GB2250168A

GB2250168A - Fishing rod

Info

Publication number: GB2250168A
Application number: GB9125460A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Isamu Tokuda
Original assignee: Shimano Inc
Current assignee: Shimano Inc
Priority date: 1990-11-30
Filing date: 1991-11-29
Publication date: 1992-06-03
Anticipated expiration: 2011-11-29
Also published as: DE4139455A1; GB9125460D0; KR0182617B1; KR920009287A; ITMI913182A0; GB2250168B; ITMI913182A1; IT1252014B

Abstract

A fishing rod includes a rod body 1 having, at an outer peripheral portion thereof, a foot attaching portion 11 to which a foot R of a reel is attached. A pair of reel-foot receivers 2 are formed sidewise across the foot attaching portion 11 and integrally therewith radially to project from the outer peripheral portion of the rod body 1. The receivers 2 have receiving faces 21 for receiving opposed widthwise ends of a rear face of the reel foot R. <IMAGE>

Description

2 2 301,5 3 FISHING ROD The present invention relates to a fishing rod,

and more particularly to a fishing rod to which outer periphery a foot of a reel is fixedly attached.

Generally, attachment of a reel foot to an outer peripheral portion of a fishing rod is done by means of a reel attaching member provided to the outer peripheral portion of the rod for fixedly attaching the reel foot thereto. In case the rod has a relatively small diameter; however, while the widthwise centeral portion of a rear face of the foot contacts the peripheral face of the rod, sidewise portions of the rear face do not. This limited contact renders the attachment unstable even with the aid of the fixation afforded by the reel attaching member. The unstable attachment tends to cause the reel to inadvertenly move peripherally of the rod.

-2The Japanese laid-open utility model gazette 63-177165 discloses an attempt to overcome this drawback. With a fishing rod construction of this reference, an entire reel-attaching peripheral portion of the rod is provided with a greater thickness and outer diameter, relative to the rest of the rod so as to allow the reel foot to be attached to the portion with increased stability.

This construction, on the other hand, suffers the problem of inevitable increase of the rod weight due to the increase of the thickness. The increased thickness of the entire periphery further results in reduction in the rod sensitivity. Finally, the increased outer diameter of the reel attaching portion is causes the reel foot attached thereto to be located significantly away from the axis of the rod, which in turn renders e.g. a casting action unstable.

The present invention attends to the abovedescribed drawbacks of the convention. Hence, an object of the invention is to provide an improved fishing rod to which a foot of a reel can be attached with more stability while avoiding weight increase in the rod thus avoiding deterioration in the rod sensitivity. Moreover, the fishing rod of the invention allows the reel foot to be attached thereto 1 -3at a position closer to the rod axis in comparison with the conventional fishing rod.

For accomplishing the above-noted object, a fishing rod according to the present invention comprises:

a rod body having at an outer peripheral portion thereof a foot attaching portion to which a foot of a reel is attached; and reel-foot receivers formed sidewise across said foot attaching portion and integrally therewith to radially project from said outer peripheral portion, said receivers having receiving faces for receiving opposed widthwise ends of a rear face of the reel f oot.

According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, each of the reelfoot receivershas a threaded groove engageable with a threaded ring of a reel attaching member.

The defined construction can be embodied as shown 4- in Figs. 1 and 2. In attaching the reel foot to the reel-foot receivers 2, 2, the opposed widthwise ends of the rear face of the reel foot come into contact with the respective receivers 2, 2, thereby stabilizing the attachment. Further, as these reel foot receivers 2, 2 are provided sidewise across the reel-foot attaching portion 11, the other opposite peripheral side of the rod body 1 can be exposed to the ambience, so that an angler can maintain good rod sensitivity through this exposed portion. Moreover, with the above-described arrangement of the reel-foot receivers 2, 2, receiving faces 21, 21 of these receivers 2, 2 can be positioned within a range of the outer diameter of the rod body 1. Accordingly, as compared with the conventional rod having the increased thickness, the reel foot can be positioned closer to the axis of the rod body 1. Lastly, since the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are disposed across the foot attaching portion 11, i.e. the receivers 2, 2 need not be disposed over the entire periphery of the rod body 1, these receivers 2, 2 can be deformed in accordance with flexion of the rod body 1. A r, a result, durability of the receivers 2, 2 will be improved.

With the additional feature of providing a threaded groove 61 to each reel-foot receiver 2, a reel attaching member can be attached without using any special screw engagement member.

