IMPROVEMENT IN THE PLATE OF A BINDING

ARRANGEMENT FOR FASTENING A BOOT TO A SKI

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to an improved arrangement for adjusting the position of the movable supports of the toe-piece and the heel-piece of a ski relative to each other.

The present invention further refers generally to a ski, on which said arrangement is mounted, thereby forming an integral part thereof.

It is generally known that, for a boot to be bound to a ski, a toe-piece and a heel-piece are required to be applied and fastened thereto.

For boots of differing sizes to be able to be fastened on a same ski, at least one of said members, and most generally the heel-piece, is provided with means that enable it to be adjusted in its position.

Since currently produced skis are generally very sensitive to the point at which pressure and force are exerted, it is very important that the mounting point of the binding arrangement is perfectly matching with, i.e. exactly corresponds to the point at which the performance-affecting

abilities of the ski, i.e. balance, governability and steerablity, are required to be at their optimum level.

The described prior-art solutions have however a major drawback in that, as the size of the boot is varied, also the weight-distribution zone and, therefore, even the force-distribution zone of the boot upon the ski tend to vary, albeit to a relatively slight extent.

This of course means that, under practical use conditions, the ski behaves so as to develop undesired effects in terms of poor adaptation and balance between boot and ski.

In particular, when skis are hired out, i.e. are used within a ski hiring business scheme, and the need therefore arises for them to be each time adjusted to accommodate boots of even quite widely varying a size, such drawback is very acutely felt.

In an attempt to do away with this drawback, a number of solutions have been identified, as duly disclosed in an equal number of patent publications, such for instance DE 2 246 668 C3, US 5 334 178, US 5 344 179 and US 6 824 158 Bl .

These patent publications share the peculiarity of substantially disclosing the same solution, which is based on providing two rack-like members meshing a same cogwheel at the opposite sides thereof, wherein such cogwheel is attached in the middle zone of the ski rotatably thereabout; furthermore, these two rack-like members are joined firmly to the toe-piece and the heel-piece, respectively, so that a lengthwise displacement of any of said two rack-like members causes said cogwheel to rotate accordingly, thereby of course transmitting the related movement - in the opposite direction over the same excursion or travel distance - to the other one of said two rack-like members.

These solutions are generally effective if and when they are used under normal weather conditions; under adverse conditions, however, it may occur that ice gets or forms between the teeth of said rack-like members, as well as between the cogs of said gear-wheel, thereby preventing the binding arrangement from being capable of being adjusted in an adequately quick and accurate manner.

Moreover, even if no such ice gets or forms between teeth and cogs, it most clearly appears that the transmission of motion and force from a rack-like member to the other one is somehow braked by the existence of a lever effect acting between the rack upon which the driving force is exerted, and the rack which, on the contrary, receives the force being transferred therefrom by said cogwheel.

In addition, the resisting friction effects between said rack-like members and the surfaces of the ski on which they slide, and which may be iced, must of course be taken into due consideration.

All in all, therefore, it can be readily appreciated that such prior-art solutions turn out as being substantially inadequate, as well as rather awkward and inconvenient most of the time.

A last point to be considered is the fact that skis are usually required to be able to flex, at least to a certain extent. Now, all above-cited solutions can be appreciated to of course involve an even sensible stiffening of the ski, when the latter has the boot binding arrangement attached thereto. And, again, it may well be appreciated that such stiffening effect gives in turn rise to a number of further drawbacks.

It would therefore be desirable, and it is a main object of the present invention, actually, to provide an improved kind of self-centering setting arrangement for the adjustment of the support means for the toe-piece and the heel-piece of a ski, which is capable of being most easily and

conveniently operated by anyone under any condition and in any situation whatsoever, and which is adapted to do away with or at least alleviate the above-noted problems.

In addition, the inventive arrangement must be such as to be capable of being easily manufactured and operable with the use of materials and parts that are readily and largely available in the art and, therefore, low in cost.

According to the present invention, these aims and advantages, along with further ones that will become apparent from the following disclosure, are reached in a ski-mounted binding plate incorporating the features as defined and recited in the appended claims.

