Tennis Racket Tip Mesh Area Ratio for Resilience

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional tennis rackets have inferior resilience performance at the tip portion, which limits their ability to strongly hit balls, especially in modern swing techniques where the tip portion moves faster than the hand grip portion.

Innovation Solution

The tennis racket design features a gradually increasing mesh area from the center to the tip, with a ratio of tip mesh to center mesh area (St/Sc) of at least 1.6, ensuring high resilience performance without significantly reducing the center mesh area, and includes 16-18 longitudinal and 18-20 transverse strings, forming a rectangular center mesh.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the mesh area at the tip portion is increased to improve resilience performance, then the resilience at the tip side is improved, but the center mesh area decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveresilience performance at tip portionVSAvoidcenter mesh area
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSArea of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by making each mesh have a different area according to its position on the racket face. The mesh area increases from the center toward the tip, with the tip mesh area being at least 1.6 times the center mesh area. This localized variation in mesh area optimizes resilience performance at the tip portion while maintaining appropriate mesh sizes at the center for control and precision.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Measurement precision

If the string tension is increased to improve ball control, then the control precision is improved, but the resilience performance deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveball control precisionVSAvoidresilience performance
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements local quality by varying mesh areas across different regions of the racket face. The larger mesh area at the tip portion (at least 1.6 times the center mesh area) provides enhanced resilience and power for modern swing techniques, while the smaller center mesh area maintains precise ball control. This spatial variation in mesh geometry allows the racket to simultaneously offer both control and power in different playing zones.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentEP3560559B1Tennis racket with different mesh size
Publication Date: 2021.12.29 SUMITOMO RUBBER INDUSTRIES LTD
  • EP3560559B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3560559B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3560559B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

In a tennis racket 2, longitudinal strings 20 extending in a longitudinal direction and transverse strings 22 extending in a transverse direction intersect each other to form a plurality of meshes 26. At a center, in the transverse direction, of a head 12, a ratio of an area St of a tip mesh 26t located closest to a tip in the longitudinal direction relative to an area Sc of a center mesh 26 located at a center in the longitudinal direction is not less than 1.6. The center mesh 26c is formed in a rectangular shape having short sides in the longitudinal direction and long sides in the transverse direction. Preferably, from the center mesh to the tip mesh, an area of each mesh is set so as to be not larger than an area of a mesh adjacent thereto at a tip side.