Patent Application
20240165468
The present disclosure claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202223113672.2, filed Nov. 22, 2022, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein as if set forth in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to the technical field of sports equipment, and particular to a pickleball paddle and a method for manufacturing the same.
The pickleball is a sport of hitting a ball with paddles, which emerged from Bainbridge Island in Seattle, USA, and can be described as a hybrid of tennis, badminton and ping-pong. Compared to tennis, the pickleball has lower activity and amount of exercise, making it suitable for people of all ages. Consequently, the pickleball has gained popularity and widespread public appeal in recent years. In current pickleball paddles, the paddle body includes a blade, and upper and lower layers which are positioned on either side of the blade. The blade is usually integrated, and the upper layer and the lower layer of the paddle body are easy to separate from the blade or bubble because the middle portion of the paddle body is frequently hit by balls.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide a pickleball paddle so that the blade and the upper and lower layers are not easily separated or bubbled.
In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in this embodiment disclosure, the drawings used in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. It should be understood that, the drawings in the following description are only examples of the present disclosure. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative works.
In order to facilitate the understanding of the present application, the present application will be described more comprehensively with reference to the relevant drawings. Preferred embodiments of the present application are shown in the drawings. However, the present application can be implemented in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. On the contrary, the purpose of providing these embodiments is to make the disclosure of the present application more thorough and comprehensive.
It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being “fixed to” another element, it can be directly on another element or an intermediate element may also be present. When an element is considered to be “connected to” another element, it can be directly connected to another element or an intermediate element may be present at the same time.
Terms “length,” “width,” “upper,” “lower,” “front,” “rear,” “left,” “right,” “vertical,” “horizontal,” “perpendicular,” “top,” “bottom,” “inner,” “outer,” and other directional or positional relationships are based on the orientation or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings. They are used for the purpose of facilitating the description and simplifying the explanation in this application, and should not be interpreted as indicating or implying that the device or component referred to must have specific orientations, be constructed or operated in specific orientations. Therefore, they should not be understood as limiting the scope of this application.
Furthermore, the terms “first” and “second” are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be interpreted as indicating or implying relative importance or the quantity of technical features being referred to. Thus, features designated as “first” or “second” may include one or more of those features, either explicitly or implicitly. In the description of this application, the terms “multiple” and “several” mean two or more, unless otherwise specifically stated.
It should be noted that the structures, proportions, sizes, etc., depicted in the drawings of this specification are intended to complement the disclosed content and facilitate the understanding and reading of those skilled in the art, and are not intended to limit the conditions under which this application can be implemented. Therefore, any modifications to the structure, changes in proportion, or adjustments in size that do not affect the efficacy or objectives of this application are still within the scope of the disclosed technical content of this application.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Referring to
It can be understood that the coating layer 24 can be made of at least one of carbon fiber or glass fiber. In an embodiment, the coating layer 24 is made of carbon fiber, which can enhance the structural strength of the blade 21 and increase the degree of impact resistance, so that the blade 21 is not easily deformed.
In an embodiment, the blade block 210 includes a skeleton 211 and a plurality of foam materials 212. The skeleton 211 includes a plurality of structural units 2111. The plurality of structural units 2111 are closely arranged in an array, and each structural unit 2111 is provided with an inner cavity 2112. Both ends of the inner cavity 2112 are sealed by the coating layer 24, and the inner cavity 2112 is configured for filling the foam materials 212. The foam materials 212 may be high energy adhesives. The foam materials 212 are filled in the inner cavity 2112 of the skeleton 211, to increase the elasticity of the paddle body 20 and reduce the vibration transferred to the grip 10 when hitting the ball, thereby enhancing the use experience of the user.
In a more specific embodiment, the cross-section of each structural unit 2111 and each inner cavity 2112 both have a shape of hexagonal, to form a honeycomb. In this embodiment, the honeycomb structural units 2111 can reduce the overall weight of the pickleball paddle while maintaining the structural strength of the skeleton 211, making swinging the paddle easier and labor-saving. On the other hand, the paddle body 20 can have a certain sound absorption effect by the honeycomb structural units and the foam materials 212 in the inner cavity 2112.
In an embodiment, the structural units 2111 in the blade block 210 are configured as a single layer.
In an embodiment, the skeleton 211 can be made of at least one of polypropylene or aramid fiber, to increase flexibility thereof and prolong the residence time of the pickleball on the surface of the paddle, so as to improve the ball handling ability of the pickleball paddle.