Features and advantages of the present invention will anyway be more readily understood from the description of a preferred, although not sole embodiment that is given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 is a perspective top view of a self-centering plate according to the present invention, as shown without its basic component part for the combined, concurrent adjustment of the position of the supports;

- Figure 2 is a plan top view of the same plate shown in Figure 1 , however provided with the above-mentioned basic component part thereof;

Figure 3 is a planar bottom view of a plate according to the present invention, as shown without its basic component part for the combined, concurrent adjustment of the position of the two supports;

- Figure 4 is a plan bottom view of the plate shown in Figure 1 , in which it is however provided with the above-mentioned basic component part for the combined, concurrent adjustment of the position of the two supports;

- Figure 5 is a planar sectional view along the section plane A-A of the plate shown in Figure 4, as illustrated in a first operating setting thereof;

- Figures 6A, 6B, 6C are perspective, front and side views, respectively, of a particular component part of a plate according to the present invention;

- Figure 7 is a planar sectional view along the section plane A-A of the plate shown in Figure 5, as illustrated in a second operating setting thereof;

- Figure 8A is a median sectional view along the section plane A-A in Figure 5 of a plate according to the present invention illustrated in the complete state thereof;

- Figure 8B is a top see-through view of the plate shown in Figure 8A;

- Figures 9A, 9B, 9C are perspective and orthogonal views, respectively, of a component part of the plate according to the present invention;

Figures 1OA, 1OB, 1OC are perspective and orthogonal views, respectively, of a different component part of the plate according to the present invention, which must however be associated to the component part shown in Figures 9A-9C;

Figure 1 1 is a view of the plate according to the present invention in

a second embodiment thereof;

- Figures 12A and 12B are a longitudinal cross-sectional view and a perspective view, respectively, of the plate according to the present invention in a third embodiment thereof;

- Figure 13 is an exploded view of a binding plate according to the present invention in a fourth embodiment thereof;

- Figure 13A is an outer perspective view of a basic component part of the binding plate shown in Figure 13, which is manufactured separately for subsequent assembly in the illustrated manner;

- Figure 14A is a perspective view of a ski provided with a binding plate according to the present invention in a fifth embodiment thereof;

- Figure 14B is a median longitudinal sectional view of the ski shown in Figure 14A;

- Figure 14C illustrates two separate cross-sectional views according the section planes A-A and B-B in Figure 14B, respectively.

A boot binding plate 1 according to the present invention is illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 in a perspective view and a top plan view thereof, respectively, as well as in Figures 3 and 4 in respective bottom views thereof.

Figures 5 and 7 illustrate the same binding plate in respective cross- sectional views thereof, both of them according to section plane A-A in Figure 4.

Such plate 1 is a continuous, elongated rigid body that is applied -

with the aid of means that are generally known as such in the art - upon the respective ski so as to become a substantially integral part thereof.

On the top surface of such plate there are applied - in a way as will be described in greater detail later on - two movable supports 3 and 4, as illustrated in Figures 5, 7, 6A, 6B and 6C.

This plate 1 is provided with five through-apertures 1 1 , 12, 13, 14, 15 in an arrangement in which they are aligned with and appropriately spaced from each other, wherein all such apertures are oriented according to the same length of the plate.

There is provided a flexible, preferably metal strap 5 that is routed so as to pass through said five apertures in an orderly sequence, so that - upon having been passed through all such apertures in the way as will be described in greater detail below - said strap has an end border thereof joined with and firmly secured to the other one. As a result, this strap will eventually take the form of a closed-loop configuration extending along both the top face 2 and the bottom face 2A of said plate 1 by regularly passing through said five apertures.

With particular reference to Figures 5 and 7, let an end border of said strap 5 be now assumed to be introduced:

- from top downwards into and through said first through-aperture 1 1 , - then, getting past the aperture 12, from bottom upwards through the third aperture 13, then, again from top downwards, through said fourth aperture 14, then, again from bottom upwards, toward and through said fifth aperture 15, then, moving back towards the third aperture 13, again through this aperture from bottom upwards, and finally, moving on up to the second aperture 12, through this

aperture from bottom upwards.

At this point, the two end borders of said strap cane be joined to each other, since both of them are now to be found, i.e. situated at the top entrance into said first aperture; therefore, they are now joined with and firmly secured to each other at a conventional point indicated at P.

