Abstract:
A hardness adjustable platform for supporting a conveyor belt of a treadmill includes a platform body having internal spaces, and a plurality of elastic fillers moveably and respectively disposed in the internal spaces of the platform body for providing a cushion effect. The fillers are moveable relative to the platform body by an external force and divide the platform body into first and second regions having different hardness. As a result, the runner who uses the treadmill equipped with the aforesaid platform may adjust the positions of the fillers according to his/her physical condition and running speed to change the hardness distribution of the platform so as to enhance his/her running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates generally to parts of a treadmill, and more particularly, to a platform for supporting a conveyor belt of the treadmill, which is capable of adjusting its hardness. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0004]    Running is one of the popular exercises around the world. Nowadays, many people use treadmills to do exercise for body fitness. One of the advantages of using treadmill to do exercise is that user can do a running exercise while staying in one place without being affected by weather and/or terrain. In addition, when the treadmill is in use, it can provide a certain cushion effect to reduce the counterforce exerting back to user&#39;s foot stepping on a plane so as to protect the user&#39;s knee joint. 
         [0005]    Generally, the cushion effect provided by the conventional treadmills is achieved by using a flexible running platform to absorb the impact and vibration generated by running. It is known that the hardness of the platform will affect the running efficiency and the runner&#39;s comfort. Specifically speaking, if the platform that supports the conveyor belt of the treadmill is softer, the runner may feel more comfortable whiling running; however, the running speed may be adversely affected by the increase of the contact time of the foot with the conveyor belt supported by the platform. On the contrary, if the platform is too hard, the runner&#39;s knee joint intends to get hurt. Usually, the hardness of the platform of the conventional treadmill is set in a fixed level according to the designer&#39;s subjective feeling and experience, which is not adjustable subject to the user&#39;s need and experience. Under this circumstance, the conventional platform having a fixed hardness may cause a user to feel uncomfortable or get an exercise injury if the user continuously runs on the treadmill equipped with the aforesaid platform for a long period of time. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-noted circumstances. It is therefore one objective of the present invention to provide a platform for supporting a conveyor belt of a treadmill, which has an adjustable hardness that can be adjusted by the runner subject to the runner&#39;s physical condition and running speed so as to enhance the running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury. 
         [0007]    To achieve the above-mentioned objective, the platform provided by the present invention comprises a platform body and at least one filler moveably disposed in at least one internal space of the platform body. By means of changing the position of the filler relative to the platform body, the platform body can provide size-changeable first and second regions having different hardness; wherein the first region of the platform body is not distributed with the filler and the second region is distributed with the filler, such that the first region has a relative smaller hardness and the second region has a relatively greater hardness so as to meet user&#39;s various requirements. By means of the hardness adjustable feature provided at different regions of the platform body, the runner who uses the treadmill equipped with the platform of the present invention may enhance his/her running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury. 
         [0008]    In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the platform body comprises a wooden plate, a reinforcement plate above the wooden plate, and a shock-absorbing plate sandwiched between the wooden plate and the reinforcement plate to form the internal space between the shock-absorbing plate and the wooden plate. 
         [0009]    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 
         [0010]    The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: 
           [0011]      FIG. 1  is a partially exploded view of a platform according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view of the platform of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  is a bottom view of the platform of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the wooden plate is removed; 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  is a partially exploded view of a platform according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  is a bottom view of the platform of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the wooden plate is removed; 
           [0016]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view of a platform according to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0017]      FIG. 7  is a partially exploded view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 8  is another perspective view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention viewing from a bottom angle; 
           [0019]      FIG. 9  is a transversely cross-sectional view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 10  is a longitudinally cross-sectional view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 11  is similar to  FIG. 10 , but showing that the position of the filler is changed; 
           [0022]      FIG. 12  is a transversely cross-sectional view of a platform according to a fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0023]      FIG. 13  is a longitudinally cross-sectional view of the platform of the fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0024]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , a platform  10 , which is provided according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention for being used in a treadmill (not shown in the drawings) to support a conveyor belt (not shown), comprises a platform body  20  and a plurality of fillers  30 . 
         [0025]    The platform body  20  comprises a wooden plate  22 , a reinforcement plate  24  located above the wooden plate  22  for enhancing the structural strength of the platform body  20 , and a shock-absorbing plate  26  sandwichedly mounted between the wooden plate  22  and the reinforcement plate  24  for absorbing the impact force generated by runner&#39;s steps. The shock-absorbing plate  26  has a plate body  262  and a plurality of cushions  264  arranged on the plate body  262  in matrix in rows and columns. Each cushion  264  protrudes from a surface of the plate body  262  towards the wooden plate  22  and stops against the wooden plate  22 , such that the plate body  262  of the shock-absorbing plate  26 , adjacent two rows of the cushions  264  of the shock-absorbing plate  26  and the wooden plate  22  combinedly define an internal space  28 , as shown in  FIG. 2 . 
         [0026]    Each filler  30  is made of rubber and has a circle, rectangular or polygonal cross section. Preferably, the filler  30  has a circle cross section. Each filler  30  is inserted through an end of the platform body  20  into one internal space  28  of the platform body  20 , such that the fillers  30  are arranged side by side along a transverse direction of the platform body  20  in the internal spaces  28  respectively and can be forced by an external force to move relative to the platform body  20  along a longitudinal direction of the platform body  20 , as shown in  FIG. 3 . Because of the installation of the fillers  30 , the platform body  20  can be divided into a first region A 1  without distribution with the fillers  30  and a second region A  2  with the fillers  30 , such that the first region A 1  will have a hardness smaller than that of the second region A 2 . As a result, by means of manually adjusting the positions of the fillers  30  to increase or decrease the lengths of the fillers  30  that extend into the internal spaces  28 , the sizes of the first and second regions A 1  and A 2  can be relatively adjusted to meet various requirements of different users so as to enhance the running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury. 
