GB1594674A - Sporting equipment - Google Patents

Description

(54) IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO SPORTING EQUIPMENT (71) We, MOTLEY MANUFACTURING AGENCIES PTY. LTD., a company incorporated under the laws of the State of South Australia, carrying on business as Manufacturers' Agents, whose registered office is at 44 Pirie Street, Adelaide, State of South Australia, Commonwealth of Australia, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to sporting equipment, and in particular to articles such as bats that are used for hitting balls in ball games. The invention also relates to a process for the manufacture of sporting equipment such as bats.

It has hitherto been traditional to manufacture bats, for instance cricket bats, hockey sticks, base ball or soft ball bats from wood.

It is well known that the various types of wood provide differing characteristics to bats of this general type, and it is well known that woods of some particular type are substantially preferred to others.

Referring to cricket bats, it has been well known to make a cricket bat which is a composite structure of various types of wood, including a handle of one particular type and quality of wood, while the bat itself is of another type.

Finally the bat itself is surrounded by a material to reduce splitting on impact.

It has been considered essential that bats be made in this manner so as to obtain all the necessary qualities that are demanded of a bat, and therefore the numerous disadvantages are accepted as a part of the necessary disadvantages inherent in having a bat of this type.

Among these disadvantages are such things as the necessity not only for the type of wood to be selected but for individual pieces of the wood of the particular selected type to be selected, and then individually handcrafted, so as to be of correct shape, and finally matched together with glues which may or may not be of adequate strength.

Individual pieces of wood can vary from piece to piece quite substantially, and it is a matter of high skill to ensure that the selected piece of wood has the same characteristics as a further piece, but in any event, even with the best skill, a bat will differ from other bats made by the same person at the same time.

Furthermore, because of the rigorous characteristics of the game of cricket, for instance, substantial stresses can be imposed upon the members comprising the bat, and these can be regularly subjected therefore to fracturing stresses.

Furthermore, although it is of great importance that a player when becoming used to a bat, is able to repeatedly rely upon the same characteristics, nonetheless each bat seems to have differing characteristics, and this is regarded as a substantial difficulty to players in the game.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bat for striking a ball wherein the said bat has a handle and a striking surface and is of a unitary monolithic construction having been formed by injection moulding from a plastics material and a surface of the bat other than the said striking surface includes a recess.

The recess preferably extends along a length of the bat and may have an upstanding rib extending along each of its longitudinal boundaries.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a bat having a handle and a striking surface, said bat being of unitary monolithic construction and being for striking a ball, the method comprising injection moulding the bat from a plastics material and providing a die in a mould used in the injection moulding step to form a recess in a non-striking surface of the bat. Desired characteristics of the bat can conveniently be achieved by adjustably positioning the die in the mould. The present method can thus enable bats to be manufactured that not only can be repeatedly manufactured of identical characteristics but the characteristics can re-oroduce those considered desirable by batsmen.

The word "bat" is used generically throughout the specification to define a piece of sporting equipment whose intended use is for striking a ball and includes equipment such as a hockey stick, which is used for this purpose but does not generally include the word "bat" in its name.

The external dimensions of a bat may either be fixed by rules of a particular game or by operating conditions, that such hitting characteristics and perhaps, degrees of pliability and resilience, at critical places, can be reproduced or provided in an acceptable manner.

These are only some of the advantages that have been found to be obtainable with the method.

To injection mould a large device such as a bat requires a very large mould so that the cost of any trials to find out whether an injection moulded bat may be an acceptable device requires a considerable speculative expenditure.

After substantial investigation, both in relation to the particular shape of a bat, and arrangement of a bat so as to allow for selectable variation in characteristics of the bat, and finally after a wide selection of differing characteristics of materials, it has been found possible to provide a bat which is manufactured completely by injection moulding, which can offer the advantages previously inherent in bats manufactured according to previous standard techniques, and at the same time, does not have the disadvantages inherent in such previous methods of manufacture, and furthermore can have advantages separate and advanced upon those previously manufactured articles.

One of the main difficulties which had to be overcome in the manufacture of the present bat was the provision of an acceptable "balance".

Plastics materials have a different specific gravity from wood for which allowance has to be made in order to achieve substantially the same characteristics of handling of the bat and its handling when hitting a ball as found in a bat of wood. One form of plastics injection moulded bat which has been found to have an acceptable balance has a handle and a striking portion which includes a frontal striking face of traditional proportion, and inset into the back of this striking portion a recess having round the perimeter of the striking portion a rearwardly extending rrm.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of a rear side of a hockey stick; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a front or striking face of the hockey stick; Figure 3 is a further perspective view of the stick; and Figure 4 is a cross-section along the line 4-4 of Figure 1.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4 there is shown a hockey stick 1 having a handle grip portion 2 and a striking or hitting portion 3. The striking portion 3 is provided with a flat striking face 4 which extends partway up the handle to the handle grip portion 2. The handle portion 5 between the grip portion 2 and the curved striking portion 3 is provided along its rear face with a longitudinal recess 6, this recess tapering from each of its ends to a maximum depth that extends along the major length of the recess.

