A SNOWBOARD BINDING

FIXATION DE SNOWBOARD

English Abstract

A snowboard binding comprises a retaining member (4), which can be secured to
a flat portion (5) of a snowboard (T) in order to hold locked on the flat
portion a cradle (2) which accommodates a snowboard boot, and screws (7) which
secure the retaining member to the flat portion and which can be loosened in
order to permit the orientation of the cradle relative to the flat portion.
The screws have respective control keys (13) which are accessible on the
retaining member in order to loosen and tighten them and the binding comprises
loss-preventing holding means (15) for the screws on the retaining member in
order to keep the screws attached to the retaining member regardless of
whether or not they are engaged in the flat portion.

French Abstract

L'invention concerne une fixation de snowboard qui comprend un élément de retenue (4), qui peut être fixé à une partie plate (5) du snowboard (T) afin de maintenir verrouillé sur la partie plate un berceau (2) qui permet de loger une chaussure de snowboard, et des vis (7) qui fixent l'élément de retenue à la partie plate et qui peut être desserrée afin de permettre l'orientation du berceau par rapport à la partie plate. Les vis possèdent des clés de commande respectives (13) accessibles au niveau de l'élément de retenue afin de les serrer et de les desserrer et la fixation comprend des moyens d'arrêt empêchant le desserrage (15) destiné aux vis se trouvant sur l'élément de retenue afin de maintenir ces vis fixées à l'élément de retenue sans tenir compte du fait qu'elles soient ou non couplées à la partie plate.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:
1. A snowboard binding comprising a retaining member which can
be secured to a flat portion of a snowboard in order to hold
locked on the flat portion a cradle which accommodates a snow-
board boot, and screws which secure the retaining member to the
flat portion and which can be loosened in order to permit the
orientation of the cradle relative to the flat portion, the screws
having respective control keys which are accessible on the retain-
ing member in order to loosen and tighten the screws, character-
ized in that it comprises loss-preventing holding means including
a plate-like element superposed on the retaining member and held
thereon, in order to keep the screws attached to the retaining
member regardless of whether or not they are engaged in the flat
portion.
2. A binding according to claim 1, the loss-preventing holding
means having means for access to the control keys of the screws
in order to permit access to the control key of the screws without
removing the losspreventing means.
3. A binding according to claim 2, wherein the screws have heads
widened with respect to a shank and are engaged in such a man-
ner that they pass with the shank but not with the heads through
respective openings in the retaining member in order to hold and
lock the retaining member on the flat portion, the loss-preventing
holding means including a platelike element superposed on the
retaining member and held thereon, the means for access to the
control keys of the screws including openings in the plate-like
element which are suitable for permitting access to the control
keys of the screws but not for enabling the heads to pass through,

with the result that the heads are sandwiched between the retain-
ing member and the loss-preventing holding means.
4. A binding according to claim 3, wherein both the retaining mem-
ber and the plate-like element are discoidal.
5. A binding according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the plate-like ele-
ment is shaped, on the surface remote from the retaining member,
as a snow-scraping device for snowboard boots.
6. A binding according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein the
retaining member and the plate-like element are attached to one
another with adhesive connection.
7. A binding according to any one of claims 3 to 6, wherein the
platelike element is formed from a resilient plastics material.
8. A binding according to claim 7, wherein the plastics material is
thermoformed ethylene vinyl acetate.
9. A binding according to any one of claims 3 to 8, wherein the
openings in the retaining member and in the plate-like element are
slot-shaped.
6

Description

CA 02540987 2006-03-31
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A snowboard binding
DESCRIPTION
Field of the invention
The invention relates to a snowboard binding of the type including the
features
mentioned in the preamble of the main claim.
Background art
Bindings that include those features are known, for example, from US
5,816,603, or from the applicant's current production.
These known bindings comprise a discoidal retaining element which is provided
lo with slotted holes and which is accommodated in a partially embedded manner
in a discoidal opening formed in a cradle which is in turn to accommodate the
snowboard boot. The boot is then secured in the cradle by means of bands and
straps. A typical requirement of snowboarders is to be able to vary both the
orientation and the relative position of the cradle on the flat portion of the
board. In order to do this, the screws that hold the retaining element of the
cradle are loosened and the cradle is moved by rotating it relative to the
board
or by engaging the screws in holes which are in a different position on the
flat
portion. At this stage, it is particularly easy to lose one or more of the
cradle
securing screws with the risk of irretrievably jeopardising the day's sport
unless spare screws are available. In addition, the handling of the screws is
impeded by the winter clothing normally worn for snowboarding, in particular
by the gloves, which makes the adjusting operation even more complicated.
Disclosure of the invention
The technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide a binding
in the case of which the operations for adjusting the binding relative to the
board are particularly easy, even under difficult conditions and with clothing
which is the source of possible obstruction.
1
CONFIRMATION COPY