As described above, the invention has fully achieved its intended object of providing an improved fishing rod to which a foot of a reel can be attached with more stability while avoiding weight increase in the rod thus avoiding deterioration in the rod sensitivity, the fishing rod of the invention also allowing the reel foot to be attached thereto at a position closer to the rod axis in comparison with the conventional fishing rod.

In order that the present invention may be made more readily understood, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing only major portions of a fishing rod according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is another perspective view of the major portions, Fig. 3 is a vertical section showing a further embodiment of the invention, Fig. 4 is a partially cutaway side view showing the fishing rod attached with a foot of a reel, Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing only major portions of a fishing rodaccording to a still further embodiment, Fig. 6 is a section showing only major portions of a fishing rod acc6rding to a still further embodiment, Fig. 7 is an enlarged section showing only the major portions of the rod shown in Fig. 6, Fig. 8 is a view illustrating a condition where the fishing rod of Fig. 6 and its attachments have undergone thermal expansion, Fig. 9 is an enlarged section showing only major portions of a fishing rod according to a still further embodiment of the invention, and Fig. 10 is a perspective view showing only major portions of a fishing rod according to a still further embodiment.

m l As shown in Fig. 1, a reference numeral I denotes a f ishing rod body. For forming this rod body 1, a prepreg impregnated with synthetic resin material is wound about a high-strength fiber such as carbon fiber or glass fiber, and then this hollow assembly is pressurized and sintered. A reel foot R is attachable to an outer peripheral portion of the rod body 1.

As also shown in Fig. 1, reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are integrally formed on the right and left across a foot attaching portion 11 of the rod body I for the attachment of the reel f oot R. These reel-foot receivers 2, 2 radially project from the outer peripheral portion of the rod body 1 and have flat receiving faces 21, 21 for receiving opposed widthwise ends R1, R1 of a rear face of the reel foot R. The integral formation of the receivers 2, 2 is generally effected by embedding the receivers 2, 2 into the rod body 1 by the injection molding method.

More particularly, the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are f ormed on the outer periphery of the rod body 1 with leaving an outer peripheral rod body portion therebetween exposed to the ambience. This -B intermediate portion formed between the receivers has a width shorter than a width of the reel foot R, i.e.

than a width of the reel foot attaching portion 11.

Instead of exposing the intemediate portion, it is also conceivable to form the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 continuous to leave no exposed rod periphery therebetween. In this case, it is preferred that the bridging portion between the receivers be formed relatively thin. Further, as shown in Fig. 1, the reel-foot receivers 2 extend from the foot attaching portion 11 in the opposite directions toward the other side of the outer periphery of the rod body to coextensively form extension portions 22, 22 having gradually reduced thickness in said direction. T his serves to reinforce the attachment between the respective reel-foot receivers 2, 2 and the rod body 1. The length of the exension 22 should be such an amount just sufficient to assure reliable and stable attachment between the receivers 22, 22 and the rod body 1. Each of the receiving faces 21, 21 has a width greater than the width of the reel foot R. In other respects, the specific magnitude of the width-of the receiving face 21 is not particularly limited, but should be such as to allow attachments of reel foots of various widths. Further, these receiving faces 21, 9_ 21 need not necessarily be formed flat. Instead, these faces 21, 21 may be formed with slight curves or uneveness. The leading ends of the two extension portions 22, 22 are separate from each other such that the other outer peripheral portion 12 of the rod body 1 opposite to the reel attaching portion 11 remains exposed.

In the construction of Fig. 1, the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are formed integrally and coextensively with the outer periphery of the rod body 1. Instead, as shown in Fig. 3, these reel-foot receivers 2, 2 can be alternately constructed so that the extension portions 22, 22 of the receivers 2, 2 are fitted into corresponding longitudinal grooves 13 formed in the rod body 1. This arrangement too can reinforce the attachment or fixation between the rod body 1 and the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 and their extension portions 22, 22.

Further, on the rod body 1 at a position forwardly of the foot attaching portion 11, as shown in Fig. 2, the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 can integrally form a fixing receiver member 3 for receiving one terminal end of the reel foot R. In this case, at a position rearwardly of the foot attaching portion 11, the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are provided with a pair of right and left guide recesses 4, 4 for movably supporting a movable member 5 having a foot receiver portion 5a for receiving the other terminal end of the reel foot R. Further, between the.reel-foot receivers 2, 2 at the foot attaching portion 11, there is provided a metal retainer plate 6 having retaining notches 61 as and the fixing reel attaching reel attaching each other.

shown in Fig. 1. The movable member 5 receiver member 3 together constitute a unit, by which the reel foot R and the portion 11 become fixedly attached to In the above-described construction, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, the movable member 5 includes a lock lever 7 operable to lock this movable member 5 at a desired position and a retainer claw 8 engageable with the retaining notches 61 of the retainer plate 6 in response to an operation on the lock lever 7.

