INFLATABLE DOCK
A dock assembly comprising a platform section and also a counterweight section. The platform section comprises a main central panel section made of a drop-stitch panel, and also a side closure portion to provide its buoyancy. The counterweight section comprises flexible containing members that can be filled with water and positioned in or below water so that the weight of the mass of water has no affect, but does have a counter-balance effect in certain portions of the assembly are being lifted above the operating elevation.
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This application claims priority benefit of U.S. Ser. No. 61/018,345, filed Dec. 31, 2007.
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSUREa) Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to a floating inflatable dock.
b) Background Information
There are various applications where inflated members are used to support persons, cargo, equipment and other objects. There are certain advantages to having these inflatable members, such as in being able to insert them and remove them from a water environment, ship these to other locations for use, stow them in certain locations and then inflate them for temporary use.
However, one of the disadvantages of these can be stability. To stabilize various flotation members, or nautically related traveling equipment ballast is used in the form of various objects of higher density to add weight to the support portions of the inflatable apparatus, systems or objects.
It is toward these and other related problems which the embodiments of the present invention are directed.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSUREThere is a dock assembly 10 which comprises a platform section having an inflatable chamber and also a counterweight section. The platform section comprises a main central panel section made of a drop-stitch panel, and also a side closure portion to provide its buoyancy. The counterweight section comprises flexible containing members that can be filled with water and positioned in or below water so that the weight of the mass of water has no affect while it is immersed in the water, but functions as a counter-balance if certain portions of the assembly are being lifted above the operating elevation.
With reference first to
The platform 12 comprises a main central panel section 16 having in plan view in this embodiment a rectangular shape (and in this embodiment a square shape). The panel section 16 is made as a drop-stitch panel 16, and it has a perimeter closure section 18. The panel section 16 and the perimeter closure section 18 together form the platform section 12 which can be considered to be a flotation platform section 12, which has an inflatable pressure chamber 17.
To describe in more detail the nature of the drop-sheet panel 16, reference is now made
As indicated above, the drop-sheet panel section 16 has upper and lower sheets 19 and 20. To make each of these sheets 19 and 20, as shown in
The two sheets 19 and 20 are flexible, but they cannot be stretched. Also, the threads 21 are flexible, but these also cannot be stretched. Drop-stitch panels are commercially available with threads of various lengths.
With reference now to
With reference to
The upper edge portions of the four sidewalls 38 have a water-tight connection to the bottom sheet 20 so that each of these defines a water-tight chamber, which in this present embodiment is filled with water in its operating position in a body of water. Each of these counterweight members 15 has one or more valves shown schematically at 41 through which water can flow to fill the counterweight member 15 or to empty it.
These counterweight members 15 are made of a flexible material, so that when the dock is in its non-operating position, it can be folded up in a compact storage configuration. The platform section 12 has one or more air-inlet and outlet valves shown at 43 so that the platform section 12 can be inflated or deflated.
To describe now the operation of the present invention, reference will be made first to
To place the dock assembly 10 in its operating condition, there are two major steps. One step is to inflate the platform section 12 to pressurize its interior to a relatively high pressure level (i.e. 5 to 10 PSI (pounds per square inch) or possibly more).
One of the characteristics of the drop-stitch configuration of an inflatable member is that when it is pressurized to a relatively high level, it is structurally substantially rigid. Thus, the platform section 12 maintains its configuration of having flat upper and lower surfaces 19 and 20 and a rounded perimeter closure section 18 which, in performing its functions, is able to withstand rather large forces applied to it and deviates from its regular configuration only slightly. Thus, for all practical purposes, the platform section 12 can be regarded as a relatively light-weight rigid panel, capable of maintaining its basic configuration and supporting rather substantial loads, but with a very small degree of bending under high loads.
The other step is to fill each of the four counterweight members 15 with water through one or more of the valves 41. After each of these counterweight members 15 is filled with water, the valve(s) 41 is/are shut, and the water remains within the structure of the counterweight member 15.