Fully apparent is at this point the fact that such strap can start the insertion sequence in any position whatsoever along the above-described route, as long as this route is followed and completed in the orderly sequence as indicated above, i.e. in a manner so as to form a closed-loop trajectory that always returns to the starting point thereof; as a result, said point P, representing the point at which said closed-loop trajectory both starts and ends, can come to lie anywhere along said trajectory, actually.

It will also be appreciated that - as used herein - the terms "top", "upper", "upward-facing", and "bottom", "lower", downward-facing" refer to the faces of the plate that are situated over and under relative to the position of the respective ski.

At this point, a first support 3 is applied - using means that are largely known as such in the art - to a section of said strap located between the first aperture 11 and the second aperture 12 on the upward-facing side thereof, and the second support 4 is in turn applied to the section of said strap that lies between the third aperture 13 and the fourth aperture 14 - obviously on the upward-facing side thereof, since it is solely along this face that the strap is stretched out, but the strap section, which said second support 4 is due to engage, is the one that is situated immediately contiguous to the upper face 2 of the plate (and not the one that is oriented towards the same support 4).

If said support 3 is now displaced in any direction whatsoever, e.g.

towards the support 4, it will be noticed that even the support 4 moves towards the support 3, since, if the support 3 is pushed to the right, the entire strap section comprised between said first aperture 11 and the fourth aperture 14 is urged to the left, so that it carries also the support 4 - which is applied on to the strap section between the third aperture 13 and the fourth aperture 14 - along with it in the same direction.

Therefore, the two supports move synchronously relative to each other; furthermore, they move by a same extent relative to the plate, even in the case that the latter features a non-planar geometry.

Obviously enough, this also occurs in the other way round, i.e. when the two supports are displaced away from each other.

In this way, the desired result is obtained of enabling the distance of said supports from each other to be adjusted by simply displacing just a single one of said supports, so that even the other one is displaced in a synchronous and symmetrical manner. This gain enables another desired result to be obtained, in that the two supports 3 and 4 remain constantly centered about a reference point located on the plate therebetween, so that, if a support sustains the toe-piece of the ski and the other one sustains the heel-piece, then the boot that is applied between such supports will similarly remain constantly centered about said reference point, regardless of the size of the boot, i.e. the distance of the supports from each other.

Fully apparent from the illustrations in the Figures is the fact that, for it to be able to be applied to the pertaining strap section situated adjacent to the top surface 2 of the plate, as indicated above, the second support should some way or other pass over the strap section facing upwards between the fifth aperture 14 and the fourth aperture 14.

This can be done by having resort to some external solutions of the

connection means; however, the most advantageous solution consists in providing said strap section facing upwards between and the fourth aperture 14 with a longitudinal groove or slit 20, as this is clearly shown in Figure 2.

With reference to Figures 5, 7, 8A and 8B, in view of being able to guide in an orderly manner the displacement, i.e. travel of the engagement points between said strap and the respective supports 3 and 4 and, above all, in view of creating an adequately robust engagement zone, there are formed two engagement members 21 and 22 consisting of respective small slides or blocks that are attached to the strap 5 - at the related points of application thereof, obviously - with the help of means as they are generally known as such in the art, e.g. by means of respective connection pegs 30, 31 (Figure 2).

Advantageously, said engagement members are connected to the respective supports 3 and 4 by means of respective further pegs or dowels 23, 24, which are connected to said engagement members through insertion in respective bores 35, 36 provided in said members, as this can be clearly noticed in the illustrations appearing in Figures 1 and 8B.

In particular, the peg 24 joining to the second engagement member 22 that is connected to the strap section situated between said third aperture 13 and said fourth aperture 14, passes through the strap section adjacent to and facing the support 4 through said slit 20.

With reference to Figures 1 and 2, the sliding movement of said small blocks 21 and 22 relative to said plate 2 is facilitated by providing - in correspondence to the related sliding paths - two corresponding sliding channel-like runners 25, 26 in said plate, so that said small blocks are able to perform in the sense of both strengthening the connection between the strap and the respective supports and allowing for a regular, guided displacement of the connection points of the supports to the flexible strap.

