Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02232470 1998-OS-15
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE GOLF BALL PICKERS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to the picking wheels or discs used for the golf ball
pickers,
particularly for golf ball picking machines having a vehicle chassis for
example like a gardening
tractor and attached in front of it the ball picking mechanism in form of a
series of picking discs or
wheels on a common shaft rolling directly on the ground.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
There are known wheel or discs used for golf ball pickers made of different
plastic
materials like nylon, ABS, polypropylene used to pick the golf balls.
These known wheels ,because of the materials used and because they are
generally thick,
have the following disadvantages:
a)they are very rigid;
b)they have a high coefficient of friction between the golf ball and them;
1 S c)they do not resist well to abrasion inherent in the golf ball picking
process
d)they are prone to fracture and brittleness;
e)the retaining process of the golf ball between the wheels is based on
peripheral
CA 02232470 1998-OS-15
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elements in form of fingers or ribs which sometime make the ball to escape
outside;
f)they have a complicated form-involving ribs and fingers-making the tooling
and the
production process expensive;
The author made extensive experiments in terms of form and composition of the
presently proposed disc/wheel which resulted in optimum operation eliminating/
reducing the
above disadvantages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In aim to solve the above disadvantages a disc/wheel for golf ball pickers is
proposed
characterized by the fact that is involving the following:
a) a solid circular disc possessing a certain flexibility, having an outside
diameter, a thickness, an
axis of rotation/symmetry a front face and a back face and a periphery; also
in the centre of the
circular disc being a central hole ,this hole having known means to be fixed
to a common shaft
such as key notches, flat faces or splines;
b) a hollow solid circular cylinder having an outside diameter equal with the
outside diameter of
the solid circular disc, a thickness, an axis of rotation/symmetry and a
height called hereinafter the
edge rim;
c)whereby the edge rim or the hollow solid circular cylinder is rigidized to
the solid circular disc
in such a way that the hollow solid circular cylinder is applied on the front
face of the disc, on the
periphery of it and their outside diameters and axes of rotation are
coinciding;
d)whereby the edge rim or the solid circular disc and the hollow solid
circular cylinder can be
made integrally together using the same material either by injection moulding
or casting so that
both the disc and the cylinder can be considered being the same part;
CA 02232470 1998-OS-15
e) a solid cylindrical hub having a height,a front face and a back face, an
axis of rotation and a
central hole along the axis of rotation ,this hole having known means to be
fixed on the common
shaft passing through the hole such as key notch/flat faces splines or
similar, the said means
having the same configuration with the means to be fixed on the common shaft
of the above said
circular disc , the height of the hub being slightly bigger than the diameter
of the known standard
golf ball;
f)whereby the solid cylindrical hub being rigidized to the circular disc with
solid circular cylinder
in such a way that their axes are coinciding and the back face of the solid
cylindrical hub is applied
on the front face of the solid circular disc;
g)whereby the solid circular disc, the hollow circular cylinder and the solid
cylindrical hub
rigidized as mentioned above is forming an assembly hereinafter called
"picking wheel";
h) whereby on the said common shaft being put through their hubs, one after
another a number of
picking wheels ,these picking wheels being placed in sequence,or in series one
after another in
such a way that all the time, everywhere along the said common shaft the front
face of the
cylindrical hub of one picking wheel is placed/pressed against the back face
of the circular discs
of the subsequent/ nearby picking wheel so that we have a stack of them on the
said common
shaft;
I)whereby the picking wheels pressed one in the back of other in a stack are
kept together by
known fixing means such as nuts ,wedges or splines so that the said picking
wheels are not loose
on the said common shaft;
j)whereby a standard golf ball by the virtue of the above mentioned
flexibility of the circular disc
can be squeezed between two subsequent circular discs or two picking wheels
but cannot escape
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from it because of the said edge rim;
The proposed picking wheel as described above being made of a material
comprising/involving the following:
a) A casting mould designed in a known way having a configuration to generate
by
casting/pouring, the form of the picking wheel as described above;
b) Unroyal L-325 Adiprene Polyurethane 100 parts by weight in liquid form;
c) MOCA(4,4' Methylnebis(2-chloroaniline) 26 parts by weight in granular form;
d) Solid lubricant-in powder/flakes form, either graphite or molybdenum
disulphide 0.5 % of the
weight combined of the Adiprene and MOCA;
e)whereby the said polyurethane ,MOCA and solid lubricant are mixed together
at 167 degrees
Fahrenheit till the solid lubricant and moca are dispersed-dissolved uniformly
in the mass of liquid
polyurethane,then cast in the said mould, then cured for one hour at 212
degrees Fahrenheit.
The way of operation of the described picl~ing wheels is as follows:
The assembly made of the stacked picking wheels on a common shaft is free
rolling
on the ground by being pushed by the tractor type chassis; the golf balls are
scattered on the
ground and when the picking wheels are passing over them, because of the
weight of the stacked
picking wheels assembly, the rim edges of the picking wheels are pushed aside
enough for the
golf ball to enter in the space between the 2 succesive circular discs; then
the balls are
centrifugated by the Coriolis force on the periphery of the discs but retained
by the rim edges
and brought to a point where the balls are simply extracted by a stationary
finger expelling them
out from the discs and deliveredlguided to a subsequent centralizing
collecting element part of the
mobile golf ball picking machine;the process being possible because of the
flexibility of the picking
CA 02232470 1998-OS-15
wheels-the material being polyurethane based which essentially had a hard
rubber consistency.
