Patent Publication Number: US-7585203-B1

Title: Bowling ball surface treatment machine and bowling ball surface treatment method

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention pertains to a bowling ball surface treatment machine and, more specifically, to a bowling ball surface treatment machine capable of uniformly abrading or polishing a bowling ball with a simplified rotating structure. The present invention is also directed to a bowling ball surface treatment method using the bowling ball surface treatment machine. 
   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   Frictional rolling contact between a bowling ball and a lane often leaves irregular wear portions or scratches on a surface of the bowling ball. In particular, the bowling ball tends to make contact with the lane substantially at the same circumferential area thereof, which may cause unbalanced wear of the bowling ball. The scratched or unevenly worn bowling ball looks ugly and use of the scratched or unevenly worn bowling ball makes it difficult for a bowler to exercise, e.g., spin skills at his or her desire due mainly to the unpredictable movement of the bowling ball. As a result, the scratch and the unbalanced wear may adversely affect the score of a bowling game, thus reducing amusement of the game played. Thus, the bowling ball needs to be periodically abraded into a perfect spherical shape with no or little scratch. 
   There are a number of prior art references that disclose a device for automatically abrading a bowling ball. One of them is U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,896 that teaches a bowling ball resurfacing machine including three shafts disposed at an angle of 120 degrees in such a manner as to support a bowling ball, three motors for rotating the corresponding shafts in a forward or reverse direction, and three cone-shaped abrading cups mounted on the shafts. Although this bowling ball resurfacing machine has its own advantages, it suffers from a drawback in that a rolling direction or a rotation axis of the bowling ball cannot be vigorously changed during a resurfacing process. For this reason, the bowling ball resurfacing machine encounters a difficulty in uniformly abrading the whole surface of the bowling ball into a perfect sphere. 
   Another prior art reference is U.S. Pat. No. 7,063,607 disclosing a bowling ball resurfacing machine that includes a housing, first and second vertical support rollers mounted to the housing for rotation about parallel vertical axes, each of the vertical support rollers adapted to make contact with the surface of the bowling ball at one lateral bottom side of the bowling ball, first and second horizontal support rollers mounted to the housing for supporting the bowling ball in cooperation with the vertical support rollers, each of the horizontal support rollers rotatable about horizontal axes and adapted to make contact with the surface of the bowling ball at the other lateral bottom side of the bowling ball, drive motors for causing the support rollers to rotate, and a grinding-and-polishing wheel assembly for making frictional contact with the surface of the bowling ball to grind or polish the bowling ball. 
   The prior art devices noted above are capable of substantially evenly abrading or polishing the surface of the bowling ball by rotating the bowling ball in different directions. However, the prior art devices leave a room for improvement because they are structurally complicated, costly to fabricate and highly susceptible to trouble. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   In view of the above-mentioned or other problems inherent in the prior art devices, it is an object of the present invention to provide a bowling ball surface treatment machine and method capable of uniformly abrading or polishing the whole surface of the bowling ball within a shortened period of time. 
   Another object of the invention is to provide a bowling ball surface treatment machine which is quite simple in structure, easy to manufacture and low in price. 
   In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bowling ball surface treatment machine, comprising: 
   a housing; 
   a ball movement guider provided inside the housing for guiding movement of a bowling ball, the ball movement guider having a guider center axis and an inner circumferential surface for guiding movement of the bowling ball; 
   a surface treatment disc arranged below the ball movement guider for supporting and rotating the bowling ball, the surface treatment disc including a surface treatment element for making frictional contact with the bowling ball, the surface treatment disc having a disc center axis deviating from the guider center axis of the ball movement guider; 
   a disc driving motor for rotating the surface treatment disc about the disc center axis; and 
   a controller for allowing the disc driving motor to accelerate the surface treatment disc to a target rotation speed, rotate the surface treatment disc in a surface treatment position at the target rotation speed for a predetermined running time and then decelerate the surface treatment disc toward a zero speed, in a repeated manner until a preset treatment time lapses. 
