Patent Publication Number: US-2006009319-A1

Title: Sports ball device with internal noise maker

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims the priority of Provisional Patent Application No. 60/582,978, entitled Sports Ball Device With Internal Noise Maker, which was filed Jun. 28, 2004. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to noise makers, such as whoopee cushions, that make noise when the noise maker is compressed. The present invention also relates to compressible sports balls, such as foam-filled footballs, soccer balls and basketballs.  
      2. Prior Art Description  
      There exist many sports, such as football, soccer, and basketball, that use some form of a ball. However, regulation balls tend to be made of leather and are firmly inflated. As such, the sports balls are hard and are difficult to handle by children. Because regulation sports balls are hard, the balls can cause harm to a child who lacks the muscle strength and coordination to catch or kick the ball properly.  
      It is for these reasons that “toy” sports balls are manufactured. Toy sports balls have the appearance of regulation sports balls, but are made from softer materials and often in smaller sizes. The prior art is replete with toy sports balls. In this art record, many secondary features have been added to sports balls that are intended to increase the play value of the toy sports ball and make that toy sports ball more appealing to children. For instance, lights have been added to many toy sports balls that enable the toy sports ball to internally illuminate. Furthermore, noise makers, in the form of whistles have been added to toy sports balls, such as footballs, that are commonly thrown. The whistles produce sound as air passes the toy sports ball when it is in flight. However, such noise makers do require that the toy sports ball be thrown before noise will be created.  
      The one feature that typically differentiates a toy sports ball from a regulation sports ball is its degree of compressibility. Toy sports balls are typically made to be much softer, and thus more compressible, than are regulation sports balls. In the prior art record of noise makers, there exist noise makers that utilize an object&#39;s compression to move air and create noise. A common example of such a noise maker is a whoopee cushion. Variations of the whoopee cushion are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,131 to Selevan, entitled Self Inflating Noise Maker.  
      Although, compressible noise makers do exist and compressible balls do exist, no prior art instances have been discovered of combining a compressible noise maker into a compressible ball to create a new novelty ball. The present invention presents such a novelty ball, as described below.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention is a novelty ball assembly that produces noise when squeezed. The ball assembly includes a resilient shell that defines an internal chamber. The resilient shell has a structure that is self-expanding into a fully expanded condition. Consequently, when the resilient shell of the ball assembly is squeezed, it returns to its fully expanded shape on its own accord.  
      A first vent port is present disposed in the resilient shell. When the resilient shell is squeezed, air from the internal chamber is displaced through the first vent port. A noise maker is disposed within the resilient shell, proximate the first vent port so that air displaced through the first vent port passes through the noise maker. As air passes through the noise maker. The noise maker produces an audible sound. In the preferred embodiment, the audible sound is that of a whoopee cushion. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      For a better understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the following description of exemplary embodiments thereof, considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a cross-sectional view of an exemplary embodiment of a novelty ball; and  
       FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional view of an alternate embodiment of a novelty ball.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      Although the present invention novelty ball can be configured as any sports ball, such as a soccer ball or baseball, the shown embodiment is shaped as a football. Such a shape selection is merely exemplary and should not be considered a limitation of the present invention to balls of different shapes.  
      Referring to  FIG. 1 , a ball assembly  10  is shown. The ball assembly  10  includes a hollow ball shell  12 . The ball shell  12  can be spherical and can be shaped like a soccer ball or a baseball. However, in the shown exemplary embodiment, the ball shell  12  has the elongated external shape of a football.  
      The ball shell  12  defines an internal chamber  14 . The ball shell  12  is made of air impermeable material, such as plastic or a closed cell plastic foam. The ball shell  12  is compressible. That is, the ball shell  12  is flexible enough so that it can be squeezed to a point where the internal chamber  14  partially collapses inwardly. The ball shell  12  is also manufactured to be resilient in shape. In this manner, once the ball shell  12  is compressed, it will automatically return to its original fully expanded shape as soon as the compression forces are removed.  
      Two vent ports are disposed in the ball shell  12  that allow air to flow into and out of the internal chamber  14  as the ball shell  12  is compressed and expands back into its original shape. In the shown embodiment, there is an inbound vent port  18 . A one-way valve  20  is positioned in the inbound vent port  18  that only enables air to flow into the internal chamber  14  from the exterior of the ball shell  12 . The second vent port is an outbound vent port  22 . The outbound vent port  22  enables air from the internal chamber  14  to exit the ball shell  12  as the ball shell  12  is compressed.  
      A noise maker  30  is disposed in the path of the outbound vent port  22 . Consequently, any air passing out of the internal chamber  14  of the ball shell  12  is forced to pass through the noise maker  30 . The flow of air through the noise maker  30  is used to power the noise maker  30  and create the desired noise.  
      In the embodiment of  FIG. 1 , the noise maker  30  contains a segment of a collapsed tube  32 . As air passes through the tube  32 , the tube  32  expands and vibrates. This produces the same sound as does a traditional whoopee cushion. It will therefore be understood, that when the ball shell  12  is compressed, air from within the internal chamber  14  will pass through the noise maker  30  and produce a whoopee cushion noise. After the compression forces are removed from the ball shell  12 , the ball shell  12  returns to its normal shape as air returns to the internal chamber  14  through the inbound vent port  18 .  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , an alternate embodiment of the present invention novelty ball  40  is shown. In this embodiment, a round ball shell  42  is provided. The round ball shell  42  defines an internal chamber  44 . The internal chamber  44  is accessed by an inbound vent port  46  and an outbound vent port  48 . The inbound vent port  46  is smaller than the outbound vent port  48 . Thus, when the ball shell  42  is compressed, air will travel out through the larger outbound vent post  48 , since that is the path of least resistance.  
      As the ball shell  42  is compressed, air exits the outbound vent port  48 . A noise maker  50  is provided in the path of the outbound vent port  48 . The noise maker  50  is a reed noise maker that contains an internal reed  52  that vibrates and creates noise as air passes the reed  52  in the noise maker  50 . When the compression force is released, air flows back into the ball shell  42  through the inbound vent port  46 .  
      It will be understood that the embodiments of the present invention novelty ball that are illustrated and described are merely exemplary and that a person skilled in the art can make many variations to those embodiments using functionally equivalent components. For example, there are many types of noise makers that can be used as part of the present invention. Any noise makers, such as whistles and kazoos, that are powered by the flow of air, can be adapted for use by the present invention. All such modifications, variations and alternate embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.