized by comprising a rigid handle (20), a pair of rope holding rods (23, 24) extending out in the same direction from two ends of the handle (20), wherein an other end of the rescue rope (3) is fixed to the handle (20) and the rescue rope (3) can be wound between the pair of rope holding rods (23, 24).
7. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 6, characterized in that the handle (20) comprises rope holding elements (22) having a recess with a V-shaped profile, to which in case of need any part of the rescue rope (3) can be releasably.
8. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 7, characterized in that at the end of the rescue rope (3) which can be attached to the horseshoe life buoy (1, 10) a loop (3a) is provided, that has an opening being sufficiently large to allow threading of the handle (20) with the wound rope therethrough.
9. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 6, characterized in that the pair of rope holding rods (23, 24) are slightly inclined towards each other to facilitate easy and fast removal of the wound rope (25).
10. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 6, the horseshoe life buoy (10) for water rescue comprising a horseshoe shaped body lighter than water, having two ends, a center, a front, an outer edge, and between the two ends (7, 8) thereof a curved inner cavity (6) is provided which is sufficiently large to receive a subject (5) to be rescued, and for receiving of an end of a rescue rope (3) held by a subject (4) carrying out the rescue to the horseshoe life buoy (10) an attachment means is provided, characterized in that the attachment means is a strap (12) mechanically connected with the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10), which is arranged at the front of the horseshoe life buoy (10) symmetrically to the center of the body at the outer edge opposite to the curved inner cavity (6).
11. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 10, characterized in that the strap (12) is connected to a band (11) that surrounds the center of the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10) which widens towards the inner cavity (6).
12. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 11, characterized in that on one surface of the band (11) normal to the strap (12) a transverse handle (15) is arranged that facilitates throwing the horseshoe life buoy (10).
13. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 12, characterized in that respective pocket holding ribbons (17, 18) are attached to two inner sides of the band (11) that encircle the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10) and on surfaces where the transverse handle (15) is arranged respective longitudinal pockets are formed, and on the band (11) a ribbon (19) is provided that holds the strap (12) and embraces the body of the horseshoe life buoy (10) and the ribbon (19) is provided with a Velcro lock.
14. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 11, characterized in that to an interior of the strap (12) at a central section a loop fixing strap (16) is attached at both ends to the strap (12) and an end of a rescue rope (3) can be threaded in an opening formed between the strap and the loop fixing strap (12, 16).
15. The life saving rope assembly as claimed in claim 11, characterized in that between a widened inner surface (13) of the band (11) which is opposite to the strap (12) and an edge of the inner cavity (6) a curved force distribution plate (14) is arranged.
Description
(1) The invention will now be described in connection with preferable embodiments thereof, wherein reference will be made to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:
(2) FIG. 1 shows the sketch of a known horseshoe life buoy;
(3) FIG. 2 shows a sketch of a rescue system at the correct use of a horseshoe life buoy as shown FIG. 1;
(4) FIG. 3 a similar sketch to the FIG. 2, when there is a non-correct use of horseshoe life buoy;
(5) FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an embodiment of horseshoe life buoy according to the invention;
(6) FIG. 5 illustrates a correct use of horseshoe life buoy according to FIG. 4;
(7) FIG. 6 shows an enlarged detail of the horseshoe life buoy 10;
(8) FIG. 7 shows the sketch of the side view of the loop fastening strap 16;
(9) FIG. 8 shows the sketch of the rescue rope assembly in case of unwound rope;
(10) FIG. 9 is a sketch similar to that of FIG. 8 in case of a wound rope;
(11) FIG. 10 is a sketch illustrating the looping of the end of the rescue rope 3;
(12) FIG. 11 shows the design of the band 11 that receives the rescue rope assembly;
(13) FIG. 12 shows the rescue rope assembly in a position fixed to the horseshoe life buoy;
(14) FIG. 13 is a sketch showing the beginning of the throw; and
(15) FIG. 14 shows the perspective view of the band 11 with partially unfolded fixing ribbons.
