Protective sock

Abstract

A protective sock including a sleeve body 10 including an attachment region 11; a cushion pad 24 disposed on the attachment region; a flexible sheet 30 overlaying and extending beyond the cushion pad;

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sock, especially to a protective sock. Description of the Prior Art Athletes who practice or play impact sports, such as soccer, rugby, American football, football, skateboarding, bicycle Motocross / bike motocross (BMX) and hockey etc. are prone to injuries on body portions like ankles, and, therefore, require protective garments for protection. The most likely cause of an injury occurring on ankles during a football game or other impact sports is often inevitable, so the use of protective garments by athletes has become popular in the world. There is a need for a protective sock including cushion pads in impact sports to receive the impact energy over and absorb and distribute the impact energy equally. There are only few kinds of socks with cushion pads stitched onto knitted sleeves, and it takes more time to manufacture, is easier to break, leaves a cheap looking, and is uncomfortable finish to the product. Also a conventional pad, such as an EVA pad, is firm and not very flexible leaving an uncomfortable. In addition, the wearer’s ankle will directly contact the knitted material which is of relatively high roughness, so it is uncomfortable to wear. The present invention has, therefore, arisen to obviate or at least mitigate the above-mentioned disadvantages. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The main object of the present invention is to provide a protective sock which is easy and quick to manufacture and has a good structural integrity, good consistency and good appearance. And most importantly a soft, flexible, comfortable protective sock with high protective performance aspects is provided. To achieve the above and other objects, a protective sock is provided, wherein the protective sock includes: a sleeve body including an attachment region; a cushion pad disposed on the attachment region; a flexible sheet overlaying and extending beyond the cushion pad; and an intermediate layer adhering the flexible sheet to the sleeve body by heat bonding so that the cushion pad is concealed between the sleeve body and the flexible sheet. The present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, which show, for purposes of illustration only, the preferred embodiment(s) in accordance with the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a stereogram of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a breakdown drawing of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 3 is a partial enlarged cross-sectional view of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 4 is a side view of an operation member according to an exemplary embodiment of the present in vention; Fig. 5 is another side view of an operation member according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 6 is a front view of a cushion pad of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 7 is a stereogram of the cushion pad deformed according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Please refer to Figs. 1 to 7 for an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A protective sock 1 of the present invention includes a sleeve body 10, a cushion pad 20, a flexible sheet 30 and an intermediate layer 40. The sleeve body 10 includes an attachment region 11. The attachment region 11 is preferably a joint region such as an ankle region; however, the attachment region 11 may be a shin region, a heel region, a heel region or an instep region. The cushion pad 20 is disposed on the attachment region 11. Preferably, two cushion pads 20 are attached to opposing sides of the sleeve body 10. The flexible sheet 30 overlays and extends beyond the cushion pad 20 so that it can sufficiently and reliably secure and protect the cushion pad 20. The flexible sheet 30 can also allow consistent location of the cushion pad 20 in production. The intermediate layer 40 adheres to the flexible and the sleeve body 10 by heat bonding (such as heat stamping, heat pressing, ultrasonic welding or the like, without any stitching) so that the cushion pad 20 is concealed between the sleeve body 10 and the flexible sheet 30. As such, it is easy and quick to manufacture, and to precisely control the location of the edge of the cushion pad 20 during the manufacturing process to provide a good structural integrity, good consistency and good looking to the product. To achieve this, for example, a precise aluminum CNC cut mold that is very precise fit to the shape of the cushion pad and allows it to control the edge position and thickness of the flexible sheet 30 during pressing. The cushion pad 20 is preferably in a uniform rhombus shape or a substantially tear-drop shape which has straighter edges 21 and uniformed curved corners 22. The straighter edges 21 and uniformed curved comers 22 help the manufacturer with positioning of the cushion pad 20, and the uniform rhombus shape or a substantially tear-drop shape is easier to follow for the flexible sheet 30 guaranteeing a consistent fixing edge around the cushion pad 20. The cushion pad 20 may be made of a foam material, rubber material, resin material, gel material, silicone material or plastic material, wherein these materials are comfortable for wearing and provide good protection against impact. The materials for making the cushion pad 20 such as (but not limited to) polyurethane (including Non-Newtonian, shear thickening