EP0867358B1 - High-capacity liferaft - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to improvements brought to large capacity liferafts comprising an inflatable peripheral edge forming a rod buoyancy and a central bottom secured to it.

Current equipment practice large capacity vessels (cruise ships, ship "car-ferries", ...) in rescue equipment, is provide a floating platform forming a pontoon on which leads to a means of evacuation (ladder, slide, well to braked fall, gondola, ...) and to which the life rafts proper for collecting evacuees.

This floating platform thus constitutes only an intermediary between the part of the means of evacuation located at water level and the life raft itself and has, in principle, no ability for people to remain there. As such, it is part of the material as well as ladders, slides, wells braked fall, ... and can even be mechanically attached to it and be deployed at the same time as these. This platform is therefore not taken into account as that boat allowing to collect people. Gold, although it does not include any of the equipment of a raft rescue (shelter, weaponry, survival equipment, communication equipment, ...), its cost is far from being negligible.

In addition, this platform must be the subject of a maintenance and regular checks as well as all rescue equipment, checks and maintenance which are long and expensive.

Finally, it should also be noted that, once you reach this platform, evacuees must pass through the liferaft moored to him, spanning the two inflatable tubes respectively bordering the platform and the raft. By rough sea and for panicked people and traumatized, even elderly or helpless people or children, this transfer operation is difficult and helps to significantly slow down the filling of the raft safety.

A monitoring system as mentioned above is set out in GB-A-2 131 369.

So there is a pressing demand for a simplification of boarding procedures for people evacuated on large capacity liferafts, on the one hand, to accelerate the evacuation speed as well as possible people especially on big ships capacity currently in service or under study (ships of cruises, car-ferries, ...) and, on the other hand, minimize the number of evacuation materials by due to both own cost and maintenance costs and control.

• au moins une zone formant plate-forme de recueil des personnes embarquant, cette zone de plate-forme de recueil étant non converte pendant la phase d'embarquement, et
• au moins une zone de regroupement des personnes embarquées, ladite zone de regroupement occupant une surface dudit fond relativement plus importante que celle occupée par ladite zone de plateforme de recueil.

For these purposes, a large capacity liferaft as mentioned in the preamble is essentially characterized, being arranged in accordance with the invention, in that said central bottom comprises

• at least one area forming a platform for collecting on-boarding people, this area of a collecting platform being non-converging during the boarding phase, and
• at least one grouping area for on-board people, said grouping area occupying a relatively large area of said bottom than that occupied by said collection platform area.

Thanks to this arrangement, it is the life raft himself who, thanks to an appropriate arrangement of one of his zones, acts as a pontoon for collecting people evacuated, which are then immediately directed towards the regrouping zone to leave the zone clear collection.

This saves material, both for this concerning equipment as controls and maintenance. We simplify the evacuation of people since they pass very easily, and therefore very quickly, from the collected in the regrouping zone, this passage being especially greatly facilitated for the elderly or disabled, children, injured people, ...

In addition, this type of liferaft is of a general use: it may be suitable for evacuation fast of ships of all sizes, and in particular having various freeboard heights: cruise ships, ocean liners, tall car-ferries on water, or low-speed high-speed vessel on the water ; it can be associated with all means of evacuation people from the ship: basket, slide, well braked descent, ladders for great heights, but also small slides, even simple inclined gangway for low-rise vessels.

Finally, it can be positioned anyway desired in relation to the ship, ie at a distance from the hull for long inclined evacuation means, either against the shell for short or vertical means of evacuation.

For very large capacity rafts (for example, to fix ideas, around 100 people), it is desirable to provide two areas for grouping people gathered located on either side of an area centrally located collection platform; in that case, it is also desirable that the raft has a shape general elongated and that the two regrouping zones occupy the end portions of the raft, which leads to an easier general arrangement. However, this provision is not exclusive, and it may in particular be also provided that the raft has an elongated shape and at least one regrouping area occupies part end of the raft and the reception platform area occupies the other end part of the raft: we can thus have a larger free space allowing for example to facilitate the cooperation of the raft and the means of evacuation in heavy seas.

The collection platform area being open and therefore exposed to rain and seawater, it is advantageous that it is arranged for an automatic evacuation of on-board water (so-called "self-draining" area). In addition, the or the areas where people are grouped preferably arranged to protect persons from the water of rain and sea, it is desirable that the platform area is separated from the grouping area of people on board by means of partitioning waterproof. In particular, these means can consist of one or more inflatable tubes which extend transversely on the bottom of the raft at the limit of two zones and which are tightly connected with the bottom and, at the ends, with the peripheral flange of the raft. What thanks to which this or these inflated tubes can also play the role of stiffener, and it is possible to foresee others in the regrouping zone (s) people only for the purpose of strengthening mechanics of the raft, especially in the case of very large capacity of elongated shape as mentioned above.

