Patent Grant
9795860
This application is a U.S. National Phase of International Application No. PCT/CA2014/000024 filed Jan. 13, 2014, which claims priority to and the benefit of PCT/2013/000040, filed Jan. 16, 2013, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to roller skate blades for use on artificial ice surfaces and roller mounting apparatuses therefor, and sharpening rollers thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
While ice skates have been and continue to be optimized for skating on ice, recently, ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE or UHMW) has been developed as a substitute for conventional ice. Such material is referred to as “synthetic ice” and has unique mechanical and chemical properties. This synthetic ice is available from suppliers such as EXTRAICE, S. L. SOCIEDAD LIMITADA SPAIN of Sevilla SPAIN; Scansis A S, Norway; Ice Rink Engineering and Manufacturing, LLC of Greenville, S.C., USA; and SmartRink Canada. This synthetic ice requires little maintenance, lower capital costs and can produce lower operating costs compared to conventional ice.
Various skate blades have been designed for use on synthetic ice surfaces and there are various designs for conventional in-line roller skates. One such design is described in DE published patent application No. DE19705472 entitled “Sports Shoe with Slide Piece for Track”. This application describes a skate having four in-line rollers wherein either all of the rotational axes of the rollers lie in a common plane and the frontmost and rearmost rollers have smaller diameters than the middle rollers or all rollers are about the same diameter and the central axes of rotation of the two middle rollers are disposed at a greater distance from the bottom of the foot than the two outer rollers. This causes the front and rear rollers to be raised off of the skating surface by a distance when skating in a level orientation. However, the angle of rotation required to engage the forward-most roller or the rear roller with the skating surface by pivoting forward or backward on the skate is relatively large with only four rollers and with the angles described in that application. Consequently, any forward and rearward rotational movement of the skate would appear to result in jerky movements that would not facilitate the finesse and artistic moves of an ice figure skater and would not facilitate the fine range of movement required of a hockey player or a hockey goal tender, or other precision skaters.
In addition, the rollers used on many existing in-line roller skates have flat annular running surfaces which is fine for use on high friction surfaces such as concrete or asphalt, but which are too smooth for use on synthetic ice surfaces, which have relatively low coefficients of friction. Flat annular running surfaces can slide sideways too easily on synthetic ice surfaces, which prevents skaters from performing power strokes for accelerating, from stopping effectively and from carrying out the finesse and accuracy required in performing turns and artistic moves.
The above mentioned German Patent describes rollers which have sharp circumferential edges with a half round or semi-circular shape between the edges and that this semi-circular shape is reground after a certain period of use, but provides no explanation of how to grind such a rotatable roller.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided a roller mounting apparatus for an in-line roller skate blade. The apparatus includes a body, which includes a footware connector portion, a spacing portion adjacent the footware connector portion and a roller mounting portion adjacent the spacing portion and opposite the footware connector portion. The roller mounting portion has roller mounts for mounting a plurality of rollers in tandem spaced apart positions such that contact points on outer surfaces of the rollers will lie on a first common curved line having no portion with a radius of curvature more than about 10 m, so that a contact point on a surface of a roller immediately adjacent to any given roller is spaced apart between about 0.1 mm to about 13 mm from a line tangent to said curved line at a point defined by the contact point of the given roller.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of sharpening an outer circumferential surface of a rotatable roller. The method involves causing an outer circumferential surface of a rotating grinding implement to contact the outer circumferential surface of the rotatable roller at a contact point, such that a grinder plane containing the contact point and a rotation axis of the rotating grinding implement is disposed at an angle to a roller plane containing the contact point and a rotational axis of the roller.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of sharpening an outer circumferential surface of a rotatable roller. The method involves causing an outer circumferential surface of a rotating grinding implement to contact the outer circumferential surface of the rotatable roller at a contact point such that a rotation axis of the roller, a rotation axis of the grinding implement and the contact point lie in a common plane, such that the rotating grinding implement tends to drive the roller in a first direction of rotation. The method also involves causing a contact surface of a rotating drive wheel to contact the roller to cause the roller to rotate in a second direction against the first direction of rotation to cause relative movement between the roller and the outer circumferential surface of the grinding implement at said contact point.