JPH0546833B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a pitching machine, and more particularly to a device capable of pitching various types of pitches.

(Prior art) Among the prior art, the pitching machine known as Design Registration No. 363180 is a pitching machine that supplies a ball between two rotating discs and throws the ball from between the discs. be.

In most conventional technologies, the outer periphery of the rotating disk is made of urethane, and the frictional force of the urethane is used to throw the ball, but as the urethane decreases during use, the distance between the disks changes. . Because of this, the ball type becomes unstable and may be thrown in an unexpected direction, so when the urethane is used up, the mounting distance of the discs must be readjusted.
There is no device that can accurately adjust the distance between the shafts, and this poses a problem in that it takes time to adjust the urethane surface after it has been ground.

In addition, if the ball is not correctly fed between the rotating discs, the desired type of pitch cannot be obtained, but the conventional technology has a problem in that the ball feeding mechanism has a drawback and the ball cannot be correctly fed between the discs. .

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a pitching machine that can easily adjust the mounting interval of urethane foil for throwing balls, and can throw various types of pitches. That's true.

(Means for solving the problem) Means for solving the problem in the present invention are as follows:
a pair of parallel rotating shafts protruding from the machine body; a urethane foil formed by fitting urethane around the outer periphery of a disc provided on each rotating shaft; One of the bearing blocks is provided movably in a direction perpendicular to the rotating shaft, a propulsion shaft is fixed to a first projecting piece provided on one of the bearing blocks and has a threaded shaft, and the other of the bearing blocks is fixed to a first projecting piece provided on one of the bearing blocks and has a threaded shaft. An adjustment screw fixed to a second projecting piece provided on one block and having a nut provided at the end screwed to the propulsion shaft, and a rotation angle of the propulsion shaft corresponding to a photo sensor provided on the propulsion shaft. a photo sensor disk for detecting the ball supply tube, a rotation drive device for rotating the propulsion shaft, a rotation drive mechanism for rotating each of the rotation shafts separately, and a supply port formed at one end of the ball supply tube. This ball supply mechanism is characterized by having a piston facing between each urethane foil at the other end that moves forward and backward toward the supply port, and a ball supply mechanism having a supply port in the center.

(Example) First, a ball throwing mechanism will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

The machine body 1 is formed into a box shape, and a pair of rotating shafts 2 are provided to protrude from the machine body 1. Each of the rotating shafts 2 has a disk 3 fixed on the same plane through a key 4 to a portion protruding from the machine body 1, and urethane 5 is fitted into the outer periphery of the disk 3, so that the upper surface of the machine body 1 A pair of urethane foils 6 are provided.

Each of the rotating shafts 2 is attached to a bearing block 7 provided on the machine body 1, and the bearing block 7 is integrated with a bearing mounting plate 8 provided inside the machine body 1, and each of the bearings The mounting plate 8 is
At least one of them is provided movably with a bearing block 7 in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the rotating shaft 2.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a first protrusion provided on the bearing mounting plate 8 on the left side of FIG. It is installed. Further, the propulsion shaft 10 is provided with a sprocket 11 on one side and a photo sensor disc 12 on the other side with the first projecting piece 9 in between, and the tip of the propulsion shaft 10 is formed into a screw shaft 13.

A photo sensor (not shown) is installed in the photo sensor disk 12 corresponding to the disk, and the rotation angle of the propulsion shaft 10 is detected by the photo sensor, thereby making it possible to know the exact amount of movement of the propulsion shaft 10. I'm starting to be able to do it.

In addition, an adjusting screw 15 is attached to the second projecting piece 14 provided on the bearing mounting plate 8 on the right side of FIG.
The adjustment screw 15 is further provided with a nut 16 that is screwed into the screw shaft 13 of the propulsion shaft 10. In addition,
17 is a disk for a limit switch provided on the adjusting screw 15, and 18 is a nut for fixing the adjusting screw 15 to the second projecting piece 14.