With reference to Figure 8A, it can be noticed that the plate portion extending between said fourth aperture 14 and said fifth aperture 15 is substantially comprised of a roller 28 that is arranged to rotate about an axis that naturally extends parallel to the ruled surface that is generated by the flexible strap 5.

Such improvement enables in fact two advantageous results to be obtained, the first one of which being the obvious reduction in friction, since any grazing of the strap against the inner edge of said fifth aperture 15 is eliminated. The second advantage arises from the possibility for the shaft of said roller 28 to be connected to adjustable means, preferably a small plate 31 , a respective bore and a respective peg 31 , the position and setting of which relative to the same plate can in turn be most easily and conveniently adjusted.

This again makes it not only possible, but also quite easy and convenient for the position of said roller to be adjusted, so that it ultimately becomes possible for the flexible strap 5 to be duly stretched, i.e. tightened.

With reference to Figures 9A to 9C, 1OA to 1OC, and Figure 8A, said strap 5 may also be easily locked into any suitable position whatsoever, so as to fixedly maintain the distance between the supports - and ultimately the distance between the toe-piece and the heel-piece - at the desired value.

This is achieved by means of a lever 40 that is associated via an arm to a cam contour 41; this lever, which is capable of being operated by the skier and is situated upon said plate, acts on a pin 42 that is connected to a U-shaped stay-bolt member, whose arms extend through appropriate bores 43, 44 in said plate, and whose base 45 is therefore situated on the downward-oriented face of said plate, however externally relative to said

strap 5 (Figures 1 , 2, 5). As a result, if said lever is appropriately acted upon, said U-shaped member is pulled upwards and this causes it to move - on the downward-oriented face of the plate - closer to the same plate, thereby compressing the two strap sections, which are overlapping each other in such position, against the plate, thus causing the strap to be firmly locked in position.

This locking effect can be enhanced if there is provided a device with two racks 46 and 47, which are adapted to be engaged and disengaged by the movement of the lever 40, and - as this can best be seen in Figures 5 and 7 - which are arranged between the bottom face 2A of the plate 1 and the upper face of the section of strap 5 that lies contiguous to the same plate - obviously in the position corresponding to the position of said lever 40.

With reference to Figure 1 1 , a valuable improvement of the present invention is illustrated. Such improvement consists in providing said plate not in the form of a single-piece unitary construction, as represented hitherto, but rather as an association of two separate parts 51 and 52, each one of which is linked to a respective one of said movable supports 3 and 4.

Furthermore, said two parts are connected with each other via a compass-like joint provided in the form of an appropriate hinge 53 applied between the corresponding edges of said two separate parts 51 and 52.

The advantage of this particular embodiment of the invention derives from the fact that said plate can be generally provided as if the body thereof were a single, unitary solid body as described hereinbefore; however, in this embodiment such two parts forming the plate can actually be set and kept in a mutually superposed arrangement, i.e. one upon another, when inoperative, to then take the final form thereof in the due rectilinear arrangement when they are eventually applied to and

assembled on the ski. In this way, the strap 5 is automatically stretched to an appropriate tensioning degree by just having said two parts straightened out into the rectilinear arrangement thereof, thereby avoiding the twofold drawback of having to also assemble the afore-cited tension roller 28, along with the various parts associated thereto, or - alternatively - being exposed to the penalty of a progressive elastic slackening of the flexible strap 5 in the case that the latter is mounted on to the plate 1 right away at the origin and without the provision of any tensioning member.

With reference to Figures 12A and 12B, a further improvement in the embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. Such improvement lies in providing the body of said plate not in the form of a single-piece, unitary part, or in the form of two separate parts hinged together, as illustrated in the afore-considered cases, but rather in the form of a simple, physically disaggregated sum of two separate parts 61 and 62, each one of which is again linked to a respective one of said movable supports 3 and 4. The readily apparent advantage of this embodiment of the invention lies in a simplification of the manufacturing process, as well as a reduction in the overall weight of the binding plate, this being a clearly considerable advantage in the case of moderately sized skis.

It should once again be particularly stressed that these two separate parts 61 and 62 are in no way and by no means joined to each other, except for the afore-mentioned flexible strap 5, as this shall be described in greater detail below. In fact, they remain distinct and physically separated from each other even after they are duly mounted on the ski - and, therefore, throughout the operative life of the same ski.

