Collapsible roller skate

Abstract

A thick-platformed roller skate in which the rollers are retractably mounted on levers horizontally pivoted on the platform, the levers having their free ends in generally proximate relation and engaged by common releasable detent to hold the levers at least in position with the rollers in projected operable position, and preferably in both projected and retracted positions.

Description

The present invention relates to a collapsible roller-skate.

Roller-skates are already known which consist of a platform on rollers fitted with a means of attachment under the sole of an ordinary shoe.

Furthermore, roller-skates already exist in which the roller-mechanism and the shoe are all in one piece.

The drawback to these known roller-skates is that it is necessary to have a roller-mechanism designed to be attached to a shoe and another shoe for walking.

Roller-skates are known in which it is possible to lock the rollers in order to walk, but even when the rollers are locked, difficulty is experienced in walking.

An object of the present invention is to provide a collapsible roller-skate which can be used for walking or for skating.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a collapsible roller-skate comprising a body adapted for attachment to a shoe, a plurality of rollers rotatably carried on retraction means, housed in the body, the retraction means being operable to move said rollers to one of two distinct positions, the rollers in one distinct position being totally housed in the body and in the other distinct position protruding at least in part from the body.

Preferably, the retraction means includes at least two levers each pivotally housed in said body and rotatably carrying at one end a number of rollers.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is particularly described below, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 shows the underside of the sole of a roller-skate of the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a side-view of the skate of FIG. 1 showing the rollers in the lower position,

FIG. 3 is a side-view of the skate in FIGS. 1 and 2 showing the rollers in the upper position inside the sole.

Referring to the drawings an embodiment of the present invention includes a sole 10 in which a roller-mechanism is housed. The sole 10 is preferably made of wood or a suitable plastics material. However it could also be made of leather, hard rubber or a light metal such as aluminium. The sole is joined to the upper part of the shoe in the usual way.

There are two recesses 11, 12 in the sole 10 in which the rollers are housed. In the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, the recess 11 situated in the front of the sole houses two rollers 13, 14 whereas the recess 12 at the back houses only one roller 15. The two front rollers 13, 14 rotate round an axle 16 which passes through the extremity of a lever 17. The lever 17 pivots about a fixed axle 18 mounted in the sole. The other extremity of the lever 17 which is remote from said rollers, is provided with two inclined surfaces 19, 20 (which come in contact with a locking device 21). The back roller 15 is rotatably received on an axle 22 which is supported in a bifurcated portion 23 of a lever 24. The lever 24 pivots about an axle 25 mounted in the sole 10. The other end of the lever 24 remote from roller 15 also provided with inclined surfaces 19, 20. The inclined surfaces 19, 20 of levers 17 and 22 co-operate with a locking device 21. The locking device includes a cylindrical portion 30 which is slidably received in a bore formed in the sole 10 and which extends transversely to the lingitudinal axis of the skate.

A helical spring 27 bears against the cylindrical portion 30 to bias the latter towards the centre of the sole. In the biased position the inclined surfaces 19 or 20 of the respective levers 17, 24 bear against the cylindrical portion 30. Connected to one end of the cylindrical portion 30 is an axle 28 formed at the free end of axle 28 is a manual control knob 29 which exceeds the dimensions of the sole laterally. The manual control know 29 enables the cylindrical portion 30 to be axially moved against the bias of spring 27 into a position which it is no longer in contact with the inclined surfaces 19, 20 of the levers.

FIG. 3 illustrates a position of the rollers in which the inclined surfaces 19 are in contact with the cylindrical portion 30 thus preventing the levers from pivoting around their fixes axles. In order to allow the rollers to come down from the sole into a skating position, the manual control knob and the cylinder 30 are pulled out of the sole, against the force of the spring 27, until the cylinder is no longer in contact with the inclined surfaces 19. Thus the levers are freed and the rollers fall down into the position indicated in FIG. 2 in which they protrude below the sole and ready for skating. When the manual control knob 29 is released, the spring 27 pushes the cylindrical portion 30 back into the locking position in which the inclined surfaces 20 are in contact with the cylindrical portion 30. Thus, an accidental retraction of the rollers due to the levers pivoting is prevented.

After use, the rollers can be retracted and locked inside the sole by means of the same knob.

One advantage of the skate of the present invention is that it can be used as a conventional shoe when the rollers are retracted inside the sole or as a roller skate when they are locked outside the sole. Furthermore the skate of the present invention is not much more complicated than skates designed solely for skating; therefore the present skate is highly competitive commercially.

The thickness of the sole is of necessity determined so that the rollers can be housed in the recesses of the sole. The thickness of the sole is directly dependent on the diameter chosen for the rollers.

Although the form of realization described has three rollers, it is evident that a skate as in this invention could have two or even four rollers mounted on the front and back axles.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. In a convertable roller skate comprising a thick platform having recesses in its undersurface at least adjacent its opposite ends, roller means adjacent each of said platform ends, and means supporting such rollers for movement from a retracted position fully within said recess to an operative position at least partially protruding from said recess, the improvement wherein said roller supporting means comprises a rigid lever for each such roller means, said lever carrying at one end thereof said roller means for rotation about the roller axis and being pivoted intermediate its ends to said platform on a fixed horizontal axis intermediate the platform top and bottom, whereby pivotal movement of said lever from a generally horizontal position to an inclined position moves the corresponding roller means from said retracted to said operative position and vice versa, each said lever extending in the direction of said opposite roller means and terminating at its free end in proximate spaced relation to the free end of the other lever, and a common detent means supported by said platform for engaging the mutually adjacent ends of said levers to positively hold said levers in their respective inclined positions and thereby said roller means in their respective operative protruding positions, said detent means being releasable to free said lever ends.

2. The skate of claim 1 wherein said detent means is movable to disengage from the free lever ends.

3. The skate of claim 1 wherein said detent means engages said lever ends in both said horizontal and inclined positions to maintain the levers in both said positions.

4. The skate of claim 1 wherein said platform has separate recesses therein for the separate roller means and a generally connecting channel therebetween for receiving said levers.

5. The skate of claim 1 wherein said detent means comprises a solid body having surfaces intercepting the pivotal paths of said lever ends.

6. The skate of claim 5 wherein said solid body is movable bodily out of the paths of the lever ends.

7. The skate of claim 5 wherein each lever has at its free end an inclined face extending downwardly and away from said end and said detent body is adapted to wedgingly engage the mutually facing inclined faces to hold said levers in their inclined position.

8. The skate of claim 7 wherein each lever end also has an inclined face extending upwardly and away from said end, and said detent body is adapted to also wedgingly engage the latter faces to hold the levers in their respective horizontal positions.

9. The skate of claim 8 wherein said detent body is generally cylindrical in shape, being arranged in said platform on axis parallel to the lever pivotal axes, and is movable bodily axially along said axis.