Electrical ski boot release
OwnerNicholas F. D'Antonio, Richard L. Batesinventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Apparatus for releasing a binding which fastens a ski boot to a ski, produces one or more electrical signals corresponding to the force between the ski and the ski boot and the torque between the ski and the ski boot, and actuates a ski boot release mechanism when the force or torque or a combination of both exceed predetermined values.
Claims48
A system for operating ski binding means releasably mounting a ski boot on a ski, said system comprising:
- (a) at least one sensing means for sensing at least one type of force between the ski and ski boot in magnitude to the magnitude of at least one of the forces being sensed;
- (b) second means electrically connected to said sensing means, said second means receiving and responding to the magnitude and duration of said first electrical signal to produce at least one second electrical signal, said second electrical signal being a function of the magnitude of said forces and of at least one non-instantaneous time characteristic thereof;
- (c) third means electrically connected to said second means, said third means being responsive to the signals produced by said second means to produce an actuating signal when said second electrical signal exceeds at least one predetermined value;
- and
- (d) actuating means electrically connected to said third means, said actuating means receiving and responding to said actuating signal to release the ski binding means to allow the ski boot to be separated from the ski.
Apparatus as set forth in claim 9, wherein said actuating means comprising:
- a permanent magnet, electro-magnetic means operatively associated with said binding means and said permanent magnet, said electro-magnetic means being positioned and constructed to move relative to said permanent magnet in response to the energization of said electro-magnetic means to release said binding means, and means for energizing said electro-magnetic means in response to said actuating signal.
A method of automatically releasing a ski boot from a ski on which the ski boot is mounted, in the event of danger to the skier, the method comprising the steps of:
- constantly monitoring the forces acting on a skier's leg, generating force signals representative of the forces acting on the skier's leg;
- developing a threshold signal representative of the maximum stresses to be tolerated by the skier's leg;
- developing a control signal whose continuous magnitude is dependent both upon the magnitude and duration of the force signals;
- comparing said control signal with said threshold signal and releasing the ski boot from the ski upon the control signal reaching a value at least equal to that of said threshold signal.
A device for automatically releasing a ski boot from a ski on which the ski boot is mounted, in the event of danger to the skier, the device comprising;
- a ski boot holder;
- locking means for fixing said ski boot holder to the ski;
- monitoring means in the form of a pressure recorder for continuously monitoring the forces acting on a skier's leg and comprising;
- first generating means for generating first signals representative of the forces acting on the skier's leg;
- second generating means for developing a predetermined threshold signal representative of the maximum stresses to be tolerated by the skier's leg;
- third generating means for developing control signals whose continuous magnitudes are dependent upon both the magnitude and duration of said first signals;
- comparator means for comparing said control signals with said threshold signal;
- and a threshold value switch for controlling the locking means and for unlocking the locking means to release the ski boot from the ski upon the control signals reaching a value at least equal to that of said threshold signal.
An automatically operable safety fastener operated under control of extraneous influence, comprising means for sensing and transducing into an electrical signal at least one force applied to at least one element of the fastener, first comparison means for comparing the electrical signals so derived with a predetermined minimal value, means connected to said first comparison means for integrating with respect to time said transduced signal to provide an integrated signal output only when the magnitude of the transduced signal is larger than said predetermined minimal value, second comparison means for comparing said integrated signal with a predetermined maximum value, and fastener unlocking means actuated only when the magnitude of said integrated signal is greater than the magnitude of said predetermined maximum value, wherein said unlocking means comprise magnetic or electromagnetic locking circuits and means for saturating or desaturating said circuits when said integral is higher than said predetermined maximum value.
An automatically operable safety fastener operated under control of extraneous influence, comprising means for sensing and transducing into an electrical signal at least one force applied to at least one element of the fastener, first comparison means for comparing the electrical signals so derived with a predetermined minimal value, means connected to said first comparison means for integrating with respect to time said transduced signal to provide an integrated signal output only when the magnitude of the transduced signal is larger than said predetermined minimal value, second comparison means for comparing said integrated signal with a predetermined maximum value, and fastener unlocking means actuated only when the magnitude of said integrated signal is greater than the magnitude of said predetermined maximum value, wherein said sensing and transducing means provide at least two different signals each corresponding to a force applied to an element of said fastener, said signals being processed by a mixing circuit before being fed to said integrating and first comparing means.
An automatically operable safety fastener operated under control of extraneous influences, comprising means for sensing and transducing into an electrical signal at least one force applied to at least one element of the fastener, first comparison means for comparing the electrical signals so derived with a predetermined minimal value, means connected to said first comparison means for integrating with respect to time said transduced signal to provide an integrated signal output only when the magnitude of the transduced signal is larger than said predetermined minimal value, second comparison means for comparing said integrated signal with a predetermined maximum value, and fastener unlocking means actuated only when the magnitude of said integrated signal is greater than the magnitude of said predetermined maximum value, wherein said sensing and transducing means comprise strain gauge sensors mounted in bridge connection and connected to operational amplifiers the output signal of which is transmitted to said integrating and comparing means through an absolute value setting circuit.
A method of automatically unlocking a safety fastener upon the occurrence or under the action of predetermined critical extraneous influences, comprising the steps of sensing and measuring at least one force applied to at least one element of said fastener and
- comparing said measured force with a predetermined minimum value,
- wherein the improvement consists in that said method also comprises the steps of integrating said force with respect to time to provide an integrated force greater than zero only when the measured force exceeds said predetermined minimum value, said integrated force being equal to zero for all values of the measured force less than the minimum value,
- comparing the magnitude of said integrated force with a predetermined maximum value,
- and automatically unlocking said fastener when said integrated force, for a measured force higher than said minimum value, becomes higher than said predetermined maximum value, consisting in unlocking said fastener by magnetical saturation or desaturation of a fastener locking magnetic or electromagnetic circuit.
A method of automatically unlocking a safety fastener upon the occurrence or under the action of predetermined critical extraneous influence, comprising the steps of sensing and of measuring at least two forces acting upon elements of said fastener, combining said forces into a resulting force, processing said resulting force by comparing it with a predetermined minimum value, by integrating it with respect to time to provide an integrated force greater than zero only when the measured force exceeds the predetermined minimum value, by comparing said integral with a predetermined maximum value and unlocking said fastener when said integral of the resulting force becomes higher than said maximum value for a resulting force above said minimum value, the integral of said resulting force being zero for all values of said resulting force below said predetermined minimum value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.