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Two-piece ball bat with rigid connectionTwo-piece ball bat with rigid connection description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080064538, Two-piece ball bat with rigid connection. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001]1. Field of the Invention. [0002]This invention relates to a ball bat having a ball bat barrel connected to a bat handle by a combination of mechanical interference and rigid adhesive without the barrel and handle being in direct contact, and a method for making same. [0003]2. Background of the Invention. [0004]Ball bats for baseball and softball generally have a similar shape and comprise a handle, a barrel and a taper that smoothly transitions between the larger circumference barrel and the smaller circumference handle. The handle is sized for a player to easily and securely grip the bat, and usually includes a tape or wrapping to enhance the grip of a player's hands. The barrel is the ball contact portion. The holding and gripping of the bat is a much different purpose than hitting a ball, but many baseball and softball bats are made of a single material, typically aluminum or wood. A single material may present advantages for hitting, for example, but be a poor material for the player's hands to hold and grip, especially upon impact. Conversely, the single material may present advantages for the handle region, but suffer drawbacks in the barrel region. For example, there have been prior art ball bats made entirely of a single composite material, but durability in the barrel region has been a common problem. [0005]To address some of the drawbacks of employing a single material, ball bat makers have designed bats made of more than a single material to provide some advantage to the players such as enhanced performance by reducing energy loss upon impact, desired weight and heft, desired flexibility, and shock attenuation, among other factors. The use of two different materials for the handle and barrel of a ball bat is generally an attempt to capitalize on the advantageous characteristics of each material with the recognition that a single material often means compromising or ignoring the needs of one portion of a bat to gain optimal performance from another portion. Ball bats in which the barrel and handle are made of two different materials have become common on the market. Two-piece ball bats are usually constructed of an aluminum or aluminum alloy barrel attached to a composite handle. The aluminum barrel provides high strength, durability and low cost of manufacture since the raw materials are less expensive as compared to composites, and involve less labor. Composite handles are advantageous due to their light weight which enables the balance of the bat to be engineered as desired, and greater flexibility to generate more power in the swing by offering the opportunity to customize the stiffness of the bat depending on the player's strength and preferences. A composite handle also tends to damp vibration more than aluminum to reduce any discomfort felt by players when the ball is not hit squarely. [0006]The hyphenated term "two-piece bat" as used throughout this application is intended to refer to just the barrel and handle combination. It is understood that the finished bat may actually comprise more pieces such as the end caps on the barrel and handle, but the hyphenated term refers to the barrel and handle combination. For consistency, the present application describes the ends of the barrel and handle with respect to the junction in the tapered area. The barrel of a ball bat is defined as having a distal end which is the free end at the tip of the bat, and as having a proximate joint end which includes the taper portion that transitions from the barrel circumference to the handle circumference. Similarly, the handle of a ball bat is described as having a distal end which is the free end, and as having a proximate joint end which includes the taper portion. Therefore, the proximate joint ends of both the barrel and handle are the portions that are assembled together. The barrel is a hollow body having an interior circumferential surface and an exterior circumferential surface. [0007]Two-piece ball bats are typically assembled by inserting the handle into the hollow barrel through the distal end of the barrel, and then somehow engaging a portion of the exterior surface of the handle to a portion of the interior surface of the barrel in the taper portions. There are two main approaches to this assembly in the prior art. One approach is to provide some sort of mechanical locking feature on the engaging surfaces of the barrel and handle to join these pieces to another. An example would be to provide exterior threads on the taper portion of the handle, and mating interior threads on the taper portion of the barrel to form a threaded joint. Some of these types of mechanical joints do not require an adhesive of any sort, while some employ a combination of mechanical joints where the barrel and handle are in direct contact with one another and an adhesive. The other main approach is to use an elastomer adhesive to attach the exterior surface of the handle to the interior surface of the barrel in the tapered junction area. An example of this type of assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,158 to Filice et al., in which a castable urethane material adhesively joins the handle and barrel. As most easily seen in FIG. 2 of Filice et al., the barrel and handle of Filice et al. are in direct contact with one another in the narrower portion of the taper area. [0008]Mechanical joints complicate manufacture as they require more manufacturing steps; introduce more quality control factors for fit and finish; increase the chances of mis-assembly; potentially increase tolerance build-up; and may require more assembly steps to complete a ball bat. Higher complexity translates to higher cost with respect to tooling, efficiency and labor. [0009]There is a need for a two-piece ball bat that can be made by simplified manufacturing processes, rapidly assembled to reduce cost while still providing the strength and durability of a metal bat with the advantageous strength, vibration damping and optimization opportunities of a composite handle. SUMMARY [0010]The two-piece ball bat of the present invention comprises a hollow barrel defining an exterior surface and an interior surface with a free distal end and a tapered joint end. Both ends of the barrel are open in order to receive a handle defining a handle exterior surface. The handle has a free distal end and a tapered joint end, and the tapered joint end of the handle is sized and configured to prevent its passage through the opening in the tapered joint end of the barrel resulting in a junction portion between the two pieces in which they overlap. This junction portion coincides with at least a portion of the tapered areas on both the barrel and handle. The handle is inserted into the hollow barrel through the barrel's free end until the tapered end of the handle engages the tapered interior of the barrel to form the tapered junction. A rigid adhesive is applied along the entire 360.degree. circumference of the tapered interior surface of the barrel, or on the outside of the tapered section of the handle or both. After the handle is inserted, the two pieces are held in place until the adhesive cures. In the finished bat, the rigid adhesive is disposed in the entire circumferential tapered junction between the barrel and handle such that the barrel and handle are not in direct contact for any portion of their lengths. [0011]The rigid connection between the barrel and handle of the present invention maximizes the conservation of collision energy upon impact with the ball to enable better performance. The combination of the interference fit and the rigid adhesive ensures that less of the collision energy is lost to damping as is the case with elastomeric joints. [0012]In another aspect of the invention, fine glass shafting beads are added to the rigid adhesive to ensure even distribution of the adhesive between the barrel and handle; to ensure separation of the barrel and handle; and to align the joint by the natural tendency of the beads to arrange themselves in a single layer when a normal force is applied due to their spherical shape. The adhesive with glass beads is applied to either or both the barrel interior and the handle exterior prior to assembly. As the tapered junction is formed by the interference fit, the glass beads ensure even coverage of the adhesive in the joint. After curing, the adhesive and glass beads become a composite interposed between the barrel and the handle. [0013]In one aspect of the invention, the barrel is made of a metal to provide the durability and strength necessary for the ball impact area, while the handle is made of a composite to provide opportunities to tune the performance of the bat depending on player's skill level and strength. [0014]In another aspect of the invention, the barrel is made of a composite that is engineered for durability, and the handle is made of a different composite that is engineered for flexibility and bat swing speed performance. [0015]Other configurations, features and advantages of the invention will be, or will become, apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the following claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0016]The invention can be better understood with reference to the following drawings and description. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Moreover, in the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views. In the drawings: [0017]FIG. 1 is a plan view of a ball bat in accordance with the present invention. [0018]FIG. 2 is an exploded assembly view in cross-section of the ball bat of FIG. 1. [0019]FIG. 3 is a perspective schematic assembly view of the two-piece ball bat. [0020]FIG. 4 is a detailed partial cross-section of the junction area J shown in FIG. 1. [0021]FIG. 5 is a schematic showing a partial cross-section of the junction area of another embodiment of the present invention. Continue reading about Two-piece ball bat with rigid connection... 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