NZ314499A - Articulating rigid channel finger protector - Google Patents

Description

New Zealand No. 314499 International No. PCT/ TO BE ENTERED AFTER ACCEPTANCE AND PUBLICATION Priority dates: 27.03,1996; Complete Specification Filed: 27.03.1997 Classification: (6) A63B71/14 Publication date: 25 November 1998 Journal No.: 1434 NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Title of Invention: Finger-protective device Name, address and nationality of applicant(s) as in international application form: DUNLOP SLAZENGER GROUP LIMITED, a British company of Maxfli Court, Riverside Way, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 3YL, United Kingdom JU4QQ Paterits iorftf5 N.Z. No.

NEW ZEALAND Patents Act 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FINGER-PROTECTIVE DEVICE We, DUNLOP SLAZENGER GROUP LIMITED, a British Company incorporated under the laws of England of, Maxfli Court, Riverside Way, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 3YL, United Kingdom, 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:- - 1 - (Followed by 1A) 31 4 49 9 1A FINGER-PROTECTIVE DEVICE This invention relates to finger-protective devices, in particular to an articulated finger-protective device.

By 'finger', there is meant any of the forelimb digits, i.e. including the thumb.

The device of the invention provides protection for fingers against damage by impact or compression, whilst allowing finger movement. It is suitable for use in situations where a finger is at risk of injury by impact or compression, particularly during sports activities. in sports activities, an advantageous application of the device is as a finger protector for players being batsmen such as in games of cricket or baseball or for players, especially goalkeepers, in stick games such as hockey (field or ice), where a hard ball, puck or other games projectile is used.

Such players usually wear protective gloves. In conventional protective gloves, protection usually is afforded by means of padding placed to intervene between the projectile and the player's hand, especially the fingers. Padding normally is placed in pockets attached at the outer surface of the glove, especially at the outer surface of the finger part of the glove, so that the force of impact of the projectile on the glove is cushioned and distributed over a greater area than would otherwise be the case. Such padding often is in the form of compressed fibrous material or in the form of cellular plastics material contained in a pocket of fabric, leather or flexible plastics material.

However, it is found that padded gloves do not provide the level of protection now desired, not least by cricket batsmen as evidenced by increasing incidence of finger breakage and other finger injuries, possibly owing at least partly to increased strength and athleticism of players.

A problem with padded protective gloves is that the fingers of the player gripping the bat or stick are, when subjected to projectile impact, compressed between the protective padding and the handle of the bat or stick, and consequently the handle acts as an anvil so contributing to possible injury.

An object of the present invention is to provide a high level of finger protection against impact, without impeding movement and flexing of the hand, especially the fingers, such as for gripping the handle of a bat or stick.

The present invention provides finger protection by directing impact forces away from the finger.

According to a general aspect of the invention, there is provided a finger-protective device comprising at least two aligned articulately linked rigid members of substantially channel shape for bridging the back and both sides of at least part of a finger, wherein the channel shape is of substantially U cross-section, providing a member having two sidewall portions each for location adjacent a finger side and an intermediate wall portion for location adjacent the finger back, and wherein the dimensions of the U section are such as substantially to accommodate the normal front-to-back thickness of the finger.

The junction of the sidewall portions with the intermediate wall portion may be angular or rounded, and the intermediate wall portion may be substantially flat or rounded.

The dimensions of the U section should be such as to accommodate at least the normal width (side-to-side) of the finger and preferably such as to accommodate at least the normal thickness (front-to-back) of the finger. Thereby, when the finger is between an impact force and a hard surface, for instance when gripping the handle of a bat or stick, the impact force on /03 '97 12:28 FAX 0121 362 4879 BTR INT. PROPTY. @005/014 C <1 ff f! ^ !■ & A C3 the surface of the intermediate wall portion of the member Is transmitted to the sidewall portions which then bear on the hard surface, and accordingly the finger is protected from being squashed.

Alternatively, the height of the U section could be less than the normal finger thickness provided that the difference is not so great as to allow harmful compression of the finger when force is applied on the intermediate wall portion.

The planes of the sidewall portions of a member preferably are substantially parallel to each other.

The side edges of the sidewall portions of a member may be substantially parallel to each other or one or both of the side edges may converge in the plane of the sidewall portion, away from the intermediate wall portion.

The wall thickness of a member may be substantially uniform or, for instance, the intermediate wall portion may have an average thickness greater than that of the sidewall portions. Suitable wall thicknesses will depend on the rigidity of the material of the member and the particular purpose for which finger protection is required. In any case, preferably the thickness of the sidewall portions should not be so great as to result in discomfort to the wearer of the device.

