Ball throwing apparatus with safety feature
OwnerWalter L. Gatininventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A ball throwing apparatus includes an enclosure formed with an aperture and a movable gate to cover the aperture. A throwing arm adapted to receive a ball is pivotally mounted within the enclosure for movement between a ball loading position and a released position. A suction cup element holds the throwing arm in the ball loading position and releases the throwing arm from the ball loading position after a time delay. When released, the throwing arm is biased by a spring to move from the ball loading position to the released position to throw the ball. At the same time, movement of the throwing arm acts to open the gate to allow discharge of the ball from the enclosure. The use of a gate makes the ball throwing apparatus safer by enclosing the moving parts of the apparatus to make them inaccessible when in use.
Claims28
A ball throwing apparatus comprising:
- an enclosure formed with an aperture;
- a pivotable gate including biasing means to pivot the gate to cover the aperture;
- a throwing arm adapted to receive a ball pivotally mounted within the enclosure for movement between a ball loading position and a released position,
- means for releasably holding the throwing arm in the ball loading position;
- means for releasing the throwing arm from the ball loading position;
- actuating means for moving the throwing arm from the ball loading position to the released position to throw the ball;
- and
- means to open the gate to allow discharge of the ball from the enclosure.
A ball throwing apparatus as claimed in claim 21 including means to adjust the trajectory of a thrown ball.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.