Patent Application
20190169873
Technical Field: The present disclosure relates to a shelter structure that can provide a large area of shade against sunlight and can be set up and removed quickly and conveniently.
Description of related art: Currently, traditional shelter structures for providing shade in the outdoors include tents, canopies, umbrellas, and stands. These structures usually are clunky and require long setup time. They also require poles and/or thick ropes to stand. Thus they cannot be conveniently applied to cover large areas or locations not suitable for planting many poles. For example, they are hard to apply over beaches, pools, outdoor events in a park, and sports fields.
The Floating Shade is a lightweight shelter structure that comprises a cover kept airborne by multiple floating balloons. The cover and the balloons are connected to a number of tethers that are attached to the ground by anchors. The cover is lightweight so that its size can be very large and can be kept afloat by a small number of balloons and anchored to a location by small number of simple tethers, while covering areas unable to be covered by traditional tents. It can also be set up quickly to shield large areas from sunlight. In daytime, the Floating Shade provides relief from the sun without danger or need of time-consuming setup. In nighttime, the cover can serve as a large projection screen for movie projections or light shows. It can also be used to shelter crops to prevent radiative heat loss (frost damage) in cold, dry weather.
The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a form of coverage with a simple design that reduces the requirement of extensive setup and reliance on heavy grounded structures.
As depicted in
The cover 2 can comprise a lightweight film that can partially block or filter sunlight. The balloons can be any type of balloons filled with helium or hydrogen gas. The tethers 3a-3d can be thin ropes. The ends of the tethers are tied to anchors 4a-4d. The anchors can be wedges or piles hammered into the ground, or weights (gravity anchors.) The tethers can also be tied to a grounded object such as a tree, a truck, or a fence.
To protect the lightweight film from tearing, the film can be strengthened by a wire frame structure. Depicted in
To prevent wind from exerting too much pressure on the cover, slits or cuts can be made on the cover to allow air to pass and relieve pressure. Depicted in
Alternatively, a wire frame system covered with fragmented film materials, similar to a tree leaf-like structure, can be used as the cover. As seen in
As depicted in
The wire frame systems described above can also take the form of a net or mesh. The balloons and tethers can be attached to the cover not just at the corners but also in the interior of the cover area.
The Floating Shade's use as a shelter from the sun surpasses traditional tents. Its nature as a temporary cover allows it to be used not only during the daytime, but at night. The blank cover's underside can also be utilized. With some added décor, it would make a novel decoration at a night festival. Other nighttime uses include serving as a background for a projector, playing movies and laser shows. Alternatively, a single pattern could be projected as decoration at a night market, for presenters and advertisers.
The Floating Shade can cover large areas of both land and water. Major potential uses lie in agriculture and conservation—by sheltering crops in the nighttime, radiative heat loss is prevented, preventing frost from killing fruits and depleting soil. The structure would also be put up to shelter coral reefs, blocking them and preventing coral bleaching.
Balloons: The Skin of the Zeppelin NT airships are known to be among the most resistant and aerodynamic materials. If used for the balloons, they would undoubtedly gain unmatched resistance to weather and damaging objects.
Manufacturer: ILC, USA
Final adjustment and pressure tests are performed in Friedrichsafen.
Should 12′ balloons be sewn from Zeppelin NT Skin and filled with helium, they would be durable and strong while still being light enough to keep the Tedlar shade floating.
4×24 m3 Helium is required to fill 4 12′ balloons.
Cover: DuPont Tedlar; a biaxially oriented film with excellent resistance to weathering, outstanding mechanical properties, and inertness towards many solvents and staining agents.
DuPont: DEC_Tedlar_GeneralProperties.pdf
Tedlar Aircraft Grade ×64″ wide
The film can block 90% sunlight.
Tethers: Dyneema SK75 3 mm; a strong yet lightweight rope, it is a replacement to steel ropes. Breaking strength 9,300 lbs. Weight is negligible in calculations.
Lift calculations:
Volume=4πr3/3=24 m3→if r=6, 24 kg lift by He
Surface area=4πr2=40 m2→(if 250 g/m2)=10 kg
Subtract 24−10→Net lift 14 Kg/balloon
In conclusion, four balloons, with a total lift of 56 kg, may hold up a 900 square meter Tedlar cover (900 m2×0.056 kg/m2=50 kg) and provide up to 900 m2 of shade. In comparison, 100 Eurmax Premium 10×10 ft (˜3×3 m) Canopy Booths would be required to cover the same area.
Although the present disclosure has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present disclosure cover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/429,886, filed Dec. 5, 2016, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.
