Clamping apparatus

In apparatus for clamping an end of a game ball string to the frame of a game ball racket, wherein said apparatus includes a pair of opposed, tapered wedges, for substantially surrounding a length of said string adjacent an end thereof and for being wedgingly received within a tapered passageway extending through said frame of the racket to cause the inner surfaces of said wedges to apply clamping pressure to said length of string and to thereby clamp said length of string to said game ball racket frame, and wherein upon said clamped length of string being clamped to said game ball racket frame, and upon said string being placed in tension due to stringing and due to the string impacting with a game ball during play, tensile stress is produced in said clamped length of string which tensile stress is maximum at the forward or pulled end thereof and which tensile stress decreases to a minimum at the rearward or free end thereof, and wherein upon the inner surfaces of said wedges being substantially aligned parallel with said length of string said outer surfaces of said wedges form an included angle with respect to the centerline of said string and wherein said tapered passageway forms an included angle with respect to said centerline of said string,

• wherein the improvement comprises:
• said included angle formed by said outer surfaces of said wedges being greater than said included angle formed by said tapered passageway whereby upon said wedges substantially surrounding said length of string and being wedgingly received within said tapered passageway, said outer surfaces of said wedges align with said tapered passageway and said inner surfaces of said wedges form a second generally conical tapered passageway along at least a substantial portion of said clamped length of string which second tapered passageway increases from a minimum in diameter at said rearward or free end of said clamped length of string to a maximum in diameter at said forward or pulled end of said clamped length of string whereby said inner surfaces of said wedges apply non-uniform clamping pressure to said clamped length of string which non-uniform clamping pressure is maximum at said rearward or free end of said clamped length of string and which non-uniform clamping pressure is minimum at said forward or pulled end of said clamped length of string whereby the tendency of said string to rupture at said forward or pulled end of said clamped length of string is reduced.

A clamping wedge for use in clamping the end of a game ball string in a passageway formed in the frame of a game ball racket, comprising:

• a generally tapered body of material having a substantially conical outer surface and a substantially cylindrical inner surface, and having forward and rearward ends with the rearward end thereof being substantially transverse with respect to said body of material;
• a handle formed integrally with said body of material at the rearward end thereof, said handle including a longitudinally extending portion generally linearly aligned with said body of material, a downwardly extending portion and an intermediate portion of reduced cross section interconnecting said longitudinally extending portion with the rearward end of said wedge, said longitudinally extending portion having a groove formed in the upper surface thereof for partially surrounding said string to facilitate alignment of said wedge with respect to said string;
• and
• said handle for being gripped by an operator to facilitate at least the initial insertion of said wedge into said passageway and upon said wedge being inserted into said passageway said intermediate portion of reduced cross section for breaking upon said longitudinally and downwardly extending portion being bent downwardly or twisted with respect to said wedge to thereby separate said handle from said body of material.