BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the invention
[0001] The present disclosure relates to an inclined structure of a court floor having a
new structure for easily collecting and automatically supplying balls used in practice.
2. Description of the Related Art
[0002] In recent years, an increasing number of people are enjoying ball games such as basketball,
futsal, volleyball, tennis, and foot volleyball.
[0003] However, since the court of a stadium where such ball games take place is configured
to form a horizontal plane, the balls used in the practice are scattered and spread
out around the court when a player is practicing. There is a problem wherein the balls
scattered during practice as such must be collected again, which is very inconvenient.
[0004] Therefore, a new method for solving such a problem is required.
[0005] As a prior art related thereto, there is Granted Korean Patent Publication No.
10-0394902.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] The present disclosure is directed to providing an inclined structure for a court
floor having a new structure for easily collecting and automatically supplying balls
used in practice.
[0007] In an aspect of the present disclosure, an inclined structure of a court floor may
be provided, wherein a top surface of a court A of a ball game stadium formed to enable
ball games to be played is inclined outwardly such that a ball used for playing or
practice rolls outwardly and is collected, a support layer 11 having an inclined upper
surface is formed on a bottom surface 10 of the court A, the support layer 11 is provided
to correspond to an outer circumferential portion of the court A, a mold 13 configured
by assembling a wooden panel into a quadrilateral frame shape and a support member
14 arranged inside the mold 13 and joined to a metal pipe to form an inclined surface
whose upper surface corresponds to the inclined surface of the support layer 11 is
included, wherein concrete is laid inside the mold 13, the upper surface of the concrete
is evened out and hardened so as to form a surface having a same slope as the upper
surface of the support member 14 such that the upper surface of the concrete corresponds
to the upper surface of the support member 14, the upper surface of the hardened concrete
is finished through a grinder or an abrader, a flooring 12 selected from wood, synthetic
resin or rubber based on a type of the stadium is formed in a panel shape on the upper
surface of the support layer 11 so as to be adhered and fixed to cover the support
layer 11, or a flooring is configured by applying a flooring component of synthetic
resin or rubber material on the upper surface of the support layer 11 at a constant
thickness, the ball used for playing or practice is discharged outside of the court
A along an inclined surface of the court A, the inclined surface of the court A configured
to have an entire upper surface inclining downwards towards opposite sides, or configured
to have only the opposite sides of the upper surface inclining downwards towards the
opposite sides, or configured to have the opposite sides and a rear side inclining
downwards towards the opposite sides and the rear side, respectfully, or configured
to have a dome shape inclining downwards to an outer side from a center portion, such
that the ball is collected in a collecting ditch 1 inclined to one side of the outer
circumferential portion of the court A and then gathered to one side along the slope
of the collecting ditch 1, an inclination of the support layer 11 is formed in a range
of 0.1° to 3°, and a portion where the inclination of each edge of the court A starts
is rounded and gently formed.
[0008] According to an inclined structure of a court floor structure for automatic supply
in a ball game according to the present disclosure, the ball used for practice can
be rolled down outwardly along the slope of the court, and then be collected in the
collecting ditch and gathered in one place, so there is no need to collect scattered
balls separately.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009]
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an inclined structure of a court floor according to
the present disclosure,
FIG. 2 is a side sectional view showing an inclined structure of a court floor according
to the present disclosure,
FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a mold for constructing a support layer of an inclined
structure of a court floor according to the present disclosure,
FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of a mold for constructing a support layer of an inclined
structure of a court floor according to the present disclosure,
FIGS. 5 to 10 are plan views showing a modified example of an inclined structure of
a court floor according to the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
[0010] The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
[0011] FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate a court structure of a ball game stadium according to
the present invention, which is applied to a court A of a stadium having a length
of 12 m and a width of 6 m.
[0012] According to this structure, the upper surface of the court A is inclined outwardly,
and a collecting ditch 1 inclined to one side is formed on the outer circumference
of court A so that the ball used for playing or practice rolls outwardly and is collected
in the collecting ditch 1, and then gathered to one side along the slope of the collecting
ditch 1.
[0013] At this time, as shown in FIG. 1, the court A is formed such that the entire court
A is inclined in a front-rear direction about the central portion.
