Patent Application
20160346655
Lacrosse sticks include a shaft, a head attached to the shaft, and a netting attached to the head to form a pocket. The netting typically is formed in one of two manners—either by traditional stringing or by attachment of a mesh netting to the head followed by stringing additional components.
With traditional stringing, longitudinal runners reach from a scoop end of the head to a ball stop end. A cross-lacing is used to hold the runners in place, and shooting strings extend laterally across the head. In some cases, leather strings are used as the runners. The various components are typically tied to openings along edges of the head to secure the netting to the head.
Mesh pocket nettings are typically formed of nylon or polyester fibers, though other synthetic, semi-synthetic, or natural materials may be used. The mesh netting typically has diamond-shaped openings formed by strands interconnected at nodes. The netting is attached to the head with strings at various locations on the head, such as at the scoop end, the ball stop end, and along the sidewalls. Shooting strings and/or other components may be woven through the netting to alter the tension within the netting and/or provide varying degrees of friction or support in certain regions of the pocket.
According to one embodiment a mesh netting is provided for use as a pocket on a lacrosse head. The mesh netting includes a plurality of fibers knitted together to form interconnected strands of a mesh netting, and includes a plurality of openings between the strands. The mesh netting has a scoop end, a ball stop end, and two opposed sides running from the ball stop end to the scoop end. At least a subset of the strands forms a region of the mesh netting which has a three-dimensional shape, and, when lying flat, the region is able to maintain its three-dimensional shape against the force of gravity without support from anything other than strands of the mesh netting as knit.
According to another embodiment, a method of manufacturing a mesh netting for a lacrosse stick head includes warp knitting fibers to form a mesh netting, the mesh netting including interconnected strands and a plurality of openings between the strands. The mesh netting has a scoop end, a ball stop end, and two opposed sides running from the ball stop end to the scoop end. A region of the mesh netting has a three-dimensional shape, and, when the mesh netting lies flat, the region is able to maintain its three-dimensional shape against the force of gravity without support from anything other than fibers of the mesh netting as knit.
According to a further embodiment, a mesh netting for use as a pocket on a lacrosse head includes a plurality of fibers knitted together to form interconnected strands which form a mesh netting made of a single, continuous piece of mesh material, the mesh netting including a plurality of openings between the strands. The mesh netting has a scoop end, a ball stop end, and two opposed sides running from the ball stop end to the scoop end. Within the mesh netting as knit, a first opening of the plurality of openings has a different perimeter length than a second opening of the plurality of openings, and the first opening is aligned laterally with the second opening.
The accompanying drawings are not intended to be drawn to scale. In the drawings, each identical or nearly identical component that is illustrated in various figures may be represented by a like numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component may be labeled in every drawing. Various embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Lacrosse players often have personal preferences as to how a pocket is configured and attached the head. Each string's length, material, path, tightness, and attachment location can affect the shape, feel, and performance of the lacrosse stick. Over time, with exposure to weather and through repeated stresses from use, a pocket's characteristics can sufficiently change to require adjustment or replacement. For example, leather strands can lengthen when wet, and then shorten beyond their original length upon drying. Or, other strands can lengthen or fray with repeated use.
A lacrosse pocket has a three-dimensional shape once attached to a head. Various factors contribute to the final shape of the pocket, for example, the shape of head, the connection locations around the edge of the head, the type of netting, the netting material, the netting shape prior to attachment, and the length, location, and tension of the runners and shooting strings. Stringing a lacrosse head to have a particular shape and/or particular performance characteristics requires time and experience. As such, replacing worn or damaged pockets with similar pockets can be time-consuming. Additionally, a player often has difficultly in replicating the particular configuration to which he or she is accustomed. If a player wishes to test various pocket configurations with a given head, the process can be time-consuming because altering specific aspects of the pocket or stringing an entirely new pocket can require the skills of an experienced stringer.
Some conventional mesh pocket nettings are formed into particular three-dimensional shapes by applying a coating, such as wax, to the mesh material, attaching the mesh netting to a head, and then shaping the mesh material into a desired three-dimensional shape by pressing against the netting with a mold (such as a ball or a pocket pounder) and/or repeatedly striking the netting with a mold. Repeated use of the mold can slightly stretch fibers of the netting, change the fiber arrangements at the nodes, and alter the angles at which the strands meet at nodes to form the three-dimensional shape. The coating helps to maintain the three-dimensional shape of the mesh. In some cases, the coating may wear away with use of the lacrosse head, possibly reducing the shape-holding effect of the coating and/or changing the friction of the pocket material.