As far as the functional connection of these parts with each other,

Figure 12A clearly shows that, in particular, these two parts 61 and 62 can first be mounted to and locked in position on the ski independently of each other, while the strap 5 is then connected and stretched, i.e.

tensioned between said two parts so as to complete the assembly of the inventive binding plate; in practice, it can most readily be noticed that the function of the invention is to provide two parts, on which the two movable supports 3 and 4 can be mounted, wherein said two parts are kept in a fixed position relative to the ski.

Now, this requirement may clearly be met by either unifying said two parts 61 and 62 into a unitary, single piece plate 1 , as in the case of the embodiment illustrated in Figure 1, or - of course - even providing said two parts 61 and 62 in a form in which they are physically separated from each other, while then ensuring said mutual separation and the position of said two parts relative to each other on the same ski by having said parts secured independently of each other.

Obviously, this configuration must be accompanied by a correct mounting of the flexible strap 5; such requirement, however, can be met without any difficulty, indeed, since - as far as the strap is concerned - all it takes is that said two parts 61 and 62 are positioned e locked in position at a pre-established distance from each other, regardless of the fact that they are either located at the opposite end portions of a same rigid plate 1 or are locked in respective, definite positions separated from each other on the same ski.

The plate that has generally been described hitherto can furthermore be embodied in another particularly favourable and advantageous form; with reference to Figure 13, the plate 1 illustrated in Figure 2 is in fact provided in the form of two separable parts 70 and 71, as shown symbolically sectioned along the section plane C-C extending longitudinally relative to the same plate, i.e. passing across both said movable supports 3 and 5, further to the entire body of the plate, of course.

However, as this can be most readily noticed in Figure 13, only the

body of said plate is separable, whereas the related flexible strap 5 in the closed-loop configuration thereof remains a single-piece, i.e. unitary member; when embodied in this particular way, the plate according to the present invention has the advantage of enabling the strap to be assembled in an extremely easy and quick manner into and through the respective apertures in the plate.

In fact, upon having so provided said plate with the two mating parts 70, 71 as shown in the Figure, i.e. obtained from the longitudinal section C-C in Figure 2, the flexible strap 5 only needs to be set in the form of a planar closed-loop configuration and applied on to a longitudinal portion 70 of said plate, as shown in Figure 13A; then the plate itself may be completed by fitting said longitudinal portion 70 tightly together sidewise with the remaining longitudinal portion 71.

This solution has the twofold advantage of introducing a significant simplification in the production, i.e. manufacturability of said two longitudinal portions 70 and 71 as compared with the production of an equivalent plate in a single-piece, unitary construction, and - above all - enabling the strap 5 to be mounted and assembled in an extremely quick and easy manner, since such strap can in fact be most conveniently formed into its planar closed-loop configuration in advance, to be first mounted on to the plate at the end of the assembly process with a by all means simple and quick operation.

A further improved embodiment of the present invention can be seen to be illustrated in Figures 14A, 14B and 14C. These Figures can in particular be noticed to show that the binding plate is not an isolated piece to be possibly made and assembled separately, and finally mounted to the respective ski just at the end of the production process of the same ski, but is rather an integral part of the body of the ski in this case.

In other words, the body of the ski 74 also performs as the body of the

plate in this case, which therefore loses its distinct materiality, but not its function, since the body of the ski, used and performing as body of the plate, is manufactured and processed as the latter, actually, i.e. is provided with the related five apertures 1 1- 15, the flexible strap 5, and so on.

Practically, then, the ski body is manufactured and processed so as to display the same features and perform exactly as the binding plate described with reference to at least Figures 1 to 7 and 12A- 12B.

It will of course be readily appreciated that a ski of the above-indicated kind may be embodied in various different manners. So for instance - as shown in Figure 14A - an upper portion 75 of the body of the ski may be provided in a form so as to be differentiated from the remaining part of the ski body 74, and is further provided to be extractable, i.e. removable, so as to be capable of being processed, machined and assembled in the same way as any plate of the afore-described kind.

In this case, the present invention shall not be understood as referring specifically to a binding plate, but rather directly to a ski provided with a binding plate of the afore-described kind, wherein the body of the ski is obviously integral with the body of the related binding plate.