The present invention relates to a breathable mask, particularly a breathable mask having a breathing tube with its air outlet being independent of its air inlet.
In order to allow a user's mouth and nose to breathe freely and avoid the inconvenience of carrying the mask and breathing tube, various full face snorkeling masks (FFSMs) have been developed. In the design of the FFSM, the breathing tube is fixed above the mask body and is in fluid communication with its interior, and the intake and exhaust passages in the breathing tube are separated to prevent the fresh air inhaled by the user from mixing with the dirty air (containing CO2) exhaled by the user during the previous breathing cycle as best as possible, to achieve the purpose of comfort and safety.
However, in such a typical design, the inhaled air will pass through the breathing tube, the upper chamber (correspondingly covering the user's eyes), and then enter the lower chamber (correspondingly covering the user's nose and mouth) through the intake one-way valve in order for being supplied to the user; whilst, the exhaled air will pass through the exhaust passage formed on the periphery of the body to run half a circle and then enter the breathing tube, and finally run the entire length of the breathing tube before being discharged outwards. In such an arrangement, it is obvious that the exhaust path is much longer than the intake path, resulting in that the user only has to increase the amount of exhalation to complete the exhaust action more thoroughly. Such a heavy exhalation must require a heavy inhalation to establish the balance cycle for the inhalation and the exhalation, thus consuming much of the user's physical energy.
In addition, since both the intake and exhaust conduits are arranged inside the breathing tube, no matter whether they are arranged in two conduits on the left and right or three conduits with the central one for intake and the left and right ones for exhaust, the tube body will become very thick, resulting in large volume, weight, and unattractive appearance.
Furthermore, for the design of most masks to be in a more balanced way, the centre of the body is arranged for intake and the passages along the two outer peripheries of the body are arranged for exhaust. If the breathing tube is designed to have two conduits on the left and right, respectively, the fluid communication between the body and the breathing tube will be difficult at the junction therebetween. If the breathing tube is designed to have three conduits inside, with the central used for intake and the left and right ones are used for exhaust, the fluid communication will obviously not that be a problem. However, this design will increase the user's breathing load since the limited diameter of the breathing tube results that the diameters of the intake and exhaust conduits in the interior of the breathing tube will be consequently small and the air flowing through the intake and exhaust conduits will be inhibited. Moreover, since the air inlet and the air outlet for performing air exchange with the outside are arranged at the top of the breathing tube (i.e., the openings at the top of the breathing tube to acting as both the air inlet and the air outlet), and the floater is also necessarily arranged therein, the top of such a breathing tube (especially the dry top breathing tube) will be not only complicated in structure, but also large in size, making it inconvenient to carry, difficult to aesthetically pleasing, and high in manufacturing cost. The content of U.S. Pat. No. 10,793,239 B2 can be referenced for the above-mentioned structure.
In order to overcome the above problems, the manufacturer began to think about a design that would shorten the exhaust path. Specifically, the exhaust conduit is separated from the breathing tube, so the breathing tube is only used to serve as a passage for passing inhaling fresh air, and the air outlet of the exhaust passage is arranged on the main frame of the mask. In this way, the air exhaled by the user can be discharged outwards after running half a circle around the periphery of the mask without entering the breathing tube, so that the exhaust path can be significantly shortened. U.S. Pat. No. 11,312,457B2 illustrates the related technologies. However, there are a number of significant problems with this design. First, because the main frame, lens, and skirt of the snorkel mask must tightly fit one another to achieve waterproof purposes, arranging the air outlet on the main frame and making it communicate with the exhaust passage on the periphery of the body will undoubtedly increase the structural complexity and increase the manufacturing cost, which may, as well, consequently reduce the watertightness of the mask body. Secondly, when snorkeling underwater, the user usually puts the mask body face down or slightly raises his/her head. Therefore, when watching the scenery underwater with the entire mask body being immersed in the water, the user has to overcome the water pressure to exhale, which consumes a lot of the user's physical energy. Meanwhile, many exhaust air bubbles are created, which seriously obstruct the user's view and also cause unpleasant noise as these bubbles are too close to the user's ears when snorkeling.
