Blade for ice hockey skate

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to ice hockey skate blades and more particularly to blades which are embedded in a supporting body of plastics material which is fixed to the boot of the skate.

[0002] Ice skates have always had to endure high impact forces. In order to keep skates from cracking, they should be provided with a high strength plastics material in the support portion for the blade. Furthermore, the blade should be provided with shrinkage space so as to avoid stress concentration around the blade, so that the blade can endure high impact forces.

[0003] Some examples of conventionally practised methods of construction in ice hockey skate arrangements have been found in patents such as U.S. patent number 4 336 948, issued June 29, 1982 to Cou- ture and U.S. patent number 4 223 900 issued September 23, 1980 to Olivieri. However, the Cou- ture patent provides poor setting between the blade and the plastics support material. Olivieri, on the other hand, provides for a good setting between the blade and the support material, but it fails to solve the weakness of the joint between the blade and plastics material. Furthermore, both of these previous designs waste too much material, both steel and plastics, during the manufacturing process, thereby making them uneconomical.

[0004] DE-A 3 326 154 discloses an ice hockey skate which comprises a blade having a plurality of slanted open slots symmetrically arranged along the top edge. Each of the slots opening faces toward a centre line of the blade. While the increase in the area of material defining the slots enhances the anchorage of the moulded plastics material of the shoe part of the skate to the blade, it still has to rely on the thickness of the cross-section of the blade to withstand force tending to dislocate the blade from the shoe portion.

[0005] GB-A 953 308 discloses an ice skate in which the anchorage of the blade to the moulded plastics material of the shoe portion is enhanced by forming lateral blind indentations along the sides of the blade which protrude through to define protrusions on alternate sides. While the anchorage is enhanced it relies in this case on the rigidity of the plastics material to prevent the blade from being dislocated from the shoe portion.

[0006] According to the present invention there is provided a blade for an ice hockey skate, the material of the blade defining a plurality of slanted slots which are symmetrically provided on a top edge of the blade, each opening of the slanted slots facing upwards and towards a longitudinal centre line of the blade; characterised in that: tip portions of the material of the blade, between adjacent slanted slots and between each end of the blade and the slanted slot adjacent a corresponding end, which slot also faces towards said centre line of said blade, are bent alternately laterally leftwards and rightwards out of the plane of the blade.

[0007] The anchorage of the material of the shoe portion of the skate when moulded to the blade is thus enhanced by the bent tip portions presenting an increased surface area in a simple and effective manner. Furthermore, the bent tip portions also provide a platform on which the shoe portion can rest which is better able to resist the torsional forces applied between the shoe portion and the blade generally about the top edge of the blade.

[0008] It is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a blade for ice hockey skates which has a plurality of slanted slots so as to prevent stress concentrations around the blade and increase the stability of the blade and plastics material.

[0009] It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a jagged notch at the opening of each slot to make the plastics material set with to the blade tightly.

[0010] The invention may be carried into practice in various ways and one embodiment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the blade according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a top view of the blade in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a frontal view of the blade in Figure 1; and

Figure 4 shows how the skate blade is embedded in the plastic material.

[0011] Referring to Figure 1, it can be seen that the blade (10) of the present invention comprises a plurality of slots (20). The blade (10) can be considered to be divided into front and rear portions. The slots (20) are symmetrically arranged on the top edge of the blade (10). The front portion and the rear portion of the blade (10) have the same number of the slots (20). The slots (20) are slanted slots and the openings (21) of the slanted slots (20) face upwards and towards the centre line (17) of the blade (10). Each opening (21) of the slots (20) comprises two tips (22) and (23), one being an inner tip (22) and the other being outer tip (23). The outer tips (23) are bent alternately to the left or to the right as shown in Figure 3. Since the blade (10) is arranged with slanted slots (20), stress concentration around the blade (10) can be avoided while manufacturing. Further, the slanted slots (20) are slanted and opened upward and the outer tips (23) of the openings (21) are bent, therefore providing a high strength of combination (a good setting) between the blade (10) and plastics material (30) (as seen in Figure 2 and Figure 4). Even if the ice hockey skate sustains a high impact force, the plastics material (30) around the blade (10) will not crack. The slanted slots (20) of the blade (10) help to provide shrinkage space as the plastics material (30) cools to combine with the blade (10). Moreover, the present invention provides a blade (10) which wastes very little material so as to provide for more economic manufacturing than was previously available.

Claims

A blade (10) for an ice hockey skate, the material of the blade (10) defining a plurality of slanted slots (20) which are symmetrically provided on a top edge of the blade (10), each opening of the slanted slots (20) facing upwards and towards a longitudinal centre line (17) of the blade (10); characterised in that: tip portions (23) of the material of the blade (10), between adjacent slanted slots (20) and between each end of the blade (10) and the slanted slot (20) adjacent a corresponding end, which slot also faces towards said centre line (17) of said blade (10), are bent alternately laterally leftwards and rightwards out of the plane of the blade (10).

Ansprüche

Kufe für Eishockeyschlittschuh, wobei die Kufe (10) mit mehreren schrägverlaufenden Schlitzen (20) versehen ist, die symmetrisch an der Oberkante der Kufe (10) verlaufen und sich jede Öffnung der schrägen Schlitze (20) nach oben hin zur zentralen Längsachse (17) der Kufe (10) erstreckt, dadurch gekennzeichnet, daß Spitzenteile (23) der Kufe (10) zwischen angrenzenden schrägen Schlitzen (20) und zwischen jedem Ende der Kufe (10) und dem an das entsprechende Ende angrenzenden schrägen Schlitz (20), welcher auch nach oben hin zur zentralen Mittelachse (17) der Kufe (10) ausgerichtet ist, abwechselnd seitlich nach links und rechts aus der Ebene der Kufe (10) nach außen gebogen sind.

Revendications

Lame (10) pour patin de hockey sur glace dans la matière de laquelle sont ménagées plusieurs fentes obliques (20) disposées de manière symétrique dans le bord supérieur de la lame (10), chacune des fentes obliques (20) s'ouvrant vers le haut en direction d'un axe médian (17) de la lame (10) dans le sens longitudinal, caractérisée en ce que des parties en pointe (23) de la matière de la lame (10), situées entre des fentes obliques adjacentes (20) et entre chaque extrémité de la lame (10) et la fente oblique (20) adjacente à cette extrémité, fente qui est également dirigée vers l'axe médian (17) de la lame (10), sont pliées en alternance latéralement à gauche et à droite du plan de la lame (10).

Drawing