(16) Reference is made now to FIG. 4 that shows the perspective view of a horseshoe shaped life buoy 10 made according to the invention, which term will be used in the following simply as horseshoe life buoy. The design of the horseshoe life buoy 10 is substantially identical with that shown in FIG. 1, wherein between the two ends 7, 8 of the horseshoe an arced inner cavity 6 is formed. In this embodiment there is no need for using the belt 2 provided on the horseshoe life buoy 1 shown in FIG. 1 and also the loops are not required provided for the belt 2 (not shown in FIG. 1). At the same time the central section of body 30 of the horseshoe life buoy 10 is encircled by a specially designed force transmitting band 11 which comprises at the central part a strap 12 bridging the outer portion the thickness of the horseshoe life buoy 10, in which a loop 3a provided at the end of the rescue rope 3 can be threaded through, whereby the rescue rope 3 can be easily attached to the horseshoe life buoy 10. The band 11 has a spatial shape and it is made from a strong canvas or from an impregnated water resistant material, which widens towards the direction of the inner cavity 6 of the horseshoe life buoy 10 (that appears in the drawing as a triangle) and which is bent at the inner cavity 6 and fits to the curved inner surface 13 thereof. At the lower rear part (which is the covered rear face on FIG. 4) it has a rear portion which is substantially identical with the frontal triangular part and fits to the rear surface of the horseshoe life buoy 10, and at the upper portion the two sides are interconnected by respective Velcro straps in a releasable way. The band 12 can be positioned in a separate step on the body of the buoy 10 and follows and fits to its shape. Such a design is required because the pulling forces acting on the strap 12 are transmitted by the band 11 to the horseshoe life buoy 10, but this occurs along a large surface and primarily along the curved inner surface 13 of the horseshoe life buoy 10, whereby the pulling forces represent a pressing load distributed along a large surface, and the light foam material of the buoy can better resist such loads as if it was exposed to pulling loads or to loads acting along thin stripes. It is noted that the use of the band 11 shown in FIG. 4 represents a preferred option, because if the horseshoe life buoy 10 is made by a sufficiently strong material and if reinforcement inserts are provided in its body, then the band 11 can be omitted and the strap 12 can be attached to such reinforcement inserts. The advantage of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 lies in that it can be used even together with existing horseshoe life buoys which are commercially available. For protecting the material of the horseshoe life buoy 10 and for the sake of even distribution of the acting forces a force distribution plate 14 can be positioned between the inner surface 13 and the arced inner surface of the band 11 which fits to the arced curved surfaces and can be made of a plastic or light metal material. For the sake of illustration this plate 14 is shown separately in FIG. 4 because in actual use it is in covered position between the band 11 and the horseshoe life buoy 10.
(17) FIG. 5 is a simplified sketch similar to that of FIG. 3 and shows how the person to be rescued is positioned in the horseshoe life buoy 10. By the first glance it can be seen that in this case the placement for the person 5 to be rescued in the opening of the horseshoe is substantially easier than in case of the situation shown in FIG. 2 because his movement to get in is not barred by the presence of any rope, and during rescue the horseshoe life buoy is in front of the subject 5 and by grasping and hooking on to the horseshoe the subject 5 can easily withstand the pulling forces without the danger of his falling or turning out of the buoy.
(18) Reference is made now to FIG. 6 which shows a detail of the horseshoe life buoy 10 with the band 11 on it. In the central region of the band 11 a transverse handle 15 is arranged normal to the central longitudinal axis, and it is fixed to the material of the band 11 which has sufficient width to receive the fingers of a hand. The presence of this transverse handle 15 has significance at the beginning of the rescue operation when the horseshoe life buoy has to be thrown out, because (as described among the problems of commercially available life buoys) existing buoys do not comprise a stable portion by which one could grasp the buoy itself and which would thus facilitate its throwing. The strap 12 appears to represent such a stable means, but in the reality it cannot be used for such a purpose as it is not stable and the end of the rescue rope 3 is fixed there to the horseshoe life buoy, and the presence of the rope at the throwing operation would certainly cause an obstacle. Therefore, slightly away from the strap 12 the presence of the transverse handle 15 offers a great help when the buoy has to be thrown far away.
