Weight plates stacking system for fitness training equipment
Weight stack selection system for fitness equipment. Central stem having offset lateral movement is eliminated by present invention. The select pin is easier for insertion to the selected desired weight due to the lack of accumulated thickness the plagued the industry. And an intuitive Auto-Off selection box is also added to make the equipment more user-friendly, allowing user to simply pushed in the desired weight for training.
The present invention relates generally to an improved design and construction of fitness training equipment wherein users can select the desired amount of weight from a stack of weight plates.
Selectable amount of weight is commonly found on many fitness training equipment. A popular method is by using a central stem going down the center holes of a stack of weight plates, wherein an insertion pin can be inserted through a hole on the side of each weight plate and through the central stem, forming the point of pick-up when users are engaging in exercising, as shown in
This type of popular weight selection system, as depicted in
a. The hole on the side of each weight plate has to match (be aligned) with the correspondent hole on the stem. Due to the accumulated thickness error of the weight plates, however, the top one or two holes on the weight plates oftentimes do not match up with the top one or two holes on the central stem. This poses a problem for users when insertion of the insertion pin is taking place at the top portion of the weight stack, unless the weight plates are machined to a very tight tolerance, which requires costlier production to achieve such precision.
b. When the central stem is lifted up, the bottom of the central stem will oftentimes have a lateral offset from the top of the remaining unselected weight stack, interrupting the smooth and successful of restoration of the central stem (insertion back down) into the weight stack, as the bottom tip of the stem will sometimes get suck on the surface of a weight stack, instead of going through the center hole of the weight plates, as shown in
c. Insertion pin gets lost easily. Even though insertion pins are tied to a cable, as many gyms customarily do it this way, some cables are cut to take away the insertion pins.
Present invention uses a link-connector systems, with additional features, to solve the above-stated problems.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONPresent invention provides a link-connector mechanism, instead of a central stem, to work as the weight selection system and completely avoid the issue of accumulated thickness errors that plagued the industry.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate the preferred embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
A brief description of the drawings is as follows:
In
The central stem is oftentimes made offset, as to cause trouble when the cable tension is released, the bottom tip of the central stem cannot successfully come down through the center holes of all the remaining weight plates.
Present invention uses link-connectors, each fitting to one weight plate having center portion machined out to contain one link-connector.
As shown in
Furthermore, the problem of accumulated thickness error causing difficulty for insertion pin to be smoothly inserted into the weight plates (usually toward the bottom) is no longer there, since present invention has one select pin corresponding to each link-connector and each weight plate. There is no issue of accumulated thickness, causing the vertical misalignment of side holes for the insertion pin.
The implementations are either a lever design, as in
In the drawings and embodiments containing an additional “select pin”, this is the pin that users will actually touch to pull or push, in order to accomplish the weight selection purpose. Whereas the link-pin is the physical object that is inserted into the corresponding link-connector. In some embodiments, the link pin may be made invisible, as shown in
With the added select pin, a fitness user can simply push in a select pin, causing the corresponding link pin to pop out (deselected). Only the plates starting from the point of pushed in select pin are selected, as shown
Note that a user can actually push in multiple select pins. However, only the first (counting from top to bottom) pushed-in select pin is operative, because any weight plates below the point of pushed-in selected pin are deselected.
The push-in design can also be done by a on-off toggle switch, which mechanism is commonly found on pens and other electronic devices such as the on-off power switch of a stereo system.
As shown in
As in the case of lever design, a user can actually push in multiple select pins. However, only the first (counting from top to bottom) pushed-in select pin is operative, because any weight plates below the point of pushed-in selected pin are deselected.
To create an auto-off feature, so that when ONE select pin is selected (i.e., pushed in), all other select pins are automatically deselected, a select box is added to the front of the weight stack, as shown in
A push spring is used in every select pin, corresponding to each weight plate, as shown in
A select box, having same numbers of short slots on the front and long slots in the back (near the stack of weight plates) are shown in
A long plate, containing the same number of long slots are also shown in
A plurality of wedges are shown in
A pull spring is affixed inside said select box, to provide the restoration force to pull up the long plate when the long plate is wedged downward by any of the wedges, as shown in
In
Claims
1. Weight stack selection system for fitness equipment, comprising:
- a. A plurality of link-connectors that can be connected vertically;
- b. A plurality of weight plates where each weight plate further having a vertical center hole for engageably receiving one link-connector; and,
- c. A select pin that can be slidably fitted through the side of one weight plate to one link-connector, whereby a set number of weight plates above the point of said select pin is selected when said select pin is inserted through said weight plate and link-connector.
2. Weight stack selection system for fitness equipment, comprising:
- a. A plurality of link-connectors that can be connected vertically;
- b. A plurality of weight plates where each weight plate further having a vertical center hole for engageably receiving one link-connector;
- c. A plurality of link pins where each pin can be slidably fitted through the side of one weight plate to one link-connector to form a stack of selected plates above the point of said link pin; and,
- d. Means for user selection of one link pin in said selection system when multiple weight plates are vertically stacked together along with respective link-connectors fitted into the weight plates.
3. The selection system of claim 2, wherein the means for user selection of one link pin to achieve selection of desired weight is a lever design wherein a select pin parallel to the link pin is used and connected to said link pin by a lever pivoting at mid point of said lever, to create reverse travel of the link pin relative to the movement of said select pin.
4. The selection system of claim 2, wherein the means for user selection of one link pin to achieve selection of desired weight is by an on-off toggle control, wherein a select pin parallel to the link pin is used and connected to said link pin by a centrally located gear wheel that creates a reverse travel of the link pin relative to the movement of said select pin, and further having a on-off toggle control switch on the select pin.
5. The selection system of claim 3, wherein the means for user selection of one link pin to achieve selection of desired weight further having an auto-off selection box comprising:
- i. a case with a plurality of short slots and long slots on the front and back sides, respectively, of said case;
- ii. a long plate having the same number of long slots matching the long slots on said case;
- iii. a plurality of wedges for insertion in and through said long and short slots;
- iv. a pull spring connecting said case with said long plate; and,
- v. a plurality of push spring at tip of each wedge producing pushing out force when the long slots are open.
6. The selection system of claim 4, wherein the means for user selection of one link pin to achieve selection of desired weight further having an auto-off selection box comprising:
- i. a case with a plurality of short slots and long slots on the front and back sides, respectively, of said case;
- ii. a long plate having the same number of long slots matching the long slots on said case;
- iii. a plurality of wedges for insertion in and through said long and short slots;
- iv. a pull spring connecting said case with said long plate; and,
- v. a plurality of push spring at tip of each wedge producing pushing out force when the long slots are open.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 30, 2005
Publication Date: Jan 4, 2007
Inventor: Guofang Cao (Diamond Bar, CA)
Application Number: 11/160,621
International Classification: A63B 21/06 (20060101);