CA1072994A - Ice skates with plastic superstructure holding replaceable blades - Google Patents
Ice skates with plastic superstructure holding replaceable bladesInfo
- Publication number
- CA1072994A CA1072994A CA258,944A CA258944A CA1072994A CA 1072994 A CA1072994 A CA 1072994A CA 258944 A CA258944 A CA 258944A CA 1072994 A CA1072994 A CA 1072994A
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- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- blade
- superstructure
- ice skate
- upper edge
- skate according
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
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- Footwear And Its Accessory, Manufacturing Method And Apparatuses (AREA)
Abstract
Abstract of the Disclosure The invention relates to improvements in the construction of ice skates, and provides an ice skate having an elongated blade and a plastic superstructure for holding the blade. The superstructure has a groove for receiving the upper edge of the blade and the blade is held in the superstructure by means of bolts. The bolts have heads designed to fit into recesses in the upper edge of the blade and are secured at their other ends in the plastic superstructure. The heads of the bolts fit snugly into the recesses and the sides of the recesses firmly anchor the heads when the blade is properly positioned in the superstructure. Preferably nuts are used to secure the other ends of the bolts and in this manner a very firm and secure attachment of the blade in the superstructure can be achieved.
Description
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This invention relates to improvements in the con-struction of ice skates, and more particularly to improvements in the construction of ice skates have blade-supporting superstructures made of plastic material, i.e. a synthetic thermoplastic or thermosettinglmaterial.
Attempts have been made in the past to mount the metal blade of an ice skate into a plastic superstructure for attach-ment to the sole and heel of a skate boot. Conventionally, metal is used for the superstructure but the use of plastic material has been considered desirable to make the skate lighter, cheaper and of more attractive appearance; however, the difficulties encountered have been considerable and a totally satisfactory skate has not been produced. The reasons for this are considered to be as follows.
FirYtly, it has proved difficult to mount the blade sufficiently rigidly in the plastic material so that the plastic holds the blade firmly during normal use when considerable forces are applied to the blade. The blade may thus move relatlve to the superstructure or become misaligned therein or separated therefrom.
Secondly, when,plastic ma~erial is moulded around a metal in8ert, such as a blade, the plastic material tends to 8hrink and as a result moves relative to the metal when the material cools after the moulding step. This is because the plastlc material contracts more than the metal, as cooling takes place, which results in structural weakness because of stresses set up in the plastic material.
Thirdly, it has been difficult to produce a super-structure made of plastic material having sufEicient strength to withstand the compressive forces resulting from the skater's weight. This is because plastic moulding techniques require wall sections to be thin, as otherwise iDternal stresses are 10~994 produced as a result of uneven shrinkage of the plastic on coollng when taken from the mould.
Fourthly, difficulties hàve sometimes been encountered in the region where the blade contacts the plastic material, because the edges of the blade ~tend to be quite sharp and during use the blade may cut into the plastic material and form a notch which reduces the structural strength of the skate.
In Canadian Patent No. 585,720 issued on October 27, 1959 to John E. Kirkpatrick et al, a plastic superstructure is moulded around the upper edge of a metal blade. The upper edge of the blade has a number of longitudinally spaced projections having undercut portions which anchor the blade in the plastic.
Nowever, this method of attaching the biade suffers from most if not all of the difficulties mentioned above and a satisfactory ~kate has not been produced.
In U.S. Patent No. 3,212,786 issued on October 19, 1965 to P. Flor~ancic et al, a similar skate is described, but additionally, in one embodiment, a method is disclosed of first moulding the superstructure and then fitting a blade into the superstructure as a sepa,rate step. To allow for this, a pair of metal sleeves are embedded into the superstructure during the moulding step and are positioned to receive a pair of upwardly extendlng pro~ections from the upper ed~e of the skate blade so that the blade can be force fitted into the superstructure.
The upper edge portion of the blade locates in a longitudinal slot in the superstructure when the projections are pressed fully home into the sleeves. The difficulty with this con-struction is that the blade is not held sufficiently rigidly in the superstructure and the parts are uneconomical to manufacture.
It is an ob~ect of the present invention to provide a .
~ ' skate in which the blade is mounted firmly in a superstructure made of plastic material.
It is another ob]ect of this invention to provide a skate having a superstructure made of plastic material in which the moulding of the plastic material around a permanent metal insert, such as the blade, is avoided.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a skate having a readily-removable and hence replaceable metal blade.