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Within the scope of this task, an object of the invention is to eliminate the
risk
of losing the screws and the consequent necessity to have spare screws avail-
able.
Another object of the invention is to use for those purposes arrangements and
equipment already provided on snowboards.
This technical problem is solved and these objects are achieved with a snow-
board binding produced in accordance with the claims, which follow.
Brief description of the drawings
The features and the advantages of the invention will emerge more clearly
lo from the detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof which is
illus-
trated by way of non-limiting example with reference to the appended draw-
ings in which:
- Figure 1 is a partial diagrammatic view of a snowboard with an associ-
ated binding;
- Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view, on an enlarged scale, of a de-
tail of the binding of Figure 1;
- Figure 3 is a top view of a detail of Figure 2;
- Figure 4 is a sectioned view taken on the line IV-IV of Figure 3;
- Figures 5 and 6 are bottom views of two possible embodiments of the
2o detail of Figure 3.
Best modes for carrying out the invention
In Figure 1, T indicates a snowboard provided with a pair of bindings 1(only
one of which is shown) for boots of the so-called "soft" type. Each binding 1
comprises a cradle 2 whose central portion has an opening 3 suitable for ac-
commodating a discoidal retaining member 4 by means of which the cradle is
held and locked, but with the option of adjustable angular positioning as de-
sired in the manner described hereinafter, on the flat portion 5 of the snow-
2

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board T. In its turn, the retaining member is held on the flat portion 5 by
means of screws 7 which are engaged in corresponding holes 8 in the snow-
board, with the option of a first adjustment stemming from the longitudinal
movement of the entire binding, which is achieved by disengaging the screws
7 from the holes 8 in order to engage them in different holes 8, and with the
option of a second adjustment which is achieved by loosening the screws 7 in
order to cause the retaining member to slide transversely to the longitudinal
axis of the board owing to the provision of slotted through-holes 10 in the re-
taining member, through which holes the screws 7 extend. The binding is sub-
io ject to a third possible adjustment for angular orientation with respect to
the
board T by rotating the cradle 2 relative to the retaining member. All three
of
these adjustments are conventional and can be combined with one another as
desired. Common to all of the adjustments is also the fact that, in order to
ef-
fect any of them, it is necessary at least to loosen the screws 7 if not
actually
to disengage them from the holes 8.
The screws 7 are provided with a threaded cylindrical shank 11 having a wid-
ened head 12 at one end and a control key 13 (typically a transverse notch or
a cross notch) in the head 12. A washer 14 complementing the head 12 is
preferably interposed between the head 12 and the slotted holes 10 in the re-
taining member 4. The screws 7 are engaged in such a manner that they pass
with the shank 11 but not with the heads 12 (and/or the washers 14) through
the slotted holes 10 in order to hold and lock the retaining member on the
flat
portion once the screws have been tightened.
According to the invention, the retaining member 4 is provided with loss-
preventing holding means for the screws 7 in order to keep the latter attached
to the retaining member regardless of whether or not they are engaged in the
holes 8 in the flat portion. The loss-preventing holding means comprise a dis-
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coidal plate-like element 15 superposed on the retaining member 4 and held
thereon by means of an adhesive interface 16 applied to the lower, connecting
surface. The plate-like element 15 has means for access to the control keys 13
of the screws 7 in order to permit access to the control key without having to
remove the loss-preventing means.
The access means are constituted by slotted openings 18 in the plate-like ele-
ment which have dimensions such as to permit access to the control keys of
the screws but not such as to enable the heads 12 to pass through, with the
result that the heads are sandwiched between the retaining member and the
1o holding means.
The plate-like element is formed from a resilient plastics material, such as
thermoformed EVAl and is shaped, at the surface remote from the retaining
member, with circumferential projections and beads 19 as a snow-scraping
device for snowboard boots. Thus, it is not necessary to provide the board
with
a separate snow-scraping member or, in other words, the snow-scraping
member assumes this double functionality. Finally, it should be mentioned that
the adhesive interface is limited to the regions of the plate-like element
that
are not subject to the superposition of the washers 14, or non-adhesive win-
dows 20 are provided in the adhesive interface. These windows may be limited
to the adjustment region of the heads 12 and washers 14, as indicated in Fig-
ure 5, or they may extend as an elongation of one another, as indicated in
Figure 6.
1 ethylene vinyl acetate 4

Representative Drawing