Interface device between a boot and alpine ski

Land vehicles – Skates – Runner type

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C280S602000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06193262

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to an interface device between a boot and an alpine ski. The invention is also related to a retention assembly for a boot on a ski having such an assembly, as well as to a ski equipped with such a retention assembly.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
Skis have been known to be equipped with an interface device between the boot and the boot retention elements in order to modify the bending characteristics of the ski.
For example, international patent application published as WO 83/03360 discloses a plate that is raised with respect to the upper surface of the ski. The plate bears the two boot retention elements. One of its ends is fixedly connected to the ski, whereas the other end is free, and blocks of elastically deformable material offer a progressive resistance to its displacement during the bending of the ski.
This device provides good results. However, although the influence that it exerts on the ski varies in intensity with the bending of the ski, the type of influence remains the same. In other words, the device stiffens certain zones of the ski in a variable manner, but does not change the zone of the ski on which it has an impact in accordance with the bending of the ski. In addition, when the ski bends very substantially, the plate has a tendency to arch.
In addition, the patent application published as No. EP 623 370 discloses an interface device of the same type where the front end of the plate cooperates with an abutment fixed on the ski in accordance with the various types of operations that occur successively with the bending of the ski. Although the adjustment of this device is delicate, the device provides good results; however, the various zones of the ski where it successively exerts its impact are not the best adapted zones.
Furthermore, in these known devices, the reaction to the thrust of the rear retention element is recovered by the plate in such a way that it is always insulated from the ski.
Finally, the patent application published as No. EP 599 041 discloses a device where both retention elements are mounted on separate supports. The rear element is mounted on a plate whose rear end has limited gliding freedom with respect to an abutment that is integral with the ski, and where the front end of the plate extends in front of the front support and takes support against it when a return thrust is exerted thereupon. When the ski bends, the return thrust is returned towards the front support as long as the rear end of the plate is free to slide.
This device also provides good results, but the ski zones impacted by its action have not been optimized. Also, it does not function very progressively.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to improve upon the performance of this type of interface, i.e., to suggest an improved device which, on the one hand, optimizes the ski zones whose mechanical characteristics are modified during the bending of the ski and, on the other hand, whose functioning method works progressively with the bending of the ski.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description that follows.
The interface device according to the invention comprises a rear platform with a raised mounting zone for a rear retention element, a front end and a rear end, and a front platform having a mounting zone for a front retention element, a front end and a rear end. The front and rear platforms have adjacent ends that are located in each other's vicinity between the mounting zones of the front and rear retention elements, wherein at least one of the platforms is mounted to be floating along a longitudinal direction with respect to a median stud provided to be affixed to the ski, with one adjacent end provided to rest in simple support against the stud, in a direction that tends to distance it from the other platform, an opposite end being free to slide along a longitudinal direction, and an abutment provided to be affixed to the ski just beyond the opposite end at a pre-determined distance so as to limit its free sliding during the bending of the ski.
According to a first embodiment, only one of the platforms, for example, the front platform, is mounted to be floating with respect to the median stud. Preferably, according to this embodiment, the median stud is affixed to the rear platform, the rear platform having a front end that is fixedly connected to the ski, and its rear end being free to slide.
In this way, when the ski lies flat, the forces generated by the return reaction are returned beneath the boot, almost in the axis of the skier's leg. As a result, the ski is freer and can get deformed more easily. The ski adapts better to the terrain, glides better, takes turns more easily and is more tolerant.
In cases of little or moderate bending, since the forces are returned in a localized manner beneath the boot, the forces are progressively transmitted partially towards the opposite end by the elastic abutment. The device allows a better control of the stiffening of the front and rear portions of the ski, at the front and at the rear of this point. In case of substantial bending, the front end of the front platform comes into abutment, the forces generated by the return reaction thus being transmitted to the ski in their entirety, and the ski continues to bend beneath the boot by pushing back the rear retention element.
With respect to a conventional stiffener having a plate, the central zone of the ski beneath the boot is stiffer during small and moderate amounts of bending, and it becomes less stiff when the bending is greater.
According to another embodiment of the invention, both platforms are mounted to be floating.


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patent: WO83/03360 (1983-10-01), None
patent: 93/16769 (1993-09-01), None
patent: WO95/07737 (1995-03-01), None

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