A chain 21 is installed between the sprocket 11 of each propulsion shaft 10 and the sprocket 20 provided on the drive shaft of the motor 19.
When the sprocket 20 is rotated by driving the
Each propulsion shaft 10 moves in the axial direction while rotating.
The rotating shaft 2 on the left side of FIG. 1 is moved together with the protruding piece 9 and the bearing mounting plate 8, and thereby
The installation interval of the is adjusted.

Reference numeral 22 denotes a pulley provided on each of the rotating shafts 2, and a belt (not shown) is attached between this pulley and a drive motor (also not shown) to rotate the urethane foil 6. Note that since the left and right rotating shafts 2 are used with different rotational speeds, each rotating shaft 2 is driven to rotate independently by a different drive motor.

Since the urethane foil 6 can be rotated independently on the left and right sides, it can be rotated at the same rotation speed or at different rotation speeds.
Moreover, the mounting interval of each urethane foil 6 is adjusted to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the ball, and the direction of rotation is such that the left side rotates counterclockwise in FIG. 2, and the right side rotates clockwise. .

When the ball is fed between the urethane foils 6, the ball is ejected from the urethane foils 6 with a strong force. Further, by selecting the inclination angle of the machine body 1 and the number of left and right rotations of the urethane foil 6, a desired type of pitch can be obtained.

Next, the ball supply mechanism will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

A ball supply tube 30 formed in a cylindrical shape has one end open and a supply port 3 having an obliquely cut side surface.
1 is formed, and the supply port 31 is covered with urethane foil 6.
Mounting legs 3 provided on the bottom surface and facing the middle of the
2 to the machine body 1. 33
numeral denotes a replenishment port which protrudes in a direction perpendicular to the ball supply tube 30 and is open at the top, into which balls are fed from above.

Further, the ball supply cylinder 30 has the supply port 33.
A piston 34 is housed therein, and the piston 34 is retracted to the rear of the supply port 31 and moved back and forth toward the supply port 31. The piston rod of the piston 34 is formed by a rack gear 35. 36 is a linear head provided at the rack gear mounting portion of the ball supply cylinder 30, 37 is a gear head, and 38 is a motor.
By driving 8, the rack gear 35 is moved forward and backward, and the piston 34 is moved.

In order to maintain stable meshing between the rack gear 35 and the pinion that drives it, bearings 39 are provided on both sides of the piston 34, and the bearings 39 are provided along the length of the side of the ball supply tube 30. It is accommodated in the guide groove 40.

41 is a ball stopper provided between the supply port 33 and the supply port 31;
A spherical body 42 that protrudes toward the inside of 0 is provided so as to be movable in the vertical direction by a mounting screw 43, and a collar 44 of the mounting screw 43 and the spherical body 42
Usually, a spring 45 installed between the sphere 42
protrudes toward the ball supply cylinder 30.

When the piston 34 in the ball supply tube 30 is moved backward and balls are introduced into the ball supply tube 30 from the supply port 33, then the motor 38 is driven to move the piston 34 forward toward the supply port 31.
The ball is supplied between the urethane foils 6 from the supply port 31 against the stopper 41, and is ejected from both rotating foils and thrown as described above.

In addition, a safety cover 50 is provided on the upper surface of the machine body 1 to cover the periphery of the urethane foil 6.

Experimental example In Figure 6, the board of 430 x 750 mm is lengthwise divided into 9 equal parts, and the 5th target (the size is
The strike zone was 144.3 x 250 mm), and the device was installed 18.44 m away from the board.

The machine body 1 has the urethane foil 6 oriented vertically as shown in Fig. 7A, and the upper foil 6 is
When the ball is thrown while rotating at 1200 rpm and the lower foil 6 at 2340 rpm, the ball flies straight toward the target. Note that a hardball baseball has a diameter of 74 mm.