To this end thelinvention consists of an ice skate comprising: (a) an elongated blade having an ice-engaging edge and an upper edge opposite the ice-engaging edge; (b) a super-structure made of plastic material for holding the blade, said superstructure defining a groove for receiving said upper edge of the blade; (c) a plurality of bolts for attaching the blade to the superstructure, each bolt having an enlarged head; (d) a plurality of recesses in the blade defined by said upper edge for receiving and retaining said enlarged heads of the bolts; (e) means for retaining said bolts under tension . 20 in said superstructure when said upper edge is located in said groove, whereby said blade is firmly held in said groove by said bolts; and (f) wherein the ends of said bolts remote from said heads are threaded, and said retaining means comprise threaded nuts which can be screwed onto said ends and which can be tightened against said superstructure to hold said bolts in place under tension.
These and other advantages of preferred embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a longitudinal, generally cross-sectional ~ ~ 3 ~
' l()qZ994 view of a skate according to one embodiment of the invention, in which the blade, bolts and nuts are shown in elevation;
Figure 2, which follows Figur~ 3 in the drawings, is an enlarged transverse cross-sectional view of the skate shown :
in Figure 1 taken on the line II-II, but with parts beyond the section not shown;
Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the skate shown in Figure l;
Figure 4 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the skate of the invention; and Figure 5 is an enlarged transverse cross-sectional view of the skate shown in Figure 4 in the vertical plane indicated by V-V in Figure 4, but with parts beyond this section not shown.
In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figure 1, a skate is shown generally at 10. The skate consists of two main parts, namely a blade 12, having an ice-engaging edge 13, .
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and a superstructure 14. The blade 12 is made of steel and the superstructure 14 is made of a plastic material. Although the blade 12 can be made of any suitable steel usually used for skate blades, it is an important advantage of this invention that the blade 12 can be made of stainlless steel. This advan-tage is discussed in more detail later. The plastic material used for the superstructure 14 should preferably be a low temperature resistant and high impact resistant plastic such as a suitable polycarbonate or nylon (such as that sold under the trade mark Zytel ST 800). Clearly, the plastic should be sufficiently rigid to su'pport the skaters weight and tough enough to make the superstructure sufficiently durable.
The blade 12 is attached to the superstructure 14 by means of a pair of bolts 16 and a pair of nuts 18. The bolts 16 each have a triangular head 20, a shank 21 and a threaded end 23 and the nuts 18 are internally threaded so that they can be located on the threaded ends 23 in the normal way.
The heads 20 of the bolts 16 are located within generally triangular recesses 22 formed in pro~ections 24 on 20 the upper edge 26 of the blade 12. It can be clearly seen from Figure 1 that the recess,es 22 have restricted throat portions ao that the bolt heads 20 are held firmly against upward move-ment by the sides'~of the recesses 22. However, the bolt heads 20 can easily be located in the recesses 22 by sideways move-ment before the blade 12 is inserted in the superstructure 14, but they cannot become disengaged when the blade is fully located in t`he superstructure.
By this means, the blade 12 is firmly held with its upper edge 26 located in a groove 28 (shown in phantom lines in Fig. 3) formed in the lower edge of the superstructure 14.
The nuts 18 and bolts 16 are recessed within toe support 29 and 1O7299L~
heel support 30 which are hollow and define internal cavities 31 and 32, respectively. These cavities are provided to allow access to the nuts 18 for tightening and slackening purposes, to reduce the amount of plastic necessary for the superstructure and hence the weight and cost of the s~ate, and to enable the walls of the supports 29 and 30 to be made sufficiently thin that the problems associated with cooling of thick sections of plastic after moulding are avoided. In the region of each bolt 16, which is subject to stress, thin sections are maintained, but adequate strength i9 nevertheless provided by upwardly extending tubular posts133 which each define a central passageway, as shown, through which pass the shank portions 21 of the bolts 16.
It is possible to make the walls of the toe support 29 and the heel support 30 quite thin, because, as can be seen best from Figure 3, these walls have the general characteristics of cones,the bases of which are completed by sole and heel portions of the skater's boot. The result is an especially strong structure. The upper edges of the toe support 29 and the heel support 30 have outwardly turned flanges 35 and 36, respectively, which flanges are used to secure the superstructure 14 to a skate boot (not shown).
The flanges 35 and 36 are best shown in Figure 3 from which it can be ~een that they provide an extensive attachment area, enabling the superstructure 14 to be secured to a boot quite rigidly. This attachment can be achieved in any ; suitable manner, e.g. by rivetting or by the use of screws or nuts and bolts, etc., for which purpose holes 39 may be provided in the flanges 35, 36.
~ If an attachment method is used whereby the super-`~ 30 structure 14 is readily removable from the boot, access to ~ the nuts 18 is provided, enabling the blade 12 to be easily 1~7299~
replaced by unscrewing the nuts 18 and withdrawing the blade 12 and the bolts 16 downwardly. A new blade can then be inserted and the nuts 18 re-tightened. This is an advantage, since conventional skates quite often have to be discarded when the blades become unserviceable through exclessive sharpening or because of rusting or damage, while the superstructure and boot may still be serviceable. By making the blade 12 easily re-placeable, therefore, the superstructure 14 need not be discarded when the blade 12 becomes unserviceable. It is therefore advan-tageous to attach the superstructure 14 to the boot by means,for example, of bolts and nuts or other removable fixing means.
