SPORTS SAFETY SCREEN APPARATUS AND METHODS
A protective screen apparatus including a central protective screen, and a free-standing, hinged side wing. Hinged side wing may be configured and capable of being rapidly decoupled from a primary frame of the central protective screen. The hinged side wing may be readily moved from the right to the left side of the primary frame, thereby easily converting the protective screen apparatus to left-handed configuration or right-handed configuration. Some embodiments include spring biasing of the hinged side wing to absorb at least some ball impact when the hinged side wings pivots upon being struck with a ball. Methods of reconfiguring and protecting a batter with the protective screen apparatus, and an attachable/detachable ball basket are provided, as are other aspects.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/288,392 filed Jan. 28, 2016, and entitled “RECONFIGURABLE SAFETY SCREEN APPARATUS AND METHODS AND ATTACHABLE BALL BASKET” (Docket No. JVB-012), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein for all purposes.
FIELDThe present disclosure relates to protective screens for baseball and/or softball.
BACKGROUNDConventional protective screens have a bent rigid metal protective screen frame upon which a safety net (e.g., woven nylon net) is received. The frame may be hoop shaped and may be padded to protect the protective screen frame. However, existing protective screens have certain problems that make them difficult to accommodate both left and right throwers and that may present safety concerns.
Accordingly, improved protective screens are desired.
SUMMARYIn a first aspect, a protective screen apparatus is provided. The protective screen apparatus includes a protective screen including a protective screen frame and a primary net, and a hinged side wing including a side frame and a side net, the hinged side wing being hinged and pivotable on the primary frame in a free-standing orientation. In some embodiments, the hinged side wing is configured to be removed from a first side of the primary frame and readily reconfigured on a second side of the primary frame.
In another aspect, a method of reconfiguring a protective screen apparatus is provided. The method includes providing a central protective screen including a primary frame and a primary net, providing a hinged side wing that is hinged, free-standing, and pivotable on the primary frame, the hinged side wing including a side frame and a side net, and reconfiguring the hinged side wing by removing the hinged side wing from a first side of the primary frame and mounting the hinged side wing on a second side of the primary frame.
In another aspect, a protective screen apparatus is provided. The protective screen apparatus includes a central protective screen including a primary frame and a primary net, and a ball basket configured to receive and hold balls attached to the primary frame, the ball basket including a rigid frame and a net attached to the rigid frame.
Numerous other aspects are provided in accordance with these and other embodiments of the disclosure. Other features and aspects of embodiments of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description, the appended claims, and the accompanying drawings.
The drawings, described below, are for illustrative purposes only and are not necessarily drawn to scale. Wherever possible, like reference numerals are used throughout the specification to denote like elements. The drawings are not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.
In baseball or softball batting practice, it is desirable in some cases to live pitch to a batter. In many cases, a protective safety screen, such as a conventional L-screen (
Furthermore, during BP, sometimes the batter is placed in very close proximity to the person that is throwing BP. The ball may be hit at very high velocity back at the person throwing BP. This is especially the case when the batter is advanced.
Existing protective screen frames 104 of L-screens 102 are built to withstand impact by balls (e.g., baseballs and softballs) being hit at a high velocity so as to avoid denting, bending, breaking, the protective screen frame 104. Such frames 104 are generally made of strong material, such as aluminum or steel, or other suitably-rigid material. Because of this, when a ball is thrown to the batter, and the batted ball makes direct contact with the protective screen frame 104 (e.g., an upright frame post 104U or horizontal frame post 104H) it becomes a potentially dangerous situation, because the baseball or softball can ricochet directly back towards the batter. Of course, if struck, this may cause injury to the face, hands, or other body parts of the batter. Some users of a protective screen 102 will provide padding on some or all of the protective screen frame 104 to help extend the life of the protective screen frame 104. Although this may lessen the impact of the ricocheting slightly and may lessen the ball's ricochet speed, it may not be enough to prevent ricochet back at the batter and possible injury thereof.
To address one or more of the above problems, a first embodiment of the disclosure provides a protective screen apparatus hinged side wing being hinged and pivotable in a free-standing orientation on a primary frame of a central protective screen. The hinged and free-standing orientation allows the side wing to pivot and absorb ball impact.
In another aspect, a protective screen apparatus is provided as reconfigurable safety screen that is hinged and pivotable in a free-standing orientation, and is configured to be reconfigurable so as to be readily detachable from a central protective screen and moved to the other side of the central protective screen to accommodate either a left-handed throwing configuration or a right-handed throwing configuration. This makes for a very easy transition between a right-handed thrower and left-handed thrower, or vice versa.
