Patent Application
20210293517
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The disclosure relates to catching devices and more particularly pertains to a new catching device for catching darts that fail to adhere to a dartboard.
The prior art relates to catching devices. Prior art devices directed to catching non-adhering darts may comprise a framed net that is positioned below a dart board.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a tray, which is configured to be mountable to a vertical surface upon which a dartboard is positioned. The tray is mounted below the dartboard and extends substantially perpendicularly from the vertical surface. The tray thus is configured to catch a dart that is thrown at the dartboard, but which fails to adhere to the dartboard. The device can prevent damage to the dart that might occur should the dart drop to a horizontal surface beneath the dartboard.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
The tray 12 comprises a housing 16, which defines an interior space 18. The housing 16 has an upper face 20, which is concavely shaped to define a recess 22, as shown in
The recess 22 has an upper perimeter 24. The upper face 20 has a circumference 26. The upper perimeter 24 and the circumference 26 define a rim 28, which has a plurality of holes 30 positioned therein, each of which opens into the interior space 18, as shown in
The housing 16 comprises a back plate 34. The back plate 34 has a plurality of apertures 36 positioned therein, as shown in
The housing 16 also comprises a pair of side sections 38, a pair of medial sections 40, a front section 42, and a bottom section 44. Each side section 38 is coupled to and extends perpendicularly from a respective opposed end 46 of the back plate 34. Each medial section 40 extends transversely from a respective side section 38 distal from the back plate 34. The front section 42 is coupled to and extends between the medial sections 40, distal from the back plate 34, so that the housing 16 has a partial octagonal shape when viewed from the upper face 20. The bottom section 44 is coupled to and extends between the back plate 34, the side sections 38, the medial sections 40, and the front section 42. The bottom section 44 is substantially parallel planer to the upper face 20 of the housing 16. The present invention also anticipates the housing having other shapes when viewed from the upper face 20, such as, but not limited to, semicircular, half-oval, and the like.
As shown in
The housing 16 has a slot 48 positioned in an outer face 50 thereof, which opens into the interior space 18. A drawer 52 is positioned in and is selectively extendible the slot 48, as shown in
In use, the housing 16 is mounted to the vertical surface, below the dartboard 14, by screwing a screw though each of the apertures 36 in the back plate 34. The recess 22 in the upper face 20 of the housing 16 is configured to catch the dart thrown at the dartboard 14, but which failed to adhere to the dartboard 14. Darts not being used can be stowed by inserting the tip of each dart into a respective hole 30 in the rim 28. The drawers 52 are available to stow darts and parts thereof.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the elements is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
