MULTI-FOLDED STRUCTURE OF SNORKEL EQUIPMENT

Abstract

A multi-folded structure of a snorkel equipment is provided. The snorkel equipment may include a breathing tube and a mask. The multi-folded structure may be formed between an upper portion and a lower portion opposite to the upper portion of the breathing tube; thereby the breathing tube is capable of being bent by the multi-folded structure. Besides, the snorkel equipment may include a mouthpiece. The multi-folded structure may be formed between a connecting end and a user contact end user contact end opposite to the connecting end of the mouthpiece so as to increase freedom of the user contact end with respect to the connecting end.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a snorkel equipment, in particular to a breathing tube and a mouthpiece for snorkeling.

Descriptions of the Related Art

At present, a snorkel equipment can be roughly in two categories. One category is a two-piece snorkel equipment, that is, a mask covering the user's eyes and nose, and a breathing tube at one end contained in the user's mouth. The equipment in this category only provides the user with mouth breathing. The other category is one-piece snorkel equipment, which is a mask that allows the user's mouth and nose to breathe freely. There is a breathing tube at the top, which is in fluid communication with the interior of the mask. The equipment in this category is the so-called full-face snorkeling mask (FFSM). However, no matter which category of equipment, a breathing tube is required, and the breathing tube occupies a certain volume, especially in length, so it is extremely inconvenient to store. Moreover, because most breathing tubes are made of hard plastic materials, they are easy to be broken or damaged due to external impact.

Taking a typical FFSM as an example, since the mask must cover the eyes, nose, and mouth, the size of the mask body cannot be minimized ideally. Furthermore, the breathing tube extends upward from the top of the mask and is in fluid communication with the interior of the mask. In order to meet the basic needs of snorkeling, the breathing tube must have a certain length (usually about 20 cm), resulting in that the overall size is difficult to reduce and the overall profile is irregular. Accordingly, the storage of the FFSM will cause a lot of troubles, and broken breathing tubes have been reported often by consumers. Although the manufacturer has designed the breathing tube to be detachable to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings, it is quite troublesome for users to disassemble and assemble repeatedly, and improper storage after disassembly will easily reduce the watertightness between the breathing tube and the mask body. In addition, the separate objects can be lost or forgotten easily while carried. Therefore, generally speaking, the manufacturer or consumers do not like the detachable design of a mask with a detachable breathing tube. Furthermore, because almost all of the existing breathing tubes are rigid and straight, taking the dry-top breathing tube as an example, the air intake and water tightness at the top thereof need to be precisely controlled by the drop and rise of the floater within the top respectively. This is required to rely on a certain degree of verticality between the axis of the breathing tube and the horizontal plane of water surface. However, when the user snorkels, because the viewing angle will be changed at any time, the angle between the axial direction of the tube and the water surface plane is often too far from 90 degrees, so that the floater may not be smoothly descended and ascended by its gravity and buoyancy, respectively. It will often result in insufficient air intake, or poor water stop effect.

In addition, since the snorkel equipment has a mouthpiece, the user must actually hold the mouthpiece in the user's mouth and contain it with a certain force to prevent the mask from water leaking or being dislocated. However, users have different face and mouth shapes according to age and gender, and there are great differences between Orientals and westerners. Moreover, the snorkel equipment or breathing tube will swing during snorkeling due to water flow. As a result, the mouthpiece being contained in the mouth is more likely to be pulled away, which makes the user have to contain the mouthpiece harder and makes the user extremely uncomfortable and become exhausted easily.

Given this, there is an urgent need in the art for a technology that partially or wholly improves the shortcomings mentioned above to improve the product in storage and ease of use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An objective of the present invention is to provide a breathable mask, of which the tube body is designed to be bendable so that the upper portion of the breathing tube can be moved to the lower portion of the mask body as close as possible when bent. Accordingly, when the breathable mask of the present invention is stored, the storage troubles caused by the length of the breathing tube can be greatly reduced without disassembling the breathing tube. Moreover, since the breathing tube does not need to be disassembled, it can prevent the disassembling interface from becoming loose and causing water leaking, and also avoid dirt remaining at the place of repetitive assembly and disassembly. Meanwhile, it can solve the problem of easy loss of separate objects. In addition, through the extension of this design, the snorkel can be slightly bent by the user during snorkeling, so as to increase the smoothness of air intake and the water-stop effect of the snorkel.

