Exercise devices – Involving user translation or physical simulation thereof – Rowing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-08
2003-05-27
Donnelly, Jerome W. (Department: 3764)
Exercise devices
Involving user translation or physical simulation thereof
Rowing
C482S056000, C482S127000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06569065
ABSTRACT:
The invention relates to an exercise apparatus, in particular to an exercise apparatus for simulating movements of the body, in particular different types of arm-swinging movements.
An exercise apparatus is known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,102 that simulates the movements of a long-distance skier and the stress to which the body is subjected in this connection. The movements of the arms in opposite directions are transmitted via the rotation of an adjustable brake disk.
DE 90 07 392 U1 describes a paddle ergometer with two levers swiveling about vertical axles. Said levers can be deflected against a braking force and are reset automatically by pulling a cord that connects a paddle shaft with a lever.
DE 296 20 700 describes an exercising device for simulating the paddling activity of a canoeist, whereby a cable system serves for transmitting the force and for driving a braking device in this case as well. A freely movable, hand-held paddle imitation has a bar with two spaced-apart fastening points for a cable extending through via a cable-guiding system. A cable-tensioning device compensates asymmetries in the movements of the arms in opposite directions, and keeps both ends of the cable tensioned while the device is being actuated. Each pulling motion of one end of the paddle imitation is transmitted via a drive arrangement comprising rollers that are looped by cable rope a number of times, as well as freewheel devices, leading to a wind wheel acting as the brake device.
The present invention is based on the problem of further developing exercise apparatuses of said type in an advantageous manner.
Solutions of said problem according to the invention are specified in the independent claims. The dependent claims contain advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention.
According to a first advantageous variation of the exercise apparatus, the driving arrangement contains two laterally spaced roller elements that are driven by the cable system. For good transmission of the pulling force of the cable to the roller elements, the latter are advantageously looped by the cable a number of times. The roller elements are aligned coaxially with each other and may be arranged on a common rotatable shaft. When arranged on a common shaft, both roller elements are coupled with the shaft via freewheel elements rotating in the same sense. In another embodiment, provision is made for separate, axially aligned shaft sections for the drive system, such shaft sections in turn being coupled with freewheel elements via rollers or directly to the movement of the cable. The brake device is advantageously arranged between the spaced roller elements.
The brake device is advantageously rotatable in the form of disks or wheels and designed in the form of a wind wheel in a preferred embodiment. The axis of rotation of the brake device advantageously coincides with the axis of rotation of the roller elements and the shaft, or sections of the shaft. If the shaft is extending all the way through, the brake device can be connected with freewheel-coupled roller elements in a fixed manner, or connected with the shaft via another freewheel element. If the shaft is divided, provision is made for a freewheel-type clutch coupling for each of the two sections of the shaft. The preferred embodiment with a through-extending shaft results in a particularly simple and stable type of construction of the drive system and the brake device.
The ends of the cables of the cable system advantageously run from the actuating device directly onto roller elements without substantial prior reversing, preferably by way of cable feed-in guides that correct minor angular deviations in the alignment of the ends of the cables and safely guide an end of a cable that has been left behind and is running back.
For lateral adjustment of the cable feed-in positions or the feeding-in process, the roller elements in a first embodiment may be mounted on the shaft in a sliding manner as well. The displacement may advantageously take place jointly with the shift of the cable feed-in guides, particularly by arranging the rollers and the cable feed-in guides and preferably also the first reversing rollers of the cable guiding system downstream of the roller elements on a common carrier module. The roller elements may have a width also in the axial direction that covers the lateral variation of the cable feed-in position or the lateral adjustment range of the feed-in guide, and in that case do not need to be displaceable sideways. Finally, if the shaft is divided, the roller elements may be formed also by the jacket surface of the shaft itself, in which case the further explanations hereinafter then put the jacket surface of the shaft in the place of the roller elements.
The variation in the positions of the cable feed-in guides may be coupled to a simultaneous variation in the position of other components of the cable guiding system, especially of the position of narrow driver sleeves of the drive system and/or of first reversing rollers of the cable guiding system. The components capable of being variable in their positions in a coordinated manner are preferably combined in carrier modules within a module containing the mechanics, and can be displaced by the user as one uniform block, and preferably fixed by means of one single fixing element.
The cable guiding system preferably contains first reversing rollers that are slightly spaced from the drive system and reverse the run of the cable toward the center plane of the apparatus. A compact structure of the apparatus can be obtained in this way particularly also under the aspect of the fact that the guiding system for the cable is screened to a large extent by a covering for safety reasons. By reversing the run of the cable toward the center of the apparatus it is possible to limit the larger width of the module containing the mechanics required for the favorable initial run of the cable with parallel longitudinal axes to a short section in the longitudinal direction, so that it is possible to keep the type of construction used for the module containing the mechanics small. The angle of the run of the cable measured in the horizontal plane downstream of the first reversing rollers of the cable guiding system behind the drive system against the line of connection of the first reversing rollers preferably amounts to 45° at the most, in particular to 30° at the most. The run of the cable downstream of the first reversing rollers toward the center of the apparatus is preferably aligned approximately perpendicular in relation to the center plane with respect to the horizontal projection.
The first reversing rollers are preferably disposed in the lateral direction near the cable feed-in guides, so that the guidance of the cable via the drive system needs not to bridge any larger offset sideways.
In a preferred variation of the exercise apparatus, the roller elements are arranged in the center plane with a small spacing from one another. The spacing of the axes of rotation of the roller elements advantageously amounts to 20% at the most, preferably maximally to 10% of the spacing of the feed-in positions of the cable ends of the cable system coming from the actuation device and running into first, laterally spaced reversing elements, in particular reversing cable rollers of the cable guiding system. Arranging the roller elements rotated by the cable system near the center permits a particularly compact drive unit, which can then completely encapsulated in an advantageous manner in a housing with a small volume that preferably contains the brake device as well.
Advantageous is a coaxial arrangement of both roller elements on a common shaft and coupling of the roller elements with the common shaft by way of freewheel devices rotating in the same sense. The brake device is preferably arranged coaxially with the roller elements as well, in particular with a fixed connection of the common shaft with the rotating brake device. In another type of arrangement, the roller elements als
Menold Elmar
Steinacker Jürgen
Collard & Roe P.C.
Donnelly Jerome W.
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