During use of the skate, forces are applied to the blade whilch tend to knock the blade out of the superstructure 14.
For example, a force may be applied which tends to move the blade elther longitudinally forwards or backwards relative to the superstructure. This is referred to hereinafter as "kick-out" and is inhibited in this embodiment of the invention by the pro~ections 24, which firmly abut against adjacent parts of the superstructure, and by bolts 16 and nuts 18. Forces are also applied to the blade which tend to make it twist out of its proper plane relative to the superstructure. This twisting would usually take place about a longitudinal axis running from the front to the 'rear of the skate, but is effectively inhibited by a comblnation of factors. Firstly, the upper edge 26 of the blade proJects into the superstructure as indicated by the phantom line in Figure 1 which shows the position of the lower edge 37 of the superstructure. Thus, walls 34 (see Fig. 2) resist any twisting motion. Secondly, the projections 24 are more deeply embedded in the superstructure than other parts of the blade, as can be seen in Figure 1, and hence they provide ~ greater resistance to the twisting motion. Thirdly, the upper ':
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. . , edge 26 of the blade is curved in the longitudinal direction, as can be seen from Fig. 1, and this greatly contributes to the inhibition of twisting, because the twist-resisting forces produced by the walls 34 have greater leverage on the blade than would be the case if the uppe)r edge 26 were straight.
Therefore, despite the fact that the blade 12 may extend into the superstructure 14 by a relatively short distance, e.g. 1/8 of an inch at positions spaced from the projections 24, a rigid and secure connection is nevertheless obtained.
Moreover, a considerable economic advantage results from making the projections 24 of the shape and dimensions shown in the drawings. This is because the blade 12 can be produced, for example, by stamping from a slightly larger stainless steel ~trip without undue wastage of material, since the projections 24 do not extend upwardly from the blade by a great distance, and clearly the further projections extend upwardly, the greater the amount of material to be removed from around the proJections. Thus, by using bolts 16 and low profile projec-tions 24 instead of longer projections having threaded ends, aconsiderable economic saving is achieved.
The moulding of plastic superstructures has proved dlfficult ln the ~last, as mentioned above, because of the problems involved in avoiding thick sections while at the same time providing adequate strength. Stress-cracking problems often occur when wall sections exceed one fifth of an inch in thick-ness and it is therefore desirable to make the maximum wall thickness one fifth of an inch or less and more preferably one eighth of an inch or less. Further difficulty has been produced because of the tendency of the plastic to "creep" or shrink after the moulding step. In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, a sufficiently strong superstructure is provided ; and at the same time a generally even wall thickness of one fifth . . "
, lOqZ994 of an inch or less (usually approximately one eighth of an inch or less) can be obtained. It has already been stated that thick sections are avoided in the supports 29 and 30 by virtue of the cavities 31 and 32, but thick sections are also avoided in a runner 38 which connects the sup~ports 29 and 30, by means of arches 40 which enable the wall section throughout the whole of the runner 38 to be maintained substantially constant while at the same time avoid any significant reduction in the strength of the runner. The arches also reduce the weight of the skate and the amount of plastic material necessary for fabrication.
The arches 40 can easily be formed, for exmaple, during injection moulding of the superstructure 14 by,providing a blank in the in~ection mould shaped similarly to the blade 12 except that it also has upward pro~ections corresponding to the arches 40. Moreover, by providing a blank of slightly larger size than the blade 12, allowance can be made for the shrinkage of the plastlc after the moulding step has taken place. In other words, the groove 28 formed during the moulding step is advantageously slightly larger than that in the finished ; 20 product when cooling has taken place.
Desirably, thelblank mentioned above also has an uppcr surface which is concave in transverse cross-section at positions corresponding to the upper edge 26 of the blade 12, so that the groove 28 i8 formed with a convex longitudinal bead 42 (see Figure 2) which bears against the upper edge 26 of the blade 12 when the blade is positioned in the groove 28 and the nuts 18 are tightened. The bead 42 extends along the whole length of the groove 28 at positions where the plastic material of the super-ætructure 14 contacts the upper edge 26 of the blade and its purpose is to round off the upper corners 43 of the groove and space such corners from the sharp corners of the upper edge 26 ~ 8 -. l~qZ994 of the blade. In this manner, the blade is prevented from cutting into the plastic material during normal use of the skate, which could result in weakening of the superstructure.
