Client: Mr Allan Stevens

Invention: Marine Oil Replacement System (as featured on the ABC Inventors Show)

Our Role:  Mr Stevens approached Actuate IP Group to assess the patentability of his invention.  After meeting with Mr Stevens to gain a thorough understanding of the construction, operation and purpose of the invention, our attorneys developed  a suitable IP strategy tailored to securely protect the invention and proposed this to the client. The suggested IP strategy was then implemented to secure our client’s claim to his invention. We continue to assist Mr Stevens with implementing his long term IP strategy to achieve international patent protection and provide any value-add advice along the way. 

Success: Mr Steven’s Marine Oil Replacement System featured on the ABC Inventors Show in August 2006, receiving excellent feedback from the panelists on the show.  The inventors show sparked much interest in the invention which solves a very difficult problem commonly encountered in the marine industry in a simplistic manner. Mr. Stevens has since gone on to successfully locally manufacture and sell the marine oil replacement system in the Australian marketplace.  We look forward to our continued working relationship with Mr Stevens and being part of his success.

Why and What it Does: Mr Stevens, an avid boatman recognised a need to find a safer and more environmentally friendly way of changing the oil in boat engines.  The majority of boats comprise of an engine with an outboard leg or gearbox.  The oil in the outboard leg or gearbox requires periodic changing for proper operation.  Traditionally access to the leg or gearbox to allow oil change required the outboard leg or gearbox to be above the water line, generally requiring the boat to be out of the water.  For larger size boats, this is clearly a cumbersome and often logistically difficult task, meaning that the boat owner must incur a large expense to have the boat taken out of the water or have a mechanic remove the entire outboard leg/gearbox from the boat.  Given these difficulties it has often prompted some boat operators to attempt changing the oil whilst the outboard leg/gearbox is only partially out of the water, not allowing the full capacity of oil to be replaced and heightening the risk of oil overflowing into the water and presenting a major environmental threat to marine and waterborne life. Mr Stevens and his sons, whom have an engineering background, have developed an oil replacement system which allows the replacing of oil of outboard gearbox compartments and/or motors of marine vessels, utilizing low pressure compressed air, without the need for removing the boat from the water and preventing oil spillage into the water.

How It Operates:  The marine oil replacement system comprises an injector or plunger unit, a low pressure compressed air source and oil lines (hoses) with threaded seals to provide a watertight connection between the device and the drain hole and vent hole of the gearbox or outboard leg. To empty oil, compressed air is pumped into the upper vent hole which will force the oil from the lower drain hole into the device via the lower oil line which will consequently force the piston of the injector unit/plunger up as oil enters into the lower part of injector unit/plunger beneath the piston. The old contaminated oil can be ejected, by depressing the piston, into a suitable container for later disposal. The new oil can then be drawn into the injector unit/plunger and injected into gearbox/outboard leg via the lower oil line connected to the drain hole whereby any air within the gearbox/outboard will be able to escape via the upper oil line connected to the vent hole via an air bleed valve. Once the process is complete both valves on the oil lines can be locked and the oil lines can then be removed and the locking screws plugs replaced to ensure there is no oil spillage.