Another embodiment of the disclosure described provides a protective screen apparatus with a hinged, free-standing, side wing that includes a spring to provide a restoration force (e.g., a spring bias) to return the hinged, free-standing, side wing to a pre-strike configuration after being struck by a ball. The spring may provide further protection to the batter against ball ricochet, i.e., because the hinged, free-standing, side wing includes flexibility to pivot on a hinge and absorb some of the ball's impact, yet is able to return to a prestrike position.
In another embodiment, a protective screen safety apparatus may be used in conjunction with the hinged, free-standing, side wing wherein the protective screen safety apparatus includes a safety net suspended in front of, and spaced a desired distance from, the primary frame in order to absorb the high speed impact of the ball, so to avoid or minimize the ball being able to ricochet off the primary frame or portions of the reconfigurable side wing.
Accordingly, improved protective screen apparatus and methods of protecting a batter from ricochet are provided. These and other embodiments of protective screen apparatus and methods of reconfiguring a safety screen are described below with reference to
Referring now in specific detail to
Protective screen apparatus 200 includes a central protective screen 202 and a hinged side wing 203. Central protective screen 202 may include a primary frame 204 (shown mostly dotted) and a primary net 206 laced to, or hung on (like a sock), the primary frame 204.
The hinged side wing 203 may include a side frame 208 and a side net 210. Hinged side wing 203 is hinged to, free-standing (.i.e., not in contact with the ground when in stabilizing supports 204L (legs) are all in contact with the ground—with the central protective screen 202 in an upright operating orientation), and pivotable relative to, the primary frame 204. Moreover, hinged side wing 203 may be configured to be removed from a first side 212L (for a left-handed thrower configuration) of the primary frame 204 and reconfigured on a second side 212R (for a right-handed thrower configuration) of the primary frame 204. The hinged side wing 203 generally defines a lower portion of a hinged L-shaped screen, which is formed collectively by the central protective screen 202 and the hinged side wing 203. Hinged side wing 203 may include suitable padding in order to further reduce ricochet.
Primary frame 204 and side frame 208 may be made from multiple types of rigid tubing, such as aluminum, steel, or the like. The diameters, shapes, or overall dimensions of the frame tubing may be sufficiently strong to prevent denting or damage when struck by a ball. Primary frame 204 and side frame 208 may be about 1 inch to about 2.5 inch diameter tube, and have a wall thickness of about 1/16 inch (about 1.58 mm) to about 3/16 inch (about 4.76 mm), depending on the type of material used, for example. Other frame shapes and types may be used, such as square or rectangular.
As shown, the primary frame 204 includes a box or hoop shape, including interconnected main uprights 204U and main horizontals 204H, which generally outline a main location behind which the person throwing BP is located. However, it should be recognized that embodiments of the disclosure described herein will work equally well with other frame shapes or types. Primary frame 204 may include stabilizing supports 204L (e.g., legs) including safety feet (to be described later with reference to
Primary net 206 may be supported by the primary frame 204. Primary net 206 may be single layer net (e.g., of a nylon, polypropylene material, or the like) that is fastened (e.g., laced) to the perimeter of the primary frame 204 by fastener straps, wire, zip ties, or string, for example, or otherwise fastened to or provided over the frame 204.
The primary net 206 may be made of different strengths of knotted twine (e.g., Nylon or Polypropylene), of which some common ones are #36 or #42, but which can be much stronger, such as #96. Primary net 206 may include mesh size small enough to prevent a ball from entering, such as ¼ inch, ½ inch, ¾ inch, 1 inch, 1¼ inch, 2 inch, or larger. In addition, a central protective screen 202 may include padding 214 on some, or all, of the primary frame 204.