As shown in Figures 1 and 3, the front and rear upper edges of the blade 12 have cut-quts 44 and the superstructure 14 has projections 46 between the walls 34 at the extreme ends of the groove 28, which pro;ections fit snugly within the cut-outs 44 as shown in Fig. 1. The pro~ections 46 help to inhibit "kick-out", and thus they co-operate in this function with the pro~ections 24 and the bolts 16 as prevlously described. In addition, the pro-~ections 46 also provide a safety feature in con~unction with the rounded front and rear edges 48 and 50 of the supelrstructure 14, ln that all sharp edges and pro~ections are eliminated at the front and rear of the skate to reduce the possibility of ln~ury caused by the skate to users of the ice.
As can be seen from Figures 1 and 3, the nuts 18 are spaced from the upper ends of the post 33 by spring washers 52.
The spring washers enable the blade 12 to be firmly held within the groove 28 even if the plsstic material of the superstructure shrinks, yields or creeps, by maintaining the tension between ; the nuts 18 and the post~33. In this way, the tension can be maintained even if the plastic material should creep by as much as 0.01 inch. However, it should be realised that the nuts 18 and washers 52 can be replaced by any other suitable attach-ment means for securing the ends of the bolts 16. The concave curvature of the upper edge 26 of the blade previously mentioned facilitates the fitting of the blade 12 into the superstructure ` 14, because it has been found that the upper surface of the groove 28 is less likely to warp as the plastic material cools when it has a slight convex curvature.
A second preferred embodiment of the invention is .~ .
.
g ' .
- 1072~94 shown in Figs. 4 and 5. In this embodiment, an even wall thickness is achieved in the runner 38 by means of cavities 60 instead of the internal arches 40 of the previous embodiment.
The cavities 60 extend in a row on each side of the skate from the heel support 30 to the toe support)29, as shown. This embodiment achieves a more even wall thickness especially in the region of the upper part of the blade, which provide stress-free parts from the mould. The cavities 60 also add to the decorative appearance of the skate.
In this embodiment, weakening of the superstructure 14 in the vicinity of thle upper edge 26 of the blade 12 is prevented or reduced by rounding off the corners of the blade as at 62lso that there are no sharp edges to cut into the plastic material.
As mentioned above, ln this invention the blade can be made of any suitable material but it i8 especially preferable to use stainless steel. Stainless steel is not used to form the blades of conventional skates, mainly because it is dif-ficult to weld this material onto metal superstructures. However, stainless steel has the considerable advantage that rusting will not take place, so that the appearance and durability of the blade are improved, while at the same time, the blade requires less care and attlention. Additionally, the high chromium carbide content of stainless steel gives the stçel good abrasion re~lstance 80 that the blade holds its edge longer and thus requires sharpening less often. For this reason also, the blade requires less attention and is likely to last longer since the life of a blade is often determined by the number of times it is sharpened. In fact, a high chromium steel can be u~ed which is similar to that used for razor blades in order to optimise the sharpening and edge retention properties of the blade.
. .
This invention relates to improvements in the con-struction of ice skates, and more particularly to improvements in the construction of ice skates have blade-supporting superstructures made of plastic material, i.e. a synthetic thermoplastic or thermosettinglmaterial.
Attempts have been made in the past to mount the metal blade of an ice skate into a plastic superstructure for attach-ment to the sole and heel of a skate boot. Conventionally, metal is used for the superstructure but the use of plastic material has been considered desirable to make the skate lighter, cheaper and of more attractive appearance; however, the difficulties encountered have been considerable and a totally satisfactory skate has not been produced. The reasons for this are considered to be as follows.
FirYtly, it has proved difficult to mount the blade sufficiently rigidly in the plastic material so that the plastic holds the blade firmly during normal use when considerable forces are applied to the blade. The blade may thus move relatlve to the superstructure or become misaligned therein or separated therefrom.
Secondly, when,plastic ma~erial is moulded around a metal in8ert, such as a blade, the plastic material tends to 8hrink and as a result moves relative to the metal when the material cools after the moulding step. This is because the plastlc material contracts more than the metal, as cooling takes place, which results in structural weakness because of stresses set up in the plastic material.
Thirdly, it has been difficult to produce a super-structure made of plastic material having sufEicient strength to withstand the compressive forces resulting from the skater's weight. This is because plastic moulding techniques require wall sections to be thin, as otherwise iDternal stresses are 10~994 produced as a result of uneven shrinkage of the plastic on coollng when taken from the mould.
Fourthly, difficulties hàve sometimes been encountered in the region where the blade contacts the plastic material, because the edges of the blade ~tend to be quite sharp and during use the blade may cut into the plastic material and form a notch which reduces the structural strength of the skate.
