JPH049071B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a batting practice machine for baseball or tennis.

[Background technology]

Conventionally, a batting practice machine has been proposed in which a pitching arm is rotated using a biasing force of a spring or the like to throw out a ball. In this type of batting practice machine, as a means for rotating the pitching arm, a pressed part is provided at the base of the pitching arm and on the circumferential axis, and the acting part of the pressing part is oriented on one side with respect to the pitching arm. It is located in the direction (Special Publication No. 49-31379). However, since this presses the base of the pitching arm in only one direction, the pitching arm receives an uneven load, and there is a risk of loss occurring at the base. For this reason, it is necessary to strengthen the biasing force of the pitching arm, and a reliable fixing means is required, which increases the overall structure of the device.
There are problems in terms of cost and quality.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a batting practice machine that eliminates unbalanced loads on the pitching arm, reduces energy loss, stabilizes the operation of the pitching arm, and simplifies the structure.

[Disclosure of the invention]

In the batting practice machine of the present invention, a pitching arm whose tip rotates to throw the ball is formed of a pair of legs made of elastic wire, and a pair of torsion coil springs for biasing the pitching arm are provided at the base end of the pitching arm. Extend as one,
A spring biasing means for rotating the pitching arm is provided between the pair of legs of the pitching arm in the vicinity of the support point by the torsion coil spring portion, and the spring biasing means biases the pitching arm for pitching. This is what we do.

In this manner, since the portion of the pitching arm on which the spring biasing means acts is between the legs on both sides, uneven loads are not used and pressure can be received uniformly. Therefore, energy loss is small, and the biasing force of the spring can be reduced accordingly, making it possible to make the entire device more compact. In addition, since there is no unbalanced load, the operation is stable. In addition, the legs of the pitching arm are made of elastic wire, and a torsion coil spring is integrally extended to the base end, which reduces the driving force, making the pitching arm drive source more compact, reducing the number of parts, and making the structure simple and lightweight. It has advantages such as ease of conversion and transportation.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 to 7. In the figure, 1 is a main body case, which is divided at the center into a left main body cover 1A and a right main body cover 1B, and is provided with a front cover 1C. The main body case 1 has a ball throwing opening 2 on the front and a ball feeding opening 3 on the side. Main case 1
A pair of parallel guide rails 4 for receiving a ball M sent from a ball feeding port 3 formed on the side surface of the main body case 1 are provided inside the main body case 1, and a ball pitching arm 6, a ball setting arm 7, and A drive mechanism section is housed together with a U-shaped frame 8. The pitching arm 6, the ball setting arm 7, and the guide rail 4 constitute a ball throwing section. A ball supply section 11 is attached to the ball feeding port 3, and a first ball stocker 9 formed of a pipe material is connected to this, and a second ball stocker 1 is connected to the first ball stocker 9.
0 is concatenated. 12 is a leg, and 13 is a feed cover.

The driving means for the pitching arm 6 will be explained. The pitching arm 6 is made of a wire spring, and is deflected by the rotation of the cam 14, and when it comes off the cam 14, its tip rotates by the elastic force of the deflection, and throws out the ball M. Specifically, the pitching arm 6 consists of two parallel leg pieces 6A, 6B (Fig. 4), and a torsion coil spring portion 15 serving as a pitching spring extends integrally at the base end of each leg piece 6A, 6B. It is set up. As shown in FIG. 5, the tips of each leg piece 6A, 6B are inclined and continuous in the direction of rotation, and the ball M is held between the parallel part of both leg pieces 6A, 6B and the continuous part.
The ball holding portion 6C is capable of holding the ball at a point.
A cam follower 1 is located midway in the length direction of the pitching arm 6.
6 (FIG. 2) is rotatably mounted on the cam follower shaft 17, which is fixed via a damper stopper 80 (FIG. 4), which is the part that collides with the damper 31. The cam follower 16 serves as a spring biasing means for the pitching arm 6. The damper stopper 80 is fixed to the pitching arm 6 by welding and caulking. 80a is the welding location. The pitching arm 6 has a pipe-shaped arm support shaft 18 (Fig. 4).
A torsion coil spring part 15 is rotatably fitted and supported on the outside, and an engaging part 15a provided at the tip of the torsion coil spring part 15 engages with an arm spring holding part 20 of the frame 8. . Arm support shaft 1
8 is attached to the frame 8. cam follower 16
is in rolling contact with the cam 14.

