Abstract:
Conventional ship launching airbags are made of several layers of rubber and fiber meshes bonded together by vulcanization. With the existing fabrication process, an airbag is strong in standing heavy pressure at its surfaces, but weak against the cutting by sharp edges of metal debris or oyster shells. An airbag&#39;s functional failure during a field operation can cause not only stoppage, but also explosion, hence a serious safety hazard. To overcome such structural weakness, a new type of airbags with anti-cutting capability is disclosed in which a conventional ship launching airbag is covered with a layer of anti-cutting armor made of steel cord ply sheets, a standard off-the-shelf product for the making of tires, embedded at the surface of the airbag&#39;s main body.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The disclosure relates generally to fabrication process of airbags. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Ship building at sand beaches started in the 1980&#39;s in Southern China. When building a ship at sand beaches, ship builders place wooden blocks on a sloped sand beach and start ship construction on top of these wooden blocks using land cranes. After the construction is complete, ship launching airbags, shown in  FIGS. 1A and 1B , will be placed under the ship keel longitudinally between every two rows of the wood blocks. Inflating these airbags, the ship would be lifted off these wooden blocks. After the lifting operation, the wooden blocks will be then removed from under the ship keel. Once the holding lines are cut, the ship will be launched toward the sea along the slope with the rolling of these airbags. Before the launching, best efforts will be made to thoroughly search and remove metal debris from the site in order to protect the airbags. However, some steel debris with sharp edges will still escape the search and remain on the slope, and they can cut the rolling airbag and cause an explosion. In some cases, such explosion ended up in personal injury or even death. 
         [0003]    The application of ship launching airbags has been broadened to other areas including ship repair in China and Southeast Asia. In an operation of pulling an old oceangoing ship onshore for repair and maintenance, a reverse operation of ship launching, some deflated airbags are placed at a sloped underwater floor and under the ship keel. There is a simultaneous combined operation of air injection and pulling of the ship onshore. During the pulling operation, airbags may be cut by the sharp edge of underwater metal debris on the sloped floor and/or the barnacles of oyster shells at the ship bottom, resulting in explosion accidents. Such accidents actually happen a lot, almost in every ship pulling operation. 
         [0004]    Another newly-developed application of airbags is ship salvaging. During a ship salvaging operation airbags often face similar threats of cutting by various sharp edged objects inside the wrecked ship. For example, deflated airbags may be placed by divers at several designated locations inside the ship&#39;s cabin rooms. After connecting with a control system for air injection, airbags will produce a large amount of buoyancy and apply a high pressure force over a large area at one side of a cabin room. Sharp edged objects, such as the head of a cabin sprinkler at the ceiling, and/or damaged metals with sharp edges hanging at side walls, can cut and blow up the pressured airbags. 
         [0005]    Similar to a pressured automobile tire, a pressured ship launching airbag may be damaged by these actions: cutting, puncturing and chopping. With automobile tires, the current designs have overcome the cutting and chopping issues by adding several layers of steel wires configured in cord plies embedded between two rubber sheets. Puncturing by a nail or other pointed sharp objects remains to be one un-resolvable issue for a tire. For ship launching airbags, however, the primary factor to cause its functional failure during various field applications is the cutting action by a sharp edge directly at the surface of a pressured airbag. 
         [0006]    In most field applications, a cutting damage is the primary factor to cause the functional failure of a conventional ship launching airbag, usually leading to an explosion with considerable safety hazards. It becomes urgent and necessary to add an anti-cutting capability to ship launching airbags in order to eliminate potential safety hazards, while maintaining all its functionality in field applications. 
       OBJECTIVES AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0007]    The objective of this invention is to develop a new type of ship launching airbags which maintain the basic properties of the existing airbags while adding the anti-cutting capability. In order to achieve this objective, three steps are taken in the fabrication process of this new type of ship launch airbags: 
         [0008]    1. Cover the entire surface of an airbag&#39;s middle section with many small steel cord ply pads. The small pads are disconnected from each other with a designed gap in between. The steel cords of all the pads are oriented parallel to the airbag axis. In such an arrangement, each pad contributes very little stiffness in the circular direction and limited stiffness in the axis direction due to the elasticity provided by the gaps and the elastic bonding between rubbers and steel cords. The gaps between pads must not be perpendicular to the airbag axis. As a result, this new type of anti-cutting airbag can maintain the same basic properties as a conventional ship launching airbag, while adding the anti-cutting property. 