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of sharpening outer circumferential surfaces of rollers on an in-line skate. The method involves positioning the in-line skate in a holder operably configured to hold the in-line skate in an orientation, causing a rotating grinding implement to be successively positioned in proximity to each roller on the in-line skate and executing the method of any one of the above each time the rotating grinding implement is positioned in proximity to a roller, on the in-line skate until at least some of the rollers on the in-line skate have been sharpened.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for sharpening an outer circumferential surface of a rotatable roller. The apparatus includes a rotating grinding implement having an outer circumferential surface and provisions for causing the outer circumferential surface of the rotating grinding implement to contact the outer circumferential surface of the rotatable roller at a contact point such that a grinder plane containing the contact point and a rotation axis of said rotating grinding implement is disposed at an angle to a roller plane containing the contact point and a rotational axis of the roller.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for sharpening an outer circumferential surface of a rotatable roller. The apparatus includes a rotating grinding implement having an outer circumferential surface and provisions for causing the outer circumferential surface of the rotating grinding implement to contact the outer circumferential surface of the rotatable roller at a contact point such that a rotation axis of the roller, a rotation axis of the grinding implement and the contact point lie in a common plane, such that the rotating grinding implement tends to drive the roller in a first direction of rotation. The apparatus also includes a rotating drive wheel having a contact surface and provisions for causing the contact surface of the rotating drive wheel to contact the roller to cause the roller to rotate in a second direction against the first direction of rotation to cause relative movement between the roller and the outer circumferential surface of the grinding implement at the contact point.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention there is provided a system for sharpening outer circumferential surfaces of rollers on an in-line skate. The system includes a holder operably configured to hold the in-line skate, provisions for moving the holder to position the in-line skate in an orientation and the apparatus of any one of the above. The system also includes provisions facilitating successively positioning the rotating grinding implement in proximity to each roller on the in-line skate to cause the grinding implement to contact the outer circumferential surface of at least some of the rollers on the in-line skate to effect sharpening thereof.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
In drawings which illustrate embodiments of the invention,
Referring to
The roller skate blade 10 includes a roller mounting apparatus 11 comprising an elongated body 50 having a footware connector portion 52, a spacing portion 54 adjacent the footware connector portion 52 and a roller mounting portion 56 adjacent the spacing portion 54 and opposite the footware connector portion 52. The spacing portion 54 is located between the footware connector portion 52 and the roller mounting portion 56.
Referring to
Alternatively, the body 50 could be formed from a hard plastic material or a combination of hard plastic and metal, for example.
Referring to
Referring back to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
In the embodiment shown, the bearing portion 502 includes first and second bearings 508 and 510 each comprising roller balls, not shown, disposed between inner and outer races 512 and 514. The outer races 514 are press-fit into corresponding recesses in the body 500 of the roller, one recess being shown at 516 in
In the embodiment shown, the outer races 514 may have a diameter of about 15 mm to about 18 mm and possibly 16 mm, for example. The inner races 512 may have a diameter of about 6 mm to about 10 mm and possibly 8 mm, for example. The width of the inner and outer races 512 and 514 may be about 4 mm to about 10 mm and possibly about 5 mm, for example.
In most embodiments for use on a skate, the dynamic load rating of each bearing will be no less than about 1000 Newtons, the static load rating no less than 500 Newtons and the weight of each bearing no more than about 4 grams. In addition, the bearing will desirably have a rating of at least 9 on the Annular Bearing Engineering Committee (ABEC) scale of the American Bearing Manufacturers Association (ABMA). An exemplary bearing suitable for this application is the 688zz-type bearing produced by Lily Bearing Manufacturing Co. Ltd. of Shanghai, China, or the MR688-ZZ type bearing produced by BOCA Bearing Company of Boynton Beach, Fla., USA.
The body 500 of the roller 112 has a tapered disk-shape tapering from a hub portion 522 where the body is joined to the outer races 514 of the bearings 508, 510 to a narrow outer portion 524 having a width of between about 2.8 mm to about 6.5 mm.
