US20080029999A1

US20080029999A1 - Snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism

Info

Publication number: US20080029999A1
Application number: US11/556,710
Authority: US
Inventors: Clifford Lee
Original assignee: SBF Systems Inc
Current assignee: SBF Systems Inc
Priority date: 2006-08-04
Filing date: 2006-11-06
Publication date: 2008-02-07
Also published as: CN200963503Y

Abstract

A snowboard includes a snowboard main body and two shock resistant protecting plates attached to front and rear ends of the main body. The protecting plates are made of material having high structure strength and high hardness. The snowboard main body forms a front mounting slot and a rear mounting slot. One protecting plate is mounted in the front mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the front mounting slot, and the other protecting plate is mounted in the rear mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the rear mounting slot. The provision of the protecting plates improves shock resistance of the snowboard. The protecting plates are assembled to the snowboard main body using special method to form a united member, thus providing the snowboard with both good appearance and high shock resistant, and can be employed in snowboards of any kind and specification.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to snowboards and, particularly to a snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism.
Snowboards are used in snowboarding, which is a winter sport both for fun and improving health. Participants in this sport usually have a high speed and inertia. Therefore, front and rear ends of the snowboards can easily be deformed or broken as a result of being striked, thus decreasing useful lifetime of the snowboards. To address this problem, snowboards with rear and front protecting strips (usually made of nylon PA or PUP by injection molding) are developed. In these snowboards, however, the protecting strips are pre-manufactured and wrap around the front and rear ends of the snowboards using adhesive and screws. The manufacturing method can be complicated and the snowboards appearance can be poor. In addition, the protecting strips are thin and weak and thus does not have sufficient strength, and the connection of the protecting strips and the front and rear snowboard ends is poor, which make the protecting strips unable to withstand big striking. When subject to big striking, the strips can easily be deformed, broken, or even become separated from the snowboard, thus failing to protect the snowboard.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism which has high resistance to shock and can not be easily deformed or broken when subject to striking.
To achieve the object set out above, the present invention provides a snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism. The snowboard includes a snowboard main body and a pair of shock resistant protecting plates attached to front and rear ends of the main body. The protecting plates are made of material having high structure strength and high hardness. The snowboard main body forms a front mounting slot and a rear mounting slot at the front and rear ends thereof, respectively. One of the protecting plates is mounted in the front mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the front mounting slot, and the other of the protecting plates is mounted in the rear mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the rear mounting slot.
In the snowboard, an underside of a part of each protecting plate that extends out of the mounting slot protrudes so as to form a step thereon. The step is coplanar with a bottom surface of the snowboard main body.
In the snowboard, the snowboard main body includes, from bottom to top, a bottom plate, a lower fiber glass layer, a core plate, an upper fiber glass layer, and a panel, which are laminated in that order. A cutout is defined in each of front and rear ends of the core plate. The cutout has a shape such that outer edges of the front and rear ends matching with inner edges of their corresponding protecting plates. The front and rear ends of the core plate, the lower fiber glass layer, and the upper fiber glass layer, cooperatively form the mounting slots at the front and rear ends of the snowboard.
A main advantage of the present invention is that, the present snowboard employs shock resistant protecting plates made of high structural strength and high shock resistance in order to improve shock resistance of the snowboard. In addition, the protecting plates are manufactured and assembled to ends of the snowboard main body using special method so as to form a united member, thus providing the snowboard with both good appearance and high shock resistant. The protecting plates can be employed in snowboards of any kind and specification.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded, isometric view of the present snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a shock resistant protecting plate of the snowboard of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the protecting plate of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a top view of a front portion of the snowboard of FIG. 1;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 1 through 4, the present invention provides a snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism. In accordance with an embodiment thereof, the snowboard includes a snowboard main body and a pair of shock resistant protecting plates 3 attached to front and rear ends of the main body.
The snowboard main body forms a front mounting slot and a rear mounting slot at the front and rear ends thereof, respectively. The snowboard main body includes, from bottom to top, a bottom plate 11, a lower fiber glass layer 12, a core plate 13, an upper fiber glass layer 14, and a panel 15, which are laminated together in that order. A cutout 130 is defined in each of the front and rear ends of each core plate 13. The cutout 130 has a shape such that outer edges of the front and rear ends matching with inner edges of their corresponding protecting plates 3. The front and rear ends of the core plate 13, the lower fiber glass layer 12, and the upper fiber glass layer 14, cooperatively form the mounting slots (not labeled) at the front and rear ends of the snowboard.
Referring to FIG. 2, the protecting plates 3 have a same configuration except that they are mounted in different positions. Each protecting plate 3 is made of a material with high structural strength and high resistance to shock, such as metal materials, for example, aluminum, iron, white iron, and the like, by means of, for example, die-casting, casting, stamping, or CNN machine shaping. Alternatively, the protecting plate 3 may be made of a material with high structural strength and high resistance to wear, such as plastic materials, for example, nylon, fibered nylon (i.e., nylon containing fiber), PC (Polycarbonate), and the like, by means of injection molding or CNC machine shaping of plastic plate. One of the protecting plates 3 is mounted in the front mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the front mounting slot, and the other of the protecting plates 3 is mounted in the rear mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the rear mounting slot.
Referring to FIG. 3, an underside of a part of the protecting plate 3 that extends out of the mounting slot protrudes so as to form a step 30 thereon. The step 30 is coplanar with a bottom surface of the snowboard main body. The front and rear ends of the bottom plate 11 respectively abut against inner sides of the steps 30, thus further increasing the shock resistant capability. Rubber films 4 are attached to top and bottom surfaces of a part of each protecting plate 3 that is received in each mounting slot.
The snowboard further includes side steel frames 16 disposed at two opposite sides of the bottom plate 11, rubber strips 17 disposed between the bottom plate 11 and the lower fiber glass layer 12, ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) strips 18 disposed at two opposite sides of the core plate 15, and screws 191 fastening the bottom plate 11 with the core plate 13. Screw washers are attached around the screws 191. The screws and washers may be hexagonal head screws and hexagonal washers.
Before assembly, the protecting plates 3 are pretreated so as to form a layer of transparent high temperature resistant protecting film on a surface thereof. As to protecting plates 3 made of metal materials, it is necessary to apply a sandblast to the extending parts of the protecting plates 3 out of the mounting slots. Components of the snowboard main body are then assembled. Specifically, the lower fiber glass layer 12 and the core plate 13 are laminated on the bottom plate 11, the protecting plates 3 with attached rubber films 4 are disposed in the mounting slots at the front and rear ends of the core plate 13, afterwards, lamination of the upper fiber glass layer 14, the panel 15 and other assembly steps may be performed according to normal assembly procedure. A front portion of the assembled snowboard is illustrated in FIG. 4 in a top view.
On the parts extending out of the mounting slots, the protecting plates 3 can form various marks or notes 5, such as, for example, trademarks, company logos, individuation characters, thus providing the snowboard product with individuation, good appearance, and brand advertising effect.
Shock tests have been conducted with regard to the prior traditional snowboard without protective strips, the traditional snowboard with wrapped protective strips, and the present snowboard with front and rear protective mechanism, respectively. The test results are shown in the following table.

