U.S. patent number 3,920,658 [Application Number 05/418,432] was granted by the patent office on 1975-11-18 for coated tennis string and process for coating.
Invention is credited to Martin James Benson.
United States Patent |
3,920,658 |
Benson |
November 18, 1975 |
Coated tennis string and process for coating
Abstract
A tennis string of gut, nylon, or polyester is coated with
skid-proof material to obtain a superior string capable of
imparting more spin to a tennis ball with less effort by the
player.
Inventors: |
Benson; Martin James (Chicago,
IL) |
Family
ID: |
26914035 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/418,432 |
Filed: |
November 23, 1973 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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219580 |
Jan 20, 1972 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
428/395; 427/401;
427/416; 428/390; 427/171; 427/407.1; 428/375 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63B
51/02 (20130101); Y10T 428/2969 (20150115); Y10T
428/2933 (20150115); Y10T 428/296 (20150115) |
Current International
Class: |
A63B
51/00 (20060101); A63B 51/02 (20060101); D02G
003/36 () |
Field of
Search: |
;57/153,14C ;273/73R
;117/138.8N,138.8F,141,7,76T,92 ;161/175,176 ;51/404 ;84/297S
;427/175 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Husack; Ralph
Parent Case Text
DESCRIPTION
This application is a continuation-in-part of copending
application, Ser. No. 219,580-- filed Jan. 20, 1972, now abandoned.
Claims
Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:
1. A tennis string of gut, nylon, or polyester, which is coated
with a coating resin containing sufficient fine, granular material
to significantly increase the friction of string against ball.
2. A process for increasing the effectiveness of a tennis string in
imparting spin to a tennis ball comprising applying a soft,
skid-proof, elastomeric material, or a coating resin containing
sufficient fine, granular material to significantly increase the
friction of the string against the ball, to the string after the
racquet is strung.
3. The process of claim 2, wherein the skid-proof coating is a
soft, elastomeric material.
4. The process of claim 2, wherein the skid-proof coating is a
coating resin containing sufficient fine, granular material to
significantly increase the friction of the string against the ball.
Description
The invention relates to tennis strings. It is an object of the
present invention to provide a superior tennis string, possessing
essentially the elastic properties of gut, nylon, or polyester, but
which has greater friction against the ball, imparting to it
greater spin with less effort. A further object is to provide a
tennis string of gut which not only has good elastic properties,
but is unaffected by moisture.
In the past, attempts have been made to string tennis racquets with
wire, with solid rubber strings, and with wire coated with rubber.
None of these attempts have met with any degree of popular success,
because of the poor elastic and mechanical qualities of such
stringing, and all have long since been abandoned.
At the present time, gut strings are generally considered superior
to all others by knowledgable tennis players, and give the best
performance on the tennis court. Gut strings provide the best blend
of power and control, due to their particular elastic
properties.
Nylon strings are also commonly and widely used. They give
satisfactory performance, and are cheaper than gut and impervious
to moisture. A more recent development is polyester strings, which
have been shown to be quite satisfactory, and are rapidly gaining
acceptance.
However, one disadvantage of gut, nylon, and polyester strings is
that all are inherently slippery and, consequently, inefficient in
imparting spin to a tennis ball. Gut has the further disadvantage
of being sensitive to moisture.
To the end of overcoming these disadvantages of conventional
strings, my invention has been contrived.
The invention, then, is a tennis string composed of gut, nylon, or
polyester which has a thin, durable coating of skid-proof rubber,
or other skid-proofing coating. It is, of course, to be understood
that the coating can be applied either before or after stringing
the racquet.
The coating may be of nearly any soft, durable, elastomeric
material, e.g., natural or synthetic rubber, urethane rubber,
high-density urethane foam, polyvinyl chloride, etc. I prefer to
employ a soft, one component, room temperature curing urethane
rubber for the coating.
An alternative type of coating could be made by including a
granular substance, such as fine silica sand, in a coating material
which is not inherently skid-proof, such as an alkyd, or an
acrylic. The granular material gives the cured coating a rough
surface which is skid-proof.
In the most valuable embodiment of my invention, the coatings are
intended to be quite thin, thus assuring that the resulting strings
have essentially the same elastic properties as strings entirely
composed of gut or nylon or polyester, which properties have been
shown to be superior for tennis strings. The skid-proof coating,
however, makes these strings more effective in imparting spin to
the ball than conventional strings.
A further advantage of the invention is that a rubber coated gut
string will be completely impervious to moisture. Yet another
advantage is improved abrasion resistance.
As a further improvement to my invention, these rubber coated
strings, as described above, can be given a further coating of wax,
for ease in stringing a racquet.
* * * * *