   In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bowling ball surface treatment method, comprising: 
   placing a bowling ball on a surface treatment disc off-centered from a ball movement guider, the surface treatment disc having a surface treatment element for making frictional contact with the bowling ball, the ball movement guider arranged above the surface treatment disc to guide movement of the bowling ball; 
   accelerating the surface treatment disc up to a target rotation speed to bring the bowling ball into a surface treatment position where the bowling ball lies farthest from a center axis of the surface treatment disc; 
   rotating the surface treatment disc in the surface treatment position at the target rotation speed for a predetermined running time so that the bowling ball can be surface-treated by the surface treatment element of the surface treatment disc; 
   decelerating the surface treatment disc toward a zero speed so that the bowling ball can be escaped from the surface treatment position and can be moved toward the center axis of the surface treatment disc; and 
   repeating the accelerating step, the rotating step and the decelerating step until a preset treatment time lapses. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of preferred embodiments given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a side elevational section view showing a bowling ball surface treatment machine in accordance with the present invention; 
       FIG. 2  is a cross sectional view of the bowling ball surface treatment machine taken along line II-II in  FIG. 1 ; 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a bowling ball surface treatment method in accordance with the present invention; and 
       FIGS. 4 through 7  are schematic diagrams depicting the movement of a bowling ball during a surface treatment process performed by the bowling ball surface treatment machine of the present invention; and 
   

   DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Preferred embodiments of a bowling ball surface treatment machine and method in accordance with the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
   Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , a bowling ball surface treatment device includes a housing  10  having a top access opening  11  through which a bowling ball B is put into or taken out from the housing  10 . The access opening  11  is openably closed by a lid  12 . The housing  10  has an internal space divided into an upper surface treatment compartment  13  and a lower drive compartment  14  by means of a partition plate  15 . With the surface treatment compartment  13 , the bowling ball B is subjected to surface treatments such as abrading, polishing and the like. The drive compartment  14  is designed to receive a drive unit described later. 
   A controller  16  for controlling the operation of the bowling ball surface treatment machine is attached to an internal side surface of the housing  10 . A series of push buttons  17  and a timer knob  18  for setting various operating conditions of the bowling ball surface treatment machine are arranged on an external side surface of the housing  10  and electrically associated with the controller  16 . 
   Within the surface treatment compartment  13  of the housing  10 , there is provided a generally ring-shaped ball movement guider  20  for guiding the movement of the bowling ball B and confining the bowling ball B within a limited surface treatment area. Although the ball movement guider  20  has a generally circular shape in the illustrated embodiment, it may have an elliptical shape, a polygonal shape or other irregular shape. 
   In the illustrated embodiment, the ball movement guider  20  having a guider center axis G is fixedly secured to the partition plate  15  by means of a plurality of rod-like support members  20   a  extending downwardly from the ball movement guider  20 . Each of the support members  20   a  is provided with a coil spring portion  20   b  that serves to reduce vibration and noise which would be generated in the ball movement guider  20  during operation of the bowling ball surface treatment machine. Alternatively, the ball movement guider  20  may be attached to an inner wall surface of the housing  10  through a shock-absorber, e.g., a coil spring. Although four support members  20   a  are used in the illustrated embodiment, the number of the support members  20   a  may be greater or lesser. 
   The ball movement guider  20  has a ball reception opening  21  for rotatably and revolvably receiving the bowling ball B. The ball reception opening  21  is somewhat greater in diameter than the bowling ball B to ensure that the bowling ball B received in the ball reception opening  21  can move along the inner surface of the ball movement guider  20 . A shock-absorbing liner  22  made of an elastically deformable material, e.g., a rubber strip, is detachably attached to the inner surface of the ball movement guider  20 . 
   A surface treatment disc  30  is arranged below the ball movement guider  20  to support and rotate the bowling ball B. The surface treatment disc  30  is provided with a disc shaft  31  extending downwardly along a disc center axis D. The disc shaft  31  extends through the partition plate  15  into the drive compartment  14  and is rotatably supported on the partition plate  15  by means of a bearing  32 . It is important to note that the disc center axis D deviates from the guider center axis G by a distance M. The surface treatment disc  30  has a central convex region  30   a  protruding upwardly from the upper surface of the surface treatment disc  30 . The central convex region  30   a  serves to prevent the bowling ball B from staying at the midpoint of the surface treatment disc  30 . 
   The surface treatment disc  30  has a surface treatment element that makes contact with the bowling ball B to perform surface treatments, i.e., abrading and/or polishing. In the illustrated embodiment, the surface treatment element is formed of a surface treatment fabric  40  and a cushion backing  41  attached to the surface treatment fabric  40 . 
   Examples of the surface treatment fabric  40  include an abrading fabric such as a sheet of sandpaper or a sheet of diamond-coated paper and a polishing fabric such as a non-woven fabric or cotton fabric. The abrading fabric and the polishing fabric can be selectively used in abrading and polishing the bowling ball B. It is preferred that three kinds of abrading fabrics, i.e., fine, medium and coarse abrading fabrics, are used to abrade the bowling ball B with different roughness. 
   The cushion backing  41  is made of, e.g., a sponge material, which absorbs shock generated by the bowling ball B during a surface treatment process. The shock-cushion backing  41  is replaceably attached to the top surface of the surface treatment disc  30  by means of, e.g., a Velcro fastener. 
