Breathing Pipe Assembly and Snorkel Equipment Including Said Assembly

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Prov. Ser. No. 63/570,960 filed on Mar. 28, 2024, which is incorporated in its entirety by reference.

The present invention relates to the technical field of water activities (including both surface and underwater activities), such as swimming training, snorkeling or free diving.

Nowadays, there is a wide variety of water sports equipment available, e.g., diving masks for swimmers, masks for snorkeling, and oxygen supply equipment for scuba diving. Many of these water activities, such as snorkeling or free diving, utilize a breathing pipe with a mouthpiece provided at the lower portion thereof, allowing the user's mouth to contain the mouthpiece and breathe through it.

The breathing pipes available in the market have various types and materials to improve their quality and functionality. Nevertheless, the compact breathing pipe assembly, as shown in, which has a breathing pipemade of a harder material with air intake and exhaust simply achieved through the top thereof and a mouthpiecefixedly provided or integrally formed at the end portion of the breathing pipe, still maintains a certain market share due to its simple appearance, easy portability, and controllable manufacturing and sales costs. Therefore, such compact breathing pipe assemblyis favored not only by the free diving market but also by manufacturers who supply snorkel equipment to the tourism and leisure industry.

However, in any variations of such compact breathing pipe assembly, the mouthpieceand the breathing pipeare always aligned. In other words, the lateral direction of the mouthpieceis always parallel to the axial direction of the breathing pipe, as shown in. When the user wears the maskand mounts the breathing pipein a left-high position and then fastens it to the left end portionL of the head strap, the mouthpieceis actually not parallel to the direction of the user's lips. In other words, it becomes a clockwise tilt from the user's perspective, as shown in. Alternatively, when the user wears the maskand mounts the breathing pipein a right-low position, and then fastens it to the mid portionM of the head strap, the mouthpiece, in a same manner, is not parallel to the direction of the user's lips, similarly forming a clockwise tilt from the user's perspective, as shown in.

When the user's mouth contains this tilted mouthpiece, it is uncomfortable and significantly increases the load of the mouth muscles, affecting the duration and enjoyment of snorkeling. Furthermore, during snorkeling, due to the backward thrust of the water flow from the front, the portion of the breathing pipeunder the water surface will rotably move along a rotation axis (i.e., the fastening point of the breathing pipeand the head strap) and be pushed further toward the user. At this time, the tilting situation (i.e., the clockwise tilt) of the mouthpiecewill be more significant, as shown in.

In view of this, solving the above problems and further providing other technical advantages has become the research and development goal of the industry.

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a breathing pipe assembly for water activities (particularly for snorkeling or free diving), in which the breathing pipe runs along one side of the user's head. By virtue of the transverse line of the mouthpiece forming a specific angle either clockwise or counterclockwise relative to the central axis of the breathing pipe, the mouthpiece can be better aligned with the user's mouth when the user wears a mask and firmly fastens the breathing pipe to the head strap. This significantly reduces the load of the user's teeth to bite and enhances comfort during snorkeling.

To achieve the aforesaid objective, the present invention discloses a breathing pipe assembly, including a mouthpiece and an inflexible breathing pipe. The inflexible breathing pipe has an upper portion and a lower portion. The upper portion provides air inlet and outlet. The mouthpiece is fixedly connected to the lower portion. The inflexible breathing pipe is defined with a central axis extending along a longitudinal direction thereof, and the mouthpiece is defined with a transverse line connecting a left side and a right side thereof. The transverse line forms an angle relative to the central axis, and the angle ranges between 3° and 70°.

In an example, the angle ranges between 12° and 20°.

In an example, the angle is formed by the transverse line counterclockwise relative to the central axis.

Based on the above examples, in a first instance, the inflexible breathing pipe is adapted to be mounted in a left-high position, running over a left ear of a user.

In addition, based on the above example, in a second instance, the inflexible breathing pipe is adapted to be mounted in a right-low position, running underneath a right ear of a user.

Based on the same objective as mentioned above, the present invention discloses a snorkel equipment, including a breathing pipe assembly as described in the first instance and a mask. The mask includes a main body and a head strap. The head strap is fastened to the main body, thereby the body being configured to water-tightly cover eyes and nose of a user; The inflexible breathing pipe is firmly fastened to a left end portion of the head strap.

In addition, the present invention further discloses a snorkel equipment, comprising a breathing pipe assembly as described in the second instance and a mask. The mask includes a main body and a head strap. The head strap is fastened to the main body, thereby the body being configured to water-tightly cover eyes and nose of a user; The inflexible breathing pipe is firmly fastened to a mid portion of the head strap.

It shall be appreciated that the following description of the embodiments is only to explain the contents of the present invention, but not to limit the invention as claimed. Elements not directly related to the present invention are omitted from the description, and the dimensions as depicted for all elements in the drawings are just for easy understanding and do not intend to limit their actual scales. In addition, the used “upper,” “lower,” “front,” “back,” “left,” “right,” “inner,” “outer,” “clockwise,” “counterclockwise” or the like adjectives defined in the descriptions are referred to by the direction of the user himself/herself. They are only relative relationships and are not limitative. When the element names involve “first” and “second,” and only the detailed structure of one of them is described, it means that both have the same structure, especially a symmetrical structure. Therefore, further repetition of the description will be omitted below.