         [0009]    2. The shape and the size of the pads are important factors to determine the basic properties of the new anti-cutting airbag. In one preferred embodiment, the pads use radial cord ply sheet, the pad size in the circular direction can be long. However, the size in the airbag axis direction has to be narrow in order to have enough number of gaps to provide elasticity compatible with the rubber material and the fiber meshes during both contraction and expansion actions of the airbag. The pad may be in various shapes, such as rectangle, equilateral triangle, parallelogram, hexagon of equal sides, and hexagon of unequal sides (with four sides longer than the other two). A honeycomb pad configuration is selected as the preferred option, because pads with a hexagon shape is easy to be produced with high efficiency and the gaps between pads are easy to be controlled to avoid vulnerable straight gaps. In one preferred embodiment, the dimension of any pad in parallel to the airbag axis direction is less than 300 mm, or 1 foot, if radial cord ply is used. The dimension of any pad perpendicular to the airbag axis direction is less than 150 mm, or half foot, if biased cord ply is used. 
         [0010]    3. The gap sizes are also one of the critical factors for an anti-cutting airbag. In one preferred embodiment, the minimum gap size is larger than 4% of the maximum pad dimension in the airbag axis direction if radial cord ply is used; and larger than 6% of a pad&#39;s maximum dimension in the airbag circular direction if biased cord ply is used. 
         [0011]    In another embodiment, multiple layers of radial steel cord ply sheets are utilized within each shaped pad to reinforce anti-cutting protection. 
         [0012]    For the utilization of a biased steel cord ply sheet for making hexagon shaped pads, a smaller pad dimension, especially in the circular direction, and a larger gap size compared with pads using radial steel cord ply sheet, should be considered. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]    The drawings described herein are for illustrating purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. For further understanding of the nature and objects of this disclosure reference should be made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts are given like reference materials, and wherein: 
           [0014]      FIG. 1A  is a side view of a conventional ship launching airbag; 
           [0015]      FIG. 1B  is a side view of the steel part of a front end cone structure with additional attachments such as a removable pressure meter and an air valve. For the back end steel cone, the drawing is omitted, since it is similar to the front end, except for a ring attached at the end and without the pressure meter and the air valve; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2A  is a side view of an anti-cutting airbag with honeycomb pad layout to cover the entire surface of the middle section and with designed gaps between pads; 
           [0017]      FIG. 2B  is a plane view of an individual hexagon shaped pad with equal side lengths using a radial steel cord ply with all the cords oriented in parallel to the airbag axis direction; 
           [0018]      FIG. 2C  is a cross section view of the individual hexagon shaped pad shown in  FIG. 2B , sandwiched by an airbag middle section layer at one side and a rubber sheet at another side; 
           [0019]      FIG. 2D  is a plane view of an individual hexagon shaped pad with unequal side lengths (with four sides longer than the other two sides) using a radial steel cord ply with all the cords oriented in parallel to the airbag axis direction; 
           [0020]      FIG. 2E  is a plane view of a framing tool for placing designed hexagon pads at the middle section surface of airbag and with correct gap dimensions; 
           [0021]      FIG. 3A  is a side view of an anti-cutting airbag with an equilateral triangle pad layout and with controlled gaps in between pads; 
           [0022]      FIG. 3B  is a plane view of an individual equilateral triangle shaped pad with all the steel cords oriented in parallel to the airbag axis direction; 
           [0023]      FIG. 4A  is a side view of an anti-cutting airbag with an individual parallelogram shaped pad layout and with controlled gaps in between pads; 
           [0024]      FIG. 4B  is a plane view of an individual parallelogram shaped pad with all the steel cords oriented parallel to the airbag axis direction; 
           [0025]      FIG. 5A  is a side view of an anti-cutting airbag with a rectangular shaped pad layout and with controlled gaps in between pads; 
           [0026]      FIG. 5B  is a plane view of an individual rectangle shaped pad with all the steel cords oriented parallel to the airbag axis direction and in a staggered pattern for two longer sides; 
           [0027]      FIG. 6  is a plane view of an individual hexagon shaped pad with unequal side lengths using a biased steel cord ply. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
       [0028]    Before explaining the disclosure in detail, it is to be understood that the system and method is not limited to the particular embodiments and that it can be practiced or carried out in various ways. 
