1181 results about "Waterline" patented technology

The present invention is a thru-hull light for installation under the waterline of a vessel comprising a lens capable of diffusing the light broadly through the water. In a preferred embodiment, the lens is a separate, discrete component with a prismatic surface.

A vacuum pool-cleaning storage system that is housed in the side of a swimming pool substantially below the waterline. The pool vacuum cleaner automatically deploys to clean the pool when the central pool vacuum pump is activated, and automatically retracts to a stored position when the central pool vacuum pump is turned off. The system is adapted to store the vacuum hose in a substantially linear tube located substantially underground. A reel-type hose storage embodiment is also disclosed. The system is preferably powered by vacuum pressure generated by a water circulation pump of the pool plumbing system.

A novel water craft, which may include a hull with a keel, having propulsion means extending below the water line. The propulsion means comprises a pair of flappers each adapted to oscillate through an arcuate path in a generally transverse direction with respect to the central longitudinal dimension of the watercraft. Means are operatively associated with the propulsion means for applying input force to the propulsion means. The flappers twist to form an angle of attack for providing forward thrust with respect to the longitudinal dimension of the watercraft while moving in both directions along the arcuate path.

A solar thermal power generator includes an inclined elongated boiler tube positioned in the focus of a solar concentrator for generating steam from water. The boiler tube is connected at one end to receive water from a pressure vessel as well as connected at an opposite end to return steam back to the vessel in a fluidic circuit arrangement that stores energy in the form of heated water in the pressure vessel. An expander, condenser, and reservoir are also connected in series to respectively produce work using the steam passed either directly (above a water line in the vessel) or indirectly (below a water line in the vessel) through the pressure vessel, condense the expanded steam, and collect the condensed water. The reservoir also supplies the collected water back to the pressure vessel at the end of a diurnal cycle when the vessel is sufficiently depressurized, so that the system is reset to repeat the cycle the following day. The circuital arrangement of the boiler tube and the pressure vessel operates to dampen flow instabilities in the boiler tube, damp out the effects of solar transients, and provide thermal energy storage which enables time shifting of power generation to better align with the higher demand for energy during peak energy usage periods.

A water craft having a bow and a stern including an engine of sufficient thrust to create an enlarged wake at the stern of the boat as the boat moves along the surface of a body of water.The water tight compartment is positioned to carry water below the water line and essentially astride the centerline or keel of the boat. The compartment is adapted to contain liquid water in an amount sufficient to enhance or equalize the size of the boat wake.The compartment extends from a point forward of the transom and engine, and extends to a point forward of the midpoint between the bow and the stern, and terminates short of the bow while serving to exert downward force on the bow against the water when the water craft is underway and the compartment carries water.

A control device for a steering kite on a boat. The steering kite can be steered by a steering device and at least two or three, preferably at least four or five, suspension lines. The control device comprises at least one force introduction rail that extends horizontally over the water line and on which a deviation device for the suspension lines is positioned in such a way that it can move back and forth. The rail is fixed to the boat between the steering kite and the steering device in such a way that the traction force of the steering kite produces torque about the longitudinal axis and / or the transverse axis of the boat in the water, by means of which the leeward side of the boat is lifted upwards.

A system for distributing water within a building operates to distribute water from a pressurized water supply source to devices that receive water, such as faucets, toilets, showers, sprinklers, and hot water heating devices. The system includes at least one manifold which may be of unitary molded plastic construction and comprised of chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC). The manifold includes an entry port and a plurality of outlet ports which are also referred to as sockets. The sockets are configured to receive fitting inserts of various types that include water line connectors. The sockets are also configured to accept standard plastic water conduits therein in cemented relation. The water line connectors may include metallic connectors such as barbed fittings, which can be used to connect the manifold and crosslinked polyethylene (PEX) pipe in nonthreaded relation. Manifolds may be connected together to provide suitable distribution arrangements.

An architectural archway for an aircraft. The archways can be positioned individually, or in pairs or other sets along the length of an aircraft fuselage. The archways are used to run or connect various transport elements, such as electrical wiring, water lines, and environmental control system conduits, between the upper crown, lower bay and passenger cabin of the aircraft. The invention simplifies installation complexity and eliminates the installation and variability associated with running transport elements between the various sections of the aircraft.

An elongated, annular hull of a floating offshore platform includes one or more segmented, helical strakes disposed on an outer peripheral surface of the hull to reduce vortex-induced vibrations resulting from water currents. The hull may comprise a single annular hull or a plurality of parallel, adjacent hulls. Each strake includes a plurality of generally rectangular segments extending substantially radially outward from the hull. Each of the segments includes a pair of spaced-apart radial stanchions supporting a generally rectangular frame to which a corresponding panel is attached. The panels have a radial width that is about 13 percent of the effective diameter of the hull. The segments are arranged in a spaced-apart, end-to-end relationship that defines a discontinuous, but generally helical band extending around the circumference of the hull from about 35 feet (11.7 m) below the mean water line of the hull to its lowermost end.

