Patent Application
20160200398
The present invention relates to a small leisure boat, and more particularly, to a leisure boat that is inexpensive through mass-production and is remarkably improved in terms of safety and convenience.
In general, boats used for water leisure activities such as a waterside excursion, fishing, water skiing, and scuba diving can be classified into a soft boat made of vinyl or rubber and a hard boat made of FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic) or metal.
A soft boat is significantly decreased in volume when being evacuated, so it is easy to carry and keep. However, the soft boat is too light, so it is easily turned over by carelessness of passengers or waves and is too much shaken, and accordingly, the passengers can hardly move on the boat. Further, there is a large possibility of an accident due to puncture and it is required to inject and excavate air for every use.
On the other hand, a hard boat is larger than the soft boat, so it is relatively safe, but ordinary people have difficulty in purchasing it because it is expensive. Further, it is too large and heavy, so it is difficult to carry and keep. For example, even if a hard boat is small, it is required to connect a trailer for the boat to a vehicle or to load the boat on a truck in order to transport the boat to a desired place. Accordingly, most boat possessors have to anchor their boats at specific anchorages and use the boat around the anchorages, so the use range is very limited.
In order to remove this inconvenience of the hard boat, an assembly-type boat equipped with a foldable cage on a pair of air tubes has been disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2006-0134556 (published on Dec. 28, 2006), but the inconvenience of injecting/evacuating air into/out of the air tubes still remains and the air tubes may be damaged. Further, there are many parts, so it takes too much time to assembly/disassembly the boat.
Further, the hard boat of the related art has a problem in that it is likely to sink when cracks are generated on the boat body by external shock. In order to solve this problem, as in Patent Registration No. 10-1224156 (published on Jan. 14, 2013), an air tube is additionally mounted on the boat body, but there is still the inconvenience of injecting/evacuating air and the manufacturing cost is increased because the structure is complicated.
On the other hand, a hard boat made of FRP of the related art is manufactured by applying plastic resin on the inner side of an arm-shaped mold and then bonding glass fiber using an adhesive, but this manufacturing method takes too long time, so it is not suitable for the way of manufacturing small leisure boats that has to produce thousands to tens of thousands of products having the same size in a short period of time. Further, recently, as it has been known that an FRP boat causes water contamination, the demand for an environment-friendly leisure boat is increasing.
The present invention is directed to providing an assembly-type small leisure boat that can be easily carried and kept. Further, the present invention provides a small leisure boat that is not easily turned over by carelessness of a user or large waves and is safe without sinking even if the boat body is damaged.
Further, the present invention is directed to contributing to enlargement of the lowest stratum and popularization of water leisure by reducing the price of leisure boats through mass-production so that anyone can purchase them without burden. Further, the present invention is directed to protecting the water quality by providing a leisure boat made of an environment-friendly material.
One aspect of the present invention provides a small leisure boat including: a boat body where people stay; three or more connection rods coupled to the boat body at ends and symmetrically arranged around the boat body; and floating bodies coupled to the other ends of the connection rods, respectively.
The boat body of the small leisure boat according to the present invention may include a lower body having a space where people stay and an upper body coupled to the top of the lower body, and the connection rods may be coupled to the lower body.
Further, the lower body of the small leisure boat according to the present invention may have rod seats formed in a groove shape and holding ends of the connection rods and stoppers protruding upward inside the rod seats.
Further, the small leisure boat according to the present invention may further include connection rod covers disposed on the rod seats, having a curved surface corresponding to the connection rods, and coupled to the lower body at both ends.
Further, in the small leisure boat according to the present invention, the connection rods may have an elastic projection protruding outward and a fastening hole where the elastic projection is inserted may be formed at the rod seats or the connection rod covers.
Further, in the small leisure boat according to the present invention, pipe-shaped rod seats where ends of the connection rods are inserted may be coupled to the lower body and stoppers protruding upward inside the rod seats may be formed.
In the small leisure boat according to the present invention, the connection rods may include a first connection rod coupled to the center of the bow of the boat body, a second connection rod coupled to a side of the stern of the boat body, and a third connection rod coupled to the other side of the stern of the boat body, and the angle between the first connection rod and the second connection rod and the angle between the first connection rod and the third connection rod may be the same.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a small leisure boat that includes: a first vacuum forming process of forming a lower body, where people stay, using thermoplastic resin such that the lower body has three or more rod seats; a second vacuum forming process of forming an upper body using thermoplastic resin; a process of coupling ends of the connection rods to the rod seats of the lower body; a process of coupling floating bodies to the other ends of the connection rods; and a process of coupling the upper body to the lower body.
According to the present invention, stability of a leisure boat can be considerably improved by three or more floating bodies symmetrically arranged around a boat body. In particular, the boat body is positioned at the center inside the floating bodies, so the boat is little shaken and is not easily turned over even by movement of people or waves. Further, even if the boat body is damaged, the boat does not easily sink.
Further, since the boat is assembly type, it can be easily transported and kept, and it can be supplied at a low price through mass-production, so it is possible to significantly contribute to enlargement of the lowest stratum and popularization of water leisure. Further, since the boat is made of an environmental-friendly material instead of FRP of the related art, it is possible to prevent water contamination.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to accompanying drawings.