(19) Reference is made now to FIG. 7 which shows a side sectional view of a preferred embodiment of the strap 12. The strap 12 has end parts 12a and 12b which are attached by sewing or by strong Velcro straps to the upper parts of the two opposite planar surfaces of the band 11 and the strap 12 interconnect the width of the horseshoe life buoy in the central zone. This width is around 10-12 cm. To the inner central part of the strap 12 a second loop fixing strap 16 is attached, e.g. in such a way that both ends thereof are sewed or attached by a strong Velcro connection in a stable way to the strap 12. The task of the loop fixing strap 16 is to limit the displacement of the loop 3a along the length of the strap 12. The loop 3a is provided at the end of the rescue rope 3 which should be threaded into the strap 12. It can be seen in FIG. 7 that the loop 3a is positioned in the narrow space formed between the straps 12 and 16. Without using the loop fixing strap 16, then during the rescue operations the loop 3a could freely slide along the full length of the strap 12 i.e. between the end parts 12a and 12b depending on the direction of the pulling force. In case the pulling force is not normal to the direction of the strap 12, then the loop 3a could slide along the strap 12 in the direction of the obliquely arriving force quite till the end of the strap 12, and could pull the horseshoe life buoy 10 by force when it gets stopped by the end of the strap. This might cause a sufficiently great insecurity, and the presence of the loop fixing strap 16 prevents this phenomenon to happen, whereby the horseshoe life buoy 10 can accurately follow the direction of the puling force and its uncertain oscillation (sensed by the rescued subject 5 as an excess fluctuation) will be reduced to minimum. It should be noted that such an oscillation effect is very apparent in case of conventional horseshoe life buoys, because if the rescue rope 3 can freely slide in lateral direction along the belt 2 that can cause a substantial instability and might also cause that the horseshoe life buoy get turned around its longitudinal axis. Thus, a similar fixing of the rescue rope 3 along the belt 2 might be associated with such a substantial advantage.
(20) The problems connected with the placement of the rescue rope have already been mentioned earlier including those connected with its use, how it can be thrown away and how the rope can be stored, and it has also been mentioned that the solutions used so far for solving such problems are not at all at optimum, therefore the improvement of the efficiency requires not only the modification of the horseshoe life buoy itself but also the decrease of these listed problems.
(21) FIG. 8 shows an embodiment for such a solution made according to the invention, and the basis of this solution is constituted by a rod-like handle 20 that can be held and grasped by hand in a comfortable way. In the handle 20 symmetrically to its centre respective pair of rope holding elements 21 are provided designed in the same way as used widely for holding a rope in sailing boats and other applications used in boats. This concerns respective deep recesses that narrow downward with a V profile, wherein the width of the recess fits to the size of the rescue rope 3. The rescue rope 3 can be fitted at any part thereof in the recess of one of the rope holding elements 21, and the rope 3 will get squeezed and caught in the recess and get connected to the handle 20 in a stable way, i.e. the holding and the pulling of the rescue rope 3 will not require that the rescuing subject 4 should hold the slippery rope 3 by his hand. If the handle 20 is turned opposite to the direction of the recess then the rope will get easily and immediately released from the rope holding element 21. FIG. 8 shows such a holding position 22. It is advisable to provide at least two of such rope holding elements 21 on the handle, whereby when the rope is caught by one element 21, then the rope 3 can be pulled towards our body by the handle 20 then the rope is caught in forward direction by the other rope holding element 21, then the previous connection can be released, and we can carry out a repeated pulling motion without the need of holding the rope directly by hand. From the two ends of the handle 20 respective rope winding rods 23, 24 extend out (like horns), and the presence of which facilitates the winding up of the rescue rope 3. A hole (being covered in FIG. 8) is provided in the middle of the handle 20 and the end of the rope 3 is lead through the hole and a knot 3b is made on that end which prevents its slipping out of the handle.