To achieve the aforesaid objective, the present invention provides a multi-folded structure of snorkel equipment. The snorkel equipment includes a breathing tube and a mask. The breathing tube includes an upper portion and a lower portion opposite to the upper portion. The lower portion is connected to the mask and is in fluid communication with an interior of the mask. The multi-folded structure is formed between the upper portion and the lower portion, thereby the breathing tube is capable of being bent by the multi-folded structure.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a snorkel equipment with a mouthpiece, in which the mouthpiece is designed to have considerable stretchability, flexibility or elasticity. Accordingly, the mouthpiece of the snorkel equipment of the present invention can be applied to users of various ages, genders, face shapes and mouth shapes to increase the comfort of use.

To achieve the aforesaid objective, the present invention provides a multi-folded structure of snorkel equipment. The snorkel equipment includes a mouthpiece. The mouthpiece includes a connecting end and a user contact end opposite to the connecting end. The multi-folded structure is formed between the connecting end and the user contact end so as to increase freedom of the user contact end with respect to the connecting end.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a snorkel equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention, which includes a breathing tube with a multi-folded structure.

FIGS. 2A-2C depict different exemplary aspects of the multi-folded structure of the present invention.

FIG. 3A illustrates the stretched state of the multi-folded structure of the breathing tube as shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of the multi-folded structure, showing the connection relationship between the upper and lower portions of the breathing tube and the multi-folded structure when the multi-folded structure is in the stretched state.

FIG. 3C is another cross-sectional view of the multi-folded structure, showing the state in which the upper and lower portions of the breathing tube have been coupled with each other when the multi-folded structure is in a compressed state.

FIG. 3D is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the multi-folded structure, showing schematic diagram of a slightly bendable structure when the multi-folded structure is in the stretched state.

FIG. 3E is another cross-sectional view of FIG. 3D, showing the compressed state of the multi-folded structure.

FIG. 4 illustrates the state in which the breathing tube shown in FIG. 3 is bent by the multi-folded structure.

FIG. 5 is a rear view of the mask of the snorkel equipment shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a rear view of a mask of a snorkel equipment according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a mouthpiece with a multi-folded structure according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view in which the mouthpiece of shown in FIG. 7 is applied to the breathing tube of the traditional two-piece snorkel equipment.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

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 only for the purpose of illustration rather than 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 depiction, and dimensional proportions among individual elements in the attached 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 FIG. 1, which is a schematic view of a snorkel equipment 1 with a multi-folded structure. The snorkel equipment 1 of this embodiment is a breathable mask, which includes a breathing tube 11 and a mask 13. The breathing tube 11 includes an upper portion 11a and a lower portion 11b opposite to the upper portion 11a. The lower portion 11b is connected to the mask 13 and is in fluid communication with the interior of the mask 13.

As shown in FIG. 1, the multi-folded structure 11c is formed between the upper portion 11a and the lower portion 11b of the breathing tube 11. In this way, the breathing tube 11 can be bent by the multi-folded structure 11c.

For example, the multi-folded structure 11c can have a continuous zigzag shaped cross section 2a (as shown in FIG. 2A), a continuous rectangular shaped cross section 2b (as shown in FIG. 2B), a continuous convex-concave shaped cross section 2c (such as FIG. 2C) or any combinations thereof.

Due to the consideration that the multi-folded structure 11e needs to be deformed when bending the breathing tube 11, the multi-folded structure 11c is made of a soft material. The soft material preferably has a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selected from silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR) (e.g., thermoplastic elastomers, TPE), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.

It shall be appreciated that in this embodiment, the breathable mask is used as the snorkel equipment for illustration, but another snorkel equipment with a breathing tube and a mask (for example, an FFSM or a snorkel mask with an eyes-nose mask connected to a mouthpiece via three-way connector) also can adopt the multi-folded structure of the present invention.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 are referenced for a snorkel equipment 1 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the multi-folded structure 11e is telescopic. FIG. 3 illustrate the stretched state of the multi-folded structure 11e and FIG. 4 shows the state that the breathing tube 11 can be bent by the multi-folded structure 11e. As shown in FIG. 4, the upper portion 11a of the breathing tube can be close to the lower portion of the mask 13 when being bent. Accordingly, when the snorkel equipment of the present invention is stored, the storage troubles caused by the length of the breathing tube can be greatly reduced without disassembling the breathing tube. Especially in the case that the snorkel equipment where the breathing tube and the mask are assembled as one piece, whether the breathing tube can be folded and stored is critical to the user because it involves whether it is compact to carry.

