Patent Application
20160090159
This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2014-0131427 filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Sep. 30, 2014, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a life jacket and a method for forming the same.
A life jacket is widely used as a personal flotation device (PFD). A conventional life jacket includes a buoyant member for providing buoyancy force to a wearer in water, and the buoyant member is generally disposed inside outer covers of a life jacket.
Such a buoyant member of a life jacket is generally made of material generating great buoyancy force such as foamed resin.
Since a wearer may feel uncomfortable if a buoyant member is formed of rigid material, a buoyant member which is made of flexible buoyant foam material has been introduced.
A technology of forming a life jacket by laminating a plurality of buoyant members which are respectively made of flexible buoyant foam material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,691, Korean patent No. 10-1041244, Korean patent No. 10-1041342, and Korean patent No. 10-1036374 disclose a life jacket with buoyant members which are made of flexible buoyant foam material.
In forming a life jacket with such buoyant members, it is one of important technical issues to fix the laminated buoyant members at a determined position with respect to the covers. In particular, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,691 adopts a method for fixing the laminated buoyant members using a fabric band, but this method has problems in that it is troublesome to fix the buoyant members using the fabric band and the buoyant members are penetrated by the fabric band so that they may be easily torn.
The present invention has been made in an effort to provide a life jacket and a method for forming the same having a plurality of laminated buoyant members in which the buoyant members can be easily and stably fixed.
A life jacket according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: a cover forming a receiving compartment; a plurality of buoyant layers which are respectively formed of flexible buoyant material and are disposed in a laminated state within the receiving compartment; and a fixing member for connecting the buoyant layers to one another and is fixed to the cover.
The plurality of buoyant layers may be fixed to the fixing member by sewing.
The fixing member may be fixed to the cover by sewing.
The fixing member may be formed to have a net type using fabric.
The fixing member may be formed to cover both sides of the plurality of laminated buoyant layers.
The fixing member may have a pocket shape and the plurality of laminated buoyant layers may be inserted into the fixing member of the pocket shape.
A method for forming a life jacket according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: fixing a plurality of laminated buoyant layers to one another using a fixing member; inserting the plurality of buoyant layers which are fixed by the fixing member into a receiving compartment which is formed by a cover of the life jacket; and fixing the fixing member which is inserted into the receiving compartment with the cover.
According to the present invention, since a plurality of laminated buoyant layers are fixed by the fixing member and the fixing member is then fixed to the cover of the life jacket, the plurality of buoyant layers can be easily fixed inside the life jacket.
Further, since the buoyant layers and the fixing member are fixed to one another by sewing and the fixing member and the cover are also fixed to one another by sewing, the buoyant layers and the fixing member can be easily and stably fixed in the life jacket.
Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings hereinafter.
As exemplarily shown in
The life jacket 10 may include a front segment 11, a rear segment 13 and an arm segment 15. The front segment 11 may include a left portion 11a and a right portion 11b, and the left portion 11a and the right portion 11b may be formed to be connectable to one another by a zipper or the like.
A plurality of laminated buoyant layers 20 may be respectively provided to the left portion 11a and the right portion 11b of the front segment 11. For example, as shown in
A fixing member 40 connects the plurality of buoyant layers 20 to one another. The fixing member 40 may be formed to have a shape of a net with fabric as shown in
At this time, the fixing member 40 may be two sheets of a net type which cover respectively both sides of the laminated buoyant layers 20 as shown in
Meanwhile, according to another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in
Referring to
At this time, the sewing line 36 may be formed at an edge area of the fixing member 40 beyond the edge of the buoyant layers 20. The sewing line 36 may be formed wholly or partly along the edge area. As such, the buoyant layer 20 may be inserted into the covers 30 which form the life jacket 10, and the life jacket 10 may be formed by connecting the covers 30.
While this invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2014-0131427 | Sep 2014 | KR | national |