material), polystyrene, thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), expanded polyethylene (EPE), ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), silicone rubber such as latex rubber, acrylic resin, polyurethane resin, etc. Preferably, the cushion pad 20 is disposed on an inner side of the sleeve body 10, the cushion pad 20 includes a plurality of cut-out portions 23 arranged on a perimeter of the cushion pad 20, and the plurality of cut-out portions 23 correspond to one another diametrically. The cushion pad 20 is located on the inner surface of the sleeve body 10, which can be more consistent with the wearing portions (especially the joints or portions having uneven surfaces) with respect to a cushion pad located on the outer surface of the sleeve body 10, and which provides good protection. The cut-out portions 23 provide clearance for the flexed deformation, extrusion deformation or / and material flow of the cushion pad 20 so that it can prevent the cushion pad 20 from wrinkling when the cushion pad 20 is flexed, deformed, pressed or impacted while wearing, such that it can be more consistent with the wearing portions and more protective. In a preferable case, the lower one of the cut-out portions 23 has a smallest size than any other of the cut-out portions 23 because the lower one of the cut-out portions 23 corresponds to a wearing portion (such as the ankle portion) forcing the cushion pad 20 minorly to flex or deform relatively. In this embodiment, the plurality of cut-out portions 23 are triangular and have an angle equal to or less than 45 degrees, such as 15 degrees to 30 degrees. In most instances, this angle range allows sufficient deformation margin, and in a better instance is such that two sides of the cut-out portion 23 contact each other when the cushion pad 20 is flexed, deformed, pressed or impacted (as shown in Fig. 7). The flexible sheet 30 is made of a flannelette material, fabric textile or the like so that it is comfortable to wear. In this embodiment, the intermediate layer 40 is a hot melt adhesive film (thermoplastic rubber (TPR) type or rubber type) and coated on the flexible sheet 30 and completely covering the cushion pad 20, and the cushion pad 20 is made of a foam material. The cushion pad 20 includes a flattened surface 24 (may be formed by heating a side surface of the cushion pad 20 to narrow or close some open cells by heat processing, or being coated with a film which is adhesive or non-adhesive) facing the flexible sheet 30, and another side surface 25 of the cushion pad 20 made of the foam material has a relatively large amount of open cells so that it has a relatively large surface roughness than the surface roughness of the flattened surface 24. As such, the flattened surface 24 of the cushion pad 20 and the intermediate layer 40 (or the flexible sheet 30) are relatively hard to slip relative to each other than the rough surface (the another side surface 25) of the cushion pad 20 and the sleeve body 10 so that it is helpful for precise location and alignment of the cushion pad 20 together with the flexible sheet 30 during the manufacturing process (such as in heat stamping, heat pressing, ultrasonic welding or the like). It is to be noted that the flattened surface 24 of the cushion pad 20 may be formed by being coated with an additional adhesive material (preferably, the cushion pad 20 is slightly adhered to the intermediate layer 40 by a press sensitive adhesive glue or an adhesive film before the intermediate layer 40 is fixedly attached to the sleeve body 10) so that the cushion pad 20 can be slightly adhered to the intermediate layer 40, which is considerably advantageous for precise location and alignment of the cushion pad 20 together with the flexible sheet 30. Preferably, the protective sock 1 is provided with a plurality of grip pads 12 on the sole to aid grip and help reduce blisters from occurring. The grip pads 12 may be made of silicone, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), rubber, resin or the like. Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A protective sock including:a sleeve body including an attachment region;a cushion pad disposed on the attachment region;a flexible sheet overlaying and extending beyond the cushion pad; andan intermediate layer adhering the flexible sheet to the sleeve body by heat bonding so that the cushion pad is concealed between the sleeve body and the flexible sheet.

2. The protective sock of claim 1, wherein the cushion pad is made of a foam material, rubber material, resin material, gel material, silicone material or plastic material.

3. The protective sock of claim 2, wherein the cushion pad is made of a foam material and includes a flattened surface facing the flexible sheet.

4. The protective sock of claim 1, wherein the cushion pad includes a plurality of cut-out portions arranged on a perimeter of the cushion pad.

5. The protective sock of claim 4, wherein the plurality of cut-out portions correspond to one another diametrically.

6. The protective sock of claim 4, wherein the plurality of cut-out portions are triangular and have an angle equal to or less than 45 degrees.

7. The protective sock of claim 1, wherein the cushion pad is disposed on an inner side of the sleeve body.

8. The protective sock of claim 1, wherein the intermediate layer is a hot melt adhesive film.

9. The protective sock of claim 1, wherein the cushion pad is slightly adhered to the intermediate layer.

10. The protective sock of claim 1, wherein the cushion pad is slightly adhered to the intermediate layer by a press sensitive adhesive.

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