CA1263127A

CA1263127A - Blade for ice hockey skates

Info

Publication number: CA1263127A
Application number: CA000511477A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Mike Soo
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1986-06-12
Filing date: 1986-06-12
Publication date: 1989-11-21

Abstract

TITLE: A BLADE FOR ICE HOCKEY SKATES

ABSTRACT:

A blade for ice hockey skates comprising a plurality of slanted slots. The slots are symetrically arranged on the top edge of the blade. Each slot has an opening facing upward and toward the center line of the blade. The outer tips of the openings are alternately angled to the left and to the right. The blade is embedded in plastic material so that stress concentration of the blade and plastic material can be avoided, so that the blade can endure higher impact forces than a normal blade.

Description

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BAC~GROUND OF THE I~VENTION

The present invention relates to ice hockey skate blades and more particular to blades hhich are embeddec in a supporting body o~ plastic material which is fixec to the boot of the skate.
Ice skates have always had to enàure high impact forces. In order to keep skates from cracking, they should be provided with a high strength plastic 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.
Some examples o~ conventionally practiced methods of construction in ice hockey skates arrangements have been found in patents such as U.S~ Pat~ No. 4/336~948~
issued June 29, 1982 to Couture and U.S. Pat. No.
4,223,900, issued September 23, 1980 to Olivieri.
Howe~er, the Couture patent proviaes poor setting between the blade and the plastic support material.
Olivieri, on the other handr provides foe a good setting between the blade and the support material, but it fails to solve the weakness of the blade and plastic material. Furthermore, both of these previous designs waste too much material, both steel and plastic, during

2~ the manufacturing process,thereby making them uneconomical.

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~L~63~;~ 7 SUMMARY OF THE IN~EN'rI0 It is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a blade for ice hockey skates which has a plurality o~ slanted slots so as to prevent stress concentrations around the blade and increase the setability of the blade and plastic material.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide 2 jagged notch at the opening of each slot to make the plastic material set with to the blade tightly.

~RIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the blade according to the invention.
Fig. 2 is a top view of the blade in Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a frontal view of the blade in Fig. 1.
~~ Fig. 4 shows how the skate blade is embedded in the plastic material.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
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Referring to Fig. 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 symetrically arranged on the top edge of the blade ~10). The front portion and the rear portion of the .,. , .... .

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blade ~10) have the same number of the slots (20). The slots (20) are slanted s]ots and the openings (21) of the slots (20) face upward and toward the center line 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 Fig. 3. Since the blade (10) is arranged with slots (20), stress concentration around the blade (10) can be avoided while manufacturing.
Further, the 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 plastic :15 material (30) (as seen in Fig. 2 and Fig. 4). Even if the ice hockey skate sustains a high impact force, the plastic material ~30) around the blade (10) will not , ~
crack. The slots (20) of the blade (10) help to provide shrinkage space as the plastic 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 manufacturin~ than was previously available.

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Claims

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A blade for ice hockey skates comprising a plurality of slots which are slanted slots symmetrically arranged on the top edge of the blade, each opening of the slots facing upward and toward the centre line of the blade, the outer tips of the openings alternately being bent leftward or rightward such that the blade can be embedded in a supporting body of plastic material to be affixed at a skate boot in order to prevent the stress concentration on the plastic material around the blade.

2. In a blade for ice hockey skates comprising a plurality of slanted slots which are symmetrically provided on a top edge of said blade, each opening of said slots facing upward and toward a centre line of said blade; and a plurality of remaining materials between two adjacent said slanted slots; the improvements in that:
a tip portion of each of said remaining materials, which faces towards said centre line of said blade, is bent alternatively leftward and rightward about a non-horizontal axis on said remaining material.

3. In a blade as claimed in claim 2, wherein said blade further comprises remaining materials between either end of said blade and the slanted slot adjacent to said end.

4. In a blade as claimed in claim 3, wherein said non-horizontal axis is substantially vertical or at a slight angel to the vertical.