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Retracta Map
Maps are cumbersome, unwieldy in high winds and often become damaged by the elements or user accident. This design is for all users of maps in all environments. With Maps being a vital piece of equipment in any environment this in itself is a danger to health and safety.
Map cases are essentially square bits of plastic you hang around your neck, there are several issues with this 1) You have to fold down your map to fit. 2) It hits you in the face in high winds 3) It tries to strangle you in high winds 4) Most leak 5) They look naff 6) They don’t fit into pockets 7) It is hard to make out features at night when shining light through the plastic Retracta Map aims to solve all of these issues in one go. Retracta Map is based on cylindrical casing allowing safe retraction of Perspex covered maps into its casing. Essentially it will allow the safe carriage of smaller A4 maps, But in a more controlled and safer way.
Due to large areas often covered in extended travel Retracta Map will hold up to 6 sheets of A4 printed map in 3 retractable colour coded pockets (See Figure 2). Due to the often destructive behaviour of nature and indeed mankind, the cylinder will be a hard plastic anti break material; the contents will remain waterproof in separate plastic pockets with air tight plastic zip locks. This lightweight but tough construction will mean low weight ratio and floating abilities if flooded. The plastic will be in high visibility colours such as Orange and Yellow and Blue. There will be an additional D ring in hard plastic to secure the item by Cord or Karabiner to ones person or bags.
Shown in Figure 1 Large tubular construction and “tags” to aid easy viewing even if impaired by cold or injury. Each map can be double backed into one sleeve to give overall 6 useable maps, sandwiched in-between two Perspex sleeves for waterproofing. Tube slides into own pouch which can again be secured to person or equipment.
Retracta Map has an outer casing and an inner tubal rod to which the map cases are attached, This is wound into the casing via the rotational knob shown in Figs 1 and 2 at the base of the cylinder. There is also the inclusion of a map light along the runner of the outer casing to aid navigation in the dark, this is in RED LED’s This avoids disturbing night vision. See Figure 3.
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Image II
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Born in london , now living in the North East and loving it, Everyone should be this close to the hills.
Comments
Hi Ray,
Thank you for your comments,
I like to think of this as an alternative design rather than a soloution to a problem,
Laminating maps is quite popular but when I have used them they have been irritating to say the least, I found they were inflexable, and bulky to carry and very easily whiped from your hands in high wind, The idea here is to use a soft plastic that will roll the map for you into a designated space for protection, the tube also aids firm grip in mitts or gloves or even just cold hands. The pack fixing is designed to be accessable instantly and allow you to have the information to hand in a “usable” format.
There are of course the cost implications of Laminating hundreds of A4 sheets.
I take your point on the RED led’s, Thank you, I will review this further.
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Hi. This seems like a solution to a non problem. If I carry A4 sized maps (usually laminated) I either put them in my pocket, or roll them, and fasten them onto my harness straps. Also, although the LED light idea sounds OK (albeit carry yet another light source), the idea of using a red LED is not very practical (as those of you who have done it will already know), as it obscures red print from the map surface.
Sorry to sound negative, as clearly a lot of thought has gone into this idea.