In addition, snorkeling is an underwater activity, and it is easy for water to accumulate in the mask. Therefore, users usually have to surface to let the mask be completely out of the water to purge the accumulated water out through the drain valve, or take off the mask to pour out the accumulated water. Such draining actions are very inconvenient as it is difficult to drain the accumulated water directly by exhaling heavily to overcome the underwater pressure. Drainage is therefore one of the problems that the existing FFSM is still facing.
In view of this, it has become the unanimous goal of the industry to solve some or all of the above problems.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a breathing tube for snorkeling, which is applicable to a breathable mask. In the present invention, the intake method of the breathing tube is left unchanged, e.g., the same as that of a dry top breathing tube in which whether the air flows in through the air inlet is still controlled by a floater. However, regarding the exhaust, the present invention provides an air outlet on the tube body of the breathing tube, particularly at a location where the tube body has a greater width, and provides an exhaust one-way valve on the air outlet. In this way, when wearing the breathable mask of the present invention for snorkeling, since the exhaust path does not extend to the top of the breathing tube, and therefore is obviously shortened, and as well, the position of the air outlet is not too low in terms of the whole breathing tube so that the air outlet can be in general close to the water surface during use. As a result, the exhaust does not have to overcome the high water pressure, and does not create air bubbles which would obstruct the user's view and also cause unpleasant noise.
To achieve the above objective, the present invention provides a breathing tube for snorkeling, which includes a tube body. The tube body has an upper end portion and a lower end portion opposite to the lower end portion. The tube body further has an interior formed with an intake conduit and an exhaust conduit. The exhaust conduit and the intake conduit are longitudinally partitioned by a dividing wall. The upper end portion has an air inlet for inhaled air entering therethrough and flowing along the intake conduit to the lower end portion. An exhaust one-way valve is provided between the upper end portion and the lower end portion for exhaled air flowing into the exhaust conduit from the lower end portion and to be discharged outwards through the exhaust one-way valve. The dividing wall extends upward from the lower end portion and ends at a region above the exhaust one-way valve where the dividing wall is merged with a front sidewall or a rear sidewall of the tube body.
In addition, the present invention provides a breathable mask for snorkeling, which comprises: a body and a breathing tube. The breathing tube is connected with the body and includes a tube body. The tube body has an upper end portion and a lower end portion opposite to the lower end portion. The tube body further has an interior formed with an intake conduit and an exhaust conduit. The exhaust conduit and the intake conduit are longitudinally partitioned by a dividing wall. The upper end portion has an air inlet for inhaled air entering therethrough and flowing along the intake conduit to the lower end portion. An exhaust one-way valve is provided between the upper end portion and the lower end portion for exhaled air flowing into the exhaust conduit from the lower end portion and to be discharged outwards through the exhaust one-way valve. The dividing wall extends upward from the lower end portion and ends at a region above the exhaust one-way valve where the dividing wall is merged with a front sidewall or a rear sidewall of the tube body. The tube body is connected to the body through the lower end portion so that the breathing tube is suitably in fluid communication with an interior of the body.
In an example, the dividing wall is merged with the rear sidewall of the tube body, and the exhaust one-way valve is disposed in an opening of the rear sidewall of the tube body.
In an example, the exhaust one-way valve is a mushroom valve.
In an example, the body includes a main frame, a lens embedded within the main frame, a waterproof skirt with at least part being embedded with the main frame and the lens, an intake passage and an exhaust passage. The waterproof skirt is capable of suitably fitting a face of a user. The waterproof skirt has a partition to divide the interior of the body into an upper chamber and a lower chamber. When the user wears the breathable mask through a fastening device, the partition rests above a nose of the user, eyes of the user are accommodated in the upper chamber, and the nose of the user is accommodated in the lower chamber. The intake passage is formed between the intake conduit and the lower chamber. The exhaust passage is formed between the exhaust conduit and the lower chamber. The exhaust passage and the intake passage are independent of each other.
