Automatically releasable ski binding unit

In an automatically releasable ski binding unit, comprising front and heel parts, a mechanical boot retaining system, an electronic control system powered by a battery power source, and a release system for the ski boot, the improvement comprising:

• a pair of parallel connecting strips to which said front and heel parts are mountable, said front part being mounted for tilting rotation about an axis which extends transversely of the longitudinal axis of said strips;
• an elongated take-up rail mountable to a ski to have its major dimension extending along the longitudinal axis of said ski, said strips being configured to be guided in said take-up rail;
• and
• detent means for locking said strips to said rail in the area of the front part only.

A ski boot binding system comprising:

• toe and heel binding units;
• toe unit mounting means for permitting rotation of at least a sole-engaging portion of said toe binding unit about an axis transverse to the longitudinal direction of said ski;
• mounting platform means for mountably accepting said binding units;
• guide means attachable to a ski and configured for slidingly captively accepting said mounting platform means for movement along said longitudinal direction of said ski;
• and
• releasable first locking means associated with said toe binding unit for locking said mounting platform means to said guide means at a plurality of chosen positions, said first locking means including detent means responsive to rotation of said sole-engaging portion in a first direction about said axis downward from a sole locking position for operation said first locking means to a releasing condition.

In a ski boot binding system having toe and heel binding units attachable to a ski, said toe binding unit having sole-engaging means for providing locking engagement with the toe portion of the sole of an inserted boot, said heel binding unit including sole-engaging means for providing locking engagement with the heel portion of said sole, resilient biasing means for urging said heel unit sole-engaging means towards the heel of said inserted ski boot, ad electrically powered release means adapted for connection to a battery for operating said heel unit sole-engaging means to a releasing condition to release said boot responsively to heel pressures against said heel unit sole-engaging means above a given threshold value, the improvement comprising:

• pivoting mounting means for mounting said toe unit sole-engaging-means for rotation about an axis transverse to the longitudinal direction of said ski to be tiltable forward and away from the upper surface of said ski to provide space for accepting the insertion of said ski boot to engage said heel unit sole-engaging means and to force said heel of said ski boot against said heel unit sole-engaging means responsively to rotation of said toe unit sole-engaging means into a non-tilted orientation to close said toe binding unit;
• switching means operatively responsive to the movement of said heel unit sole-engaging means for providing electrical power to said release means, said switch means being configured to be in an open non-power-supplying condition at the static closure pressure against said heel unit sole-engaging means caused by complete closure of said toe binding unit and be operable to a closed condition above said threshold pressure value;
• and
• releasable toe unit locking means for locking said toe unit sole-engaging means in said non-tilted orientation.