JPH0410865Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] This invention relates to a ball feeding device for a batting practice machine for baseball or tennis.

[Background technology]

Conventionally, a batting practice machine has been proposed in which a pitching arm is rotated using a biasing force of a spring or the like to throw out a ball. In this type of batting practice machine, a ball feeding device shown in FIG. 9 is used. That is, the balls _M1 ' to M3' of the stocker 304 are sequentially supplied to the ball feed rail 303 by rotating the ball setter 300 consisting of V-shaped leg pieces 300A and 300B. Ball feed rail 30
3 guides the ball M ₁ ' to a pitching arm (not shown). 302 is a ball feed rail, 3
02' is a ball feeding guide. Return the leg pieces 300A, 300B from the state shown in Fig. 9 in the direction (arrow
A′ direction) and move the next ball M ₂ ′ to the leg piece 30.
Sandwiched between 0A and 300B, this rear leg piece 300A,
300B is rotated in the feeding direction (direction opposite to arrow A') to send ball M ₂ '. This operation is repeated to perform sequential feeding.

However, when the leg pieces 300A and 300B are rotated in the feeding direction as shown in the figure, the ball
M ₂ ′ falls slightly to the rear side of the leg piece 300A on the ball supply side. Therefore, when the leg piece 300A rotates in the return direction (arrow A' direction), the tip of the leg piece 300A catches on the diagonal line part 305 of the ball M ₂ ', and a force A that lifts the ball M ₂ ' upward is generated. join. For this reason, there was a problem that balls could not be fed smoothly.

[Purpose of invention]

The purpose of this invention is to provide a ball feeding device for a batting practice machine that can smoothly feed balls one by one without getting caught.

[Disclosure of invention]

The ball feeding device of the batting practice machine of this invention has a pair of leg pieces for supporting the ball between the ball feeding port on the pitching arm side and the ball feeding port on the ball feeding side located above the ball feeding port. , a means is provided for rotating the pair of legs integrally in forward and reverse directions, and a bend extending in a direction away from the other leg is provided at the upper end of the leg on the ball supply side of the pair of legs. The legs are provided in an arc shape, and the balls are supported between the pair of legs, and the legs are rotated forward and backward to feed the balls one by one into the ball feeding port on the pitching arm side.

Embodiment A batting practice machine to which an embodiment of this invention is applied will be explained based on FIGS. 1 to 7. In FIG. 1, 1 is a main body case, which is divided at the center into a left main body cover 1A and a right main body cover 1B, and is provided with a front cover 1C. Main case 1
has a ball throwing opening 2 on the front and a ball supply section 11 on the side. Ball supply section 1
1 is connected to a first ball stocker 9 made of pipe material, and a second ball stocker 10 is connected to this.
are connected. 12 is a leg, and 13 is a feed cover for the ball stocker 9.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ball supply section 11 supplies balls to the ball feeding port 3 formed on the side surface of the main body case 1. Inside the main body case 1, a pair of parallel guide rails 4 are provided on the left and right main body covers 1A, 1B to receive the balls sent from the ball feeding port 3, and as shown in FIG.
A frame 70 in which the pitching arm 6, the ball setting arm 7, and the drive mechanism thereof have a U-shaped front view.
(only a portion is shown in FIG. 3).

The driving means for the pitching arm 6 will be explained. The pitching arm 6 is made of a wire spring, and is deflected by the rotation of the cam 14, and when it comes off the cam 14, its tip rotates by the elastic force of the deflection, and throws out the ball. More specifically, the pitching arm 6 is composed of two parallel leg pieces, and a torsion coil spring portion 15 serving as a pitching spring is integrally extended from the base end of each leg piece. Further, the pitching arm 6 has a ball holding portion 6c at its tip. A cam follower shaft 17 on which a cam follower 16 is rotatably mounted is fixed to the middle of the pitching arm 6 in the length direction via a damper stopper (not shown) which is a portion that collides with a damper 31. The cam follower 16 is in rolling contact with the cam 14. The pitching arm 6 is supported by a torsion coil spring section 15 rotatably fitted onto a pipe-shaped arm support shaft 18, and an engagement section provided at the tip of the torsion coil spring section 15 contacts the frame 70. It is engaged with piece 71. The arm support shaft 18 is attached to the frame 70.

