Floating Adjustment Pad for Baseball Glove Wrist Strap
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Solution Overview
Problem
Closed-back baseball and softball gloves face challenges in implementing a conventional wrist strap without causing uncomfortable bunching, making it difficult to achieve a snug fit and affecting player performance.
Innovation Solution
A closed-back athletic glove design featuring a novel wrist strap and adjustment pad that allows for tightening without bunching the exterior shell, where the wrist strap runs through an adjustment pad that is not directly attached to the glove shell, allowing independent movement and distributing the tightening force effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional wrist strap is implemented in a closed-back glove design, then the glove can provide a secure closure, but it causes uncomfortable bunching of the leather and requires significant force to adjust
Solution Approach 1:
A floating adjustment pad is introduced as an intermediary element between the wrist strap and the glove shell. The pad is not directly attached to the shell, allowing it to float and distribute the tightening force from the wrist strap across a broader area, preventing leather bunching while maintaining secure closure
Solution Approach 2:
The wrist strap system is segmented into distinct functional components: the strap itself, the floating adjustment pad, and the attachment points. This segmentation allows the pad to independently move and distribute force, separating the functions of tightening and securing
2Ease of operation
If the wrist strap is tightened to achieve a snug fit, then the glove fit is improved, but significant force is required making quick adjustment difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The floating adjustment pad acts as a force-distributing intermediary that reduces the peak force concentration. By spreading the tightening force across a larger area of the hand, less total force is needed from the user to achieve a snug fit
Solution Approach 2:
The adjustment pad changes the force distribution parameters by increasing the contact area between the wrist strap and the hand. This parameter change reduces the force density required for adjustment, enabling quicker and easier fit customization
3Ease of operation
If the wrist strap exerts force to tighten the glove, then the fit becomes snug, but the force causes uncomfortable bunching of the glove shell
Solution Approach 1:
The floating adjustment pad serves as a mediator that intercepts the tightening force from the wrist strap and redistributes it across a broader area of the hand. This prevents the concentration of force that would otherwise cause the glove shell to bunch and become uncomfortable
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the spatial distribution parameters of the applied force by introducing a larger contact area through the adjustment pad. This parameter modification eliminates the localized high-force zones that cause bunching while maintaining the overall snug fit
Data Source
AI summary
A closed-back athletic glove capable of receiving a human hand is provided. The glove comprises an exterior glove having a wrist back portion corresponding approximately to the area where the back of the user's hand meets the user's wrist. A wrist strap is connected to the interior surface of the exterior glove shell at a first attachment point. The wrist strap runs from the first attachment point along a portion of the interior surface of the wrist back portion to a second attachment point. An adjustment pad is connected to the wrist strap such that when the glove is worn by the user, the adjustment pad is between the wrist strap and the user's hand and such that when the wrist strap is tightened, the wrist strap exerts a force on the adjustment pad that tightens the adjustment pad against the user's hand.