Skate Blade Clamping Structure for Precise Sharpening Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing skate blade manufacturing methods do not optimize for weight reduction and stiffness while ensuring precise interaction with skate sharpening systems, leading to inefficiencies in clamping and alignment.
Innovation Solution
The skate blade is constructed with multiple materials, featuring a lightweight top portion and a hard bottom portion, with specific clamping and locating features that enhance interaction with skate sharpening systems, including cutouts and openings for precise alignment and reinforcement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If skate blade is constructed with multiple materials to reduce weight, then weight reduction is achieved, but structural integrity and stiffness may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The skate blade is constructed using composite materials including a cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy for the bottom portion providing hardness and ice contact performance, while the top portion uses lighter materials. This composite construction achieves weight reduction while maintaining structural integrity through material optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the skate blade are assigned different material properties based on functional requirements. The bottom portion contacting ice uses harder, denser materials for durability and ice interaction, while the top portion uses lighter materials for weight reduction, creating local quality variations that resolve the contradiction between weight and strength.
2Weight of moving object
If skate blade uses multiple materials for weight reduction, then weight savings are achieved, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The skate blade is divided into distinct segments or portions (top portion and bottom portion) that can be manufactured separately using different materials and processes, then assembled together. This segmentation enables weight reduction through material optimization while managing manufacturing complexity through modular construction.
3Weight of moving object
If skate blade design is optimized for weight reduction, then performance advantages are achieved, but clamping and alignment with sharpening systems becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The skate blade incorporates self-contained clamping features and alignment elements (such as locating pins, cutouts, and engagement surfaces) that enable it to interface automatically with the sharpening system. These features allow the lightweight blade to maintain proper clamping and alignment without requiring additional external components or complex setup procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides for a skate blade including a peripheral rim including a top surface and a bottom surface, the top surface configured to interface with a skate and the bottom surface configured to be in contact with a skating surface. The peripheral rim can include a first material, the peripheral rim defining one or more openings between the top surface and the bottom surface. The skate blade can further include one or more support ribs extending across the one or more openings of the peripheral rim.