Provided herein is a method of manufacturing a lacrosse head pocket netting which permits the production of reproducible three-dimensional shapes. A netting manufactured by methods disclosed herein may form a three-dimensional shape prior to being attached to a lacrosse head, and the netting, as knit, may be able to maintain its three-dimensional shape without additional materials, such as a coating, being added to the strands which form the netting. Such a netting may allow an inexperienced stringer to attach a netting to a lacrosse head to create a pocket having a predictable three-dimensional shape.
According to one embodiment, a three-dimensional (3D) warp knit machine is programmed to produce a specified netting shape by knitting fibers to form strands of varying length and/or thickness and/or orientation. Some embodiments allows for the customization of nettings. For example, a user may specify a certain netting shape and/or materials, and a 3D warp knit machine is programmed to knit the netting. Unlike a conventional warp knitting machine, a 3D warp knitting machine includes yarn carriers which may slide left and right during knitting as they deliver the fibers. A needle sled also may slide left and right during knitting, independently of the yarn carriers. The needles on the needle sleds can be programmed to be changed automatically during knitting.
Nettings may be formed using methods disclosed herein such that various characteristics vary laterally and/or longitudinally in the netting. For example, at one or more longitudinal distances from the ball stop end toward the scoop end, the sizes of the openings in the mesh may vary in the lateral direction across the mesh. A conventional warp knit machine which knits a mesh netting longitudinally cannot produce openings of different sizes along a lateral line. The only variation that a conventional warp knit machine can produce in a continuous mesh material is a change in the netting arrangement at a transition line. For example, a conventional warp knit machine may knit a first half of a mesh netting to consistently have seven diamond-shaped openings laterally across the netting. At the halfway point, the machine can be stopped, the yarn carriers can be reconfigured, and the machine can knit the remaining half of the mesh netting to have five diamond openings laterally across the netting. Such a process results in a linear change in the mesh pattern at the longitudinal midpoint of the netting.
As described above, the conventional warp knit machine cannot create a netting pattern where the sizes of the openings vary laterally across the netting when the netting is knitted in the longitudinal direction. With constant strand lengths laterally across the netting, the mesh netting itself cannot hold a three-dimensional shape when placed on a flat surface as the weight of any lifted portion of the mesh netting simply pushes downwardly and spreads the mesh netting into a flat configuration. Additionally, reconfiguring the needle sled at a linear transition point interrupts production, increasing the time and cost of mesh knitting.
Conversely, a 3D warp knit machine can knit strands of differing lengths between nodes of interconnected strands. And the 3D warp knit machine can knit a continuous mesh material that has strands of different length as compared to other stands along a longitudinal line of the mesh, and can also knit strands of different length as compared to other strands along a lateral line of the mesh. The strand length differences may be arranged to cause the mesh netting to lift out of a two-dimensional plane to form a three-dimensional shape. For example, strands toward a center of the mesh netting may be longer than the strands positioned around the exterior of the mesh netting. The longer strands are forced outwardly from the plane of the mesh netting because flattening a longer strand would require moving its two nodes apart to fully extend the longer strand, which ultimately would require those nodes to move closer to adjacent nodes and push the intervening strands out of the plane. Consequently, the mesh netting, as knit, tends to find a three-dimensional shape based at least in part on strand length. For purposes herein, the term “as knit”, when referring to a mesh netting, means that the mesh netting possesses the characteristic (e.g., ability to maintain a three-dimensional shape) once knitted and without further processing, such as application of a coating or striking the mesh with a mold. In some embodiments, the mesh netting ultimately may be subject to further processing (e.g., additional strings added to the mesh netting, a coating added to the strands of the mesh netting, or molding of the mesh netting with a ball), but the mesh netting would still be considered to possess a characteristic “as knit” if the mesh netting had such a characteristic prior to the further processing.
Additionally, the sizes of the openings may vary along the length of the mesh netting from the ball stop end to the scoop end. In some cases, the openings of different sizes may be aligned along a longitudinal line. The opening sizes can be varied by knitting strands which have different lengths between nodes of interconnected strands. Such variations can be created within a single piece of continuous mesh formed via 3D warp knitting in some embodiments.
The lengths of strands between nodes of the mesh also may vary laterally and/or longitudinally to create different levels of tension in the pocket. Such an arrangement may reduce or eliminate the need for shooting strings which are typically used, at least in part, to increase the tension in certain areas of the pocket. Shooting strings also are used to provide a certain friction in the shooting string area of the pocket. Pockets manufactured with methods disclosed herein may include varying friction such that shooting strings are not necessarily needed to provide a desired friction. For example, a shooting string region of a mesh may be knit with very small openings, and/or a material having a higher friction may be used in the shooting string region.