A friction reducing ship reduces frictional resistance between the external hull plate 1 and water W by ejecting air A from the external hull plate 1 into water W to generate micro-bubbles B on the surface of the external hull plate 1. A structural feature of the ship is that micro-bubbles B are generated by creating a negative pressure region in the water W admitted in the water intake opening 2a, disposed below the waterline WL in the bow section 1a, so as to eject atmospheric air above the water into the water to generate micro-bubbles B, and discharging the micro-bubbles B together with water to the water discharge opening 2b provided in the bottom section 1b.

The invention discloses a spiral line cable detecting robot which consists of a cart, an upper and a lower supporting hugging devices symmetrically distributed along the cable which are connected together. The robot is characterized in that the active cart is provided with a climbing device and a magnetic absorbing device; two supporting horizontal levers are provided with hugging devices; the climbing device includes a lithium battery fixed in the cart and a DC motor fixed on one side of the driving wheel in the cart; power of the DC motor is supplied by the lithium battery, and the DC motor drives the driving wheel of the cart to rotate by a drive axle, so as to drive the whole robot to spirally climb along a water transmission line of the cable; the hugging devices and the magnetic absorbing device work together to tightly press the driving wheel onto the surface of the cable. The climbing device can rotate for any degree relative to the cart, so as to adapt to the water transmission line with different thread pitch; power supply by the lithium battery is more suitable for the environment of high-altitude operation; the robot is also provided with a descending device, which is safer and more reliable in use. The invention has simple and reasonable structure, is convenient in maintenance, can have high climbing speed, is applicable in detection of the spiral line cable of large cable-stayed bridges as well as lamps and other rod types.

A friction reducing ship reduces frictional resistance between the external hull plate 1 and water W by ejecting air A from the external hull plate 1 into water W to generate micro-bubbles B on the surface of the external hull plate 1. A structural feature of the ship is that micro-bubbles B are generated by creating a negative pressure region in the water W admitted in the water intake opening 2a, disposed below the waterline WL in the bow section 1a, so as to eject atmospheric air above the water into the water to generate micro-bubbles B, and discharging the micro-bubbles B together with water to the water discharge opening 2b provided in the bottom section 1b.

An apparatus providing improved dispensing of liquid-additives such as soap, shampoo, or bodywash, into an existing waterline outlet in bathroom or kitchen, while optionally featuring a unique Bubblizer™-chamber enabling user to observe an eye-catching dynamic fluidic-admixture display via a 2-inch diameter preview-window, prior to emergence of the bubblized-admixture via a conventional showerhead. The SudsMix™ shower-unit version readily suspends from an existing wall-extending gooseneck-pipe where it fluidicly couples into the water-line without aid of tools. Introduction of the liquid-soap additive is initiated remotely via a pushbutton valve conveniently located at waist-level, while concealed conduit-lines feed selected additive upward from the reservoir-section to the Bubblizer™-chamber integrated into the upper portion of the wall-hugging housing. Other adaptations of the Bubblizer™-chamber are a hand-held wand-like bathing back-scrubber, and similar kitchen-sink dish-scrubber.

Presented is an advance naval ship's stern appendage called an LCAC (Landing Craft Air Cushion) Lander, Launcher and Lifter (L4 system) to provide for landing and launching of amphibious hovercraft and increase the delivery capacity of amphibious hovercraft by naval vessels. The stem appendage which may be retrofitted on existing vessels or fully designed into new hull forms of new ships. Included in the stem appendage are longitudinally extending cantilever wingwalls, at least one hoistable platform with a backstop fold up gate, a med-moor ramp, drainage ducts, a resistance reduction leading edge, locking pins and a transfer conveyor system for amphibious hovercraft to gain access to and from the ship's decks above the waterline, and a hoisting system for raising and lowering the hoistable platform between said cantilever wingwalls.

A hydraulic suspension strut (30) has a first on-off valve (58) connecting the first and second chambers (42 and 44), and a second on-off valve (62) connected to chamber (42) only. Suspension arm (3) of wheel (1) can be retracted beyond normal road travel, or protracted to road travel mode, by use of pump (9) and valves (58 and 62). The space in the strut above port (56) may be used as a hydraulic bump stop. An accumulator (50) may be included, as a hydraulic spring. Alternatively, strut (70) (FIG. 6; note alternative accumulator position) allows suspension to be raised above normal road travel. Strut (100) (FIG. 8) may be operated in roadgoing, raised, or retracted mode. These struts may be applied to reconfigurable suspensions; particularly for amphibious vehicles, which may require wheels to be withdrawn above the hull water line to reduce drag on water, particularly during cornering.