(22) FIG. 9 shows the elevation view of the handle 20 on which the rescue rope 3 has been wound by a special winding that follows the shape of the number 8. This kind of winding is stable and can be learned easily in an almost automatic way, and it has the advantage that the full winding can be pulled off from the two rods 23, 24 by a single hand movement.
(23) FIG. 10 shows the horseshoe life buoy 10 with the band 11 attached on it, and the handle 20 with the two rope holding rods 23, 24 on which the whole rescue rope 3 is wound in the form of winding 25. With this figure it was illustrated that the loop 3a made at the end of the rope 3 should be sufficiently long to make it possible that after the loop 3a has been led trough under the strap 12 (for the sake of better illustration the loop fixing strap 16 was not shown) then the whole winding 25 together with the handle 20 on which it is wound must be able to be led through the loop 3a, because this looping fixes the rescue rope 3 to the strap 12 and thereby to the band 11.
(24) In FIG. 12 it can be observed that the handle 20 together with the rescue rope 3 wound on it can be easily attached to the horseshoe life buoy 10 in such a way, that from the two inner end parts of the band 11 respective ribbons 17, 18 (FIG. 11) extend out in substantially radial directions, and both of them is equipped at their end portions by respective strong Velcro locks. The ribbons 17, 18 each encircling the body 30 of the horseshoe life buoy 10 and on one of their surfaces respective pockets are made to receive and hold the ends of the rods 23, 24. The band 11 comprises additionally a further ribbon 19 extending from its central portion also provided with a Velcro lock, and as shown in FIG. 12 the ribbon 19 encircles and holds the handle 20. In such a way the horseshoe life buoy 10 together with the associated handle 20 and the assembly placed thereon (that can be thrown away) constitutes a stable unit with can be stored in a small space.
(25) FIG. 13 shows the way how one can starting from the initial position shown in FIG. 12 throw the horseshoe life buoy 10 easily and quickly into the water when a sudden emergency situation arises so that the weight of the rope cannot brake down the throw i.e. one can throw buoy to a high distance. For such an operation one has to release the ribbon 19 that holds the handle 20 and grasp the handle 20 by one hand and use to other hand to grasp the winding 25 together with the transverse handle 15, then the handle 20 is pulled out from the pockets and from the winding 25 that constitutes the rope 3, then using a hand to throw the horseshoe life buoy 10 with the hand held winding 25 away in the required direction with a high force. During the throwing step by opening our hand the horseshoe life buoy 10 and the rope constituting the winding 25 are thrown and accelerated together, whereby the impulse of the horseshoe life buoy 10 cannot be braked down by the presence of the rope 3 because it will fly therewith, and the rope wound in the 8 shape will get wound down without any obstacle, and the throw takes place efficiently in a great distance.
(26) It should be noted that for the sake of easier release of the winding 25 the two rods 23, 24 can be slightly inclined towards each other by a small angle.
(27) FIG. 14 shows the band 11 in an unfolded state with the ribbons with their Velcro locks attached thereto. The short ribbons shown under the pocket holding ribbons 17 and 18 have the task to hold and fix the outer ends of the ribbons 17, 18 which embrace the branches of the horseshoe life buoy 10. Similarly, a short ribbon is shown that receives and holds the outer end of the ribbon 19 that embraces the upper end of the horseshoe life buoy 10. The drawing also shows the transverse handle 15.
(28) The horseshoe life buoy 10 and the associated assembly solve together in an efficient way all problems described earlier in connection with rescuing subjects from water. At the same time one has to mention that among the advantages of the solution according to the invention several one will be present even if the horseshoe life buoy 10 is used with conventional ropes or if the handle according to the invention and the associated assembly are used for conventionally designed horseshoe life buoys.
(29) The solution according to the invention simplifies the process of the rescuing operation i.e. it can be carried out easily by laymen, and the rescue will become possible even under stressed circumstances as the process gets faster. In short, the solution according to the invention facilitates and fastens the saving of subjects who have not lost their control and able to act.
