Foldable snorkel

Aeration tube provided on its lower end with a mouthpiece (2) and on its upper end with an air intake hole (41), such tube consisting in its length of two or more tubular elements (1, 3) connected in such a way that the tube can be folded two or more times on itself.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
 The present invention relates to snorkel used by scuba divers at the
 beginning and at the end of a diving session with air tanks, that is to
 say, when getting into and out of the water.
 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
 Snorkels of the known type consist of a cylindrical element which is
 normally bent on its lying plane, mainly made of a mouthpiece on its lower
 end and an air intake hole on its upper end; moreover, they are connected,
 by means of hooks or the like, to the strap of the diving mask. A tube of
 this kind has a certain length in its lying and folding plane so that, at
 the end of its use, for instance at the stage when the scuba diver gets
 into the water, it is encumbering and difficult to place, whether the
 scuba diver decides to leave it attached to the mask strap or wants to put
 it for instance into a pocket of his jacket or of his wet suit.
 As is known there are the so-called telescopic systems, consisting of
 coaxial tubes allowing to shortening of the snorkel so as to make it
 smaller once the scuba diver has gone into the water. However, with such
 systems at least a portion of the snorkel has to be straight, so as to
 have an area where said coaxial tubes of the snorkel move and the stroke
 made by such systems is limited only to the straight portion; moreover,
 coaxial tubes necessarily create either an inner section which is too
 small or an outer diameter which is aesthetically abnormal, since the
 inner section should have a diameter which is physiologically acceptable
 as far as breathing is concerned.
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
 The present invention aims at achieving a snorkel which overcomes the
 disadvantages of the known systems mentioned above and giving the
 possibility to be practically reduced to half its length rapidly, and be
 put, once the scuba diver has gone into the water, into a pocket of his
 jacket or of his wet suit or into suitable loops by the scuba diver and
 which can be moreover easy to find and to refit when the diver begins to
 get out of the water.
 Such purpose is achieved in the present invention by means of an snorkel
 provided on its lower end with a mouthpiece and on its upper end with an
 air intake hole, such snorkel consisting in its length of two or more
 tubular elements which are connected in such a way that the tube can be
 folded two or more times on itself.
 According to a feature of the present invention such snorkel consists of a
 lower tubular element including on its lower end said mouthpiece and of an
 upper tubular element including on its upper end said air intake hole, the
 upper end of the lower tubular element and the lower end of the upper
 tubular element being reciprocally connected, in a configuration of use as
 a single tube, through retaining means, said means allowing the rotation
 of one of said tubular elements so as to fold onto to the other in a
 substantially perpendicular direction to the lying plane of the tube, thus
 obtaining a configuration of non-use or with tubular elements one beside
 the other, in which the lower and upper ends of the lower tubular element
 are respectively beside the upper and lower ends of the upper tubular
 element.
 According to preferred embodiments of the present invention the retaining
 means are comprise hinges which ensure both the sealing and the locking of
 the two elements in each configuration, both of use as a single tube and
 of non-use with tubular elements one beside the other, in the latter the
 length of the snorkel being practically half its normal use size, thus
 making the snorkel easy to store.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION
 With reference to FIG. 1, as a single tube mainly consists of a lower
 tubular element 1 onto whose lower end a mouthpiece 2 is fixed, and of an
 upper tubular element 3, here only partially shown for reasons of
 clearness, which is characterised by a physiologically suitable inner
 section 4 for the passage of air. As can be observed, there is shown
 herein the configuration use or as a single tube element 1 a loop 5 has
 been provided, such loop to be used in case a hook for the mask strap is
 present, together with two ribs 6 on each lateral coupling surface (as
 will be seen later) forming between themselves a guide whose purpose, as
 will be seen later, is to be connected to the correspondent rib 7, which
 is also provided on both lateral surfaces of element 3. Moreover, such
 aeration tube has three profiles 8 which are useful to protect two elastic
 hinges 9 from the risk of abrasions, said profiles 8 being provided on the
 front and rear surface (not visible) of the element 3 and on the rear
 surface (non visible) of the element 1. The elastic hinges 9 are useful
 trip-type means to maintain the snorkel in its original position and they
 are each fixed in a longitudinal direction with respect to the two
 elements 1 and 3 by means of suitable fixed pins 91a and 91b. Both fixed
 pins 91a and 91b allow the hinges to rotate around them. Moreover, said
 hinges include loops 92 in case a hook for the mask strap is used.
