GB2120557A - Grip and method of making it - Google Patents

Abstract

A moulded grip for a handle of a sports implement or tool when mounted on the handle has a conventional appearance with its outer surface having protrusions simulating that of a grip formed by winding a strip onto the handle (Fig. 2c). However the grip when moulded (Fig. 2a), has a substantially plain outer surface; protrusions (8) or the like are moulded in its inner surface. When the grip is mounted on a substantially plain handle, since it is of flexible material it distorts due to the presence of the protrusions on the inner surface and these become apparent on the outer surface (10, Fig. 2c). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Grip and method of making it This invention relates to grips for handles and especially (but not exclusively) for the handles of implements. Examples of sports implements are tennis, squash and badminton rackets; hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse sticks; golf clubs; and baseball and cricket bats. Other implements include workmen's tools and household tools, for example.

Background of the Invention Handles are frequently provided with a grip having the function of increasing the adherence between the user's hand or hands and the handle, to provide a degree of resilience by which the effort of maintaining a grip is somewhat eased, and sometimes to provide a degree of shock absorption between the user and handle. For sports implements the grip may also be intended to somewhat ventilate the user's hands and absorb or decrease sweating of the hands.

Originally such grips were in the form of a binding of soft strips of leather or the like, sometimes entrapping a resilient layer beneath them. Apart from the expense of the material of the binding its application is a manual process which in most cases is impractical for moderately priced articles. Recently grips have been moulded so as to simulate the appearance and effect of a conventional binding. They have been moulded in the conventional way with an inner surface which as moulded is adapted to the expected size and shape of the handle and with an outer surface which as moulded has its desired finished shape, usually containing a spiral groove simulating what is achieved with a spiral binding of a strip of leather or similar material.

These grips are effective but do present a manufacturing problem in that it is a difficult and expensive process to form the inner surface of a female mould so that is has appreciable indentations in it. Still more difficult is to form the surface of the female mould so that it has intersecting ridges or grooves.

Summary of the Invention The present invention is a radical departure.

The grip is formed of a flexible material and its outer surface when moulded does not correspond to the intended and expected outer surface of the grip when mounted on a handle. Instead, that outer surface as moulded may be plain or substantially so. Nor does the inner surface of the grip as moulded conform to the shape of the handle onto which it is to be fitted. It has indentations or projections which are the counterpart of projections or indentations which are to be evident in the grip once it is fitted on a handle. That is to say it need not be a female mould which is adapted to the final intended shape of the grip when in use but the core pin, the male element, which has the desired effect.The effect only becomes evident once the grip is fitted upon its handle when displacement of the flexible material will occur and the projections or indentations will appear upon the outer surface of the grip in a pattern predetermined by the nature of the core pin.

This is advantageous because it is very much easier to machine of form a male core pin than a female mould. It is also advantageous in that a single female mould may be used with one of a plurality of different core pins so as to produce grips which are of the same size but of different final surface characteristics. The plain or substantially plain character of the outer surface of the grip when it is moulded also permits machine decoration before the grip is applied to a handle.

Examples are painting or the application of decorative strips or of lettering which are difficult or impossible if the outer surface when moulded already contains projections or indentations. Lastly the present grip, once fitted to a handle, may have stretchings or stresses in its material which simulate those experienced if a strip of material is wound in the equivalent pattern. That is to say, not only can the resilience and conformation of the outer surface be controlled as to its nature by appropriate selection the material moulded and of the shape of the core pin but the nature of the distortion imposed on the grip when it is fitted on the handle can be such as to simulate the distortions caused when the original manual operations were performed with natural materials.

With the invention the end cap of the grip may be integrally moulded with the rest of it or may be a separate element which is added to it either before or after mounting on the handle.

The method aspects of the invention include the formation of a grip as outlined above to have as moulded a plain or substantially plain outer surface but a ridged, grooved, protuberant or indented inner surface, and the mounting of such a grip on a plain or substantially plain handle so as to cause distortion in the grip and cause the appearance in its outer surface of ridges, grooves projections or indentations in dependence upon the conformation of the inner surfaces as moulded.

Embodiments of the present invention are now described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein: Fig. 1 is a side view of the grip as moulded; Fig. 2a is a section through the grip of Fig. 1 showing its internal configuration as moulded; Fig. 2b is a side view of a handle onto which the grip is to be fitted; and Fig. 2c is a side view of the grip as fitted on the handle; Fig. 3 is a side view of the core pin used in moulding the grip; Fig. 4 is a diametrical section through a second embodiment of the grip as moulded; Fig. 5 shows the second embodiment of grip mounted on a handle.

Fig. 6a shows in cross-section a third embodiment of grip as moulded; Fig. 6b shows the third embodiment when mounted on a plain handle; and Fig. 7 shows the core pin used for moulding the third embodiment of grip.

The present invention will now be specifically described with reference to grips which are suitable for the handles of golf clubs. However, it is equally applicable in principle to any form of resilient grip for a handle whether for a sports implement or any other sort of implement (such as a domestic/workshop tool). The grip of the invention is formed in a flexible material such as rubber or a thermoplastic material such as EPDM or butyl blend or a mixture of both blends, the properties of which are chosen to give a desirable "feel", resilience and non-slip properties in the article in use. It is moulded in the conventional moulding method using a female mould and a.core pin.In the invention the female mould may be essentially plain or completely so, being a simple cylinder or of slightly tapered frusto conical shape, so as to form an outer surface of the grip when moulded which is equally plain. The core pin however is not plain but has ridges, protuberances or indentations, as will become apparent. The finished moulding can be stripped directly from the core pin.