[0014] In describing in more detail, the court A forms a support layer 11 having an upper
surface inclined in the front-rear direction on the bottom surface 10, the support
layer 11 being prepared with various materials that do not affect sports games such
as concrete, ocher and the like. A flooring 12 is configured by being laminated on
the upper surface of the support layer 11.
[0015] To this end, the bottom surface 10 is shown as being firmly hardened so that the
ground surface forms a plane, or on the ground surface, a separate member is laminated
on the top surface of the ground surface as to form a plane.
[0016] In addition, the support layer 11 is constructed to have an upper surface that is
inclined at an exact angle via the following steps: providing a mold 13 so as to correspond
to an outer circumferential portion of the court A, placing a plurality of support
members 14 configured to form an upper surface having an inclined surface corresponding
to an inclined surface of the support layer 11 into the mold 13 such that the plurality
of support members 14 are spaced apart in an mutually lateral direction, laying concrete
into the mold 13, evening out the upper surface of the concrete so as to be corresponding
to the inclined surface of the support member 14 and then hardening, finishing the
upper surface of the hardened concrete using a grinder or an abrader or the like.
[0017] In addition, the inclination of the support layer 11 is formed in a range of 0.1°
to 3°, preferably 0.5° to 1.5°. As such, the inclination of the support layer 11 is
set in the range of 0.1° to 3° to solve the problems that occur. When the inclination
of the supporting layer 11 is 0.1° or less, it forms a plane state which makes it
impossible to gather balls used in a sports game to a collecting ditch 1 and when
the inclination of the supporting layer 11 is 3° or more, the inclination (slope)
is so great that the sports games cannot be performed freely.
[0018] Referring to an example wherein the inclination is set from 0.5° to 1.5°, in the
case of a wooden material having small frictional force set to 0.7°, balls that have
air pumped in, for example, a soccer ball, volleyball, basketball and the like are
gathered in a collecting ditch 1, but a tennis ball, baseball, or pingpong ball and
the like do not have the appropriate surface material or size and thus are hard to
roll around.
[0019] In the case of a wooden, urethane, or PP(plastic) flooring having an inclination
of 1.5°, with slight difference in time all balls of ball games are gathered in the
collecting ditch 1.
[0020] Generally, starting from an inclination of 1.5° or more, it becomes uncomfortable
to play the ball games, and once the inclincation reaches around 3°, there is muh
difficulty in playing the sports.
[0021] In a case of a grass stadium, even when set to 3°, the ball couldn't reach the collecting
ditch.
[0022] Because such setting of inclination changes the stress fatigue of a player and the
possibility of collecting a ball, it is important to set the a preferable inclination.
[0023] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the mold is configured by assembling a wooden panel in
a quadrilateral frame shape.
[0024] The support member 14 is formed by welding a metal pipe having high strength.
[0025] In addition, when the upper surface of the concrete laid in the mold 13 is evened
out, by pushing a wide bull floating tool having a lateral width that is bigger than
the spacing of the support member 14 in a front-rear direction while placed on top
of the upper surface of the support member 14 to widely spread the concrete, the upper
surface of the concrete can form a plane having the same slope as that of the upper
surface of the support member 14.
[0026] Since the bull floating tool is generally used when evening out the upper surface
of concrete placed on a bottom surface, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.
[0027] A flooring 12 is made of wood, synthetic resin or rubber and is formed in a small
panel shape so that a plurality of the same are adhered and fixed on the upper surface
of the support layer 11 so as to cover the support layer 11, or is applied so as to
have a constant thickness on the upper surface.
[0028] At this time, the type of the flooring 12 depends on the type of the stadium.
[0029] Further, the inclination angle of the court A is appropriately adjusted according
to the type of ball and the type of the flooring 12.
[0030] In addition, the collecting ditch 1 is provided with a ball feeding means 2 for providing
the ball collected by the collecting ditch 1 to the players, so that the ball collected
in the collecting ditch 1 is automatically supplied to the players.
[0031] According to the inclined structure of the court floor configured as described above,
the ball used for practice rolls outwardly along the slope of the court A, as indicated
by an arrow in FIG. 1, and then is collected in the collecting ditch 1 and gathered
in one place. Thus there is an advantage that there is no need to collect scattered
balls separately.
[0032] Further, the court A comprises a support layer 11 made of a concrete material having
an inclined upper surface on the bottom surface 10 and a flooring 12 configured by
laminating wood, synthetic resin or rubber on the upper surface of the support layer
11. Thus, there is an advantage that the inclined surface of the court A can be freely
adjusted.
