EP4587134B1

EP4587134B1 - Exercise machine loading device

Info

Publication number: EP4587134B1
Application number: EP24749220.0A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Vadim Evgenevich MARKELOV
Original assignee: Streetbarbell Group Oy
Current assignee: Streetbarbell Group Oy
Priority date: 2023-07-28
Filing date: 2024-07-26
Publication date: 2025-11-05
Anticipated expiration: 2044-07-26
Also published as: WO2025026941A1; EP4587134C0; EP4587134A1

Description

The invention relates to the sports area, in particular to exercise machines protected from unauthorized theft of weights used on street sports grounds.
The exercise machine loading device is used to create an adjustable load and comprises a system consisting of a metal guide rail made of several straight sections and several weights placed thereupon built at an angle into the lateral face of the lever of the exercise machine, which results in the impossibility of spontaneous movement of the weights along the guide rail, the impossibility of spontaneous change of load during the exercise and increased protection from vandalism.
A large number of loading devices for exercise machines are currently known. Some examples are useful model Russian patent 189071 "Exercise Machine Loading Device," Russian patent 2632757 "Exercise Machine for Creating Adjustable Loads (Options)."
A disadvantage of these loading devices is that the tilting plane of the loading device mounted above at the lever of the exercise machine is positioned perpendicular to the bearing surface, therefore, when lifting the lever upwards, the weight slips from the accumulator and moves along the guide rail, which results in unwanted change in load and can cause injury.
Also known is useful model Russian patent 200920 "Guide Rail for Positioning Weights Mounted on the Support Beam of the Exercise Machine," in which the guide rail for positioning weights comprises two straight sections mounted on the support beam of the exercise machine and a yoke bent section perpendicular to them, wherein the guide rail is mounted on the side of the lever and is positioned in the plane parallel to the bearing surface. However, lifting the lever leads to moving the weights from the yoke bent section, as during the exercise the weight positioned into this region by the guide rail turns out to be in the plane parallel to the tilting plane. Furthermore, since the guide rail for positioning weights is located in the plane parallel to the bearing surface, an increased load is applied to the coupling of the guide rail to the lever during the exercise, which leads to guide rail deformation and breaking its coupling to the lever. The goal of the claimed invention is to create a loading device for the exercise machine that is more efficient, safe, and vandal-proof.
The effect of the invention is increased training efficiency due to the absence of spontaneous movement of the plates along the guide rail and spontaneous change of load throughout the exercise, as well as increased protection from vandalism and reliability of the structure due to shifting the center of gravity of the weights located on the guide rail towards the coupling of the guide rail and the lever of the exercise machine.
The said effect is achieved by the exercise machine loading device comprising a tiltable lever coupled with the axis of the exercise machine, weights and a guide rail made of several straight sections, wherein the guide rail is built at an angle into the lateral face of the lever.
Upon changing the exercise machine lever angle, the weights located on the guide rail built at an angle on the exercise machine lever side will always be located in a plane positioned at an angle both to the bearing surface and to the tilting plane of the lever and therefore they will not be able to move spontaneously regardless of the position of the lever.
Since the guide rail is built into the exercise machine lever at an angle, the center of gravity of the weights shifts towards the coupling of the guide rail and the lever of the exercise machine, thus reducing the load on the guide rail when lifting and dropping the lever, which prevents deformation of the guide rail, thus increasing the reliability of the structure and its protection from vandalism.
A feature of this device is positioning the guide rail with the weights at different sides of the lever.
A further feature is installing at least one guide rail on the lever.
The proposed set of essential features provides the claimed exercise machine loading device with new properties allowing to solve the set problem and corresponding to the inventive level criterion.
The submitted exercise machine loading device possesses a novelty in comparison to the prototype, wherein the guide rail made of several straight sections with weights is built into the tiltable exercise machine lever coupled with the exercise machine stand axis at an angle into the lateral face of the lever. The claimed invention can be used to create adjustable load in exercise machines and therefore meets the criteria for industrial applicability.
Therefore, the present disclosure also describes an exercise machine loading device comprising

a first stand, which has a first end for fastening to the ground and a second end with a first tilting axis being the tilting axis,
a first lever which is rotatably attached to the first tilting axis and is movable in a first plane, the first swing plane,
at least one first guide element being the guide rail, wherein the at least one first guide element is connected to the first lever,
with weights which are displaceably arranged on the at least one first guide element,
the at least one guide element extends in a second plane which is inclined relative to the first swing plane in a first inclination angle α larger than 0°.