In the first embodiment seen in Fig. 1 , the female mould has had a slight spiral groove engraved in it so that the grip 1 has on its essentially plain frusto conical outer surface 2 a very slight continuous spiral ridge 3. This is not intended to provide grip but is essentially a decorative feature.

However, the core pin 4 which is used within the female mould is of a non-plain shape generally seen in Fig. 3. A continuous spiral ridge 5 is separated by a wide arcuate-based spiral groove 6. The section through the grip as moulded is therefore as seen in Fig. 2a, the ridge 5 of the core pin being seen as a spiral indentation 7 in the inner surface of the grip and the grooves 6 of the core pin being seen as a continuous spiral inward bulge 8.

The grip is designed to be fitted upon a handle such as seen in Fig. 2b which in this case is the handle 9 of a golf club. It can be seen that this handle is entirely plain and there would be no need to provide any projections or protuberances on it -- although this is not excluded from the invention as a means of further defining and "fine tuning" the qualities of the grip when fitted. The handle 9 has the grip 1 fitted over it in the usual way and secured merely by its own inherent resilience, by adhesion or any other conventional way. The effect of the rigid handle 9 upon the inner surface of the grip is to distort the outer surface of the grip so that it adopts the conformation seen at 10 in Fig. 2c.The minor ridge 3 is found at the bottom of a spiral groove which corresponds to the position of the spiral groove 7 on the inner surface, while all the way along the grip as fitted there is a continuous spiral bulge 11 corresponding to where there was a bulge 8 on the inner surface.

It can be seen in this way that the grip can be made which readily simulates the appearance and characteristics of wound grips of natural material without however elaborate tooling problems in the preparation of the female mould. Furthermore, the distortions imposed on the grip when it is forced upon the handle can be arranged to correspond, at least in general terms, to those experienced by a natural material strip when it is wound, further increasing the behavioural similarity achieved.

It is clear that by appropriate choice of the shape of the core pin any desired characteristic may be imposed upon the outer surface of the grip when it is fitted while its external appearance as moulded remains entirely plain or with merely decorative ridges or grooves as seen in Fig. 1.

An example of a different conformation is seen in Figs. 4 and 5. Fig. 4 is a section corresponding to Fig. 2a through the second embodiment, the external appearance of which as moulded would be identical to that in Fig. 1. It can be seen here that on the internal surface of this embodiment which is given the general reference 11, a continuous spiral sharp edged ridge 12 is separated by wide arcuate based radially outward thinnings 1 3. The effect of this conformation when placed on a handle such as handle 9 is seen in Fig. 5, where the effect of the rigidity of the handle is to force the material of the grip 11 outward into comparatively sharp edged ridges 14 corresponding to the position of the ridge 12 of the inner surface, these ridges being separated by a comparatively wide arcuate spiral valley 1 5.

The pattern of the core pin and therefore imposed upon the outer surface of the grip once fitted need not be a continuous or regular pattern.

A third embodiment is seen in Figs. 6a, 6b and 7. This illustrates how a core pin 16 may have a continuous, parallel-walled, flat-bottomed spiral groove 1 7 in it. Moulding from this when it is placed within a plain female mould will produce a grip 1 8 with the interior conformation seen in Fig.

6a, having spiral rib 19.

When the grip 1 8 is placed on a plain handle such as 9, Fig. 2b, it distorts so that its previously plain external conformation bcomes as seen in Fig.

6b, where the effect of the rib 1 9 is the appearance of the spiral convexity 20 the pitches of which are separated by crease or valley lines 21.

Claims (13)

1. A grip for a handle, the grip being moulded to have a sleeve of flexible material with a substantially plain outer surface and an inner surface with inwardly projecting protrusions.

2. A grip according to Claim 1 , wherein the inwardly projecting protrusions are a helix.

3. A grip according to Claim 2, wherein the helical protrusion is convex in the inward direction.

4. A grip according to Claim 2, wherein the helical protrusion is concave in the inward direction.

5. A handle with a moulded grip mounted on it, the grip having a sleeve portion of flexible material surrounding a substantially plain-surfaced portion of the handle, the sleeve portion being distorted so that its inner surface is in substantially continuous face-to-face contact with the plain-surfaced portion of the handle, the outer surface of the grip being by that distortion caused to adopt a conformation with outwardly projecting protrusions.

6. A handle according to Claim 5, wherein the protrusions take the form of a convex helix.

7. A handle according to Claim 6, wherein the pitches of the helix are separated by a helical groove.

8. A handle according to Claim 5, which is the handle of a golf club.

9. A method of moulding a grip for a handle, the method comprising curing a flexible material as a sleeve portion of the grip between a female mould having a plain inner surface and a male core pin having protrusions upon its outer surface projecting towards the female mould, removing the grip from the female mould and stripping the mould grip from the core pin, whereby to form a sleeve portion with a substantially plain outer surface and an inner surface with identations mirroring the protrusions of the core pin.

10. A method according to Claim 9, with the subsequent step of fitting the sleeve portion tightly over a plain-surfaced portion of a handle whereby to distort the outer surface of the grip in a pattern associated with that moulded into its inner surface by the protrusions.

11. A grip substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

12. A handle substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

13. A method of moulding a grip substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.