The diameter of the cam 14 gradually increases in the rotational direction,
There is a discontinuous small path along the way. The cam 14 is driven together with the ball set arm 7 by a geared motor 21. A large gear 26 having a protrusion 25 for operating the cam 14 and the ball set arm 7 is rotatably fitted onto the cam shaft 24 to which the cam 14 is attached.

As shown in FIG. 4, a ball set arm 7 is rotatably installed on the right body cover 1B with a boss portion 50, and a ball setter 100 is integrally attached to the ball set arm 7 on the outside of the right body cover 1B. It is fixed to a rotating shaft 111. In addition, the ball set arm 7 is connected to the boss portion 5 of the right main body cover 1B.
0, the set arm spring 51 always holds F.
is pressurized in the direction. Also, ball setter 1
A rotating shaft 111, which is an end of the ball set arm 7 to which the ball set arm 7 is fixed, is rotatably fitted into the boss portion 101a of the ball feeding case 101. The other end of the ball set arm 7 extends upwardly and engages with a protrusion 25 of a large gear 26 (see FIG. 3) during assembly. The guide rail 4 is formed in an arc shape that roughly follows the rotational trajectory of the ball holding portion 6c of the pitching arm 6, and gradually moves away from the rotational trajectory of the ball holding portion 6c toward the front in the pitching direction. It has a shape. As shown in Fig. 4, the ball feeding case 10
1 has an inclined ball feed rail 103 whose lower end faces the ball feed port 3 of the right main body cover 1B, and further has a stocker holding part 104 and a ball feed port 105 on the ball supply side at the upper part. The ball feed rail 103 consists of a plurality of inclined ribs. 102 is a ball feed rail, and as shown in FIG. 2, ball feed guides 102' are provided on both sides (see FIG. 5).

The ball setter 100 is located between the ball feed port 3 of the right main body cover 1B and the ball feed port 105 located above this. The ball setter 100 includes a pair of leg pieces 100A, 100
It is formed by bending B into a V shape, and is rotatable with a horizontal rotation shaft 111 at the bottom. The leg piece 100A on the ball supply side has a bent piece 11 at the tip.
2 is provided, and the bent piece 112 is connected to the other leg piece 10.
It extends in the direction away from 0B and is formed in an arc shape around the rotation axis 111. The distance h (Fig. 7) between the bent piece 112 and the fixed stopper 110 is D>h, where D is the diameter of the ball, and only one ball is initially placed between the leg pieces 100A and 100B. , and make sure that two do not enter at the same time.

As shown in FIG. 3, a handle 39 and a power switch 40 are provided at the upper part of the main body case 1, and a fixed leg piece 42 and an adjustment rubber leg 45 are provided at the lower part. As shown in FIG. 2, the adjustment rubber leg 45 is fixed to an angle adjustment fitting 43 and an angle adjustment screw 44 which is screwed into a nut portion thereof. By turning the angle adjustment screw 44, the set angle of the main body case 1 with respect to the ground can be changed, and the throwing angle of the ball can be changed arbitrarily.

Operation Figure 3 shows the batting practice machine in a stopped state, and Figure 5 is a partially enlarged view. Waiting ball M ₁ in Figure 5 ~
M ₃ shows the balls at each position in standby. When the power switch 40 shown in FIG. 3 is turned on, the geared motor 21 rotates and the cam 14 is
rotates. As a result, the pitching arm 6 is moved, and the projection 25 of the large gear 26 sets the ball setter 10 via the ball setting arm 7.
Rotate 0. Due to this rotation, the leg piece 100B, which was in the position shown in _FIG . The waiting ball _M1 that has reached the ball moves onto the ball feed rail 103. At this time, the waiting ball M ₁ is connected to the ball feeding rail 102 and the ball feeding guides 102' on both sides.
It moves while being supported at three points (Figure 2). As shown in FIG. 7, the waiting ball M ₁ that has moved onto the ball feed rail 103 passes smoothly through the ball feed port 3 and reaches the pitching arm because the ball feed rail 103 is composed of slanted ribs. 6 onto the ball holding portion 6c at the tip. The pitching motion will be explained later.

