GB2453988A

GB2453988A - Weights for diving

Info

Publication number: GB2453988A
Application number: GB0720928A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Chao Tsun Shih
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-10-25
Filing date: 2007-10-25
Publication date: 2009-04-29
Also published as: GB0720928D0

Abstract

A weight device is provide for diving, including a number of weight units 30 that are respectively mounted to selected locations on a wetsuit that is worn by a diver in doing diving activity. Each weight unit 30 includes a pocket mounted to the wetsuit and a piece of rubber tungsten received and retained in the pocket. The pocket may be attached to the wetsuit with a hook and loop fastener, sewing, adhesives or ultrasonic fusion. The weight unit made of rubber tungsten features being contamination free, flexible arrangement on the wetsuit, causing no interference with the movement of diver's limbs.

Description

TITLE: WEIGHT DEVICE FOR DIVING

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(a) Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a weight device for diving, and in particular to a weight device that is detachably mounted to a wetsuit, causes no contamination, can be flexibly arranged, does not interfere with movement of body limbs, and has enhanced safety.

(1\ rcr.rt-it;tt, nifth Prr L\ rt With the rapid increase of the population of entertainment sports, diving becomes one of the most popular outdoor activities. Diving needs complicated equipment to ensure safety, which includes a wetsuit, a mask, a snorkel, an air tank, a regulator, a pair of boots, and a weight belt. The present invention is concerned about the field of weight for diving.

Due to the fact that sea water has a high salt concentration, together with the buoyancy induced by the material used to make the wetsuit, a diver gets vety easily floating on the sea surface. To dive into the depth of sea, a diver must cany a load in order to compensate the buoyancy and to help maintaining neutral buoyancy in the sea water. Various manners are used to calculate the proper weight for diving. Among these methods, the most straightforward manner is to take one tenth of the total weight of a diver and all the diving equipment carried thereby as the weight of the load. Another way to calculate the neutral buoyancy is to have the diver put on the diving equipments with the air tank being pressurized to 35 bars and the ideal neutral buoyancy is that the diver is allowed to maintain at a depth of 5 meters under the sea surface. Apparently, the diver has to carry a load for diving to maintain the ideal neutral buoyancy and the common way to realize the loading is the weight belt that is put on the diver, as particularly shown in Figures 1 and 2 of the attached drawings.

A conventional weight belt as shown in Figures 1 and 2 comprises a belt 10 having a buckle 11 releasably connecting opposite ends of the belt 10 and a plurality of weight blocks 12 forming passages through which the belt 10 extends to fix the weight blocks 12 on the belt 10. After a diver puts on a wetsuit 13, the diver may wear the weight belt by surrounding the belt 10 around his or her waist. The belt 10 is then fixed to the diver's waist by the buckle 11 and the diver thus cany the weight blocks 12 that are mounted to the belt 10 on his or her body. The diver may obtain a proper weight for diving by adding or removing some of the weight blocks 12 from the belt 10.

The conventional weight belt 12, however, has disadvantages, including at least: (1) The weight blocks are made of lead, which, when contacting sea water, generates highly toxicant lead ionic compounds, which may cause direct contamination to the sea and ocean and adversely influence the ocean bio-environment and may further penetrate through the belt 10 and the wetsuit 13 to cause damage to the skin and organs of the diver's body.

(2) The weight blocks 12 are made of casting of lead and have quite a size, which when worn on the waist of the diver may interfere with the movement of the diver's limbs, and may even cause damage to the waist, belly, and ribs of the diver due to forcible depression against the driver's body (3) To provide a sufficient weight, a number of weight blocks have to be sequentially fit on the belt and since the weight of the weight blocks is constant, it is difficult to do fine adjustment of the total weight of the weight blocks, whereby it is very difficult to obtain a very precise ideal weight for a particular diver.

(4) The weight blocks are carried by the belt that surrounds the diver's waist so that the total weight of the weight blocks is concentrated on the waist, which induces an unbalance of loading for the diver moving in the sea and consequently, the diver must practice very hard to maintain balance to compensate the unbalance caused by the concentrated arrangement of the weight blocks.

(5) For a diver staying in the depth of the sea, accidents may unexpected happen, such as equipment malfunctioning, body damage or sickness, whereby the diver must float to the sea surface immediately for rescue; however, the conventional weight belt may not be easy to take off in emergency so that the weight blocks 12 delay the diver getting to the sea surface.

It is clear enough that the conventional weight belt that function to cany a number of weight blocks has numerous drawbacks and improvement is ertain1y prirnny trick few the cfely fdiving cietivity

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a weight device for diving, which causes no contamination, provides a flexible arrangement of weight blocks, does not interference movement of diver's limbs, and ensure enhanced safety of diving.

To achieve the above objective, in accordance with the present invention, a wetsuit is provided with weight units. The wetsuit is to be worn by a diver in divino t-'tivihi 1'h wpioht unit mnric rereivino nncket

----

releasably mounted to or securely fixed to the wetsuit at predetermined locations and a piece of rubber tungsten that is removably received and retained in the pocket. The piece of rubber tungsten is made of powder of tungsten mixed with a flexible matrix material and shaped in the form of a plate or a block of a determined configuration.

The foregoing object and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.

Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure] is a perspective view of a conventional weight belt for diving; Figure 2 is a front view of a wetsuit on which the conventional weight belt is put; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a wetsuit to which a weight device constructed in accordance with the present invention is mounted; Figure 4 is a perspective view illustrating weight units of the weight -.ctI-rc'c.rt; ,rti,-ri t c.aintA tr'. th,tiit nel Figure 5 is a perspective view illustrating the weight units of the weight device of the present invention secured to the wetsuit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following descriptions are of exemplaiy embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention.

Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and anangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims With reference to the drawings and in particular to Figure 3, a weight device for diving constructed in accordance with the present invention comprises a plurality of weight units 30 mounted to a wetsuit 20. The wetsuit 20, also see Figure 4, is to be put on the body of a diver.

Each weight unit 30 comprises a pocket 31 and a piece of rubber tungsten 32 removably received and retained in the pocket 31. The rubber tungsten 32 is made of tungsten powders mixed with a flexible matrix material and is shaped as a plate or a block having a predetennined configuration. The flexible material comprises rubber or plastics. The rubber tungsten so made and shaped has a great specific weight and is flexible and deflectable, and is of shock-absorbability and resistance against corrosion. It is noted that in all the metals currently known, lead has a specific weight of 11.3gm/cc and that of tungsten is 19.3gm/cc.

The pockets 31 can be mounted at any desired or predetermined locations on the wetsuit 20. These locations are selected to ensure better balance for the diver moving in the sea, including outer sides of upper arms, opposite sides of waist, and outer sides of thighs. Other locations can also be used, such as chest and belly.

The pockets 31 can be mounted to the wetsuit 20 in different ways, nha-nn,his4 rn k fc,-i Iril, fv thi r L'itc 1 tc th wti ut f) fund the _d_.----1----other is to mount the pockets 31 to the wetsuit 20 fri a removable manner.

An example of removably mounting the pockets 31 to the wetsuit 20 is to provide a first portion 21 (such as a looped portion) of a loop-and-hook fastening device to a selected location on the wetsuit 20 and a second portion 311 (such as a hooked portion) of the loop-and-hook fastening device to one side face of the pocket 31 so that the pocket 31 can be removably attached to the wetsuit 20 by means of the engagement between the first portion 21 and the second portion 311 of the loop-and-hook fastening device, as illustrated in Figure 4. This allows the pocket 31 to be easily and efficiently removed from the wetsuit 20.

Examples of fixedly mounting the pocket 31 to the wetsuit 20 include sewing, adhesives, and ultrasonic fusion, which when applied, securely fixes the pocket 31 to a predetermined location on the wetsuit 20. The pocket 31 is provided with a receptacle opening 312 through which the rubber tungsten 32 caji be put into and removed out of the pocket 31, as shown in Figure 4.

To this point, it is apparent that the weight device of the present invention that is constituted by a plurality of weight units 30 mounted to selected locations on a wetsuit 20 has the following advantages: (I) The rubber tungsten 32 of the weight unit 30 is made of powders of n-s,-l.1-.h,. kr%th l-% rt-T rirf tiwr.canf tis f1-m I t-'i...cnurnnryipnt nd a ta a. a.. --.. --------V human body and causing substantially no contamination and/or pollution.

(2) The rubber tungsten 32 of the weight unit 30 is flexible and deflectable and may get in comply with the curve of human body when a diver is moving his or her limbs and portion of body so that the weight unit 30 does not interfere with the movement of limbs of the diver; further, the flexibility and deflectabilitiy of the rubber tungsten 32 demonstrate features of shock absorbability and cushioning, which provide protection to the diver's body.

(3) The pocket 31 of the weight unit 30 is provide for receiving and retaining rubber tungsten 32 and the pocket 31 can be further divided into partitioned chambers in which smaller pieces of rubber tungsten can be deposited. Thus, a diver may simply attach the weight unit 30 to the wetsuit

II

he or she wears and a predetermined weight can be easily attached to the wetsuit, and further and fine adjustment of the weight can be easily done with selection and employment of small-sized rubber tungsten blocks.

(4) The rubber tungsten 32 of the weight unit 30 has a high specific weight, which provides an excellent weight for diving and when a number of weight units 30 are attached to selected locations on the wetsuit 20, better balance can be realized for the diver, which allows the diver to move in an t1 rrd-l-mfflit S.#L&JflSd* I I._ (5) In case that emergency situation happens when the diver is diving, such as equipment failure and discomfort or sick of body, the diver can simply peel the weight units 30 off the wetsuit 20 (or take the rubber tungsten 32 out of the pocket 31 through the openings 312) to remove the weight for easing surfacing of the diver so that safety of diving can be enhanced.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof it is apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention which is intended to be defined by the appended claims.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above.

While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Claims

1 CLAIM: 1. A weight device for diving comprising weight units that are respectively mounted to selected locations on a wetsuit that is worn by a diver in doing diving activity, each weight unit comprising a pocket and a piece of rubber tungsten, the rubber tungsten being made of tungsten powders mixed with rubber and formed in a plate or block of a predetermined shape to be received and retained in the renertive ryv-kpt the nes*etc hpno mcii inted tn the celected ---,--------locations of the wetsuit to provide excellent balance for the diver moving in a depth of a sea.

2. The weight device as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the wetsuit is provided with a first portion of a loop-and-hook fastening device is mounted to each of the selected locations of the wetsuit and wherein the pocket of each weight unit is provided with a second portion of the loop-and-hook fastening device to releasably attach the weight unit to the selected location of the wetsuit by means of releasable engagement between the first and second portions of the loop-and-hook fastening device.

3. The weight device as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the pocket of each weight unit is securely fixed to the respective selected location of the wetsuit by means of sewing, adhesives, or ultrasonic fusion.