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FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns a support base for skittles or similar elements.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Support bases are known, which can be used for example to support, temporarily or continuously, other elements that are necessary to correctly perform and/or regularly execute an activity, at least for the normal duration of its performance.

In particular, a support base is known, provided with a central body from which arms branch off: the arms are made in a single body with the central body and skittles are positioned on them in predefined positions.

Users throw a ring or a disc and try to insert a skittle in the ring, or they try to knock over one or more skittles with the disc, winning points depending on the position of the skittle.

The support bases are made with particular geometric shapes and sizes and are usually made of metal or metal alloys, such as for example steel, stainless steel, iron, aluminum, brass, bronze or wood, glass, ceramic, ivory or marble. Known support bases can reach a considerable size and are therefore very heavy and bulky.

It is also known that these support bases must be contained in suitable containers, to be sold for example in shops; therefore, the sizes of the container in which they are packaged depend on the characteristics and sizes of the support base.

One disadvantage of known support bases is therefore their size and weight, which require bulky containers for handling, storage, transport and sale.

Another typical disadvantage of known support bases is their excessive production cost, which is therefore reflected in a high purchase price for the final client.

Another disadvantage is the typical heaviness of known support bases, which is the main cause of difficulty in transporting them, and their unwieldiness.

There is therefore a need to perfect support bases so that they can overcome at least one of the disadvantages of the state of the art.

In particular, one purpose of the present invention is to obtain a support base which, at least in its condition of non-use, allows to reduce its overall bulk, reducing the problems of storage and transport.

Another purpose of the present invention is to obtain a support base that is easy and quick to make and produce.

Another purpose of the present invention is to obtain a support base with limited production costs .

Another purpose of the present invention is to obtain a support base that is light and manageable.

The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is set forth and characterized in the independent claims, while the dependent claims describe other characteristics of the invention or variants to the main inventive idea.

In accordance with the above purposes, a support base according to the present invention comprises a central body and a plurality of arms that branch off from the central body.

According to one aspect of the present invention, at least the central body and the arms are separate elements, and can be selectively combined and removed using their attachment ends, depending on the operations that have to be carried out on each occasion with them or on them.

According to another aspect, the central body also consists of individual elements able to be coupled.

The solution according to the invention allows to de-couple the arms from the central body, or to dis-assemble the central body too, in this way obtaining components with limited sizes when unused, compared with the overall sizes when the support base is in use.

By reducing the sizes of the components it is possible to simplify - J - production and to limit the overall sizes for storage, packaging and transport.

In particular, it can be provided that the individual components, which when assembled constitute the support base, are made using molding or pressing techniques, or pressure die-casting.

According to the invention, the individual components are obtained on each occasion of plastic, composite or metal alloys.

The individual components have reciprocal connection means, for example the male and/or female type, bayonet type or other systems suitable for the purpose.

Moreover, according to a variant, clamping means are provided, which stabilize the connections between two or more individual components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of some forms of embodiment, given as a non-restrictive example with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

- fig. 1 is a perspective view from above of a support base for skittles or suchlike according to forms of embodiment described here;

- fig. 2 is a perspective view from below of fig. 1 ;

- fig. 3 is an exploded perspective view from above of a detail of a support base for skittles or suchlike according to forms of embodiment described here;

- fig. 4 is an exploded perspective view from below of fig. 3;

- fig. 5 is a cross section from V to V in fig. 6;

- fig. 6 is a view from above of the support base for skittles or suchlike in fig. 1 with the throwing elements attached;

- fig. 7 shows a variant of fig. 6.

To facilitate comprehension, the same reference numbers have been used, where possible, to identify identical common elements in the drawings. It is understood that elements and characteristics of one form of embodiment can conveniently be incorporated into other forms of embodiment without further clarifications.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME FORMS OF EMBODIMENT

The attached drawings are used to describe example forms of embodiment of a support base 10. 7

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According to one aspect of the present invention, the support base 10 comprises at least a central body 12 and a plurality of arms 16 that branch off from the central body 12.

Hereafter, merely by way of example, we shall describe solutions in which the central body 12 remains a single unit.

However, it is within the spirit of the invention that the central body 12 and/or the arms 16 consist of two or more elements, or elementary components, which can be combined with each other and/or with the arms 16.

In the following examples, the arms 16 can be selectively connected with the possible spokes 14 in the central body 12 to define the desired ramified structure.

Alternatively, the central body 12 is made in a discoid shape, like a circle, or a desired polygonal shape, and the desired connections with the respective arms 16 or portions of arms 16 are present on the periphery.