In the embodiment of Figs. 1 and 2, the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are provided sidewise across the foot attaching portion 11. Therefore, for attaching the reel foot R to the foot attaching portion 11, the side ends R1, R1 of the reel f oot R are brought into contact with the receiving faces 21, 21 of the receivers 2, 2, respectively, so that the reel foot R can be reliably and stably attached to the foot.

attaching portion 11. This construction has another _11advantage of preventing damage to the rod body I since the reel foot R is received by the receiving faces 21, 21 without directly contacting the rod body 1. Further, the other outer peripheral portion 12 opposite to the foot attaching portion 11 remains exposed for direct contact with a finger of the angler, through which contact the angler can enjoy unabated sensitivity of the rod body 1. Also, since the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are disposed on the right and left across the foot attaching portion 11, the receiving faces 21, 21 can be positioned within the range corresponding to the outer diameter of the rod body 1. As a result, the center of the gravity of the reel can be positioned relatively close to the axis of the rod body 1 and e.g. a casting action of the rod can be effected in a stable manner without being adversely affected by the attachment of the reel. Moreover, again since the reel-foot receivers 2, 2 are disposed across the foot attaching portion 11, i.e. the receivers 2, 2 need not be disposed over the entire periphery of the rod body 1,_ these receivers 2, 2 can be deformed in accordance with flexion of the rod body 1. As a result, durability of the receivers 2, 2 will be improved.

In the above-described embodiments, the reel-foot -12receivers 2, 2 are formed of thermoplastic synthetic resin material. Instead, these elements can be formed of a thermosetting synthetic resin or rubber material.

In the constructions described hereinbefore, the guide recesses 4, 4 are provided on the side portions of the rod body 1 for guiding the movement of the movable member 5 of the reel attaching unit. In this respect, Fig. 5 shows an alternative construction, where each reel-foot receiver 2 has a gradually decreasing thickness toward the opposite outer peripheral portion 12 of the rod body 1 and this receiver 2 has threaded grooves in its surface. In this case, in place of the movable member 5 shown in Fig. 1, the reel attaching unit includes an approximately cylindrical movable member 5 and a threaded ring 10 for locking the movable member 5 at a desired position by engaging the threaded grooves 9. Further, instead of forming the fixing receiver member 3 integrally with the reel-foot receivers 2, it is also conceivable to form the former separately from the latter as shown in Fig. 5. Further alternately, the fixation between these elements can be done in any other way than the molding. For instance, it may be achieved by use of other f ixing means such as an adhesive agent, a winding of tape or thread or the like.

Some other embodiments of the invention will be specifically described next.

As shown in Figs. 6 through 8, the rod body 1 is provided, at a longitudinally intermediate position thereof, an increased thickness portion 41 of a predetermined length. This increased thickness portion 41 is formed, in the course of molding the rod body 1, by winding the aforementioned prepreg strip by some additional amount at this portion. Further, a retainer recess 32 is formed at this increased thickness portion 41 by annularly cutting a longitudinally intermediate position of the portion 41. Incidentally, as the synthetic resin for forming the prepreg, such resin material as an epoxy resin or a phenol resin is generally preferred.

Further, at this retaining recess 32, there is integrally formed a reel attaching unit A including a cylindrical mount 21 of a reel attaching member 42 and a fixing receiver member 3 having a foot receiving portion 3a. This attaching unit A is formed by the injection molding method by using a thermosetting synthetic resin material different from the synthetic resin of the prepreg forming the rod body 1. In this case, it is preferred that no step be formed between a -14surface of the reel attaching unit A and the surface of the rod body 1.

Further, in a surface of a border 23 between the reel attaching unit A and the rod body 1 and longitudinally extending in the opposite directions across this border 23, there is formed a first painted layer 14 by painting with a paint material mainly of an epoxy resin having some flexibility and relatively low viscosity. On a predetermined area of the surfaces of the rod body 1 and the reel attaching unit A including the above-described first painted layer 14, there is formed a second painted layer 15 by painting with a conventional paint material in a conventional method. The f irst painted layer 14 is formed with such paint material as e.g. mixture of the epoxy resin and an akryl resin or mixture of the epoxy resin and the isocyanate resin.

