EP0781158B1 - Snow shoe - Google Patents

Abstract

Snow shoe (1) consisting of a frame (2) delimiting an inner surface divided into a front mesh part (3) and a main contact mesh part (4) in the median portion of which there is a central structure (5) on which rests the shoe (6) with its sole being tangent to the plane (P1). The invention is characterized in that the intermediate support elements (7), which are attached at one end (71) to the frame (2) and at the other end (72) to the central structure (5) have at least one portion of their front face (78) arranged obliquely to the plane (P1) at an acute angle alpha whose apex points to the front of the snow shoe (1). The intermediate support elements (7) are further arranged obliquely at an acute angle beta to the vertical plane (P2) of general symmetry of the snow shoe.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a snowshoe.

Traditional snowshoes are usually made of a wooden frame, of different shapes and dimensions, inside which is stretched a network of straps of skin or cords constituting a net, generally called a sieve, the underside of which rests directly on the layer of snow on which the user is moving. These traditional snowshoes have multiple drawbacks linked on the one hand to their high price, caused by necessarily handcrafted because of their design itself, and on the other hand their fragility due to the fact that the materials used, wood, rope, skin, are not very durable in time, especially in the humid environment that represents snow, and not very resistant to the abrasion to which they are frequently encountered on frozen snow or ice but also on stones when crossing roads and rivers.

For all these reasons, these traditional snowshoes increasingly leave room for models in which the wooden frame has been replaced with a metal frame usually made of a profile, hollow or not, bent in closed loop shape, and the skin straps replaced by synthetic straps or metallic cables. Others still models are made of plastic, frame and molded sieves in one piece constituting an assembly monolithic.

On the snowshoe, previously described, is fixed the user's shoe via straps, forming a harness, or via a plate, possibly pivotally mounted around a substantially horizontal axis and placed in the vicinity of the sieve, on which the shoe, or through a slipper in rubber into which the shoe is introduced.

How the shoe is attached to the racket even allows to decide between the two big families of snowshoes snowshoes called "Canadian" snowshoes and so-called "French" snowshoes.

The so-called "Canadian" snowshoes are characterized by a fixing immobilizing the shoe in translation longitudinal and lateral to the racket, while allowing the rotation of this shoe at the forefoot, in a plane substantially perpendicular to the support surface of the screen, around a fictitious or real axis, arranged in the immediate vicinity of the sieve and parallel to it latest. An opening, usually called a window, starting in front of this axis is formed in the sieve to release the area swept by the forefoot when tilting the foot during the stride. Thus, the heel of the shoe can be lift naturally during the stride without lifting the rear of the racket which, as far as possible, must remain in contact with the ground.

Snowshoes called "French" generally dimensions lower than the previous ones are characterized by a system of fasteners now pressed against the sieve the sole of the shoe, along its entire length, seeking to avoid rotational or translational movements as much as possible of the shoe compared to the racket and the racket therefore accompanies the shoe in all its movements.

Compared to so-called "French" snowshoes, snowshoes say "Canadian" make walking much easier and fatiguing ends thanks to their larger surface ensuring better lift and therefore less penetration into the layer thanks to the swivel fixing to avoid lift the entire racket with each stride.

The design of known snowshoe models to date, however, has two major drawbacks: on the one hand snow frequently accumulates between the sole of the shoe and the upper face of the screen thus opposing that the shoe comes to rest flat on the sieve at the end of each stride and thereby making walking very uncomfortable while causing frequent trauma to ankle level of the user, and secondly, the currently known configurations do not provide performance optimized at the profiling level and each stride translates into unnecessary energy loss due to resistance to the advancement in the snow opposed by these snowshoes.

STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention therefore seeks to remedy the drawbacks mentioned above by proposing a snowshoe design on the one hand to avoid the accumulation of snow between the sole of the shoe and the upper face of the sieve and on the other hand to present a profile offering the least resistance possible when moving the racket during the stride while ensuring good retaining the racket, backwards during climbs, and laterally when crossing slopes.

One of the complementary objectives of the invention is to in addition to seeking to minimize the weight of said racket to best limit user fatigue.