In the embodiment shown, the annular running portion 506 is a separate ring made from hardened steel, for example, press-fit onto the narrow outer portion 524 of the body 500 of the roller 112. As a result, the body 500 can be made from relatively lightweight, hard material such as aluminum or reinforced plastic and the annular running portion 506 can be made of hardened steel for durability and an outer annular running surface 526 thereof can be sharpened to be grooved or concaved so as to form first and second sharp edges 528 and 530 on opposite sides of the annular running surface 526. The first and second sharp edges 528 and 530 dig into a synthetic ice surface when the roller 112 is used on such surface and improve the skater's maneuverability over that available from conventional convexly-rounded or flat-shaped rollers. In the embodiment shown, the annular running surface 526 of the roller 112 has a width of approximately 2.8 mm to 6.54 mm and possibly about 3.8 mm and has an outer diameter of approximately 25 mm to 50 mm and possibly about 45 mm. The annular running surface 526 may initially be made circular cylindrical, without the groove or concave and the groove or concave can be made later by use of a specialized sharpening machine as described below, for example, adapted for creating the groove to form the first and second sharp edges 528 and 530.
The annular running portion 506 has a thickness 507 of about 1 mm to about 4 mm. The groove may be cut into the annular running surface 526 by about 0.01 mm to about 0.15 mm, for example, depending on how deep it is desired to be able to cut into the synthetic ice surface to provide the desired maneuverability.
In use, when gliding on a skate with the blade as shown in
Experimental results have shown that skates with rollers as described herein have exhibited a coefficient of friction on synthetic ice when gliding, on the order of between about 0.002 to about 0.005 which is very close to the effective coefficient of friction experienced by conventional solid blade skates on conventional ice. The rollers, together with the placement of the rollers such that the outer contact surfaces thereof lie on a common curved line of a single radius or multiple radii as described below, provide for skate maneuverability on synthetic ice that is very similar to the maneuverability experienced by a skater with conventional solid blade skates on conventional ice.
Optionally, the annular running portion 506 may have an annular running surface 526 with a diameter dependent on a size of the footware to which the roller blade apparatus is intended to be attached. For example, rollers with smaller diameter annular running surfaces, i.e. smaller rollers (towards 20 mm in diameter) may be preferable for use on roller blades on small-sized footware and rollers with larger diameter annular running surfaces, i.e. larger rollers, (towards 50 mm in diameter) may be preferable for use on roller blades on large-sized footware.
Optionally, where it is desired to have a small spacing between the underside of the footware and the skating surface, smaller rollers may be used to provide for this spacing and as a result, a greater number of rollers can be employed resulting in a more ice-skate-like feel to the skate. A skate with such small spacing may be suitable for goal tenders, for example.
Generally, the greater the number of rollers, the better the “feel” of the skate approximates the “feel” of a conventional ice skate. However, for a roller skate intended for use by a hockey player, referring to
It has been found that a good approximation of conventional ice skating suitable for a hockey player can be achieved by employing about 6 to about 10 rollers, each roller having an outside diameter of between about 20 mm to about 50 mm. Smaller footware skates may employ 6 rollers, for example, while larger footware may employ 10 rollers, for example. Alternatively, a larger number of rollers having smaller diameters may be employed with any given size of footware. The greater the number of rollers, the more the “feel” of the skate approximates the “feel” of a conventional ice skate. Optionally, the same number of rollers can be employed on skates used with boots of all sizes, with the size of the rollers being varied according to the boot size, where smaller boots will use blades with smaller sized rollers and larger boots will use blades with larger sized rollers.
Referring to
This ensures that the contact surfaces of the rollers are not coplanar, i.e. are not disposed on a straight line, which would impede fore-aft rocking movement of the roller mounting apparatus 11 on the skating surface 91. By mounting the rollers to cause their contact surfaces to lie on the above-described first common curved line 208 fore-aft rocking movement of the overall blade is facilitated, allowing the skater to easily and without excessive movement, rock the skate fore and aft, as desired, to permit the skater to position their foot to permit easy pivotal movement of the skate about a vertical axis generally perpendicular to the skating surface.