In the construction of Fig. 6, at an outer peripheral portion of the cylindrical mount 22 opposite to the f ixing receiver member 3, there are def ined threaded grooves 33 and there are supported the movable member 5 having the foot receiving portion 5a and a threaded ring 25 engageable with the threaded grooves 33 for locking the movable member 5 at a_ predetermined position.

1 In the foregoing embodiments, the reel attaching unit A including the cylindrical mount 20 and the fixing receiver member 3 is integrally formed with the retainer recess 32. Instead, as shown in Fig. 9, the reel attaching unit A can be comprised of a fishing line guide 26 and this attaching unit A is integrally formed with the retainer recess 32. A further alteranative construction is shown in Fig. 10, in which the retainer recess 32 is shaped semi-circular and with this retainer recess 32 there is integrally formed a reel attaching unit A comprised of the foot receivers 2, 2 having the receiving faces 21, 21 for receiving the widthwise ends of the reel foot. In this construction of Fig. 10, it is conceivable to form the fixing receiver member 3 integrally with the reelfoot receivers 2, 2. Further, these reel-foot receivers 2, 2 can be formed coextensive to each other rather than separate from each other. As described above, according to the constructions of these alterante embodiments, since the rod body 1 defines the retainer recess 32 and the reel attaching unit A is integrally formed with this retainer recess 32, the attaching unit A can be readily and sufficiently firmly fixed. Further, as described above, the flexible first painted layer 14 is formed over the -16border 23 between the attaching unit A and the rod body 1 and for the predetermined length across the border 23, and also the second painted layer 14 is formed on the surfaces of the rod body 1 and the attaching unit A including the first painted layer. Accordingly, even when the fishing rod undergoes a temperature rise due to its exposure to the ambience and there results in a termal expansion in one of the rod body 1 and the reel attaching unit A relative to the other to create a gap between the attaching unit A and the border 23 as shown in Fig. 8, the f irst painted layer 14 is extended to effectively prevent the tension from being applied in a concentrated manner to a certain portion of the second painted layer 15 by entirety of a cracking effectively avoided.

dissipating the tension evenly over the the second painted layer 15. As a result, of this second painted layer can be The reel attaching member A can be formed of any other material such as rubber and a metal rather than the thermoplastic synthetic resin used in the abovedescribed embodiments.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential- characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are -17therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

-18 CLAIMS

1. A fishing rod having a rod body having at an outer peripheral portion thereof a foot attaching portion to which a foot of a reel is attached, characterized by reel-foot receivers formed sidewise across said foot attaching portion and integrally therewith to radially project from said outer peripheral portion, said receivers having receiving faces for receiving opposed widthwise ends of a rear face of the reel foot.

2. A fishing rod according to Claim 1, characterized in that each said reel-foot receiver has a threaded groove engageable with a threaded ring of a reel attaching member.

said attaching extension fitted.

A fishing rod according to Claim 1 or 2, characterized in that reel body defines, adjacent said reel portion, a groove into which an portion of said reel-foot receiver is -19 4. A f i shing rod according to Claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that at a position rearwardly of said foot attaching portion 11, said reel-foot receivers are provided with a pair of right and left longitudinally extending guide recesses 5. A fishing rod according to Claim 1,2,3 or 4, characterized in that said reel-foot receivers extendwith gradually reduced thickness toward the other side of the outer periphery of the rod body opposite to said foot attaching portion to define a threaded groove 9 in a surface thereof.

6. A fishing rod according to any preceding Claim, characterized in that a fixing receiver member for receiving the reel is provided separately from said reel-foot receivers 2.

7. A fishing rod according to Claim 1. 2 or 3, characterized in that said rod body includes a retainer recess with which a reel attaching unit A is integrally molded by using a material different from a synthetic -20 resin forming said rod body a first painted layer 14 being formed by using a flexible material in a surface of a border between said reel attaching unit A and said rod body and longitudinally extending in the opposite directions across said border a second painted layer being formeda predetermined area of the surfaces of said rod body and said reel attaching unit A including said first painted layer.

8. A fishing rod according to Claim 7, characterized in that said reel attaching unit A includes a fishing line guide and is formed integrally with said retainer recess 9. A fishing rod according to Claim 7.

characterized in that said retainer recess is formed semi-circular, with said retainer recess a reel attaching unit A comprised of the foot receivers having the receiving faces being integrally formed.

10. A fishing rod according to Claim 9, characterized in that a fixing receiver member for receiving the reel is integrally formed with said reel-foot receivers.

11. A fishing rod constructed substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 or Figures 3 and 4 or Figure 5 or Figures 6,7 and 8 or Figure 9 or 10 of the accompanying drawings.