DIVING BOARD AND METHOD OF MAKING

Abstract

A diving board comprising elongated rods carried by a hollow shell, and a method of making the diving board comprising steps for installing the rods in the shell.

Description

BACKGROUND

Field

This application relates generally to diving boards and their manufacture.

Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98

The diving board market requires different levels of elasticity or bounce to be available to a purchaser when selecting a diving board. The range of elasticity levels allows purchasers to select diving boards and stand combinations appropriate for safe use in different pool types, and by people of varying levels of skill, size, etc. Manufacturers currently provide diving boards with variation in bounce by providing different types of diving boards including stiffer “jump” boards and platforms, as well as more conventionally springy diving boards, as well as a selection of solid or sprung stands for mounting the boards. However, to provide diving boards of differing elasticity, these manufacturers must generally make significant changes to the material and/or structure of the board, requiring substantial and inconvenient differences in construction processes in order to produce otherwise similar products that may outwardly appear to vary only in the amount of bounce they provide.

SUMMARY

A diving board, and a method of making the diving board are provided. The diving board comprises a hollow shell formed in the general shape of a diving board, and an elongated rod carried by and disposed within the shell between an upper inner surface and a lower inner surface of the shell in a generally longitudinal orientation. The method of making the diving board comprises the steps of: forming a hollow shell in the general shape of a diving board, the shell carrying rod supports shaped and positioned to receive elongated rods within the shell; inserting the elongated rods longitudinally into the shell and into engagement with the rod supports; and filling the shell with a flexible material.

DRAWING DESCRIPTIONS

These and other features and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art in connection with the following detailed description and drawings of one or more embodiments of the invention, in which:

FIG. 1 is a bottom view of a diving board;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the diving board:

FIG. 3 is a perspective partial cutaway view of the interior of the diving board shown without its usual filling of flexible material;

FIG. 4 is an end view of a hollow shell of the diving board shown as it appears after molding when one end is cut open for installation of elongated rods and flexible material

FIG. 5A is an end view of the hollow shell of FIG. 4 through its cut-off end;

FIG. 5B is the same view as FIG. 5A, albeit showing an alternate embodiment of the hollow shell which incorporates integrally-molded vertical cylindrical walls;

FIG. 6 shows the hollow shell of FIG. 5A with only part of its maximum capacity of elongated rods installed:

FIG. 7 shows the hollow shell of FIG. 5A with its maximum capacity of rods installed and filled with flexible material:

FIG. 8 shows a completed diving board built from the hollow shell of FIG. 5A with mounting holes drilled for fasteners;

FIG. 9 shows the completed diving board of FIG. 8; and

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing method steps for making the diving board.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A diving board is generally shown as 10 in FIGS. 1-9 and a method of making the diving board 10 is shown in FIG. 10. The diving board 10 may comprise a hollow shell 12 containing elongated rods 14 that are embedded in a flexible material 16 filling the hollow shell 12. As described and applied below, these elements provide the board 10 with desired strength and resilience, and permit efficient production of diving boards 10 having different elasticities with minimal variation in their method of construction.

The hollow shell 12 may comprise a thermoplastic, or similar material, and may be formed via any suitable technique known in the art such as blow molding, twin sheet thermoforming, thermoforming, or rotomolding. The hollow shell 12 may be accordingly formed into the general profile of a diving board, including the classic elongated rectangular profile common amongst diving boards, as well as any other suitable diving board profile.

During this forming, or in subsequent forming operations, additional features may be formed into the hollow shell 12. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a rough texture 18 may be formed into an upper surface 20 of the hollow shell 12 to prevent wet feet from slipping on the upper surface 20, and/or strengthening features such as fluting grooves 22 may be formed into the hollow shell 12, as shown in FIG. 2. Rod supports 24 may similarly be formed extending inward from an inner surface of the hollow shell 12 (the embodiment in the appended drawings shows, for example, that the supports 24 may extend from a lower inner surface 26) to receive and carry the elongated rods 14. While these features may be attached after having been fabricated separately, some or all of them may alternatively be integrally formed with the shell 12 as a single unitary piece.

