| 摘要 |
A hybrid personal flotation device (10) of the type having a required buoyancy is disclosed. The flotation device (10) includes a mass of buoyant material (12a), (12b) and (12c) providing an amount of inherent buoyancy and an inflatable buoyancy chamber (18) cooperatively connected to the mass of buoyant material (12a), (12b) and (12c). The buoyancy chamber (18) is inflated with gas for providing supplemental buoyancy. The buoyancy chamber (18) may be deflated, whereby after the factory testing of said inflatable buoyancy chamber (18) by inflating and deflating the buoyancy chamber (18), a residual amount of gas that is used to inflate the buoyancy chamber (18) remains in the buoyancy chamber (18) after deflation, and provides an amount of residual buoyancy. The inherent buoyancy plus the residual buoyancy being greater than or equal to the required buoyancy. In a preferred embodiment, the buoyancy chamber (18) is covered by a covering panel (32). A panel portion includes the mass of buoyant material (12a), (12b) and (12c). The covering panel has outer edges releasably connected to the panel portion, whereby when the buoyancy chamber (18) is uninflated, the outer edge of the covering panel is secured to the panel portion and the buoyancy chamber (18) is folded and hidden from view by the covering panel (32) and when the buoyancy chamber (18) is inflated, the outer edges of the covering panel (32) are released and the buoyancy chamber (18) expands, unfolds and is visible.
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