The diameter of the cam 14 gradually increases in the rotational direction,
There is a discontinuous small path along the way. The cam 14 is driven together with the ball set arm 7 by a motor. This drive transmission system will be explained. A geared motor 21 in which a motor and a speed reducer are integrated is fixed to the frame 8 with screws 22, and a small gear 23 is press-fitted and fixed to the D-cut-shaped output shaft 21a of the geared motor 21. Furthermore, the camshaft 24
Then, a large gear 26 having a protrusion 25 for operating the cam 14 and the ball set arm 7 is connected to the cam 14 and the large gear 26 at the dowel part, and the cam shaft 24 is connected to the large gear 26.
It is rotatably fitted to the Further, in order to position both of them, positioning in the thrust direction with respect to the camshaft 24 is performed using an E-ring collar or the like. By installing the camshaft 24 in this way, the large gear 2
6 meshes with the small gear 23. In addition, arm support shaft 1
8 is attached so that the U-shaped frame 8 is expanded in direction B.

A ball set arm 7 is rotatably installed on each main body cover 1B at a boss portion 50, and a ball setter 100 is attached to the ball set arm 7 with a pin on the outside of the right main body cover 1B so that the ball set arm 7 is integrated with the ball set arm 7. It is fixed by etc. In addition, the ball set arm 7 is attached to the right main body cover 1B.
The boss portion 50 is constantly pressurized in the F direction by the set arm spring 51. In addition, the ball set arm 7 to which the ball setter 100 is fixed
The other end is the boss portion 10 of the ball feeding case 101.
It is rotatably fitted into 1a. The other end of the ball set arm 7 extends above the set and engages with the protrusion 25 of the large gear 24 during assembly. On the other hand, the right main body cover 1B and the ball feeding case 101
has a ball feed rail 103 made of a plurality of inclined ribs in a direction perpendicular to the ball feed port 3, and further has a stocker holding portion 104 and a ball feed port 105 at the upper part. In addition, the damper 3 is inserted between the main body cases 1A and 1B.
1 is fixed. The damper 31 serves as a stopper for the pitching arm 6, and is made of an elastic body such as rubber.

The storage state of the drive mechanism section incorporated in the frame 8, etc. will be explained. The frame 8 is fixed to the left main body cover 1A with two screws 32. Left main body cover 1A
has a dry battery box 33 formed in a part thereof and has one guide rail 4, and the right main body cover 1B has a guide rail 4 and a ball feeding port 3 similar to the left main body cover 1A. These left and right body covers 1A, 1B are connected to the power switch 40.
They are fixed by sandwiching the AC adapter terminals 41 respectively.

The guide rail 4 is formed in an arc shape that substantially follows the rotational trajectory of the ball holding portion 6C of the pitching arm 6, and has a shape that gradually moves away from the rotational trajectory of the ball holding portion 6C toward the front in the pitching direction. It is becoming.

A fixed leg piece 42 is formed integrally with the lower part of the main body case 1, and adjustment rubber feet 45 are fixed via an angle adjustment metal fitting 43 and a pair of angle adjustment screws 44 screwed into the nut portion thereof. The angle adjustment fitting 43 is fixed to the main body case 1. By warming the screw fixing nut 46 and turning the angle adjustment screw 44, the setting angle of the main body case 1 relative to the ground can be changed, and the throwing angle of the ball can be changed arbitrarily.

In this embodiment, the cam follower 16 is used as the spring biasing means, but a single rigid body is used as the spring biasing means, and the pitching arm 6 is pressed against the rigid body with an air cylinder or a hydraulic cylinder.
may be rotated.