Test results of flying balls aimed at the 5th strike zone under the above conditions When the foil gap was 54 mm Out of 48 fly balls, 26 hit the 5th target, hit rate 54%, average ball speed 112.3Km/H When the gap between the foils is 52mm Out of 48 fly balls, the 5th target was hit 46 times with a hit rate of 96%, average ball speed 134.0Km/H When the gap between the foils is 50mm 48 times The number of times the ball hit the fifth target with a fly ball was 48 times, with a 100% hit rate and an average ball speed of 138.7 km/h.Based on the experimental results, ball control is ensured when the urethane foil is installed at intervals of 50 to 52 mm. It was found that the accuracy rate was high.
In addition, the speed of the ball will increase if the rotation speed of the urethane foil is increased, and will become slower if the rotation speed is lowered, but the type of ball can be changed by selecting the rotation speed of the left and right foils and changing the inclination angle of the machine.

Figure 7 shows examples of how the machine is used, all of which are for right-handed batters, and all of the figures are viewed from the direction in which the ball is fed.

A is a straight ball B is a ball that rises and curves from right to left (a slider for a pitcher with a low pitcher) C is a slider that curves from right to left D is a curveball E is a vertically falling curve (drop ball) F is a shot ball G is a ball that curves from the left A ball that curves to the right (slider) H is a nutball ball/folk ball By the way, since the urethane foil 6 above strongly pinches the ball and flies the ball, the center part decreases along the spherical shape of the ball, so in this case, , Polish the outside of the urethane foil to make the sides parallel. Further, the spacing between the urethane foils 6 is adjusted by moving the propulsion shaft 10 in the axial direction by the motor 19, and moving one of the rotary shafts 2 together with the bearing block 7.

(Effects of the Invention) The present invention provides that the distance between the axes of a pair of urethane foils can be adjusted accurately and easily;
In addition, even when the machine body is used at an angle, the balls can be stably fed between the urethane foils.
This has the effect of reliably obtaining the desired type of pitch.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of the entire assembly, Figure 2 is a plan view of the same, Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view of the ball supply mechanism,
FIG. 4 is a plan view of the same, and FIG. 5 is a piston of the same mechanism, with A being a plan view and B being a front view. FIG. 6 is a front view of the target used in the experiment, and FIGS. 7A to 7H are explanatory diagrams showing examples of the use of this apparatus. 1...Machine body, 2...Rotating shaft, 3...Disc, 6...Urethane foil, 10...Propulsion shaft, 1
1... Sprocket, 12... Disc for photo sensor, 13... Screw shaft, 15... Adjustment screw, 16...
... Nut, 19 ... Motor, 20 ... Sprocket, 21 ... Chain, 22 ... Pulley, 30 ...
Ball supply cylinder, 31... Supply port, 33... Supply port, 34... Piston, 35... Rack gear, 3
8... Motor, 39... Bearing, 40... Guide groove, 41... Stopper, 42... Sphere, 4
5...Spring.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A pair of parallel rotating shafts protruding from the machine body, a urethane foil formed by fitting urethane around the outer periphery of a disk provided on the rotating shaft, and a urethane foil formed on the machine body. a bearing block to which each rotating shaft is attached, at least one of which is movable in a direction orthogonal to the rotating shaft; and a first block provided on one of the bearing blocks.
A propulsion shaft fixed to the projecting piece and having a threaded shaft; and an adjustment screw fixed to a second projecting piece provided on the other of the bearing blocks and having a nut provided at an end threadedly connected to the propulsion shaft. a photo sensor disk provided on the propulsion shaft to detect the rotation angle of the propulsion shaft in correspondence with the photo sensor; a rotation drive device for rotating the propulsion shaft; and a rotation drive device for rotating each of the rotation shafts separately. A supply port formed at one end of the ball supply tube faces between each of the urethane foils, and a piston is provided at the other end to advance and retreat toward the supply port, and a supply port is provided in the center. A pitching machine characterized by comprising a ball supply mechanism.