The side net 210 of the hinged side wing 203 may be constructed of the same material and methods as described above. The side frame 208 may be hinged to the primary frame 204, such as to the main uprights 204U, by one or more hinge assemblies, such as first hinge assembly 216U (e.g., upper hinge assembly), and second hinge assembly 216L (e.g., lower hinge assembly). However, more or less hinge assemblies may be used. Hinge assemblies (e.g. hinge assemblies 216U, 216L) may suspend the hinged side wing 203 above the ground so that the ground is not contacted, i.e., in a free-standing configuration in use, i.e., when the stabilizing supports are in contact with the ground in a ready-to-use, upright configuration as shown in
The first hinge assembly 216U, as best shown in
As best shown in
In accordance with another broad aspect, one or more embodiments of the hinged side wing 203 may include one or more springs 230. In the depicted embodiment, the spring 230 may be coupled between a first part 208A and a second part 208B of the side frame 208. Spring 230 may aid in absorbing impact when a ball 250 hits the side frame 208 allowing the hinged side wing 203 to deflect backwards and minimize bounce back or ricochet of the ball. In the depicted embodiment, two springs are utilized and are connected at upper and lower ends to the first and second frame parts 208A, 208B, such as by insertion of the end of the spring 230 into portions of the first and second frame parts 208A, 208B and fastening therein, such as by bolts, welding, adhesive or the like. In some embodiments, lengths of the frame supports 228A, 228B may be designed to allow some limited pivotal (hinged) motion of the hinged side wing 203 until a frame support (e.g., frame support 228B) makes contact with the primary frame 204 to stop or limit the extent of the pivoting.
As shown in
The safety net 347 may be suspended in front of at least some of the main uprights and/or main horizontals of the primary frame 204 by the one or more spacing connectors 346A, 346B. Two spacing connectors 346A, 346B are shown in the depicted embodiment. However, other numbers of spacing connectors may be used. In the depicted embodiment, the safety net 347 is suspended in front of both main uprights and both main horizontals, as these are the most likely culprits that would cause bounce back towards the batter.
The safety net 347 may be made of the same material as the primary net, and may include a reinforcing edge in some embodiments. Reinforcing edge may be a rope border threaded through edge of the netting, a sewn material such as a sewn (e.g. Vinyl) enveloping edge, or the like. If sewn edge, corner grommets may be used to fasten the safety net 347 to the spacing connectors 346A, 346B. Safety net 347 may be made of different strengths of knotted twine (e.g., Nylon or Polypropylene), which may be square mesh, diamond mesh, or other suitable mesh shapes. Safety net 110 may be #36 or #42, but can be much stronger such as #84 or #96. Safety net 347 may include mesh size small enough to prevent a ball from entering, such as ¼ inch, ½ inch, ¾ inch, 1 inch, 1¼ inch, 2 inch, or larger.
In the depicted embodiment, two spacing connectors 346A, 346B are used to suspend the safety net 347. One spacing connector 348A, 348B may be attached to each main upright 204U of the protective screen frame 204. The one or more spacing connectors 348A, 348B may be designed to support and suspend the safety net 347 so that the safety net 347 hangs in spaced relationship to the front of at least a portion of the primary net 206 and the protective screen frame 204, such as at least the main portion of the protective screen frame 204. The safety net 347 may hang (e.g., vertically in the depicted embodiment). In one or more embodiments, the safety net 347 may be spaced a distance “d” of about 3 inches or more (e.g., in some embodiments between about 3 inch to about 20 inches) in front of the main uprights 204U of the protective screen frame 204, so that the safety net 347 can absorb the impact of a ball prior to the ball hitting the primary net 206 or protective screen frame 204, or substantially absorb the ball's kinetic energy before hitting the protective screen frame 204.
In some instances, the safety net 347 may keep the ball from hitting the primary net 206 or primary frame 204 at all. This protects the person throwing BP and also the batter by minimizing or preventing any ricochet by the ball hitting the protected portion of the primary frame 204 and getting redirected directly back to the batter. With a conventional protective screen 102 of
In more detail, at least some of the one or more spacing connectors 348A, 348B may comprise an adapter 349 configured and adapted to couple to the protective screen frame 204, and an extending attachment 350 to which the safety net 347 is suspended. In the depicted embodiment, at least a portion of the one or more spacing connectors 348A, 348B may be flexible. The flexibility may be provided by a spring member, which may comprise part or all of the extending attachment 350. In this manner, portions of the one or more spacing connectors 348A, 348B are configured and operable to flex upon being struck by a ball. The spring member may be any suitable spring, such as a coil spring, a cast or molded elastomer spring, a leaf spring, a flexible rod such as a fiberglass rod, combinations of the foregoing, or the like. Other suitable spring member configurations may be used. Spring member may have a vertical spring rate, when pulling vertically downward at the end of the spring member at the point of connection of the safety net 347, of between about 0.5 lb/in and about 5 lb/in, and between about 1 lb/in and about 3 lb/in in some embodiments. Other suitable vertical spring rates may be used. Further description of the protective screen safety apparatus 345 may be found in US Pat. Pub. 2015/0328517 filed May 13, 2105.
