Game ball

A game ball includes a carcass made up of a plurality of multi-layered carcass segments that are sewn together to form the carcass. Each carcass segment has a major portion and a marginal portion that surrounds the major portion and that is thinner than the major portion.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a game ball, more particularly to a game ball that has a carcass which is formed by sewing together a plurality of carcass segments.

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional game ball (not shown) has a carcass which is formed by sewing together a plurality of single-layered carcass segments. However, the game ball of this construction suffers from poor feeling of contact. Moreover, sewing threads protrude out easily among the carcass segments such that during an action game, the sewing threads are easily damaged, thereby shortening the service life of the game ball. Furthermore, the thickness of the carcass segments is uniform such that the curvature of the ball is adversely affected after the carcass segments are sewn together.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 , another conventional game ball is shown to have a carcass which is formed by sewing together a plurality of multi-layered carcass segments 50 , each of which includes an outer layer 1 , an intermediate foam layer 2 adhered to an inner surface of the outer layer 1 , and an inner cloth layer 3 adhered to an inner surface of the foam layer 2 . Although this kind of game ball has good feeling of contact, the sewing threads 4 still protrude out easily among the carcass segments 50 such that the sewing threads are easily damaged and the service life of the game ball is accordingly shortened. Furthermore, the thickness of the carcass segments 50 is uniform such that the curvature of the game ball is adversely affected after the carcass segments 50 are sewn together.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a game ball that has a carcass which is capable of overcoming the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art.

According to this invention, a game ball comprises a carcass made up of a plurality of carcass segments, which are sewn together so as to form the carcass. Each of the carcass segments has a major portion and a marginal portion that surrounds the major portion and that is thinner than the major portion, and includes an outer layer, an intermediate layer, and an inner layer. The outer layer has an outer surface, an inner surface opposite to the outer surface, a center, and a periphery. The intermediate layer is adhered to the outer layer, and has a shape that corresponds to that of the outer layer. The intermediate layer has an outer surface adhered to the inner surface of the outer layer, an inner surface opposite to the outer surface of the intermediate layer, and a periphery. The inner layer is adhered to the inner surface of the intermediate layer, and has a shape that corresponds to that of the outer layer. The inner layer has a periphery heat-sealed to the inner surfaces of the outer and intermediate layers.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 5 , the first preferred embodiment of a game ball according to the present invention comprises a carcass (a portion thereof is shown in FIG. 5 ) made up of a plurality of carcass segments 100 , which are sewn together so as to form the carcass. Each of the carcass segments 100 has a major portion 110 and a marginal portion 120 that surrounds the major portion 110 and that is thinner than the major portion 110 . Each of the carcass segments 100 includes an outer layer 10 , an intermediate layer 20 , and an inner layer 30 . Since the carcass segments 100 are substantially similar in construction, only one of the carcass segments 100 will be described hereinafter.

The outer layer 10 of the carcass segment 100 is made of a soft and high-strength material, such as natural leather or synthetic leather. In this embodiment, the outer layer 10 is hexagonal in shape, and has six sides, each of which is 80 mm long. The outer layer 10 has an outer surface 11 , an inner surface 12 opposite to the outer surface 1 , a center (L) , and a periphery 13 having a first distance (d1) from the center (L) along a radial direction (R) with respect to the center (L) , as shown in FIG. 3 .

The intermediate layer 20 of the carcass segment 100 is made of a highly elastic foam material, has a uniform thickness, is adhered to the outer layer 10 , and is also hexagonal in shape. The intermediate layer 20 has an outer surface 21 adhered to the inner surface 12 of the outer layer 10 , an inner surface 22 opposite to the outer surface 21 of the intermediate layer 20 , and a periphery 23 having a second distance (d2) from the center (L) along the radial direction (R), as shown in FIG. 3 . The second distance (d2), in this embodiment, is shorter than the first distance (d1) by about 5 mm so that the periphery 23 of the intermediate layer 20 extends inside the periphery 13 of the outer layer 10 .

The inner layer 30 of the carcass segment 100 is made of a high-strength woven fiber fabric, and is adhered to the inner surface 22 of the intermediate layer 20 . The inner layer 30 has a shape that corresponds to that of the outer layer 10 , is stepped, and has a central portion 31 and a periphery 32 having a third distance (d3) from the center (L) along the radial direction (R) In this embodiment, the third distance (d3) is longer than the first distance (d1) by about 0.5 mm. The central portion 31 corresponds to the major portion 110 of the carcass segment 110 , and abuts against the inner surface 22 of the intermediate layer 20 . The periphery 32 of the inner layer 30 corresponds to the marginal portion 120 of the carcass segment 100 , has a peripheral edge flush with that of the periphery 13 of the outer layer 10 , and is heat-sealed to the inner surfaces 12 , 22 of the outer and intermediate layers 10 , 20 .

When the outer layer 10 , the intermediate layer 20 , and the inner layer 30 are adhered to one another by means of a strong adhesive, the periphery 32 of the inner layer 30 is directly adhered to the inner surface 12 of the outer layer 10 so that the intermediate layer 20 is fully covered between the outer layer 10 and the inner layer 30 . After the composite structure is formed, it is subjected to a high-frequency heat-sealing process using a copper die to produce the carcass segment 100 . The resulting carcass segment 100 has the major portion 110 constituting the area within the periphery 23 of the intermediate layer 20 , and the marginal portion 120 that surrounds an outer periphery of and that is thinner than the major portion 110 .

Referring back to FIG. 5 , when adjacent pairs of the carcass segments 100 are sewn together, the resulting carcass of the game ball of the present invention has the following advantages:

1. Since the marginal portion 120 of each carcass segment is thinner, it is more bendable than the major portion 110 so that when adjacent pairs of the carcass segments 100 are sewn together along the marginal portions 120 , the sewing threads are hidden, thereby protecting the sewing threads from being easily damaged, and thereby prolonging the service life of the game ball of the present invention.

2. Since stitches are made on the marginal portions 120 of adjacent pairs of the carcass segments 100 , the tensile forces of the sewing threads cannot affect the major portions 110 of the carcass segments 100 so that the curvature of the game ball can be ensured, thereby providing the game ball of the present invention with good balance function.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7 , the second preferred embodiment of the game ball according to the present invention is shown to be substantially similar to the first preferred embodiment. Particularly, the game ball comprises a carcass made up of a plurality of carcass segments 100 (only one is shown) , each of which includes an outer layer 10 , an intermediate layer 20 adhered to an inner surface 12 of the outer layer 10 , and an inner layer 30 adhered to an inner surface 23 of the intermediate layer 20 . The main difference between the first and second preferred embodiments resides in that peripheries 13 , 23 , 33 of the outer, intermediate, and inner layers 10 , 20 , 30 have edges that are flush with one another. The periphery 23 of the intermediate layer 20 has a thickness smaller than that of the remaining portion of the intermediate layer 20 .The periphery 33 of the inner layer 30 is heat-sealed to the inner surface 22 and the periphery 23 of the intermediate layer 20 .

It should be noted that the carcass segments 100 , 100 of the game ball of the present invention can be made into different shapes and is suitable for different kinds of game balls, such as football, soccer ball, etc.