US20090114756A1

US20090114756A1 - Spiral Wound Type Grip Tape

Info

Publication number: US20090114756A1
Application number: US11/933,896
Authority: US
Inventors: Chi-Feng Hung
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-11-01
Filing date: 2007-11-01
Publication date: 2009-05-07

Abstract

A spiral wound type grip tape is provided. The spiral wound type grip tape includes an elastic strip and at least one flexible thread. The flexible thread is disposed in the elastic strip, such that the grip tape can be spirally wound on the surface of a grip. The spiral wound type grip tape can be easily installed on a grip, and can be applied to the grips of the golf clubs, baseball bats, or tennis rackets of sports equipment.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a spiral wound type grip tape, especially for a spiral wound type grip tape having a flexible metal thread but without adhesive resins.
2. Related Art
Due to the system of five-day working week with two rest days, leisure activities become more popular for most people, and the leisure activities are more diversification than ever before. And there are more and more people participating sports activities, such as golf, baseball, tennis, and so on; therefore, the quality requirements for sports equipment, such as golf clubs, baseball bats, or tennis rackets, are also increased.
However, the sports equipment of golf clubs, baseball bats, and tennis rackets are manipulated by hand; therefore, the quality of the grip of those sports equipment is a key point for the users, so that how to let users feel comfortable to use and manipulate becomes an important topic.
In prior arts, an adhesive resin is coated on the back surfaces of conventional grip tapes. If the conventional grip tape is not successfully wound on the grip of sports equipment, the conventional grip tapes must be taken off and scrapped, and the user has to buy new grip tapes to rewind again; however, normal users are not familiar with the winding skills, so that they will fail again and again so as to waste time and money. Therefore, the conventional grip tapes are usually wound by hiring an expert. However, by hiring an expert, an additional cost will be incurred. In addition, because the grip tape is a consumptive product, it will wear out and has to be replaced often. If every times a user has to rely on an expert to wind the grip tape, the user will feel very inconvenient if the user has unexpectedly to replace the grip tapes in the ball field. Moreover, the conventional grip tape is wound and mounted on a grip by adhesive resin. The adhesive resin will be accelerately aged and inferior by sweat in hand and dust in the environment, so that the replace frequency of the grip tape will become more often, which will not only greatly bother the user but certainly bring inconvenient for the user. In addition, a rubber grip sleeve is adopted by another conventional grip tape design, that is, a rubber sleeve is used to cover on the grip of sports equipment. However, because there are wide variety of the grips in specifications and patterns, manufacturers must produce various grip sleeves according to the specifications and the patterns of the sports equipment. Therefore, many production lines have to setup for producing small quantity of the grip sleeves or the production lines have to change over frequently for each specification or pattern, so that economic benefit can not be met. Also, users have to buy the grip sleeves according to the specifications and the patterns of their sports equipment, which will really bother the users in purchasing or using.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a spiral wound type grip tape, so that the users can easily wind the grip tape on the grip of the sports equipment of golf clubs, baseball bats, or tennis rackets by themselves. In addition, no adhesive resin is used in the spiral wound type grip tape of the present invention, so that the aging or inferior problem of the adhesive resin can be eliminated and the life time of the grip tape can be increased. Moreover, there is no rubber sleeve involved in the spiral wound type grip tape of the present invention and the spiral wound type grip tape can be applied to the grips of any sports equipment with different specifications so as to facilitate users to purchase, and the production lines can be simplified and the production cost can also be reduced for manufacturers.
To achieve the object, the present invention provides a spiral wound type grip tape, which includes an elastic strip and a flexible thread disposed in the elastic strip. The spiral wound type grip tape of the present invention can be applied to any sports equipment such as golf clubs, baseball bats, or tennis rackets. If fails to wind the spiral wound type grip tape on the grip of sports equipment properly, the user can unwind the grip tape in a counter-direction to loose the grip tape. Then, the user can spirally rewind the grip tape again and make a detail adjustment in the winding position. The spiral wound type grip tape of the present invention can be made of rubber materials to form an elastic strip, such that the hardness and softness, shape and texture, or color of the grip tape can be adjusted according to differences in use of golf clubs, baseball bats, or tennis rackets.