In Canadian Patent No. 585,720 issued on October 27, 1959 to John E. Kirkpatrick et al, a plastic superstructure is moulded around the upper edge of a metal blade. The upper edge of the blade has a number of longitudinally spaced projections having undercut portions which anchor the blade in the plastic.
Nowever, this method of attaching the biade suffers from most if not all of the difficulties mentioned above and a satisfactory ~kate has not been produced.
In U.S. Patent No. 3,212,786 issued on October 19, 1965 to P. Flor~ancic et al, a similar skate is described, but additionally, in one embodiment, a method is disclosed of first moulding the superstructure and then fitting a blade into the superstructure as a sepa,rate step. To allow for this, a pair of metal sleeves are embedded into the superstructure during the moulding step and are positioned to receive a pair of upwardly extendlng pro~ections from the upper ed~e of the skate blade so that the blade can be force fitted into the superstructure.
The upper edge portion of the blade locates in a longitudinal slot in the superstructure when the projections are pressed fully home into the sleeves. The difficulty with this con-struction is that the blade is not held sufficiently rigidly in the superstructure and the parts are uneconomical to manufacture.
It is an ob~ect of the present invention to provide a .
~ ' skate in which the blade is mounted firmly in a superstructure made of plastic material.
It is another ob]ect of this invention to provide a skate having a superstructure made of plastic material in which the moulding of the plastic material around a permanent metal insert, such as the blade, is avoided.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a skate having a readily-removable and hence replaceable metal blade.
To this end thelinvention consists of an ice skate comprising: (a) an elongated blade having an ice-engaging edge and an upper edge opposite the ice-engaging edge; (b) a super-structure made of plastic material for holding the blade, said superstructure defining a groove for receiving said upper edge of the blade; (c) a plurality of bolts for attaching the blade to the superstructure, each bolt having an enlarged head; (d) a plurality of recesses in the blade defined by said upper edge for receiving and retaining said enlarged heads of the bolts; (e) means for retaining said bolts under tension . 20 in said superstructure when said upper edge is located in said groove, whereby said blade is firmly held in said groove by said bolts; and (f) wherein the ends of said bolts remote from said heads are threaded, and said retaining means comprise threaded nuts which can be screwed onto said ends and which can be tightened against said superstructure to hold said bolts in place under tension.
These and other advantages of preferred embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a longitudinal, generally cross-sectional ~ ~ 3 ~
' l()qZ994 view of a skate according to one embodiment of the invention, in which the blade, bolts and nuts are shown in elevation;
Figure 2, which follows Figur~ 3 in the drawings, is an enlarged transverse cross-sectional view of the skate shown :
in Figure 1 taken on the line II-II, but with parts beyond the section not shown;
Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of the skate shown in Figure l;
Figure 4 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the skate of the invention; and Figure 5 is an enlarged transverse cross-sectional view of the skate shown in Figure 4 in the vertical plane indicated by V-V in Figure 4, but with parts beyond this section not shown.
In the embodiment of the invention shown in Figure 1, a skate is shown generally at 10. The skate consists of two main parts, namely a blade 12, having an ice-engaging edge 13, .
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:
and a superstructure 14. The blade 12 is made of steel and the superstructure 14 is made of a plastic material. Although the blade 12 can be made of any suitable steel usually used for skate blades, it is an important advantage of this invention that the blade 12 can be made of stainlless steel. This advan-tage is discussed in more detail later. The plastic material used for the superstructure 14 should preferably be a low temperature resistant and high impact resistant plastic such as a suitable polycarbonate or nylon (such as that sold under the trade mark Zytel ST 800). Clearly, the plastic should be sufficiently rigid to su'pport the skaters weight and tough enough to make the superstructure sufficiently durable.
The blade 12 is attached to the superstructure 14 by means of a pair of bolts 16 and a pair of nuts 18. The bolts 16 each have a triangular head 20, a shank 21 and a threaded end 23 and the nuts 18 are internally threaded so that they can be located on the threaded ends 23 in the normal way.
The heads 20 of the bolts 16 are located within generally triangular recesses 22 formed in pro~ections 24 on 20 the upper edge 26 of the blade 12. It can be clearly seen from Figure 1 that the recess,es 22 have restricted throat portions ao that the bolt heads 20 are held firmly against upward move-ment by the sides'~of the recesses 22. However, the bolt heads 20 can easily be located in the recesses 22 by sideways move-ment before the blade 12 is inserted in the superstructure 14, but they cannot become disengaged when the blade is fully located in t`he superstructure.
By this means, the blade 12 is firmly held with its upper edge 26 located in a groove 28 (shown in phantom lines in Fig. 3) formed in the lower edge of the superstructure 14.
