WO1986001417A1

WO1986001417A1 - Handle with a sweat-absorbing means

Info

Publication number: WO1986001417A1
Application number: PCT/AT1985/000029
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ivan Thomas Fucik
Original assignee: Ivan Thomas Fucik
Priority date: 1984-09-04
Filing date: 1985-09-03
Publication date: 1986-03-13
Also published as: EP0192700A1; ATE45679T1; EP0192700B1; JPS62500097A; DE3572444D1; AU4774485A

Abstract

A handle with a sweat-absorbing means, especially for ball-striking equipment, steering devices and precision weapons, is designed in such a way that the sweat is continually removed from the grip/hand-contact region. For this, it is proposed that the sweat-absorbing means used consists of organic, medium and/or strongly cross-linked macromolecular ion exchangers having a high exchange capacity and possessing the constructional design of a strong polyelectrolyte.

Description

Sweat-absorbent handle

The invention relates to a handle containing a sweat-absorbing agent, in particular for ball rackets, such as tennis rackets and squash rackets, for steering device and precision weapons, which ensures a high grip by preventing moisture accumulation on the handle-hand contact surface, which enables reliable power transmission .

Handles as devices that are intended to transfer the force between a hand and an object in a targeted and as complete manner as possible often fulfill this task inadequately. Sweat often builds up between the handle and the palm that surrounds it, which is always prone to sweating. The increased sweat formation, particularly in the case of high physical and psychological stress, causes the grip surface to become slippery and thus leads to a reduction in the safe transmission of force, both in terms of its intensity and in its direction. The grip and the important object feeling conveyed through it is significantly impaired and the intended result is negatively influenced.

Attempts have been made to counter these adverse effects for a long time. For example, Wrapped tennis racket handles with perforated leather straps or other porous straps. However, this solution is usually unsatisfactory because the winding saturates relatively quickly with moisture, requires longer drying and is also destroyed relatively quickly. Interchangeable bandages have also been proposed for ball club grips, but they behave in a similar way to the aforementioned porous bands and require an additional outlay in terms of material and handling.

In addition, handles with air ducts opening onto the lateral surface and with air and sweat guides have also been used Reduction of the ochweiis accumulation on and deαmgen a complex production.

Finally, handles have also been proposed, in particular for tennis rackets, which are equipped with sweat-absorbing means, for example with a spirally wound terry band (US Pat. No. 4,159,115), a sweat-absorbing sleeve made of terry cloth, absorbent paper or sponge material (pushed onto the handle) ( US-PS 3,614,100; FR-PS 2 527930) or with drying agents such as calcium chloride, silica gel or molecular sieves (US-PS 3,645,008).

However, even with these known means, permanent removal of sweat from the hand-grip contact zone cannot be achieved. For example, a sponge or terry cloth absorbs the sweat secretion, but the liquid escapes when the handle is held firmly. Silica gel, calcium chloride and similar desiccants can absorb sweat quickly, but gradually they lose their mechanical stability, become squeezable or dissolve and thus form another, possibly even physiologically unacceptable liquid. With the desiccant cartridge made of Linde molecular sieves preferred in US Pat. No. 3,645,008, permanent drying of a handle cannot be achieved either. A molecular sieve can be regenerated by heating it to about 260 ° C in a drying oven, but this requires removing the desiccant cartridge from the hollow shaft of the specially designed handle and heating the desiccant to the specified temperature for about two hours. Such complex handling of the desiccant is impractical in practice.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a handle equipped with sweat-absorbing means, in particular for ball racquets, steering devices and precision weapons, which provides the above overcomes disadvantages. The handle should be particularly easy to grip, therefore dry and thus hydrophilic or sweat-removing. The sweat must be absorbed on a large scale and quickly, the hydrophilicity must be permanent and therefore regenerable, and the regeneration should take place under normal conditions (room temperature, normal relative humidity). Furthermore, the sweat-absorbing agent should be mechanically stable, be impact, shock and vibration-resistant, have a low specific weight, be physiologically harmless and, if possible, eliminate or bind aggressive sweat components and also have a deodorizing effect. For the user of the handle, the sweat-absorbing agent should be handled as simply as possible, and last but not least, such a sweat-absorbing handle should also be economical to manufacture.

