WO2006024657A1

WO2006024657A1 - Chassis for skates and method for manufacturing it

Info

Publication number: WO2006024657A1
Application number: PCT/EP2005/054309
Authority: WO
Inventors: Claudio Zampieri
Original assignee: Nordica S.P.A.
Priority date: 2004-09-03
Filing date: 2005-09-01
Publication date: 2006-03-09
Also published as: ITPN20040063A1

Abstract

The present invention refers to a chassis for sliding or gliding devices (12), such as in-line roller skates or ice skates, as well as a method for manufacturing such chassis. The chassis comprises at least an elongated single-piece body (1, 1') adapted to be fastened on to a footwear item (3) and to receive means (4) for sliding or gliding on a running surface. The chassis is characterized in that it is comprised of a high-strength structure (2) formed substantially by the intersection of a plurality of planes (5) comprising a common direction, said direction being substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal extension of said elongated body (1) and substantially parallel to said running surface. The manufacturing method substantially comprises an extrusion phase and at least a machining phase.

Description

CHASSIS FOR SKATES AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING IT

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to a chassis for in-line roller skates or ice skates, as well as a method for manufacturing it.

Chassis for in-line roller skates or ice skates of the kind currently- known in the art are in general constituted by a pair of walls facing each other, between which there are mounted sliding or gliding means, such as for instance rollers, typically provided in a number ranging from two to six and aligned in a row after each other, or a blade. In most of these prior-art skate chassis, these mutually facing walls are joined firmly with each other by means of one or several mounting structures that are either made integral with said walls to form a single-piece, unitary part therewith, or associated to said walls in any of a variety of fastening methods available in the art. These mounting structures are used to connect the chassis carrying the sliding or gliding means to the plantar or sole of a footwear item, so as to form a skate.

Mounting structures are sometimes provided as a single-piece, unitary construction with the footwear support, so that each wall of the chassis can then be mounted individually to said structures, so as to facilitate replacing them whenever this may also be required. Considering the fact that, in most cases, a chassis for in-line roller skates or ice skates has at least a cross-section from which it is then possible to obtain other cross-sections through proper machining operations, manufacturing methods have been developed in the course of all these years, which generally call for a profiled section to be first extruded and then submitted to proper machining. Most component parts of the chassis are already existing in the extruded profiled section, i.e. provided integral therewith, and the machining operations to be carried out thereafter serve basically the purpose of completing the chassis in its shape, forming the roller supports or, more generally, providing all those elements that cannot practically be obtained directly in the process of extruding the profiled section.

Examples of methods for manufacturing skate chassis through the extrusion of a profiled section are described in the US patent publications Nos. 5,388,846 and 5,752,708, as well as in EP 1 242 151.

The disclosures in the above-cited patent publications basically teach to obtain a chassis for in-line roller skates or ice skates by extruding a material that is suitable to this purpose through a section that has a profile corresponding to at least a cross-section of the chassis, or corresponding to a form from which it is then possible to obtain the desired cross-section of the chassis by means of proper machining operations and/or by proper press-forming or similar operations. In other words, during extrusion, the forward-feeding direction of the profile section being extruded is the one corresponding to the longitudinal extension of the chassis, i.e. the direction joining the tip of a foot to the heel thereof when the chassis is mounted to a footwear item to form a skate.

The extrusions that are made in accordance with the teachings provided by the above-cited patent publications imply the construction of chassis that have side walls, between which there are to be then mounted the related sliding or gliding means, such as the rollers or a blade, and which are by necessity continuous and free of any opening. Any opening or aperture that may possibly be desired to be available in these side walls to any purpose whatsoever, must therefore be provided successively by machining on a proper machine tool, which among other things involves a considerable waste of the material which the extruded section is made of. In other words, this practically means that the number of chassis that can actually be manufactured out of a given unit of mass of extrudable material is limited. Furthermore, these machining operations have a major drawback in that they make chassis manufacturing times certainly longer and imply a considerable usage of both energy and economic resources to ultimately generate manufacturing scraps that are not in all cases simply recyclable into the manufacturing process, so that they may end up by being definitively lost.