The nuts 18 and bolts 16 are recessed within toe support 29 and 1O7299L~
heel support 30 which are hollow and define internal cavities 31 and 32, respectively. These cavities are provided to allow access to the nuts 18 for tightening and slackening purposes, to reduce the amount of plastic necessary for the superstructure and hence the weight and cost of the s~ate, and to enable the walls of the supports 29 and 30 to be made sufficiently thin that the problems associated with cooling of thick sections of plastic after moulding are avoided. In the region of each bolt 16, which is subject to stress, thin sections are maintained, but adequate strength i9 nevertheless provided by upwardly extending tubular posts133 which each define a central passageway, as shown, through which pass the shank portions 21 of the bolts 16.
It is possible to make the walls of the toe support 29 and the heel support 30 quite thin, because, as can be seen best from Figure 3, these walls have the general characteristics of cones,the bases of which are completed by sole and heel portions of the skater's boot. The result is an especially strong structure. The upper edges of the toe support 29 and the heel support 30 have outwardly turned flanges 35 and 36, respectively, which flanges are used to secure the superstructure 14 to a skate boot (not shown).
The flanges 35 and 36 are best shown in Figure 3 from which it can be ~een that they provide an extensive attachment area, enabling the superstructure 14 to be secured to a boot quite rigidly. This attachment can be achieved in any ; suitable manner, e.g. by rivetting or by the use of screws or nuts and bolts, etc., for which purpose holes 39 may be provided in the flanges 35, 36.
~ If an attachment method is used whereby the super-`~ 30 structure 14 is readily removable from the boot, access to ~ the nuts 18 is provided, enabling the blade 12 to be easily 1~7299~
replaced by unscrewing the nuts 18 and withdrawing the blade 12 and the bolts 16 downwardly. A new blade can then be inserted and the nuts 18 re-tightened. This is an advantage, since conventional skates quite often have to be discarded when the blades become unserviceable through exclessive sharpening or because of rusting or damage, while the superstructure and boot may still be serviceable. By making the blade 12 easily re-placeable, therefore, the superstructure 14 need not be discarded when the blade 12 becomes unserviceable. It is therefore advan-tageous to attach the superstructure 14 to the boot by means,for example, of bolts and nuts or other removable fixing means.
During use of the skate, forces are applied to the blade whilch tend to knock the blade out of the superstructure 14.
For example, a force may be applied which tends to move the blade elther longitudinally forwards or backwards relative to the superstructure. This is referred to hereinafter as "kick-out" and is inhibited in this embodiment of the invention by the pro~ections 24, which firmly abut against adjacent parts of the superstructure, and by bolts 16 and nuts 18. Forces are also applied to the blade which tend to make it twist out of its proper plane relative to the superstructure. This twisting would usually take place about a longitudinal axis running from the front to the 'rear of the skate, but is effectively inhibited by a comblnation of factors. Firstly, the upper edge 26 of the blade proJects into the superstructure as indicated by the phantom line in Figure 1 which shows the position of the lower edge 37 of the superstructure. Thus, walls 34 (see Fig. 2) resist any twisting motion. Secondly, the projections 24 are more deeply embedded in the superstructure than other parts of the blade, as can be seen in Figure 1, and hence they provide ~ greater resistance to the twisting motion. Thirdly, the upper ':
.
,:, - ,, ;' ' . ' . ~. - . ' ; :
. . , edge 26 of the blade is curved in the longitudinal direction, as can be seen from Fig. 1, and this greatly contributes to the inhibition of twisting, because the twist-resisting forces produced by the walls 34 have greater leverage on the blade than would be the case if the uppe)r edge 26 were straight.
Therefore, despite the fact that the blade 12 may extend into the superstructure 14 by a relatively short distance, e.g. 1/8 of an inch at positions spaced from the projections 24, a rigid and secure connection is nevertheless obtained.
Moreover, a considerable economic advantage results from making the projections 24 of the shape and dimensions shown in the drawings. This is because the blade 12 can be produced, for example, by stamping from a slightly larger stainless steel ~trip without undue wastage of material, since the projections 24 do not extend upwardly from the blade by a great distance, and clearly the further projections extend upwardly, the greater the amount of material to be removed from around the proJections. Thus, by using bolts 16 and low profile projec-tions 24 instead of longer projections having threaded ends, aconsiderable economic saving is achieved.
