The present disclosure relates to a sole attached to a ground contact region of an athletic prosthetic leg, and in particular, relates to a sole of an athletic prosthetic leg which ensures a footprint area to a road surface while inhibiting occurrence of uneven wear.
Conventionally, a prosthetic leg for athletics (hereinafter, referred to as an athletic prosthetic leg or simply referred to as a prosthetic leg) having a leaf-spring-like leg portion which extends to a side of a toe via a curved portion and in which a ground contact region extends from the toe to a side of the curved portion in an arc has been well-known. To such an athletic prosthetic leg having the leaf-spring-like leg portion, generally, a sole which abuts a road surface is attached to a bottom surface of the ground contact region.
For example, Patent Literature 1 illustrates a sole attached to a lower surface of a curved leaf-spring-like athletic prosthetic leg to correspond to sporting events such as jogging or running. In other words, Patent Literature 1 discloses the sole in which a number of outsole portions each having a hexagonal contact patch are attached at a lower surface of the sole contacting a road surface.
PTL 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2016-150189
Here, accompanied with overall speed-up in athletics using the athletic prosthetic leg, to enable stable running, ensuring the footprint area to the road surface has been an object. While the footprint area is ensured at the hexagonal outsole portions in the sole disclosed in Patent Literature 1, there has been a problem that uneven wear occurs at the outsole portions accompanied with use.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide the sole of the athletic prosthetic leg which ensures the footprint area to the road surface while inhibiting occurrence of uneven wear.
The inventor earnestly studied about means which resolves the problem. In other words, reviewing the bottom surface of the sole of the athletic prosthetic leg in detail, the inventor newly found that the footprint area to the road surface can be ensured while uneven wear is inhibited by designing the shape of recesses and protrusions when the recesses and protrusions are formed by forming grooves on a sole bottom surface, and arrived at the present disclosure.
According to the present disclosure, there is provided a sole of an athletic prosthetic leg, the sole being configured to be attached to a ground contact region of the athletic prosthetic leg having a leaf-spring-like leg portion extending to a side of a toe via at least one curved portion, the ground contact region extending in an arc from the toe to a side of the curved portion, the sole including: a bottom surface having a shape conforming to an extending shape of the ground contact region, wherein the bottom surface has at least one width direction land portion defined by a plurality of width direction grooves extending in a width direction of the sole, and the width direction land portion includes a chamfer at each of both end edges at border positions, respectively, between a contact patch and both side walls facing the plurality of width direction grooves.
According to the present disclosure, the sole of an athletic prosthetic leg which ensures the footprint area to the road surface while occurrence of uneven wear is inhibited can be provided.
In the accompanying drawings:
Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings, a sole of an athletic prosthetic leg according to the present disclosure (hereinafter, it is also referred to as a sole) will be explained in detail with illustration of embodiments thereof.
Hereinafter, in this embodiment, in a height direction of the athletic prosthetic leg, a side where the leg portion 2 is connected to the adapter is referred to as a connection side, and a side where the leg portion 2 contacts a road surface S is referred to as a ground contact side. Also, a toe T of the athletic prosthetic leg 1 refers to a point at the forefront as a termination of the leg portion 2 extending from the connection side.
In this embodiment, the leg portion 2 of the athletic prosthetic leg 1 has a plate-like extending shape to the side of the toe T via at least one curved portion, in the illustrated example, one curved portion 3. In
Additionally, although the material of the leg portion 2 is not limited, from a viewpoint of strength and weight saving, fiber reinforced plastic etc. is preferably used.
The ground contact portion 4 includes a ground contact region 4s extending from the toe T to the side of the curved portion 3 in an arc at the ground contact side, and the sole 5 is attached to the ground contact region 4s. The ground contact region 4s refers to the entire region abutting the road surface S when the wearer who wears the athletic prosthetic leg 1 executes straight running movement, and in a state that the sole 5 is attached, the ground contact region 4s abuts the road surface S via the sole 5.
Although the material of the sole 5 is not limited, for example, rubber can be used.
The sole 5 has a shape conforming to an extending shape of the ground contact region 4s. Also, the ground contact side of the sole 5 is a sole bottom surface 5s. As illustrated in
Hereinafter, a direction in which the sole bottom surface 5s extends from the side of the toe T to the side of the curved portion 3 is referred to as a Y direction, and a widthwise direction of the sole bottom surface 5s orthogonal to the Y direction is referred to as a W direction. Further, a thickness direction of the sole 5 is referred to as a Z direction.
