Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Description
Fastening Apparatus of Combined Boat
Technology Field
This design relates to an apparatus of combined boat and kayak,
especially a kind of combined boat that has semicircle shaped band
fastening part with grooves inside to fasten the boat securely.
Background Technologies
The small boats and kayaks that are commonly used nowadays
mostly are made of glass fiber reinforced plastics or normal plastics. These
kinds of materials have advantages of low cost and easy to make, but the
strength and durability of boats and kayaks made of them are not as good
as the ones traditionally made of metal and wood. Currently the combined
boat design field uses screws, locating pin and splint to fix the separate
parts of the boat together. This kind of apparatus has small force contacting
surface, so it has a great pressure at the joints and the small surface;
therefore, the material fatigue or creep is easily occurred. And this might
cause the shortened lifespan of the boat and safety issues. Also, this kind of
structure is complicated, and it is hard to assemble, hard to take apart, and
the nuts/screws are easy to lose.
For example, US 4522145 A published a transferrable boat. The two
parts of the boat is combined through a "T" shaped structure that requires
3 sets of nuts/screws. This kind of structure is complicated, and the
assembling and disassembling requires the help of a wrench, so it is not
convenient.
Also, CN 2106793 U published a combined boat that uses several
locating pins and screws to fasten the two bodies. So separately operating
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on the locating pins and screws are required when assemble and
disassemble the boat. And tools are required to perform these tasks.
Therefore, it is not convenient.
JP 5131979 A published a submerged device. It uses holding band to
fix with the groove on boat. This holding band is the combination of two
semicircles. When it is fastened, the two semicircles are combined to form
a whole circle and it can adjust the inner circumference using the hinges on
the circle. This kind of structure is complicated and not easy to operate and
use. And this kind of design is for devices underwater, which has a different
environment from the boat that travels on the water, like my design,
fastening apparatus of combined boat.
US 6634825 B2 published a connecting cylindrical apparatus, like
showing in figure 2. It uses two semicircle holding bands to fix with the
groove on the boat. It is similar to the above design from Japan. The
disadvantages of this design are some tools are needed when assembling it
since the screws are tightly fastened on the two semicircles. And this kind
of design has a complicated structure too. It is not east to operate and it
has great pressure on the connecting part. This device is used under water,
which is different from the boat and kayak that travel on the water. The
environments are different.
WO 2008049158 Al published a kind a boat that has some anchoring
structure at the front and back of the boat. Through the holding band and
anchors, it connects the different pieces of bodies together. This kind of
structure might seem to be easy to operate, but it might not be easy to
assemble, disassemble and fasten. And when there is a big wave, the safety
of the boat is concerned.
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Design Content
To solve the above problems, this design is intended to provide an
apparatus that is a simple, secure, easy to manufacture, convenient to
mount and dismount.
To achieve the above results, this design uses the following
technologies: a strip holding band that looks like a semicircle, used to
combine the parts of separated parts of a boat and kayak. The
characteristics are: grooves are provided at the joints of the boat hulls; the
fastening apparatus includes a holding band with ridges mating with the
grooves, and the holding band engages via the ridges with the grooves so
as to join the boat hulls of the combined boat together securely.
By using the above technologies, since the holding band has ridge on
it, it mates the groove part on the boat tightly and securely. The semicircle
holding band can connect all the surfaces on the boat together tightly. The
whole apparatus is simple structured; since the ridge and the grooves are
connected tightly, to make sure the whole boat is travelled in the water
smoothly and safe.
The connecting part from the above technology is locking grips.
The holding band from the above technology has a hinge structure
near the gunwale.
The holding band from the above technology is made of hard
material.
Useful Effects
Boats with this semicircle strip holding band structure provided in
this design have many advantages. For example, when people are boating,
the connecting part has a wide and big contacting surface, so the pressure
is small and evenly spread out. The connecting groove near the gunwale is
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strong, so it will not deform easily under great pressure. It does not require
to use tools to assemble or disassemble. The user can use his/her hand to
perform the tasks. It is easy to assemble and disassemble. It does not need
screws or locating pins.
Since the user of the design boat is normally not a professional that
has much knowledge about boats, it is hard for the user to proper adjust
the level of tightness of the screws, so it could be easy to break it if it is
fastened too hard and could be unsafe if it not fasten enough. But this
design eliminates this kind of problem.
