Patent Publication Number: US-6702304-B2

Title: Detachable skate

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a detachable skate, and more particularly to a skate whose shoe can be detached from the skating device for walking. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     The shoe and the skating device of conventional roller skates, ice skates and in-line skates are all integrated in a body so that they have a large volume and are not easy to carry. Moreover, they are useless except the skating exercise. When either the shoe or the skating device is defective or malfunctioning, the whole body becomes a discard. Furthermore, their defective or malfunctioning parts is not repairable. This is another drawback of the conventional skates. In order to improve the conventional skates in an integrated form, Taiwan Pat. No. 447319 “detachable in-line skate” discloses a detachable structure of the shoe and the skating device (see FIGS.  11  through  13 ). In this disclosure, the shoe  11  is connected only with the front end of the skating device  12  by a safety pin  10  while the rear end of thereof has no safety arrangement. Thus, the fixing force between the shoe  11  and the skating device  12  only by means of a safety pin  10  is insufficient and it only focuses at the front side. Consequently, both parts of this in-line skate are easily taken apart. 
     In addition, another Taiwan Pat. Nos. 338338, 182154 and 205169 also teach a detachable design of the shoe and the skating device, having their own features. However, they still have drawbacks for improvement. Their technologies are much different from the present invention so that no further descriptions are given hereinafter. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a detachable skate having two sets of engagement members containing two female members and two male members which are correspondingly fitted to a sole at the bottom of the shoe and a mounting plate at the top of the skating device. In addition, the shoes are detachable from the skating devices so that it&#39;s convenient to assemble, stable and safe to use. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The accomplishment of this and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and its accompanying drawings of which: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a perspective exploded view of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective exploded view of an engaging element of the present invention; 
     FIG. 4 is an exploded side view of the present invention; 
     FIG. 5 is a side view of the present invention after assembly; 
     FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing in the direction  6 — 6  of FIG. 4; 
     FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing in the direction  7 — 7  of FIG. 4, showing that the shoe are ready to be engaged with the skating device; 
     FIG. 8 is a schematic drawing in the direction  7 - 7  of FIG. 4, showing that the shoe is engaged with the skating device; 
     FIG. 9 is a side view of the present invention applied to an ice skate; 
     FIG. 10 is a side view of the present invention applied to an in-line skate; 
     FIG. 11 is a perspective exploded view of a conventional in-line skate of the Taiwan Pat. No. 447319; 
     FIG. 12 is a schematic drawing of the arrangement of a safety pin of FIG. 11; and 
     FIG. 13 is a schematic drawing of the safety pin of FIG. 11 which is pulled out. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     First of all, referring to FIGS. 1 through 5, the present invention primarily includes a shoe  20  and a skating device  30 . 
     Two sets of engagement members consist of two female members  22   a,    22   b  and two male members  32   a,    32   b  correspondingly fitted to a sole  21  at the bottom of the shoe  20  and a mounting plate  31  at the top of the skating device  30 . 
     The female members  22   a,    22   b  are constructed as a socket with an opening downward. At least one projecting pin  221  is radially mounted on the internal wall of each of the female members  22   a,    22   b.  Besides, a vertical guide post  222  is disposed in the middle of the female members  22   a,    22   b.    
     The male members  32   a,    32   b  can be fitted into the female members  22   a,    22   b.  An L-shaped guide slot  321  corresponding to the projecting pin  221  is formed at the outer side of the male members  32   a,    32   b.  In addition, the male member  32   b  is provided with a lever  33  through which the male member  32   b  can be turned on the guide post  222  at a certain angle. Moreover, the male members  32   a,    32   b  have a guide hole  322  in the middle thereof corresponding to the guide post  222  of the female members  22   a,    22   b.    
     Therefore, the female members  22   a,    22   b  and the male members  32   a,    32   b  can be connected with each other by means of the engagement of the projecting pin  221  into the bottom end of the vertical part of the L-shaped guide slot  321 , whereupon the projecting pin  221  is turned to the front end of the horizontal part thereof. Accordingly, the female members  22   a,    22   b  and the male members  32   a,    32   b  are secured to each other while the shoe  20  and the skating device  30  are stably fixed together. 
     The guide post  222  of the female members  22   a,    22   b  and the guide hole  322  of the male members  32   a,    32   b  are used for alignment in place during in the engagement operation. 
     An applicable embodiment of the mounting way of the male members  32   b  is illustrated in FIG.  3 . The mounting plate  31  is provided with a round through hole  311  from which the male members  32   b  is able to project upwards. The lever  33  is fitted to a groove  312  at the bottom of the mounting plate  31  so that the lever  33  is rotatable to certain extent. Besides, a fixing plate  34  is fitted to the bottom of the mounting plate  31  for sealing the bottom of the groove  312 . Accordingly, the male member  32   b  is pivotably connected to the mounting plate  31 . 
     In order to fix the lever  33  in place, the lever  33  is provided with a resilient element  331  to keep the male members  32   b  in a locked state. The resilient element  331  can be a compression spring or a leaf spring. It&#39;s aimed that the male member  32   b  doesn&#39;t move during exercise. It&#39;s found from the experiments that the male member  32   b  won&#39;t be loosened when the female member  22   b  and the male member  32   b  are secured together only if the projecting pin  221  and the L-shaped guide slot  321  are correctly engaged. So, the safety can be certainly enhanced with the resilient element  331 . 
     Base upon the above, the assembly of the present invention, as shown in FIGS.  4  and  7 , is performed in the way that the sole  21  of the shoe  20  is located at an angle of about 30° to the mounting plate  31  of the skating device  30 . Thereafter, the female member  22   a  is correspondingly connected the male member  32   a  and is turned inwards at an angle in order that the projecting pin  221  is engaged into the horizontal part of the L-shaped guide slot  321 . At this time, the sole  21  is pivoted on the female member  22   a  and the male member  32   a.  As illustrated by the arrow P 1 , the sole  21  is moved toward the top of the mounting plate  31  while the lever  33  is moved outwards in the direction shown by the arrow P 2  so that the projecting pin  221  of the female member  22   b  can be aligned with the vertical opening of the L-shaped guide slot  321  of the male member  32   b  for inserting thereinto. Soon after that, the lever  33  is turned inwards to bring the male member  32   b  back to the position shown in FIG.  8 . Now, both projecting pins  221  of the female members  22   a,    22   b  are engaged into the horizontal part of the L-shaped guide slots  321  of the male members  32   a,    32   b.  Thus, the present invention utilizes a turning angle and L-shaped engagement to ensure a stable connection between the shoe  20  and the skating device  30  during the exercise session so that it can be safely used. 
     Accordingly, the female members  22   a,    22   b  and the male members  32   a,    32   b  can be connected by means of the engagement of the projecting pins  221  into the L-shaped guide slots  321  so that the shoe  20  and the skating device  30  are secured together through a simple engagement operation. In addition to the roller skates, the present invention can also be applicable to the ice skates  30   a  and the in-line skates  30   b  whose shoes  20  are detachable from the skating devices so that it&#39;s convenient to assemble, stable and safe to use. 
     Many changes and modifications in the above-described embodiments of the invention can, of course, be carried out without departing from the scope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and the useful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.