Shock test results

Angle

45°

50°

55°

60°

65°

Joule	once	twice	once	twice	once	twice	once	twice	once	twice	Remarks

Traditional	50.6	50.6									The last values are
snowboard											maximum values
without											measured at
strips											breakage of the
Traditional	50.6	50.6	61.9	61.9	73.1	73.1					samples.
snowboard
with strips
Present	50.6	50.6	61.9	61.9	73.1	73.1	88.1	88.1
snowboard

It can be seen from the table, the present snowboard has higher resistance to shock than the prior snowboards.
It should be understood from the foregoing description that, the present snowboard employs shock resistant protective plates made of high structural strength and high shock resistance in order to improve shock resistance of the snowboard. In addition, the snowboard is manufactured and assembled to ends of the snowboard main body using special method to form a united member, thus providing the snowboard with both good appearance and high shock resistant.
Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

1. A snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism, comprising a snowboard main body and a pair of shock resistant protecting plates attached to front and rear ends of the main body, the protecting plates being made of material having high structure strength and high hardness, wherein the improvements comprise that: the snowboard main body forms a front mounting slot and a rear mounting slot at the front and rear ends thereof, respectively; one of the protecting plates is mounted in the front mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the front mounting slot; and the other of the protecting plates is mounted in the rear mounting slot with an outer portion thereof extending out of the rear mounting slot.

2. The snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism of claim 1, wherein an underside of a part of each protecting plate that extends out of the mounting slot protrudes so as to form a step thereon, and the step is coplanar with a bottom surface of the snowboard main body.

3. The snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism of claim 2, wherein the snowboard main body includes, from bottom to top, a bottom plate, a lower fiber glass layer, a core plate, an upper fiber glass layer, and a panel, which are laminated together in that order; a cutout is defined in each of front and rear ends of the core plate; the cutout has a shape such that outer edges of the front and rear ends matching with inner edges of their corresponding protecting plates; the front and rear ends of the core plate, the lower fiber glass layer, and the upper fiber glass layer, cooperatively form the mounting slots at the front and rear ends of the snowboard.

4. The snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism of claim 3, wherein the front and rear ends of the bottom plate respectively abut against inner sides of the steps.

5. The snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism of claim 1, wherein rubber films are attached to top and bottom surfaces of a part of each protecting plate that is received within each mounting slot.

6. The snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism of claim 3, wherein the snowboard further includes side steel frames disposed at two opposite sides of the bottom plate, rubber strips disposed between the bottom plate and the lower fiber glass layer, ABS strips disposed at two opposite sides of the core plate, and screws fastening the bottom plate with the core plate, and screw washers are attached around the screws.

7. The snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism of claim 6, wherein the screws and washers are hexagonal head screws and hexagonal washers.

8. The snowboard having front and rear protective mechanism of claim 1, wherein the protecting plates on the parts extending out of the mounting slots form marks or notes.