STICK

The present invention relates to an arrangement pertaining to the blade of a floorball stick, or an indoor bandy stick, according to the preamble of Claim 1.

Floorball is played on the majority of floor surfaces. The blade of present-day sticks is normally made of a thermoplastic material. In the majority of ball shooting situations, the blade is pressed against the floor at a given force. The friction thus generated between the blade and the floor reduces the useful energy applied to the ball, such that when struck the ball will travel more slowly than would otherwise be the case.

A highly popular floorball shot technique is one which emulates a hockey shot in which the blade of the stick is struck against the floor surface behind the ball with great force, therewith bending the shaft of the stick and allowing the stick blade to slide with the stick shaft bent and tensioned, to the point at which the stick straightens out and propels the ball, which has a weight of 23 grams. This technique produces the hardest shot, at present.

The aforesaid shooting technique functions best when friction between floor surface and stick blade is low, and was originally used in ice hockey where the low coefficient of friction afforded by the ice made the technique highly suitable.

The hockey shot technique is difficult to emulate in the game of floorball, which is played on rougher floor surfaces.

In order to facilitate all types of shots, and in particular so-called ice hockey shots, it is desirable to minimize the friction between stick blade and floor surface.

An object of the present invention is to produce a floorball stick blade that in comparison with typical sticks has a lower coefficient of friction on the slide surface between blade and floor surface, such as to solve the aforesaid problem. This object is achieved with the blade construction defined in the characterizing clause of the following Claims.

The result of reducing the surface area of the blade that comes into contact with the floor surface is to subject said contact surfaces to a greater surface pressure when shooting a ball, therewith increasing the temperature of said surfaces. This increase in temperature causes the plastic in the slide surfaces to soften at the instance of propelling the ball, therewith markedly reducing the coefficient of friction.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to exemplifying embodiments thereof and also with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal and sectional view of a first embodiment of an inventive floorball stick blade; and Fig. 2 is a longitudinal and sectional view of a second embodiment of an inventive floorball stick blade.

The blade 2 illustrated in Fig. 1 includes solid, preferably moulded, slide surfaces 1 which include slide protusions that are preferably made of the same material as the lower part of the blade 2 in general. The slide protusions are conveniently disposed along the underside of the blade 2, throughout the whole of the region that normally makes contact with the floor surface when firing a shot.

Fig. 2 illustrates an alternative embodiment in which the slide surfaces 1 with slide protusions are made of the same material as the remainder of the lower part of the blade 2 while being exchangeable. The exchangeable slide surface 1 is suitably provided with a plurality of slide protusions that can be fastened by means of rivets, screws, snap-fasteners (4, 5, 6) or glue. The slide surfaces and slide protusions may have the form of slide bars, balls or raised parts of some other suitable rounded shape.

The reduced contact surface between floor surface and slide surfaces 1 on the underside of the blade 2 result in a high surface pressure on the slide surfaces 1 when firing a shot, such as to cause the slide surfaces (slide shoulders) to soften and therewith lower the coefficient of friction between blade 2 and floor surface 3. This also reduces the braking friction force acting on the blade 2.

It will be evident that the inventive blade is not limited to the aforesaid material and that other suitable materials may be used. The extension of the slide surface 1 along the length of the blade may also be varied as desired.

The invention is mainly applied with floorball sticks or indoor bandy clubs.

The invention is thus not restricted to the illustrated and described embodiments, since changes and modifications are possible within the scope of the following Claims.