The present invention relates to equipment which can be used for ski-touring. More specifically, the invention relates to an additional device for stopping rotation of the heel-piece of a ski-touring binding when said heel-piece is rotated in the uphill walking position.

Conventional heel-pieces for ski-touring bindings, for example for certain models of bindings known by the trade name Dynafit, have been designed with a mechanism for stopping rotation of the spring pin type which acts when said heel-piece is rotated in the uphill walking position. Disadvantageous^, during uphill walking, the weight of the skier, despite this device, may in any case cause rotation of the binding in the locked position owing to failure of the pin itself. In some cases breakage of the mechanism, in particular of the plastic base inside which a metal contact plate is inserted, may occur. In order to overcome these drawbacks, the present invention relates to an additional device having the characteristic features defined in Claim 1.

Particular embodiments form the subject of the dependent claims, the contents of which are to be understood as forming an integral part of the present description.

Advantageously, the device according to the invention may be mounted on the types of ski- touring bindings present on the market and is able to solve definitively the problem of the prior art with an assembly procedure which may be performed using simple tools, without performing any modification to the structure of the original binding and without prejudicing the safety release characteristics of the binding.

In a preferred embodiment, the device according to the invention comprises a plate which is preferably made of stainless steel or other sufficiently strong material and is shaped so that it can be secured to an existing part of the binding, for example by means of insertion of a nose or protuberance of the plate underneath a pin and between two existing springs forming part of a mechanism for operating a ski-stopper device, and is fastened thereto for example by means of two bolts or similar retaining members. This plate is adapted to be arranged in the confined space available between an existing movable support bracket of the ski-stopper and the base of the binding heel-piece and, for example owing to a double fold, defines a raised and shaped end adapted to provide a robust rear constraint for the heel-piece, thus replacing the function of the original inefficient internal pin, which may therefore be extracted definitively from the binding, thus avoiding the risk of it causing damage thereto.

Further characteristic features and advantages of the invention will emerge more clearly from the following detailed description provided purely by way of a non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Figures 1 and 2 are a perspective view and plan views, respectively, of an additional device according to the invention.

An additional device for stopping rotation of the heel-piece in a ski-touring binding is denoted overall by 1. Said device is designed to be mounted on bindings of the known type, for example bindings present on the market under the trade name Dynafit, a heel-piece 8 of which is shown schematically in the figure. The locking device according to the invention comprises a plate shaped so that it can be inserted underneath a movable support bracket 2 of a ski-stopper device, and is for example provided with a nose or protuberance 3 having dimensions and a thickness such that it can be inserted underneath a pin 4 and between two ex- isting springs 5 forming part of an operating mechanism of a ski-stopper device of the binding, and provided with one or two - for example threaded - fastening holes 9 which correspond to those already present on the support bracket 2 of the ski-stopper device and which are adapted to receive respective retaining members, such as bolts, so that a raised and shaped part 7 is stably fastened to the aforementioned bracket 2 and forms a stop for the heel-piece 8 of the binding.

A further subject of the present invention is the particular shaping which ensures that the stopping device 1 does not interfere in any way with the rotational movements of the binding safety release device when it is in the downhill skiing position. The shaping is moreover such as to ensure a sufficient robustness of the plate together with a low weight and advantageously its higher end 7 is designed to be inserted preferably inside a seat already present on the rear of the body of the heel-piece 8 underneath which there is a strong metal part which prevents breakage thereof even under high loads. This shaped form and the position of the new fastening point prevent particularly high stresses which act on the binding during walking with the heel-raising device inserted from exerting forces able to bend and cause breakage of the new fastening thus provided, as instead may occur with the defective original pin system.

It should be noted that the embodiment proposed for the present invention in the above description is intended to be a purely non-limiting example of the present invention. Without affecting the principle of the invention, the embodiments and the constructional details may be greatly modified with respect to that described and illustrated, without thereby departing from the scope of protection of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.