While the embodiment shown in
The first common curved line 208 may have a constant radius of curvature as shown in
Referring to
The third common curved line has a plurality of zones of curvature including a toe zone 310 in a forward portion of the roller mounting portion 307, a middle zone 312 in a middle portion of the roller mounting portion 307 and a heel zone 314 in an aft portion of the roller mounting portion 307. The third common curved line 280 has a toe zone radius of curvature 316 in the toe zone 310, a middle zone radius of curvature 318 in the middle zone 312 and a heel zone radius of curvature 320 in the heel zone 314. The middle zone radius of curvature 318 is greater than the toe zone radius of curvature 316 and the heel zone radius of curvature 320. In the embodiment shown, the toe zone radius of curvature is between about 20 cm to about 30 cm, the middle zone radius of curvature is between about 250 cm to about 310 cm and the heel zone radius of curvature is between about 10 cm to about 30 cm.
Referring to
In this embodiment the fourth common line 390 has at least one spin rocker zone radius of curvature 400 in the spin rocker zone 392 and a single rocker zone radius of curvature 402 in the rocker zone 394. In the embodiment shown the at least one spin rocker zone radius of curvature 400 is less than the rocker zone radius of curvature 402. More particularly, the at least one spin rocker zone radius of curvature 400 is between about 30 cm to about 70 cm and the rocker zone radius of curvature 402 is between about 180 cm to about 250 cm.
Referring to
In the embodiments shown in
Alternatively, referring to
Further alternatively, referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Referring back to
Generally, a common feature of all of the embodiments of the roller mounting apparatus is that all of the rollers in each embodiment lie on a common curved line. The rollers are not disposed in a straight line. By placing the rollers on a common curved line, the skater can rock his/her foot forward and backward which provides a greater resolution of pivot points along the blade and provides a better pivoting ability to the skater resulting in greater maneuverability than would be provided with rollers disposed in a straight line.
The common curved line may have different zones with respective different curvatures and the number of zones and number of rollers in each zone can be selected to suit the application of the skate blade. For example, hockey skates, goal tender skates and figure skates may have different numbers of rollers, different sizes of roller and respective common lines of curvature having one or more zones of different curvature. On skate blades with a plurality of zones the skater can adjust his/her stance to engage a suitable part of the blade for the desired maneuverability.
Referring to
The plate 830 has a slot 836 having a shape following the common curved line 838 established by the contact points of the rollers. Spaced apart pins, only one of which is shown at 840 on a table 842 that supports the plate 830 are received in the slot 836 and confine movement of the plate 830, on which the roller blade apparatus is being held, to a path that follows the path defined by the common curved line 838. Thus, as the plate 830 is moved in the direction generally shown by arrow 844, each roller, such as roller 802, can be successively positioned in proximity to the rotating grinding implement 806 to cause the grinding implement to contact the outer circumferential surface of any desired ones of the rollers on the skate blade to effect sharpening thereof.
It will be appreciated that different plates 830 may be provided with different shaped slots 836, where the different shaped slots are shaped to correspond to the common curved lines associated with respective types of skates to be sharpened. The slot and plate arrangement provides for relative movement between the roller blade apparatus and the rotating grinding implement 806.
In the embodiment shown, the slot and plate arrangement facilitates moving the inline skate relative to the rotating grinding implement 806 in a predefined path in space however, alternatively, similar provisions can be provided to move the rotating grinding implement in predefined path in space to position it adjacent a stationary held skate blade. Alternatively both the skate blade and the grinding implement 806 may be independently moveable or cooperatively moveable to successively position the grinding implement adjacent successive ones of the rollers, such as roller 802, to be sharpened. The plate 830 and slot 836 therein thus act as a sharpening template that cooperates with the table 842 and pins 840 thereon to define the predefined path of the skate relative to the grinding implement.
Referring to
As can be seen from
Generally, the greater the depth of the groove cut into the annular running surface 808 of the roller 802 the more bite the roller will have in the skating surface. A grinding implement 806 having a convex surface having a small radius of curvature will generally cut a deeper groove in the annular running surface. This may be desirable for sharpening the rollers on the roller skates of a hockey player, for example. A grinding implement 806 having a convex surface with a large radius of curvature will generally cut a more shallow groove in the annular running surface. This may be desirable for sharpening the rollers on the roller skates of a goal tender, for example.