The central body 12 can have a mainly flat development, as shown in the attached drawings, or it can have a concave or convex shape, or other shapes depending on the difficulty to be conferred on the game.

According to some variants, the number of spokes 14 and respective arms 16 can be one, but preferably will be more than one, for example three, four, five, six, seven and so on.

When the support base 10 is not being used, the various individual elementary components that make up the support base 10 are disconnected from each other, or separated from each other, so that they do not occupy much space and can be easily transported and stored.

The support base 10 has a thickness S which can be substantially uniform or can vary from the center of the support base 10 to the arm 16 or vice versa.

According to a variant, the central body 12 and/or the arms 16 have at least one support foot 40.

If there is only one support foot 40 located centrally to the central body 12, the central body 12 with the respective arms 16 can be positioned circumferentially as desired, or rotatable, possibly continuously.

According to a variant of the invention, the arms 16 also have support feet The support feet 40 can be integrated with the elementary component, or can be applied on each occasion, using any known system, depending on the ground and/or the use of the tool.

The various elementary components include stable connection means 21 during operations, at the same time allowing to re-obtain the elementary components themselves if not being used, transported or stored.

We shall now illustrate cases where the central body 12 is in a single body, although it remains within the spirit of the invention that also the central body 12 and/or the amis 16 can be dis-assembled into elementary components.

In the present example, connection means 21 are provided between the central body 12 and the anus 16, in order to reciprocally connect them.

The connection means 21 can be chosen from a group comprising geometric couplings, same-shape couplings, rapid attachment couplings, bayonet couplings, snap-in couplings or similar and comparable elements suitable for the purpose.

According to a first variant, the connection means 21 are separate elements from the central body 12 and arms 16, so that the connection means 21 anchor on one and/or other elementary component.

According to a second variant, the connection means 21 comprise first attachment portions 22 and second attachment portions 24, made respectively in one elementary component and in the elementary component associated with the first one.

According to some variants, the first attachment portion 22 and the second attachment portion 24 comprise a female seating 26 and respectively a male terminal 28, or vice versa.

The male terminal 28 is made with a geometric shape and size suitable to confer mechanical interference with the female seating 26 and vice versa, for example it can require adequate pressure to be exerted, so that it can be positioned in the female seating 26.

According to possible forms of embodiment, the elementary components can comprise retaining means, not shown in the drawings, configured to constrain one elementary component to the other in an even more stable manner: the retaining means can be, for example, hooks, teeth, pins or similar or comparable elements.

According to variant forms of embodiment described, the various elementary components, such as for example central body 12 and arms 16, or their elementary components, have a support surface 30 and walls 32 and possible stiffening ribs 33 to create a stiffened U-shape.

According to variant forms of embodiment, not shown in the drawings, at least some elementary components can also be made box-like.

The support surface 30 of the central body 12 and/or the anus 16 can be flat, or can have inclinations depending on the difficulties to be obtained when the support base 10 is in use.

According to the present invention, the support base 10 is used to support and position a plurality of skittles 36 on the support surface 30.

The inclinations of the support surface 30 can also affect the axial position of the skittle 36.

According to variant forms of embodiment, the support surface 30 can comprise a plurality of positioning seatings 34, configured to position the skittles 36 correctly.

The positioning seatings 34 can be holes 35 and/or pins 37, able to axially constrain the respective skittles 36.

The pins 37 can be stable on the support surface 30 or cooperate with the holes 35.

According to possible forms of embodiment, the positioning seatings 34 can include indicators 41 configured to signal the exact circumferential position to be conferred on each skittle 36.

According to variant forms of embodiment, the indicators 41 can be, by way of example, marks made by putting paint, sticky, labels or stickers, by incisions, hollows or slight depressions.

According to variant forms of embodiment, the skittles 36 can simply rest on the support surface 30 of the support base 10.

In a support base 10 the arms 16 can have a constant length L, or two or more lengths depending on the difficulty to be created during the game.

According to possible forms of embodiment, described using fig. 6, at least one throwing element 45 can be associated with the support base 10, configured to be thrown toward the skittles 36.

According to variant forms of embodiment, the throwing element 45 can be a disc 46 or a ring 48, with suitable sizes compared with the skittles 36, configured to be thrown against or onto the skittles 36.

It is clear that modifications and/or additions of parts may be made to the support base 10 as described heretofore, without departing from the field and scope of the present invention.

It is also clear that, although the present invention has been described with reference to some specific examples, a person of skill in the art shall certainly be able to achieve many other equivalent forms of support base 10, having the characteristics as set forth in the claims and hence all coming within the field of protection defined thereby.