The present invention is an underwater light for watertight installation under the waterline of a vessel, for example, within a thru-hull of the vessel, comprising a domed or plano convex diverging lens capable of diverging the light broadly through the water. In a preferred embodiment, the underwater light employs an LED array light source.

A mechanism is provided that aggregates data in a way that permits data to be deleted efficiently, while minimizing the overhead necessary to support bulk deletion of data. A request is received for automatic deletion of segments in a container and a waterline is determined for the container. A determination is made if at least one segment in the container falls below the waterline. Finally, in response to one segment falling below the waterline, the segment from the container is deleted. Each object has an associated creation time, initial retention value, and retention decay curve (also known as a retention curve). At any point, based on these values and the current time, the object's current retention value may be computed. The container system continually maintains a time-varying waterline: at any point, objects with a retention value below the waterline may be deleted.

A portable submersible cleaning device includes a housing that has axillary opposed top and bottom apertures. The housing has a frusto-conical shape, and includes a handle and an access door removably attached thereto. A cleaning head is pivotally and removably attached to a distal end of the housing, and an exterior receptacle is abutted to an outer surface thereof. A mechanism inhales a predetermined volume of debris-saturated water upwardly through the cleaning head and along a unidirectional passageway such that debris is extracted from the debris-saturated water while clean water is expelled outwardly from the housing and reintroduced into the aqueous environment. The exterior receptacle is isolated from the aqueous environment such that power is transmitted to the inhaling mechanism while the housing is submerged beneath a water line of the aqueous environment.

The invention discloses foundation of an offshore wind generation facility, particularly a semi-submersible type steel structure mounting foundation platform of offshore wind driven generators which is capable of moving on the sea, is simple in manufacturing and low in cost. The semi-submersible anchoring type offshore wind generating set with an integrated pedestal is characterized in that: seven wind driven generators are mounted on a regular hexagonal semi-submersible type steel structure integrated foundation platform; the seven wind driven generators are mounted on semi-submersible foundation buoyant boxes 2 with cylindrical bottoms at the six vertexes and the centre of the regular hexagonal semi-submersible steel structure integrated foundation platform respectively; the overall generating set floats on the sea; and the bottom of the overall generating set is fixed by a submarine anchoring facility 5. As the overall integrated foundation platform is submerged in water, the water plane of the generating set is very small, as a result, the generating set has excellent stability, instantaneous buoyancy caused by sea level fluctuation changes a little, and no matter the generating set in a towing state in normal weather or in an anchoring state in extreme weather, both the rigidity of the stability of the generating set can satisfy design demands; and the size of the regular hexagon is determined by the minimum separation required according to the mounting specification of the offshore wind driven generators.

An offshore depot having a vertically symmetric hull, an upper inwardly-tapered wall and a lower outwardly-tapered wall that produce significant heave damping in response to heavy wave action. Ballast is added to the lower and outermost portions of the hull to lower the center of gravity below the center of buoyancy. The offshore depot includes a tunnel formed within or through the hull at the waterline that provides a sheltered area inside the hull for safe and easy launching / docking of boats and embarkation / debarkation of personnel. When the watertight tunnel doors are all shut, the tunnel may be drained to create a dry dock environment within the hull. The offshore depot includes berthing and dinning accommodations, medical facilities, workshops, machine shops, a heliport, and the like.

This invention provides support structures on roofs. Such support structure can be used to support a roof load, or a closure structure which closes an aperture in the roof, thus to provide access to the interior of a building through an aperture in the roof. The support structure can support a skylight to provide natural day-lighting, or a smoke vent, or a variety of other loads optionally relating to matter or energy communication between the inside and outside of the building. The support structure includes rails adapted to be supported by adjacent rib elevations on opposite sides of a flat of a roof panel, elevated above the water line of the panel flat. Where the support structure surrounds an aperture, a diverter seals a cut away portion of the rib structure and diverts water through the rib structure and laterally away from the rail and closure structure.

A freeze resistant buoy system includes a tail-tube buoy having a thermally insulated section disposed predominantly above a waterline, and a thermo-siphon disposed predominantly below the waterline.