The leisure boat 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in the figures, includes a boat body 110 where people stay, three connection rods 131, 132, 133 protruding outward with one end connected to the boat body 110, and three floating bodies 121, 122, 123 coupled to the other ends of the connection rods 131, 132, 133, respectively.
The leisure boat 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention distributes the load of the boat body 110 with people thereon to the three floating bodies 121, 122, and 123, so safety is largely increased in comparison to leisure boats of the related art which depend on only the buoyancy by the boat body 110.
In particular, since the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 generate buoyancy at the positions spaced by the lengths of the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 from the boat body 110, the boat body 110 is not easily shaken. Accordingly, even if a passenger stands up and moves on the boat body 110, the leisure boat 100 is not largely shaken, so the passenger hardly fall into water or the boat body 110 is hardly turned over.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the three floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 are arranged at about 120° around the center of the boat body 110. That is, the first connection rod 131 is connected to the center of the bow of the boat body 110, the second connection rod 132 is connected to a side of the stern, the third connection rod 133 is connected to the other side of the stern, and then the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 are coupled to the connection rods 131, 132, and 133, respectively.
However, the number of the floating bodies is not limited to three, so four or more floating bodies may be arranged at regular angles around the center of the boat body 110.
According to the structure of the boat body 100, in detail, the boat body 110 is composed of a lower body 112 and an upper body 114 that can be separated.
As described above, when the lower body 112 and the upper body 114 are separately manufactured, the shapes of the molds for manufacturing the lower body 112 and the upper body 114 are simple, so it is possible to reduce the time and cost for manufacturing a mold and it is also possible to remarkably decrease the manufacturing cost through mass-production using vacuum forming.
It is preferable that the lower body 112 and the upper body 114 are made of thermoplastic resin such as ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), PP (Polypropylene), PE (Polyethylene), and PC (Polycarbonate). Using these materials can reduce water contamination, as compared with hard boats made of FRP of the related art, and the vacuum forming allows for reduction of manufacturing time.
The lower body 112 has a recessed internal space for people and generates buoyancy. Although the inside of the lower body 112 is empty in the drawings, but seats may be integrally formed with the lower body in the forming process or may be additionally coupled for the convenience of users. Further, if the lower body 112 is made of a transparent material, users can look into the water, so it is possible to increase interest of the users.
The upper body 114 has an edge 115 jointed to the top of the lower body 112 and a cover 116 extending from the edge 115 and partially covering the top of the lower body 112.
The edge 115 and the cover 116 may be integrally manufactured or may be separately manufactured and then assembled. Further, the cover 116 may not be provided, if necessary. Further, though not shown in the figures, a specific transparent cover (not shown in the figures) may be coupled to the upper body 114 to protect passengers.
Further, as shown in the figures, a motor seat 118 where a motor can be mounted may be formed at the rear of the upper body 114.
As shown in
Ends of the rod seats 155, which are grooves corresponding to the outer sides of the connection rods 131, 132, and 133, communicate with each other through the coupling holes 151.
It is preferable to form a stopper 157 at he other ends of the rod seats 155, that is, the opposite sides to the coupling holes 151, as show in
With the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 are seated in the rod seats 155, the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 can be fixed to the lower body 112 by bolts etc.
For convenient assembly, as shown in
In an embodiment of the present invention, the connection rod cover 160 is made of a material that is the same as the lower body 112 and fixed to the lower body 112 by thermal bonding etc.
The connection cover 160 is a part longitudinally cut off from a pipe, in which the inner side is curved to correspond to the connection rods 131, 132, and 133. Accordingly, a space where the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 are inserted is defined between the connection rod cover 160 and the rod seat 155, so the connection rod cover 160 and the rod seat 155 function as a pipe where the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 are inserted. A fastening hole 162 for fixing a connection rod may be formed at the connection rod cover 160.
When the connection rod 131 is inserted into the coupling hole 151 with the connection rod cover 160 mounted, as shown in
For the convenience of coupling, it is preferable to form an elastic projection 137 at an end of the connection rod 131 and to form fastening holes 159 and 162, where the elastic projection 137 is inserted, at the rod seat 155 and the connection rod cover 160.
Accordingly, as shown in
The connection rod 131 may be coupled in other various ways.
For example, the connection rod 131 and the lower body 112 may be directly fixed by bolts.
Further, as shown in
Further, as shown in
It may be possible to form the rod seat 155 only at the outside of the lower body 112 and mount the connection rod cover 160 or the fixing pipe 160′ in the rod seat 155.
Further, for safer coupling, it may be possible to fix the connection rod 131 to the lower body 112 using the bolts 170 inserted through the connection rod cover 160, the connection rod 131, and the lower body 112, as shown in
It is preferable to use a carbon pipe that is light and has high durability for the connection rods 131, 132, and 133, but their material is not limited thereto.
It is preferable to use EPP (Expandable Polypropylene) that is light and has high durability for the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 coupled to the connection rods 131, 132, and 133, respectively, but their material is not limited thereto.