In an example, the exhaust passage is formed by two exhaust tunnels each jointly defined by the waterproof skirt and an inner surface of the lens, and arranged along an outer periphery of the lens.
In an example, the lower end portion is at least partially integrally extended from the lens.
In an example, the breathing tube further includes a button, which is sheathed on the tube body, faces the exhaust one-way valve, and is spaced apart from the exhaust one-way valve, so that when the user actuates the button, the button is capable of preventing the exhaust one-way valve from opening, and when the user does not actuate the button, the exhaust one-way valve is capable of being opened as usual.
In the following description, the present invention will be explained with reference to various embodiments thereof. These embodiments of the present invention are not intended to limit the present invention to any specific environment, applications or particular method for implementations described in these embodiments. Therefore, the description of these embodiments is for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to limit the present invention. It shall be appreciated that, in the following embodiments and the attached drawings, elements not directly related to the present invention are omitted from the illustration, and dimensional proportions among individual elements in the accompanying drawings are provided only for ease of understanding but not to limit the actual scale of the present invention.
The first embodiment of the present invention is shown in
In the tube body 11, the intake conduit 116 and the exhaust conduit 118 are partitioned by a dividing wall 11c, so that the exhaust conduit 116 and the intake conduit 118 are independent of each other. The dividing wall 11c extends upward from the lower end portion 11b and ends at a region above the exhaust one-way valve 11e where the dividing wall 11c is merged with a sidewall of the tube body. In addition, the exhaust one-way valve 11e is disposed in an opening of the sidewall of the tube body 11.
Preferably, the exhaust conduit 118 of the present invention is located in front of or in rear of the intake conduit 116. For example, as shown in
However, in other embodiments, the positions of the intake conduit 116 and the exhaust conduit 118 can be interchanged, and the exhaust one-way valve is disposed in the opening of the front sidewall of the tube body 11. Besides, in other embodiments, if the intake conduit 116 and the exhaust conduit 118 are longitudinally separated in a left-right arrangement, the exhaust one-way valve can be disposed in the opening of the left sidewall or the right sidewall of the tube body 11.
Accordingly, in the present invention, the intake conduit 116 and the exhaust conduit 118 of the breathing tube 1 are longitudinally separated from each other by the dividing wall 11c, i.e., one for intake and the other for exhaust, so that both conduits have large enough diameters and the intake and exhaust are balanced. As such, the problem of the conventional breathing tube that the diameters of one intake conduit and two exhaust conduits are not large enough or unbalanced can be solved.
The breathing tube 1 can be made of a rigid material, but not limited thereto. The rigid material selected from polycarbonate (PC), polyoxymethylene (POM), Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), Polyvinylchloride (PVC), Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP) or combinations thereof.
In this embodiment, the exhaust one-way valve 11e may be a mushroom valve, but not limited thereto. In addition, in other embodiments, a protective cover (not shown) including a plurality of guiding holes may be disposed above the exhaust one-way valve 11e. These guiding holes may be arranged in a mesh shape, a honeycomb shape, a grille shape or any combination thereof, so as to prevent seawater from easily splashing into the exhaust conduit 118 through the exhaust one-way valve 11 when the film of the exhaust one-way valve 11e is opened during snorkeling.
The second embodiment of the present invention is shown in
Preferably, the body 13 includes a main frame 13a, a lens 13b, a waterproof skirt 13c, two intake one-way valves 13d and a drain valve 13e. The lens 13b is embedded within the main frame 13a. The waterproof skirt 13c is capable of suitably fitting on a user's face (not shown). The waterproof skirt 13c is at least partially embedded with the main frame 13a and the lens 13b, and has a partition 13c1. The partition 13c1 divides the interior of the body 13 into an upper chamber 202 and a lower chamber 204.