   The bowling ball surface treatment machine includes a disc rotating device for rotating the surface treatment disc  30  and the disc shaft  31  about the disc center axis D deviating from the guider center axis G. The disc rotating device includes a disc driving motor  33  provided within the drive compartment  14 , a pair of pulleys  34   a  and  34   b  respectively fixed to an output shaft of the disc driving motor  33  and a lower end of the disc shaft  31 , and a belt  35  wound around the pulleys  34   a  and  34   b  for transferring a torque of the disc driving motor  33  to the disc shaft  31  of the surface treatment disc  30 . 
   The controller  16  is electrically connected to the disc driving motor  33  so that it can control the operation of the disc driving motor  33  in a specified manner. The controller  16  is designed to allow the disc driving motor  33  to operate the surface treatment disc  30  in three, i.e., first, second and third, consecutive operation steps. The first operation step is to cause the disc driving motor  33  to accelerate the surface treatment disc  30  up to a target rotation speed of, e.g., 400 to 1200 rpm, in a state that the bowling ball B is placed on the surface treatment disc  30 . The second operation step is to cause the disc driving motor  33  to rotate the surface treatment disc  30  at the target rotation speed for a predetermined running time, e.g., 1 to 3 second, so that the bowling ball B can be rotated about a generally horizontal axis in a fixed surface treatment position farthest from the disc center axis D. During the second step, the bowling ball B is abraded or polished by making frictional contact with the radially outer surface region of the surface treatment disc  30 . The third operation step is to cause the disc driving motor  33  to decelerate the surface treatment disc  30  from the target rotation speed down to a nearly zero or exactly zero rotation speed so that the bowling ball B can escape from the fixed surface treatment position and can roll across the surface treatment disc  30  radially inwardly of the latter. In the third step, the surface region of the bowling ball B that makes contact with the surface treatment disc  30  is changed to another region. The controller  16  is designed to repeat the first to third operation steps until a preset surface treatment time, e.g., five minutes, lapses. As the first to third operation steps are repeatedly performed, different surface regions of the bowling ball B are rubbed by the surface treatment disc  30  and, after all, the entire surface region of the bowling ball B is uniformly abraded or polished with no or little partial wear. 
   The bowling ball surface treatment machine includes a treatment solution supplying device for supplying surface treatment solutions to the bowling ball B. Two kinds of surface treatment solutions may be used in the bowling ball surface treatment machine. One is an abrading solution for use in abrading the bowling ball B and the other is a polishing solution for use in polishing the bowling ball B. 
   The treatment solution supplying device includes an abrading solution injection nozzle  61  for injecting the abrading solution to the surface of the bowling ball B, a polishing solution injection nozzle  62  for injecting the polishing solution to the surface of the bowling ball B, an abrading solution tank  63  for storing the abrading solution, a polishing solution tank  64  for storing the polishing solution, an abrading solution pump  65  for pumping the abrading solution stored in the abrading solution tank  63  to the abrading solution injection nozzle  61 , and a polishing solution pump  66  for pumping the polishing solution stored in the polishing solution tank  64  to the polishing solution injection nozzle  62 . 
   The abrading solution injection nozzle  61  and the polishing solution injection nozzle  62  are attached to the inner side of the lid  12  so that they can face the bowling ball B received within the surface treatment compartment  13 . The abrading solution tank  63 , the polishing solution tank  64 , the abrading solution pump  65  and the polishing solution pump  66  are arranged within the drive compartment  14 . The polishing solution tank  64  communicates with the surface treatment compartment  13  through a drain pipe  67  to collect the abrading solution and the polishing solution injected into the surface treatment compartment  13 . 
   Next, a bowling ball surface treatment method in accordance with the present invention will be described with particular reference to  FIGS. 3 to 7 . 
   First, the operating conditions, e.g., the surface treatment time and the kind of surface treatments (abrading and polishing), are preset using the push buttons  17  and the timer knob  18 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , the lid  12  is opened and the bowling ball B is placed on the surface treatment disc  30  off-centered from the ball movement guider  20  (S 10 ). At this time, the bowling ball B may be placed in any position on the surface treatment disc  30  as shown in  FIG. 4 . 
   Then, the disc driving motor  33  is energized and rotatingly driven under the control of the controller  16 . The torque of the disc driving motor  33  is transferred to the disc shaft  31  via the pair of pulleys  34   a  and  34   b  and the belt  35 , thereby rotating the surface treatment disc  30  together with the disc shaft  31 . The disc driving motor  33  accelerates the surface treatment disc  30  up to a target rotation speed of, e.g., 400 to 1200 rpm, to bring the bowling ball B into a surface treatment position as illustrated in  FIG. 5  (S 20  in  FIG. 3 ). More specifically, as the surface treatment disc  30  is rotated and accelerated up to the target rotation speed, the bowling ball B is moved radially outwardly of the surface treatment disc  30  by a centrifugal force and then moved along the inner circumferential surface of the ball movement guider  20  until it reaches a surface treatment position as illustrated in  FIGS. 2 and 5 . In the illustrated embodiment, the surface treatment position refers to the 3 o&#39;clock position where the bowling ball B stays farthest from the disc center axis D. This is because the disc center axis D deviates toward the 9 o&#39;clock position from the guider center axis G by a distance M. Such a deviation between the disc center axis D and the guider center axis G ensures that the bowling ball B is kept stationary in the surface treatment position unless the rotation speed of the surface treatment disc  30  is decelerated to nearly zero or exactly. 