The width direction land portion 10 has the shape including the chamfers c1 and c2, whereby the following effects can be obtained. In other words, during running of the wearer of the prosthetic leg, at the time of movement in which the sole bottom surface 5s sequentially contacts the ground from the side of the curved portion 3 to the side of the toe T, or from the side of the toe T to the side of the curved portion 3, a ground contact pressure has been inclined to be higher at an end edge on the side of the road surface S of the width direction land portion 10. Especially, when the end edge includes an edge component, prior abrasion has been inclined to occur mainly at the edge component. Accordingly, by making a chamfered shape at both the end edges at the border positions between the contact patch 10s and both the side walls 10Wa and 10Wb facing the width direction grooves 20, occurrence of prior abrasion at both the end edges can be avoided. Also, since the width direction land portion 10 contacts the ground from the contact patch 10s and a portion including the chamfers c1 and c2 are pressed in the Z direction, occurrence of strain at the contact patch 10s due to a rubber flow to an outer side in the Y direction can be prevented. Consequently, ground contact pressure can be maintained as even and the footprint area can be fully ensured.
In the width direction land portion 10, a height h1 in the Z direction and a length w1 in a direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the width direction land portion 10 are preferably such that the height h1 is 1.5 times larger or more and 10.0 times larger or less with respect to the length w1. With this configuration, at the time of running of the wearer of the athletic prosthetic leg 1, a sufficient rigidity can be applied to the width direction land portion 10 allowing the sole bottom surface 5s to have an appropriate flexibility.
In the chamfers c1 and c2, a height h2 in the Z direction is preferably 25% or more and 67% or less of the height h1 in the Z direction of the width direction land portion 10. Rendering the height h2/the height h1 25% or more can effectively prevent occurrence of uneven wear, while rendering the height h2/the height h1 67% or less can apply the sufficient rigidity to the width direction land portion 10. Preferably, the height h2/the height h1 is 33% or more and 60% or less, and more preferably, 50%.
Further, in the width direction land portion 10, the length w1 in the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the width direction land portion 10 and a total of the lengths w2 and w3 of the chamfers c1 and c2 at both the end edges in the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the width direction land portion 10 preferably satisfy the relationship of the following formula:
0.3≤[w1−(w2+w3)]/w1≤0.9. (Formula)
By rendering a value of [w1−(w2+w3)]/w1 0.3 times larger or more, the footprint area at a moment of the first ground contact of the width direction land portion 10 can be fully ensured, which improves anti-slip performance. On the other hand, by rendering this value 0.9 times larger or less, drainage performance by the stepwise side walls can be exerted more efficiently.
More preferably, 0.3≤[w1−(w2+w3)]/w1≤0.8, and more preferably, 0.47≤[w1−(w2+w3)]/w1≤0.78.
Additionally, while the lengths w2 and w3 have the same length in
Also, in the chamfers c1 and c2, the lengths w2 and w3 in the direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the width direction land portion 10 preferably have a length of 0.5 times larger or more and 8.0 times larger or less with respect to the height h2. With this configuration, by forming the chamfers c1 and c2, rigidity of the width direction land portion 10 is not deteriorated, and also the footprint area to the road surface can be efficiently ensured while occurrence of uneven wear can be inhibited.
Additionally, the length w1 of the width direction land portion 10 is preferably 2.0 mm or more and 8.0 mm or less. The length w1 of 2.0 mm or more applies sufficient land portion rigidity to the width direction land portion 10, while the length w1 of 8.0 mm or less can maintain flexibility of the sole bottom surface 5s in the Y direction. Preferably, the length w1 is 3.0 mm or more and 6.5 mm or less, and more preferably, 3.8 mm or more and 4.5 mm or less.
Also, the lengths w2 and w3 of the chamfers c1 and c2 are preferably 0.5 mm or more and 2.5 mm or less. The lengths w2 and w3 of 0.5 mm or more can improve an inhibition effect of uneven wear, while the lengths w2 and w3 of 2.5 mm or less fully ensure the footprint area without deteriorating rigidity of the width direction land portion 10.
Further, the height h1 of the width direction land portion 10 is preferably 1.0 mm or more and 7.0 mm or less. The height h1 of 1.0 mm or more can improve drainage performance due to the recesses and protrusions of the sole bottom surface 5s, while the height h1 of 7.0 mm or less can maintain rigidity of the width direction land portion 10. Preferably, the height h1 is 2.0 mm or more and 3.5 mm or less, and more preferably, 2.4 mm or more and 3.5 mm or less.