For security purposes, to be assured that the raft can be used whatever the conditions of its launching, it is interesting that the raft is of a type called "self-righting" or possibly reversible.

In addition, to constitute rescue units for very large capacity (for example 150 or 200, even 250 people) having a very high filling speed, it would be difficult to realize unit rafts of a such capacity. We can therefore foresee that a compliant raft to the invention be equipped laterally with means allowing to moor edge to edge at least one other raft of rescue to form a multiple rescue unit.

In practice, it will be expected that the zone or zones of onboard people are equipped a shelter. Note here that once the raft is filled and distant from the sinking ship, the platform area of collection no longer has to play an active role, at least until the rescue operation during which it will serve as an evacuation platform for people. From this fact, in the absence of an active role, this zone can be occupied by people on board and it is desirable to provide a light and easy auxiliary shelter removable can be built up above the area of collection platform.

Ultimately, a life raft arranged according to the invention leads to a significant saving in the equipment of ships and in the maintenance and control of lifesaving equipment, leads to greater speed of placement of people evacuated in raft shelters, is very flexible to use since suitable for all types of vessels and all types of means of egress, can provide better feeling of security for those gathered in addition large numbers and can facilitate the care of injured, allows the constitution of unity of very important capacity by stowing several rafts on board on board (for example two identical rafts conforming to the invention, or a raft according to the invention and a raft fully equipped with shelters, even a raft according to the invention framed on either side by two rafts fully equipped with shelters); finally the number of aircrew necessary for the implementation of the raft, for boarding people, then for securing the raft command can be significantly reduced vis-à-vis small capacity rescue units.

• la figure 1 est une vue de dessus d'un radeau de sauvetage de grande capacité agencé conformément à l'invention ;
• la figure 2 est une vue de dessus d'un radeau de sauvetage de très grande capacité agencé conformément à l'invention sur la base des dispositions montrées à la figure 1 ;
• la figure 3 est une vue en perspective du radeau de la figure 2 ; et
• la figure 4 est une vue de dessus d'un exemple de constitution d'une unité de sauvetage de capacité très importante incorporant le radeau des figures 2 et 3.

The invention will be better understood on reading the detailed description which follows of certain embodiments given solely by way of nonlimiting examples. In this description, reference is made to the appended drawings in which:

• Figure 1 is a top view of a large capacity liferaft arranged in accordance with the invention;
• Figure 2 is a top view of a very large capacity liferaft arranged in accordance with the invention on the basis of the arrangements shown in Figure 1;
• Figure 3 is a perspective view of the raft of Figure 2; and
• FIG. 4 is a top view of an example of constitution of a very large capacity rescue unit incorporating the raft of FIGS. 2 and 3.

Referring first to Figure 1, there is depicted a large capacity liferaft (by example, to fix ideas, about 50 people) of inflatable type, designated as a whole by the reference 1. This raft comprises in particular, generally known, an inflatable peripheral edge 2 forming a flange of buoyancy, arranged in any desirable way for example either in the form of a single large diameter rod, or in the form of two or three superimposed tubes. The interior of the space defined by this peripheral edge is occupied by a bottom 3 secured to said edge in a sealed manner. The raft is also equipped with inflation equipment, armament navigation and possibly a survival weapon which are not shown.

Anyway the structural arrangement of the raft and its equipment does not come within the scope of the invention and can be any according to the conditions of use provided.

• tout d'abord une zone 4 dégagée, formant plate-forme de recueil pour les personnes embarquant depuis des moyens d'évacuation (non montrés),
• puis une zone 5 de regroupement des personnes ayant embarquées, cette zone ayant pour fonction, d'une part, d'accueillir les personnes embarquées de manière à laisser dégagée la zone de plateforme 4 pour de nouveaux arrivants et, d'autre part, grâce à la mise en oeuvre d'un abri 6 (tel que couramment prévu sur ce type d'embarcation), de mettre les personnes embarquées à l'abri du vent, de la pluie et des paquets de mer.

The part of the raft delimited by the peripheral edge 2, in other words the bottom 3, is made up of two zones:

• first of all, a clear zone 4, forming a collection platform for people embarking from means of evacuation (not shown),
• then a zone 5 for grouping together the people on board, this zone having the function, on the one hand, of welcoming the people on board so as to leave the platform area 4 clear for new arrivals and, on the other hand, thanks to to the implementation of a shelter 6 (as commonly provided on this type of boat), to put the people on board sheltered from the wind, rain and sea packets.

Note that the platform area 4 occupies a significantly smaller surface area than the grouping area 5.

Shelter 6 is arranged in accordance with regulations provided on this subject, with an opening (not visible) of communication with platform area 5, but also side openings, such as 7. Inflatable arches 8 support the shelter.