This object is achieved according to the invention by a handle with a sweat-absorbing agent, which is characterized in that the sweat-absorbing agent consists at least partially of organic, medium and / or highly crosslinked macromolecular ion exchangers of high exchange capacity with the construction of a strong polyelectrolyte.

With the special ion exchanger used according to the invention as a sweat-absorbing agent, the sweat is absorbed in the desired manner and the handle surface over which the hand grips the handle is kept so dry that there is a surprisingly large increase in grip.

The special ion exchangers used according to the invention differ from the drying agents previously proposed for the absorption of hand perspiration due to their polymer structure and their construction. The main difference is in particular that ion exchangers have a considerable swelling porosity and possibly also a permanent porosity and thus have a large and rapid water sorption and regeneration capacity. In practice, this difference has the effect that, in contrast to the Described desiccants of the ion exchangers, even when their practical hygroscopicity is exhausted, i.e. the real degree of saturation in the air containing water vapor has been reached, can continue to absorb a large amount of water (in liquid form) by incorporation into its macromolecular structure (= swelling process) without this its structure is destroyed and its usable mechanical stability is significantly changed.

As soon as a further water supply is interrupted, this water taken up by swelling is released again into the surrounding air in the form of water vapor, until the original degree of saturation before the water supply is reached again (= evaporation process, = regeneration). The swelling and evaporation process are reversible. The speed of the swelling and evaporation process is significantly higher than that of other drying agents proposed for such an application, the evaporation process being dependent on the surrounding climatic conditions (temperature, air humidity).

Depending on their structure, the ion exchangers used according to the invention can absorb a multiple of their dry weight of water, the major part of which by swelling. Due to this high swelling capacity, the ion exchangers differ significantly from all other desiccants mentioned above, whose swelling capacity, if any, is relatively small and which, when supplied with water, either become soluble or change their structure and thus lose their mechanical stability, beyond their degree of saturation the "excess water" can be squeezed mechanically. The practical functional range of these conventional desiccants is therefore limited by their degree of saturation. Water can only be released by significantly reducing the air humidity, ie by actively drying at an elevated temperature and / or in a vacuum. The molecular sieve drying cartridges according to US Pat. No. 3,645,008 are also regenerated by heating for several hours in a drying oven to 260 ° C. In the present invention, this behavior, which is different from that of all the other desiccants mentioned above, is practically exploited by ion exchangers for keeping handles dry, for the first time this swelling-evaporation reversibility, which in the area of normal climatic conditions only ion exchangers in a very high and useful for practice possess usable extent, is applied. Any other desiccant once saturated with water, as already mentioned, would have to be "actively dried" (drying oven, vacuum) in order to be able to absorb larger amounts of water again, a process which considerably limits the practical usability.

In addition to this fundamental advantage of ion exchangers, their use for keeping handles dry has other advantages that, in their entirety, no other of the aforementioned desiccants has:

The low specific weight (approx.1.3 g / cm ³ ) compared to inorganic desiccants is particularly advantageous for ball racquets because their total weight and the balance due to the mass distribution due to the application of the necessary amount of an ion exchanger, possibly in the swollen state , may increase little.

Ion exchangers of the relevant genus are physiologically harmless. You can even bind sweat ingredients. For example, a mixture of a strongly acidic cation exchanger in H ⁺ form and a strongly basic anion exchanger in OH form saline - the main component in sweat - and other dissolved substances can bind. With a tennis racket, the capacity is about 100 hours, which is about a year for an average tennis player.

Furthermore, corrosive and malodorous perspiration ingredients can be bound, which prevents eczema and skin fungi. Finally, the sweat is so quickly absorbed by the ion exchanger, which is a cross-linked, highly hydrophilic polymer skeleton with functional groups and exchangeable co-ions, that the skin contact surface is kept permanently dry even at the time of greatest perspiration. Water, the main component of sweat, acts as a swelling agent for the ion exchanger. Its polar functional groups dissociate into ions that hydrate and the system swells. The usual degree of swelling is, depending on the degree of crosslinking of the skeleton and the overall condition, about 2.0 to 4.0 ml of water per 1 gram of dry matter. A large sweat absorption capacity is thus guaranteed.

