Abstract:
A hockey puck with a set of runners extending from the upper and lower surface thereof. The runners are movable with respect to the puck and as the puck hits the playing surface, one or more runners strike the playing surface and move slightly inwardly with respect to the puck, absorbing some of the shock of the puck hitting the playing surface. In this way, the puck tends to bounce less away from the playing surface.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The field of the invention is hockey pucks and the invention relates more particularly to hockey pucks of the type used on a non-ice surface. Such pucks are often referred to as roller hockey pucks and are typically made with six runners extending from the upper and lower surface of the puck. These runners are made from a material which has a lower co-efficient of friction against the playing surface than the material from which the body of the puck is made. Most commonly, the runners are fabricated from Nylon and are positioned near the outer periphery of the surfaces of the puck. 
     A basic patent showing a roller hockey puck with runners is U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,161. Since the game of roller hockey is intended to play as much like as ice hockey as possible, it is desirable that the roller hockey puck have a similar action when hitting the skating surface as does the conventional rubber ice hockey puck. Pucks with runners tend to bounce more when hitting a playing surface than does a conventional ice hockey puck when striking an ice surface. Also, on rough surfaces such as asphalt, the Nylon runners tend to cause the puck to bounce along the surface more than does an ice hockey puck on an ice surface. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a hockey puck of the type having runners which are somewhat shock absorbing in nature and, thus, bounces less than a conventional hockey puck with runners and also rides more smoothly along an asphalt or rough surface than does a conventional hockey puck with runners. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide a puck and runner configuration which will reduce the contact between the puck body and the playing surface as the puck slides along the playing surface in a tilted orientation. 
     The present invention is for a hockey puck with a plurality of shock absorbing runners extending outwardly therefrom. The hockey puck has a hockey puck body with a generally cylindrical outer edge, an upper face, and a lower face. A plurality of shock absorbing runners are held by the puck body and extend outwardly from the upper face and a plurality of shock absorbing runners are also held by the puck body and extend outwardly from the lower face. Each shock absorbing runner has a surface contact portion. Means are provided for supporting the plurality of shock absorbing runners by the puck body which permits the movement of the surface contact portion of the shock absorbing runner inwardly with respect to the puck body when the runners are struck by an exterior force. The shock absorbing runners extending outwardly from the upper face may be connected to the shock absorbing runners extending outwardly from the lower face by connection means, such as a shaft, positioned in an opening in the puck body formed below the faces of the puck body. The means for outwardly biasing the surface contact portions may be an elastomeric foam piece positioned under the surface contact portion of the runner. Alternatively, springs may be formed by protrusions of the puck body contacting an under surface of the enlarged surface contact portion. It is also contemplated that guide pins can be formed on an upper surface of the surface contact portion, which extend into guide holes in the puck body to further position the shock absorbing runner in the puck body. The surface contact portion may be generally cylindrical as viewed from above or may be oblong in shape. The present invention is also for a hockey puck with a plurality of runners, whether they be shock-absorbing or not, having a plurality of depressions formed between each adjacent runner. The depressions permit the puck to slide along a playing surface at a greater angle while still riding only on the runners than if the depressions were absent. The runners reduce the chance that the softer puck body will contact the playing surface. The runners have a much lower coefficient of friction on the playing surface than does the puck body. The runners have a preferred shape which also includes a central depression which reduces the area of contact when the puck is resting on a horizontal surface. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an upper face and outer edge of a puck having shock absorbing runners of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. 
     FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line  3 — 3  of FIG.  2 . 
     FIG. 4 is a top view of a portion of the puck of FIG. 5 showing a pocket without a runner therein. 
     FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view analogous to FIG. 3, but showing an alternate embodiment of the shock absorbing runner of the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing an alternate embodiment of the shock absorbing runner of the present invention. 
     FIG. 7 is a plan view of a roller hockey puck with a plurality of the runners of FIG.  6 . 
     FIG. 8 is a side view partially cut away of an alternate embodiment of a shock absorbing runner. 
     FIG. 9 is a side view of the hockey puck of FIG.  7 . 
     FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the hockey puck of FIG. 9 resting on a playing surface. 
     FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view analogous to FIG. 10, except showing the hockey puck positioned at an angle from the playing surface riding on a runner head. 
     FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view analogous to FIG. 11, except that the puck is positioned so that it rides resting on two adjacent runners showing the effect of the presence of a depression. 
     FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view analogous to FIG. 12, except showing the puck body without a depression. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     A hockey puck  10  is shown in perspective view in FIG.  1  and has a plurality of shock absorbing runners  11  held thereby. Hockey puck  10  has an upper face  12 , a lower face  13 , and a generally cylindrical outer edge  14 . 
     The details of one embodiment of a shock absorbing runner  11  is shown in FIG.  3 . The shock absorbing runner has a surface contact portion  15  extending upwardly above the upper face  12  of puck  10 . It has a surface contact portion  16  extending below lower face  13 . Surface contact portions  15  and  16  are connected by a connector which comprises a shaft  17 , which is held in an opening  18 , which is larger than shaft  17 , to permit the up and down movement of shaft  17  in opening  18 . Surface contact portion  15  has a lower face  19  which contacts an upper elastic member  20 . Upper elastic member  20  may be an elastomeric foam, a spring, or other biasing means, which urges surface contact portion  15  outwardly with respect upper face  12 . Upper elastic member  20  rests on the bottom portion  21  of pocket  22 , which surrounds the inner portion of surface contact portion  15 . 
     Similarly, surface contact portion  16  is urged outwardly by lower elastic member  23 , which contacts the lower face  24  of surface contact portion  16 , and also contacts the bottom portion  25  of pocket  26 . 