When the user wears the breathable mask 3 through a fastening device 15 (e.g., an elastic head strap), the partition 13c1 is seated on the user's nose, and the user's eyes are accommodated in the upper chamber 202. In addition, depending on the design of the lower chamber of the breathable mask, the waterproof skirt 13c can only cover the user's nose (only use the nose to inhale) or cover both the nose and mouth (can use the nose and/or mouth to inhale), so that the nose (or nose and mouth) is accommodated in the lower chamber 204, that is, at least the user's nose is accommodated in the lower chamber 204. In the breathable mask 3 shown in
In other words, the breathing tube of the present invention can be applied to various types of masks, such as conventional diving masks covering only the eyes and nose or even to conventional mouthpiece breathing tubes, etc. As long as the designs of the masks have a separate intake and exhaust flow, the intake and exhaust conduits combined in one breathing tube, and the one-way exhaust valve located on the tube body (not on the top portion), these masks are all feasible alternatives and all fall within the scope of the present invention.
In addition, in an embodiment, the lower end portion 11b is at least partially integrally extended from the lens 13b. Of course, it can also be integrally extended by other parts of the body 13, such as the main frame 13a. In other words, the so-called breathing tube 1 is not necessarily a concrete and independent tube body. Any element extending upward from the body 13 of the breathable mask 13 belongs to the breathing tube 1.
The body 13 has an intake passage (not shown) and an exhaust passage 206. The intake passage is formed between the intake conduit 116 and the lower chamber 204, and the exhaust passage 206 is formed between the exhaust conduit 118 and the lower chamber 204. The intake passage and the exhaust passage 206 are independent of each other. As it can be appreciated for the mechanism of the intake passage from the hollow airflow lines (showing the intake path) as illustrated in
As shown in
When the user inhales, fresh air enters the upper end portion 11a of the breathing tube 1 via the air inlet 112, then enters the upper chamber 202 of the body 13 of the breathable mask 3 along the intake conduit 116, and finally enters the lower chamber 204 through the intake one-way valves 13d for the user's nose and/or mouth to inhale (as shown by the hollow airflow lines in
On the other hand, when the user exhales, the dirty air enters the exhaust passage 206 upward from the lower chamber 204, enters the exhaust conduit 118 from the lower end portion 11b of the breathing tube 1, hits the end of the dividing wall 11c, and consequently passes through the exhaust one-way valve 11e disposed in the opening 114 of the rear sidewall 11d the tube body 11 to be discharged outwards to the outside (as shown by the solid airflow lines in
In addition, as can be seen from
The fourth embodiment of the present invention is shown in
In summary, the breathing tube of the present invention is further provided with an air outlet which is independent of the air inlet. The position of the air outlet is designed not to be too high in order to shorten the exhaust path, and when snorkeling, the position of the air outlet is close to the water surface, without the barrier of water pressure, making it easier to exhale. Furthermore, the position of the air outlet is also designed not to be too low in order to avoid the problem of noise and obstruction of the user's view caused by the air bubbles resulting from the exhaust.
In other words, the air outlet is arranged in the centre of the breathing tube body, which eliminates the need to consider the complex structure of combining the air outlet with the main frame of the mask or the top of the breathing tube (which requires an additional exhaust valve in the connection position). This results in a simple construction and low manufacturing costs. The air outlet is arranged in the centre of the breathing tube body, so the top of the breathing tube is only responsible for the intake function, and no longer for accommodating the exhaust mechanism. Therefore, the shape design of the top of the breathing tube can be more flexible, variable, and unlimited.
The above embodiments are used only to illustrate the implementations of the present invention and to explain the technical features of the present invention, and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention. Any modifications or equivalent arrangements that can be easily accomplished by people skilled in this art are considered falling within the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should be limited by the claims of the patent application.
This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Prov. Ser. No. 63/486,145 filed on Feb. 21, 2023 and U.S. Prov. Ser. No. 63/505,238 filed on May 31, 2023, which are incorporated in their entireties by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63486145 | Feb 2023 | US | |
63505238 | May 2023 | US |