On the other hand, as the waiting ball M ₁ is sent out by the ball setter 100, the waiting ball M ₂ passes through the upper ball feeding port 105 and attempts to flow in the same way as the waiting ball M ₁ .
0 operates, its supply side leg piece 100A
Since the distance h between the tip of the ball and the fixed stopper 110 of the ball feed case 101 is set to be smaller than the diameter of the ball, the ball setter 100 will not move forward any further, and the ball setter 100 will return to its original position by the force of the set arm spring 51. When the ball returns, it will definitely be set at the position of the waiting ball _M1 in Figure 5.

When the ball setter 100 rotates as shown in FIG. 7 and the waiting ball M ₂ is stopped by the fixed stopper 110, the waiting ball M ₂ is rotated as shown in FIG.
The ball is placed on the bent piece 112 of the leg 100A on the ball supply side, and if the length l of the bent piece 112 is sufficient, it will not fall to the rear side of the leg 100A.
Furthermore, the bent piece 112 extends in an arc shape around the rotation axis 111 of the ball setter 100. Therefore, the ball setter 100 returns and rotates (arrow
A′ direction), the leg piece 100A is the waiting ball M ₂
The return operation is performed smoothly without being blocked by the rotation.

Explain the pitching motion. When the cam follower 16 moves away from the maximum radius of the cam 14, the energy stored in the torsion coil spring portion 15 of the pitching arm 6 causes the pitching arm 6 to be ejected while supporting the ball at three points. When the pitching arm 6 moves while holding the ball, it suddenly stops moving when it comes into contact with the damper 31, and only the ball is torsioned by the coil spring section 1.
It is thrown out with an initial velocity accelerated by an energy of 5.

In the embodiment described above, the bent piece 112 at the tip of the leg piece 100A has only an arc-shaped portion, but the bent piece 112 may be provided with an extending portion 113 as shown in FIG.

[Effect of idea]

The ball feeding device of the batting practice machine of this invention has a pair of leg pieces for supporting the ball between the ball feeding port on the pitching arm side and the ball feeding port on the ball feeding side located above the ball feeding port. Since the pair of leg pieces are integrally connected to each other and the lower end is provided with a means for driving the legs to rotate in forward and reverse directions around a substantially horizontal rotation center axis, the balls supplied to the ball feed port on the ball supply side are rotated between the pair of legs. By supporting them between the legs, they can be supplied one by one. In this case, since the upper end of the leg on the ball supply side is provided with a bent piece that extends away from the other leg, when the leg is fed and rotated toward the pitching arm side, the next ball is It is possible to prevent it from falling behind the leg on the supply side. Furthermore, since the bent piece is in an arc shape around the pivot axis of the leg piece,
The return rotation movement of the leg piece is not hindered by the ball received by the bent piece. Therefore, there is an effect that the balls can be smoothly fed one by one without getting caught.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of this invention, Fig. 2 is a cutaway front view thereof, Fig. 3 is a cutaway side view showing the state before ball feeding, and Fig. 4 is the ball feeding device. FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 3, FIG. 6 is a cutaway side view of the same state immediately after the ball is supplied, and FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. FIG. 8 is a partial side view of a leg piece in another embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a conventional example. 1... Main body case, 2... Ball throwing opening,
3...Ball feeding port on the pitching arm side, 4...
Guide rail, 6...Pitching arm, 7...Ball setting arm, 9, 10...Ball stocker, 1
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Ball supply unit, 100...Ball setter, 100A, 100B...Leg piece, 102...Ball feed rail, 105...Ball feeding port on ball supply side, 110...Fixed stopper, 112
...Folded piece.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A ball feeding device that sends a ball to the pitching arm of a batting practice machine that is equipped with a pitching arm that throws a ball by rotation, and includes a ball feed port on the pitching arm side that feeds the ball to the pitching arm, and an area above the ball feed port. A pair of leg pieces for supporting the ball are provided separated from each other on the ball supply side and the pitching arm side between the ball feeding port on the ball supply side located at A bending piece is provided at the upper end of the leg on the ball supply side of the pair of legs and extends in a direction away from the other leg. A ball feeding device for a batting practice machine, characterized in that the ball feeding device is provided in an arc shape around the rotation center axis.