The height h2 of the chamfers c1 and c2 are preferably 0.5 mm or more and 2.5 mm or less. The height h2 of 0.5 mm or more can more effectively inhibit occurrence of uneven wear, while the height h2 of 2.5 mm or less can inhibit deterioration of rigidity of the width direction land portion 10. Preferably, the height h2 is 0.7 mm or more and 1.5 mm or less, and more preferably, 1.2 mm or more and 1.5 mm or less.
Next, with reference to
The pattern of the sole bottom surface 5s of the sole of an athletic prosthetic leg according to the second embodiment is based on a finding related to a ground contact form obtained from an experiment which will be explained later. An experiment result of the ground contact form of the sole bottom surface 5s will be explained using
Based on the experiment result illustrated in
In other words, in
The width direction land portion 100 is shaped to include a width direction extending portion 100a extending in the W direction to be substantially zigzag-shaped, a toe side protruding portion 100b extending to the side of the toe T from a bent portion bending to be convex to the side of the toe T and a curved portion side protruding portion 100c extending to the side of the curved portion 3 from a bent portion bending to be convex to the side of the curved portion 3. The width direction land portion 110 is shaped to include a width direction extending portion 110a, a toe side protruding portion 110b and a curved portion side protruding portion 110c. Additionally, the width direction land portion 140 has the same shape as the width direction land portion 110.
Here, a region where the width direction land portions 100 and 110 are arranged is one corresponding to the ground contact region illustrated in
Additionally, a land portion width of the width direction land portion 110 is larger than that of the width direction land portion 100. As illustrated in
The width direction land portion 120 is shaped to include a width direction extending portion 120a which extends in the W direction to be substantially zigzag-shaped and in which a land portion width is repeatedly wide and narrow, a toe side protruding portion 120b extending to be convex in an extending direction of the width direction extending portion 120a from a bent portion bending to be convex at the side of the toe T and a curved portion side protruding portion 120c extending to be convex in the extending direction of the width direction land portion 120a from a bent portion bending to be convex at the side of the curved portion 3.
A region where the width direction land portion 120 is arranged is one illustrated in
Also, the sole bottom surface 5s of this embodiment preferably includes a plurality of sipes 130A each extending linearly in a direction which is inclined to the W direction at a region from an end edge at the side of the toe T toward the side of the curved portion 3. The region where the sipes 130A are arranged is one illustrated in
Especially, a certain degree of region from the end edge of the sole bottom surface 5s at the side of the toe T where the sipes 130A are formed is a region corresponding to the arc X1 which continues with a certain radius of curvature from the toe T. As illustrated in
Also, preferably, the sipes 130A terminate in the sole bottom surface 5s, and as illustrated in
Additionally, the shape of the sipes is arbitrary, and in addition to the shape of the sipe 130A illustrated in
Additionally, in any of the embodiments described above, in the pattern of the sole bottom surface 5s, fluorine is preferably applied to a groove wall and a groove bottom constituting the width direction groove which defines width direction land portions. Since the fluorine is applied to the groove wall and the groove bottom of the width direction groove, drainage performance in the sole bottom surface 5s can be improved.
1 athletic prosthetic leg
2 leg portion
2
a straight portion
2
b,
2
c curved portion
3 curved portion
4 ground contact portion
4
s ground contact region
5 sole
5
s sole bottom surface
10 width direction land portion
10
s contact patch
10Wa, 10Wb side wall
20 width direction groove
100, 110, 120, 140 width direction land portion
100
a,
110
a,
120
a width direction extending portion
100
b,
110
b,
120
b toe side protruding portion
100
c,
110
c,
120
c curved portion side protruding portion
130A, 130B, 130C sipe
c1, c2, c10, c20 chamfer
w1 length of a width direction land portion 10 in a direction orthogonal to an extending direction
w2, w3 lengths of chamfers c1 and c2 in a direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the width direction land portion 10
h1 height of the width direction land portion 10 in a Z direction
h2 height of the chamfers c1 and c2 in the Z direction
S road surface
Y direction in which a sole bottom surface 5s extends from a side of a toe T to a side of a curved portion 3
W width direction of the sole bottom surface 5s which is orthogonal to a Y direction
Z thick direction of a sole 5
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2018-138800 | Jul 2018 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2019/028689 | 7/22/2019 | WO | 00 |