GB2090753A - Darts - Google Patents

Abstract

A dart comprises a point portion 1, a barrel portion 2, a shaft 3 and a flight 4. The point portion 1 may be detachably secured within the barrel portion 2 by means of a screw thread 8 provided at one end of the point portion 1 and a corresponding screw thread provided at one end 9 of the barrel portion 2. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to darts This invention relates to darts and more particularly to darts of the type which may be used for throwing at a target in the game commonly known as "darts".

According to one aspect of this invention there is provided a dart comprising an elongate point portion, a barrel portion, a shaft and a flight, the point portion being adapted to be detachably secured to one end of the barrel portion, one end of the shaft being adapted to be detachably secured to the other end of the barrel portion, and the flight being adapted to be secured to the other end of the shaft.

Preferably, the point portion is adapted to be detachably secured to the said one end of the barrel portion by means of a first screw thread. Likewise, preferably the said one end of the shaft is adapted to be detachably secured to the said other end of the barrel portion by means of a second screw thread.

Conveniently, the point portion comprises an elongate point and a securing member in permanent engagement with one end of the said elongate point.

Advantageously, the securing member is made from a plastics material such as nylon, but alternatively the securing portion is made of a metal such as brass.

In one preferred embodiment, the said first screw thread is of the same diameter as the said second screw thread so that the shaft may be detachably secured to the said one end of the barrel portion and the point portion may be detachably secured to the said other end of the barrel portion.

Alternatively, the diameter of the first screw thread is different from the diameter of the screw thread.

Preferably, the barrel portion is longitudinally asymmetric with regard to weight.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a set of darts, the set comprising: at least one barrel portion having a respective engagement means at each end, one engagement means being bigger than the other; at least two point portions, a first said point portion being adapted to be detachably secured only to a first engagement means of the barrel portion and a second said point portion being adapted to be detachably secured only to the second said engagement means of the barrel portion; at least two shafts, a first said shaft being adapted to be detachably secured only to a first said engagement means of the barrel portion and a second said shaft being adapted to be detachably secured only to the second said engagement means of the barrel portion; and at least one flight adapted to be secured to any one of the shafts.

Preferably, the engagement means comprise screw threads.

Advantageously, the barrel portion is longitudinally asymmetric with regard to weight.

The present invention also encompasses any novel feature or combination of features described herein.

So that this invention may be more readily understood and so that further features may be appreciated, darts in accordance with the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a side elevation of a dart in accordance with the invention, with the various components thereof exploded away from one another; Figure 2 is a side elevation of another dart in accordance with the invention, with the various components thereof exploded away from one another; and Figure 3 is a fragmentary vertical section through another dart in accordance with the invention, on an enlarged scale.

The dart illustrated in Figure 1 comprises four main parts, namely a point portion 1, a barrel portion 2, a shaft 3 and a flight 4, all arranged along a common axis.

The point portion 1 is constructed from an elongate generally cylindrical steel "point" 5, with one end 6 thereof tapering sharply, and a securing member 7 which is permanently attached to the end of the point 5 remote from the sharp end 6. The securing member 7 is made of nylon, is of generally axial construction, and is provided with an axial blind bore to accommodate the point 5. The securing member 7 is provided with an external screwthread 8 which is adapted to be engaged with a corresponding internal screw thread provided at a first end 9 of the barrel portion 2.A portion of the securing member 7 which is not provided with the screw thread 8 flares from the diameter of the point 5 to the diameter of the said first end 9 of the barrel portion 2, so that, when the point portion 1 is thus screwed into the barrel portion 2, a smooth contour is provided from the point 5 to the barrel portion 2.

The barrel portion 2 is an elongate generally cylindrical tungsten or brass rod, the central diameter of which is slightly greater than the two end diameters thereof. The middle of the barrel portion 2 is provided with five spaced apart circumferential grooves 10, the purpose of which grooves 10 isto facilitate the gripping of the dart when the dart is about to be thrown.

At the second end 11 of the barrel portion 2, remote from the end 9 into which the point portion 1 may be screwed, there is an axial blind bore provided with an internal screw thread adapted to engage a corresponding external screw thread 12 at one end 13 of the shaft 3.

The shaft 3 is made of a plastics material such as nylon and is in the form of generally cylindrical axially extending rod. At the end 14 of the shaft 3 remote from the screw thread 12 thereof, two mutually perpendicular intersecting diametric slots 15 extend along the shaft 3 for about one quarter of its length. These slots 15 are adapted to accommodate and to grip, by means of friction, a portion of the flight 4. The flight is of conventional design, comprising two substantially identical mutually perpendicular and mutually bisecting planar vanes.