The moulding of plastic superstructures has proved dlfficult ln the ~last, as mentioned above, because of the problems involved in avoiding thick sections while at the same time providing adequate strength. Stress-cracking problems often occur when wall sections exceed one fifth of an inch in thick-ness and it is therefore desirable to make the maximum wall thickness one fifth of an inch or less and more preferably one eighth of an inch or less. Further difficulty has been produced because of the tendency of the plastic to "creep" or shrink after the moulding step. In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, a sufficiently strong superstructure is provided ; and at the same time a generally even wall thickness of one fifth . . "
, lOqZ994 of an inch or less (usually approximately one eighth of an inch or less) can be obtained. It has already been stated that thick sections are avoided in the supports 29 and 30 by virtue of the cavities 31 and 32, but thick sections are also avoided in a runner 38 which connects the sup~ports 29 and 30, by means of arches 40 which enable the wall section throughout the whole of the runner 38 to be maintained substantially constant while at the same time avoid any significant reduction in the strength of the runner. The arches also reduce the weight of the skate and the amount of plastic material necessary for fabrication.
The arches 40 can easily be formed, for exmaple, during injection moulding of the superstructure 14 by,providing a blank in the in~ection mould shaped similarly to the blade 12 except that it also has upward pro~ections corresponding to the arches 40. Moreover, by providing a blank of slightly larger size than the blade 12, allowance can be made for the shrinkage of the plastlc after the moulding step has taken place. In other words, the groove 28 formed during the moulding step is advantageously slightly larger than that in the finished ; 20 product when cooling has taken place.
Desirably, thelblank mentioned above also has an uppcr surface which is concave in transverse cross-section at positions corresponding to the upper edge 26 of the blade 12, so that the groove 28 i8 formed with a convex longitudinal bead 42 (see Figure 2) which bears against the upper edge 26 of the blade 12 when the blade is positioned in the groove 28 and the nuts 18 are tightened. The bead 42 extends along the whole length of the groove 28 at positions where the plastic material of the super-ætructure 14 contacts the upper edge 26 of the blade and its purpose is to round off the upper corners 43 of the groove and space such corners from the sharp corners of the upper edge 26 ~ 8 -. l~qZ994 of the blade. In this manner, the blade is prevented from cutting into the plastic material during normal use of the skate, which could result in weakening of the superstructure.
As shown in Figures 1 and 3, the front and rear upper edges of the blade 12 have cut-quts 44 and the superstructure 14 has projections 46 between the walls 34 at the extreme ends of the groove 28, which pro;ections fit snugly within the cut-outs 44 as shown in Fig. 1. The pro~ections 46 help to inhibit "kick-out", and thus they co-operate in this function with the pro~ections 24 and the bolts 16 as prevlously described. In addition, the pro-~ections 46 also provide a safety feature in con~unction with the rounded front and rear edges 48 and 50 of the supelrstructure 14, ln that all sharp edges and pro~ections are eliminated at the front and rear of the skate to reduce the possibility of ln~ury caused by the skate to users of the ice.
As can be seen from Figures 1 and 3, the nuts 18 are spaced from the upper ends of the post 33 by spring washers 52.
The spring washers enable the blade 12 to be firmly held within the groove 28 even if the plsstic material of the superstructure shrinks, yields or creeps, by maintaining the tension between ; the nuts 18 and the post~33. In this way, the tension can be maintained even if the plastic material should creep by as much as 0.01 inch. However, it should be realised that the nuts 18 and washers 52 can be replaced by any other suitable attach-ment means for securing the ends of the bolts 16. The concave curvature of the upper edge 26 of the blade previously mentioned facilitates the fitting of the blade 12 into the superstructure ` 14, because it has been found that the upper surface of the groove 28 is less likely to warp as the plastic material cools when it has a slight convex curvature.
A second preferred embodiment of the invention is .~ .
.
g ' .
- 1072~94 shown in Figs. 4 and 5. In this embodiment, an even wall thickness is achieved in the runner 38 by means of cavities 60 instead of the internal arches 40 of the previous embodiment.
The cavities 60 extend in a row on each side of the skate from the heel support 30 to the toe support)29, as shown. This embodiment achieves a more even wall thickness especially in the region of the upper part of the blade, which provide stress-free parts from the mould. The cavities 60 also add to the decorative appearance of the skate.
In this embodiment, weakening of the superstructure 14 in the vicinity of thle upper edge 26 of the blade 12 is prevented or reduced by rounding off the corners of the blade as at 62lso that there are no sharp edges to cut into the plastic material.
As mentioned above, ln this invention the blade can be made of any suitable material but it i8 especially preferable to use stainless steel. Stainless steel is not used to form the blades of conventional skates, mainly because it is dif-ficult to weld this material onto metal superstructures. However, stainless steel has the considerable advantage that rusting will not take place, so that the appearance and durability of the blade are improved, while at the same time, the blade requires less care and attlention. Additionally, the high chromium carbide content of stainless steel gives the stçel good abrasion re~lstance 80 that the blade holds its edge longer and thus requires sharpening less often. For this reason also, the blade requires less attention and is likely to last longer since the life of a blade is often determined by the number of times it is sharpened. In fact, a high chromium steel can be u~ed which is similar to that used for razor blades in order to optimise the sharpening and edge retention properties of the blade.