     It can also be seen in FIG. 3 that shaft  17  is made up of an outer portion  17 ′ affixed to surface contact portion  16  and an inner portion  17 ″ connected to surface contact portion  15 . These two shaft portions are, of course, interconnected by friction or an adhesive, or are shaped to hold together by serrations, threads, or otherwise. 
     In play, when surface contact portion  16  strikes the playing surface, the lower elastic member  23  compresses, thereby permitting the surface contact portion  16  to move inwardly toward the lower face and absorb a certain amount of shock which would not be absorbed if the runner were simply fixed within the puck body. The result is that the puck does not bounce as high after landing on the playing surface and exhibits an action more like that of a conventional ice hockey puck on an ice surface. Of course, the runner operates in the same manner when the surface contact portion  15  is contacting a surface. Furthermore, when the puck is being used on a rough surface, the shock absorbing runners tend to absorb a certain amount of the roughness and cause the puck to ride more evenly over the rough surface than a puck with rigid runners. 
     There are a myriad of ways in which the runner can be made shock absorbing. Another way is indicated in FIG. 5 of the drawings where an upper set of springs are formed from the puck body  27  by a series of points molded to extend upwardly from the bottom portion  21  of pocket  22 . These points or springs are shown in plan view in FIG.  4 . 
     Similarly, a lower set of springs  28  are molded outwardly from the bottom portion  25  of lower pocket  26 . 
     The shock absorbing runners shown in FIGS. 1,  2 ,  3 , and  5  have surface contact portions which are generally cylindrical in shape with a domed outer surface. FIGS. 6 and 7 show a runner which is generally oblong in shape. Such runner is indicated by reference character  30  and, as shown in FIG. 7, has a larger length “L” when measured circumferentially around the puck body than its width “W” as measured along a radius of the puck body. Returning to FIG. 6, shock absorbing runner  30  has two guide pins  31  and  32  which are supported in guide holes  33  and  34 . Guide holes  33  and  34  are sufficiently larger than guide pins  31  and  32  so that shock absorbing runner  30  may freely move up and down with respect to the puck body  27 . Shock absorbing runner  30 ′ is essentially identical to runner  30  with the exception of the shaft configuration as shown in FIG.  6 . 
     While the runners in FIGS. 1-7 of the drawings are shown with the upper and lower surface contact portions being interconnected by a shaft, the design is not limited to such configuration. The upper surface contact portion may be captured by the shape of the pocket and the shape of the surface portion to act independently from the surface contact portion  16 . Such a configuration is shown in FIG. 8 where runner  35  is independent of runner  36 . An enlarged central opening  37  permits the inward movement of shafts  38  and  39  which are held in puck body  40  by protrusions  41  and  42  which abut the ends  43  and  44  of opening  37 . 
     Typically, the puck runner would be fabricated from a polymer such as Nylon having a low co-efficient of friction with wood, concrete, or other roller hockey playing surface. The puck body would typically be injection molded from an elastomer, such as PVC, although the invention is in no way limited to any specific materials of construction. The term “elastomer” is intended to include any polymer or rubber which has some give or rubber-like quality so that it will bounce off a wall and can be more easily guided by a hockey stick. 
     Another important feature of the present invention is the configuration of the puck body shown in FIGS.  7  and  9 - 13 . This puck body is indicated generally by reference character  50  and includes a plurality of depressions  51 . These depressions are shown in side view in FIG.  9  and each depression may optionally include a chamfered edge  52 . Puck  50  has an outer peripheral edge  53  and an outer peripheral surface  54  which is the typical contact area between the puck and a hockey stick. 
     The important feature of the depressions is indicated best by viewing FIGS. 12 and 13. First, by looking at FIG. 10, it can be seen that puck  50  rides on a playing surface  55  by contact between runner  30  and playing surface  55  and the puck body does not contact the playing surface. Even when the puck tilts, as often happens during play as shown in FIG. 11, the puck still contacts playing surface  55  only through runner  30 . When the puck is slightly rotated about its central axis so that it is riding at a tilt on two adjacent runners, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, the presence of depression  51  permits the puck to ride at a greater tilt or angle “a 1 ” as shown in FIG. 12 than if depression  51  were absent as shown in FIG.  13 . The angle “a 2 ” without the depression, which is the maximum tilt angle without having a contact between the puck body  50  and the playing surface  55 , is substantially less when the depression is not present. For example, the presence of the depression has been demonstrated to increase the tilt angle without puck body playing surface contact from 40° to 57°. The potential point of contact between the puck body and the playing surface is indicated by reference character  56 . At the point when the puck body  56  contacts the playing surface  55 , the puck body is much more likely to flip over since the coefficient of friction between the puck body and the playing surface is much greater than the coefficient of friction between the runner and the playing surface  55 . 
     Preferably, each depression  51  extends across a majority or almost all of the space between adjacent runner heads. Preferably, the runner heads are somewhat oblong in shape as shown in FIG. 7, which further reduces the tendency of the puck body to rub against the playing surface. The chamfered edge  52  further decreases the tendency of the puck body to rub against the playing surface. 
     The shape of the runner heads is also an important feature of the present invention, as shown best in FIG. 10, the outer upper edge  57  of runner  30  is farther from the upper surface  58  than is the inner upper edge  59 . Similarly, the outer upper edge  57  of the lower runner is farther from the lower surface  60  than is the inner upper edge  59 . 
     Also, each runner head has a central concave depression  61  which slopes toward the inner upper edge  59  and further reduces the contact between the runner head and playing surface  55  even as the runner begins to wear. 
     The present embodiments of this invention are thus to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive; the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.