EP1512445A1

EP1512445A1 - Spinning toy disk of metall

Info

Publication number: EP1512445A1
Application number: EP03019632A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Liu Kuo-Ching
Original assignee: Glory Innovations Inc
Current assignee: Glory Innovations Inc
Priority date: 2003-09-04
Filing date: 2003-09-04
Publication date: 2005-03-09

Abstract

A swiftly turnable metallic toy disk (10) is formed by way of punching a metal sheet into a disk, at a center of which a downward pointed cone (13) is formed through punching. When a turning moment is applied to the metallic toy disk, the metallic toy disk would swiftly turn around the pointed cone on a plane like a spin.

Description

The present invention relates to a metallic toy disk, and more particularly to a swiftly turnable metallic toy disk.
Conventional toy disks are made of paper and usually have various color designs printed on two round surfaces thereof. Due to these various color designs, the paper toy disks are not only a popular toy among children, but also special collections of some people. With advancements in the manufacturing techniques, there is developed a metallic toy disk formed through punching a sheet metal material.
A currently available metallic toy disk basically includes a round metal sheet, an outer edge of which is smoothly curled to avoid cutting a player. The round metal sheet is also punched to form a concentric recess that increases an overall structural strength of the toy disk to avoid deformation thereof in the process of curling the outer edge.
The above-described conventional metallic toy disk is apparently monotonous in terms of the manner in which the metallic toy disk may be played. It is therefore desirable to develop a new metallic toy disk that may be played in different manners and produced without increasing the manufacturing cost thereof.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a metallic toy disk that may be played in a novel and interesting manner. To achieve this object, the metallic toy disk of the present invention mainly includes a downward pointed cone punched at a center thereof, so that the metallic toy disk may swiftly turn around the pointed cone on a plane like a spin when a turning moment is applied thereto.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a swiftly turnable metallic toy disk, on an upper surface of which an indicating design, such as an arrow, is provided. Therefore, a game of guessing the direction in which the indicating design points when the spinning metallic toy disk finally stops and becomes stationary on the plane.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure and the technical means adopted by the present invention to achieve the above and other objects can be best understood by referring to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings, wherein
Fig. 1 is a top perspective view of a metallic toy disk according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of the metallic toy disk of Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 shows the manner of spinning the metallic toy disk of Fig. 1; and
Fig. 4 is a top perspective view of a metallic toy disk according to another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to Figs. 1 and 2 that are top perspective and fragmentary sectional views, respectively, of a metallic toy disk according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the metallic toy disk includes a round metal sheet 10, an outer edge of which is punched to form a smoothly curled edge 11, lest the metallic toy disk should have any sharp edge to injure a user. The round metal sheet 10 is internally punched to form a concentric recess section 12, which is adapted to increase an overall structural strength of the round metal sheet 10.
The metallic toy disk of the present invention is characterized in that a downward pointed cone 13 is formed at a center thereof by way of punching. As can be seen from Fig. 2, a point 14 of the cone 13 projects from and is lower than any other areas on the round metal sheet 10. A user may therefore apply a turning moment to the round metal sheet 10 as indicated by the arrow G in Fig. 3. Since the round metal sheet 10 has an overall height "h" from the pointed cone 13 to the curled edge 11 (see Fig. 2) that is relatively small when compared with an overall diameter of the round metal sheet 10, the whole round metal sheet 10 may swiftly turn around the point 14 on a surface like a spin when the turning moment is applied thereto.
While the forming of the pointed cone 13 at the center of the round metal sheet 10 through punching does not cause any increase in the manufacturing cost of the metallic toy disk, the metallic toy disk with the pointed cone 13 has an additional function of swiftly turning like a spin to make it much more interesting for play. Moreover, since the pointed cone 13 has a relatively small height, it would not have any influence on the function initially designed for the toy disk.
Alternatively, an indicating design 15, such as an arrow shown in Fig. 4, or a radially extended line, may be provided on a top of the round metal sheet 10. When the metallic toy disk is spinning, a game of guessing the direction in which the indicating design 15 points when the toy disk finally stops and becomes stationary on a plane would create a lot of fun particularly when there are many players playing the metallic toy disk together.

Claims

A swiftly turnable metallic toy disk, comprising a round metal sheet, an outer edge of which is smoothly curled in a predetermined manner; said metallic toy disk being characterized in that a downward pointed cone is formed at a center of said round metal sheet by way of punching, and that a point of said pointed cone projects from and is lower than any other areas of said round metal sheet; whereby when a turning moment is applied to said roundmetal sheet, said round metal sheet would swiftly turn around said pointed cone on a plane.
The swiftly turnable metallic toy disk as claimed in claim 1, wherein said round metal sheet is internally punched to form a concentric recess section.
The swiftly turnable metallic toy disk as claimed in claim 1, wherein said round metal sheet is provided on an upper surface with an indicating design.