Patent Publication Number: US-2002013179-A1

Title: Billiard table

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0002] The invention presented here involves a billiard game table.  
       [0003] 2. Description of Related Art  
       [0004] Billiard game tables are made of a horizontal rectangular frame, carried by an underframe, on the inside of which a plate is mounted that is made of slate, marble, or another material and covered with a cloth.  
       [0005] The inner lip or edge of the struts of the frame, along the length or width, accomodates a set of elastic bumpers.  
       [0006] Generally, the bumpers are attached to the frame by gluing.  
       [0007] The profile of the bumpers is determined by the type of billiards.  
       [0008] A recent development is aimed at, using the same table, obtaining different types of billiard games by replacing the bumpers.  
       [0009] French billiards has continuous bumpers over the entire length of the frame elements.  
       [0010] American billiards or English billiards have holes for the balls to go out at the four corners and at the center of their longest sides.  
       [0011] In this case, the bumpers are cut into several sections.  
       [0012] In this type of convertible billiards, it has been proposed to affix the elastic bumpers to a support profile and to screw it on through the frame.  
       [0013] The French patent no. 92.07320/2.292.160 describes a system of a threaded joint in which the screws cross through the frame horizontally from the external lip to the internal lip, their heads on the external lip being masked by a detachable cover.  
       [0014] The threaded part of each screw is accommodated in a threaded bottom bush clamped in a drill bole of a bumper carrier profile.  
       [0015] This system is complex and is not fully satisfactory:  
       [0016] The attachment of the external detachable cover can eventually become imperfect which harms the aesthetic,  
       [0017] If the threads of the bushes inside the bumper carrier profile or the threads of the screw become damaged, it is necessary to intervene at the level of the bumper carrier profile or replace it.  
       [0018] The system for attaching the bumpers using known screws also has the disadvantage of not allowing a backlash elimination when this is done and performing a clamping that can be irregular from one screw to the other.  
       [0019] The patent GB 2.068.073 shows a billiard table with a system of detachable bumpers. The elastic bumpers are glued onto a longitudinal bumper carrier made of wood. The bumper carrier has a recess in a longitudinal T-shape, over the entire length of the bumper carrier.  
       [0020] The vertical part of the T-shape opens by a central horizontal part at the internal lip of the bumper carrier.  
       [0021] In the vertical part of the T-shape, a clamping head with a threaded cylinder is placed on the inside, which is accommodated in the horizontal part of the T-shape.  
       [0022] A horizontal screw crosses the frame and screws into the threaded cylinder of the head.  
       [0023] The patent GB 1,574,859 describes an identical system.  
       [0024] The disadvantage of these systems is that it is essential in order to affix the bumper carriers that the heads, in the groove that has a T-shape, which is made over the entire length of the bumper carrier, are placed exactly opposite the screw, or else the mounting is impossible.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0025] The present invention intends to avoid the disadvantages above while making a game table having detachable and interchangeable bumpers whose mounting is, at the same time, perfectly easy to do, reliable and precise in time regardless of the number of assemblies and disassemblies made, and which is perfectly aesthetic, the system not being visible from the outside.  
       [0026] For this purpose, the billiard table according to the invention consists of a rectangular frame with a peripheral skirt below, carried by an underframe, on the inside of which a plate is mounted, the inner side or edge of the struts, lengthwise and widthwise of the frame, receiving a set of detachable and interchangeable elastic bumpers, each of them being glued to a bumper carrier profile, characterized essentially in that each bumper carrier profile is held under pressure by many clamps, each of them consisting of a horizontal axle housed in a transverse blind hole on the frame and opening onto its inner lip, the axes being equipped at their free end outside of the frame, above the plate, with a head that is housed in a recess in the depth of the bumper carrier profile and at their inside end on the frame by an instrument exerting an axial traction on the horizontal axle, a traction reflected on the bumper carrier profile by the head, where the instrument is accessible and maneuverable by screwing down or unscrewing from below the frame.  
       [0027] According to another characteristic of the invention, the instrument exerting a traction on the horizontal axle of the clamp is a piece orthogonal to the axle and mobile from above to below and from below to above, whose upper projecting conical part penetrates into a hollow conical volume of the axle, this volume being orthogonal to the axle.  
       [0028] According to yet another characteristic of the invention, the horizontal axle is mounted sliding in a transverse hole of a bush orthogonal to the axle, where this bush has a threading complementary to a threading of the piece that is mobile from above to below. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0029] Other advantages and characteristics of the invention appear from reading the following description of an embodiment form given as a non-restrictive example and illustrated by the attached drawings in which:  
     [0030]FIG. 1 shows a schematic view from above of the frame  1  of the game table, the bumpers  2  in a configuration of French billiards and the plate  3 .  
     [0031]FIG. 2 is a section view of the frame with the system according to the invention.  
     [0032]FIG. 3 is a view of the head to be mounted to the bumper carrier profile.  
     [0033]FIG. 4 is an exploded view of the instruments of one of the clamps according to an embodiment form.  
     [0034]FIG. 5 is another section view of the frame with the clamp system according to FIG. 4.  
     [0035]FIG. 6 is a view from below of one part of the bumper carrier profile with the representation of one of the recesses receiving the head of one of the clamps.  
     [0036]FIGS. 7, 8, and  9  show the positioning of the bumper carrier on the device from the bottom of the head by acting together with the recesses  12  and windows  14 .  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
     [0037] The implantation of the clamps  4  is shown schematically.  