Other features may be knit into a netting as well. For example, one or more tubes may be included in a netting to provide guides for shooting strings, further simplifying the pocket assembly process.
A traditionally-strung conventional lacrosse head 102, such as the one shown in
According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a mesh netting 300 is constructed to have a three-dimensional shape that is maintained by the structure of the mesh material itself against the force of gravity, as may be seen in
By forming a pocket mesh made of a single continuous piece of mesh, additional steps of aligning and attaching two or more mesh pieces together are eliminated. In some mesh nettings with multiple pieces attached to each other, a separate piece of material, such as a string, is used as a common attachment piece for connecting the pieces of mesh together. With embodiments disclosed herein, no such common attachment piece is necessarily required. Though in some embodiments, two or more pieces of mesh may be knitted with a 3D warp knitting machine and then attached to one another—either directly or via an additional piece of material.
A 3D warp knit mesh piece may be attached to material that is not warp knit in some embodiments. For example, a region of a pocket close to a scoop end may be formed with cross-lacing or other arrangement, and a 3D warp knit mesh piece may be attached to the cross-lacing or other arrangement to form a pocket that includes mesh netting as well as other materials.
The widths of various strands may vary laterally across and/or longitudinally along the mesh. For example, strands 305 near lateral edges of the mesh may be wider than strands 307 closer to the lateral center of the mesh in some embodiments.
As visible in
The variations in the shapes and sizes of the openings are visible in
The differently-sized opening are not necessarily aligned longitudinally. Instead, openings of different sizes may be present along the length of the mesh netting, but be offset laterally from one another. For purposes herein, two openings are considered to be aligned longitudinally if any portions of the openings are intersected by a single imaginary longitudinal line that travels along the mesh (or by a single imaginary plane that travels along the length of the mesh and is perpendicular to the mesh). For example, line 730 in
Similarly, for purposes herein, openings are considered to be aligned laterally if any portions of the openings are intersected by a single imaginary lateral line that travels across the mesh perpendicular to the length of the mesh (or by a single imaginary plane that travels across the mesh and is perpendicular to the length of the mesh). For example, line 830 in
For purposes herein, “linearly aligned” means that the openings are aligned such that the center nodes of the openings are aligned.
Variations in the shape and/or size of the openings in the lateral direction also are present in some embodiments. For example, as can be seen in
Variations in strand thickness and/or materials may vary in only the lateral direction, only the longitudinal direction, and in both the lateral and longitudinal directions.
While
The embodiment shown in
Convenient customization of pockets is possible with embodiments disclosed herein as a user can program a 3D warp knit machine to knit a mesh netting having a particular arrangement of openings and materials. By producing meshes which can be repeatedly mounted to a lacrosse head to have a consistent shape, a user can test different meshes having a difference in one particular aspect to evaluate variations in that particular aspect.
The first material may be a material made of a different type of fiber. For example, the first material may be made from nylon, while the second material is made from polyester. In some embodiments, the first and second materials may be made of the same or similar type of fiber, but may simply have different colors. Such an approach can reduce or eliminate the use of dye in forming color patterns within the pocket.
Material 952 comprises fibers which are knitted to be positioned along the sides of the mesh in the proximal region of the mesh, such that material 950 forms the mesh in this region. Starting at a longitudinal location 960, the fibers of the second material are knitted to form parts of the pocket away from the edges in a distal pocket region. The 3D warp knitting machine allows the pocket to have areas where the ratios of fibers of different materials may be varied laterally and/or longitudinally. In this manner, the mesh may manufactured to have varying materials without stopping the knitting process or requiring a separate step of attaching two separate sections of mesh netting to one another.
Additionally, tubes 946 for the insertion of shooting strings 948 are knit into the mesh 900 illustrated in
The above aspects and embodiments may be employed in any suitable combination, as the present invention is not limited in this respect. It should also be understood that, unless clearly indicated to the contrary, in any methods claimed herein that include more than one step or act, the order of the steps or acts of the method is not necessarily limited to the order in which the steps or acts of the method are recited.
Having thus described several aspects of at least one embodiment of this invention, it is to be appreciated that various alterations, modifications, and improvements will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations, modifications, and improvements are intended to be part of this disclosure, and are intended to be within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are by way of example only.
