1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a game table for playing a sport game, and more particularly to a game table having a rotatable table board with a hockey game.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a conventional game table with a rotatable table board. The table board is pivotally mounted on a table body. Two table faces of the table board are respectively formed with two different games such as a pool table face and a hockey table face. Accordingly, the game table can provide at least two sport games for players to play.
When playing hockey game with the conventional game table, air is blown out of the hockey table face for reducing frictional force between the puck and the hockey table face and enhancing sliding movement of the puck thereon. A common structure to such conventional game table is that the table board is formed with a space therein, and numerous small orifices are densely distributed over the hockey table face. A fan is used to blow air into the space. The air can flow out of the hockey table face through the orifices to create floating effect.
The applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,374,797 discloses a game table with using modes convertible by way of rotation. In this game table, a fan is mounted at one end of the table body for blowing air into a space of the table board. After blown into the space, the air flows out of the hockey table face of the table board through the orifices of the hockey table face.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,762,902 discloses a rotary game table in which a fan is directly disposed in the table board to blow air out of the hockey table face through the orifices.
Both the game tables of the above two patents have some defects. First, the air space formed in the table board is a totally wide space with a considerably large capacity and there is no buffering or pressure reservation medium between the fan and the space. Therefore, when the air is blown into the space by the fan, the air will rapidly expand to abruptly reduce the wind pressure. The farther the place is away from the fan, the more quickly the pressure of the place is reduced. In this case, the wind pressure indifferent positions of the space can be hardly unified. The large pressure difference causes the air to flow out from the orifices in specific positions. As a result, it is impossible to provide a uniform floating effect on the hockey table face.
Moreover, in the conventional structure, no flow guide design is arranged in the space of the table board. Therefore, the air blown into the space tends to cause turbulence in the space. This leads to poor flowing efficiency of the air and interference between airflows. As a result, the air can hardly flow over the entire space. Also, the turbulence makes it hard for the air to flow out from the orifices.
In addition, another conventional game table is shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 of the applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,224, which is not designed with any rotary mechanism and the fan thereof is inadaptable to a rotary game table. Although multiple wind-guiding channels are arranged in the game table, the wind-guiding channels are independent from each other so that the airflows cannot flow between the wind-guiding channels to supplement wind pressure to each other, and the wind pressure of the ends of the wind-guiding channels will quickly drop. Furthermore, in this conventional structure, the fan is installed in an air room member, which has a wide internal space. After the air goes into the air room member, the wind pressure will rapidly drop, and turbulence will be occurred in the air room member too. Therefore, the using effect of such structure is also poor.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a game table with hockey game. The game table has a hockey table face and an air-blowing member for blowing air out of the hockey table face. The present invention promotes the air in the game table at high flowing efficiency, and enhances an excellent air-blowing effect on the hockey table face.
To achieve the above and other objects, the game table of the present invention includes: a table body having two end frames; a table board pivotally connected between the two end frames and rotatable, the table board having a hockey table face, the hockey table face having a face board and an inner board; numerous orifices being densely distributed over the face board; an air space being defined between the face board and the inner board; multiple inlets being formed on the inner board in communication with the air space; an air-blowing member mounted in one of the end frames for blowing air into the air space and making the air flow out of the face board through the orifices;
a pressure reservation space positioned between the air space and the air-blowing member, the air being first blown by the air-blowing member into the pressure reservation space and then flowing into the air space, the pressure reservation space serving to reserve air pressure, whereby the air still has wind pressure when flowing into the air space, the pressure reservation space also serving to guide the air to flow from the inlets of the inner board into the air space without generating turbulence; and
multiple flow guide units disposed in the air space to partition the air space into multiple flow ways; the flow guide units and the flow ways communicate with each other to form airflow paths, whereby the air can efficiently flow within the air space without generating turbulence. Moreover, the air can flow to every part of the air space to unify the wind pressure over the air space. Accordingly, a uniform air-blowing effect on the hockey table face is obtained.
Each flow guide unit has at least one air guide channel in alignment with a row of orifices. The air can flow through the air guide channel and flow out from the orifices.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings, wherein:
Please refer to
The table body 20 has two end frames 22 each having two table legs 24 on two sides. The table legs of the end frames 22 are connected by means of two connection beams 25.
The table board 30 is a rectangular frame body with a certain thickness. Two ends of the table board 30 are respectively pivotally connected with the end frames 22 via two pivot pins 32, whereby the table board 30 is rotatably mounted on the table body 20 as shown in
Multiple latch assemblies 40 are mounted between the table body and the table board. As shown in
The present invention will be described hereinafter with reference to
An air-blowing member 50, which in this embodiment is, but not limited to, a blower, has an air exit 52. The blower serves to collectively blow out air from the air exit 52. The blower 50 is mounted in a receiving space 26 formed in a first end frame 22′ of the table body and concealed in the first end frame 22′ for blowing air into the air space 36. The air exit 52 is positioned at a first vent 27 formed on an inner wall of the end frame 22′. An outer wall of the end frame 22′ is formed with an opening 28 for the blower to suck air in.
Please refer to
Multiple flow guide units, which have elongated configurations. The flow guide units are mounted in the air space 36 and arranged in rows. Each flow guide unit extends from one end of the hockey table face A to the other end thereof. The flow guide units partition the air space 36 into multiple rows of flow ways 80 as shown in
To speak more specifically, each flow guide unit has multiple flow guide bodies 72 arranged from one end of the table board to the other end thereof. The top face of each flow guide body 72 is formed with at least one air guide channel 74, for example, two air guide channels 74. Each air guide channel 74 is aligned with a row of orifices 34. An interval is defined between each two forward and rearward adjacent flow guide bodies 72 as the passageways 76.
Referring to
In practice, referring to
When playing the hockey game, the blower 50 is powered on. Please refer to
When the air is blown into the air reservoir member 60, the air is collected and concentrated in the pressure reservation space 62 to reserve wind pressure. After reserving the pressure, the air then goes into the air space 36 from the inlets 37. In this case, the air will not directly flow into the wide air space to lose wind pressure.
Please refer to
In this embodiment, neither of the outermost two flow ways 80′ is in direct communication with any inlet 37. This design makes the air flow from the middle flow ways 80 through the passageways 76 to the outside flow ways 80′ in a naturally produced circulation path. In this case, the air can circularly flow within the air space 36 and fill up the entire air space without any blind corner.
After the blower 50 has operated for a short period of time, airflows are uniformly distributed over the entire air space 36, whereby the wind pressure in every flow way 80 and every air guide channel 74 is unified. The air is then upward blown out from the flow ways 80 and the air guide channels 74 through the orifices 34 of the face board 33 to create a floating effect and reduce frictional force against the movement of the puck on the face board 33. Referring to
The present invention has the following advantage:
The air reservoir member 60 has the function of pressure reservation, whereby the air flowing into the air space 36 has a certain wind pressure without reducing the wind pressure. In cooperation with the inlets 37, the air reservoir member 60 systematically guides the air into the air space 36. The flow ways 80 and the flow guide units of the present invention are regularly arranged for guiding the air to regularly flow within the air space 36 at high efficiency without generating turbulence. Therefore, the air can effectively flow to all parts of the air space 36 to unify the wind pressure in the air space and provide most uniform blowing effect for the hockey table face A. Through actual tests, it is found that the present invention is better than all conventional structures in effect.
The above embodiment is only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiment can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, each end frame can be provided with an air-blowing member. Also, the flow guide unit can be made from a thin board, and an air guide channel is defined between two thin boards.
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