In addition, when wanting to use the snorkel equipment 1, the user only needs to bend the breathing tube 11 shown in FIG. 4 back to the stretched state shown in FIG. 3 and compress it in the axial direction back to the original state as shown in FIG. 1, thereby the original rigidity of the breathing tube 11 can be restored without affecting the use at all.

In another embodiment, the multi-folded structure 11e can be disposed between a periphery of the lower end of the upper portion 11a and a periphery of the upper end of the lower portion 11b. In this case, when the multi-folded structure 11e is compressed, the lower end of the upper portion 11a and the upper end of the lower portion 11b are adapted to tightly couple with each other. For example, one of the lower end of the upper portion 11a and the upper end of the lower portion 11b may have a male fastener and the other thereof may have a female fastener nested to be coupled with the male fastener to achieve being tightly coupled with each other.

Taking FIG. 3B as an example, the multi-folded structure 11e can be disposed between the periphery P1 of the lower end of the upper portion 11a and the periphery P2 of the upper end of the lower portion 11b. The lower end of the upper portion 11a has a female fastener 11a1, and the upper end of the lower portion 11b has a male fastener 11b1. Therefore, when the multi-folded structure 11e is in the compressed state, the male fastener 11b1 of the lower portion 11b can be inserted into the female fastener 11a1 of the upper portion 11a to be tightly coupled with each other, in order to form a state as shown in FIG. 3C. In this way, the breathing tube 11 can be ensured to have sufficient rigidity, making the selection of the soft material for the multi-folded structure 11e more flexible.

In addition, in another embodiment, at least one of the lower end of the upper portion 11a and the upper end of the lower portion 11b of the breathing tube 11 can be slightly bendable after the male fastener is coupled with the female fastener.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 3D and 3E, the lower end of the upper portion 11a can be slightly bent, which includes: a first segment S1, a second segment S2 axially separating from the first segment S1 and the two angle adjustable devices AD oppositely disposed on an outer side of the lower end of the upper portion 11a (only one of which is shown). Each of the angle adjustable devices AD has an end being fixed onto the first segment S1, and an opposing end pivoting onto the second segment S2. In addition, each of the angle adjustable devices AD further includes a plurality of recesses RS, and a bump BP disposed on the second segment S2. The bump BP is capable of engaging in one of the recesses RS, thereby the first segment S1 and the second segment S2 can be performed with a stepped angle adjustment and positioned. For example, five stages of angle adjustment are designed, wherein the first and second stages are set for slightly bending the breathing tube forward, and the fourth and fifth stages are set for slightly bending the breathing tube backward, whereas and the third stage is for returning the tube to its original position.

Each of the angle adjustable devices AD is made of a rigid material selected from Polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate (PC), Polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.

By virtue of the slightly bendable structure of the breathing tube 11, which can preferably be bent forward or backward by 30 degrees, when the user snorkels and the top of the breathing tube 11 is above the water surface, the breathing tube 11 can be can be adjusted by the user to a direction where its top moves farther away from the water surface. This can further prevent flowing seawater from splashing into the breathing tube 11 and accelerating water accumulation in the mask 13. Moreover, this structure can also avoid the floater's rising in error which is caused by the seawater entering the breathing tube 11, and then blocking the air intake channel for the user to inhale.

In another aspect, when the user snorkels and the top of the breathing tube 11 is under the water surface, this design allows the user to slightly adjust the angle of the breathing tube 11, so that the floater can rise to the topmost more smoothly, and get a better water stop effect.

Please refer to FIG. 5 for a snorkel equipment 1 according to a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a rear view of the snorkel equipment 1. However, in order to illustrate the mask 13 clearly, the breathing tube 11 is omitted in FIG. 5 and not shown. In this embodiment, the mask 13 of the snorkel equipment 1 includes a main frame 131, a lens 133, a waterproof skirt 135 and a purge valve 137. The lens 133 is connected with the main frame 131.

A part of the waterproof skirt 135 is embedded in the main frame 131. The waterproof skirt 135 has a partition 135a to divide the interior of the mask 13 into an upper chamber 202 and a lower chamber 204. In this way, when a user wears the mask 13, the user's eyes can be suitably accommodated in the upper chamber 202, and the user's nose and mouth can be suitably accommodated in the lower chamber 204. In addition, the purge valve 15 is disposed in a lower portion of the mask 13 and is in one-way fluid communication with the lower chamber 204.