It will moreover be readily appreciated that providing any number of apertures in the walls of the chassis unavoidably causes the structure to be weakened to some extent, under a resulting reduction in the rigidity, particularly the torsional one, thereof. In view of opposing such reduction in the rigidity properties, the section of the extruder, which substantially corresponds to the cross-section of the finished chassis, is usually provided so as to include reinforcement surfaces that join the side walls with each other. An exemplary embodiment of such reinforcement surfaces can be found in the afore-cited US patent publications No. 5,752,708, in which it can be practically seen how, in order to provide a length of reinforcement surface not longer than a few centimetres, the need arises to first produce this surface to cover the entire longitudinal length of the chassis, for eventually just removing it from the areas in which the sliding or gliding means are then to be accommodated. This again involves the afore-indicated drawback of a useless waste of materials. In addition, in the case that the chassis is intended for use in conjunction with an in-line roller skate, the reinforcement surface will hardly be capable to follow the circular profile of the tread of the rollers, owing to such shape being practically impossible to be provided with an extrusion method performed in accordance with the teachings of any of the afore-cited publications. Such limitation is particularly disadvantageous, since it would on the contrary be quite useful if all spaces between the rollers can actually be put to good account in view of providing structures aimed at strengthening and stiffening the chassis.

Skate chassis that are extruded along the direction of longitudinal extension of the skate meet therefore with a limitation, as far as the reduction in weight and a concurrent increase in the rigidity of the structure are concerned, just in the particular application of the extrusion-based manufacturing process, whose peculiar advantages are practically thwarted by any excessive extent of machining which they might be submitted to subsequently.

Another major drawback of skate chassis extruded in the direction of the longitudinal extension of the skate lies in the fact that the portion of chassis that is to be fastened to the rear region of the sole of a footwear item is desirably given a height from the sliding or gliding surface that is greater than the height of the chassis portion that is intended for fastening to the front region of said footwear sole. For such difference in heights to be brought about in skate chassis extruded according to prior- art methods, the need arises for an extrusion section to be provided that features at least two distinct planes extending transversally relative to the side walls between which the sliding or gliding means are mounted. A good deal of the surface of these planes - and in particular of the plane which, in the condition in which the chassis is assembled with, i.e. fastened to the footwear item, must turn out as being higher than the sliding or gliding surface of the skate - must be removed by having resort to subsequent machining that once again involves another considerable waste of material.

It therefore is a main object of the present invention to provide a chassis for skates and a related manufacturing method that do away with the drawbacks and disadvantages of prior-art chassis and manufacturing methods.

Within the above general object, a purpose of the present invention is to provide a chassis for skates that has a limited weight and, at the same time, a structure having a high both flexural and torsional rigidity.

A further purpose of the present invention is to provide a chassis for skates that is effective in ensuring better performance capabilities during skating.

A by no way less important purpose of the present invention is to provide a chassis for skates that enables the reinforcement structures aiding in increasing the rigidity of the chassis to be located most effectively.

Yet another purpose of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method for a skate chassis, which enables said chassis to be completed into a finished product with just a limited number and extent of subsequent processing, thereby optimising the yield per unit of mass of material used for chassis production.

According to the present invention, these aims, along with further ones that will be apparent in the following description, are reached in a chassis for skates and a related manufacturing process incorporating the characteristics and features as recited in the appended Claims 1 and 9, respectively.

Anyway, features and advantages of the skate chassis and the related manufacturing method according to the present invention will be more readily understood from the description that is given below by way of non- limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: - Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the chassis according to the present invention;

- Figure 2 is a side view of a skate on which there is mounted the chassis shown in Figure 1 ;

- Figure 3 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the chassis according to the present invention.

With reference to Figures 1 and 2, the chassis comprises a single-piece body 1 having an elongated shape and arranged so as to be able to be fastened on to a footwear item 3 with the help of generally known fastening means in view of forming a sliding or gliding device 12, such as for instance an in-line roller skate or an ice skate. The body 1 is furthermore arranged so as to be able to receive means 4 for sliding or gliding on a running surface, such as for instance rollers 4' or, alternatively, a blade for gliding on an ice surface, to be attached to the chassis in a generally known manner. The chassis is comprised of a high- strength structure 2 formed by a plurality of planes 5 intersecting each other. These planes 5 share a common direction, which is substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal extension of the body 1 and substantially parallel to the surface which the sliding or gliding device 12 slides or glides upon. In this way, the chassis turns out to be without the traditional pair of continuous side walls for the sliding or gliding means to be mounted therebetween. It on the contrary features a side surface, i.e. a longitudinal-section surface obtained by means of a plane extending orthogonally to said common direction, in which the ratio of the area of the surface in which there is material to the area in which there is on the contrary no material is less than 1. Thanks to the particular conformation of the structure 2, the chassis turns out to be particularly lightweight and capable of opposing a really modest drag, i.e. air resistance during skating, with an advantageous increase in the performance characteristics and a reduction in the effort which the user is requested to make.

