Patent Grant
7736276
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an illuminating wrist exerciser, and in particular to a wrist exerciser that features rotation based power generation and includes parts for high-performance magnetic-field induced power generation and light emission.
2. The Related Arts
Wrist exercisers are widely known in exercising and training wrist-related muscles, especially for rehabilitation and therapy purposes. Examples of the wrist exercisers are illustrated in Taiwan Utility Model No. 135058 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,311, wherein a wrist training sphere that is operated with rotary motion thereof is provided with structures of power generation and light-emitting diode so that forcibly pulling a rope wound around a rotor to initiate rotation of the rotor causes electromagnetic interaction in a face-to-face manner between windings mounted to the rotor and magnets mounted to a casing that houses the rotor to induce electrical power for lighting the light-emitting diodes. Such structures add extra functions and surface decorations to the wrist training devices.
However, in the conventional structures of power generation and lighting elements of the known wrist training devices, the electromagnetic interaction between the magnets and the windings suffers insufficiency of power generation due generally to a large magnet gap and high magnetic leakage, which leads to relatively high magnetic reluctance, high magnetic leakage, and relatively small magnetic flux in the electromagnetic interaction, and consequently, when the rotor is in a low speed rotation, the lighting performance of the light-emitting diodes is poor, and such a problem is only overcome by increasing the rotational speed of the rotor.
In addition, other prior art references are also known, such as Taiwan Utility Model No. 580942, which discloses an “illuminating wrist exerciser ball” having a construction similar to those disclosed in Taiwan Utility Model No. 135058 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,311. A difference resides in that magnetic elements are provided, on surfaces thereof, alternating and adjacent positive and negative magnetic zones (namely a plurality of opposite polarities of “N” and “S”) and a slide ring and an extension of a brush are set corresponding to the alternating positive and negative magnetic zones of the magnetic elements, whereby by means of the corresponding arrangement of the slide ring and the brush, windings and light-emitting diodes are connected to generate electrical power to light the light-emitting diodes. This arrangement similarly suffers the problems of large magnet gap, high magnetic reluctance, and high magnetic leakage and consequently, poor performance of power generation and lighting of light-emitting diodes. Further, the alternating arrangement of multiple positive and negative magnetic zones makes the magnetic elements and the construction of the slide ring and the brush complicated, which causes difficult in assembling and maintenance, leading to increased costs of manufacturing and maintenance. This is adverse to the industry. Further, the slide ring, the brush, and an internal support ring induces frictional resistance, high level noise and part wearing during the rotation of the rotor, and eventually reducing the operation performance and the lifespan of the wrist training devices.
The present invention is made to overcome the problems of poor performance of power generation and lighting of light-emitting diodes due to the face-to-face arrangement between magnetic elements and windings forming an electromagnetic interaction configuration that has a large magnet gap, high magnetic leakage, high magnetic reluctance, and low magnetic flux and also has complicated components that are adverse to assembling and maintenance, as well as increased costs of assembling and maintenance, which factors are certainly adverse to the industry, and the problems associated with frictional resistance, high level noise, and parts wearing occurring in the operation of the conventional wrist training devices.
Accordingly, aiming to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an illuminating wrist exerciser, comprising upper and lower casing members, a ring, a rotor, a magnetic element, an illumination control circuit board, a plurality of illuminators, and a coil holder. The upper and lower casing members mate each other to form an interior space receiving the rotor therein. The upper casing member forms in a top portion thereof an opening to partially expose the rotor. Opposite ends of the rotor are rotatably coupled to the ring surrounding the rotor. The magnetic element is mounted to the ring. The illumination control circuit board and the coil holder are received and retained in a recess defined in one of the ends of the rotor. The coil holder forms a bore in which the magnetic element is received. The coil holder carries thereon at least one pair of coils. The illuminators are distributively arranged on an outer surface of the rotor and are electrically connected to the illumination control circuit board. Electrical power is induced by the electromagnetic interaction between the coils of the coil holder and the magnetic element and is fed to the illumination control circuit board, which in turn controls the lighting/darkening of the illuminators to thereby provide a power-generation, illuminating wrist exerciser.
The effectiveness of the illuminating wrist exerciser of the present invention is that a high performance power generation and lighting structure featuring small magnet gap, low magnetic reluctance, and high magnetic flux is realized in a coplanar and co-axial configuration to improve the lighting performance of the light-emitting diodes. Further, the ring, the rotor, the magnetic element, the coil holder, the illumination control circuit board, and the plurality of illuminators are of simple structures, so that the costs of assembling and maintenance of the illuminating wrist exerciser are substantially reduced. Further, the electromagnetic induction structure between the magnetic element and the coils does not induce any frictional resistance and wearing of parts, and reduces the noise level occurring during the operation thereof. Thus, the industrial value of the illuminating wrist exerciser of the present invention is enhanced.