In other embodiments, the mask of the snorkel equipment may only cover the eyes and nose, leaving the mouth exposed. In this aspect, the lower chamber of the mask only accommodates the user's nose.

In addition, the waterproof skirt 135 may further include a chin strap 135b for the user to place the chin strap 135b on the chin to increase the stability of the snorkel equipment 1 when snorkeling. The chin strap 135b can be integrally formed with the waterproof skirt 135 under the waterproof skirt 135, which is just aligned with the jawbone of most users for them to easily to put on and fasten. In other embodiments, the chin strap can also be equipped under the waterproof skirt 135 in a reasonable way, such as being assembled or glued, so the installation method of the chin strap does not limit the scope of the present invention.

In addition, in one embodiment, the lower portion 11b of the breathing tube 11 can be integrally extended from the lens 133. Of course, it can also be integrally extended by other parts of the mask 13, such as the main frame 131. In other words, the so-called breathing tube 11 is not necessarily a concrete and independent tube. Any element extending upward from the mask 13 belongs to the breathing tube 13 as named.

FIG. 6 is referenced for a snorkel equipment 1 according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a rear view of the snorkel equipment 1. However, in order to illustrate the mask 13 clearly, the breathing tube 11 is also omitted in FIG. 6 and not shown. In this embodiment, the snorkel equipment 1 further includes a mouthpiece 15. The mouthpiece 15 includes a connecting end 15a and a user contact end 15b opposite to the connecting end 15a. The connecting end 15a is connected with the purge valve 137. The user contact end 15b is for the user's mouth to contain.

A fifth embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 7, illustrating a mouthpiece 75 with a multi-folded structure. The mouthpiece 75 includes a connecting end 75a and a user contact end 75b opposite to the connecting end 75a. The multi-folded structure 75c is formed between the connecting end 75a and the user contact end 75b, so as to increase freedom of the user contact end 75b with respect to the connecting end 75a.

Similarly, in one embodiment, the multi-folded structure 75c has at least one of a continuous zigzag shaped cross section 2a (as shown in FIG. 2A), a continuous rectangular shaped cross section 2b (as shown in FIG. 2B) and a continuous convex-concave shaped cross section 2c (as shown in FIG. 2C).

In addition, in one embodiment, the multi-folded structure 75c is made of a soft material. The soft material has a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selected from silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR) (e.g., thermoplastic elastomers, TPE), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.

The mouthpiece 75 of the present invention can be applied to a variety of snorkel equipment, such as the aforementioned snorkel equipment 1 (that is, the mouthpiece 15 of the snorkel equipment 1 is replaced by the mouthpiece 75, so that the mouthpiece 75 can be connected to the purge valve 137 through the connecting end 75a) or the traditional two-piece snorkel equipment with the separate breathing tube and mask (that is, as shown in FIG. 8, the mouthpiece 75 is connected to the lower portion 83b of the breathing tube 83 of the two-piece snorkel equipment through the connecting end 75a). Accordingly, the mouthpiece 75 of the present invention can reduce the load of the user's mouth to contain, making it more convenient for the user to use.

In addition, it can be conceived that the multi-folded structure 75c can be applied to a mouthpiece set, in which the mouthpiece must be connected to the purge valve 137 through the connector, that is, the lower portion of the mouthpiece body is connected to the connector, and then connected to the purge valve 137 through the connector. In this aspect, the mouthpiece body does not have a multi-folded structure, while the connector has a multi-folded structure.

To sum up, the multi-folded structure of the snorkel equipment of the present invention can be adopted on the breathing tube, the mouthpiece of the snorkel equipment, or both at the same time. When the multi-folded structure is adopted on the breathing tube, the multi-folded structure makes the breathing tube bendable, which significantly reduces the storage trouble caused by the length of the breathing tube without disassembling the breathing tube. In addition, when the multi-folded structure is adopted on the mouthpiece, the mouthpiece has considerable stretchability, flexibility or elasticity, and it can be applied to users of various ages, genders, face shapes and mouth shapes so as to increase the comfort of use.

The above-mentioned embodiments are only used to illustrate the implementations of the present invention and explain the technical features of the present invention, and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention. Any changes or equivalent arrangements that can be easily accomplished by people skilled in this art fall within the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should be limited by the claims of the patent application.

