Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02537188 2006-02-16
Background.
Ringette is a winter sport played on a hockey ice surface by about 25,000
Canadian girls and women from ages 5 to 50. Although similar to hockey
ringette boasts a finer art and lower body contact index than hockey. The
type of stick commonly used by a player depends upon the level of play and
the economic resources of player and parents.
The stick is the primary playing implement with the standard parallel hockey
gear of helmet, pads, gloves and skates also being used. The idea is to score
goals using a round harmless hollow ring of light weight in place of the
common puck used in hockey.
The desired game attack includes the ability to use the stick in somewhat of
a robust fashion that dictates a need for rugged construction. In the early
ringette days, starting in 1965 and for a decade following sticks were simply
made of discarded hockey sticks where the hockey stick blade is cut off
evenly [bluntly so as not to form any sharp hazard to players] and the stick
put to use immediately thereafter.
The last 20 year has seen the rise of specially manufactured sticks primarily
with engineered tips to enhance the shooting expertise of players. This
shooting expertise includes a high velocity and effective 'wrist shot'. The
wrist shot is a parallel to hockey's wrist shot and hence bears the same
name. High in elevation and traveling with great speed this shot challenges
ringette goaltenders to be quick and athletic.
The two major stick types are now in use. One features an aluminum tip at
the bottom one inch of the ice-end of the stick that by regulations is
allowed to narrow to a blunt flat end with one half inch minimum thickness
between two faces. At the time of writing this is the dominant stick of
choice primarily due to its retail price. [Usualiy retailing at about $30 CAD,
the Stinger is made by Saskatchewan Abilities Council]. One major flaw of
the Stinger is the wear of the aluminum metal ice-end piece allowing
rounding and loss of ability to wrist shoot with a ring. Stinger now market a
replacement stick tip to combat this weakness. The Stinger aluminum end
diagram is shown below in Figure 1.
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This stick is durable, a bit heavy due to its laminated construction, and in
time and use the aluminum end tends to round losing its attractive square ice
tip end quality.
The other major stick by Ring-Jet [a Finnish Company] is a higher cost per
stick [almost $ 100 CAD] with an engineered smooth plastic tip of high
resistance to wear. The plastic is actually Teflon, which is a white but tough
and slippery plastic. In the post year a ribbed surface has been added to the
initially offered smooth tip design and approved by the Canadian ringette
authority-- Ringette Canada in 2005. The sticks are light weight and made in
Finland. The ribbed design is highly prized by most of the elite players and
its cost alone prohibits its universal usage.
In the figure below the smooth tip [lower] is cosmetic only. The ribbed tip is
effective implying that the smooth tip is, being the opposite, flawed in
design. Only a year on the market some experts claim that the ribbed tip
shoots in unexpected fashion often resulting in'wild' shots.
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Both the improved ringette sticks presented herein are superior to the
current pair of sticks just described. The improved invention described are
also light weight sticks, each with a different end cover material on the
bottom seven to nine inches, the ice end. For the preferred embodiment the
tip has a spray on at a thickness of elastomer coating between 0.3mm and 2
mm thickness applied evenly on all faces and the tip bottom itself. The tip
prior to encasement by this spray-on material treatment is natural wood or
painted wood cut to a 90-degree blunt end shape. Both the spray-on
elastomer and the epoxy-particle versions proposed herein dry harden and
maintain the 90 degree tip property on all axes. The spray-on elastomer
stick is shown in Figure 4.
In the alternate presented herein the improved embodiment stick is again
coated on the bottom seven to nine inches using an alternate tip cover
technology. In this case the coating is a marine epoxy glue with a mix of
aluminum oxide particles that offer a roughened tip end surface. This
surface improves both lift and propulsion of the ring shown in Figure 3. The
epoxy-particle stick is shown in Figure 5.
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As a result of not requiring the expensive plastic end with the ribbed tip
[Ring-Jet] , or employ an extruded aluminum tip [Stinger] with a retaining
pin, the sticks to be introduced are more cost effective and will become the
dominant stick due to light weight, effectiveness with wrist shots, retail
price and durability.
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Specif ication
Description
The improved sticks to be manufactured are consistent with the
requirements of the Canadian regulatory authorities [Ringette Canada] in
dimensions. They are referred to as 'composite sticks that employ more than
one material in their construction'. Ringette Canada Official Rules page 11.
See Figure 4. and Figure 5.
The improved sticks are cut to personal player length by sawing off the
hand-end such as to fit the layer's height. The players tend to prefer either
a long or short stick and they usually cut newly purchased units to satisfy
their own needs.
The improved sticks to be introduced are cut the some to suit length but
otherwise feature light weight and the bottom seven to nine inches made
with re-engineered tip materials, either superior finish--elastomer or epoxy
finishes.
The improved preferred embodiment is a stick where the lower7 to 9 inch
tip region, the ice surface end when playing, is totally covered. The end
material of thickness described for the elastomer can be provided in three
basic colours at present; red, off white, and black. The end material is
water resistant, tough and a marvel of durability. The stick tip surface thus
prepared bears a roughened exterior coating which provides a friction
surface with a maximum natural peak roughness dimension of less than 0.5
mm. This material outer surface presents a friction embellished surface at
the ring contact point that is immensely superior to any of smooth plastic,
aluminum or natural or painted wood.
A second stick embodiment is one where the lower7 to 9 inch tip region, the
ice surface end when playing, is totally prepared using a marine epoxy and
imbedded 1.0 mm diameter grit of aluminum oxide particles. These particles
are pre-sized by screening and are placed in the glue when wet. As a result
of sinking into the glue while hardening a roughened surface forms with the
epoxy firmly holding the aluminum particles in place when dried. This allows
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particle surface contact with the ring for shooting. These particles are
hard so they do not deteriorate. The surface thus prepared is maintained
indefinitely in a roughened high-friction state by the existence of the
aluminum oxide particle distribution in the epoxy glue.
Long wood fibers in the stick shaft guaranty a break and fracture resistant
wood shaft product that will make the stick exceedingly popular.
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