To do this, the snowshoe according to the invention is consisting of a peripheral frame defining a surface interior with a front part, which we will designate below under the term of front sieve, extending over the entire width of the racket, from the front end of the racket to the vicinity of the front end of the shoe, when the latter rests on the racket, and a main part, which we will refer to below as the main sieve support, extending longitudinally, over the entire width of the racket, near the front end of the shoe to the rear end of the racket. In the sense transverse of the racket according to the invention the main sieve support has, in the central part, in the area on which the shoe, structural elements, intended to support said shoe, and which we will refer to below as the term central structure. The main support sieve of the snowshoe according to the invention consists of elements, longer than wide, and which we will designate in the present document under the term of intermediate support elements, connected by one of their ends to the frame of the racket and by the other of their ends to the central structure, said intermediate support elements characterized in that they have at least part of their front face oriented obliquely with respect to the plane P1 tangent to the underside of the sole of the shoe when it rests on the sieve, the aforementioned obliquity, oriented towards the front of the racket, being defined by the acute angle α that forms, on a section right of the intermediate support element concerned, its part aforementioned inclined lower with the plane P1, the acute angle α having its apex directed towards the front part of the racket.

According to another possibility of the invention, the face before said intermediate support elements can be flat, left, concave or convex.

According to another characteristic of the invention, the sides of at least some of the intermediate support elements above are extended by a wing forward or towards rear, or forward and backward, on at least part of the length of said intermediate support elements.

According to another possibility of the invention, the face upper of at least some of the supporting elements intermediaries is not parallel to the plane P1 but present, in cross-section, at least part oriented towards the front of the racket at an acute angle γ to the plane P1 and this over at least part of the length of the said intermediate support elements concerned.

According to another possibility of the invention, the elements intermediate supports are arranged in fishbones in the direction of travel is obliquely and symmetrically with respect to the vertical plane P2 of general symmetry of the racket, arranged perpendicular to the plane P1, the edges main of said intermediate support elements forming, when the racket is seen in plan, an acute angle β with the P2 plan.

According to another possibility of the invention, the edges longitudinal intermediate support elements can be straight or curvilinear and be parallel to each other or no.

According to another possibility of the invention, in the main support screen the zones extending laterally from and on the other side of the central structure, from this and up to the peripheral frame, consist only of rows of intermediate support elements without other element intersecting.

According to another possibility of the invention, the elements, constituting the framework and the central structure, which are not arranged longitudinally, have at least the lower part of their front face inclined with respect to the plane P1 at an angle acute close to α.

According to another possibility of the invention, the face lower racket support on snow as well as the upper side of the racket may not be flat but can each present, in the transverse direction, to the minus a concavity, and / or at least one convexity, the section corresponding transverse line which may be curvilinear as well as polygonal. So the underside racket can in particular have two concavities located on either side of a central boss while the face upper part of the racket is convex.

According to another possibility of the invention, the racket is monolithic, the elements constituting the frame, the central structure, the front screen and the main support screen being made with the same thermoplastic material and molded in a single injection operation.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the above-mentioned angle α will advantageously be between 15 ° and 60 ° the angle β will advantageously be between 30 ° and 80 ° and the angle γ will advantageously be between 0 ° and 45 °.

SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

• La figure 1 est une vue de desus d'une raquette à neige selon l'invention.
• La figure 2 est une vue de coté d'une raquette à neige selon l'invention.
• La figure 3 est une coupe transversale selon I, I, de la figure 1.
• la figure 4: supprimée.
• Les figures 5 et 6 sont des vues agrandies de la coupe selon II, II, de la figure 1 montrant des variantes de réalisation.
• Les figures 7, 8 et 9 sont des vues transversales selon I, I, de la figure 1 montrant des variantes de réalisation.
• la figure 10 est une vue de dessus montrant une variante de réalisation d'une raquette à neige selon l'invention.
• La figure 11 est une coupe selon II-II illustrant une variante préférée des éléments supports intermédiaires.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description which follows with reference to the appended drawings which are given only by way of nonlimiting examples:

• Figure 1 is a top view of a snowshoe according to the invention.
• Figure 2 is a side view of a snowshoe according to the invention.
• Figure 3 is a cross section along I, I, of Figure 1.
• Figure 4: deleted.
• Figures 5 and 6 are enlarged views of the section along II, II, of Figure 1 showing alternative embodiments.
• Figures 7, 8 and 9 are cross-sectional views along I, I, of Figure 1 showing alternative embodiments.
• Figure 10 is a top view showing an alternative embodiment of a snowshoe according to the invention.
• Figure 11 is a section along II-II illustrating a preferred variant of the intermediate support elements.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The snowshoe according to the invention, bearing the general reference (1), consists of a frame (2) delimiting an inner surface comprising a front screen (3) and a main support screen (4) in the central part of which locates a central structure (5) supporting the shoe (6). Intermediate support elements (7), arranged obliquely by relative to plane P2 at an acute angle β having a value of 60 ° in this example, are connected by one of their ends (71) to the frame (2) and by the other of their ends (72) to the central structure (5). These intermediate support elements (7) have their front faces (78) inclined relative to the plane P1 of an acute angle α, having a value of 45 ° in this example, and their upper faces (75) are inclined by relation to the plane P1 of an angle γ.