The rigidity of the members should be such that they do not collapse or break under normal impact conditions. Suitable materials for the members include rigid plastics materials and metals. Examples of suitable rigid plastics materials include epoxy resin, polypropylene, polyethylene and nylon, which may be reinforced, for instance by fibres or fabric of carbon, metal or glass. If desired, a member may comprise a laminate of materials each conferring properties contributing to effective impact resistance.

The members may be made by conventional forming techniques, e.g. 26/03 '97 12:28 FAX 0121 302 4879 BTR INT. PROPTY. ©006/014 T *1 />' tv ,n J tj i s ! O 4 " "V "J press-forming or by moulding such as by compression or injection moulding, either as individual members or as a set of members making up the device.

Consecutive members should be linked articulately, for instance to enable the device to articulate correspondingly to finger movement. A variety of hinged linkage means may be employed. The linkage preferably is between the intermediate wall portions of the members, A preferred linkage is by means of a flexible hinge. A suitable flexible hinge may comprise a strip or strips of flexible material such as fabric, leather or flexible plastics material, connecting adjacent members. The flexible material may possess elasticity to facilitate flexing of the finger.

The flexible hinge material may be connected to a member, for instance to the inner surface of the intermediate wall portion, by means such as adhesive-bonding, riveting or melt-bonding e.g. during a moulding operation. if desired, a strip or strips of flexible hinge material may extend as a continuous length linking more than two or all members present in the device, and such linkage may be attained during concurrent moulding of the aligned members.

In a further embodiment, adjacent members may have an integral hinge linkage produced during forming of the members from polypropylene or similar plastics material having 'self-hinging' property. Suitably, such an integral hinge linkage of adjacent members may be attained during moulding of the members by employing interconnected mould cavities wherein the interconnection passageway surface is shaped to produce a suitably dimensioned reduced-thickness portion such as a transversely grooved portion at a desired hinge position in the plastics material linking the members.

A hinged linkage between two adjacent members preferably is 26/03 '97 12:29 FAX 0121 382 1879 BTR INT. PROPTY. 0007/014 ^ i A / f \J [! &>} I located In the device to correspond with a finger Joint of the wearer. Hinged linkages may be located to correspond with each of the finger joints. There may be a single member for location between consecutive finger joints or there may be two or more members for location between consecutive finger joints, each pair of adjacent members being flexibly linked.

The members present in the device may be of equal length or of more than one length and may have substantially the same Shape or may be of two or more different shapes. The sizes and shapes of the members may be selected to confer optimum protective coverage and flexibility of a finger without discomfort to the wearer. For instance, the longitudinal edges of the sidewall portions of one or more members may have an inward curvature to accommodate the curvature of a handle to be gripped by the wearer. If desired one or more members may have a generally curved shape In the direction of curvature of a finger bent in a gripping state.

Advantageously, axial alignment of the members when the wearer's finger is flexed is controlled by means of the side edge of at least one of the sidewall portions of a member overlapping the adjacent side edge of the corresponding sidewall portion(s) of an adjacent member, at least when the device is in a bent or gripping state. Such overlap may be present also when the device is in a straight configuration. The overlap may be close or even sliding.

The overlap may be attained by a member having a distance between its sidewall portions which is greater than that of the adjacent member, i.e. one member may be generally wider than the adjacent member, or the sidewall portion(s) of at least one of the adjacent members may have a reduced uickness side edge area or an aligned flange to enable overlap with the sidewall portion(s) of the adjacent member which may, if desired, have Ml 12:29 FAX 0121 362 4879 BTR INT. PROPTY. @008/014 314^90 6 a co-operating complementary reduced thickness side edge area or flange.

If desired, the finger-protective device may be connected to a larger protective element for location over at least part of the back of the hand body. More than one finger-protective device, even one for each finger, may be connected to such an element. The connection suitably may be by means of a flexible hinge analogous to that referred to above for linkage of adjacent members in the device.

Although the device of the present invention has been described above for location in relation to a single finger, it is to be understood that a single device in accordance with the invention may comprise members sized to protect two or more adjacent fingers.

The device may be employed as or as part of or in association with a finger stall or cot, or it may be employed as a constituent part of or in association with a glove or mitten. Such a stall, cot, glove or mitten may include protective padding to absorb or spread an impact force.

Tha invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 shows, schematically, embodiments of the device applied to each finger of a hand gripping a handle such as that of a bat or hockey stick, and Figure 2 shows, schematically, an alternative embodiment of the device.

