Ski binding witih boot-center referencing

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for binding an article of footwear, or boot, on a gliding apparatus, such as a ski, the device including a front retaining element or binding, or toe-piece, and a rear retaining element or binding, or heel-piece. The device includes a structure to indicate a reference point determined by a predefined ratio between the distance between a front frame of reference, or reference plane, associated with the toe-piece and the reference plane, on the one hand, and the distance between the reference point and a rear frame of reference, or reference plane, associated with the heel-piece, on the other hand. The present invention also relates to a gliding apparatus that includes the footwear binding device.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application is based upon French patent application Ser. No. 12 / 00718, filed Mar. 9, 2012, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference thereto in its entirety, and the priority of which is claimed under 35 U.S.C. §119.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a device for binding articles of footwear on a gliding apparatus. In a particular example, the invention relates to a binding device for retaining a boot on a ski, such as an alpine ski boot on an alpine ski. The invention also embraces other examples of bindings for boots.[0004]2. Background Information[0005]To achieve optimal gliding performance, whether for skis or other gliding apparatus, positioning the athlete's boot or other article of footwear in relation to the gliding apparatus is important. This positioning is directly defined by the footwear binding device. In alpine skiing, it is common to refer to the boot center...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention is a ski binding that offers easy and accurate adjustment of the position of the boot in relation to the ski and the gliding apparatus. The binding allows the user to adjust the boot position easily without the need for a boot. The binding offers multiple positions for the boot, making it easy to customize the position. The technical effects of the invention are improved efficiency and comfort for skiers.

Problems solved by technology

Nevertheless, the offset should be measured, because an excessive offset can have a negative effect.

Although the first group of adjustment devices mentioned above clearly enables an adjustment of the binding boot-center in relation to the ski boot-center, such an adjustment is complicated, time consuming, and inaccurate, because it requires iteration of the adjustment of the positions of the toe-piece and of the heel-piece.

In addition, this adjustment requires using a boot of the targeted size, which further complicates the work of the assembly technician.

Indeed, the right boot size useful for this configuration operation is not necessarily available to the assembly technician when adjusting the binding.

However, due to its operating principle, this second group of adjustment devices suffers from the disadvantage of not enabling the binding boot-center to be adjusted in relation to the ski boot-center.

This type of binding is therefore limited to the relative position between the binding boot-center and the ski boot-center that is initially selected, when the binding is being mounted on the ski (with the jig template).

Therefore, if one wishes to modify this relative position, it is necessary to dismount the binding before remounting it in a different position, which is a tedious, time-consuming, and expensive operation.

In addition, this adjustment requires using a boot of the right size or jig templates, which further complicates the work of the assembly technician, as described above.

However, this type of adjustment requires using a boot, which further complicates the work of the assembly technician, as described above.

Therefore, and especially after adjusting the size of the binding, the prior art solutions currently known in the field of ski bindings do not make it possible to adjust the binding boot-center in relation to the ski boot-center in a simple, fast, and accurate fashion.

Images