Ice skate blade with pre-applied variable curvature, variable stiffness, and modular boot mounting system

Abstract

A skate blade has a tube (1) featuring a complex radiused slot (5) in which the runner (3) is placed, thereby imparting the complex radius to the runner (3). A uniform quick mounting structure is also provided, whereby a mounting cup (8) attached to the tube (1) is secured to a skate boot by interaction between a retention jib (11) and a mounting plate (10) that is located on the boot. This provides a uniform and repeatable attachment. Other features include harmonic dampening, adhesive retention features, boot alignment features.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This Application claims the benefit of priority to prior filed U.S. Application No. 62 / 880,230, filed 30 Jul. 2019, and incorporates the same by reference herein in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The invention discussed herein relates to the general field of ice-skating accessories and describes a skate blade with pre-applied variable curvature, variable stiffness, and modular boot mounting system.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Speed skating blades are generally manufactured with an aluminum or steel longitudinal tubular structure, into which a steel blade is mounted on one side of the tube, and aluminum mounting “cups” or “arms” are attached to the opposite side of the tube to allow for the mounting and adjustment of a boot. There are two general types of speed skating blades, one being designated for short track skating on a 111 m skating track, and the other for long track skating on a 400 m skating track. The short track blades ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a new blade design that avoids the need for manual bending forces, which can weaken or damage the blade assembly. This design also ensures that the blade can be easily sharpened and maintained without the need for deburring, reducing the chance of surface corrosion and friction. The alignment features allow for quick identification and correction of any changes that occur during use or installation. The design changes result in a more durable and consistent blade assembly, with improved performance and reduced labor costs.

Problems solved by technology

There was little predictability in this process when performed with mallets and vices, and as a result, skaters were often hesitant to skate on blades bent in this manner.

Unfortunately, the mechanical bending process creates work hardened areas and fatigued areas along the length of the tube resulting in inconsistent stiffness along the length of the blade assembly.

The more manual bending is performed, the more inconsistent the tube becomes due to cold work hardening of the aluminum and the development of Persistent Slip Bands, resulting in cumulative damage fatigue and the inability to retain the desired shape during use of the blade.

This results in significant added expense to the skater, as blades that have significant runner metal left must be discarded because the blade will no longer hold the desired bend.

Mechanical bending operations not only result in metal fatigue, but they also cause issues with the adhesive used to bond the steel runner to the blade tube because the adhesive increases the previously described problems with the metallurgical stress fatigue properties of the blade.

This extensive overbending significantly increases the fatigue impact on the tube.

Additionally, the overbending also results in fatigue sheer stress on the glue bond because of the surface sheer created by the changing radii of the four vertical surfaces when the bending operation is performed.

This stress on the glue bond surfaces can, and does, result in catastrophic blade delamination which can result failure of the assembly and potentially in injury to the athlete.

This pinning process results in further problems because it locks the tube and runner in a static location.

This results in waves in the locations where the pins are installed, and the pin makes it impossible for the tube and runner to move at all, so bending becomes even more difficult resulting in more bending operations being required, resulting in more fatigue and reduces life of the blade assembly.

The waves created by the mechanical pins result in performance degradation of the assembly.

An additional problem that the mechanical bending process commonly introduces, irrespective of the tool used, is the application of bending force being applied at more or less than the required perpendicular position to the runner surface.

The result of this is a torsional loading of blade tube that results in an angled deformation of the runner surface.

This deformation results in sub-standard performance characteristics whose root cause is difficult to identify by skate technicians with the measuring tools currently in use in this industry.

When this occurs, the skater will feel unstable when turning and may experience crashes whose root cause cannot be easily identified.

These crashes can result in serious injury.

When this torsional deformation occurs, it is difficult if not impossible to correct, and it results in significant added expense to the athlete because the entire blade assembly must be replaced.

However, Mr. Bont's proposed solution inherently creates a blade with inconsistent performance because the flange dimensions where the curve is applied vary over the length of the blade.

The fact that the flange dimension varies dramatically over the length of the blade results in inconsistent stiffness over the length of the blade and the stiffness characteristics are not aligned with the areas of the blade where more stiffness, or less stiffness, is desirable.

This results in the bending process being more difficult due to the inability to determine the appropriate amount of force to impart on the structure to result in the correct final bend characteristics.

Further, this results in degraded performance of the assembly because the stiffness characteristics of the blade are not aligned where the athlete needs them to be for best performance.

The implementation of this design during the manufacturing process results in a variable stack effect of mechanical problems which makes the preparation of skate blades more of an art than a science in that every blade is inherently different and constantly changing during the preparation process.

While this idea did improve the state of the art, the inherent requirement that the subsequent mechanical bending process is still necessary in significant amount still carries with it all the problems described above.

An additional problem with the process introduced by Mr. Bont's proposed solution is that the section of the tube where the curved slot is located is designed for a straight slot.

The act of machining a radiused slot in the existing flange design results in inconsistent flange thickness along the length of the flange.

The inconsistent nature of the flange thickness results in improperly located variably increased / decreased stiffness of the assembly along the length of the runner.

The impact of this inconsistency is that it is nearly impossible to achieve anything but a compromised setup of the blade because there is no way to control whether there is the correct amount of stiffness in the correct locations along the flange.

This harmonic oscillation can impact the behavior of the blade and its ability to correctly follow the desired track, as well as providing the skater with undesirable feedback on what the blade is doing as the skater shifts her weight forward or backwards on the runner's radius to effect a course change.

When using a regular drill to attempt to drill into concrete, even very heavy pressure will barely make an impact on the concrete.

An additional problem with all skate blade prior art is the boot mounting system design.

This system provided very little consistency because of the loose mounting tolerances and the lack of any locating features.

The result of this lack of locating features and loose tolerances was that reproducing the preferred setup for each athlete was entirely trial and error and very long blade replacement times due to the multi-part fastening system.

It has been banned from short track speed skating due to safety concerns.

The current design for all manufacturers has consistently relied on nuts and bolts to attach the boots to the clap arm bridge and the installation and adjustment of these fasteners is difficult and time consuming.

Further, while the current generation of clap arm bridges do have forward / aft alignment marks which allow more accurate positioning of the blade in that orientation, there is no reproducible methodology for correctly positioning the blade angle in relation to the boot, which is a key aspect of the athlete's setup for the blade.

Current cup and bridge designs do not account for improperly manufactured skate boots when mounting surfaces are not installed in a parallel orientation relative to the mating surfaces of the cup / bridge of the blade assembly.

The result of this deficiency is that the act of tightening the boot mount against the cup introduces a loading effect that can result in damage to, and premature failure of, the boot.

This loading effect may also deform the blade assembly, which can make diagnosis of performance issues with the skate very difficult.

Further, the current design of the boot mounting blocks, which are built into the boot assembly, are designed in a way that makes it problematic to properly secure the boot mount into the boot assembly.

The current design makes it difficult for the worker completing the assembly to properly secure the mounting block resulting in a mounting system that is prone to failure under high torsional load.

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