The elongated rods 14 (comprising fiberglass in the preferred embodiment) may be carried by the shell 12 via the rod supports 24 in a generally longitudinally-oriented position between, and generally parallel to, an upper inner surface 28 and a lower inner surface 26 of the shell 12. These rods 14 may be configured and positioned to alter the diving board 10's attributes, so that the manufacturer may provide diving boards 10 having different strengths, resistance, resilience, etc., by installing different numbers of rods 14 within the hollow shell 12. For example, FIG. 6 shows the board 10 having only three rods 14 installed, which would result in a board that would be more flexible than the same board 10 having five rods installed.

These rods 14 may be installed by insertion through a shell opening 30 in the hollow shell 12, and into engagement with the rod supports 24. This shell opening 30 may be formed during the hollow shell formation process, or it may be cut into the hollow shell 12 with a tool such as a router or saw 31 after the shell 12 is formed, as shown in FIG. 4.

Upper surfaces 32 of the rod supports 24 may be shaped to receive and positively position a portion of the rods 14 (for example, by matching the curve of part of a rod's outer surface 34, as best shown in FIGS. 6-8). The rod supports 24 may thereby resist displacement of the rods, helping to ensure that the rods remain correctly spaced within the hollow shell 12 in preparation for, and during, the introduction of a molten or uncured flexible material 16 into the interior of the hollow shell 12.

This flexible material 16 may comprise and/or include urethane, and may be poured, injected, or otherwise disposed into the hollow shell 12 while molten or uncured so that the rods 14 are embedded in the flexible material 16 as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. Once the flexible material 16 has cured, it forms a medium that assists in supporting, and relaying/distributing forces between, the rods 14 and the shell 12. The flexible material 16 may be deposited within the shell 12 via the shell opening 30, and once the flexible material 16 has cured, excess cured material 16 may be trimmed away, and the shell opening 30 may be sealed with an end cap 34 shaped to cover the shell opening 30, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

Mounting holes 36 may be cut into the diving board 10. These mounting holes 36 may be configured and positioned to allow the diving board 10 to be attached to a diving board base. For example, the holes 36 may be cut through the shell 12 and cured flexible material 16 with a cutter 37 as shown in FIG. 8, and they may be sized to receive fasteners 38 configured to pass through and attach the diving board 10 to a diving board base assembly 40, as shown in FIG. 9.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5B, the mounting holes 36 may be formed by forming vertical cylindrical walls 42 connecting the upper 28 and lower 26 inner surfaces of the hollow shell 12. These walls 42 may be integrally formed with the shell 12 itself, so that when the hollow shell 12 is filled with flexible material 16, the area inside the cylindrical walls 42 remains open to receive the fasteners 38.

In practice, and as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 10, the diving board 10 described above may be manufactured via the following steps.

Via experiment, calculation, simulation, or other means of pre-determination, the effects of installing different numbers of elongated rods 14 into the diving board design 10 described above may be determined, resulting in assignment of a different estimated or known elasticity value to each possible number of rods 14 that may be installed in the board 10.

At least two different values of desired elasticity may be selected for production.

Multiple hollow shells 12 may be formed into generally identical diving board shapes via blow molding. During the molding process, each of the shells 12 may be formed as a single unitary piece with fluting grooves 22 shaped to strengthen the shell 12, and rod supports 24 shaped and positioned to receive elongated rods 14 within the shell 12. The grooves 22 and supports 24 may be formed to extend integrally upward from a lower inner surface 26 of the shell 12.

Shell openings 30 may be formed by cutting off an end of each shell 12, as shown in FIG. 4, to permit the rods 14 to be inserted into the shells 12.

The elongated rods 14 may be inserted longitudinally into the shells 12 and into engagement with the rod supports 24, as shown in FIG. 6. The number of rods 14 may correspond to the values of elasticity desired in the finished diving boards 10. Therefore, where at least two different values of desired elasticity have been chosen, at least two different numbers of rods 14, corresponding to the chosen desired elasticities, may be inserted into the shells 12 in this step, the two different numbers of rods having been predetermined to impart two different diving board elasticity values to respective finished diving boards.

