EP2101886B1 - Shuttlecock and method of manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The shuttle has a cap, and a flap formed of different feathers (10) separately connected to each other, where each feather includes a natural shank (12) and two artificial blades (14). The artificial blades are formed of non-woven material of polyester, polypropylene or fibers glass. The two artificial blades are extended on both sides of the natural shank of an animal e.g. goose. An independent claim is also included for a method for fabricating a shuttle.

Description

The present invention relates to a badminton shuttlecock and its manufacturing process.

Usually, such a flywheel comprises a plug, from which extends a skirt formed by different feathers, connected to each other. In general, two main types of wheels are known.

Thus, a first type of flying is formed of entirely natural feathers, taken from poultry, such as geese. This solution, however, has a disadvantage in that the production of natural feather flounces requires the use of an extremely large number of animals. Under these conditions, this production may be jeopardized in the case of a poultry shortage. Moreover, the cost price of these wheels is particularly high.

A second type of flywheel uses an artificial skirt, made in one piece of a synthetic material, such as polypropylene. Although this solution solves the problem of cost and animal shortage, it does not provide good quality steering wheels. The document GB-A-949 110 describes a badminton shuttlecock with several poles and a single peripheral iodine.

Under these conditions, the invention proposes to remedy these various disadvantages.

For this purpose, it relates to a badminton shuttlecock including a cap, and a skirt formed of several feathers, each feather comprising a shaft and two blades, where each feather is formed of a natural shaft, and blades artificial.

According to an advantageous characteristic of the invention the artificial blades are made of a nonwoven of polyester, polypropylene or glass fibers.

The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing the steering wheel as defined above, in which a natural shaft is taken from an animal, the artificial blades are made separately and the artificial blades are reported on this natural shaft. , so as to form the constituent feathers of the skirt of the steering wheel.

According to an advantageous characteristic of the invention, the blades are reported on the shaft by gluing.

• la figure 1 est une vue de côté, illustrant un volant de badminton conforme à l'invention ;
• la figure 2 est une vue de face illustrant une plume appartenant à ce volant ; et
• la figure 3 est une vue de face, illustrant une étape de la réalisation de la plume de la figure 2.

The invention will be described below, with reference to the accompanying drawings, given solely by way of non-limiting example, in which:

• the figure 1 is a side view, illustrating a badminton steering wheel according to the invention;
• the figure 2 is a front view illustrating a feather belonging to this steering wheel; and
• the figure 3 is a front view, illustrating a stage of achievement of the pen of the figure 2 .

The figure 1 illustrates a badminton steering wheel, which conventionally comprises a cap 2, from which extends a skirt 4, which is formed of different feathers 10, connected to each other in the usual manner by a strapping 6.

The figure 2 illustrates more precisely a feather 10, which comprises a shaft 12 and two blades 14, extending on either side of this shaft, in a manner almost symmetrical. In the illustrated example, these two blades 14 are made in one piece. However, as a variant not shown, they can be separated from each other.

For the realization of each pen 10, firstly uses a natural shaft 12, namely taken from an animal, such as a goose. Separately, by any suitable method, the two blades 14 are produced separately. These are artificial, ie they consist of a non-natural material, which is for example a polyester nonwoven. The artificial blades thus produced are reported on the natural shaft, according to the arrow F at the figure 3 by any appropriate means, especially by gluing.

The steering wheel according to the invention, comprising a natural shaft and artificial blades, represents a satisfactory compromise between existing solutions.

Indeed, the use of artificial blades makes it possible to overcome a possible shortage of animals, on which are taken feathers. Thus, each animal is likely to provide many natural stems, which are involved in the invention. By comparison, the same animal can provide only a few full feathers, equipping the natural flywheels of the prior art.

In addition, the steering wheel according to the invention has a quality significantly higher than that of artificial wheels, made in the prior art. Indeed, the steering wheel of the invention comprises feathers separated from each other, so that it has a global shape similar to that of flying feathers all natural. This is to be compared with the artificial ruffles of the state of the art, which use a synthetic skirt in one piece, whose characteristics are very different from those of all-natural feather flounces.

Claims (4)

1. A Shuttlecock comprising a cork (2) and a skirt (4) formed by a plurality of feathers (10), each feather comprising a shaft (12) and two vanes (14), where each feather (10) is formed from a natural shaft (12) and artificial vanes (14).
2. A Shuttlecock according to claim 1, characterized in that the artificial vanes are made of non-woven fabric made of polyester, polypropylene, or glass fibers.
3. A method of manufacturing the shuttlecock according to either preceding claim, wherein a natural shaft (12) is taken from an animal, the artificial vanes (14) are made separately, and the artificial vanes are fitted to said natural shaft, so as to form the feathers constituting the skirt of the shuttlecock.
4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the vanes are fitted to the shaft by adhesive.

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