Inflatable game ball and method of making same
AssigneeMei Huei Liu
InventorI-Teh Chang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sports or games balls having an inflatable bladder in which the bladder is re-inforced by a plurality of cloth (or other woven materials) pieces which are adhered to the bladder surface in a substantially orthogonal manner. The cloth-wrapped bladder is heat treated within a mould assembly to strengthen the glue bonding between the cloth pieces and the bladder surfaces and to provide a bladder with a well-defined shaped.
Claims21
Method of making a sports- or games-ball having an inflatable bladder including the steps of:
- inflating said bladder until the surface of said bladder is generally under tension,
- adhering a plurality of woven material pieces to the outer surface of said inflated bladder,
- moistening said woven material wrapped inflated bladder,
- placing said woven material wrapped and inflated bladder inside a mould,
- further inflating said woven material wrapped bladder to a pre-determined pressure until said bladder presses against said mould,
- apply heat to said woven material wrapped and inflated bladder inside said mould to strengthen the bonding between said bladder and said cloth pieces.
A method of making an inflatable bladder of a ball by applying a plurality of cloth- or woven-material patch pairs onto the surface of said inflatable bladder, where at least some of said pairs of patches are disposed in a diametrically opposite manner on the surface of said bladder.
A ball having a hollow inflatable bladder, wherein said bladder includes a plurality of cross-shaped cloth pieces disposed substantially at the diametrically opposite ends of said bladder, said bladder is enclosed within an outer body made of a plurality of panels sewn together.
A ball having a hollow inflatable bladder, wherein said bladder includes a plurality of overlapping cross-shaped cloth pieces disposed on the surface of said bladder.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.