 Moreover, on the element 1 there are two side connection pins, denoted 11a
 and 11b which, as will be later seen, will be used in the configuration
 with the elements 1 and 3 one beside the other or configuration of non-use
 to ensure their reciprocal coupling. Side connection pin 11b is only
 partially shown because of the angle of the view. The sealing of the
 snorkel with the elastic hinges 9 is ensured by the partial introduction
 of the element 3 into the element 1 in correspondence with said hinges and
 by a sealing ring 12. In the configuration of use, as shown in FIGS. 1 and
 3 thus the scuba diver is either getting into or out of the water before
 or after a diving session with air tanks.
 When the scuba diver has just gone down into the water, that is to say, the
 stage after the snorkel has been is used, the latter should be made as
 small as possible, whether it is put into a pocket, in the wet suit for
 example, or in the diver's jacket.
 The snorkel described above can be practically reduced to half its length
 simply by taking the element 3 and by rotating it with respect to the
 element 1, and this is possible because of the two hinges 9 which undergo
 an elastic deformation rotating around the two fixed pins 91a, so as to
 allow said rotation of the element 3, which, as can be deduced from FIG.
 1, can be symmetrically achieved in a perpendicular direction with respect
 to the lying plane of the snorkel tube towards one or the other of the
 lateral surface of the element 1.
 At the end of such rotation of the hinges 9, which have undergone an
 elastic springback, the element 3 has been released so as to be beside the
 element 1 according to the configuration shown in FIG. 2, that is to say,
 the configuration of non-use of the tube, said hinges 9 now being placed
 perpendicularly to the two elements 1 and 3. At this point, element 3 has
 been rotated substantially 180.degree. in relation to element 1. Element 3
 can be rotated in the opposite direction, resulting in a full field of
 rotation of substantially 360.degree.. The passage from the configuration
 of non-use to the configuration of use and the opposite, in case the scuba
 diver gets back to the surface at the end of the diving session and uses
 the snorkel once more to get out of the water, is similarly achieved by
 taking one of the two tubular elements, either 1 or 3, and by rotating it
 with respect to the other, either 3 or 1, going back to the configuration
 of FIG. 1. As can be observed in FIG. 2 the two ends of the elements 1 and
 3 being respectively provided with the mouthpiece 2 and the air intake
 hole 41, are placed one beside the other and are coupled together by
 introducing one of the two side connection pins 11a, 11b into the
 corresponding hole 301 according to the rotation direction of the element
 3 chosen by the scuba diver when folding the snorkel. Moreover, such
 configuration can be maintained by introducing one of the two ribs 7, on
 the element 3, into the related guide formed by the corresponding rib 6 in
 the element 1. FIG. 1 shows the positioning of the two elements 1 and 3 in
 the configuration of use as a single tube, the element 3 being partially
 introduced into the element 1 and the sealing being ensured by the
 presence of the elastic hinges 9 and by the sealing ring 12. As previously
 mentioned, the hinges 9 are protected against the risk of abrasion while
 diving by the three profiles 8 and by the profile forming the loop 5 for
 the possible introduction of a hook for the mask strap.
 FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the snorkel of the present invention in the
 configuration with the elements one beside the other. In such
 configuration the trip-type retaining means of the two elements in the
 configuration of use and non-use consist of a hinge system including an
 upper bushing 13 fixed onto the element 3 a lower bushing 14 fixed onto
 the element 1, hinges connected to each of the bushings 13 and 14 and a
 hinge pin 16 connecting together the two hinges 15. Such lower bushing 14
 is also connected to a flexible tab 17 provided with a hole 171, whereas
 the upper bushing 13 is connected to a corresponding tab in 18. Moreover,
 the element 1 has coupling tabs 19b and 19c corresponding to the coupling
 tab holes 221a and 221b of a coupling tab 22 in the configuration of use
 of the snorkel, whereas the element 3 is provided with a coupling tab pin
 19a corresponding to the coupling tab hole 221a of the tab 22 in the
 configuration of non-use. The hinges 15 and the hinge pin 16 thus allow
 rotation of one of the two elements 1 and 3 with respect to the other from
 the configuration of non-use which is shown FIG. 4 to the configuration of
 use shown in FIG. 6, and vice-versa. The coupling tab hole 221a can be
 linked to the coupling tab pin 19a by simply lifting the tab 22 so as to
 free said hole 21a from the coupling tab pin 19c and by rotating said tab
 22 around the coupling tab pin 19b.
 As an alternative, referring to FIG. 5, the hinges 15, the corresponding
 hinge pin 16, the tab 17 and the corresponding tab pin 18 can be connected
 to the elements 1 and 3 as a single piece. In such case, for structural
 reasons, the sections of the two elements placed near the hinges 15 are
 suitably greater than their nominal section, as can be clearly seen in the
 figure. Moreover, a sealing ring 12 is provided near the lower end of the
 element 3, which end is introduced into the element 1 in the configuration
 of use.
 Such use configuration is shown in FIG. 6, where due stress is given to how
 the hole 171 of the tab 17 is connected with a release system with the pin
 18 by means of a small elastic deformation of the tab itself, and it is
 also evident that, in order to return to the configuration of non-use, it
 is simply necessary to lift the tab 17 and rotate it towards the right one
 of the two elements 1 and 3.
 Another embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 7 through 9
 wherein the release retaining means comprises a coupling system including
 an upper bushing 24 fixed onto the element 3 and a lower bushing 25 fixed
 onto the element 1. The upper bushing 24 is provided with a bridge hole
 26, whereas the lower bushing 25 is provided with a flexible arrow-shape
 tab 27 corresponding to the said bridge hole 26. The two bushing 24 and 25
 are connected by means of a flexible hinge 28 which is preferably made of
 the same material as the bushings. From the lower portion of the element 1
 a flexible tab 29 is formed as one piece, said tab having a hole 291,
 whereas the element 3 has a corresponding tooth 30 projecting up and
 formed as one piece herewith. In order to assure that the parts are locked
 together in the configuration of non-use as shown in FIG. 7, it is simply
 necessary to introduce the tooth 30 into the hole 291 of the flexible tab
 29, by means of an elastic deformation of the tab itself. Obviously, also
 for this embodiment, instead of the bushings 24 and 25, it is possible to
 form the hinge 28, the tab 27 and the bridge hole 26 from the tubular
 elements 1 or 3 as one piece.
 FIGS. 8 and 9 show the coupling system of FIG. 7 in the two configurations
 of non-use and of use of the snorkel. It should be noted that, in order to
 change from the configuration in FIG. 8 to the one in FIG. 9 it is simply
 necessary to rotate the element 1 around the hinge 28 so that the
 arrow-shaped tab 27 can be releasably introduced into the corresponding
 bridge hole 26, whereas in order to change from the configuration in FIG.
 9 to the one in FIG. 8 it is simply necessary to press the tab 27 towards
 the inside of the snorkel, that is to say, towards the right as shown in
 FIG. 9, so as to allow the rotation towards the right, for instance of the
 element 1 around the hinge 28.
 As it has been possible to observe from the previous description, the
 advantages deriving from the use of a folding snorkel according to the
 embodiments described as an example are manifold, and such are the
 versions which can be adopted in order to obtain such advantages without
 going beyond the frame of the enclosed claims.