US 4,240,630 AGranted

Game ball check valve

OwnerAllan C. Hoffmaninventor

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An improved check valve is disclosed primarily for use in game balls such as tennis balls, racquet balls, footballs, basketballs, and the like. The valve is adapted for molding into the shell of the game ball upon initial manufacture or for insertion therein as part of a valve insert subsequent to manufacture. The valve is characterized by being of unitary construction and having a normally open and a normally closed portion. The valve is constructed of a tapered deformable elastomeric material such that the normally closed portion seals the ball against low initial internal pressures sufficiently to allow the internal pressure within the ball to deform the normally open portion into wedged engagement with the passageway through the wall of the ball. As thus configured, increased internal pressure wedges the normally open portion increasingly tightly into the passageway to provide a tight seal which is resistant to opening upon impact of the ball. The normally open portion is provided with knife edges and a polished surface on the interior to provide leak-free sealing.

A unitary check valve for sealing a passageway to allow pressurized fluid to flow axially through the passageway in one direction and prevent pressurized fluid from flowing axially through the passageway in the opposite direction comprising:

(a) an annular body portion carried coaxially within the passageway, said body portion being thick enough in the axial direction adjacent the outer edges of the passageway that in combination with the support provided by the material defining the passageway said portion is substantially non-deformable in the axial direction;
and, PG,24
(b) a sealing nipple portion carried within said body portion tapering radially inward and axially in the direction of desired fluid flow from said body portion on one end to meet in sealed contact adjacent the opposite end, the thickness of said sealing nipple portion in the axial direction becoming increasingly thinner and correspondingly increasingly deformable in the axial direction radially inward from said one end whereby the application of fluid under pressure to said valve in the direction opposite desired fluid flow causes said nipple portion to be deformed axially into said body portion in a wedging action increasingly sealing the passageway as increased fluid pressure is applied, said taper being a smooth curve extending from a point on a line substantially normal to the axis of the passageway on said one end to a point on a line substantially parallel to the axis of the passageway on said other end whereby fluid pressure within the passageway tending to move fluid through the passageway in a non-desired direction acts normal to the axis on said nipple portion adjacent said other end to initially prevent fluid passage therethrough as it also acts axially on the rest of said nipple portion to deform said nipple portion in said wedging action into said body portion, said nipple portion being of a material having the deformion and sealing qualities of soft natural rubber, the surfaces of said nipple portion that meet during said wedging deformation into said body portion having a finish produced by a mirror-smooth mold.

Facts

Application

05/895,117Filed 10 Apr 1978 · continuation in part

Priority

20 Oct 1975

Granted

23 Dec 1980

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

A63B 39/04
Arrangements for maintaining the pressure: pricking-balls; Tools for blowing them up
F16K 15/147
The closure elements being fixed along all or a part of their periphery: the closure elements having specially formed slits or being of an…
F16K 15/202
Specially designed for inflatable bodies, e.g. tyres: and with flexible valve member
Y10T 137/7882
Having expansible port: having exit lip

Abstract

Claims5