As shown in
The fixing cap 180 may be forcibly fitted, thread-fastened, or fixed by a bolt to the ends of the connection rods 131, 132, and 133.
Although an expanding portion 128 where the fixing cap 180 is inserted is formed at an end of the through-hole 127 of the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123, the present invention is not limited thereto.
Other than making the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 in a integral sphere, as shown in
Further, the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 are not limited to the spherical shape, so they may be manufactured in various shapes. Further, it may be possible to attach accessories of various characters that can increase amusement to the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123. Further, in consideration of the fact that the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 are disposed fairly away from the boat body 110, it may be possible to mount a rescue handle, which a drowning person can easily hole, on the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123.
As described above, the boat body 110 of the leisure boat 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is achieved by assembling the lower body 112 and the upper body 114, which are separately manufactured, as shown in
It is preferable that a top edge 112a of the lower body 112 is inserted in a bottom edge 114a of the upper body 114.
Referring to
As described above, the lower body 112 and the upper body 114 may be coupled and used in this state, but it is preferable to fasten the top edge 112a of the lower body 112 and the bottom edge 114a of the upper body 114 with bolts etc. to more safely use them.
On the other hand, according to an embodiment of the present invention, by forming the lower body 112 and the upper body 114 of the boat body 110 in vacuum forming that uses thermoplastic resin and then assembling them, the molds are simplified, so it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost and manufacture small leisure boats in large quantities.
Herein, a method of manufacturing the boat body 110 of the leisure boat 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is described mainly with the lower body 112 with reference to
First, a circular plate 10 made of thermoplastic resin is mounted onto a moving frame 20. The moving frame 20 can horizontally moved by a moving unit not shown in the figures.
Next, the moving frame 20 is moved into a heating chamber and the circular plate 10 is heated by heaters over and under the circular plate 10 (
When the circular plate 10 is sufficiently heated, as shown in the figures, it softens and slightly sags down, and in this state, the circular plate 10 is moved onto a prepared mold 50. Though not shown in the figures, the mold 50 has a plurality of vacuum holes and the lower space of the mold is connected to a vacuum pump (
Next, the mold 50 is moved up or the moving frame 20 is moved down, so the softening circular plate 10 put on the mold 50. The vacuum pump is operated to evacuate the lower space of the mold 50, so the circular plate 10 is brought in completely close contact with the mold 50. After the circular plate 10 is brought in close contact with the mold 50, the circular plate 10 is cooled by operating a cooling fan (
Next, the formed circular plate 10 is separated from the mold and unnecessary portions are cut off by a cutting robot etc., thereby finishing forming the lower body 112. In this process, the coupling holes 151 where the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 are inserted and bolt holes may be formed (
Next, the connection rod covers 160 are mounted on the rod seats 155 of the lower body 112 and other additional facilities are mounted.
The upper body 114 is also manufactured by vacuum forming substantially in the same sequence as the lower body 112, as shown in
When the lower body 112 and the upper body 114 are manufactured in this process, the small leisure boat 100 is completed through a process of coupling the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 to the lower body 112, a process of coupling the upper body 114 to the top of the lower body 112, and a process of coupling the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 to the ends of the connection rods 131, 132, and 133.
Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention was described above, the present invention is not limited thereto and may be changed, modified, or replaced in various ways.
For example, although the three connection rods 131, 132, and 133 are coupled to the lower body 112 in the embodiment described above, if the lower body 112 and the upper body 114 are firmly fastened by bolts etc., the connection rods 131, 132, and 133 may be coupled to the upper body 114.
Further, although the three connection rods 131, 132, and 133 are horizontally arranged, they may be arranged at an angle such that the sides at the boat body 110 are higher and the sides at the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 are lower.
Further, it may be possible to connect the floating bodies 121, 122, and 123 to save a life in preparation for a person drowning due to carelessness.
Further, the shape of the boat body 110 is not limited to that shown in the figures and may be changed in various shapes.
Further, the small leisure boat 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention can be moved by a motor, an oar, a sail, and to this end, it may further include a unit for mounting the motor, oar, and sail. Further, a solar cell plate may be installed on the boat body 110 to obtain power, and a lighting unit such as an LED may be mounted so that the boat can be located even in evening. Further, a GPS or satellite communication equipment for finding the position of the boat and communication may be mounted.
As described above, the present invention may be changed, modified, or replaced in various ways, and even if the present invention is changed, modified, or replaced, it should construed as being included in the scope of the present invention as long as it includes the spirit of the present invention described in claims.
10: Circular plate 20: Frame
50. 50′: Mold 100: Leisure boat
110: Boat body 112: Lower body
112
a: Top edge 114: Upper body
114
a: Bottom edge 115: Edge
116: Cover 118: Motor seat
121.122,123: First, second, third floating bodies 127: Through-hole
128: Expanding portion 131,132,133: First, second, third connection rods
137: Elastic projection 151: Coupling hole
155: Rod seat 157: Stopper
159: Fastening hole 160: Connection rod cover
160′: Fixing pipe 162: Fastening hole
170: bolt 180: Fixing cap
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2013-0096167 | Aug 2013 | KR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/KR2014/007506 | 8/12/2014 | WO | 00 |