         [0027]    It is to be mentioned that the platform body  20  is not limited to a triple-layer structure, but also a single-layer or double-layer structure. In addition, the amount of the internal spaces  28  is not limited to the above-disclosed embodiment. One or more internal spaces  28  can be used in the present invention to receive the fillers  30 . Further, the way of arranging the fillers  30  is also not limited to the above-disclosed embodiment. For example, as shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the fillers  30  are inserted through a lateral side of the platform body  20  into the internal spaces  28  of the platform body  20  respectively, such that the fillers  30  are arranged side by side along the longitudinal direction of the platform body  20  and can be forced by an external force to move relative to the platform body  20  along the transverse direction of the platform body  20 . In this way, the positions of the fillers  30  can also be manually adjusted by the user to achieve the objective of the present invention. 
         [0028]    On the other hand, in order to conveniently adjust the positions of the fillers  30 , an automatic adjustor  40  for the platform  10  is further provided in the following third preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in  FIGS. 6 and 7 , the adjustor  40  comprises a drive  50 , a moveable bracket  60 , two roller sets  70  and a plurality of lines  80 . In order to install the adjustor  40 , each of the first sides, namely the long sides of the wooden plate  22  is provided with a downwardly extending protrusion  221  having a through hole  223  and two guide slots  225  spacedly located at two opposite sides of the through holes  223  respectively. 
         [0029]    The drive  50  comprises a motor  52 , a driving shaft  54  and a pinion  56 . The driving shaft  54  is connected with the motor  52  and inserted through the through holes  223  of the protrusions  221  of the wooden plate  22 , such that the driving shaft  54  can be driven by the motor  52  to rotate. The pinion  56  is fixedly sleeved onto the driving shaft  54 ; therefore, the pinion  56  is rotatable along with the driving shaft  54 . 
         [0030]    The moveable bracket  60  is disposed beneath the wooden plate  22 , including two first sides  62  and two second sides  64 . The first sides  62  correspond in location to the downwardly extending protrusions  221  of the wooden plate  22  respectively, and each have an elongated through hole  622  through which the driving shaft  54  of the drive  50  passes, and two guide blocks  624  spacedly located at two opposite sides of the elongated though hole  622  and slidable disposed inside the guide slots  225  of the wooden plate  22  respectively. Between the two second sides  64  of the moveable bracket  60  a rack  66  that is engaged with the pinion  56  is provided, as shown in  FIGS. 8 and 9 . Further, one of the second sides  64  of the moveable bracket  60  is connected with a first end of each of the lines  80  and the other one of the second sides  64  is connected with a first end of each of the fillers  30 . Further more, the second end of each line  80  is connected with the associated second end of the filler  30 . 
         [0031]    The two roller sets  70  are mounted at two ends of the wooden plate  22  and each provided with two roller supports  72  and a roller  74 . Each roller support  72  is mounted at the bottom side of the wooden plate  22  for being rotatably mounted with one of the two ends of the roller  74 . The fillers  30  run over one of the rollers  74  and the lines  80  run over the other one of the rollers  74 . 
         [0032]    When the adjustor starts, the driving shaft  54 , which is driven by the motor  52  to rotate, will drive the pinion  56  to rotate, which in turn will drive through the engagement of the pinion  56  and the rack  66  the moveable bracket  60  to move along the longitudinal direction of the platform body  20  so as to change distribution of the first and second regions A 1  and A 2 . Specifically speaking, when the moveable bracket  60  is moved towards the direction indicated by the arrow shown in  FIG. 10 , the moveable bracket  60  will pull the fillers  30  to move out of the platform body  20  to reduce the lengths of the fillers  30  staying inside the platform body  20 , such that the area of the first region A 1  increases and in the meantime the area of the second region A 2  decreases. On the contrary, when the moveable bracket  60  is moved towards the direction indicated by the arrow shown in  FIG. 11 , through the lines  80  the moveable bracket  60  will pull the fillers  30  to move deep inside the platform body  20  to increase the lengths of the fillers  30  staying inside the platform body  20 , such that the area of the first region A 1  decreases and the area of the second region A 2  increases. Therefore, the user can use the adjustor  40  to automatically and conveniently adjust the area distribution of the first and second regions A 1  and A 2  subject to his/her physical condition and running speed. 
         [0033]    In addition, in order to prevent a runner to feel a sudden change of the hardness at the junction between the first and second regions A 1  and A 2 , each filler  32  provided by a fourth embodiment of the present invention shown in  FIGS. 12 and 13  has a variable cross-sectional area, which is gradually increased from an end of the filler  32  toward the other end of the filler  32  remote from the first region A 1 , such that the filler  30  will gradually fill up the internal space  28  along a direction away from the first area A 1 , and an area of the second region A 2  that is closer to the first region A 1  will have a hardness less than that of an area of the second region A 2  that is farther from the first region A 1 . That is to say, the hardness distribution of the second region A 2  will vary subject to the variation of the cross-sectional area of the fillers  32  and the runner may feel a smooth hardness change when stepping on the junction between the first and second regions A 1  and A 2 . Further, it will be appreciated that the cross section of the filler  32  is not limited to a circle shape, but a rectangular, trapezoidal or polygonal shape as long as the filler  30  can be slidably fitted inside the internal space formed by the cushions  264 . 
         [0034]    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.