In
A typical small to medium square dock made as an embodiment of this invention could have dimensions, for example, of its four side portions being 8-feet in length. Thus, the area of the flotation platform section would be 8-feet squared, which would make this 64-square feet. With regard to the depth-dimension of the platform section 12, in a typical embodiment, this depth-dimension which would be equal to the length of the threads 21 of the platform section 12 could be about 8-inches (i.e. two-thirds of a foot).
If we then calculate the volume of the inflated inside chamber or region of the platform section 12, that would come out to approximately 43-cubic feet. If we now calculate the total force it would take to totally submerge the platform section 12, assuming the weight of the water to be 62.5 pounds per cubic feet that would come out to over or about approximately 2,500-pounds of force. Now, however, if we assume that the applied force 50 is equal to, for example, 250-pounds, that would cause the platform section 12 to sink downwardly into the upper water surface portion by ten percent of the depth of the panel section 12. In
It is to be understood that the platform section could have other relative dimensions and shapes, such as an eight-foot by six-foot rectangle, etc.
In
The effect of this section 56 moving further into the water would result in an upward movement of the opposite corner of the dock assembly being lifted up from the water at the same time there is an upward force being applied against the bottom surface portion of the platform section 12 at the corner location. The pattern of this upward force of the displaced water is indicated by several arrows 58, and this force indicated at 58 would decrease from left to right until it reaches a middle location of the platform section 12, and this would cause the opposite end of the platform at 60 to move upwardly in a slant. The drawing of
At this point, let us consider further various effects of having the four counterweight members 15. As long as these counterweight members 15 are fully submersed in the water, there is no effect at all in the flotation characteristics of the platform section 12. As indicated earlier, the material that makes up the walls of each of the four counterweight members 15 has little weight, and of course the water which is within the counterweight members 15 would exert no force at all, neither upward nor downward relative to the platform section 12.
However, assuming that the load 54 of the weight that is imposed at an off center location upon the panel section 12 is great enough, then the oppositely positioned counterweight member indicated at 60a in
At this point, let us analyze the application of the forces shown in
Also, to complete this analysis of the forces it is necessary to also resolve the force moments. We first look to the single upward force 62 as what we can term a “pivot location” about which the two forces at 54 and 64 must balance out. It can be seen that the moment arm extending between the two forces 62 and 64 is at least six-times as long as the moment arm from the forces 62 and 54. Thus, the force 64 would be only about one-sixth of the downward force imposed at 54. Thus, the downward load at 54 which is imposed on the platform section 12 could be six-times as great as the downward force 64 imposed by that portion of the counterweight member 14 that has the water-portion 60a above the level of the surrounding water.
With reference to
We now have a similar situation to that of
It is believed that a better appreciation of characteristics of the present invention will be obtained by examining these in more detail. To accomplish this, reference is made to
In
Then in
We will assume that the flotation platform section 12 has the chamber volume as discussed earlier in this text so that it would be about 25,000 cubic feet.
In
An inspection of
Reference is now made to
If the cargo 78 is tied down to the floating platform 12 then the upward movement of the left part of the flotation section 12 and the downward rotation of the cargo container 76 continues. The cargo container 78 would continue its downward descent in the water. In the situation discussed thus far, the total interior volume of the flotation platform 12 is sufficiently great so that it would remain buoyant, and the left hand side of the flotation platform would have its left hand portion rising out of the water where it would be visible.
On the other hand, if the cargo container 18 was not secured to the upper surface of the flotation platform 12, then the cargo container 78 would simply drop off from the platform 12 and likely go to the bottom of that body of water, and the flotation platform 12 would fall back to its level position above the water as shown in
To close off this analysis, reference is now made to
The description of the platform sections 12 which is in the earlier part of this text shows the platform section in a rectangular configuration, and more specifically in a square configuration, and the four separate counterweight members 15 are at corner locations of the square rectangle. As a general comment, these counterweight members 15 are evenly spaced from one another to have the counter-balancing effect in a “broader territory”, and they are located at the corner portions of the platform section 12.
