Eric Linden

US Patent:

52593746, Nov 9, 1993

Filed:

Jun 12, 1992

Appl. No.:

7/898018

Inventors:

Russell L. Miller - Atlanta GA
Eric C. Linden - Atlanta GA

International Classification:

A62B 902

US Classification:

12820524

Abstract:

A control device for an air inlet valve to a second stage regulator for an underwater breathing apparatus which allows a diver, while wearing the apparatus, to adjust the amount of suction pressure required to activate the air inlet to his mouthpiece. The device comprises a small cylindrical structure and a micrometer-type adjustment screw threadedly engageable with an interior wall of the structure. The structure fits on the air inlet to the second stage regulator and is fluidly connected thereto in such a way that any air entering the regulator must pass through a channel formed in the shaft of the screw. The manually adjustable, micrometer-type adjustment screw, when turned, resets biasing means on the normally closed air inlet valve, altering the suction pressure which the user must supply to open the valve. In addition, the air inlet for the control device, when it is fitted to the regulator, is disposed at a 90 degree angle to the air inlet for the regulator alone. This air inlet configuration for the control device and regulator combination allows the supply line thereto to fit more closely about the user's body that the line does when connected to a conventional regulator.