The at least one first guide element can have at least three successive first rectilinear sections a, b, and c, a first end of first sections a and c being connected to the first lever, and section b being arranged substantially parallel to the first lever.
The guide element have curved sections linking sections a and c to section b.
The guide element can have a U shape or a V shape.
The first sections of the at least one guide element a, b, and c can extend in a second plane which is inclined relative to the first swing plane in a first inclination angle α larger than 0° Weight considered can be weights in disc form or flat form containing a bore. The bore can be used to position the weights on the guide element. Other forms of weights are also possible as long as the weights are configured to be non-removable from the respective guide element.
Thus, the weights cannot be removed from the device since they are linked to the device via the guide element. In this way the device is protected from theft and vandalisms.
Moreover, when the device is mounted to the ground any weights which are moved on the guide element 5 from one resting position (sections a or c ) via the section b to another resting position (sections a or c ) will fall into the resting position with reduced speed since they acquire less potential energy than e.g. weights which are moved at a first inclination angel which is 0°. Thus, the device of the disclosure provides improved safety.
Therefore, this technical solution allows improving street vandal-proof exercise machines by increasing training efficiency and trainees' safety during the exercise with minimal production costs.
The first inclination angle (α) is an angle extending from that part the first swing plane which is limited by a plane, which is orthogonal to the first swing plane and comprises the axis of the longitudinal elongation of the first lever, to the second plane.
The first inclination angle can be between 5° and 85°, 20° and 70°, 35° and 65°, or 40° and 50°.
At these oblique angles gravity ensures that the weights are safely fixed in the direction of the lever, but can still be safely moved from one resting position to a next resting position.
The exercise device can comprise at least one second guide element and the at least second guide element is connected to the first lever; wherein the at least one second guide element is connected to the first lever, the at least one second guide element extends in a third plane which has a second inclination angle β relative to the first swing plane being smaller than the first inclination angle.
The at least one second guide element can have at least three successive first rectilinear sections a', b', and c', a first end of first sections a' and c' being connected to the first lever, and section b' being arranged substantially parallel to the first lever.
The guide element have curved sections linking sections a' and c' to section b'.
The guide element can have a U shape or a V shape.
The first sections of the at least one guide element a', b', and c' can extend in a second plane which is inclined relative to the first swing plane in a first inclination angle α larger than 0°.
When the second inclination angle β has a value that is different from the first inclination angel, several guide elements can be attached to a lever without interfering with each other.
Furthermore, each of the second weights 6 of the second guide element 8 may have less mass than each of the first weights 4 of the first guide element 8.
In this way, the overall mass of the weights can be more precisely adapted.
The second inclination angle β can be an angle extending from that part the first swing plane which is limited by a plane, which is orthogonal to the first swing plane and comprises the axis of the longitudinal elongation of the first lever, to the third plane.
The second inclination angle can be between 0° and 85°, 0° and 70°, 0° and 45°, or 0° and 5°.
The exercise device can comprise

a second stand, which has a first end for fastening to the ground and a second end with a second tilting axis,
a second lever which is rotatably attached to second tilting axis and is movable in a fourth plane, the second swing plane,
at least one third guide element, wherein the at least one third guide element is connected to the second lever,
with weights which are displaceably arranged on the at least one guide element,
the at least one third guide element extends in a fifth plane which is inclined relative to the second swing plane in a third inclination angle,

The at least one second guide element can have at least three successive first rectilinear sections a", b", and c", a first end of first sections a" and c" being connected to the first lever, and section b" being arranged substantially parallel to the first lever.
The guide element have curved sections linking sections a" and c" to section b".
The guide element can have a U shape or a V shape.
The first sections of the at least one guide element a", b", and c" can extend in a second plane which is inclined relative to the first swing plane in a first inclination angle α larger than 0°.
In this way, the device comprises two levers for each of the two arms of a trainee.
Each of the levers may contain corresponding guide elements, i.e. guide elements exhibiting the same inclination angle.
A mirror plane might divide the device vertically into two sections containing one stand each. The sections might at least partially contain the corresponding guide elements in a mirrored configuration. The corresponding guide elements having inclination angles greater than 0° might be positioned between the two levers (i.e. tilting to towards the mirror plane, this arrangement allows to safe space) or might be positioned outside the space between the two levers i.e. tilting away from the mirror plane, this arrangement allows easy access to the weights).
Advantageously, the guide elements ha
The two tilting axes are coaxial and a) either can be (reversibly) fixed to each other thereby forcing the levers to always move together or can be not fixed to each other allowing the levers to move independently from each other.
The first lever and/or the second lever can comprise a handle.
The exercise machine loading device can also comprise a limiter for preventing the movement of the first lever and/or the second lever to the ground. In this way, the trainee when starting training does not have to pick up the levers from the ground and when finishing training can safely store the levers in a safe position.
The essence of the invention is illustrated by the following kinematic diagrams:

Fig. 1 shows the top view of the loading device.
Fig. 2 shows the side view of the loading device.
Fig. 3 shows the rear view of the loading device.
Fig. 4 shows the a rear view of the loading device having two stands and at last one lever connected to each of the stands.
Fig. 5 illustrates the position of a first and second inclination angel when viewing the load device from the rear and along the axis of the longitudinal extension of the at least one lever.