This arrangement of the counter-balancing effects of the counterweight member 15 are distributed throughout the entire outer perimeter portions of the platform section 12. Also, depending upon where the downward for and/or load is located, the counter-balancing function may be performed by a single counterweight member 15, or a combination of two of the counterweight members 15.
A second embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to
With reference to
As an alternative, the counter-balance section 14a of the second embodiment could have the same basic configuration but would not have the continuous counter-balance member with the chamber extending throughout its length. Rather, there would be partitions such as shown at 92 between the two cross-members 94, with each having their separate valve outlet/inlet to insert the counter-balancing water into the interior of that section 92.
A benefit of this second embodiment is that the counter-balance member 90a extends for a much greater distance to provide more weight to the counter-balance members which in turn would permit these to be somewhat shallower in the depth dimension. Thus, when there is a tilting of the flotation platform 12, there would be a much greater amount of total weight of the counter-balance member 90 for a given depth dimension so that it would permit even less upward counter balancing movement. Alternatively, the depth of the counter-balance section 90a could be made more shallow to position the center of gravity of the counter-balance at a higher level.
It is obvious that various modifications could be made to this embodiment without departing from the basic teachings of the present invention.
While the present invention is illustrated by description of several embodiments and while the illustrative embodiments are described in detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications within the scope of the appended claims will readily appear to those sufficed in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and methods, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of applicants' general concept.
Claims
1. (canceled)
2. (canceled)
3. An inflatable dock assembly comprising;
- a) an inflatable platform section having a perimeter and comprising: i. a main central flotation section which has a flotation chamber and which comprises a drop stitch structure which further comprises upper and lower drop stitch sheets, with a core of threads connected to and extending between said upper and lower drop stitch layers, with the threads extending substantially throughout the flotation structure, and with said upper and lower drop stitch layers comprising at least a substantial portion of upper and lower layers of the platform; ii. a perimeter closure section arranged to enclose a region between the upper and lower drop stitch closure portion sheets to form an edge enclosure section around the platform section;
- b) said counterweight section comprising a water containing section comprising a water containing structure or structures of a flexible stowable material and positioned in a manner so that the water contained in the structure or structures is at or near the perimeter of the platform section, and a substantial portion or all of the contained water is at or below outside water level where the platform section is floating and in its unloaded condition, said water containing structure or structures being arranged in a pattern around the perimeter of the platform section so that when a downward force is imposed at any one location on a first side of the platform section to tend to tilt the platform section, said downward force is reacted through an approximate pivot location in or at the platform section to an opposite second location or locations of the platform to apply a lifting force to one or more of the structure or structures at said second location or locations which react to apply a counterbalancing force to resist said downward force on the opposite first side of the platform and thus resist tilting of the platform section at said one location at which the downward force is applied.
4. The assembly as recited in claim 3, wherein the perimeter closure section comprises two bonding edge portions which extend in overlapping relationship two adjacent edge portions of the upper and lower sheets of the drop stitch structure to form a water proof seal.
5. The assembly as recited in claim 3, wherein the water in said water containing section is substantially at least at, or close to, a level of a bottom horizontal surface of said platform section in a manner that if one portion the inflatable dock section near an edge portion is forced down into the water, at least a portion of the water containing section tends to be lifted out of the water to counteract and/or limit more effectively downward movement of said one portion of the inflatable dock.
6. The assembly as recited in claim 3, wherein said water containing section comprises a plurality of water containing structures which are at spaced locations around the perimeter of the platform section, each of these water containing structures defining a water containing chamber with a valve to fill the chamber or empty the chamber.
7. The assembly as recited in claim 6, wherein at least some of the counter containing structures have upper edge portions to connect to a bottom surface of a platform section by a water tight connection to a portion of a bottom surface of the platform section.
8. The assembly as recited in claim 3, wherein said platform section has a perimeter with a rectangular configuration with four corners, and there are at least four water containing structures which are located at or near corner members of the rectangular platform section.
