WO1997032776A1

WO1997032776A1 - Method and equipment for securing a person, for marine use

Info

Publication number: WO1997032776A1
Application number: PCT/NO1996/000055
Authority: WO
Inventors: Morten Heldahl
Original assignee: Morten Heldahl
Priority date: 1994-10-18
Filing date: 1996-03-07
Publication date: 1997-09-12

Abstract

A personal life raft consisting of a pack (1), a back frame (2, 3, 4) and a neck support (5) arranged to be inflated manually or automatically and to enclose within it the person who is the accident victim.

Description

METHOD AND EQUIPMENT FOR SECURING A PERSON, FOR MARINE USE

The invention relates to a rescue device for single persons for use in a marine context: a life raft in the form of a rucksack in a packed embodiment. The raft may advantageously be combined with a survival suit.

In accidents involving vessels, where it is necessary for persons to leave the vessel, the evacuation must often be carried out under an extreme time pressure. A great many accident victims suffer death due to the fact that their bodies become severely chilled. Wind and low temperatures at sea can cause and subject the victims to rapid chilling. This is the case during major parts of the year in northerly waters. The shipwreck of a vessel often occurs so quickly that the persons involved have no time to release life rafts or to put on their life belts. In instances where the victims have managed to release and inflate the rafts, the problem may be that they are unable to get aboard the rafts in time, due either to poor weather or to inexperience with the equipment.

On board the vessels the required rescue equipment such as rafts, life jacks, etc., is found. In addition, there may be whole watertight suits having buoyancy members, or survival suits. These are commonly found among fishermen and offshore personnel, but not on board vessels used for collective transport.

When accidents occur, one of the most common reasons that persons may suffer loss of life is that the victims have not gotten out of the vessel and on board the raft, or they have not managed to put on a survival suit. There has been no time to find the suit and to put it on. nor to release the life rafts.

The time factor is a critical determinant as to whether or not it will be possible to use the rescue equipment that is available. In this regard, a very important point is the proximity to the rescue equipment and the fact that it is personal and easy to put on under difficult conditions.

In Norwegian Patent Application No. 910284 there is described rescue equipment consisting of a watertight suit and an inflatable raft unit. This solution means that persons subjected to an accident would each have their own life rafts, provided that they were able to get into the survival suit. The accident victim is not guaranteed that he will able to get up into the raft and thereby be able to use it. In many cases, persons also land in the water in a more or less unconscious state, and thus would not be capable of climbing up into the raft.

US Patent No. 4 645 465 describes a solution involving a life raft for single persons attached to a diver's oxygen apparatus. The rescue equipment is intended for divers and is designed such that persons wearing an oxygen apparatus on their back must release themselves therefrom in order to climb up into life raft.

The aforementioned solutions, which indicate the state of the art in this area, cannot offer a solution which meets the requirements for:

* the rapid donning of the survival suit in case of accidents

* the certainty that the accident victim will get into his life raft.

The purpose of the invention is to provide a rescue device which ensures that the accident victim may easily take it with him and put it on, and which ensures that the person will automatically be lying within the device during inflation thereof.

This is achieved by the feature that the person has strapped on a portable, compacted life raft which is releasable in emergency situations, is inflated, and renders said person capable of entering it safely.

Further details of the invention will be apparent from the following description of an embodiment example thereof, and from the drawings.

Figure 1 shows the invention in a packed state, in the form of a rucksack.

Figure 2 shows the accident victim lying on his back in the water, viewed from above, in the process of inflating the invention.

Figure 3 shows the same situation as in Figure 2, but viewed from the side.

Figure 4 shows the completely inflated invention, with the accident victim enclosed therein.

Figure 5 shows a person leaving a shipwrecked vessel together with the invention. The invention consists of a pack 1 in which is disposed the raft folded into a convenient package. This pack 1 is secured to a back frame consisting of a back plate 2, carrying straps 3, belly belt 4 and neck support 5. In addition there is found a tripping device for the life raft which is not shown in the figures. This may consist of either a releasing mechanism that is manually operated by the accident victim, or an automatic trigger which activates when the pack 1 comes into contact with water.

When an accident occurs, the person must then put on the invention and jump overboard as shown in Figure 5. Within pack 1, back plate 2 and neck support 5 is found the properly distributed buoyancy material which enables the person to remain lying on his back in the water during the inflation of the life raft, as shown in Figures 2 and 3. It should be possible for this operation to take place even if the accident victim is unconscious. When the invention is completely opened, the accident victim — who is still secured to the raft with the back frame — will be lying inside the raft and secured thereto. Manually the person may carry out operations which will result in his emerging on top of the life raft without having first disengaged himself therefrom.

In a second alternative, when the inflation of the invention is completed, the accident victim is situated inside the raft as a part of the inflation and unfolding process, as shown in Figure 4.

Claims

P a t e n t C l a i m s

1.

A method for preventing the chilling of an accident victim in a marine context, characterized in that the person has strapped on a portable, compacted life raft which is releasable in emergency situations, is inflated, and gives the person the capability of entering it in a safe manner.

2. A method for preventing chilling of an accident victim in a marine context in accordance with claim 1. characterized in that the life raft may be released manually by the person involved.

3. A method for preventing chilling of an accident victim in a marine context in accordance with claim 1, characterized in that after inflation of the raft the person is automatically brought into the raft.

4. An apparatus for preventing chilling of an accident victim in a marine context in accordance with the method as disclosed in claim 1, characterized by a pack (1) provided on a back frame (2,3,4,5), and arranged to be inflated/unfolded and to enclose a person therein.

5.

An apparatus for preventing chilling of an accident victim in a marine context in accordance with the method as disclosed in claim 4, characterized in that the back frame consists of a back plate (2), carrying straps (3), belly belt (4) and neck support (5).