The recess 6 in the rear of the stick is further formed by a pair of upstanding longitudinal ribs 7. A lower major portion of the handle 5 and a portion of the hitting portion 3 thus have a central longitudinal portion of lesser thickness and edge portions of greater thickness, which form the longitudinal ribs 7.

The recess 6 extends into the rear surface of a hooked or curved end which includes part of the striking face. At the extreme end of the hooked or curved end, the rear surface is slightly tapered or shaped at 8 so that the extreme end is reduced in thickness.

By providing a bat having a shape which includes an inner or central portion of lesser thickness and an outer portion of greater thickness, and for instance, by using a plastics material such as polypropylene as the material of the bat, the striking characteristics and the rebound characteristics of the bat closely resemble those of a bat made of wood. At the same time, neither the appearance of the bat in forms of general dimension, the overall weight, nor the vibrational characteristics of the bar differe substantially from those of a conventional wooden bat.

Furthermore, there is a degree of control, in a very simple and cheap manner, by which the characteristics of bats made by injection moulding can be altered. Account can therefore be taken of differing plastics, and of course, their various characteristics.

The depth of the recess in any portion of the bat can be controlled by reason of the fact that a die portion of the mould forming the recess can have its size altered by a movable insert; the thickness of the insert controlling the characteristics of the bat.

It has been found that polypropylene is the most suitable plastics material from which to make the bat. Other plastics were not found to be as suitable.

Where a very light ball is to be used with respect to the bat, it is normally considered that a light bat should be used. For instance, when young players are learning to control the bat, it is preferable firstly not to use a hard and heavy ball, and secondly it is preferable that the bat itself, be somewhat lighter than bats for adult use.

Thus the present invention can provide a bat having the desired weight and balance. If the striking portion has the desired weight, the "sweet spot" or centre of percussion is provided in the head or striking portion. As noted above the balance and feel of the bat can readily be adjusted by the die portion of the mould forming the longitudinal recess.

Thus there is provided a bat which can be readily produced by injection moulding, and in which the desired characteristics can be readily reproduced with little or no variation.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A bat for striking a ball wherein the said bat has a handle and a striking surface and is of a unitary monolithic construction having been formed by injection moulding from a plastics material and a surface of the bat other than the said striking surface includes a recess.

2. A bat according to claim 1 wherein the said recess extends along a length of the bat and has an upstanding rib extending along each of its longitudinal boundaries.

3. A bat according to claim 1 or claim 2 in the form of a hockey stick, said stick having an upper handle portion, a lower handle portion and a striking portion, a longitudinal recess extending along a surface of the lower handle portion.

4. A bat according to claim 3 wherein the said recess is formed on a rear side of the stick and extends into a surface at the rear of the striking surface.

5. A bat according to any one of the preceding claims made from polypropylene.

6. A method of manufacturing a bat having a handle and a striking surface said bat being of unitary monolithic construction and being for striking a ball, the method comprising injection moulding the bat from a plastics material and providing a die in a mould used in the injection moulding step to form a recess in a non-striking surface of the bat.

7. A method according to claim 6 including adjustably positioning the die in the mould to achieve desired characteristics of the bat.

8. A method according to claim 6 or claim 7 of manufacturing a bat in the form of a hockey stick wherein the die provided forms a longitudinal recess along a lower portion of a handle of the stick and into at least part of the rear surface of a striking surface of the stick.

9. A method of manufacturing a bat substantially as herein described.

10. A bat of polypropylene manufactured by a method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, 11. A bat substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (11)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. Thus there is provided a bat which can be readily produced by injection moulding, and in which the desired characteristics can be readily reproduced with little or no variation. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A bat for striking a ball wherein the said bat has a handle and a striking surface and is of a unitary monolithic construction having been formed by injection moulding from a plastics material and a surface of the bat other than the said striking surface includes a recess.

2. A bat according to claim 1 wherein the said recess extends along a length of the bat and has an upstanding rib extending along each of its longitudinal boundaries.

3. A bat according to claim 1 or claim 2 in the form of a hockey stick, said stick having an upper handle portion, a lower handle portion and a striking portion, a longitudinal recess extending along a surface of the lower handle portion.

4. A bat according to claim 3 wherein the said recess is formed on a rear side of the stick and extends into a surface at the rear of the striking surface.

5. A bat according to any one of the preceding claims made from polypropylene.

6. A method of manufacturing a bat having a handle and a striking surface said bat being of unitary monolithic construction and being for striking a ball, the method comprising injection moulding the bat from a plastics material and providing a die in a mould used in the injection moulding step to form a recess in a non-striking surface of the bat.

7. A method according to claim 6 including adjustably positioning the die in the mould to achieve desired characteristics of the bat.

8. A method according to claim 6 or claim 7 of manufacturing a bat in the form of a hockey stick wherein the die provided forms a longitudinal recess along a lower portion of a handle of the stick and into at least part of the rear surface of a striking surface of the stick.

9. A method of manufacturing a bat substantially as herein described.

10. A bat of polypropylene manufactured by a method according to any one of claims 6 to 9,

11. A bat substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.