Land vehicles – Skates – Runner type
Patent
1995-03-13
1998-02-03
Culbreth, Eric D.
Land vehicles
Skates
Runner type
280602, 280617, 280618, A63C 506
Patent
active
057135932
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interface apparatus for modifying the natural pressure distribution of a ski, particularly an alpine ski, on its gliding surface.
The invention also relates to a ski brake that is intended to brake the movement of a ski, especially an alpine ski, in case of the release of the boot that is retained on the ski. The invention also relates to a ski equipped with the aforementioned apparatus or brake.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
Skis that are used for alpine skiing are comprised of relatively long beams, on which the boots of the skier are retained by front and rear binding elements. The boots and the binding elements are located approximately in the median zone of the ski. The skis themselves have, at rest, a natural camber, by which the median zone is naturally raised with respect to the front end of the ski, or shovel, and the rear end of the ski, or tail. In addition, the skis have a flexibility, which is due to their internal structure. During skiing, the ski becomes deformed in an elastic manner in response to the different biases to which it is subjected by the skier, but also by the terrain on which it glides.
Known according to the European Patent Application published under the number EP 530 449 in the name of the applicant is an interface apparatus that modifies in a dynamic manner the pressure distribution of the ski on the snow, as a function of the vertical forces that the skier exerts on his skis. This apparatus comprises a vertically mobile sensor that transmits to the base of the front binding element the vertical forces that it captures issuing from the boot. These forces are transmitted by means of a rocking device, and in one of the embodiments, by means of a substantially horizontal linkage plate journalled on one side to the rocking device and on the other side to the base of the binding.
According to an improvement brought about by the applicant, the linkage plate is constructed like a toggle joint that is closed by the boot and that opens on its own when the boot is released. According to a particular embodiment of this improvement, one of the arms of the toggle joint comprises the activation pedal of a ski brake, whose operation thereby becomes connected to the state of the linkage plate. It is the same return energy that raises the linkage plate by breaking the toggle joint, and that returns the brake to an active braking position.
Another improvement of this device consisted of interposing between the rocking device and the base of the binding element one or several pre-stressed springs that absorb the excessive biases that the sensor transmits to the base. In fracturing, the toggle joint eliminates the reaction that this pre-stress induces in the ski as soon as the boot is released from its binding elements that retain it.
This interface apparatus produces good results, but its disadvantage is that the forces transmitted by the rocking device are transmitted by the brake pedal. The conception of this element must therefore take into account the increased stresses that it must transmit. In addition, the different elements of the toggle joint that comprise the linkage plate must be adjusted with great precision so that when the boot is present the forces are correctly transmitted towards the front base.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One of the objects of the invention is to propose an interface apparatus of the aforementioned type whose construction is simplified.
Another object of the invention is to propose an interface apparatus for which the adjustment tolerances between the different elements are larger.
Another object of the invention is to propose an interface apparatus for which the transmission of the forces between the rocking device and the base is more direct.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the course of the description to follow, this description being, however, given as a non-limiting example.
According to the present invention,
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patent: 5558353 (1996-09-01), Arduin et al.
patent: 5566966 (1996-10-01), Couderc et al.
Renaud-Goud Gilles
Szafranski Pierre
Culbreth Eric D.
Salomon S.A.
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