Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Shaping one-piece blank by removing material
Reexamination Certificate
1996-10-25
2001-10-16
Echols, P. W. (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Shaping one-piece blank by removing material
C280S841000, C280S011190, C280S011227, C280S011270
Reexamination Certificate
active
06301771
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chassis for a sport gliding element such as a roller skate, an ice skate, and a method for manufacturing such a chassis.
2. Description of Background and Relevant Information
Such chassis must ensure the linkage between the gliding member(s) themselves, namely skate blade or wheels, rollers, and the user's foot.
The chassis is therefore generally constituted by a support surface that is capable of receiving the boot of the athlete, and by one or two lateral flanges adapted to receive the wheels, rollers or the blade of the skate.
They must also have substantial mechanical resistance characteristics while being as light as possible so as not to require too substantial forces from the athlete.
Furthermore, the increasing technicality of these sport gliding elements, especially for in-line roller skates, further increases the conflicting requirements which must be met by the skate chassis, namely:
an increased mechanical resistance and stability, especially for speed skates, but also for the so-called free ride, free style or hockey skates;
some flexibility, especially in certain zones of the skate, to enable the shape of the skate to adapt to the trajectory covered, especially in curves at high speed;
various and original forms to meet the emerging and changing fashion requirements; and
a lowest possible manufacturing cost.
The techniques used in manufacturing the currently known chassis do not make it possible to meet all of these requirements while maintaining a reasonable manufacturing cost.
Indeed, the oldest manufacturing technique consists of making such chassis from a U-shaped bent metal sheet, as shown in the document DE 10 33 569, for example.
Such a manufacturing principle, while inexpensive, does not however make it possible to create a large variety of forms, nor a chassis with substantial mechanical resistance, unless the thickness of the metal sheet, and therefore the weight thereof, are substantially increased.
Another commonly used technique consists of making the chassis by molding from a synthetic or metallic material. Molding offers the advantage of creating various forms, but it also has numerous disadvantages:
costs of the molds;
limited selection of materials capable of being molded;
low mechanical resistance characteristics of these molding materials, even when they are metallic, and
insufficient molding precision, requiring additional machining, especially with respect to alignment of the holes for fixing the wheels or the skate blade of a two-flange chassis.
Chassis made of composite fibers are also known. These chassis can indeed be obtained in almost all possible forms, but their manufacture is extremely expensive and difficult to industrialize. Furthermore, while such chassis are extremely rigid, they lack flexibility and are therefore fragile and “uncomfortable.”
Finally, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,846 has proposed to make a chassis for ice skates or roller skates from a profiled, or extruded metallic bar whose transverse section corresponds to the general section desired for the chassis, the final form of the chassis being obtained after machining with removal of material.
Such a manufacturing method is also very expensive, due to the necessary machining period and to the quantity of material to be removed. It does not allow a great freedom with respect to the form or profile of the chassis.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks and to provide an improved chassis for a sport gliding element, as well as a method for manufacturing such chassis, which method makes it possible to resolve the various aforementioned problems and, in particular, to conciliate the characteristics of mechanical resistance, adaptability, manufacturing flexibility, lightness, and a low manufacturing cost.
This object is achieved in the manufacturing method according to the invention due to the fact that it includes the steps consisting of:
cutting in a metallic sheet a form corresponding substantially to the completed form of at least one portion of the chassis; and
obtaining at least one stiffening rib by pressing in such portion of the chassis.
Indeed, stiffening the chassis by means of stiffening ribs obtained by pressing enables, at equal weight with respect to a chassis merely made by bending, a substantial increase in the characteristics of rigidity and resistance to deformation due, on the one hand, to the presence of such ribs, but also to the localized work hardening of the material obtained in the area of such ribs related to the manufacturing method by pressing.
Depending on the desired results, one can provide each rib to extend substantially along the entire length of the flange of the chassis, or only over a limited central zone of each flange, or yet in the area of the ends of each flange.
REFERENCES:
patent: 275482 (1883-04-01), Gregg
patent: 875165 (1907-12-01), Faust et al.
patent: 1294984 (1919-02-01), Ware
patent: 1807890 (1931-06-01), Berger
patent: 1977587 (1934-10-01), MacDonnell
patent: 2291600 (1942-08-01), Atkinson
patent: 2531357 (1950-11-01), Foulds
patent: 4273345 (1981-06-01), Ben-Dor et al.
patent: 5388846 (1995-02-01), Gierveld
patent: 5735536 (1998-04-01), Myers et al.
patent: 105264 (1924-06-01), None
patent: 1033569 (1958-07-01), None
patent: 0043250 (1982-01-01), None
patent: 495821 (1919-10-01), None
patent: 943511 (1949-03-01), None
Echols P. W.
Greenblum & Berstein P.L.C.
Salomon S.A.
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