In the variant embodiment of the support elements intermediate (7) presented in Figure 5 said elements (7) are extended towards the front of the racket by a wing (73) of which the front part (75) of the upper face is inclined with respect to the plane P1 of an acute angle γ having a 45 ° value in this figure. Only part of the face front (78) is inclined at the acute angle α.

In the alternative embodiment shown in Figure 6 the intermediate support elements (7) have their front face (78) inclined and convex, which is extended towards the rear of the racket by a wing (76) disposed substantially parallel to the plane P1.

FIG. 7 shows an alternative embodiment in which the upper face (9) of the main support screen is not plane and parallel to plane P1, as in the example presented by FIG. 4, but convex, of polygonal section, while the underside (8) of the main support screen is plane and parallel to the plane P1.

Figure 8 shows an alternative embodiment in which the underside (8) of the main support screen is convex in the transverse direction while the upper side (9) of the main support screen present in the transverse direction two concavities, (13) and (14), located on either side of a central boss (15) on which the shoe (6) rests.

Figure 9 shows another alternative embodiment in which the upper face (9) of the main support screen is convex in the transverse direction while the underside (8) of the main screen present in the transverse direction two concavities, (16) and (17) located on either side of a central boss (18).

Figure 10 shows an alternative embodiment in which the intermediate support elements (7) are shaped curvilinear in their longitudinal direction and the frame (2) of the racket (1) is extended rearwards by a tail (10), an opening (11) formed at the junction of the screen front (3) and the main support screen (4) also allowing the use of a fixing which can pivot about an axis (12).

Figure 11 illustrates in cross section an embodiment preferred intermediate support elements (7). In this embodiment, the support elements (7) have a cross section as shown, with a front face (78) inclined in profile transverse in S. Their central part (79) is of section relatively thick and sloping, tapering downwards, extending upwards and forwards by an anterior wing (73) thinner generally horizontal, and extending downward and towards the rear, thinning along a rear wing (76) shorter curved. The cell (80) between two support elements successive intermediaries thus presents a form favoring the evacuation of snow downwards, opposing the rise of snow above the plane P1, and favoring the progression of the racket forward.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the modes of realization described and shown as examples, but it also includes all technical equivalents and their combinations.

Claims (11)

1. Snowshoe (1), comprising a frame (2) delimiting an interior surface divided into a front area (3) and a main bearing area (4) in the middle part of which is a central structure (5) on which the bottom surface of a shoe sole (6) can rest tangentially to a plane P1, wherein intermediate support members (7) are connected by one of their ends (71) to the frame (2) and by the other of their ends (72) to the central structure (5) and have at least a part of their front face (78) disposed obliquely to the plane P1 at an acute angle α the apex of which is directed towards the front of the snowshoe (1), characterised in that at least some of the intermediate support members (7) with an oblique front face part (78) are extended by a flange (73) extending towards the front, or towards the rear (76) or towards the front and the rear, over at least a part of the length of said intermediate support members (7).
2. Snowshoe (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that the front face (78) of the intermediate support members (7) is plane.
3. Snowshoe (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that the front face (78) of the intermediate support members (7) is warped.
4. Snowshoe (1) according to claim 1 or 3, characterised in that the front face (78) of the intermediate support members (7) is convex.
5. Snowshoe (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that at least one of the intermediate support members (7) is extended on its upper side by a flange (73) towards the front.
6. Snowshoe (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that support members (7) have an inclined central part (79) with a relatively thick section extending upwardly and forwardly by a generally horizontal front flange (73), and extending downwardly and rearwardly by a shorter curved rear flange (76), simultaneously tapering, the compartment (80) between two successive intermediate support members having a shape opened downwards.
7. Snowshoe (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the intermediate support members (7) are disposed obliquely at an acute angle β to the vertical plane P2 of general symmetry of the snowshoe placed perpendicular to the plane P1.
8. Snowshoe (1) according to claim 7, characterised in that the angle α is in the range of 15° to 60° and the angle β is in the range 30° to 80°.
9. Snowshoe (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the bottom face (8) of the main bearing area has at least one convexity in the transverse direction.
10. Snowshoe (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterised in that the top face (9) of the main bearing area has at least one convexity in the transverse direction.
11. Snowshoe (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the bottom face (8) of the snowshoe comprises two concavities situated on respective opposite sides of a central boss whereas the top face (9) of the snowshoe is convex.

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