In an embodiment, the blade 21 includes a grip 10 and a paddle body 20. The grip 10 is used for holding by a human hand, and the paddle body 20 is used for hitting a ball. The grip 10 is connected to the paddle body 20. The top side of the paddle body 20 and the top side of the grip 10 are both covered with the top layer 22, and the bottom side of the paddle body 20 and the bottom side of the grip 10 are both covered with the bottom layer 23. The blade blocks 210 have a length direction parallel or perpendicular to the length direction of the grip 10.
Specifically, the top layer 22 can be made of at least one of carbon fiber and glass fiber, and the bottom layer 23 can be made of at least one of carbon fiber and glass fiber. The top layer 22 and the bottom layer 23 can prevent the paddle body 20 from being damaged by impact, increase the friction between the paddle body 20 and the pickleball when hitting a ball, and increase the rotation speed of the pickleball to further optimize the feel when swinging.
In a specific embodiment, the blade block 210 has an elongated shape, and the length direction of the blade block 210 is parallel to the length direction of the grip 10.
In an embodiment, the blade block 210 has an elongated shape, and the length direction of the blade block 210 is perpendicular to the length direction of the grip 10. Referring to
In a more specific embodiment, referring to
In an embodiment, the plurality of blade blocks 210 are spliced together and then cut to form the final contour of the blade 21.
In an embodiment, a method for manufacturing a pickleball paddle is provided, including the following steps.
At S1, a sheet material is provided, and the sheet material has a plurality of inner cavities 2112 arranged at intervals.
At S2, foam materials 212 are filled in the whole sheet material, so that the inner cavities 2112 are filled with the foaming materials 212.
At S3, the sheet material filled with the foam materials 212 are cut into a plurality of elongated blade blocks 210.
At S4, the coating layer 24 is provided on each blade block 210 along the length direction of each blade block 210.
At S5, the blade blocks 210 provided with the coating layer 24 are spliced to form the blade 21, a top layer 22 is covered on the top side of the blade 21, and a bottom layer 23 is covered on the bottom side of the blade 21.
At S6, hot press forming is performed. After the hot press forming, the hardened coating layer 24 can increase the structural strength of the whole blade 21, and the contact areas between the elongated blade block 210 and the top layer 22, and between the elongated blade block 210 and the bottom layer 23 are small, so that the connection stability between each blade block 210 and the top layer 22 and the connection stability between each blade block 210 and the bottom layer 23 can be ensured. In addition, the top layer 22 and the bottom layer 23 can be prevented from being separated from the blade blocks 210 due to bubbling after multiple times of hitting.
At S7, the blade 21 is cut to form the paddle body 20 and the grip 10 connected to the paddle body 20.
After the step of S7, the following steps may be further included.
At S8, the positions of the paddle body 20 and the grip 10 that are not covered with the coating layer 24 are covered with the coating layer 24.
Since the circumferential direction of the blade 21 is not covered with the coating layer 24 in the step of S4, and the cutting surface of the blade 21 is not covered with the coating layer 24 after the cutting in the step of S7, it is necessary to cover the coating layer 24 in the circumferential direction of the blade 21 so that each part of the outer surface of the blade 21 is covered with the coating layer 24, so as to ensure the structural strength of the whole pickleball paddle.
The coating layer 24 can be made of at least one of carbon fiber and glass fiber, the top layer 22 can be made of at least one of carbon fiber and glass fiber, and the bottom layer 23 can be made of at least one of carbon fiber and glass fiber.
In this way, by configuring the blade 21 to be spliced by a plurality of blade blocks 210, the structure of the blade 21 is made more compact, and the deformation resistance can be improved. The connection between the blade 21 and the top layer 22 and the connection between the blade 21 and the bottom layer 23 are tighter, and the top layer 22 and the bottom layer 23 are not easily separated or bubbled. On the other hand, the coating layer 24 is disposed around the circumferential side of each blade block 210 along the length direction of the blade block 210, which can also improve the structural strength of the blade 21.
The above-mentioned embodiments are merely intended for describing but not for limiting the technical schemes of the present disclosure. Although the present disclosure is described in detail with reference to the above-mentioned embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that, the technical schemes in each of the above-mentioned embodiments may still be modified, or some of the technical features may be equivalently replaced, while these modifications or replacements do not make the essence of the corresponding technical schemes depart from the spirit and scope of the technical schemes of each of the embodiments of the present disclosure, and should be included within the scope of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202223113672.2 | Nov 2022 | CN | national |