In use, various parts of a dart commonly suffer the most frequent damage: the flight 4 is generally of a light and delicate construction and is easily deformed so that the dart no longer travels in the direction intended, the shaft 3 is often made of a light material and can be damaged if it is hit by the point of another dart, and the point portion 1 may suffer damage, for example as a result of striking the wire framework which delineates portions of the target at which the dart is being thrown, or by being dropped on the floor. The point portion is usually made of strong but brittle steel, and thus tends to snap off.

It is known for the flight of a dart to be readily detached from the shaft and to be replaced by a new flight, and it is known for the shaft of a dart to be readly removable so that it can be replaced. However, in all prior proposed darts the point portion has been directly mounted on the barrel1 and special tools have been required to remove a broken point from the barrel and to introduce a fresh point to the barrel. However in a dart in accordance with the present invention, it is now also possible for the point portion to be readily removed by unscrewing the screw thread 8 from the barrel portion 2 and then screwing in a replacement point portion.

In the dart described above with reference to Figure 1, the screw thread 8 of the point portion 1 and the screw thread 12 of the shaft 3 are of the same diameter as one another. Thus, instead of screwing the shaft 3 into the end 11 of the barrel portion 2 as described above, it is possible to screw the shaft 3 into the other end 9 of the barrel portion 2 and to screw the point portion 1 into the end 11 of the barrel portion 2 into which the shaft 3 was originally screwed. If the barrel portion 2 is of an axially asymmetric construction with regard to weight, such a transposition of the shaft 3 and the point portion 1 enables the balance of the dart to be changed radically and, in effect, allows two darts to be purchased for the price of one.

In an alternative form of construction, shown in Figure 2, the diameter of the screw thread 8 of the point portion 1 differs from the diameter of the screw thread 12 of the shaft 3. The point portion 1 and the shaft 3 cannottherefore be transposed. If, for example, the barrel portion 2 of such a dart is provided with a small diameter screw thread at the first end 9 and a large diameter screw thread at the second end 11, then it will be appreciated that the diameter of the screw thread of the point portion 1 will be smaller than the diameter of the screw thread 12 of the shaft 3.However, it is possible to provide with such a dart a second point portion provided with a relatively large diameter screw thread adapted to be screwed into the large diameter screw thread of the barrel portion 2, and to provide a second shaft, provided with a relatively small diameter screw thread adapted to be screwed into the small diameter screw thread of the barrel portion 2.

Thus it can be seen that, not only can the orientation of the barrel portion 2 be reversed with respect to the direction of travel of the dart, but a large diameter shaft can be exchanged for a small diameter shaft, and a small diameter point portion can be exchanged for a large diameter point portion.

Whilst, in the darts described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, the means for detachably securing the point portion 1 to the barrel portion 2 comprises a screw thread, it will be appreciated that other means for detachably securing the point portion 1 to the barrel portion 2 may be employed, for example a "bayonet" means of the type commonly used with British domestic light bulbs.

In preferred embodiments, the two important features of the means for detachably securing the point portion to the barrel portion are (a) that it must allow the two components to be detached readily from one another by hand and (b) that it must be sufficiently secure for the dart to be repeatedly plucked from the target board used in the game of darts without the barrel portion's becoming detached from the point portion.

In the specific embodiment described above, the point portion is held in the barrel merely by the screw-thread 8 of the securing member 7. Whilst this is satisfactory if suitable material is chosen for the securing member, in an alternative embodiment, illustrated in Figure 3, the blunt end of the point 5 extends beyond the securing member 7 to provide a protruding portion 5a adapted, for example, to engage snugly a corresponding recess (not shown) in the first end 9 of the barrel 2. There is thus a strong metal-to-metal connection between the point portion and the barrel, thereby allowing a relatively weak material to be used for the securing member 7 without danger of there being an unacceptably high degree of flexibility between the point and the barrel.

It is thought that if there is any substantial degree of flexibility or resilience between the point and the barrel, a dart may tend to fall out of a dart board due to the movement of the barrel after the dart hits the dart board.

It will be appreciated that, whereas in the specific embodiments described above with reference to the drawings, the central diameter of the barrel portion 2 was slightly greater than the two end diameters, the barrel portion could alternatively be a right cylinder so that the central diameter is the same as the two end diameters. Furthermore, the number of circumferential grooves 10 in the barrel portion 2 may be varied, or there may be no such grooves at all.

Claims (17)

1. A dart comprising an elongate point portion, a barrel portion, a shaft and a flight, the point portion being adapted to be detachably secured to one end of the barrel portion, one end of the shaft being adapted to be detachably secured to the other end of the barrel portion, and the flight being adapted to be secured to the other end of the shaft.

2. A dart according to claim 1 wherein the point portion is adapted to be detachably secured to the said one end of the barrel portion by means of a first screw thread.

3. A dart according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the said one end of the shaft is adapted to be detachably secured to the said other end of the barrel portion by means of a second screw thread.

