Impact-Absorbing Ball
An impact-absorbing ball has an exterior liner, a ball body, and a damper core. The exterior liner is superimposed onto the ball body and used to provide a textured or friction-reducing surface. The damper core is integrated into the ball body and has multiple density-modified regions that are used to modify the overall durometer of the ball. Thus, the damper core enables the ball to absorb the impact forces generated by a collision with an athletes' body.
The current application claims a priority to the U.S. Provisional Patent application Ser. No. 62/854,171 filed on May 29, 2019.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates generally to sports equipment. More specifically, the present invention relates to a multicomponent lacrosse ball designed improve a ball's impact-absorption properties and flight characteristics.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe lacrosse ball has gone through relatively few changes since its organized inception in the early 1600's. The overall structure of the lacrosse ball has not changed since the introduction of wooden balls, nearly 400 years ago. The only major improvement came in 1856, when a solid rubber ball was introduced. Balls made of a single piece of solid rubber, and balls made with smooth surfaces suffer several shortcomings that lowers the effectiveness and overall safety of an athlete playing lacrosse. Notably, balls with smooth surfaces create unwanted drag, and therefore cannot be thrown in straight lines at high velocities. Specifically, the Magnus effect prevents smooth lacrosse balls from being thrown in a straight line at high velocities. Therefore, athletes infrequently make long passes at high velocities because the ball cannot be aimed accurately. Athletes tend to lob passes that are long. However, as the velocity of a thrown lacrosse ball increases, so does the danger of a bodily injury for the athlete. Specifically, balls made of rigid or inflexible materials cause greater damage to the athlete's body during a collision. Another shortcoming addressed by the present invention relates to the smooth surface of the ball becoming slick as materials gather on the surface and begin to oxidize on the ball. Thereby, reducing the athlete's ability to grip and throw the ball.
The present invention addresses the above-describes issues by providing a lacrosse ball with a structured, impact-absorbing, core and a dimpled surface.
Specifically, the present invention incorporates damper structures into the ball core. This enables the present invention to become deformed during a collision with the athlete's body. Thus, reducing the chance of injury. Further, the present invention uses a single homogeneous ball with a set of density-modified regions to absorb impact forces without modifying the lacrosse ball's weight and size. The present invention expands on this safety-improving concept by employing a set of texturizing dimples to modify the surface of the lacrosse ball, such that the athlete is able to throw the ball in a straight line while at high velocities. In addition to improving flight characteristics, the dimpled surface improves player safety. For example, goalies will be able to better judge the flightpath of a lacrosse ball to avoid Commotio Cordis. Finally, the dimpled surface prevents the present invention from becoming unusably slick.
All illustrations of the drawings are for the purpose of describing selected versions of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
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Accordingly, while embodiments are described herein in detail in relation to one or more embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure is illustrative and exemplary of the present disclosure and are made merely for the purposes of providing a full and enabling disclosure. The detailed disclosure herein of one or more embodiments is not intended, nor is to be construed, to limit the scope of patent protection afforded in any claim of a patent issuing here from, which scope is to be defined by the claims and the equivalents thereof. It is not intended that the scope of patent protection be defined by reading into any claim a limitation found herein that does not explicitly appear in the claim itself.
Thus, for example, any sequence(s) and/or temporal order of steps of various processes or methods that are described herein are illustrative and not restrictive. Accordingly, it should be understood that, although steps of various processes or methods may be shown and described as being in a sequence or temporal order, the steps of any such processes or methods are not limited to being carried out in any particular sequence or order, absent an indication otherwise. Indeed, the steps in such processes or methods generally may be carried out in various different sequences and orders while still falling within the scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of patent protection is to be defined by the issued claim(s) rather than the description set forth herein.
Additionally, it is important to note that each term used herein refers to that which an ordinary artisan would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of such term herein. To the extent that the meaning of a term used herein—as understood by the ordinary artisan based on the contextual use of such term—differs in any way from any particular dictionary definition of such term, it is intended that the meaning of the term as understood by the ordinary artisan should prevail.