         [0029]    There are two types of standard steel cord ply sheets for tires. One type is called biased cord ply sheet with two layers of steel wires crossly knitted as one mesh and then sandwiched by two un-vulcanized thin rubber sheets. Another type is called radial cord ply configuration with only one layer of steel wires laid closely side by side with each other in parallel sandwiched by two un-vulcanized thin rubber sheets. Both types are the standard off-the-shelf products for tire manufacturing industry. For a biased cord ply sheet, the steel wire stiffness governs the whole cord ply sheet stiffness in all directions. For a radial cord ply sheet, the steel wire stiffness only governs the cord ply sheet stiffness in the direction parallel to the steel cord direction. In the direction perpendicular to the steel cords, only the rubber material stiffness governs which is much softer than the steel wire stiffness. Both types of steel cord ply sheets are considered in this disclosure as the added armor for the making of an anti-cutting airbag. 
       Conventional Fabrication Process for a Ship Launching Airbag 
       [0030]    Ship launching airbags have become a mature and off-the-shelf type of products utilized in many industries with excellent properties, such as light weight, durability, capability of being deflated and rolled up for easy transportation, producing a large amount of buoyancy, and the ability to take heavy loads with a high internal pressure. 
         [0031]    Referring to  FIG. 1A  and  FIG. 1B , a conventional ship launching airbag  100  comprises a tubular middle section and two cone-shaped ends. The length of the middle section varies according to the requirements of each application. The middle section is made of natural rubber sheets and multiple layers of polyester fiber meshes bonded together through vulcanization. At the cone-shaped front end  101 , there are several items such as a valve  105  for air inlet and exit, a removable air pressure meter  104  and a steel cone structure  103  covered with rubber and fiber mesh layers on the cone surface. At the other cone-shaped back end  101 , there are several items such as a steel ring  106  for handling the airbag and a steel cone structure  103  covered with rubber and fiber mesh layers on the cone surface. The main body of the middle section and the surfaces of the two cone-shaped ends are made of several rubber layers mixed with layers of polyester fiber meshes. In most cases, only the middle section of a ship launching airbag have any contact with other objects and the two cone-shaped ends are designed to have no contact with any other objects. With this assembly, a conventional ship launching airbag  100  becomes a flexible pressured vessel. 
         [0032]    When an air bag is assembled, it will be put into a sealed container injected with high temperature steam for a designed period of time for vulcanization. During the vulcanization process, the rubber layers become tightly bonded with the steel cone surfaces at both ends as well as with the layers of polyester fiber meshes over the entire length of the air bag. 
         [0033]    All different anti-cutting airbags mentioned in this disclosure are generally based on the modification in a conventional ship launching airbag fabrication process by adding different types of pads at airbag middle section surface functioning as an anti-cutting amour. 
       The Issue of Elasticity Compatibility Between a Fiber Mesh Layer and a Steel Cord Ply for an Anti-Cutting Airbag 
       [0034]    Attempts were made to cover a ship launching airbag with one layer of large pieces of radial cord ply sheets or of biased cord ply sheets over the entire surface of the airbag middle section. However, the test produced some unsatisfactory results as follows: 
         [0035]    1. The stiffness of a steel cord ply sheet is much higher than that of the fiber meshes and rubber material of an airbag. During the vulcanization process for a conventional ship launching airbag, rubber material will usually contract about 5-6% in both longitudinal and circular directions. And when a ship launching airbag is inflated to the normal operational internal pressure for field applications, the airbag will expand about 6-8% in both longitudinal and circular directions. 
         [0036]    The fiber meshes, typically made of crossly knitted polyester fibers, are usually as elastic as the rubber material during vulcanization as well as when inflated for field applications. Therefore, there will not be any visible deformations on the surface of the airbag during the vulcanization process and during inflation for different field applications. However, it becomes a totally different story when a conventional ship launching airbag is covered with large pieces of steel cord ply sheets. Because of the different degrees of elasticity, the vulcanized airbag surfaces are all seriously twisted at the middle section, thus losing the desired bonding effect of the vulcanization between the steel wires and rubber material, making the airbag unusable for any intended applications. 
         [0037]    2. Too stiff for bending with large pieces of either a biased steel cord ply sheet or a radial steel cord ply sheet—the finished airbag with a twisted surface also become too stiff to be bended or rolled up for easy transportation. 
         [0038]    3. Too stiff for circular expansion with large pieces of biased steel cord ply sheet, but NOT so for a radial steel cord ply sheet if the steel cord direction is in parallel with the airbag axis. In other words, it loses its proper elasticity in circular direction with a biased steel cord ply sheet for any intended application. However, some tests indicate that the elasticity of the original airbag stiffness in circular direction is still maintained, if pieces of a radial steel cord ply sheet are used with the steel cord direction in parallel to the airbag axis. 