   Once the bowling ball B is moved into the surface treatment position as illustrated in  FIG. 5 , the disc driving motor  33  rotates the surface treatment disc  30  at the target rotation speed for a predetermined running time, e.g., 1 to 3 second, so that a specified surface region of the bowling ball B can be continuously abraded or polished by means of the surface treatment element of the surface treatment disc  30  (S 30  in  FIG. 3 ). In other words, the bowling ball B is surface-treated while it is rotated by the surface treatment disc  30  in the surface treatment position. During the predetermined running time, the bowling ball B is rotated about a generally horizontal axis so that the specified surface region of the bowling ball B can be rubbed by the surface treatment element of the surface treatment disc  30 . 
   If the predetermined running time lapses, the controller  16  reduces the rotation speed of the disc driving motor  33  by reducing or cutting off an electric current supplied to the disc driving motor  33 . Thus, the disc driving motor  33  decelerates the surface treatment disc  30  toward a zero speed (S 40  in  FIG. 3 ). As the surface treatment disc  30  is decelerated to nearly zero and is rotated at a very low speed, the centrifugal force acting against the bowling ball B is eliminated and the bowling ball B is moved together with the surface treatment disc  30  in a clockwise direction as illustrated in  FIG. 6 . Therefore, the bowling ball B is escaped from the surface treatment position and is moved radially inwardly toward the disc center axis D across the upper surface of the surface treatment disc  30 . This is because the distance between the disc center axis D and the inner circumferential surface of the ball movement guider  20  grows smaller and smaller from the 3 o&#39;clock position to the 6 o&#39;clock position and then to the 9 o&#39;clock position. When the bowling ball B is in the 9 o&#39;clock position as illustrated in  FIG. 7 , the bowling ball B makes contact with the surface treatment disc  30  at a contact point closest to the disc center axis D. If the surface treatment disc  30  is accelerated again, the bowling ball B is rotated about a generally vertical axis together with the surface treatment disc  30  for a short moment. During the rolling movement of the bowling ball B across the upper surface of the surface treatment disc  30  and the rotational movement of the bowling ball B about the generally vertical axis, the surface region of the bowling ball B that makes contact with the surface treatment disc  30  is changed at random. 
   The controller  16  determines whether a preset treatment time, e.g., five minutes, has lapsed (S 50  in  FIG. 3 ). If the answer is in the negative, the controller  16  allows the disc driving motor  33  to repeat steps S 20 , S 30  and S 40 . If the answer is in the affirmative, the controller deenergizes the disc driving motor  33 , thereby terminating the flow of the bowling ball surface treatment method. 
   Although the determination step is performed just after step S 40  in the illustrated embodiment, it may be possible to perform the determination step after step S 20  or S 30 . When accelerating again the surface treatment disc  30  in step S 20 , the surface treatment disc  30  may be rotated in the reverse direction, i.e., in the counterclockwise direction. 
   With the surface treatment machine and method stated above, the surface treatment region of the bowling ball B is positively changed each time the rotation speed of the surface treatment disc  30  is decelerated to nearly zero or exactly zero. Therefore, the entire surface of the bowling ball B is uniformly abraded or polished by the surface treatment fabric  40  of the surface treatment disc  30  as the surface treatment operation continues to be performed. 
   The surface treatment method of the present invention is divided into an abrading method and a polishing method, which may be performed independently or in combination. 
   In the abrading method, an abrading fabric that constitutes the surface treatment fabric  40  is replaceably attached to the surface treatment disc  30 . Coarse, medium and fine abrading fabrics may be selectively used to abrade the bowling ball B with different roughness. If needed, coarse abrading, medium abrading and fine abrading can be successively performed by attaching the coarse, medium and fine abrading fabrics to the surface treatment disc  30  one after another. 
   In the abrading method, the abrading solution stored in the abrading solution tank  63  is supplied by the abrading solution pump  65  to the surface of the bowling ball B through the abrading solution injection nozzle  61 . In the polishing method, the abrading fabric is replaced by a polishing fabric that constitutes the surface treatment fabric  40 . The polishing solution stored in the polishing solution tank  64  is supplied by the polishing solution pump  66  to the surface of the bowling ball B through the polishing solution injection nozzle  62 . 
   While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described hereinabove, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.