. .
Claims (14)
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. An ice skate comprising:
(a) an elongated blade having an ice-engaging edge and an upper edge opposite the ice-engaging edge;
(b) a superstructure made of plastic material for holding the blade, said superstructure defining a groove for receiving said upper edge of the blade;
(c) a plurality of bolts for attaching the blade to the superstructure, each bolt having an enlarged head;
(d) a plurality of recesses in the blade defined by said upper edge for receiving and retaining said enlarged heads of the bolts;
(e) means for retaining said bolts under tension in said superstructure when said upper edge is located in said groove, whereby said blade is firmly held in said groove by said bolts; and (f) wherein the ends of said bolts remote from said heads are threaded, and said retaining means comprise threaded nuts which can be screwed onto said ends and which can be tightened against said superstructure to hold said bolts in place under tension.
(a) an elongated blade having an ice-engaging edge and an upper edge opposite the ice-engaging edge;
(b) a superstructure made of plastic material for holding the blade, said superstructure defining a groove for receiving said upper edge of the blade;
(c) a plurality of bolts for attaching the blade to the superstructure, each bolt having an enlarged head;
(d) a plurality of recesses in the blade defined by said upper edge for receiving and retaining said enlarged heads of the bolts;
(e) means for retaining said bolts under tension in said superstructure when said upper edge is located in said groove, whereby said blade is firmly held in said groove by said bolts; and (f) wherein the ends of said bolts remote from said heads are threaded, and said retaining means comprise threaded nuts which can be screwed onto said ends and which can be tightened against said superstructure to hold said bolts in place under tension.
2. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein spring washers are positioned between said nuts and the adjacent superstructure.
3. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein the upper edge of the blade defines a plurality of projections of low profile.
4. An ice skate according to claim 3 wherein said recesses are formed in said projections.
5. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein the extreme ends of said upper edge have cut-out portions which form recesses in the blade and said superstructure has projections at the ends of said groove which engage within said cut-out portions.
6. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein said enlarged heads are generally of flat triangular shape and said recesses are of substantially the same shape, said heads fitting snugly within said recesses.
7. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein a part of the superstructure defining the edge of the groove which contacts said upper edge of the blade is convex as seen in transverse cross-section.
8. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein said upper edge of the blade is curved in the longitudinal direction and parts of the superstructure defining the groove are correspondingly curved so that the upper edge of the blade fits closely within the groove.
9. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein said superstructure comprises an upwardly extending toe support, an upwardly extending heel support spaced from said toe support, and an elongated runner extending along said blade between said toe support and said heel support.
10. An ice skate according to claim 9 wherein said toe support and said heel support each comprise wall members defining an internal cavity, and said runner comprises wall members defining a plurality of internal cavities which open into said groove, all of said wall members being of one fifth of an inch in thickness or less.
11. An ice skate according to claim 9 wherein said toe support and said heel support each comprise wall members defining an internal cavity, and said runner comprises wall members defining a plurality of external cavities extending in a row from said heel support to said toe support, all of said wall members being of one fifth of an inch in thickness or less.
12. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein said blade is made of stainless steel.
13. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein the super-structure comprises walls of generally even thickness of one fifth of an inch or less.
14. An ice skate according to claim 1 wherein the super-structure comprises walls of generally even thickness of one eighth of an inch or less.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA258,944A CA1072994A (en) | 1976-08-12 | 1976-08-12 | Ice skates with plastic superstructure holding replaceable blades |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA258,944A CA1072994A (en) | 1976-08-12 | 1976-08-12 | Ice skates with plastic superstructure holding replaceable blades |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1072994A true CA1072994A (en) | 1980-03-04 |
Family
ID=4106636
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA258,944A Expired CA1072994A (en) | 1976-08-12 | 1976-08-12 | Ice skates with plastic superstructure holding replaceable blades |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1072994A (en) |
Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5248156A (en) * | 1991-02-15 | 1993-09-28 | Cann Brian G | Ice skate blade assembly having a removeable runner |
| US8297627B2 (en) | 2004-02-03 | 2012-10-30 | Smith Ii George T | Skate with an accessible runner securing system and methods thereof |
-
1976
- 1976-08-12 CA CA258,944A patent/CA1072994A/en not_active Expired
Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5248156A (en) * | 1991-02-15 | 1993-09-28 | Cann Brian G | Ice skate blade assembly having a removeable runner |
| US8297627B2 (en) | 2004-02-03 | 2012-10-30 | Smith Ii George T | Skate with an accessible runner securing system and methods thereof |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| MKEX | Expiry |