       Disclosed Fabrication Process can Reduce the Stiffness of the Embedded Radial Steel Cord Ply Sheet to Provide an Effective Anti-Cutting Amour for a Ship Launching Airbag 
       [0039]    Clearly, the radial cord ply sheet is a better choice comparing with a biased cord ply sheet. However, the stiffness of the large pieces of radial cord ply has to be reduced significantly in order to be compatible to the stiffness of the other layers of fiber meshes and rubber material for both vulcanization and operational inflation in the direction of the airbag axis. The following is a set of steps we took to reduce the stiffness of the large pieces of radial cord ply sheets: 
         [0040]    Cut the large pieces of radial core ply sheet into small pads, place the small pads side by side to cover the entire surface of an airbag middle section, fill the gaps between adjacent small pads with rubber strips, then place a piece of rubber sheet on top of these small pads prior to going through vulcanization. This way, the stiffness of the radial cord ply is compensated for by the gaps between the small pads to provide the desired degree of elasticity of the anti-cutting amour as a whole. In other words, the size of each pad has to be small enough so that the rubber-to-steel bonding of the small pads plus those rubber strip-filled gaps can still leave sufficient flexibility to accommodate the contraction action during vulcanization and the expansion action under operational inflation. In addition, the finished airbag with reduced stiffness can be bended and rolled for easy transportation. 
         [0041]    The small pad may be in different types of shapes: 1) rectangle, with the steel cords parallel to the narrow sides of the pad; and 2) various shapes of equal side lengths or unequal side lengths including, parallelogram, triangle, and hexagon. 
         [0042]    No matter which type of shape is adopted, there are four key points in arranging these pads properly. First, the longest side in airbag axis direction, of no matter which shape, should be limited to be less than 300 mm or 1 foot in accordance with one preferred embodiment. Second, the gap size between any two adjacent pads should be properly designed in order to compensate not only for the contraction action during the airbag fabrication, but also for expansion action during inflation for field application. Third, steel cords in all the pads should all be oriented in the same direction as the airbag&#39;s axis for optimal anti-cutting protection, because cuttings happen mostly in perpendicular to the airbag axis. Fourth, none of the gaps should be perpendicular with the airbag axis, and the dimension of all the gaps should be maintained the same throughout the entire middle section area. Rubber strips should be utilized to fill the room of these gaps before covering the whole middle section area with a rubber sheet and going through vulcanization. 
         [0043]    The gap size is one important design parameter and the selection of proper gap size should be a balance between a minimized gap size and acceptable elasticity of the radial cord ply sheet as a whole. According to one preferred embodiment, the minimum gap size should be larger than 4% of a pad&#39;s maximum dimension in the airbag axis direction. 
         [0044]    According to one preferred embodiment, a honeycomb shaped pad is used. The honeycomb patterned pad configuration provides the best overall performance compared with all the other shapes in two areas: 1) the simple hexagon shape of such a pad is easy to be cut and produced efficiently in large quantities; and 2) it is easy to control the gap dimension between any two pads. The hexagon shaped pad with unequal side lengths (with four sides longer than the other two sides) was found to be suitable for the applications. Other pad shapes of equal or unequal side lengths, such as triangle and parallelogram, were also investigated and could also be utilized to form an anti-cutting amour. 
         [0045]    Referring now to  FIG. 2A  through  FIG. 2C , an anti-cutting airbag  200  is illustrated with multiple hexagon shaped pads  110  with equal sides covering the surface of the airbag  200  middle section. The hexagon shaped pads  110  of a radial steel cord ply  112  are oriented so that all the cords are parallel to the airbag  200  axis direction. Gaps  111  are left between any two adjacent disconnected pads  110 . In one embodiment, gaps  111  have a controlled dimensional size. 
         [0046]    Referring to  FIG. 2C , the individual pad  110 , in which a radial steel cord ply  112  is sandwiched and pressed by two thin layers of rubber sheets, is attached on top of the surface layer  114 , similar to a conventional ship launching airbag  100  surface layer, and beneath a cover rubber sheet  113  before going through vulcanization. 
         [0047]      FIG. 2D  is an alternative hexagon shaped pad  130  configuration with unequal side lengths, which could be a replacement of the pad  110 . 
         [0048]      FIG. 2E  illustrates a dimensional template  130  with the exact same size for placing each hexagon shaped pad  110  inside each opening of the template  130  in order to maintain the correct gap size between pads  110  during the fabrication process. 
