Breakaway safety base
OwnerRoger E. Hallinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A breakaway safety base for use in playing baseball where the base is secured to a ground support by resilient deformable interengageable members carried on both the base and support which form a plurality of physical connections securing the base to the support. High-injury potential lateral loading forces on the base shear the connections to free the base for lateral movement across the support.
Claims9
A breakaway safety base assembly comprising a lower ground support and an upper base member, said ground support having an upper mounting surface and a lower surface, means depending from the lower surface of the support for securing the support at a desired ground surface location on a playing field;
- the base member having a top, a lower surface adapted to set flush against the upper mounting surface, and joining sides between the top and the lower surface of the base member such that said base member is adapted to extend above the ground surface for engagement by a player whereby the safety base may be subjected to a lateral loading force said lower surface of the base member being adapted to be positioned upon the upper mounting surface of the support when the safety base is in the playing position on the ground support;
- a plurality of cooperating and complementary pairs of breakaway locking elements arranged throughout the upper mounting surface of the ground support and the lower surface of the base member to lock the base to the ground support with a shear resistant breakaway connection, each pair of breakaway locking elements having a plurality of exposed oppositely facing resilient and laterally deformable members, the deformable members of each pair of breakaway locking elements including cooperating engagement surfaces, first means for connecting one element of each pair to the lower surface of the base member with the deformable members facing outwardly on the lower surface of the base member and second means for connecting the other element of each pair to the upper mounting surface of the ground support with the deformable members facing outwardly of the upper mounting surface;
- said cooperating deformable locking elements of each pair being disposed to contact each other when the base member is positioned on the ground support in the playing position, the resilient deformable members of said one locking element extending past the deformable element of said other locking element with the cooperating engagement surfaces of said members interlocking to form a plurality of laterally deformable shear resistant breakaway physical connections, said breakaway physical connections being disposed for sequentially releasably locking the base member to the ground support, and being adapted to sever due to shear forces only at the point of an applied lateral loading force sufficient to compress the base member at the point of applied force while the remainder of said connections hold the base member to the ground support and to sequentially sever across the base in response to only a lateral loading force at least equal to the the total shear breakaway force of individual pairs of locking elements whereby low non-injury potential lateral forces applied to the base member are insufficient to break the connection, while higher injury-potential lateral forces subject the connections to sufficient shear loading to deform the members and sequentially break the connections thereby breaking the base member away from the ground support in a lateral direction only.
A breakaway safety base assembly comprising a ground support having a mounting surface, means depending from the support and adapted to be buried to secure the ground support at a desired location on the base path of a baseball playing field, a base member adapted to be placed in a playing position on the ground support, said base member having a top, a lower surface and joining sides said lower surface adapted to be releasably locked on the top of the mounting surface with shear resistant breakaway physical connections, said connections being made up of a plurality of pairs of cooperating locking elements, one element of each pair being secured to each of said surfaces, each element including a plurality of outwardly extending resilient and laterally deformably members, the members of each element in a pair extending past each other and including interlocking engagement surfaces forming shear resistant breakaway physical connections, said connections being adapted to sever due to shear forces only at the point of an applied lateral loading force sufficient to compress the base member at the point of applied force while the remainder of said connections hold the base member to the ground support and to sequentially sever across the base in response only to a lateral loading force in excess of 250 pounds so as to hold the base member on the ground support when the base member receives low non-injury potential lateral loading forces of less than 250 pounds and when subjected to high-injury potential lateral loading forces in excess of 250 pounds to sequentially shear the connections across the base starting at the point of impact and cause the base member to breakaway from the ground support in a lateral direction only.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.