As shown in FIG. 7, the shell 12 may be filled with a flexible material 16 in an uncured state.

The flexible material 16 may be cured.

Excess flexible material 16 may be trimmed away from the shell opening 30.

The shell opening 30 may be closed by securing an end cap 34 over the opening 30, as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 9.

Mounting holes 36 may be cut into the diving board 10, as shown in FIG. 8. The mounting holes 36 may be configured and positioned to allow the diving board 10 to be attached to a diving board base 40 adjacent a pool 44 by fasteners 38, as shown in FIG. 9.

This description, rather than describing limitations of an invention, only illustrates embodiments of the invention recited in the claims. The language of this description is therefore exclusively descriptive and is non-limiting. Obviously, it's possible to modify this invention from what the description teaches. Within the scope of the claims, one may practice the invention other than as described above.

Claims

1. A diving board comprising; a hollow shell formed in the general shape of a diving board; andan elongated rod carried by and disposed within the shell between an upper inner surface and a lower inner surface of the shell in a generally longitudinal orientation.

2. The diving board of claim 1 in which: the diving board includes a mass of flexible material disposed within the shell; andthe rod is at least partially embedded in the mass of flexible material.

3. The diving board of claim 2 in which the flexible material comprises urethane.

4. The diving board of claim 1 in which at least a portion of the rod is carried by a rod support extending inward from an inner surface of the shell, the rod support being configured to resist displacement of the rod by an inflow of the flexible material into the shell interior during manufacture.

5. The diving board of claim 4 in which the rod is supported by multiple rod supports extending from the lower inner surface of the shell.

6. The diving board of claim 5 in which the rod supports are integrally formed with the shell as a single unitary piece.

7. The diving board of claim 1 in which an upper surface of the rod support is shaped to receive and positively position a portion of the rod relative to the shell.

8. The diving board of claim 1 in which the rod comprises fiberglass.

9. The diving board of claim 1 in which the shell comprises a thermoplastic material.

10. The diving board of claim 1 in which the shell has a shell opening through which the rod is insertable into engagement with the rod support.

11. The diving board of claim 10 including an end cap carried by the shell and covering the shell opening.

12. A method of making diving boards, the method comprising, for each diving board, the steps of: forming a hollow shell in the general shape of a diving board, the shell carrying rod supports shaped and positioned to receive elongated rods within the shell;inserting the elongated rods longitudinally into the shell and into engagement with the rod supports; andfilling the shell with a flexible material.

13. The method of claim 12 including the additional steps of: forming an opening at an end of the shell to permit the rods to be inserted into the shell; andclosing the opening by securing an end cap over the opening after the step of filling the shell.

14. The method of claim 12 in which the step of forming the shell further includes forming the rod supports with the shell as a single unitary piece such that the supports extend integrally upward from a lower inner surface of the shell.

15. The method of claim 12 in which the step of forming the shell comprises one or more manufacturing techniques selected from the group of techniques consisting of blow molding, twin sheet thermoforming, thermoforming, and rotomolding.

16. The method of claim 12 in which the step of inserting the rods includes inserting a number of rods corresponding to the degree of elasticity desired for the finished diving board.

17. The method of claim 12 in which: the step of forming a hollow shell includes forming a plurality of hollow shells, all having the same general diving board shape, and each shell carrying rod supports shaped and positioned to receive elongated rods within;the step of inserting the elongated rods includes inserting at least two different numbers of rods into at least two respective shells of the plurality of hollow shells, the two different numbers of rods having been predetermined to impart two different diving board elasticity values to respective finished diving boards.

18. The method of claim 12 in which the step of filling the shell with a flexible material comprises filling the shell with uncured urethane.

19. The method of claim 18, including the additional step of trimming off any excess urethane once the urethane has cured.

20. The method of claim 12 including the additional step of cutting holes into the diving board, which are configured and positioned to allow the diving board to be attached to a diving board base.