Operation When the power switch 40 is turned on, the geared motor 21 rotates, and the small gear 23 and large gear 26
The cam 14 rotates via. When the cam 14 rotates, the cam follower 1 moves the pitching arm 6.
6 is moved, and the stopper spring 17 connected to the cam follower 16 is also moved. At this time, the hook portion 17b of the stopper spring 17 is in a free state and does not cause any loss to the pitching arm 6. At this time, the protrusion 2 of the large gear 26
5, the ball setter 100 is moved via the ball set arm 7. Then waiting ball M ₁
In the case of a ball, the stopper part of the waiting ball _M1 sinks below the surface of the ball feeding rail 102, and the forced feeding part of the waiting ball _M1 pushes the waiting ball _M1 , so the ball moves onto the ball feeding rail 103. do. The ball that has moved onto the ball feed rail 103 moves smoothly onto the ball feed port 3 because the ball feed rail 102 itself is composed of ribs that are perpendicular to and inclined to the ball feed port 3.
and moves onto the ball holding portion 6C of the pitching arm 6.

On the other hand, the ball that has been set as the waiting ball M ₂ passes through the ball feeding port 3 while the waiting ball M ₁ is sent out by the ball setter 100 and attempts to flow in the same way as the waiting ball M ₁ , but the ball setter 100 is activated. After that, the distance between the tip of the forced feeding part and the stopper part of the waiting ball _M2 of the ball feeding case 101 is set to be smaller than the ball diameter, so it will not move forward any further. When the ball setter 100 returns to its original position by the force of the set arm spring 51, the ball setter 100 is reliably set at the position of the waiting ball _M1 .

FIG. 7 shows the state of the large gear 26 and the pitching arm 6 just before the ball M is thrown. When the cam follower 16 moves away from the maximum radius portion of the cam 14, the energy stored in the torsion spring portion 15 of the pitching arm 6 causes the pitching arm 6 to be ejected while holding the ball at three points. The pitching arm 6, which has moved while holding the ball, suddenly stops moving when it comes into contact with the damper 31, and only the ball is thrown out with an initial velocity accelerated by the energy of the torsion coil spring section 15.

Here, the ball M is held by the guide rail 4 and the pitching arm 6 and moves together with the pitching arm 6, so that the user can see the movement of the ball M from the ball dispensing opening 2 on the front cover. Further, the locus Q of the ball holding portion 6C of the pitching arm 6 and the upper surface of the arc-shaped guide rail 4 are made to become farther apart from each other as they go diagonally upward from below, that is, as they go in the pitching direction. Therefore, the ball M is held by both the pitching arm 6 and the guide rail 4 only in the initial stage of being thrown, and thereafter is held only by the tip of the pitching arm 6. Thereafter, the above operations are repeated and the height of the balls M held in the stockers 9 and 10 can be easily changed by changing the amount of protrusion of the adjustment rubber feet 45 from the main body case 1. , can be adapted to the user's requirements.

The ball is thrown out in this way,
The pitching arm 6 is formed by two leg pieces 6A and 6B,
Since the pitching arm 6 is pressed and rotated by the cam follower 16 provided between the leg pieces 6A and 6B, the point of pressing action is at the center of the pitching arm 6 in the width direction. Therefore, the pitching arm 6
Unlike when pressing from one side, the pitching arm 6
No eccentric load is applied, and the pressure can be received evenly. Therefore, energy loss is small, and the biasing force of the coil spring portion 15 can be reduced accordingly. Therefore, the entire device can be made more compact, lighter, and lower in cost. Further, since the eccentric load of the pitching arm 6 is not applied, the operation is stable.

