PRIOR ART : People traveling by boats, yatches, ships and personnel who under take aqua sports etc are under the risk of drowning in case of mishaps. US coastguard estimates that around 1.5 lakhs of people drown every year worldwide. Besides the risk, of drowning, the passengers are not comfortable while traveling by any means on the water as they are always under the threat of drowning. <BR> <BR> <P>There are varieties of PFD (Personal Floatation Devices) like life vest etc. , available.<BR> <P>They are not very effective as they have to be chosen as per one's weight, size etc. , they need minimum buoyancy to keep the victim floating and should always keep the victims face up while making them float, besides they are not convenient/comfortable for wearing. US coast guard also indicates that 80% of all the boats which drown have life vest on board but at the time of accidents there is no time to run for life vest. Virtually there is no failsafe and easy to handle PFD available in the market.

OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION : It is the primary object of the invention to provide a revolutionary inflatable personal floatation device, which can be easily worn and very effective in all circumstances. This device will totally eliminate the risk of drowning.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a simple and cost effective personal floatation device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION : The personal floatation device can be a vest belt, a vest jacket or a throwable device such as a ring buoy, a horseshoe buoy, seat cushions, etc. This invention will be described with reference to a vest belt. However, necessary obvious modifications can be done for other types of personal floatation devices mentioned above.

This invention thus provides a personal floatation device comprising: a) a floatation support; b) two airbags embedded to the said support; c) a combustion chamber containing a propellant such as NaN3 and Kn03 being embedded in each of the air bags and; d) an electrical trigger to ignite the said propellant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS : Fig. 1. Illustrates the personal floatation device of the present invention in the form of a Belt.

Fig. 2 to 5 illustrate the sequence of operation of the inflatable vest belt of the present Invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION: The inflatable flotation device which is a vest belt for the purposes of description, which gets inflated by rapid generation of Nitrogen gas on the principles of solid socket propellant has basically three parts. a) Two air bags 1 and 2 made up of thin neoprene coated Nylon fabric attached to the left and right side of the flotation support 3 such as a vest belt in a compactly packed condition as shown in Fig. 1.

b) The inflation system: Basically combustion chambers 4 and 5 are embedded in the bags which generates Nitrogen gas rapidly to inflate the Air Bags by the ignition of sodium azide (NaN3) and Potassium Nitrite (KNO2) as in the case of solid socket propellant. c) The trigger 6 is a-A Rip Cord attached to an electrical switch which when pulled closes an electrical contact to ignite the propellant kept in the air bags.

Swimmers, people traveling by boats, yatches, ships etc and the Personal under take aqua <BR> <BR> sports etc. , wear the vest belt (Fig-1) to their hip. In case of accident, the victim immediately pulls a Rip Cord attached with the vest belt. An electrical switch connected to the Rip Cord closes an electrical contact to ignite the inflating system.

The solid propellants embedded in the bags generate Nitrogen gas rapidly to inflate the air bag. The air bags in the packed condition burst open and float on the water thereby holding the swimmer/passenger in vertical position. The victim can keep floating in the water till he gets rescued or manage to swim to reach safe place. The sequence of operation of the inflatable vest belt is shown in Fig 2 to 5.

The PFD developed by the inventor is very light, convenient for wearing and effective under all circumstances and in any turbulent conditions of water.