Device for conveying a medium from means provided in a fixed position on a bottom below the water surface to a buoy body

• US 4,279,543 A
• Filed: 06/18/1979
• Issued: 07/21/1981
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/1978
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Single Buoy Moorings of America Incorporated (Single Buoy Moorings)
• Original Assignee: Single Buoy Moorings of America Incorporated (Single Buoy Moorings)
• Inventors: Remery, George F. M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Dennis L.
• Application Number:
  US06/049,655
• Time in Patent Office: 764 Days
• Field of Search: 405/210, 405/201-208, 405/196, 405/195, 141/388
• US Class Current: 405/224.3
• CPC Class Codes: B63B 22/021 and for transferring fluids, e.g. liquids container type buoys having means to selectively release contents, not adapted for mooring a vessel B63B22/26

Abstract

When a flexible conduit is secured to a buoy under water, the action of the tide, current, wind and waves, as well as forces exerted by a vessel moored to the buoy, cause the buoy to perform various motions that bend or twist the tube and load it with additional tractive forces. This causes the tube to wear very quickly and to have to be replaced. The present invention solves this problem, by replacing that portion of the tube adjacent the buoy, by a pipe or rod which is fastened to the buoy with a universal joint and which hangs downwardly from the buoy in the water. At the lower end of the pipe or rod, a tube is connected which continues to the bottom of the body of water. The tube is coupled with the pipe or is directed through or along the rod, to the buoy.

Claims

1. In a device for conveying a medium from a means provided in a fixed position on a bottom below the water surface to an anchored buoy body floating on the water, comprising a conduit connected to said means and extending to the buoy body, of which conduit at least the part connected to said means consists of a flexible tube;

the improvement comprising a pipe or rod is fastened to the buoy body by means of a universal joint, said pipe or rod in the operative condition of the device hanging downwardly from the buoy in the water, while at the lower end of the pipe or rod a tube connected to said means is coupled with the pipe or is directed through or along the rod.

2. The device of claim 1, in which adjacent the lower end of the pipe or rod a weight is provided on the pipe or rod.

3. The device of claim 1, in which at a position between the connections with said means and said pipe or rod a buoyant body is provided on the tube.

4. The device according to the claim 1, in which the tube is coupled with the pipe by means of a universal joint.