In the following description, identical reference signs denote identical components or identical features, so that a description given in relation to one figure also applies to the other figures so that a repetitive description is avoid-ed. Furthermore, individual features described in connection with one embodiment can also be used separately in other embodiments.
To achieve the effect in the submitted device, i.e., the exercise machine loading device is at least comprising:

a stand 1,
an axis 2,
a lever 3,
a weight 4,
a guide rail 5.

The axis 2 is attached onto the stand of the exercise machine, upon which the tiltable lever 3 is coupled, on the side of which the guide rail 5 is attached in a plane positioned at an angle to the tilting plane, with weights 4 located thereupon.
As illustrated in Fig. the device can also contain a limiter 7, which prevents lever from moving to the ground when not being supported by a trainee.
The suggested device operates as follows: prior to exercising, the trainee moves the weights 4 along the guide rail 5 in the ratio required by the trainee positioning the weight at the guide rail sections adjacent at an angle to the exercise machine lever. Then, by lifting the exercise machine lever, the trainee works their respective muscles. The load amount is determined by the weight and the distance from the center of gravity of the loading device to the tilt axis 2. Positioning the system of the guide rail and the weights at an angle relative to the lever tilting plane prevents spontaneous movement of the weight along the guide rail, assists in keeping the set load, thus increasing training efficiency and trainees' safety during the exercise.
Thus exercise machine loading device of claim 1 can comprise a first stand being the stand (1), which has a first end for fastening to the ground and a second end with a first tilting axis (2) being the tilting axis (2).
It comprises a first lever (3) being the lever (3) which is rotatably attached to the first tilting axis (2) and is movable in a first plane (9), the first swing plane (9).
The first swing plane 9 is also illustrated in Fig. 5 and is the plane in which the lever 3 moves. The first tilting 2 axis only allows movement circumferentially around the axis and no lateral movement.
The device also comprises at least one first guide element (5) being the guide rail 5, wherein the at least one first guide element (5) has at least three successive first rectilinear sections a, b, and c, a first end of first sections a and c being connected to the first lever (3), and section b being arranged substantially parallel to the first lever (3) (not illustrated).
Weights 4 are displaceably arranged on the at least one first guide element (5) and the first sections of the at least one guide element (5) a, b, and c extend in a second plane (11) which is inclined relative to the first swing plane (9) in a first inclination angle (α) larger than 0° (see Figss 1, 2 and 5).
Thus, the weights cannot be removed from the device and in this way the device is protected from theft and vandalisms.
Moreover, when the device is mounted to the ground any weights which are moved on the guide element 5 from one resting position (sections a or c ) via the section b to another resting position (sections a or c ) will fall into the resting position with reduced speed since they acquire less potential energy than e.g. weights which are moved at a first inclination angel which is 0°. Thus, the device of the disclosure provides improved safety.
Therefore, this technical solution allows improving street vandal-proof exercise machines by increasing training efficiency and trainees' safety during the exercise with minimal production costs.
As is illustrated in Fig. 4, the exercise device can comprise at least one second guide element 8. The at least second guide element 8 is also connected to the first lever. The at least one second guide element 8 has at least three second successive rectilinear sections a', b', and c', a first end of the second sections a' and c' being connected to the first lever (3), and section b' is arranged substantially parallel to the second lever, the sections of the at least one second guide element (5) a, b, and c extend in a third plane (12). The third plane 12 has a second inclination angle β relative to the first swing plane 9 which is smaller than the first inclination angle α.
In the present case the second inclination angle β is zero. In this way several guide elements can be attached to a lever without interfering with each other. For example, each of the second weights 6 of the second guide element 8 may have less mass than each of the first weights 4 of the first guide element 8.
In this way, the overall mass of the weights can be more precisely adapted.
While the basic principle of the device was illustrated above using a device comprising only one first stand 1, the device can also comprise a second stand 10, i.e. contain all the features described above (at least) twice.
Fig. 4 merely shows one guide element 50 connected to the second lever 30 which in turn is connected to the second stand 10. This guide element 50 has an inclination angel that is larger than 0°. However, guide element 50 might contain additional guide elements analogous the elements connected to the first lever.
For example, Fig. 4 illustrates a device comprising two stands, at least two levers,
Thus the exercise device comprises also a second stand 10), which has a first end for fastening to the ground and a second end with a second tilting axis 20 as illustrated in Fig. 4.
A second lever 30 is rotatably attached to second tilting axis 20 and is movable in a fourth plane, the second swing plane. This is not illustrated here, but the teachings contained in this disclosure regarding the first stand 1 and the elements attached to it also completely apply to the first stand and the elements attached to it.
Thus, the device also comprises at least one third guide element 50, wherein the at least one third guide element 50 has at least three third successive rectilinear sections a", b", and c", a first end of sections a" and c" being connected to the second lever 30, and section b" being arranged substantially parallel to the second lever (30)
Similar to before weights (4) are displaceably arranged on the at least one guide element (50) and the hehe sections of the at least one third guide element (50) a", b", and c" extend in a fifth plane which is inclined relative to the second swing plane in a third inclination angle. The third inclination angel is larger than °C. It can have a value that is different or the same as the first inclination angel. Preferably, it is the same angle.
The direction of the first and second tilting axis (2,20) are coaxial.
In this way, the movement of the first and second lever are coordinated.