In addition, the cam follower shaft 17 is connected to the damper stopper 8.
0 to the pitching arm 6 for the following reason. That is, conventionally, when a spring material is affected by heat, it is thought that the material deteriorates and breaks. Therefore, it is not preferable to weld the cam follower shaft 17 directly to the pitching arm 6. In contrast, in this embodiment, the pitching arm 6 made of spring material is prevented from being affected by heat in the vicinity of the cam follower shaft 17 where the most force is applied, and the cam follower shaft 17 is securely moved in the thrust and arm direction. It is fixed at

FIG. 8 shows a second embodiment of the pitching arm 1.
06 is the same as the first embodiment, two leg pieces 10
6A and 106B, and a torsion coil spring portion 115 at the base end thereof is rotatably fitted to a pipe-shaped arm support shaft 18. Torsion coil spring part 11
The engaging portion 115a at the tip of the frame 8 (the eighth
It engages with the arm spring holding portion 20 shown in the figure. In addition, two side plates 1 are attached to the arm support shaft 18.
A cam follower 116 is rotatably attached to a cam follower shaft 117 fixed between the ends thereof. Both ends of the cam follower shaft 117 are connected to side plates 119.
It extends to the outside of the pitching arm 106 and intersects with the leg pieces 106A and 106B on both sides of the pitching arm 106.

Here, the cam follower 116 is connected to the cam 14 (second
), move the pitching arm 1 in the direction of arrow A.
06 to the torsion coil spring part 115,
Accumulates deflection energy. When the energy is released, the side plate 119 is rotatable relative to the arm support shaft 18, so the energy loss is suppressed to a minimum. Further, since the cam follower 116 is attached to the side plate 119, it is stable in the thrust direction B with respect to the pitching arm 6, and stable contact with the cam 14 can be obtained. The rest is the same as the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows a third embodiment. pitching arm 20
6 consists of two leg pieces 206A and 206B,
The tips of the leg pieces 204A and 206B on both sides are connected to each other to form a ball holding part 206.
The base ends of A and 206B serve as a ring portion 207, which is rotatably fitted onto the support shaft 18. Two torsion coil springs 215 connected to each other by a U-shaped connecting portion 215a are rotatably fitted onto the support shaft 18, and an engaging portion 215b at the end thereof is connected to an arm spring of the frame 8 (FIG. 2). It engages with the holding part 20. U-shaped connection part 2
The cam follower shaft 217, which is the center piece of the pitcher 15a, is connected to the two leg pieces 206A and 206B of the pitching arm 206.
A cam follower 216 is rotatably attached to a cam follower shaft 217 between leg pieces 206A and 206B on both sides.

In this configuration, the cam follower shaft 217 of the torsion coil spring 215 supports the pitching arm 206 from below, and when the cam pushes the cam follower 216 in the direction of arrow A, the pitching arm 206 moves in the direction of arrow A along with the cam follower shaft 217 due to its own weight. Move to. Then, when the energy of the torsion coil spring 215 is released, the pitching arm 206 receives a force and moves in the direction in which the torsion coil spring 215 is released. At this time, since the cam follower 216 is attached to the cam follower shaft 217 of the torsion coil spring 215 and does not move in the B direction, the contact between the cam and the cam follower 216 is stable. The rest is the same as the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 shows a fourth embodiment. In this case, the pitching arm 306 is composed of two leg pieces 306A and 306B, similar to the first embodiment, and the distal ends thereof are connected to form a ball holding section. ing. Both leg pieces 306
The base end of A, 306B is a torsion coil spring part 315
It is rotatably fitted onto the arm support shaft 18. An engaging portion 315a, which is an end portion of the torsion coil spring portion 315, is locked to the frame. Two torsion coil springs 3 are attached to the arm support shaft 18 so as to generate a biasing force in the direction opposite to that of the pitching arm 306.
07 is rotatably fitted on the outside. One end 307a of the torsion coil spring 307 is fixed to the frame. The other end extension portion 307b of these torsion coil springs 307 is connected to the leg piece 306A of the pitching arm 306,
306B is bent so as to sandwich it from above and below, the tips of which are abutted against each other, and a cam follower 316 is rotatably fitted onto the outside. The torsion coil spring 307 has a spring constant set to be sufficiently smaller than that of the torsion coil spring portion 315 of the pitching arm 306. In this configuration, the cam follower 316 is moved in the A direction by the cam, transmitting force to the pitching arm 306 and storing energy.
At this time, the torsion coil spring 307 has a spring force and enables the cam follower 316 to be reliably supported with respect to the pitching arm 306. Therefore, even when the energy of the pitching arm 306 is released, the generation of sound from the cam follower 316 can be suppressed to a minimum. Further, the torsion coil spring 307 is connected to the same arm support shaft 1 as the pitching arm 306.
8, there is no movement in the B direction, and stable operation is possible. The rest is similar to the first embodiment.