The planes 5 may comprise apertures 6 that can for instance be used to assist in fastening the chassis to the footwear 3 and, in particular, to the sole 7 thereof, as illustrated in Figure 2. These apertures 6 may also be provided to allow for the sliding or gliding means 4 to be mounted in an adequate, convenient manner. Across the thickness of the plane that comes to be closest to the running surface when the chassis is mounted on a footwear 3 there are provided accommodations 8 adapted to receive the rotation axles, i.e. pins 9 of the rollers 4', or a blade if the skate is an ice skate, when mounting the same rollers or blade, as the case may be.

The planes 5 define cavities 10 extending transversally relative to the longitudinal extension of the chassis by passing fully thereacross. Within these through-cavities 10 there may be accommodated the sliding or gliding means 4. To this purpose, some of these planes 5 may be at least partially curved and, if the sliding means 4 are comprised of rollers 4', said curved planes may have a radius of curvature that is greater than the radius of one of said rollers 4', so that no interference will occur between tread and high-strength structure. In addition, the curved planes - further to enabling space to be advantageously used in a much more efficient manner by facilitating reinforcement surfaces to be provided and located at the most critical points of the chassis - also enable the profile of the footwear 3, which the chassis is intended to interact with, to be followed, i.e. tracked in the best possible manner. In this way it is for instance possible for structures 11 for mounting the chassis to the sole 7 of a footwear 3 to be obtained at different heights relative to the running surface on which the sliding or gliding means 4 are due to move.

Figure 3 illustrates a second embodiment of the skate chassis according to the present invention, wherein the same reference numerals have been used to indicate the chassis parts and details that are present both in the first embodiment - illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 - and in the second embodiment illustrated in Figure 3.

The chassis comprises a first and a second single-piece body 1 and 1' that are assembled upon each other in a stable manner with the help of means that are largely known as such in the art, such as for instance screws 13. By intersecting each other, the planes 5 - which are oriented as this has already been described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 - form the high-strength structure 2, wherein these planes 5 are provided partly on the first single-piece body 1 and partly on the second single- piece body 1 '. If desired, it is of course also possible for the planes 5 to be solely provided on either the single-piece body 1 or the single-piece body 1'. Preferably, at least one of said planes 5, and in particular the one that is adapted to be fastened to the sole 7 of a footwear item 3, is entirely provided on one of said single-piece bodies 1, 1' so as to promote the stability of the chassis as assembled on to the footwear 3.

The planes 5 may comprise apertures 6, as this has already been described hereinbefore, and the cavities 10 existing in each one of the single-piece bodies 1 and 1' are defined by the planes 5 in corresponding positions, so that by assembling the two bodies together causes them to properly mate, i.e. fit together to ultimately form a chassis that fully and exactly resembles the one illustrated in Figure 2. In each one of the two bodies 1 and 1' there are also provided the accommodations 8 adapted to allow for the rotation axles of rollers or, alternatively, of a blade for skating on ice to be conveniently mounted.

Various different materials may be used to make the single-piece bodies 1 and 1 ', depending on the desired final effect, such as for instance a reduction in the overall weight of the chassis.

Thanks to the common direction that is shared by all planes 5 of the high-strength structure 2, the single-piece bodies 1, 1' can be advantageously produced by extruding an extrudable material in a process to be performed along this common direction. The extrusion section, through which the material being extruded is forced, corresponds to the longitudinal section of the corresponding single-piece body 1 , 1 ' to be formed, wherein such section must be regarded as being achieved along a plane that is perpendicular to said common direction of the planes 5. The extrusion process forms the planes 5 comprising said common direction and, as a result, forms the cavities 10, thereby giving the chassis the desired high-strength structure 2. One or more machining operations allow for the apertures 6 and the accommodations 8 receiving the sliding or gliding means 4 to be then provided. In the case that the chassis is intended to be comprised of two or more single-piece bodies 1, 1', upon these bodies 1, 1' having been duly formed by extrusion, they must be assembled together with the use of fastening means as they are largely known as such in the art, e.g. adhesives, mechanical fasteners - either fixed or releasable - and the like.

