Games using tangible projectile – Playing field or court game; game element or accessory... – Means for dividing field or court into compartments; element...
Patent
1998-02-17
2000-02-29
Brown, Theatrice
Games using tangible projectile
Playing field or court game; game element or accessory...
Means for dividing field or court into compartments; element...
A63B 6100
Patent
active
060303018
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.371 of prior PCT International Application No., PCT/JP96/02899 which has an International filing date of Oct. 04, 1996 which designated the United States of America, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to sports posts such as net posts, goal posts and posts for athletics, which are light, tough, easily set up and taken down and, moreover, excellent aesthetically.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
Hitherto, the net posts used in volleyball and tennis, and the sports posts for soccer, rugby, American football and athletics, etc, have been made of iron or stainless steel metal. In the case of net posts in particular, in order to counter the bending moment generated when tension is applied to the net wire, the main structural parts have been made of fairly thick-walled metal from the point of view of strength. Further, the general extension/retraction mechanism in such posts is usually a system in which two or more hollow tubes are connected by fitting together telescopically, with the inner tube(s) being raised or lowered by means of a screw mechanism. With this extension/retraction mechanism, when an operating handle is introduced into an insertion hole provided in the outer tube side face and a built-in bolt rotated via a bevel gear, the inner tube to which a nut is fixed is raised and, in this way, adjustment is possible to the appropriate net height for each sporting event. When rotating the bolt, it is necessary to prevent co-rotation of the nut portion. In conventional steel posts, a lead-in groove is cut in the surface of the inner tube to which the nut is fixed, running in the axial direction of the tube. A key provided in the outer tube engages this lead-in groove. In this way, it is possible to raise and lower the inner tube without co-rotation occurring along with the rotation of the bolt.
Conventional thick-walled metal sports posts are extremely heavy, and considerable physical effort is required in their setting up and taking down. For example, taking the case of net posts, which are one type of sports posts, when these are employed in a multi-purpose location such as a gymnasium, unlike in a dedicated court, the posts have to be frequently set up and taken down, and where the net posts are long and, consequently, heavy, like the posts for volleyball, their setting up and taking down is accompanied by physical strain on the part of the user.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The sports posts relating to the present invention are sports posts characterized in that two or more fibre reinforced plastic hollow tubes are fitted and connected together and, moreover, a screw type extension and retraction mechanism is built-in and, preferably, they are sports posts where a rod shaped member fixed to one hollow tube passes through the through-hole of an element fixed to another hollow tube.
Further, another embodiment of the present invention includes sports posts where the reinforcing fibre layer from which the hollow tubes are composed has a laminate structure of a sheet-shaped material of the fibre, preferably predominantly sheet-shaped material in which the fibre is carbon fibre and filaments thereof are unidirectionally arranged. More preferably, these sports posts include a laminate structure of a filament bundle structure layer which can be seen from the outside. As the filament bundle structure, woven materials or a wound filament bundle, etc, are used.
The present invention is characterized in that the main structural parts of the sports posts are composed of a fibre reinforced plastic which is light and tough, and while still maintaining the strength to withstand a large bending moment, a considerable reduction in weight is achieved. With this invention, it is possible to markedly reduce the physical strain at the time of the setting up and taking down of sports posts where frequent such setting up and taking down is required, in particular with net posts for volleybal
REFERENCES:
patent: 4122451 (1978-10-01), Senoh
patent: 5215310 (1993-06-01), Allbright
patent: 5242174 (1993-09-01), Koole
patent: 5308085 (1994-05-01), Koole
patent: 5358257 (1994-10-01), Pardi
patent: 5393069 (1995-02-01), Taylor
Asada Yasuhiro
Yamamoto Hideyuki
Brown Theatrice
Toray Industries Inc.
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