4. A dart according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the point portion comprises an elongate point and a securing member in permanent engagemenu with one end of the said elongate point.

5. A dart according to claim 4 wherein the securing member is made from a plastics material such as nylon.

6. A dart according to claim 5 wherein the elongate point protrudes from the securing member to form a protrusion adapted to engage firmly the barrel portion.

7. A dart according to claim 6 wherein the said protrusion matingly engages a corresponding recess in the said one end of the barrel portion.

8. A dart according to any one of claims 4 to 7 wherein the securing portion is made of a metal such as brass.

9. A dart according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the said first screw thread is of the same diameter as the said second screw thread so that the shaft may be detachably secured to the said one end of the barrel portion and the point portion may be detachably secured to the said other end of the barrel portion.

10. A dart according to any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the diameter of the first screw thread is different from the diameter of the second screw thread.

11. A dart according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the barrel portion is longitudinally asymmetric with regard to weight.

12. A set of darts, the set comprising: at least one barrel portion having a respective engagement means at each end, one engagement means being bigger than the other; at least two point portions, a first said point portion being adapted to be detachably secured only to a first engagement means of the barrel portion and a second said point portion being adapted to be detachably secured only to the second said engagement means of the barrel portion; at least two shafts, a first said shaft being adapted to be detachably secured only to a first said engagement means of the barrel portion and a second said shaft being adapted to be detachably secured only to the second said engagement means of the barrel portion; and at least one flight adapted to be secured to any one of the shafts.

13. A set according to claim 10 wherein each of the engagement means comprises screw threads.

14. A set according to claim 10 or 11 wherein the barrel portion is longitudinally asymmetric with regard to weight.

15. A dart substantially as herein described with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.

16. A dart substantially as herein described with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.

17. Any novel feature or combination of features herein described.

17. A dart substantially as herein described with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.

18. A set of darts substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.

19. A set of darts substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 as modified by Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.

20. Any novel feature or combination of features herein described.

New claims or amendments to claims filed on 24th March 1982 Superseded claims 1 - 20 New or amended claims:

1. A kit of parts for forming a dart, the kit comprising: a barrel which is longitudinally assymetric and which has two ends; point means for connection to the barrel, said point means being such that an elongate point can be secured detachably to a first said end of the barrel, and said point means being such that an elongate point can be secured detachably to a second said end of the barrel; shaft means for connection to the barrel, said shaft means being such that one end of a shaft can be secured detachably to said first end of the barrel, and said shaft means being such that one end of a shaft can be secured detachably to said second end of the barrel; and flight means adapted to be secured detachably to the other end of the said shaft; the arrangement being such that, from the said kit, a dart can be made comprising a point secured detachably to one said end of the barrel and a shaft and flight secured detachably to the other said end of the barrel, and, alternatively, such that a dart may be made comprising a point secured detachably to the said other end of the barrel, and a shaft and flight secured detachably to the said one end of the barrel.

2. A kit of parts according to claim 1 wherein the point means comprises a single point adapted to be secured detachably to either end of the barrel, and the shaft means comprises a single shaft adapted to be secured detachably to either end of the barrel.

3. A kit according to claim 1 wherein the point means comprises at least two points, a first said point being adapted to be detachably secured only to a first end of the barrel and a second said point being adapted to be detachably secured only to the second end of the barrel, and the shaft means comprises at least two shafts, a first said shaft being adapted to be detachably secured only to a first end of the barrel and a second said shaft being adapted to be detachably secured only to the second end of the barrel, and at least one flight adapted to be secured to any one of the shafts.

4. A kit of parts according to any one of the preceding claims wherein, for the or each point, the adaptation for detachably securing comprises a screw thread to engage a corresponding screw thread on the barrel.

5. A kit of parts according to any one of the preceding claims wherein, for the or each shaft, the adaptation for detachably securing comprises a screw thread to engage a corresponding screw thread on the barrel.

6. A kit according to claim 5 when dependent on claims 3 and 4 wherein the diameter of the said screw thread at one end of the barrel is different from the diameter of the screw thread at the other end of the barrel.

7. A kit according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the or each point comprises an elongate sharp member and a securing member in permanent engagement with one end of the said sharp member.

8. A kit according to claim 7 wherein the securing member is made from a plastics material such as nylon.

9. A kit according to claim 7 wherein the securing member is made of a metal such as brass.

10. A kit according to any one of claims 7 to 9 wherein the sharp member protrudes from the securing member to form a protrusion adapted to engage firmly the barrel.

11. A kit according to claim 10 wherein the said protrusion is adapted to engage matingly a corresponding recess in the barrel.

12. A kit according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the barrel is longitudinally asymmet ricwith regard to weight

13. A kit substantially as herein described with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.

14. A kit substantially as herein described with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.

15. A kit substantially as herein described with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 1 as modified by Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.

16. A kit substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 as modified by Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.