Tubular baseball bats with variable stiffened barrels

Abstract

Tubular baseball bats comprised of an elongated handle portion and a striking or barrel portion wherein the barrel portion has variable stiffness along its length. One such bat has a circumferential low cost, low weight stiffener generally located in the sweetspot area designed to increase radial stiffness in a controlled manner which results in decreasing the bat performance to meet a changed bat performance standard and can be applied at low cost to both used field returned bats and bats being newly manufactured. Further, new tubular polymer composite bats can be designed with increased radial stiffness generally located in the sweetspot area or with radial stiffness graduated from highest, generally in the sweetspot area, to lowest at the barrel ends. All bats of the present invention result in calculated bat performance to meet applicable regulatory standards while also increasing the sweetspot size.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to baseball bats and more particularly to tubular baseball bats, constructed of a variety of materials, and more particularly to baseball bats designed to improve player performance as defined by greater hitting distance, and more particularly to baseball bats whose performance as defined by hitting distance is controlled by performance standards established by regulatory bodies. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART [0002] Baseball and softball bats, hereinafter referred to simply as “baseball bats” or “bats”, are today typically made solely from aluminum alloys, or aluminum alloys in combination with composite materials (hybrid bats), or most recently solely from composite materials (with the exception of solid wooden bats for the Major Leagues). Such bats are tubular (hollow inside) in construction in order to meet the weight requirements of the end user, and have a cylindrical handle portion for gripping, a cylindri...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017] The preferred short light weight polymer composite circumferential stiffener employed adds only minimal weight to a given bat thus allowing the stiffened bat to be continued to be used within the required weight requirements of baseball. The stiffener of the present invention can be added to used bats returned from players for modification to meet a changed regulation and also can be added to bats manufactured before a regulation change occurs, allowing such previously manufactured bats to meet a changed standard. Though somewhat heavier, a short metallic stiffener could also be employed. An alternative solution of the present invention to vary stiffness, and thus bat performance, along the barrel portion is to vary thickness along the barrel portion.

[0018] A second object of the present invention is to provide tubular bats with bat performance decreased to meet a given changed regulation in a precisely controlled manner; that is, if the standard requires a standard of x maximum and a given bat design has a performance greater than x, then following the precisely located stiffening, the bat performance will meet the x requirement and not be significantly less than x. In the present invention, this is accomplished by engineering calculations considering selection of the composite fiber type, the fiber size, the angles of the fibers, and the thickness of the polymer composite stiffener to be employed to precisely lower the bat performance. Proper engineering design of these variables of a polymer composite results in a polymer composite stiffener which when added to a tubular bat results in that bat precisely meeting the desired new bat performance.

[0019] A third object of the present invention is to provide existing tubular bats with a specific predetermined bat maximum bat performance with a larger sweetspot than tubular bats of the prior art. In the present invention this is accomplished by precisely stiffening only the peak performance area (generally the sweetspot area) of the existing bat to the performance level of the barrel portion areas immediately adjacent on both sides of the sweetspot of the unstiffened bat. The resultant effect is to approximately double the sweetspot size (that is, the area of the barrel portion which provides maximum bat performance).

[0020] A fourth object of the present invention is to provide newly designed tubular all polymer composite baseball bats with a predetermined bat performance with larger sweetspot areas than bats of the prior art. In the present invention this is accomplished by graduating the radial stiffness of the barrel portion along the entire barrel length. Specifically, the peak performance area (generally the sweetspot area) is designed to have the highest radial stiffness while the area of the barrel portion nearest the taper and barrel ends have the lowest radial stiffness and with the barrel portion between the sweetspot and barrel ends being graduated. The resultant effect is a sweetspot area that runs substantially full length of the barrel portion. In the present invention this is accomplished by engineered selection of the composite fiber type(s), fiber sizes(s), fiber angles(s), and the total composite multi-layered laminate or structure having graduated radial stiffness along the barrel portion length.

Problems solved by technology

Such new or changed or varying regulations are extremely problematic, costly, and disruptive for both manufacturers and players.

The one solution to the problem of lowering performance of the prior art bats in order to meet new or changed performance standards is to increase thickness full length of one or more of the barrel members, and / or the single wall bat frame, which increases radial stiffness thus reducing performance.

This results in costly inventory write-offs for the manufacturer while individual players must replace an otherwise good bat with a new bat which meets the current standards.

Further, the manufacturer incurs significant redesign and retooling costs and marketing timing issues (ie. for at least a period of time, have no bat which meets the new standard).

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