Further processing may of course be contemplated in view of giving the chassis a desired surface finish or rounding off sharp edges or corners, and so on. Anyway, after performing the simple operations as described- above, the chassis is ready to be mounted on to a footwear item 3 in such manner as to ensure that the common direction shared by the planes 5 is substantially parallel to the surface on which the so formed sliding or gliding device 12 is due to run.

Fully apparent from the above description is therefore the ability of the skate chassis according to the present invention - along with the related manufacturing process - to effectively reach the aims and advantages cited afore. What the present invention in fact provides is a single-piece skate chassis for sliding or gliding devices that is advantageously low in weight, while ensuring a high level of both torsional and flexural rigidity. Fully apparent in this connection is also the fact that the present invention enables the performance abilities and characteristics during skating to be improved to a considerable extent thanks to the reduced drag, i.e. air resistance ensured by the structure of the chassis. In addition, the implementation of a manufacturing method according to the present invention as described in this specification has enabled a considerable reduction in scrap and waste material to be obtained, with the obvious result of a corresponding increase in the production yield per unit of mass of material used.

It shall be appreciated that the materials used to manufacture the various parts forming the inventive chassis, as well as the shapes and the sizing thereof, may each time be selected so as to more appropriately meet the particular requirements or suit the particular application. Moreover, it shall further be appreciated that the various parts forming the object of the present invention shall certainly not be solely embodied in the manner that has been described and illustrated hereinbefore, but can rather be implemented in many other embodiments - although not specifically illustrated here - without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. Chassis for sliding or gliding devices (12) comprising at least an elongated single-piece body (1, I¹) adapted to be fastened on to a footwear item (3) and to receive means (4) for sliding or gliding on a running surface, characterized in that it is comprised of a high-strength structure (2) formed substantially by the intersection of a plurality of planes (5) comprising a common direction, said direction being substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal extension of said at least a body (1, I¹) and substantially parallel to said running surface.

2. Chassis according to claim 1 , wherein one or more of said planes (5) comprise apertures (6, 8).

3. Chassis according to claim 2, wherein said at least a single-piece body (1, I¹) is obtained by an extrusion process.

4. Chassis according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said planes (5) define through-cavities (10) extending transversally relative to the longitudinal extension of the chassis.

5. Chassis according to claim 4, wherein at least one of said through- cavities (10) accommodates at least a portion of said sliding or gliding means (4).

6. Chassis according to any of the preceding claims, wherein at least one of said planes (5) is curved.

7. Chassis according to claim 6, wherein said sliding or gliding means

(4) are formed by rollers (4% and said at least a curved plane has a curvature radius that is greater than the radius of one of said rollers (4 ^s).

8. Chassis according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said sliding or gliding means (4) are formed by a blade.

9. Chassis according to any of the preceding claims or combination thereof, wherein a first single-piece body (1) is made of a first material and a second single-piece body (I⁷) is made of a second material that is different from said first material.

10. Method for manufacturing a chassis for devices (12) adapted to slide or glide on a running surface, comprising:

- an extrusion phase, in which an extrudable material is extruded to form at least a single-piece body (1, I⁷); at least a further processing phase, in which said at least a single- piece body ( 1 , 1 *) undergoes machining; characterized in that said extrusion phase is adapted to form a high- strength structure (2) that is substantially formed by the intersection of a plurality of planes (5) comprising a common direction, said direction being substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal extension of said at least a body (1, I⁷) and substantially parallel to said running surface.

11. Method for manufacturing a chassis according to claim 10, comprising further a phase in which said single-piece bodies (1, I⁷) are assembled together.

12. Method for manufacturing a chassis according to claim 10 or 11, wherein at least one of said planes (5) is adapted to be fastened on to the sole (7) of a footwear item (3).