9. The assembly as recited in claim 3, wherein said platform section has a perimeter with a rectangular configuration, and the water containing section comprises at least four water containing structures which are at approximate mid-locations at or near the four edge portions of the rectangular perimeter closure section of the platform section.
10. The assembly as recited in claim 3, wherein there is at least one water containing structure which is elongate and extends along at least a substantial length of at least one side of the perimeter of the platform section.
11. The assembly as recited in claim 10, wherein there is a plurality of said elongate water containing structures which extend along a plurality of substantial lengths of a plurality of sides of the perimeter of the platform section.
12. The assembly as recited in claim 11, wherein said elongate water containing structures define a continuous water containing chamber extending through said water containing structures.
13. The assembly as recited in claim 10, wherein there is at least one partition member or members located in the elongate water containing structure to separate an elongate chamber in said water containing structure to a plurality of chambers of the structure.
14. A method of providing and stabilizing an inflatable dock assembly and said method comprising;
- a) providing a main central flotation section by providing a drop stitch structure which comprises upper and lower drop stitch sheets, with a core of threads connected to and extending between said upper and lower drop stitch layers, with the threads extending substantially throughout the flotation structure, and with said upper and lower drop stitch layers comprising at least a substantial portion of upper and lower layers of the platform:
- b) enclosing a perimeter region extending around and between the upper and lower drop stitch closure portion by bonding an edge enclosure section around the perimeter region of the upper and lower drop stitch layers;
- c) providing a counterweight section by first providing a water containing section comprising a water containing structure or structures of a flexible stowable material;
- d) positioning the structure or structures so that water contained in the structure or structures is at or near the perimeter of the perimeter of the platform, with a substantial portion or all of the contained water being at or below water level when the platform section is floating in its unloaded condition;
- e) arranging the water containing structure or structures in a pattern to be present at or near the perimeter and in a pattern around the perimeter of the platform section so that when a downward force is imposed at one location at a first side of the platform section to tend to tilt the platform section, said downward force is reacted through an approximate pivot location in or at the platform section to an opposite second location or locations of the structure or structures to apply a lifting force to one or more of the structure or structures on the opposite second location or locations to apply a counterbalancing force to resist said downward force and thus resist the tilting of the platform section at said one location.
15. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising positioning the water containing section at least at, or close to, a level of a bottom horizontal surface of said platform section in a manner that if one portion the inflatable dock section near an edge portion is forced down into the water, at least a portion of the water containing section tends to be lifted out of the water to counteract to limit downward movement of said one portion of the inflatable dock.
16. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising positioning a plurality of water containing structures at spaced locations around the perimeter of the platform section, providing each of these water containing structures with water through a valve.
17. The method as recited in claim 16, further comprising providing at least some of the water containing structures with upper edge portions and connecting the edge portions to a bottom surface of a platform section by a water tight connection to a portion of a bottom surface of the platform section.
18. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein said platform section has a perimeter with a rectangular configuration with four corners, said method further comprising placing at least four water containing structures at or near the corner members of the rectangular platform section.
19. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein said platform section has a perimeter with a rectangular configuration, said method further comprising positioning at least four water containing structures at approximate mid-locations at or near the four edge portions of the rectangular perimeter closure section of the platform section.
20. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising providing said water containing section with at least one elongate water containing portion of the water containing structure to extend along a substantial length of the perimeter of the platform section.
21. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising providing a plurality of elongate water containing structures positioned near or adjacent to a plurality of elongate perimeter sections of the perimeter.
22. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein said perimeter has at least four perimeter edge portions which comprise a substantial portion of the perimeter of the flotation section, said method comprising arranging said water containing structures as a continuous water containing chamber extending through substantially all of the structure water containing portions.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 31, 2008
Publication Date: May 6, 2010
Applicant:
Inventor: Stefano Rista (Vancouver)
Application Number: 12/347,942
International Classification: E02B 3/20 (20060101); E01D 15/20 (20060101);