Games using tangible projectile – Projectile – per se; part thereof or accessory therefor – Having hollow core or bladder enclosed within cover
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-09
2002-05-21
Wong, Steven (Department: 3711)
Games using tangible projectile
Projectile, per se; part thereof or accessory therefor
Having hollow core or bladder enclosed within cover
Reexamination Certificate
active
06390941
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The present invention relates to sportsballs, and more particularly to a durable sportsball adapted for mass production, moreover the sportsball can retain its spherical shape and distribute the impacting stress throughout the ball.
Sportsball such as soccer ball and volleyball, as shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
, generally comprises a ball cover
11
and a bladder
12
disposed within the ball cover
11
. The ball cover
11
is made of leather or synthetic leather such as polyurethane (PU) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). As shown in
FIG. 2
, the synthetic leather is composed of an outer coating layer
111
, an intermediate foaming layer
112
and an inner lining layer
113
to strengthen and support the foaming layer
112
. The bladder
12
is a spherical rubber ball having a valve stem
121
affixed thereon.
The leather or synthetic leather is cut into a plurality of panels
110
with predetermined shape. For soccer ball, the most common shape of the panel
110
is pentagon and hexagon. In other words, the ball cover
11
of a soccer ball is made of 12 pieces of pentagonal panels and 20 pieces of hexagonal panels by hand sewing edge to edge. The spherical ball cover
11
of a volleyball consists of 18 pieces of rectangular panels hand sewn edge to edge. The inflatable bladder
12
is placed inside the ball cover
11
and its valve stem
121
is extended outside the ball cover
11
for air inflation. When air is pumped into the bladder
12
through the valve stem
121
, the air inflates the bladder
12
to prop up the ball cover
11
and retain its roundness. Therefore, an inflated sportsball has a bouncing feature. The more air is inflated into the bladder
12
, the sportsball has a better bounce.
The rigidity and durability of a conventional sportsball as described above merely depend on the structure of the ball cover
11
but not the soft rubber bladder
12
. The structure of the ball cover
11
must be tough enough to absorb all the impact forces. Therefore, the panels
110
, either made of leather or synthetic leather, must be further strengthened by affixing at least two more layers of coarse lining
114
,
115
thereon in order to better support the ball cover
11
and resist the stress. The roundness and re-enforcement of the sportsball depend on the strength of the lining cloth. Hence, the material used for the lining cloth is very important that, it may increase the material cost of the conventional sportsballs. Basically, the additional linings
114
,
115
are glued layer by layer on the inner lining layer
113
of the synthetic leather or the inner side of the leather before cutting into the panels
110
, which increases a manufacturing adhesion step for the conventional sportsball.
However, the additional coarse linings not only increase the thickness of the ball cover
11
, but also increase the hardness of the ball cover
11
. Accordingly, the thick and hard panels
110
increase the difficulty of sewing the panels together by sewing machines, especially during sewing around the sharp corners of the panels
110
, that is the weakest portion of the ball cover
10
. It is the reason that why most of the formal or classic sportsballs are still hand made. The workers have to sew the panels
110
together one by one by hand. Normally, a skillful worker can only complete the sewing process of two sportsballs per a working day. It is extremely uneconomic and time consuming that would highly increase the manufacturing cost of the sportsballs.
Another serious shortcoming of the hand sewing sportsball is that it is nearly impossible to evenly sew the panels together under same tightness. Therefore, when the sportsball is inflated, the inflating bladder
12
would be propped by the bladder
12
to protrude outwardly at some less tightly constructed portions of the ball cover
11
, so that the roundness of the sportsball is adversely affected. Moreover, the sewing threads may more easily be broken during heavy impact, so that thickened sewing threads should be used. In fact, no hand made sportsball is in absolutely spherical shape, that may affect the performance of the conventional sportsball. When the sportsball is hit on such protruded portion, it may not bounce to the desired direction. Besides, those weaker portions of the sportsball will more easily be worn out and those sewing threads at such portions may also more easily be broken.
Since the linings
114
,
115
are made of cloth, they tend to stretch while the sportsball is hit. At that time, the sportsball would lose its spherical shape because of the lining stretching. Practically, the inflated bladder
12
is directly propped on the additional linings
114
,
115
, therefore the major stress supporting area of the sportsball is the connecting surface between the additional linings
114
,
115
and the leather or synthetic leather of the ball cover
11
. It is well known that the stress resisting ability and the durability of cloth material are poor. In other words, the additional linings
114
,
115
are not strong enough to endure those inflating stress and impact stress, especially during the impacting of the sportsball. The additional linings
114
,
115
will rip apart sooner or later that would cause the sportsball to be worn off and damaged.
Furthermore, the leather or the thickened and hardened synthetic leather ball cover
11
of the conventional soccer ball may make the soccer player feels hurt and pain during heading, especially to children and those training players. The volleyball which is constructed by such conventional ball cover
11
may also cause the volleyball player feels pain and uncomfortable during servicing, spiking and blocking. For children and training soccer players or volleyball players, such thickened and hardened ball cover
11
of the conventional sportsball would be too rigid and hard for them.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sportsball which ball cover is well supported by a strengthened bladder. Therefore, no additional lining is required to adhered onto the ball cover that, it can lower the material cost and manufacturing cost of the sportsball.
It is still an object of the present invention to provide a sportsball which major stress supporting portion is the strengthened bladder.
It is still an object of the present invention to provide a sportsball which bladder has a better flexibility and impact resisting ability.
It is still an object of the present invention to provide a sportsball which is more durable and has a softer ball cover to reduce the painful during heading, especially suitable for children and training players.
It is yet an object of the present invention to provide a sportsball which has a better roundness even when it is over-inflated for 15 to 20% more than the standard pressure.
It is yet an object of the present invention to provide a sportsball made of leather, in which since the stress supporting and impact resisting portion is the strengthened bladder, but not the ball cover, the expensive leather panels of the ball cover can be made thinner to lessen the cost, and that an additional soft sponge pad layer can be adhered on an inner surface of the leather panel to soften and reinforce the leather ball cover.
Accordingly, a sportsball of the present invention includes a ball cover and a bladder. The ball cover has a valve hole provided thereon and consists of a plurality of panels connected edge to edge by machine sewing to form a roundness shape. Each of the panels has a predetermined shape and is made of synthetic leather, wherein the synthetic leather has an outer coating layer, an inner lining layer, and an intermediate layer which is integrally formed between the outer coating layer and the inner lining layer and is strengthened and supported by the inner lining layer. The bladder which is disposed inside the ball cover includes a rubber made bladder ball, an exterior web layer integrally provided on an entire outer surface of the bladder ball, and a valve stem whi
Chan Raymond Y.
David and Raymond Patent Group
Wong Steven
LandOfFree
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