EP1512448A1

EP1512448A1 - Sound-producing steel toy disk having a circular recess

Info

Publication number: EP1512448A1
Application number: EP03019631A
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 sound-producing steel toy disk includes a round steel sheet (10), which is internally punched at a position close to a middle point of a radius thereof to form a circle of downward curved recess (12) surrounding a flat central surface (15) of the toy disk. When a downward force is applied to the flat central surface, a radially inner slope of the curved recess quickly shifts to produce a clear and crisp sound.

Description

The present invention relates to a steel toy disk, and more particularly to a steel toy disk that is able to produce sound.
Steel toy disks are developed from conventional paper toy disks that 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 modern printing and punching techniques, the steel toy disk is developed through punching a sheet metal material.
A currently available steel toy disk basically includes a round steel sheet, an outer edge of which is smoothly curled to avoid cutting a player. The round steel sheet is also punched at an area close to the outer edge 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 steel toy disk reserves the same function of showing printed designs as the paper toy disks and has the advantage of not easily subjected to damage. However, it does not produce sound when being used to play games, and is therefore not so interesting for play. The conventional steel toy disk is apparently monotonous in terms of the possible manners in which the steel toy disk is played. It is therefore desirable to develop a new steel 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 sound-producing steel toy disk. To achieve this object, the steel toy disk of the present invention mainly includes a round steel sheet, which is internally punched at a position close to a middle point of a radius thereof to form a circle of downward curved recess surrounding a flat central surface of the toy disk and having a radially inner slope with a moderate gradient. When a downward force is applied to the flat central surface, the radially inner slope of the curved recess quickly shifts to produce a clear and crisp sound.

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 sound-producing steel toy disk according to the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of Fig. 1; and
Figs. 3A to 3C shows movements of the steel toy disk of the present invention in producing sound.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to Figs. 1 and 2 that are top perspective and cross sectional views, respectively, of a sound-producing steel toy disk according to the present invention. As shown, the steel toy disk of the present invention includes a round steel sheet 10, an outer edge of which is punched to form a smoothly curled edge 11, lest the steel toy disk should have any sharp edge to injure a user. The round steel sheet 10 is internally punched at a position close to a middle point of a radius thereof to form a circle of curved recess 12. As can be clearly seen from Fig. 2, a radially inner side of the curved recess 12 is a slope 14 having a relatively moderate gradient, and a radially outer side of the curved recess 12 is a slope 13 having a relatively sharp gradient. And, a flat surface 15 is formed at a center of the round steel sheet 10.
Since a bottom of the curved recess 12 is not lower than a lowest point of the whole round steel sheet 10, the curved recess 12 would not have any influence on the function initially designed for the toy disk.
Figs. 3A to 3C shows how the steel toy disk of the present invention operates to produce sound.
When a user applies a gradually increased downward force on the flat central surface 15 in a direction indicated by the arrow G1, as shown in Fig. 3A, and when the applied force is larger than a supporting force that could be provided by the radially inner slope 14 of the curved recess 12, a portion of the radial inner slope 14 would shift downward, as shown in Fig. 3B. Since the radially inner slope 14 is functionally equivalent to an elastic leaf, the downward shift of the radially inner slope 14 actually occurs in an instant. And the quick shift of the radially inner slope 14 interestingly produces a clear and crisp sound.
Thereafter, when the downward force is released from the flat central surface 15, an inherent metal memory capability of the steel disk would restore the downward shifted inner slope 14 to an original position in a direction indicated by the arrow G2, as shown in Fig. 3C, so that the flat central surface 15 is ready for a next push. When the flat central surface 15 restores to its original position, a clear and crisp sound of a different frequency is also produced. That is, when a user pushes the flat central surface 15 of the round steel sheet 10 once, the steel toy disk would interestingly produce crisp sound twice to largely increase the fun of playing the steel toy disk.
In comparing with the conventional metallic toy disk, the present invention uses the same manufacturing process including only one punch to form the curved recess 12 without increasing the manufacturing cost thereof, while an interesting sound effect may be produced with the steel toy disk of the present invention.

Claims

A sound-producing steel toy disk having a circular recess, comprising a round steel sheet, an outer edge of which is punched to form a smoothly curled edge; said steel toy disk being characterized in that said round steel sheet is internally punched at a position close to a middle point of a radius thereof to form a circle of curved recess, which has a radially inner slope having a gradient smaller than that of a radially outer slope of said curved recess, and that a flat central surface is formed on said round steel sheet; whereby when a downward force is applied on said flat central surface of said round steel sheet and when said applied force is larger than a supporting force that could be provided by said radially inner slope of said curved recess, said radially inner slope would quickly shifts to produce a clear and crisp sound.
The sound-producing steel toy disk having a circular recess as claimed in claim 1, wherein said curved recess has a bottom always higher than a lowest point on said whole round steel sheet.