FIG. 11 shows a fifth embodiment. In this example, the pitching arm is formed similarly to the first example. Leg pieces 406A, 4 on both sides of pitching arm 406
06B is bent at the middle part, and the bent part 4
Both ends of the cam follower shaft 417 are disposed at 07, and a fixing fitting 408 is provided so as to wrap both ends of the cam follower shaft 417 in the radial and thrust directions. The fixture 408 has both opposing pieces fixed to each other by rivets, caulking, spot welding, or the like. Cam follower support shaft 417
A cam follower 416 is rotatably mounted on the top, and the force of the cam is applied to the cam follower 416.
The leg pieces 416A, 41 of the pitching arm 406
This will be communicated to 6B. In other words, cam follower 416
is moved in direction A by the cam, storing energy in the pitching arm 406. Here, the middle part of the leg pieces 406A, 406B of the pitching arm is bent, and the structure is such that the bent part 407 holds the cam follower support shaft 417, and the movement of the cam follower 416 in the direction B is suppressed. . The rest is similar to the first embodiment.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The batting practice machine of the present invention has the advantage of eliminating unbalanced loads on the pitching arm, reducing energy loss, stabilizing the operation of the pitching arm, and simplifying the structure. Specifically, the legs of the pitching arm are made of elastic wire, and a torsion coil spring section is integrally extended at the base end, which reduces the driving force, reduces the size of the pitching arm drive source, reduces the number of parts, and improves the structure. Effects include simplicity, weight reduction, and ease of transportation. Further, since the spring biasing means of the pitching arm is located between the leg pieces on both sides, eccentric loads do not act on the pitching arm, and pressure can be uniformly received. Therefore, energy loss is small, and the entire device can be made more compact, lighter, and lower in cost. Furthermore, since no eccentric load is applied to the pitching arm, the pair of torsion coil springs and the leg pieces can be biased in a well-balanced manner, allowing stable pitching.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cutaway side view showing its initial state, FIG. 3 is a cutaway front view thereof, and FIG. 4 is a pitching arm, cam follower, etc. A perspective view showing the relationship between
FIG. 5 is a side view of the drive mechanism, FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway side view of the entire ball feeding completed state, FIG. 7 is a side view of the ball just before being launched, and FIGS. FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing the relationship between the pitching arm, cam follower, etc. of the second to fifth embodiments, respectively. 1... Main body case, 2... Ball throwing opening,
3...Ball feeding port, 4...Guide rail,
6...Pitching arm, 6A, 6B...Leg piece, 6C...
...Ball holding part, 7...Ball set arm, 8
...Frame, 9,10...Ball stock, 1
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Ball supply part, 14...Cam, 15...Torsion coil spring part, 16...Cam follower (spring biasing means), 18...Arm support shaft, 21...Geared motor, 25...Protrusion part, 26...Large gear,
31...dampa, 80...dampa stoppa.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A pitching arm consisting of a pair of legs made of elastic wire rods, the distal end of which rotates to throw out the ball, and a pair of torsion coil springs for urging the ball thrown out from the base end, integrally extending therefrom; a spring biasing means located between the pair of legs of the pitching arm in the vicinity of a support point by the torsion coil spring section and biasing the torsion coil spring section to rotate the pitching arm; Training machine. 2. The batting practice machine according to claim 1, wherein the spring biasing means is a cam follower.