The invention discloses a stealth single-hull small waterline area hydrofoil unmanned ship sailing on water and a sailing method. The upper portion of the stealth single-hull small waterline area hydrofoil unmanned ship is provided with a control cabin, the middle portion comprises posts, and the lower portion is a submerged body. The front section of the submerged body is a submerged body bow, the middle section of the submerged body is a submerged body middle part, and the rear section of the submerged body is a submerged body stern. Two water ballast spaces, two power supply cell boxes and a hydrofoil control mechanism are arranged inside the submerged body middle part of a hull. The two water ballast spaces are symmetrically arranged front and back; the two power supply cell boxes symmetrical front and back are arranged between the two water ballast spaces; and the hydrofoil control mechanism is arranged in the center of the space between the two power supply cell boxes. A pair of hydrofoils is symmetrically arranged on the left side and the right side outside the submerged body middle part of the hull. A main motor, a coupler, a main shaft and a tail vane control mechanism are arranged inside the submerged body stern of the hull. A pair of tail vanes is symmetrically arranged on the left side and the right side outside the submerged body stern of the hull. The stealth single-hull small waterline area hydrofoil unmanned ship has excellent seakeeping, speedability and resistance properties, and can achieve the three navigational statuses of body navigation, winging operation and submerge navigation.

The invention provides a ship, naval vessel or submarine with sharp deceleration and sharp turn damping dual-purpose plate devices. The ship, naval vessel or submarine comprises a ship body and is characterized in that single or multiple deceleration and turn damping dual-purpose plate devices are arranged at the left and right sides of the outer bottom of the ship body, in the middle part of the bottom of the ship body, below the waterlines at the left and right sides of outer shipboards of the ship body or on and below the outer waterline at the tail of the ship body and in an independent cabin at the inner side of the end face of the stern. The ship, naval vessel or submarine has the following beneficial effects: the ship, naval vessel or submarine can assist the vertical tail rudder and front and rear horizontal rudders of the ship body in initiatively, flexibly and safely controlling the ships to decelerate and turn normally and sharply in sudden emergency situation; and devices, 1 / 3 of which by volume can stretch out leftwards and rightwards simultaneously, are installed and can randomly cooperate with the rudders during control to stretch out only leftwards or rightwards according to the requirements to compensate for various defects during control of the original vertical rudder and front and rear horizontal rudders of the submarine to ensure the front and rear horizontal rudders to longitudinally stand, thus realizing normal deceleration or safe sharp deceleration.

The invention belongs to the technical field of ship manufacturing, and specially relates to a method for a ship ice-breaking test in real water area. The method comprises the steps that (1), two water areas are formed in a planned test area on the river surface, wherein the length and the width of each water area are 50 m and 10 m correspondingly, and a laboratory containing test equipment and testers is built; (2), two cable towing mechanisms are fixed to one end of an ice tunnel correspondingly, a ship module is adjusted to a marked ballast waterline at the other end, and arrangement, connection and debugging of the test equipment are conducted; and (3), the cable towing mechanisms tow the ship module to move at a constant speed, and open-water resistance and the like of the ship module in still water are measured. The method is applied to resistance tests of the ship module in a level ice zone and a broken ice zone, a self-propulsion test of the ship module and the like, and can accurately measure parameters, such as total resistance, resistance components, sinkage, trim, propeller thrust and torque and main motor power, of the ship module when the ship module sails in the ice zones.

A skeg mounts from the stern of a towing vessel and extends below the waterline. A channel in the skeg protects cables for steamers and a source of a seismic system deployed from the vessel. Tow points on the skeg lie below the water's surface and connect to towlines to support the steamers and source. A floatation device supports the source and tows below the water's surface to avoid ice floes. The streamers can have vehicles deployed thereon for controlling a position on the streamer. To facilitate locating the streamers, these vehicles on the streamers can be brought to the surface when clear of ice floes so that GPS readings can be obtained and communicated to a control system. After obtaining readings, the vehicles can be floated back under the surface. Deploying, using, and retrieving the system accounts for ice at the surface in icy regions. In addition, handling the seismic record can account for noise generated by ice impact events.

This invention provides support structures on roofs. Such support structure can be used to support a roof load, or a closure structure which closes an aperture in the roof, thus to provide access to the interior of a building through an aperture in the roof. The support structure can support a skylight to provide natural day-lighting, or a smoke vent, or a variety of other loads optionally relating to matter or energy communication between the inside and outside of the building. The support structure includes rails adapted to be supported by adjacent rib elevations on opposite sides of a flat of a roof panel, elevated above the water line of the panel flat. Where the support structure surrounds an aperture, a diverter seals a cut away portion of the rib structure and diverts water through the rib structure and laterally away from the rail and closure structure.

The invention relates to a gang offshore floating platform, which diffuses several elongates float bowl on the water and fixes them with hack lever structure with integrated rigidity. The invention can be used as one basic structure of large and hype-large floaters, after the box and semi-sink platform. The invention can solve the problems of large load and lower rigidity of box type and high weigh, cost and deep draft of semi-sink type. The invention also provides a new floating concept of dynamic semi-sink small waterline area. And it has simple structure, lower weight, lower draft, stability, and the ability to reduce the load of wave and wind, avoid the limit of sea depth with lower cost and wider application of offshore exploitation.