Bat with multiple hitting profiles
AssigneeBaden Sports, Inc.
InventorsLawrence E. Carlson, Joseph V. Severino
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A ball bat includes one or more stiffeners configured to provide an attenuating surface that limits the bat barrel's elastic deformation as the barrel deflects radially inwardly as a result of a particularly violent bat to ball collision. The stiffener is spaced apart from the inner surface of the barrel a predetermined distance to form a gap, wherein the gap extends only partially around the inner circumference of the barrel. The presence of the gap extending only partially around the barrel circumference provides multiple hitting profiles around the bat's circumference, with the best performance occurring adjacent the gap, and a reduced performance at all other locations around the bat's circumference.
Claims13
A bat, comprising:
- a cylindrical barrel having an inner surface defining a circumference and a length, and
- a performance attenuating insert positioned inside the barrel and having a first curved surface that is concentric and makes contact with a first portion of the circumference of the barrel's inner surface and a second curved surface that is spaced apart from a second portion of the circumference of the barrel's inner surface such that a semi-circumferential gap is formed between the second curved surface of the insert and the second portion of the circumference of the barrel's inner surface, wherein the gap is concentric with the barrel's inner surface.
A hollow cylindrical bat comprising a hollow barrel section that includes an inner surface and an outer surface, a handle section, an insert positioned within the barrel section that includes an arc-shaped surface and an attenuating surface, and a taper section extending between the barrel and handle sections, wherein the arc-shaped surface of the insert maintains surface contact with a first portion of the inner surface of the barrel section to configure a first hitting profile around a first portion of the outer surface of the barrel section that corresponds to the first portion of the inner surface of the barrel section, and the attenuating surface of the insert is set off a distance from a second portion of the inner surface of the barrel section to form a semi-circumferential gap and configure a second hitting profile around a second portion of the outer surface of the barrel section that corresponds to the second portion of the inner surface of the barrel section, wherein the gap is concentric with the inner surface of the barrel section.
A bat, comprising:
- a handle, a barrel having an outer surface and an inner surface, and a mid-section between the handle and the barrel;
- and
- an insert positioned inside the barrel proximate the bat's sweet spot, wherein the insert is affixed to the inner surface of the barrel around less than 360 degrees of its inner perimeter, and
- wherein a portion of the insert is spaced apart from the inner surface of the barrel to form a gap between the insert and the inner surface of the barrel that is filled with a shear-thickening fluid that exhibits higher viscosity at higher bat-ball collision speeds.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.