U.S. patent application number 12/594752 was filed with the patent office on 2010-05-27 for new kind of football with improved roundness.
This patent application is currently assigned to Pieter HUYBERS. Invention is credited to Pieter Huybers.
Application Number | 20100130317 12/594752 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38255566 |
Filed Date | 2010-05-27 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100130317 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Huybers; Pieter |
May 27, 2010 |
NEW KIND OF FOOTBALL WITH IMPROVED ROUNDNESS
Abstract
Ball, composed of an inflatable inner ball from a thin rubbery
material and of an outer skin from a leathery material, usually a
fibre reinforced flexible plastic, composed in balls of the first
type of twelve more or less pentagonal parts and twenty more or
less hexagonal parts and in balls of the second type of six more or
less square parts and eight more or less hexagonal parts, where
most of the edges do not have a kinked form but follow a circular
course, so that they follow accurately the curvature of the sphere.
An even better approximation of the sphere form is obtained, if the
dimensions of the parts are changed in such a way that all corners
of these parts are lifted towards the sphere surf ace and do not
lie slightly under this surface as in the aforementioned
patent.
Inventors: |
Huybers; Pieter; (De Lier,
NL) |
Correspondence
Address: |
YOUNG & THOMPSON
209 Madison Street, Suite 500
Alexandria
VA
22314
US
|
Assignee: |
HUYBERS; Pieter
DE LIER
NL
HYPERBALL COMPANY
DE LIER
NL
|
Family ID: |
38255566 |
Appl. No.: |
12/594752 |
Filed: |
March 17, 2008 |
PCT Filed: |
March 17, 2008 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/EP2008/002421 |
371 Date: |
October 5, 2009 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
473/607 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63B 2243/0025 20130101;
A63B 41/08 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
473/607 |
International
Class: |
A63B 41/08 20060101
A63B041/08 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Apr 5, 2007 |
NL |
1033647 |
Claims
1-3. (canceled)
4. Ball (25) characterized in that it is composed of twelve more or
less pentagonal parts (8) and twenty more or less hexagonal parts
(9), of which the sides (10) follow a circular course.
5. Ball (26) characterized in that it is composed of six more or
less square parts (20) and eight more or less hexagonal parts (21),
of which the sides (22) follow a circular course.
6. Ball according claim 4, characterized in that the points P and
Q, lying in the planes of the originally rectangular parts (3) and
that in the end result make out the corners of the parts (8) and
(9) are lifted towards the sphere surface.
7. Ball according claim 5, characterized in that the points P and
Q, lying in the planes of the originally rectangular parts (15) and
that in the end result make out the corners of the parts (20) and
(21) are lifted towards the sphere surface.
Description
[0001] The invention relates to a proposal for improvements to an
existing design for a new kind of football as described in the
Dutch Patent Nr. 1021303, dated 20 Aug. 2007, which has been filed
by Pieter Huybers, De Lier, who also is the applicant of the
present proposal. This new proposal implies two commutations that
lead to a closer approximation of the pursued spherical form than
is found following the existing patent. Moreover, the dies that are
needed to cut the panels, that comprise the outer skin of the
football, are easier to make.
[0002] The derivation of the original geometry of the spherical
surface is amply described in the aforementioned patent; this will
hereby be used as the starting point and be assumed as to be
generally of common knowledge.
[0003] At the present state of art, a soccer ball consists
generally of an inflatable bladder from a flexible material and of
an exterior skin from a leathery material which is constructed of
smaller parts according a certain geometric pattern. In the
aforementioned patent two different basic patterns for the
construction of the outer skin are discerned that respectively
consist of 32 or 14 parts. However, the mathematical figures or
polyhedra, from which they are derived, originally consist of 62
and 26 parts respectively and are called in mathematics: [0004] 1.
Rhombicosidodecahedron, composed of twelve equilateral pentagons,
twenty equilateral triangles and thirty squares. [0005] 2.
Rhombicuboctahedron, composed of eighteen squares and eight
equilateral triangles.
[0006] The dimensions of these figures are determined by the fact,
that in both cases all vertices lie on a circumscribed sphere. The
centres of the parts are at a certain distance from this sphere,
which is different for all kinds of polygons that occur in such a
mathematical figure. If one however wishes to create a situation
where all centres of the parts have the same distance from the
sphere, in the first case all squares are transformed into
rectangles where the triangles and the pentagons obtain a form of
which all corners are chamfered, and in the second case twelve of
the eighteen squares convert to rectangles where the remaining six
squares and the triangles become chamfered. The thus found figures
can respectively be called: Isodistant Rhombicosidodecahedron and
Isodistant Rhombicuboctahedron, where the adjective `isodistant`
refers to the fact that all panel centres lie at the same distance
from the centre of the whole polyhedron, the system centre, and
therefore also from the sphere surface. In order to reduce the
sewing length so that the skin is more easily to construct, in the
formerly mentioned patent the rectangles are subdivided in two
isosceles triangles and two isosceles trapezia. These are combined
with adjacent parts following a special pattern to form new
entities so that in the first case twelve parts are generated that
roughly have the form of a pentagon and twenty parts with roughly
the form of a hexagon, and so that in the second case six parts
roughly obtain the form of a square and eight parts roughly that of
a hexagon. In both cases most of the sides have a form with two
slight kinks in length direction. The two bending points of these
lines lie at the sphere surface so that these kinked sides more or
less follow the curvature of the sphere.