Nuts and locating pins are many small objects. They are easy to get
lost by storing and transporting, especially when assembled or
disassembled around the lake or the sea. These places usually have sand,
gravel or grass, it would be hard to find the lost pieces, which will cause
difficulties to use the boat. But this design eliminates this kind of problem.
The forces caused by buoyant, the wave from the water, the shear
force between the boat and the water, and the weight of user/users and
their movement on the boat can cause the screw and locating pins to
develop fatigue easily. And the screws might be loose or damaged after
using it for a short period of time. To eliminate this problem, some more
material must be used to reinforce the strength of the screw and locating
pins; therefore the boat weight is increased.
The boat weight itself is an important factor that the user chooses
what kind of boat to purchase. From the storage to the vehicle, the vehicle
to water, the user normally carries the boat using his/her own strength. It
might be difficult for people that do not have enough strength, for example,
some women, elders and disabled. The weight of the boat is important.
This design makes the combined boat lighter. For the people that love
sports, leisure activities, and fishing, this design is very good to them.
This designed combined boat can be placed on the back seats or in
the trunk of a car. It is easy to transport, saving energy, and it is easy for
the
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users to carry on their own, to assemble and disassemble, and it also saves
material usage.
Also, this designed boat can be assembled or disassembled quickly.
This could be very useful when it is under emergency, such as saving lives
on the water, general saving, and evacuating, etc.
Drawing Description
Figure 1 is the top view of the fastening apparatus of combined boat
Figure 2 is the side view of the fastening apparatus of combined boat
Figure 3 is the grooves on the combined boat
Figure 4 is the semicircle shaped apparatus side view
Figure 5 is the semicircle shaped apparatus inside view
Figure 6 is the semicircle shaped apparatus lock side view
Figure 7 is to show how the separated parts are connected together
Detailed Operation Method
The following is an example on how to operate the combined boat
with the drawings:
According to Figure 1 to 7, this fastening apparatus is intended to
combine the part 1 together tightly. The part 1 contains grooves (3); the
fastening apparatus contains holding band (2), and the holding band is
made of hard material. Holding band (2) has ridges (4) that match the
grooves. The ridges (4) and the grooves (3) are tightly connected together
via the holding band to make sure the separated pieces of the boat
combined as a whole body.
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Based on the above technology, since the holding band has ridges (4),
which matches the grooves (3), and to make sure these two parts are
connected together tightly. The closed loop on the holding band (2)
connects separated bodies into a whole body. The holding band is made of
hard material. The whole structure is simple; since grooves (3) and ridges (4)
are mated together, two separated boat bodies are not easily slide away
from each other, so the boat is traveling safer and more stable.
in this example, the boat is combined with three separated bodies.
The bodies are connected using the holding bands (2) from each other. If
there are more bodies, the same method applies to other bodies and the
holding bands on each separated boat body can connected the bodies from
one to another.
In this example, according to Figure 4 and 6, the holding band (2) has
a connecting part (6) that can be in connecting status or disconnecting
status. When the connecting part (6) is at connecting status, separated
pieces of boat are connected together; when it needs to be separated, the
connecting part (6) is at disconnecting status. The operation of connecting
and disconnecting is simple. In this example, the connecting can be a lock.
Using this kind of connecting method can set holding band (2) to be at
connecting or disconnecting status, to connect the separated boat pieces
together or separate them. The connecting part can be other publicly
known connecting structures if it can set the holding band (2) at connecting
or disconnecting status, which is not further illustrated here.
In this example, according to Figure 4, the holding band (2) has chain
structure around the edge of the boat body. The chain structure (5) around
the edge of the boat benefits the holding band to attach to the body of the
boat better, so that two separated bodies are connected together tighter,
and the boat is more stable. At the mean while, since the holding band is
made of hard material, having the chain structure (5) around the edge of
the boat can reduce the wearing down of the hard material, and increase
the lifespan of the holding band (2).
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The above illustration is only the theory of this design and a good
example of showing how to operate it. It needs to be pointed out that to
the technicians in this technology field, based on the theory of the original
design, anyone can make more other modified version of this kind of
combined boats, which are protected under this patent of design.