In the handle designed according to the invention, the ion exchangers, such as sulfonated styrene-divinylbenzene copolymers, cellulose ether derivatives or phenol-formaldehyde resins containing exchange groups and the like. Like., For example, be housed directly in the mass of a moisture-permeable handle, such as in a porous grip tape.

As a moisture-conducting connection, e.g. Channels, cavities, communicating pores, water-swellable masses and the like. of the grip jacket. and / or the handle.

A further embodiment according to the invention provides that, for example, a strongly swelling ion exchanger is attached directly under the handle casing, preferably glued to the handle and / or anchored on the lower handle casing side.

The ion exchangers can of course also be accommodated in the interior of the handle, for example similar to US Pat. No. 3,645,008. For example, a cross-linked polyelectrolyte can be exposed in a hollow space in the handle, which optionally opens into the handle surface via channels, or in one or more water-permeable casings, for example a cellulose fiber cartridge. This system DZW. however, these cartridges do not require protection against air humidity before use or do not require oven drying after use at a high temperature, as required by US Pat. No. 3,645,008.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is that a carrier, for example a lattice fabric, fleece or the like. With an ion exchanger arranged on its surface, such as a polyurethane-bound, strongly acidic cation exchanger ALCASION-CS in the Na ⁺ form around the handle wound, if necessary glued and then provided with a handle, such as a leather strap.

The moisture absorption is reversible in the handle according to the invention, so that a handle more or less exposed to sweat can easily dry out. This is already done e.g. by allowing the handle to rest in the air at normal temperature. An elevated temperature, e.g. when placing the handle in the span, or other measures, such as forced ventilation, lead to significantly faster drying.

It is of course also possible, particularly for handles which have cartridges with ion exchangers inserted into their interior, to replace them and in this way to accelerate the drying particularly. However, this is not necessary because of the high sweat absorption capacity and the swelling-evaporation reversibility already mentioned

The invention is described in more detail by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing. In the drawing

Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a tennis racket while

Fig. 2 shows a cross section through the tennis racket handle along the line II-II in Fig. 1. In Fig. 1, a tennis racket with a racket head 1 including string 2, the shaft 3 and the handle 4 is shown. 2 shows a shaft 3 which is completely covered with structural polyurethane foam 8, the outside of the covering having a glued-on support 5 with ion exchanger 6 and a leather strap 7.

The following example is intended to explain the invention in more detail:

Example: tennis racket

A 1: 1.8 volume mixture of a strongly acidic cation exchanger (e.g. Dulite C 20 A or Amberlitt IR.120) in H ⁺ form and a strongly basic anion exchanger (e.g. e.g. Dulite A 42 or Amerlite IRΔ 400) in OH-¬

Form applied, on which this structure is provided on one side with a pressure sensitive adhesive and covered with a release paper.

For use on the handle of a tennis racket, the release paper is peeled off and the ion exchange carrier system in the form of a web is glued to the handle of the tennis racket with the pressure-sensitive adhesive. A total of 8-10 g of the ion exchange mixture are applied to the handle. Finally, the handle is wrapped with a porous leather band.

Claims

Patent claims:

1. handle with sweat-absorbing agent, especially for ball racquets, steering devices and precision weapons, characterized in that the sweat-absorbing agent consists at least partially of organic, medium and / or highly cross-linked, macromolecular ion exchangers of high exchange capacity with the construction of a strong polyelectrolyte.

2. Handle according to claim, characterized in that there are strongly acidic cation exchangers as ion exchangers.

3. Handle according to claim 1, characterized in that as

Ion exchangers are strongly basic anion exchangers.

4. Handle according to claim 1, characterized in that a mixture of strongly acidic and strongly basic ion exchangers is present as the ion exchanger.

5 «Handle according to claim 1, characterized in that hydrophilic, porous sheaths, optionally tapes, with communicating pores, preferably ground leather straps, are used for the moisture-conducting connection between the handle-hand contact surface and the sweat-absorbing agent.

6.Use of organic, medium and / or strongly cross-linked, macromolecular ion exchangers with a high exchange capacity with the construction of a strong polyelectrolyte as a sweat-absorbing agent in or on handles that come into contact with hand sweat, in particular ball bats, steering devices and precision weapons.