The spiral wound type grip tape of the present invention can have effects of easy installation, low price, comfortable use, long using life, easy selection and purchase, and so on.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and which thus is not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a structure schematic diagram of a spiral wound type grip tape according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of the final product of the spiral wound type grip tape according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is an installation schematic diagram of the spiral wound type grip tape according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram of the spiral wound type grip tape with multiple flexible threads according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram of the spiral wound type grip tape with thin foil threads according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a structure schematic diagram of the spiral wound type grip tape having a hollow cylindrical sleeve in its both ends according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an installation schematic diagram of the spiral wound type grip tape having a hollow cylindrical sleeve in its both ends according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a structure schematic diagram of the spiral wound type grip tape having a bevel edge in its both ends according to one embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is an installation schematic diagram of the spiral wound type grip tape having a bevel edge in its both ends according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The features and practice of the present invention will be illustrated below in detail through preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2A, it is a spiral wound type grip tape 10. The grip tape 10 comprises an elastic strip 11 and a flexible thread 12. The material of the elastic strip 11 is a rubber material; therefore, the hardness and softness of the elastic strip 11 can be adjusted according to the differences of the sports equipment. Wherein, the elastic strip 11 can also be made of a plastic material. The inner surface 112 of the elastic strip 11 are formed with textures, such that the friction between the inner surface 112 of the elastic strip 11 and the grip surface of the sports equipment can be increased so as to make the grip tape 10 firmly attach to the grip of the sports equipment. In addition, the shapes and textures of the outer surface 111 of the elastic strip 11 can be adjusted according to the sports equipment. The first end portion 113 of the elastic strip 11 has a hollow cylindrical sleeve, which is used to sleeve into one end of the grip of sports equipment. The thickness of the elastic strip 11 is gradually reduced from the first end portion 113 toward a second end portion 114 of the elastic strip 11, and the second end portion 114 is a bevel edge. In addition, the flexible thread 12 is made of a metal and preferably made of an aluminium alloy to be a cylindrical thread, which is disposed in the elastic stripe 11. As shown in FIG. 2B, the spiral wound type grip tape 10 is spirally wound on a grip 20 of sports equipment.
Please refer to FIG. 3A, the spiral wound type grip tape 10′ of the present invention can be a grip tap comprising an elastic strip 11′ and at least one flexible thread 12′, wherein the plurality of flexible threads 12′ are parallel to each other.
Please refer to FIG. 3B, the spiral wound type grip tape 10″ of the present invention can be a grip tap comprising an elastic strip 11″ and a flexible thread 12″, wherein the flexible thread 12″ is a thin foil thread.
Referring to FIG. 4, the spiral wound type grip tape 30 of the present invention can be a grip tap comprising an elastic strip 31 and a flexible thread 32, wherein a first end portion 311 and a second end portion 312 of the elastic strip 31 are a hollow cylindrical sleeve, respectively. As shown in FIG. 5, the spiral wound type grip tape 30 of the present invention is spirally wound on a grip 40 of the sports equipment, in which the first end portion 311 and the second end portion 312 of the spiral wound type grip tape 30 are respectively sleeved into two ends of the grip 40 of the sports equipment.
Referring to FIG. 6, the spiral wound type grip tape 50 of the present invention can be a grip tap comprising an elastic strip 51 and a flexible thread 52, wherein a first end portion 511 and a second end portion 512 of the elastic strip 51 are a bevel edge, respectively. In addition, the thickness of the elastic strip 51 is gradually reduced from the middle portion toward the first and second end portions 511, 512 of the elastic strip 51. As shown in FIG. 7, the spiral wound type grip tape 50 is spirally wound on a grip 60 of the sports equipment from the middle portion of the grip 60 toward two ends of the grip 60 of the sports equipment.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A spiral wound type grip tape being applied to be wound around at least one partial surface of a grip, comprising:

an elastic strip, having a first end portion and a second end portion; and

at least one flexible thread, disposed in the elastic strip.

2. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flexible thread is made of a metal.

3. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flexible thread is made of an aluminium alloy.

4. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flexible thread is a cylindrical thread.

5. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flexible thread is a thin foil thread.

6. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the elastic strip is made of a rubber material.

7. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the elastic strip is made of a plastic material.

8. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first end portion or the second end portion of the elastic strip is a hollow cylindrical sleeve.

9. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first end portion or the second end portion of the elastic strip is a bevel edge.

10. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein a thickness of the elastic strip is gradually reduced from the first end portion toward the second end portion.

11. The spiral wound type grip tape as claimed in claim 1, wherein a thickness of the elastic strip is gradually reduced from a middle portion of the elastic strip toward the first and second end portions.