         [0049]    A typical anti-cutting airbag  200  fabrication process for adding hexagon shaped anti-cutting pads  110  with a covering rubber sheet  113  can be described as the following steps: 
         [0050]    1. Utilizing a pressed cutting machine to produce the required number of pads  110  out of a large radial steel cord ply sheet; 
         [0051]    2. Placing the designed template  130  on the surface of the airbag  100  middle section after the fabrication process of a conventional ship launch airbag  100  is complete; 
         [0052]    3. Placing hexagon shaped pads  110  inside the openings of the template  130  until the entire middle section is covered with these pads  110 ; 
         [0053]    4. Using designed rubber strips to fill all the gaps  111 ; 
         [0054]    5. Utilizing a pressing tool to smoothen the top surface of the pads  110  and the gaps  111  and to expel air out these gaps; 
         [0055]    6. Covering the surface of the pads  110  and the gaps  111  with a rubber sheet  114 ; 
         [0056]    7. Utilizing the same pressing tool to smoothen the rubber sheet  114  surface and to expel air out between the sheet  114  bottom and the surface of these pads  110  and these gaps  111 ; 
         [0057]    8. After going through vulcanization, the fabrication process of an anti-cutting airbag  200  is then completed. 
         [0058]    In one embodiment, multiple layers of steel cord ply are used within one pad, with one rubber sheet in between any two layers and one rubber sheet at the top surface, to cover the entire airbag middle section. In such multiple layer configurations, the same cord ply configuration could be used for all the cord ply sheets with all the cords oriented in the same direction as the airbag axis. 
         [0059]    Referring to  FIG. 3A  through  FIG. 3B , another embodiment of anti-cutting airbag  300  with multiple equilateral triangle shaped pads  140  using a radial steel cord ply  112  is illustrated. A radial steel cord ply  112  sheet is cut into multiple equilateral triangle shaped pads  140 . The equilateral triangle shaped pads  140  are placed on the surface of the airbag  300  middle section. The steel cords of all the pads  140  are oriented in parallel to the airbag  300  axis direction. Gaps  111 , with a designed dimensional size, are left between any two adjacent disconnected pads  140 . 
         [0060]    Referring to  FIG. 4A  through  FIG. 4B , another embodiment of anti-cutting airbag  400  with multiple parallelogram shaped pads  150  using a radial steel cord ply  112  is illustrated. A large radial steel cord ply  112  sheet is cut into multiple parallelogram shaped pads  150 . The parallelogram shaped pads  150  are placed on the surface of the airbag  400  middle section. The steel cords of all the pads  150  are oriented in parallel to the airbag  400  axis direction. Gaps  111 , with a designed dimensional size, are left between any two adjacent disconnected pads  150 . 
         [0061]    Referring to  FIG. 5A  through  FIG. 5B , another embodiment of anti-cutting airbag  500  with multiple rectangular shaped pads  160  using a radial steel cord ply  112  is illustrated. A large radial steel cord ply  112  sheet is cut into multiple rectangular shaped pads  160 . The rectangular shaped pads  160  are placed on the surface of the airbag  500  middle section. The steel cords of all the pads  160  are oriented in parallel to the airbag  500  axis direction. Gaps  111 , with a designed dimensional size, are left between any two adjacent disconnected pads  160 . 
         [0062]    If rectangle shape is chosen, such pads should be cut into a staggered-pattern shape for two vertical sides in order to avoid the formation of a straight gap perpendicular to the airbag axis which may be vulnerable to a cutting. 
         [0063]    A biased steel cord ply sheet may also be used for the anti-cutting armor. Referring to  FIG. 6 , a honeycomb patterned pad  170  configuration with a biased steel cord ply sheet  116  is used for the pads. Under this configuration, the airbag stiffness in the circular direction will increase proportionally with the dimension of such pad in circular direction. Therefore the pad size in the circular direction has to be small enough and the gaps have to be large enough in order to reduce the increased circular stiffness for the airbag. According to one embodiment, the longest side perpendicular to airbag axis direction of a hexagon shaped pad using biased steel cord ply sheet is limited to be less than 150 mm or half foot, and the minimum gap size is larger than 6% of a pad&#39;s maximum dimension in the airbag circular direction. 
         [0064]    Although a preferred embodiment of an anti-cutting airbag assembly in accordance with the present invention has been described herein, those skilled in the art will recognize that various substitutions and modifications may be made to the specific features described without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as recited in the appended claims.