It is desirable that platform area 4 is arranged so that the rain and sea water it receives is evacuated automatically (so-called "self-draining" area). Of even to keep the shelter dry, it is desirable that watertight protective means separate the area from platform 4 and the regrouping area 5: these means may in particular be constituted by an inflatable tube transverse (located directly above an arch 8 and therefore not visible in fig. 1) which is tightly secured at the bottom 3 and, at its ends, at the peripheral flange; this inflated tube also acts as a stiffener reinforcing the rigidity of the boat and possibly, especially in in the case of long rafts, other similar tubes can be provided for this purpose only.

It is also desirable that the raft 1 is of self-righting or reversible type, so as to be operational whatever the conditions of its updating the water.

Possibly, it may be interesting to plan an auxiliary shelter, light and easily removable, intended for cover platform area 4 once the raft is filled and away from the sinking ship.

You can easily imagine that a liferaft arranged as just indicated is not dependent a specific means of evacuation or a type of ship particular and is therefore of universal use. Mostly, incorporating a platform area for the reception of evacuees, it avoids the recourse, in the material evacuation, to a specific raft forming an affected pontoon only in the collection of people and then not having principle no function of survival equipment.

In addition, the arrangement according to the invention allows great flexibility in design and / or the use of life rafts.

In particular, it can give rise to the realization of very large capacity rafts (for example, to secure ideas, about 100 to 150 people) such as the one illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. This raft, designated as a whole by reference 10, comprises two zones 5 for grouping the people on board who are located on both sides a central zone 4 of collection platform. For the remains both the raft itself and the platform area 4 and the grouping areas 5 can be arranged as said before.

Although the arrangement illustrated in Figure 2 may be considered for a raft of any shape, we can imagine that it is particularly suitable for a shaped raft general elongated in which the grouping areas 5 occupy the end parts, as visible on the Figures 2 and 3.

In FIG. 3, the raft 10 is shown, in perspective, in a position to collect people to be evacuated from ship 11 along which it is moored. For exemple, it was assumed that the means of evacuation consisted of a slide 12 opening directly onto the platform area central 4. In FIG. 3, passages have been shown 13 giving access to one of the regrouping zones 5 from collection area 4.

Once the raft is full and away from the ship, a canvas can be stretched between the two shelters 6, above the central zone 4 in order to form a light shelter for the latter.

Still in the case of an elongated raft, alternatively, a zone of grouping of people (with a single shelter or two juxtaposed shelters) occupies an end zone of the raft while the collection platform area occupies the other end of the raft. The larger free space offers greater freedom to positively cooperate the raft and means of evacuation in rough sea.

If we want to be able to set up very large capacity rescue it is possible moor two or more edge-to-edge rafts, at least one of which is arranged in accordance with the invention. In Figure 4, there is shown such a unit consisting of a raft 10 similar to that of FIGS. 2 and 3 moored edge-to-edge, by means of mooring 14 provided laterally, to another raft 15 which can be similarly design that the raft 10 or else, as illustrated, be of a fully sheltered type: this is platform area 4 of raft 10 which is then used to embark people in raft 15. Another raft 15 could also be moored on the other side of raft 10, which would serve also when boarding the latter.

As it goes without saying and as it already results from this above, the invention is in no way limited to those of its modes of application and embodiments which have been more particularly envisaged; on the contrary, she embraces all variants.

Claims (10)

1. High-capacity life raft (1, 10) comprising an inflatable peripheral edge (2) forming a tubular buoyancy chamber and a central bottom (3) secured thereto,
   characterized in that the said central bottom (3) comprises

   at least one region (4) forming a reception platform for receiving those embarking, said reception platform region being not covered during the embarkment step, and

   at least one region (5) for mustering those who have embarked, the said muster region (5) occupying an area of the said bottom that is substantially larger than the area occupied by the said reception platform region (4).
2. Life raft according to Claim 1, characterized in that it comprises two regions (5) for mustering those who have embarked, these regions being situated one on either side of a reception platform region (4).
3. Life raft (10) according to Claim 2, characterized in that it has an elongate overall shape and in that the two muster regions (5) occupy the end parts of the raft.
4. Life raft according to Claim 1, characterized in that it has an elongate overall shape and in that at least one muster region (5) occupies an end part of the raft and the reception platform region occupies the other end part of the raft.
5. Life raft according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the reception platform region (4) is designed so that any water taken in is removed automatically.
6. Life raft according to Claim 5, characterized in that the reception platform region (4) is separated from the region (5) for mustering those who have embarked by watertight partitioning means.
7. Life raft according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is designed to be self-righting when it enters the water or to be reversible.
8. Life raft according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is laterally provided with means (14) allowing it to be moored alongside at least one other life raft (15) so as to form a multiple life-preserving unit.
9. Life raft according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the region or regions (5) for mustering those who have embarked are equipped with a shelter (6).
10. Life raft according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that once people have embarked, a lightweight and readily removable auxiliary shelter may be erected over the reception platform region (4).

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