Claims

1. A multi-folded structure of a snorkel equipment, the snorkel equipment comprising a breathing tube and a mask, the breathing tube including an upper portion, and a lower portion opposite to the upper portion, the lower portion being connected to the mask and being in fluid communication with an interior of the mask; wherein the multi-folded structure is formed between the upper portion and the lower portion, thereby the breathing tube is capable of being bent by the multi-folded structure.

2. The multi-folded structure of claim 1, wherein the multi-folded structure has at least one of a continuous zigzag shaped cross section, a continuous rectangular shaped cross section, and a continuous convex-concave shaped cross section.

3. The multi-folded structure of claim 2, wherein the multi-folded structure is made of a soft material, and the soft material has a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selected from silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.

4. The multi-folded structure of claim 3, wherein the multi-folded structure is telescopic.

5. The multi-folded structure of claim 4, wherein the multi-folded structure is disposed between a periphery of a lower end of the upper portion and a periphery of an upper end of the lower portion, thereby when the multi-folded structure is compressed, the lower end of the upper portion and the upper end of the lower portion are adapted to tightly couple with each other.

6. The multi-folded structure of claim 5, wherein one of the lower end of the upper portion and the upper end of the lower portion has a male fastener and the other thereof has a female fastener to be coupled with the male fastener.

7. The multi-folded structure of claim 6, wherein at least one of the lower end of the upper portion and the upper end of the lower portion is slightly bendable after the male fastener is coupled with the female fastener.

8. The multi-folded structure of claim 7, wherein the lower end of the upper portion is slightly bendable, and comprising: a first segment;a second segment axially separating from the first segment; andtwo angle adjustable devices, oppositely disposed on an outer side of the lower end of the upper portion, in which each of the angle adjustable devices has an end being fixed onto the first segment, and an opposing end pivoting onto the second segment;wherein each of the angle adjustable devices further includes a plurality of recesses, and a bump disposed on the second segment, in which the bump is capable of engaging in one of the recesses, thereby the first segment and the second segment is capable of being performed with a stepped angle adjustment and positioned.

9. The multi-folded structure of claim 1, wherein the mask comprises: a main frame;a lens connected with the main frame;a waterproof skirt having a portion embedded in the main frame and having a partition to divide the interior of the mask into an upper chamber and a lower chamber, so that when a user puts on the mask, eyes of the user are suitably accommodated in the upper chamber and at least a nose of the user is suitably accommodated in the lower chamber; anda purge valve disposed in a lower portion of the mask and being in one-way fluid communication with the lower chamber.

10. The multi-folded structure of claim 9, wherein when the user puts on the mask, both of the nose and a mouth of the user are suitably accommodated in the lower chamber.

11. The multi-folded structure of claim 10, wherein the snorkeling equipment further comprises: a mouthpiece including a connecting end and a user contact end opposite to the connecting end, in which the connecting end is connected with the purge valve, and the user contact end is adapted to be contained in the mouth of the user.

12. A multi-folded structure of a snorkeling equipment, the snorkeling equipment comprising a mouthpiece, the mouthpiece including a connecting end and a user contact end opposite to the connecting end; wherein, the multi-folded structure is formed between the connecting end and the user contact end so as to increase freedom of the user contact end with respect to the connecting end.

13. The multi-folded structure of claim 12, wherein the snorkel equipment comprises a breathing tube and a mask separated from the breathing tube, and the mouthpiece is connected to a lower portion of the breathing tube through the connecting end.

14. The multi-folded structure of claim 13, wherein the multi-folded structure has at least one of a continuous zigzag shaped cross section, a continuous rectangular shaped cross section, and a continuous convex-concave shaped cross section.

15. The multi-folded structure of claim 14, wherein the multi-folded structure is made of a soft material, and the soft material has a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selected from silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.

16. The multi-folded structure of claim 12, wherein the snorkel equipment comprises a breathing tube and a mask connected to the breathing tube, a lower portion of the mask has a purge valve, and the mouthpiece is connected to the purge valve through the connecting end.

17. The multi-folded structure of claim 16, wherein the multi-folded structure has at least one of a continuous zigzag shaped cross section, a continuous rectangular shaped cross section, and a continuous convex-concave shaped cross section.

18. The multi-folded structure of claim 17, wherein the multi-folded structure is made of a soft material, and the soft material has a Shore A hardness of 20-70 and is selected from silicone, thermoplastic rubber (TPR), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polyvinylchloride (PVC) or combinations thereof.