Furthermore, it is important to note that, as used herein, “a” and “an” each generally denotes “at least one,” but does not exclude a plurality unless the contextual use dictates otherwise. When used herein to join a list of items, “or” denotes “at least one of the items,” but does not exclude a plurality of items of the list. Finally, when used herein to join a list of items, “and” denotes “all of the items of the list.” The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.
Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While many embodiments of the disclosure may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosure. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims. The present disclosure contains headers. It should be understood that these headers are used as references and are not to be construed as limiting upon the subjected matter disclosed under the header.
Other technical advantages may become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after review of the following figures and description. It should be understood at the outset that, although exemplary embodiments are illustrated in the figures and described below, the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or not. The present disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary implementations and techniques illustrated in the drawings and described below.
In the figures, elements having an alphanumeric designation may be referenced herein collectively or in the alternative, as will be apparent from context, by the numeric portion of the designation only. Further, the constituent parts of various elements in the figures may be designated with separate reference numerals which shall be understood to refer to that constituent part of the element and not the element as a whole. General references, along with references to spaces, surfaces, dimensions, and extents, may be designated with arrows.
Unless otherwise indicated, the drawings are intended to be read together with the specification and are to be considered a portion of the entire written description of this invention. As used in the following description, the terms “horizontal”, “vertical”, “left”, “right”, “up”, “down” and the like, as well as adjectival and adverbial derivatives thereof (e.g., “horizontally”, “rightwardly”, “upwardly”, “radially”, etc.), simply refer to the orientation of the illustrated structure as the particular drawing figure faces the reader. Similarly, the terms “inwardly,” “outwardly” and “radially” generally refer to the orientation of a surface relative to its axis of elongation, or axis of rotation, as appropriate.
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Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.
Claims
1. An impact-absorbing ball comprising:
- an exterior liner;
- a ball body;
- a damper core;
- the damper core comprising at least one first density-modified region and at least one second density-modified region;
- the exterior liner being superimposed onto the ball body;
- the damper core being integrated into the ball body;
- the first density-modified region being positioned offset from the second density-modified region; and
- a center of mass being positioned offset from the exterior liner.
2. The shock-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein the damper core and the ball body being formed from a single homogenous piece of material.
3. The shock-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein a density of the first density-modified region being greater than a density of the second density-modified region.
4. The shock-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first density-modified region envelops the second density-modified region.
5. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 1, comprising:
- the ball body comprising a plurality of structural layers; and
- an interior layer being positioned in between an exterior layer and the damper core, wherein the interior layer and the exterior layer being from the plurality of structural layers.
6. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 5, comprising:
- the plurality of structural layers comprising a deformable bladder; and
- the deformable bladder enveloping the deformable core.
7. The flight-enhanced ball as claimed in claim 5, wherein a durometer of each of the plurality of structural layers being different.
8. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 1, comprising:
- a core suspension assembly; and
- the core suspension assembly being mounted in between the ball body and the deformable core.
9. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 8, wherein the core suspension assembly is operatively coupled to the deformable core, and wherein the core suspension assembly dynamically repositions the center of gravity to modify flight characteristics.
10. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 8, wherein the core suspension assembly is operatively coupled to the deformable core to act as an inertial damper.
11. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 1, comprising:
- a friction-reducing coating; and
- the friction-reducing being superimposed onto the exterior lining.
12. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 1, comprising:
- a plurality of texturizing recesses; and
- the plurality of texturizing recesses traversing into the exterior lining.
13. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 12, wherein the plurality of texturizing recesses being formed by a plurality of shapes.
14. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 12, wherein the plurality of texturizing recesses having a plurality of recess depths.
15. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 12, wherein the plurality of texturizing recesses having a plurality perimeters.
16. The impact-absorbing ball as claimed in claim 12, wherein the plurality of texturizing recesses having a plurality distribution patterns.
Type: Application
Filed: May 29, 2020
Publication Date: Dec 3, 2020
Inventors: Robert Luehrsen (Wilmington, NC), Jacob Lynn (Wilmington, NC)
Application Number: 16/888,415