As can be seen from
Referring back to
Referring to
As in the embodiment shown in
A screw device having a threaded bushing 918 is secured to the table 908 and a screw 920 is received in the threaded bushing 918 and has an end connected to an edge 922 of the plate 906 to allow linear movement caused by turning the screw 920 to be imparted to the plate 906 to thereby push or pull the motor mount 904 and hence the motor 905 and coupled grinding implement 806, toward or away from a roller such as roller 802.
Referring to
In this embodiment, the body of the cylindrical grinding element has a length 940 of between about 50 mm to about 150 mm but may have a length of about 50 mm to about 100 mm in another embodiment. In one embodiment the grinding implement 806 has a diameter 942 of between about 2 mm to about 40 mm and in another embodiment it has a diameter of about 4 mm to about 20 mm.
Referring back to
In this embodiment, the motor 905 may cause the grinding implement 806 to rotate at an angular speed of between about 1000 to about 5000 rpm or between about 2000 to about 3000 rpm, for example. The reciprocating motor 950 may cause the motor 905 to reciprocate axially and hence to move the outer circumferential surface 902 of the grinding implement 806 axially within a range of movement in a sinusoidal fashion for example having a frequency of about 0.5 to 2 Hz, to cause the entire outer circumferential surface 902 to wear evenly.
Referring to
Secured to the moveable plate 1018 is an electric motor 1022 having a shaft, not shown, with a rotation axis 1024. To the shaft is secured a rotating grinding implement 1026, the grinding implement having the same shape and properties as that described at 806 in
In addition, a rotating drive wheel 1038 comprising a solid body having a rubber outer circumferential surface that acts as a contact surface 1040 contacts a side wall of the roller 802. The rotating drive wheel 1038 is connected to a shaft 1042 of an electric drive motor 1044, configured to cause the shaft to rotate in a second direction of rotation 1046 at a speed of about 50 to about 200 rpm, against the first direction 1036, to cause relative opposite movement between the annular running surface of the roller 802 and the outer circumferential surface 1030 of the grinding implement 1026 at the contact point 810.
In this embodiment, the outer circumferential surface 1030 of the grinding implement is shaped in the manner shown in
Referring back to
In this embodiment, the electric drive motor 1044 is secured to a moveable plate 1050 having slots 1052 and 1054 in which are received pins 1056 and 1058 extending from a table plate 1060 attached to the support 1014. A screw mechanism 1062 allows a user to rotate a screw thread 1064 to move the movable plate 1050 in the direction of arrow 1066 to cause the drive wheel to be pressed against or retracted from the side wall of the roller 802 as desired. Similarly, actuation of the screw mechanism 1028 causes the grinding implement 1026 to be moved into or out of engagement with the outer circumferential surface 808 of the roller 802 with the pressure of contact against the roller being adjustable simply by actuation of the screw mechanism 1028 until a desired degree of pressure is applied by the grinding implement 1026 on the outer circumferential surface 808 of the roller 802. The screw mechanism 1028 and movable plate 1018 thus facilitate pressing the outer circumferential surface 1030 of the grinding implement 1026 against the outer circumferential surface 808 of the roller 802. The amount of pressing may be on the order of about between about 1 Newton to about 300 Newtons, for example.
Using any of the embodiments shown for sharpening the outer circumferential surfaces of the rollers, such outer circumferential surfaces can be shaped to provide edges of any desired degree of sharpness to provide for a desired degree of cutting into the synthetic ice surface to suit the application in which the roller skate blade is being used. The embodiments described can be easily implemented by modifying existing conventional-ice skate sharpening equipment to employ the features of orienting the roller plane at an angle relative to the grinder plane or to employ the features of engaging a rotating grinding implement with an outer surface of a roller to tend to drive the roller in a first direction while deliberately driving the roller by a separate drive mechanism in an opposite direction to cause the roller to have a relative rotation opposite to that of the grinding implement to facilitate shaping of the annular running surface of the roller with the grinding implement.
While specific embodiments of the invention have been described and illustrated, such embodiments should be considered illustrative of the invention only and not as limiting the invention as construed in accordance with the accompanying claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CA2013/000040 | Jan 2013 | WO | international |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CA2014/000024 | 1/13/2014 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2014/110662 | 7/24/2014 | WO | A |
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| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 19705472 | Aug 1988 | DE |
| 400436 | Oct 1933 | GB |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20150335984 A1 | Nov 2015 | US |