[0033] Particularly, there is an advantage that the support layer 11 and the flooring 12
placed on top of the upper surface of the support layer 11 can be formed to be an
exact plane surface via the following steps: providing a mold 13 so as to correspond
to an outer circumferential portion of the court A, placing a plurality of support
members 14 configured to form an upper surface having an inclined surface corresponding
to an inclined surface of the support layer 11 into the mold 13 such that the plurality
of support members 14 are spaced apart in an mutually lateral direction, laying concrete
into the mold 13, evening out the upper surface of the concrete so as to be corresponding
to the inclined surface of the support member 14 and then hardening, finishing the
upper surface of the hardened concrete using a grinder or an abrader or the like.
[0034] In the present embodiment, the entirety of the court A is inclined in the front-rear
direction with respect to the center portion. However, as shown in FIG. 5, only half
of the court A may be inclined in the front-rear direction.
[0035] Further, as shown in Fig. 6, the entire upper surface may be inclined downward towards
opposite sides, or only opposite sides of the upper surface may be inclined downward
towards opposite sides as shown in FIG. 7. In addition, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9,
opposite sides and rear sides can be configured to be inclined downward towards the
opposite sides and the rear sides, respectively. Further, as shown in FIG. 10, a court
structure may be to have a uniform inclination in all directions about a center or
may be formed of a plurality of inclined layers along circumferences of circles with
radii increasing according to the distance from the center.
[0036] Alternatively, the court A may be formed in a dome shape inclined downward to an
outer side from the center portion.
[0037] It is preferable that the portion where the inclination (slope) starts in the court
A having the above-described configuration, that is, the portion where the corners
meet (the portion indicated by a dotted line in the figures) is rounded and gently
formed.
<Description of Symbols>
[0038]
A. Court
1. Collecting ditch
10. Bottom surface
Amended claims in accordance with Rule 137(2) EPC.
1. A court floor for automatic supply in a ball game, wherein a top surface of the court
floor is formed to enable ball games to be played is inclined outwardly such that
a ball used for playing or practice rolls outwardly and is collected,
the court floor comprising: a support layer (11) having an inclined upper surface
is formed on a bottom surface (10) of the court (A), the support layer (11) is provided
to correspond to an outer circumferential portion of the court (A); and
characterized by further comprising a flooring (12) selected from wood, synthetic resin or rubber
based on a type of the stadium formed in a panel shape on the upper surface of the
support layer (11) so as to be adhered and fixed to cover the support layer (11),
wherein the inclined surface of the court (A) is configured such that the ball used
for playing or practice is discharged outside of the court (A) along an inclined surface
of the court (A), and
wherein an inclination of the support layer (11) is formed in a range of 0.1° to 3°,
and
wherein a portion where the inclination of each edge of the court (A) starts is rounded.
2. The court floor of claim 1, wherein the inclined surface of the court (A) has an entire
upper surface inclining downwards towards opposite sides.
3. The court floor of claim 1, wherein the inclined surface of the court (A) has only
the opposite sides of the upper surface inclining downwards towards the opposite sides.
4. The court floor of claim 1, wherein the inclined surface of the court (A) has the
opposite sides and a rear side inclining downwards towards the opposite sides and
the rear side, respectfully,
5. The court floor of claim 1, wherein the inclined surface of the court (A) has a dome
shape inclining downwards to an outer side from a center portion such that the ball
is collected in a collecting ditch (1) inclined to one side of the outer circumferential
portion of the court (A) and then gathered to one side along the slope of the collecting
ditch (1).
6. A method for manufacturing the court floor of claim 1, comprising: preparing a mold
(13) configured by assembling a wooden panel into a quadrilateral frame shape and
a support member (14) arranged inside the mold (13) and joined to a metal pipe to
form an inclined surface whose upper surface corresponds to the inclined surface of
the support layer (11);
laying concrete inside the mold (13);
evening out and hardening the upper surface of the concrete so as to form a surface
having a same slope as the upper surface of the support member (14) such that the
upper surface of the concrete corresponds to the upper surface of the support member
(14),
finishing the upper surface of the hardened concrete through a grinder or an abrader,
applying a flooring component of synthetic resin or rubber material on the upper surface
of the support layer (11) at a constant thickness to produce the flooring (12).