Portable ball throwing machine having oscillatory feature
AssigneeRallymaster, Inc.
InventorsJack S. Haller, Robert L. Moore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A portable ball throwing macine employs a battery operated motor for projecting tennis balls for practice purposes. The balls are fed from a bin by means of a ball fence and agitator to a tube which conveys the ball to a ball track. A spring biased arm is cocked by the motor and released at the correct point in the cycle by operation of a cam gear and pawl. The arm then strikes the ball projecting it from the machine. Included in the device is an arrangement for oscillating the device from side to side to vary the pattern of balls projected from the machine and a gate mechanism to index balls onto the ball track.
Claims19
A ball throwing machine comprising:
- (a) a ball bin for holding a supply of balls,
- (b) a ball firing track,
- (c) a ball tube for conveying the balls from the bin to the track,
- (d) fence and agitator means for feeding balls from the bin to the tube with minimal jamming,
- (e) means for striking a ball positioned on said ball track,
- (f) gate means for permitting one ball at a time onto said ball track,
- (g) said ball tube includes upper and lower sections and said fence and agitator means includes:
- (i) a ball fence and agitator connected thereto provided in said bin for unbunching balls and feeding them toward the upper section of said ball tube, and
- (ii) means for reciprocating the ball fence and the upper tube section such that when one is in a raised position the other is lowered whereby the fence and tube cooperate to load balls into the tube.
A ball throwing machine comprising:
- (a) a ball bin for holding a supply of balls,
- (b) a ball firing track,
- (c) a ball tube for conveying the balls from the bin to the track,
- (d) fence means for feeding balls to the tube,
- (e) means for simultaneously reciprocating the tube and fence means relative to each other.
- (f) means for oscillating said machine from side to side, and
- (g) means for striking a ball positioned on said ball track and driving said oscillating means in synchronism therewith.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.