The advantages of implementing this proposed picking wheel are as follows:
a) increased abrasion resistance inherent to polyurethanes;
b)increased flexibility improving the fatigue resistance and the picking
process;
c)reduced friction coefl'lcient facilitating the centrifugation of the golf
ball by the Coriolis forces
generated in the rolling/picking process;
d)increased wear life because of reduced friction coefficient and polyurethane
base;
e)ease of fabrication because of the simple configuration and hence simple
mould configuration
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
An example of the Preferred Embodiments if illustrated in FIG.1 which is
representing:
FIG. l-Perspective view of the golf ball picking wheel.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIIVVIENTS
As it seen in the FIGURE, the disc/wheel for golf ball pickers is involving
the following:
a) a solid circular disc 1 possessing a certain flexibility, having an outside
diameter, a thickness,
an axis of rotation/symmetry 2 a front face and a back face 3 and a periphery
4; also in the centre
of the circular disc being a central hole 5 ,this hole having known means 6 to
be fixed to a
common shaft 7 such as key notches, flat faces or splines;
b) a hollow solid circular cylinder 8 having an outside diameter equal with
the outside diameter
of the solid circular disc, a thickness, an axis of rotation/symmetry 9 and a
height called
hereinafter the edge rim 10;
c)whereby the edge rim or the hollow solid circular cylinder is rigidized to
the solid circular disc
in such a way that the hollow solid circular cylinder is applied on the front
face of the disc, on the
CA 02232470 1998-OS-15
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periphery of it and their outside diameters and axes of rotation are
coinciding;
d)whereby the edge rim or the solid circular disc and the hollow solid
circular cylinder can be
made integrally together using the same material either by injection moulding
or casting so that
both the disc and the cylinder can be considered being the same part;
e) a solid cylindrical hub 11 having a height,a front face 12 and a back face
13, an axis of rotation
14 and a central hole 15 along the axis of rotation ,this hole having known
means 16 to be fixed
on the common shaft passing through the hole such as key notch/flat faces
splines or similar, the
said means having the same configuration with the means to be fixed on the
common shaft of the
above said circular disc , the height of the hub being slightly bigger than
the diameter of the
known standard golf ball 17;
whereby the solid cylindrical hub being rigidized to the circular disc with
solid circular cylinder
in such a way that their axes are coinciding and the back face of the solid
cylindrical hub is applied
on the front face of the solid circular disc;
g)whereby the solid circular disc, the hollow circular cylinder and the solid
cylindrical hub
rigidized as mentioned above is forming an assembly hereinafter called
"picking wheel" 18;
h) whereby on the said common shaft being put through their hubs, one after
another a number of
picking wheels ,these picking wheels being placed in sequence,or in series one
after another in
such a way that all the time, everywhere along the said common shaft the front
face of the
cylindrical hub of one picking wheel is placed/pressed against the back face
of the circular discs
of the subsequent/ nearby picking wheel so that we have a stack of them on the
said common
shaft;
I)whereby the picking wheels pressed one in the back of other in a stack are
kept together by
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known fixing means such as nuts ,wedges or splines so that the said picking
wheels are not loose
on the said common shaft;
j)whereby a standard golf ball 17 by the virtue of the above mentioned
flexibility of the circular
disc can be squeezed between two subsequent circular discs 19 or two picking
wheels but cannot
escape from it because of the said edge rim 10;
The proposed picking wheel as described above being made of a material
comprising/involving the following:
a) A casting mould designed in a known way having a configuration to generate
by
casting/pouring, the form of the picking wheel as described above;
b) Unroyal L-325 Adiprene Polyurethane 100 parts by weight in liquid form;
c) MOCA(4,4' Methylnebis(2-chloroaniline) 26 parts by weight in granular form;
d) Solid lubricant-in powder/flakes form, either graphite or molybdenum
disulphide 0. S % of the
weight combined of the Adiprene and MOCA;
e)whereby the said polyurethane ,MOCA and solid lubricant are mixed together
at 167 degrees
Fahrenheit till the solid lubricant and moca are dispersed-dissolved uniformly
in the mass of liquid
polyurethane,then cast in the said mould, then cured for one hour at 212
degrees Farenheit.
The way of operation of the described picking wheels is as follows:
The assembly made of the stacked picking wheels on a common shaft 7 is free
rolling
on the ground by being pushed by the tractor type chassis; the golf balls 17
are scattered on the
ground and when the picking wheels are passing over them, because of the
weight of the
stacked picking wheels assembly, the rim edges 10 of the picking wheels are
pushed aside enough
for the golf ball to enter in the space 19 between the 2 succesive circular
discs; then the balls are
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g
centrifizgated by the Coriolis force on the periphery of the discs but
retained by the rim edges
and brought to a point where the balls are simply extracted by a stationary
finger expelling them
out from the discs and delivered/guided to a subsequent centralizing
collecting element part of
the mobile golf ball picking machine;the process being possible because of the
flexibility of the
picking wheels-the material being polyurethane based which essentially had a
hard rubber
consistency.