During water activities, snorkelers or free divers often choose to fasten the breathing pipe to the end portion of the head strap, allowing the breathing pipe to run over the ear to establish a high mounting. In addition, these users often choose to fasten the breathing pipe to the mid portion of the head strap, allowing the breathing pipe to run beneath the user's ear to establish a low mounting.

However, the most common way of mounting the breathing pipe is to let the breathing pipe run over the user's left ear and fasten it on a left side of the mask (often where the head strap is placed), forming the so-called “left-high mounting.” Therefore, the breathing pipe of the present invention is described using the left-high mounting as an example. However, the right-low mounting would result in the same effect.

shows a breathing pipe assemblyaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The breathing pipe assemblyincludes an inflexible breathing pipeand a mouthpiece. The inflexible breathing pipehas an upper portionand a lower portionopposite to the upper portionThe upper portionof the inflexible breathing pipeprovides air inlet and outlet. The mouthpieceis fixedly connected to the lower portionof the inflexible breathing pipe. In addition, the lower portionof the inflexible breathing pipemay be further provided with a drain valve (not shown), but this is not the technical focus of the present invention.

In the present invention, the inflexible breathing pipeis defined with a central axis CA extending along a longitudinal direction thereof. The mouthpieceis defined with a transverse line TL connecting the left and right sides thereof. Based on this baseline, the mouthpieceof the present invention pre-forms a rotating angle relative to the inflexible breathing pipe; that is, the transverse line TL forms an angle θ counterclockwise relative to the central axis CA. The angle θ may range between 3° and 70° to achieve the effect of pre-correcting the orientation of the mouthpiece, as shown in. In this way, when the user wears the mask, and the inflexible breathing piperuns over the user's left ear and is attached to the left end portion of the mask, the mouthpiecewill be further inclined to be parallel to and aligned with the user's mouth (as shown in), thereby further enhancing the user's comfort and extending the duration of snorkeling. Furthermore, during underwater activities, even if the lower portionof the inflexible breathing pipeis pushed inward by the water flow from the front, due to the pre-formed angle θ, the mouthpiecewill not become excessively tilted relative to the mouth, thereby avoiding discomfort.

When the inflexible breathing pipe is mounted in a right-low position, the lower portionof the inflexible breathing pipewill also be geometrically tilted clockwise. By enabling the transverse line TL to pre-form an angle θ counterclockwise relative to the central axis CA, the user's mouth and the mouthpiece can also be aligned, as shown in.

It can be understood that if the user mounts the inflexible breathing pipein a right-high or left-low position, the aforementioned pre-formed rotating angle, i.e., the specific angle θ formed by the transverse line TL clockwise relative to the central axis CA can similarly range between 3° and 70°. The details and illustrations will not be further described herein. In a preferred implementation, the angle θ may range between 10° and 30°. And in a best mode, it ranges between 12° and 20°.

Hereinafter, the snorkel equipments of the present invention, with the left-high mounting and the right-low mounting, will be described in detail with reference toand, respectively, to clarify their structural relationship. In detail, the snorkel equipment, as shown in, includes the breathing pipe assemblyofand the mask. The maskincludes a main bodyand a head strapThe head strapis connected to the main bodythereby the main bodybeing configured to water-tightly cover the eyes and nose of the user. The inflexible breathing pipeis fastened to a left end portionL of the head strapestablishing a left-high mounting.

Additionally, the snorkel equipment, as shown in, includes the breathing pipe assemblyofand the mask. Similarly, the maskincludes a main bodyand a head strapThe head strapis connected to the main bodythereby the main bodybeing configured to water-tightly cover the eyes and nose of the user. The only difference from the snorkel equipmentofis that the inflexible breathing pipein the snorkel equipmentis fastened to the mid portionM (close to the back of the user's head) of the head strapestablishing the right-low mounting.

The “inflexible” breathing pipe as defined in this invention does not limit the material being used. It may be hard (such as PC or PP material), soft (such as thicker rubber) material, or the two integrally molded together, provided that when the user contains the mouthpiece, the breathing pipe coupled therewith can still maintain its pipe shape firmly and stably without collapsing even when it is not fastened to the mask. The present invention is an improvement over the existing designs where a flexible mouthpiece is fixed to such an inflexible breathing pipe, and the mouthpiece cannot be rotated along its own airflow axis FA. The focus of the improvement is to pre-form a specific angle between the transverse line of the mouthpiece and the central axis of the breathing pipe. This design allows for near-perfect alignment between the mouthpiece and the user's mouth when the user contains the mouthpiece during snorkeling activities. How other parts are designed, or what kind of snorkel equipment is used for, are not the focus of this invention.

Any modifications based on the above core technology of the present invention, for example, where said pre-formed angle is fixed, or any mechanical variations that allow users to adjust within the specific angular range, are intended to be protected. Consequently, the above embodiments are used only to illustrate the implementations of the present invention and to explain the technical features of the present invention and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention. Any modifications or equivalent arrangements that can be easily accomplished by those skilled in the art are considered to fall within the scope of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should be limited by the claims of the patent application.