The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art by reading the following description of preferred embodiments thereof, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:
With reference to the drawings and in particular to
A ring 30 is set on the upper circumferential edge of the lower casing member 20. The ring 30 forms a joint seat 31 and a hole 32 that are opposite to each other. The joint seat 31 forms a bore 311. The joint seat 31 has an inner end forming a coupling section 312 that is provided, at a free end thereof, resilient retention tabs 313.
A magnetic element 40 forms therein a hole 41 that corresponds to and is fit over the coupling section 312 of the joint seat 31 of the ring 30 in such a way that in the course of fitting, the resilient retention tabs 313 are deformed inward to allow the hole 41 to fit onto the coupling section 312, and thereafter the resilient retention tabs 313 resiliently restore their original shapes to thereby securely fix the magnetic element 40 on the coupling section 312. The magnetic element 40 is not limited to any specific type and a magnetic ring is taken as an example in the instant embodiment.
The coupling between the magnetic element 40 and the ring 30 is not limited to that realized through fitting the hole 41 to the coupling section 312 and retaining by the resilient retention tabs 313. Other equivalent structures, such as coupling of the magnetic element 40 to the ring 30 through adhesives or threading, can also be used and are considered within the scope of the present invention.
A rotor 50, which has a spherical configuration in the embodiment illustrated, comprises two axles 51, 52 substantially co-axial and extending in opposite directions from opposite axial ends of the rotor 50. The axle 51 forms at least one circumferential groove 511. The axle 51 is fit into the bore 311 of the joint seat 31 and the axle 52 is fit into the hole 32 defined in the ring 30 so that the opposite sides of the rotor 50 are rotatably mounted inside an inner circumference of the ring 30 with a portion of the rotor 50 projecting beyond the opening 11 of the upper casing member 10.
One of the axial ends of the rotor 50 forms a recess in which a plurality of mounting portions 53 is formed. Each mounting portion 53 forms an inner-threaded hole 531. The rotor 50 has a circumferential curved surface in which at least one circumferential slot 54 is defined. The rotor 50 also forms a plurality of through holes 55. The circumferential slot 54 functions to receive a rope 541 received therein and wound therearound so that forcibly pulling the rope 541 causes the rotor 50 to start rotating.
Also referring to
A plurality of illuminators 70, 71, which is not limited to any specific type and is embodied as light-emitting diodes in the embodiment illustrated, is electrically coupled to the illumination control circuit board 60 to be controlled thereby for selectively turning on/off for lighting. The illuminators 70 are received in the through holes 55 defined in the rotor 50 (see
A coil holder 80 forms a plurality of mounting holes 81 that corresponds in location to the inner-threaded holes 531 of the mounting portions 53 of the rotor 50 so that bolts 811 are received through the mounting holes 81 to engage the inner-threaded holes 531 for fixing the coil holder 80 inside the recess at the end of the rotor 50. The fixing of the coil holder 80 to the rotor 50 is not limited to using bolts to engage the mounting portions 53 and can be realized through any other equivalent means, such as adhesives or equivalent fastening means, which are considered within the scope of the present invention.
The coil holder 80, which is in the form of an annular member in the embodiment illustrated, has an inner circumference that defines a bore 82. The bore 82 is sized to surround the magnetic element 40. The inner circumference of the coil holder 80 forms at least a pair of inward-projecting coil retention stems 83. Three coil retention stems 83 are taken as an example in the embodiment illustrated. Each coil retention stem 83 receives and retains thereon at least one coil or winding 831 so that the coil 831 is located along an outside circumference of the magnetic element 40 and is located on the same plane as the magnetic element 40 to realize a positional arrangement of small magnet gap, low magnetic reluctance, low leakage and high flux (see
The positional arrangement of the illuminators 70, 71 is not limited to the above described through holes 55 and the spacing between the coil retention stems 83.
Also referring to
The way to cause the rotation of the rotor 50 is not limited to what described above with the rope 541 wound around the slot 511 of the rotor 50 then forcibly pulled. Other ways, such as rotating the rotor 50 with a user's finger contacting and pushing the rotor 50 or employing other assisting device, can also be used and those are considered within the scope of the present invention.
Referring to
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention which is intended to be defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97215084 U | Aug 2008 | TW | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6623405 | Chuang et al. | Sep 2003 | B2 |
| 6770012 | Kuo | Aug 2004 | B2 |
| 7101315 | Chuang et al. | Sep 2006 | B2 |
| 20080058166 | Chuang et al. | Mar 2008 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20100048359 A1 | Feb 2010 | US |