     [0038] In the embodiment example, twenty-four clamps hold the bumpers of which there are eighteen (nine times struts) for the bumpers corresponding to the longitudinal struts of the frame and eight (four times struts) inside the frame for the bumpers corresponding to the struts of the width of the frame.  
     [0039] The frame is made of pieces of wood having a horizontal rectangular cross-section and resting on an underframe (not shown) in FIG. 2.  
     [0040] On the outside lip  5  of each piece or strut, lengthwise and widthwise, of the frame, a vertical skirt  6  is mounted.  
     [0041] The mounting of the clamp  4  is shown in FIG. 2.  
     [0042] As shown in FIG. 2, for one clamp, the frame is equipped with horizontal blind holes  7  opening on the lip or inner edge  8  of the frame.  
     [0043] In each of the blind holes  7 , an axle  9  is introduced, the one free end  10  of which is outside of the inner lip  8  of the frame and receives a head  11  that is accommodated in a recess  12  in the depth of the bumper carrier profile  13 .  
     [0044] For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 3, the recesses  12  of the bumper carrier profile are equipped with vertical windows  14  for the passage of the axle, the head  11  being kept in the recess  12 .  
     [0045] The recesses  12  are made vertically in the bumper carrier profile  13 ; they open at the base of the profile, at the level of the contact of the profile with the slate  3 .  
     [0046] The recesses are equipped with a vertical window  14  opening onto the rear side of the bumper carrier profile, i.e. on the side which comes into contact and under pressure, as described in the following, against the inner edge  8  of the strut of the frame.  
     [0047] The recesses  12  and windows  14  are spaced regularly on each bumper carrier profile. There are as much of them as there are clamps.  
     [0048] The position of the clamps, the recesses and the vertical windows is symmetric on the frame for the clamps, and on the bumper carrier for the recesses and windows, in a manner so that one clamp with its head  11  corresponds exactly in position to a recess in which the head  11  and a window  14  for the passage of an axle  10  that carries the head are housed.  
     [0049] This allows an easier mounting as shown in FIGS. 7, 8,  9 , given as an example, for a position of the frame with a clamp and a head, and a position of the bumper carrier with a recess and a window; this makes it possible to make the bumpers and the bumper carriers detachable and interchangeable.  
     [0050] The heads  11  projecting over the inner edge  8  of the frame at the end of their axle  10 , the bumper carrier is slipped onto the heads by its windows  14  and recesses  12 , from above to below.  
     [0051] The bumper carrier profiles are equipped with as many recesses and windows as they receive from the clamps.  
     [0052] Near the inner end of the axle, a blind hole  15  orthogonal to the blind hole  7  and opening under the frame makes it possible to arrange an instrument that exerts a traction on the axle  9  towards the inside and by the intermediary of the head  11  on the bumper carrier profile which is pinned and jammed against the inner lip  8  of the frame.  
     [0053] The axial displacement of the piece  9  can be obtained by any type of instrument for control that can be activated from the below the frame.  
     [0054] Advantageously, a usage is made of the mobile instrument from the bottom to the top and vice-versa, in a manner so that the traction exerted on the axle  9  is never irreversible, according to one embodiment form, this instrument is made up of a bush  16  arranged in the blind hole  15 .  
     [0055] The bush  16  is equipped with an axial hole  17  orthogonal to the threaded axle  9  and with a transverse hole  12  having a cross-section corresponding to that of the axle  9 .  
     [0056] As shown notably from the exploded view in FIG. 4, the axle  9  has a hexagonal cross-section.  
     [0057] The transverse drill hole  18  of the bush  16  has a cross-section that is also hexagonal in order to block the axle  9  in rotation in the bush  16 .  
     [0058] The axle  9  has on one of its sides a hollow conical housing  19  in which an upper conical part  20  of a shaft  21  with a threading is housed and screws into the bush  16  that is also threaded. The axle  9  is introduced into the bush  16  by its hole  18 , its hollow conical housing  19  being placed opposite the shaft  21 .  
     [0059] Advantageously, the section of the shaft  21  is hexagonal in order to allow it to be maneuvered by a key.  
     [0060] Preferably, the length of the shaft  21  is equal to or less than that of the skirt  6  which conceals it.  
     [0061] It goes without saying that the control system which exerts a traction by displacement of the axle  9  can be replaced by any other suitable device.  
     [0062] The axle  9  has one end  22  opening from the lip  8  of the frame and penetrating into the recess  12  of the bumper carrier profile  13  which has a cylindrical position contraction with a distal threading.  
     [0063] On this contracted portion  22 , a sliding centering collar  23  is mounted.  
     [0064] Preferably, the collar  23  has a hexagonal cross-section which makes it possible to position it by forcing it into the horizontal blind hole  7  without breaking the wood.  
     [0065] On the threaded end of the cylindrical portion  22  of the axle, the head  11  is mounted. The head  11  has the shape of a disk whose thickness allows it to be housed in the recess  12  of the bumper carrier profile which is provided in its center with a threaded hole  24  in which the threaded end of the portion  22  of the axle is housed.  
     [0066] According to a characteristic of the invention, the distal threaded part of the portion  22  has a cross-section that is less than the portion  22  so as to form a collar  25 .  
     [0067] On one of the sides of the head  11 , the hole  24  is equipped with a countersinking  26  having a cross-section that is slightly greater than that of the portion  22  in a manner so that the non-threaded part of it penetrates into the head  11  until stopping against the collar  25  and the countersinking  26 .  
     [0068] This position makes it possible, in presenting one side or the other side of the head  11 , to fit to the threading made and if necessary, to eliminate any backlash.