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

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 672,060, filed on Sep. 29, 2003 (pending), the contents of which is herein incorporated by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART[0002]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[0003]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 ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides tubular baseball bats with variable stiffness along their barrel portions. This is achieved by adding a circumferential stiffener in the region of the sweetspot, which is typically an area approximately 2\" to 4\" in width as compared to barrel portion lengths of 4\" to 16\". The stiffener can be added to used bats returned from players for modification to meet a changed regulation or to previously manufactured bats to allow them to meet a changed standard. The stiffener can also be added to bats to decrease their performance to meet a given standard. The invention also provides methods for precisely controlling the stiffness of the bat to meet a given standard. Additionally, the invention provides new tubular bats with a larger sweetspot, which is the area of the barrel portion that provides maximum bat performance, by designing the peak performance area 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."

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 (i.e. for at least a period of time, have no bat which meets the new standard).

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