Patent Application
20140017972
The present invention relates to hoops of the “hula hoop” type, which hoops are formed from a tube containing colorful lines and/or other patterns which are dimensionally imbedded into the body of the tube.
Hoops for play and exercise are often given colorful, decorative components, such colorful features being provided by exterior applied tape or wrapping of various types applied to the exterior of the tubular member forming the hoop. Hoops of different colors have also been made from colored plastic tubing, but in such cases the tubing itself is of a uniform color. Multicolored hoops having the colors applied to the surface, such as by colorful adhesive tapes, paints or the like, are subject to loss of color through simple use, wherein the coloring wears from or is rubbed off the surface. Hoops of a single color made from colored plastic tubing are limited to a single color.
It would be useful to have hoops of multicolors wherein the colors are part of the plastic tubing from which the hoops are formed. This is achieved according to the present invention by extruding two or more streams, preferably layers, of different colored plastics together, and then partially removing one or more upper layers in a pattern to reveal one or more lower layers of a different color, and providing a three-dimensional surface of the plastic tubing to be formed into a hoop.
Modern hoops are formed of tubular plastic, usually cylindrical, which are subsequently curved to form a circular hoop shape with the two ends joined to form the hoop. Hoops in accordance with the present invention may be and preferably are formed in this way, with the present invention residing in the appearance of the tubular plastic material, its physical structure, and its method of manufacture.
As best shown in
It is desirable that the overall thickness of the wall of each tube 10 be approximately the same as the conventional thickness of such tubing walls so as to keep the overall weight of the resultant hoop 12 from becoming too heavy. On the other hand, depending on the colors, in some cases it may be desirable to make the outer layer 16 somewhat thicker than the inner layer 14 to prevent the color of the bottom layer 14 from showing through the upper layer 16. Otherwise, the two layers 14 and 16 should be of approximately the same thickness. The overall wall thickness of the tube 10 should be about 0.050 inches, plus or minus 0.020 inches, thus providing a tube wall thickness of 0.070-0.030 inches, with each layer 14 and 16 of a two layer tube having a thickness on the order of 0.018 inches, plus or minus 0.010-0.020 inches.
The exterior dimensions of hoops 12 in accordance with the present invention are consistent with those commonly known and used. For example, the tubes 10 of such hoops 12 may have an exterior diameter of 0.5 inches, plus or minus 0.25 inches. The diameters of the hoops may vary widely, e.g. from 25 to 38 inches.
The plastic materials from which the tubing 10 of the present invention may be formed can be selected from those which are conventionally used for hoops, such as those disclosed in my earlier patents, include U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,760; U.S. Pat. No. 6,482,136; and U.S. Pat. No. 7,959,485, which are respectfully incorporated by reference. Thus, for two layered tubes 10, including those of
Upon emerging from the die of the co-extruder 20, the tubing 10, preferably while still hot and relatively easily worked, is subjected to a process which removes portions of the top layer 16. This is schematically illustrated in
While
By using the removal method shown in
Tubing in accordance with the present invention can be made without the rotation which provides the squiggle lines, wherein tubing with straight lines can be made.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without undue experimentation and without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications, including patterns other than shown in
Thus the expressions “means to . . . ” and “means for . . . ”, or any method step language, as may be found in the specification above and/or in the claims below, followed by a functional statement, are intended to define and cover whatever structural, physical, chemical or electrical element or structure, or whatever method step, which may now or in the future exist which carries out the recited function, whether or not precisely equivalent to the embodiment or embodiments disclosed in the specification above, i.e., other means or steps for carrying out the same functions can be used; and it is intended that such expressions be given their broadest interpretation.