List of reference signs

1: (first) stand
2: (first) tilting axis
3: (first) lever
4: (first) weight
5: (first) guide element/guide rail
6: (second)weight
7: limiter
8: (second) guide element/guide rail
9: first plane/ first swing plane
10: (second) stand
11: second plane
12: third plane
20: (second) tilting axis
30: (second) lever
50: (first) guide element/guide rail

Claims

An exercise machine loading device comprising a stand (1) with a tilting axis for a lever (3), and a guide rail (7), mounted on the lever, with weights configured to be non-removable from the respective guide rail, protecting from unauthorized theft of weights, characterised in that,
the guide rail is built at an angle into the lateral face of the lever, with the center of gravity of the weights shifted towards the lever, thereby shifting the center of gravity of the weights towards the coupling of the guide rail and the lever of the exercise machine, thus

the lever is movable in a tilting plane and the guide rail is in a plane positioned at an angle to the tilting plane.
The exercise machine loading device of claim 1, wherein the guide rail is located at different sides of the lever.
The exercise machine loading device of claim 1, wherein at least one guide rail is installed on the lever.
The exercise machine loading device of claim 1 comprising
- a first stand being the stand (1), which has a first end for fastening to the ground and a second end with a first tilting axis (2) being the tilting axis (2),

- a first lever (3) being the lever (3) which is rotatably attached to the first tilting axis (2) and is movable in a first plane (9), the first swing plane (9) being the tilting plane,

- at least one first guide element (5) being the guide rail (5), wherein the at least one first guide element is connected to the first lever (3,

- with weights (4) which are displaceably arranged on the at least one first guide element (5),

- the at least one guide element extends in a second plane (11) which is inclined relative to the first swing plane (9) in a first inclination angle (α) larger than 0°.
The exercise machine loading device according to claim 4, wherein the first inclination angle (α) is an angle extending from that part the first swing plane (9) which is limited by a plane, which is orthogonal to the first swing plane 9 and comprises the axis of the longitudinal elongation of the first lever (9), to the second plane (5).
The exercise machine loading device according to claims 4 or 5, wherein the first inclination angle is between 5° and 85°, 20° and 70°, 35° and 65°, or 40° and 50°.
The exercise machine loading device according to claims 4 or 6, wherein the exercise device comprises at least one second guide element (8) and the at least second guide element (8) is connected to the first lever; wherein the at least one second guide element is connected to the first lever (3), the at least one second guide element (5) extends in a third plane (12) which has a second inclination angle (β) relative to the first swing plane (9) smaller than the first inclination angle (α).
The exercise machine loading device according to claim 7, wherein the second inclination angle (β) is an angle extending from that part the first swing plane (9) which is limited by a plane, which is orthogonal to the first swing plane 9 and comprises the axis of the longitudinal elongation of the first lever (9), to the third plane (5).
The exercise machine loading device according to any of claims 7-8, wherein the second inclination angle is between 0° and 85°, 0° and 70°, 0° and 45°, or 0° and 5°.
The exercise machine loading device any of claims 4-9, wherein the exercise device comprises
- a second stand (10), which has a first end for fastening to the ground and a second end with a second tilting axis (20),

- a second lever (30) which is rotatably attached to second tilting axis (20) and is movable in a fourth plane, the second swing plane,

- at least one third guide element (50), wherein the at least one third guide element (50) is connected to the second lever (30), ,

- with weights (4) which are displaceably arranged on the at least one guide element (50),

- the at least one third guide element (50) extends in a fifth plane which is inclined relative to the second swing plane in a third inclination angle,
wherein the direction of the first and second tilting axis are coaxial.
The exercise machine loading device according to any of the previous claims, wherein the first lever (3) and/or the second lever (30) comprises a handle, and/or the exercise machine loading device comprises a limiter (8) for preventing the movement of the first lever (3)and/or the second lever (30) to the ground.