In the depicted embodiments of
The protective screen apparatus 600 may further include, as shown, a ball basket 655. Ball basket 655 may be attachable (and detachable from) to the central protective screen 202, such as to the main uprights 204U of the primary frame 204. The ball basket 655 may include a rigid frame 658, which is attachable to the primary frame by one or more connectors 670. A net 669 may be attached to the rigid frame 658, such as by including sleeves 671 received over rigid frame 658. Otherwise, the net 669 may be secured to frame by any form of attachment means, such as string, wire, clamps or the like. Connectors 670 may be 2-part clamping members, which may be clamped to primary frame 204 by bolts or the like. However, other forms of connector may be used. For example, the connector may be welded to the primary frame 204 in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the ends of the rigid frame 658 may be inserted into pockets 670P formed in the connectors 670 so that the net 669 may be readily detachable. In the depicted embodiment, the frame 658 is shown as two individual rigid (e.g., steel, aluminum or other) rods. However, frame 658U may have a U-shape in some embodiments. Net 669 may include a rope border 674 at one or more locations or may include a rigid frame entirely along and supporting all edges of the net 669.
The flowchart shown in
The method 700 includes, in 706, minimizing bounce back of a ball from the hinged, free-standing, side wing (e.g., hinged side wing 203) through pivoting of the free-standing hinged side wing. In some embodiments, the hinged side wing 203 includes spring biasing to absorb shock and to return the hinged side wing 203 to a pre-strike condition.
While embodiments of the invention are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific apparatus and system embodiments and methods thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the invention to the particular apparatus, systems, or methods disclosed, but, to the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the claims.
Claims
1. A protective screen apparatus, comprising:
- a central protective screen including a primary frame and a primary net; and
- a hinged side wing including a side frame and a side net, the hinged side wing being hinged and pivotable on the primary frame in a free-standing orientation.
2. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hinged side wing is configured to be removed from a first side of the primary frame and reconfigured on a second side of the primary frame.
3. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hinged side wing includes a spring bias at times relative to the primary frame.
4. The protective screen apparatus of claim 3, wherein the spring bias is provided after a certain portion of free rotation relative to the primary frame.
5. The protective screen apparatus of claim 3, wherein the spring bias positions the hinged side wing at a first rotational position, and provides a relatively larger spring bias as the hinged side wing is pivoted to a second rotational position.
6. The protective screen apparatus of claim 3, wherein the hinged side wing is initially positioned in a first rotational position, and is pivotable to a second rotational position upon being struck by a ball.
7. The protective screen apparatus of claim 3, wherein the spring bias is provided by a bungee cord.
8. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, comprising a first hinge assembly including a first upper hinge component and a first lower hinge component.
9. The protective screen apparatus of claim 8, comprising a second hinge assembly including a second upper hinge component and a second lower hinge component.
10. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hinged side wing includes anti-rotation supports configured and operable to limit an extent of pivoting of the hinged side wing.
11. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, comprising a first hinge assembly and second hinge assembly and wherein each assembly includes a vertically oriented pin.
12. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, comprising a safety apparatus including:
- one or more spacing connectors adapted to be coupled to the primary frame; and
- a safety net supported by the one or more spacing connectors and configured to be positioned adjacent to the central protective screen but spaced therefrom, the safety net configured and adapted to prevent bounce back of a ball from the primary frame.
13. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein the central protective screen includes support legs and at least some of the support legs include an anti-bounce back feature comprising an angled end cap that includes an angled planar surface.
14. The protective screen apparatus of claim 13, wherein the anti-bounce back feature is removable from the support legs.
15. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, wherein the primary frame includes removable wheels.
16. The protective screen apparatus of claim 1, comprising a ball basket configured to receive and hold balls including a rigid frame and a net attached to the rigid frame.
17. The protective screen apparatus of claim 16, wherein the ball basket if attachable and detachable from the primary frame.
18. A method of reconfiguring a protective screen apparatus, comprising:
- providing a central protective screen including a primary frame and a primary net;
- providing a hinged side wing that is hinged, free-standing, and pivotable on the primary frame; and
- reconfiguring the hinged side wing by removing the hinged side wing from a first side of the primary frame and mounting the hinged side wing on a second side of the primary frame.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein the hinged side wing comprises a side frame and a side net.
20. A protective screen apparatus, comprising:
- a central protective screen including a primary frame and a primary net; and
- a ball basket configured to receive and hold balls attached to the primary frame, the ball basket including a rigid frame and a net attached to the rigid frame.
Type: Application
Filed: Jan 27, 2017
Publication Date: Aug 3, 2017
Inventor: John A. Valle (Rochester, NY)
Application Number: 15/417,441