Each of the five devices shown in Figure 1 comprises U-section channel shaped members of rigid plastics material, each having two sidewall portions 1 (only one of the sidewall portions of a member is indicated In the drawing) and an intermediate wall portion 2. The dimensions of each member are such that the member substantially completely covers the back and sides of the corresponding finger portion between two consecutive 26/03 '97 12:29 FAX 0121 362 4879 BTR INT. PROPTY. ®009/014 7 finger joints, and the sidewall portions have internal heights at least equal to the thickness of that finger portion. The members are linked at positions 3 by a flexible hinge. Adjacent members have different distances between the sidewall portions so that the sidewall portions of one of a pair of adjacent members overlap outside or inside the sidewall portions of the other member as the finger is flexed to a gripping position.

The members may be made of reinforced plastics material such as a composite of epoxy resin and carbon fibre, and may be produced by moulding, such as compression moulding, in individual moulds. The members are then flexibly linked together to form the finger-protective device by adhesive bonding a woven fabric strip to the inner surface of the intermediate wall portions of adjacent members.

Each finger-protective device suitably is fitted inside a finger of a glove (not shown) which may have pockets containing cushioning material attached thereto in conventional manner.

The finger-protective device of Figure 2 is shown in a normal bent position of a finger such as the forefinger. Each of the members of this device is of substantially U-section channel shape having two sidewall portions 4 (only one of which is indicated in the drawing) and an intermediate wall portion 5. The dimensions of each member are such that there is more than one member between consecutive finger joints. Adjacent members are linked by a flexible hinge 6. At least one side edge of each sidewall portion has an aligned flange 7 of reduced thickness which slides inside the adjacent side edge area of an adjacent member when the device is flexed.

The members are made of rigid plastics material, for instance nylon reinforced with glass fibre, and may be produced by moulding. Suitably, all of the members of the device are moulded concurrently as an in-line set, 28/03 '07 12:30 FAX 0121 302 4870 ,BTR INT. PROPTY. @010/014 % 1 A 9 ^ t/ % !$ Q 8 ' ^ such as by injection moulding using interconnected mould cavities. The flexible hinges between adjacent members suitably are produced by inserting a strip of woven fabric along the interconnected mould cavities prior to injection of the plastics material so that the fabric becomes bonded in or to the inner surfaces of the intermediate wall portions of the members during the moulding process.

The finger-protective device may be fitted on the outer surface of a glove finger, such as by bonding at positions of the fabric linkages between the members, and external pockets containing padding material may be attached to the outer surface of the intermediate wall portion of one or more of the members. « 314499 9

Claims (15)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. Finger-protective device comprising at least two aligned articulately linked rigid members of substantially channel shape for bridging the back and both sides of at least part of a finger, wherein the channel shape is of substantially U cross-section, providing a member having two sidowall portions each for location adjacent a finger side and an intermediate wall portion for location adjacent the finger back, and wherein the dimensions of the U section are such as substantially to accommodate the normal front-to-back thickness of the finger.

2. Device according to claim 1 wherein the linkage between two adjacent members comprises a flexible hinge.

3. Device according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the linkage connects the intermediate wall portions to adjacent members.

4. Device according to claim 3 wherein the linkage comprises a strip of flexible material connected to the intermediate wall portions.

5. Device according to claim 3 wherein the linkage comprises self-hinging plastics material integral with the intermediate wall portions.

6. Device according to any of claims 1 to 5 wherein the side edge of at least one of the sidewall portions of a member overlaps the adjacent side edge of the corresponding sidewall portion(s) of an adjacent member, at least when the device is in a bent state.

7. Device according to claim 6 wherein the overlap is attained by a member being wider than an adjacent member.

8. Device according to claim 6 wherein at least one of the sidewall portions of a member has a reduced thickness side edge area or an aligned flange overlapping the corresponding sidewall portion(s) of an adjacent member.

9. Device according to claim 8 wherein the adjacent member has a cooperating complementary reduced thickness side edge area or aligned flange. 31A 10

10. Device according to any of the preceding claims wherein the members comprise rigid plastics material.

11. Device according to any of the preceding claims wherein a linkage between adjacent members is located to correspond with a finger joint of the wearer.

12. Device according to any of the preceding claims which is connected to a protective element for location over at least part of the back of a hand.

13. Device according to any of the preceding claims wherein the members are sized to protect two or more adjacent fingers.

14. Finger-protective device substantially as described herein with reference to and/or as shown in any of the accompanying drawings.

15. Device according to any of the preceding claims employed as part of or in association with a glove or mitten for a batsman or hockey player. DUNLOP SLAZENGER GROUP LIMITED By Their Attorneys (—^ HENRY Per: