Patent Application
20100109312
Ice skates have been used for recreational and transportation purposes for hundreds of years. Originally, some sort of low friction sliding device akin to a metal blade was attached using straps to a conventional boot. Eventually, in the past century, boots specifically intended for use only in ice skating evolved, typically with the blade firmly affixed to the boot. The unitary blade and boot had the advantage of rigidity allowing more speed and control than previously possible.
For many years, it has been realized that there may be an advantage to providing a replaceable sharpened blade for ice skates. With heavy use, typically a conventional skate blade will wear out before the boot portion. Accordingly, there is an advantage to extending the life of the skate by replacing the blade rather than replacing the entire skate.
For advanced skaters particularly, the degree of curvature of the blade (referred to as “rocker” in the industry) is important. Different skaters will choose different rocker curvatures depending upon their personal preferences. Unfortunately, with conventional skate construction, manual sharpening of the skates in which the blade and rocker are synonymous tends to vary the rocker curvature slightly. Over the course of the lifetime of a conventional skate, this curvature can vary dramatically.
In addition, sharpening must normally be done by someone other than the skater using special grinding equipment. This is often inconvenient to the skater and involves a certain expense.
Certain of the prior art attempts to provide replaceable skate blades have involved replacement of a relatively heavy, and thus expensive, metal portion of the skate with substantial removal and fastening difficulties. Some such replaceable blades were intended to be sharpened a number of times before replacement. See, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,749 to Olivieri. In other prior art attempts, the replaceable blade, although lightweight, has not been effectively mounted on the rocker to provide the security required particularly by advanced skaters. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,108,128 to Kinney. Still other replacement blades have been of a complex construction not easily adapted to inexpensive commercial production. See, for example, German Patent No. 724488 to Dornseif and U.S. Pat. No. 3,947,050 to Isely. Moreover, replaceable blades have tended to be prone to breakage owing to the structure of the blade and the tension under which the blade is placed in order to stretch it along the base of a skate blade. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,674 to Cann, et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,683 to Venier et al. describes a replaceable blade system in which the shortcomings of the prior art, including the excess breakage associated with the Cann patent configuration, has been solved using a novel means to connect the flexible replaceable blade to the skate so that it is pulled more or less longitudinally and tensioned evenly along its length. A torque limiting device provides for easy replacement and adjustment of blades by consumers without damage to the skate or the replaceable blade. A limitation of this arrangement is that the associated attachment and tensioning mechanism is complex and requires a separate torque limiting tool to operate. An additional problem of the Venier patent is that the tensioning mechanism requires a high stiffness and high strength rigid holder for mounting.
The present invention solves these prior art problems. The skate of the present invention utilizes an identical flexible replaceable blade configuration to the prior art patent of Venier. This blade is inexpensive, light and easily changed and can be replaced with little or no wear on the remainder of the skate. A result of this construction is that the blade is evenly tensioned along its length and the rocker curvature will not vary since no manual sharpening is required. In addition, different rocker curvatures can be chosen according to the user's preference and the identical replaceable blade can be used with all such rocker curvatures. The configuration of the present invention differs from the Venier prior art in that a pivoting rocker section is utilized to connect the blade to the skate. This pivoting rocker section utilizes differential radiuses to tension the blade once it has been retained rather than the tensioning bolt, tension plate and torque limiting mechanism of the Venier patent.
A simple retention latch is configured to retain the pivoting rocker section in a closed position with the flexible replaceable blade held in tension. The retention latch can be simply operated by a skater to release the pivoting rocker section to a released position for blade replacement. This system is superior to the Venier arrangement in that it does not require a separate tool to operate, the tensioning loads are contained within the rocker so the holder can be constructed from regular plastic materials and the number of parts and complexity are significantly reduced. Additionally the cross-sectional shape of the rocker of the present invention is significantly simpler than that of the Venier configuration allowing for the use of lower cost manufacturing techniques.
Another advantage of the present invention is that the retention system of the flexible replaceable blade configuration can also be utilized for a single piece solid blade system. The single piece blade system incorporates a blade along its lower surface. The solid blade arrangement can be sharpened in a conventional manner as well as removed and replaced so as to extend the overall life of the ice skate assembly.
Accordingly, the ice skate of the present invention comprises a holder; a blade system with a lower surface of a first defined curvature and at least one blade engagement portion; the blade system comprising a blade along the lower surface; at least one attachment device mounted to the holder for movement between a blade securing position and a blade releasing position; the attachment device having an attachment engagement portion; wherein the blade system is retained in the holder via the blade engagement portion detachably mating with the attachment engagement portion when the attachment device is in the blade securing position.
In an aspect of the invention, the blade is integral with the blade system.
In a further aspect of the invention, the blade system comprises a downward facing rocker with a lower surface of the first defined curvature, a front end a rear end; a flexible replaceable blade having a second curvature when not attached to the rocker; the flexible replaceable blade having an upper surface, a lower ice-contacting surface, a front end and a rear end and being adapted to be removably mounted to the rocker; front securing means for attaching the front end of the flexible replaceable blade to the front end of the rocker; rear securing means for attaching the rear end of the flexible replaceable blade to the rear end of the rocker; wherein the flexible replaceable blade conforms to the first defined curvature of the rocker when mounted thereon. In this way a skater can easily release a used flexible replaceable blade from the rocker and simply change it for a new replaceable blade. The flexible replaceable blade curvature will then conform to the first defined curvature of the downward facing rocker.
In an aspect of the invention the flexible replaceable blade is formed with a groove along the length of its upper surface that mates with a corresponding ridge or tongue along the lower surface of downward facing rocker.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the rear end of the downward facing rocker is adapted to rotate between an open position and a closed position, around a pivot point fixed to the front end of the rocker such that the rotation of the rear end of the rocker portion into the closed position creates a tension along the length of the flexible replaceable blade.
In an aspect of the preferred embodiment of the invention, the attachment engagement portion of the attachment device detachably mates with the blade engagement portion so as to retain the rotatable rear end of the rocker in the closed position when the attachment device is in the blade securing position.
In a further aspect of the invention, the attachment device includes at least one biasing device, preferably a spring, that biases the attachment device to the blade securing position and the attachment device also incorporates a releasing feature, preferably a button that is adapted to move the attachment device between the blade securing position and the blade releasing position.
In a further aspect of the invention the attachment device is a retention latch, the attachment engagement portion is a pawl feature and the blade engagement portion comprises a striker feature.
In another aspect of the invention, the flexible replaceable blade is capable of being mounted on a rocker having any of a variety of first curvatures.
In a further aspect of the invention, the flexible replaceable blade is curved more than 90° at both the front end and the rear end thereof for placement and attachment into the front and rear securing means.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the holder has at least one substantially enclosed chamber; at least one attachment device is mounted and substantially located in the chamber of the holder for movement between a blade securing position and a blade releasing position; the attachment device having an attachment engagement portion accessible through a first opening to the chamber and at least one button which is accessible through a second opening to the chamber to move the attachment device between the blade securing position and the blade releasing position; wherein a blade system is retained in the holder via the blade engagement portion detachably mating with the attachment engagement portion when extended through the first opening in the holder and when the attachment device is in the blade securing position.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the holder has another attachment device with another attachment engagement portion and the blade system has another blade engagement portion that detachably mates with the another attachment engagement portion.
In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the holder has a compliant retention surface and an integrated retention pin; the blade system has a lower surface of a first defined curvature, a biasing surface, a front retention hook and a striker feature; the blade system comprising a blade along the lower surface; a retention latch is pivotally mounted to the holder for movement between a blade securing position and a blade releasing position; the retention latch has a pawl feature and a button to move the retention latch between the blade securing position and the blade releasing position and a spring that biases the retention latch to the blade securing position; wherein said blade system is retained in the holder via the front retention hook being biased into cooperation with the integrated retention pin by interaction of the biasing surface and compliant retention surface, and the striker feature detachably mating with the pawl feature when the retention latch is in the blade securing position, such that the blade system can also be easily detached from the holder by operation of the button feature by a skater so that the retention latch is moved from the blade securing position to the blade releasing position.
Further aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following description.
Referring to
Referring to
The flexible replaceable blade (4) may be made using wire stock. The material for the blades arrives at the drawing/rolling facility in coils of round wire. It is then drawn through wire drawing dies and/or rolled into the desired cross-sectional shape, still in wire form. Following the drawing/rolling process, the material is then sharpened on the lower ice-contacting surface of the blade. Sharpening is typically performed using a grinding operation. The blade is then passed through spring wire bending machines to obtain the proper blade curvature and a defined bend or curvature is imparted to it using computer controlled, or conventional, spring bending machines. As previously stated a blade of a standard curvature may be fitted into rockers of many different curvatures. Such standardized replacement blades are a significant advantage.
The downwardly facing rocker portion (3) is typically constructed from an aluminum alloy but could also be made from steel or a similar metallic material. The rocker portion rear end (10) and the bushing and rivet arrangement at the pivot joint (14) are configured so that the rocker portion rear end (10) can be removed and replaced with those of different first defined curvatures. The holder is typically manufactured from a moulded plastic such as Nylon.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the blade engagement portion (11) comprises a striker feature, the attachment device (5) is a retention latch adapted to be pivotally mounted to the holder (2) at a latch pivot point (15) and the retention latch (5) is configured with a releasing feature (8), preferably a button, and an attachment engagement portion (6) comprising a pawl feature. The pawl feature (6) is configured to interlock with the striker feature (11) so as to rigidly restrain the rocker portion rear end (10) in a closed position.
The process of attachment of the blade to the rocker will now be described in further detail. The rocker portion rear end (10) is placed in its released position as illustrated in
An additional preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in
When the blade system (50) is in the latched position, the biasing surface (58) interacts with the retention surface (19) of the holder (2) which biases the front retention hook (54) onto the retention pin (18). Owing to the different width requirements of steel blade systems and aluminum downward facing rocker portions, a width compensator (60) may be incorporated into the steel blade system (50) so that it may be utilized in the previously described holder (2) if it has been configured to accept a wider aluminum downward facing rocker portion (3). In this way, a common boot (1), holder (2) and retention system can be utilized for a flexible replaceable blade (4) or a more conventional solid blade arrangement. The solid blade arrangement has the advantage that the blade system (50) can be sharpened in a conventional manner as well as removed and replaced so as to extend the life of the ice skate assembly. Additionally, the interaction of the biasing surface (58) with the compliant retention surface (19) imparts a residual compressive loading that eliminates all movement between the holder (2) and the blade system (50).
The foregoing description is intended to be illustrative of preferred embodiments of the invention. Variations of the construction described will be obvious to those skilled in the art and are intended to be covered by this invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2574753 | Jan 2007 | CA | national |
| 2596524 | Aug 2007 | CA | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CA2008/000099 | 1/18/2008 | WO | 00 | 7/16/2009 |
