Patent ID: 8167670
Filing Date: 2012-05-01
Classification: B63B,B63G

Abstract:
1. A modular recovery apparatus comprising: a mounting frame for attaching the apparatus to a wall of a UUV; a canister affixed to the mounting frame with a canister support ring, said canister comprised of a substantially cylindrical wall that interiorly defines a bore with a bore diameter, a contoured open end and an opposing end, and an actuator port located in the cylindrical wall; a substantially hollow piston having a head with a head diameter that is less than the bore diameter, where the head has an axial ring that can center a rod-like element; a compression spring compressed in the substantially hollow piston; a tether spool for insertion into said bore, said tether spool comprising a float having an axial core, a circular first end wall with a beveled perimeter, wherein the beveled perimeter enables a tow line that is wound around the tether spool to be easily pulled off the tether spool, where said first end wall has an overall diameter that is smaller than the head diameter of the piston, where said tether spool is further comprised of an opposing second end wall having a cover diameter that is smaller than the bore diameter, such that the second end wall substantially occludes the bore; a stop collar that prevents the piston from escaping from the canister when the tether spool is expelled, where the stop collar is affixed in the bore of the canister above the piston and below the second end wall of the tether spool, said stop collar having an outside diameter that is smaller than the bore diameter and an inside diameter that is smaller than the cover diameter of the second end wall and larger than the overall diameter of the first end wall of the tether spool, such that only the second end wall of tether spool is stopped by the stop collar; an actuator framework coupled to the canister and the mounting frame; and an actuator assembly mounted on the actuator framework and having a triggering device that can cause the tether spool to be deployed, said actuator assembly having a lever with a latch end that latches the opposing second end wall, a pivot point and an intersecting end that is coupled to the triggering device, where upon being activated the latch end pivots through the actuator port of the canister away from a latched position, where the tether spool is latched, moving to an unlatched position, where the tether spool is no longer latched, said triggering device being a burn wire in electrical connection with a release controller which can generate an electrical current, said burn wire having an electrically frangible link attached to a first strain relief element and a second strain relief element, wherein the electrical current causes the electrically frangible link to break therein enabling the lever, driven by the compression spring, to rotate to the unlatched position; wherein at activation the tether spool is expelled from the canister and the tow line unwinds from the float.