[0007] This new patent however indicates a way to let the
connection lines between the end points and the bending points of
these slightly kinked lines follow an exact circular course. The
lines in question thus obtain a more smooth curvature than the
respective sides in the old patent and hence follow the curvature
of the sphere more closely.
[0008] Yet another improvement of the original patent can be
accomplished, if all corners of the panels, that basically lie in
the plane of the rectangles and thus lie below the sphere surface,
are lifted to the level of this sphere. This can easily be realized
by a small adaptation of these panels.
[0009] The invention shall be explained in more detail with
reference to the appended drawings, in which:
[0010] FIG. 1. shows the rhombicosidodecahedron 1, consisting of
twelve flat equilateral pentagons, twenty flat equilateral
triangles and thirty flat squares.
[0011] FIG. 2. shows the isodistant version 2 of the
rhombicosidodecahedron 1, of which all faces have the same distance
from the system centre.
[0012] FIG. 3. shows the three kinds of faces that compose the
isodistant rhombicosidodecahedron: thirty rectangles 3, twelve
chamfered pentagons 4 and twenty chamfered triangles 5.
[0013] FIG. 4. shows a subdivision of the rectangles 3 into four
parts: two isosceles triangles 6 with apices, that are indicated
here as P and Q respectively, and two isosceles trapezia 7. These
four parts are added to adjacent faces following a special
arrangement, so that two new panel shapes are formed: twelve more
or less pentagonal parts 8 and twenty more or less hexagonal parts
9, with which according to the existing patent a soccer ball of the
new type can be generated. The parts 8 have five slightly kinked
sides 10 where the parts 9 have alternatively three kinked sides 10
and three shorter, straight sides 11. The position of the points P
and Q on the rectangular sides 3 is chosen such, that the twisted
sides 10 of the parts 8 and 9 are identical. The total sewing
length is almost equal to that of the commonly used soccer ball
that is composed of twelve equilateral pentagons and twenty
equilateral hexagons.
[0014] FIG. 5. shows an isometric view 12 of the isodistant
rhombicosidodecahedron 2, of which the rectangular parts 5 are
subdivided.
[0015] FIG. 6. shows the rhombicuboctahedron 13, consisting of
eight equilateral triangles and eighteen squares.
[0016] FIG. 7. shows the isodistant version 14 of the
rhombicuboctahedron 13, in which all faces have the same distance
from the system centre and hence from the sphere surface.
[0017] FIG. 8. shows the different parts that comprise the
isodistant rhombicuboctahedron 14: twelve rectangles 15, eight
chamfered triangles 16 and six chamfered squares 17.
[0018] FIG. 9. shows that the rectangles 15 also can be subdivided
in four parts: two isosceles triangles 18 with apices, that as in
the previous case are indicated as P and Q respectively, and two
isosceles trapezia 19. These four parts are added to adjacent faces
following a special arrangement, so that two new panel shapes are
formed: six more or less square parts 20 and eight more or less
hexagonal parts 21. The parts 20 have four slightly kinked sides 22
where the parts 21 have alternatively three kinked sides 22 and
three shorter, straight sides 23. The position of the points P and
Q on the rectangular faces 15 is chosen such, that the kinked sides
22 of the parts 20 and 21 are similar. According the existing
patent with six parts 20 and eight parts 21, soccer balls can be
made of a new configuration, but in this case the face centres lie
a bit farther away from the sphere surface than in the previous
case, so that its use can be suggested for trainings balls in
soccer or as balls for other sports where lesser demands count with
respect to form and shape retention. A great advantage is, that the
sewing length is only one third that of the first version.
[0019] FIG. 10. gives an isometric view 24 of the isodistant
rhombicuboctahedron 13, but with subdivided rectangles 15.
[0020] FIG. 11. shows schematically how according the present
patent the slightly kinked sides 10 and 22 can be made curved by
drawing a circle through the points R, S and T of the kinked side
under consideration. These sides will thus follow the curvature of
the sphere more precisely than in the old patent.
The describing circles of the sides 10 and 22 are different and
their centres N lie at a considerable distance outside the
respective planes 8 and 9 or 20 and 21, of which the centre of the
circumscribed circles is indicated as M. An extra advantage is,
that in a relatively simple way from the centre N of the newly
found circle arcs, that replace the kinked sides 10 and 22, the
positions of the drilling holes for the punching pins can be
destined. This method is considerably simpler than the drilling
method that must be followed in the case of the kinked sides.
[0021] FIG. 12. shows a scheme of the rectangular parts 3 or 15,
where the points P and Q, lying in these planes are lifted to the
new positions P' and Q' on the sphere surface. The circle arc
trough V, P', Q' and W has the same radius as the sphere. This
adaptation will therefore also lead to a better approximation to
the sphere form.
[0022] FIG. 13. shows the embodiment 25 of the ball according the
invention based on the isodistant rhombicosidodecahedron 12, in
inflated state.
[0023] FIG. 14. shows the embodiment 26, which is based on the
isodistant rhombicuboctadron 24, in inflated state.
* * * * *