Ball With Soft Skin And Step Parts For Grip
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing balls are difficult to grab due to their smooth surface, which makes them hard to catch and throw effectively in ball games.
Innovation Solution
A ball covered with a skin body made of soft resin or rubber, featuring a circumferential wall part, step parts, beveled parts, and a cavity part, which provides a recessed surface for easy gripping and increased bonding strength with the ball main body.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a smooth surface is used on the ball, then the manufacturing process is simple, but the ball is difficult to grab
Solution Approach 1:
The skin body is designed with locally differentiated surfaces: a smooth skin part for basic coverage and a circumferential wall part with step parts that protrude to create gripping features. This local quality differentiation provides easy grabbing at critical locations while keeping other areas simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The skin body is divided into distinct functional segments: the skin part that covers the ball main body and the circumferential wall part that protrudes to form step parts. This segmentation allows each part to perform its specific function independently, with the circumferential wall part providing gripping features without complicating the entire surface.
2Stability of the object's composition
If folding parts are bonded with support members to prevent spreading, then the structural stability is improved, but the structure becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The skin part and circumferential wall part are integrated into a single skin body that is affixed to the ball main body as one unit. This merging eliminates the need for separate support members to prevent folding part spreading, as the integrated structure inherently maintains stability while reducing overall complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of adding support members to prevent folding parts from spreading (conventional approach), the invention inverts the approach by designing the skin body itself to naturally maintain its folded configuration through its integrated structure, eliminating the need for additional support elements.
3Ease of operation
If the skin body is made of soft material, then the ease of grabbing is improved, but the bonding strength with the ball main body may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The skin body uses soft material properties locally at the skin part and circumferential wall part to enable easy grabbing and finger engagement with step parts, while the integrated structure and affixation method ensure adequate bonding strength to the ball main body without requiring hard materials throughout.
Solution Approach 2:
The skin body is made of soft material (resin or rubber) that combines flexibility for easy grabbing with sufficient adhesive properties for bonding to the ball main body. This composite approach allows the material to exhibit both softness for comfort and strength for structural integrity.
Data Source
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AI summary
[Abstract] [Problem] To make a ball easy to be grabbed. [Solution] In a skin body 3 which covers a ball main body 2, a skin part 2 and a circumferential wall part 3 protruding from a peripheral edge part of the skin part 2 to a back side are integrally formed by molding of injecting a soft material made of resin or rubber into a mold. Alternatively, a structure is such that a step part or flat surface part where a finger is hung is provided on a front surface of the ball main body 2 or a front surface of the skin body 3 which covers the ball main body 2. Alternatively, a front surface of one of adjacent skin bodies 3 and a front surface of the other thereof configure a step part in a radial direction of a ball 1. With this, even in a ball game where the ball 1 is grabbed with hand such as a handball game, when a person grabs the ball 1, the skin part 4 of the skin body 2 is easily recessed, a finger is hung on the step part, or the flat surface part is touched with a finger to make the person feel that the ball 1 has a small outer diameter. With this, the ball 1 becomes easy to be grabbed, thereby making it easy to throw or catch the ball 1.