Finger protector and sport glove therewith

The invention relates to a finger protector for a sports glove, in particular goalkeeper glove, with a board that is integral with several fingers of one hand attributable to strip connected. In addition, the invention relates to an equipped with such a finger protector Glove.

A useful especially as a goalkeeper glove Sport glove basically has two tasks to fulfill: Firstly, it is designed to protect a player's hand in the best way from injury, from the fingertips to the wrist, and the other of the glove to his support in the practice of sport not hinder but support. In particular, the flexibility of being protected by the glove of the athlete should as far as possible be preserved, while the mechanical properties of the hand bones are to be supported and strengthened through the glove. Since when catching and defenses of a football very significant forces can act on the sensitive parts of the skeleton and ligaments of the hand of the goalkeeper, these forces must be very well absorbed and introduced into the lower arm in order to avoid injury, especially when I fold the front phalanges back ,

To solve these problems it has been proposed (DE-C-35 16 545) to make the back of the hand cutting a sport glove made of a composite material consisting of an inner flexible, but tear-resistant material layer and an outer, composed of individual juxtaposed elements material layer. Since the individual elements laterally abut when the material layer is stretched out flat, the material layer can bend only in one spatial direction.

From DE-U-200 11 652 an athletic glove is known in the back of the hand cutting a one-piece board is embedded in shockproof material, ranging from the fingertips to the wrist and not only in one direction in space, but in diametrically opposite directions in space is equally elastically bendable.

From DE-A-100 10 403 and 100 10 404 Goalkeeper Gloves are known containing finger protectors in the form of separated supporting elements that are hinged together and are coupled together by tension elements. Since these finger protectors must be made of many individual parts, which are movably connected, the manufacturing costs are correspondingly high.

Finally already stiffening strips have been proposed for goalkeeper gloves (EP-A-1203602 and 1273323), which consist of modular belts, which are joined together by hinges and comprise stop surfaces, which act in one direction in space as barriers, whereby the bands only turn in one direction in space or blank curve. Or is jointed body, which are glued to a carrier belt and also have stop surfaces which allow a curvature in only one spatial direction, lock in the opposite direction in space but.

The invention has for its object to provide a finger protector for a sports glove that is both as simple and inexpensive to manufacture and on the other hand an individual, at any time variable adjustment of elasticity and flexural strength of each individual, a particular finger associated protective strip allows, regardless of the corresponding characteristics of the other fingers associated strips.

This object is achieved by a finger protector having the features of claim 1. The finger protector according to the invention is characterized in that each strip consists of a) a beam of integrally interconnected links which are by transverse to the beam direction perforations against each other in two mutually opposite directions movable, and b) a link belt with nipples exists the into the through holes are buttoned so that the mobility of the members is difficult in only one of the two opposite directions, but not completely eliminated.

The integral formation of the member chains which protect a respective finger of a hand, has over the multi-part member chains of the prior art the advantage that can be dispensed with hinges and joints between the individual members and in the assembly of the various parts, making the manufacturing process much accelerated, simpler and cheaper.

The formation of a member band with nipples which are buttoned into the perforations of the member chain strips connected to a dual advantage: firstly, the material properties (elasticity, rigidity, restoring force) can the member band preferably plastic piece produced are chosen almost arbitrarily and with the well selectable material properties of the member chain strips are combined, so that elasticity, flexural strength and restoring force of the finger protector total the individual needs and desires of an athlete, especially a football goalkeeper, can be adapted.

Secondly, the tipped with nipples link belt no stop surfaces that abut each other in the on state and buttoned cancel or block the mobility of the members and the strips formed from these in one direction all would.

The resistance against the dangerous twisting of the fingertips to the back, with a great force with the incident, just the fingertips touching ball is significantly increased by the finger protector according to the invention without affecting the mobility of the hand and the individual fingers felt. The institution of a vehicle equipped with the finger protector inventive glove thus retains the feeling bend your fingers protected independently and freely to stretch and also catch sharp shot balls without risk of injury and can repel.

Preferably, the individual fingers protective strips are curved in cross-section, that the upper side, the bottom is convex concave, whereby a particularly good fit to the shape that is guaranteed to be protected finger.

Also advantageous is a pre-curvature in the longitudinal direction of the strip, which corresponds to the natural finger curvature of a relaxed hand, because the material's inherent restoring force this advantageous especially for a goalkeeper precamber repeatedly automatically strives with every movement of the hand.

The transverse to the beam direction of the stripe openings are preferably designed as transverse slots, which are bounded at the side edges of the strip by narrow webs, which result from the one-piece production of the strips. This gives the individual members and the strips formed from these a mobility and flexibility, as it has been so far achieved only by complicated hinges between the individual members. Since the slots can be incorporated by simple punched in the strip of material but, manufacture is much easier and less expensive than the hinge manufacture.

In an advantageous embodiment of the finger protector according to the invention the slots have an additional recess, the geometric shape is adapted to that of the nipple of the link belt. Particularly advantageous is a centrally introduced into the slots circular hole whose diameter is chosen so that the nipples of the member bands used can be buttoned with no special effort into the slots.

It is obvious to the skilled person that the distances between the nipples of the member bands are adapted to the spacing of the transverse to the beam direction of the link openings, similar to the spacing of the buttons of a button panel is adapted to the distance of the corresponding button holes.

Of course, the additional recesses in the slots can also be arranged eccentrically and, instead of a circular cross-section having a polygonal cross section, as long as the geometric shapes are matched to those of the nipple and the member bands.

Preferably, the nipples have a collar or an undercut which, engages behind or locks with this, the material of the respective protective strip in those areas which define the apertures. In this embodiment, the nipples look like cones or as the screens of a fungus from which relatively easily can press through the slots and possibly the additional recesses, can be pulled out but conversely relatively heavy, although the withdrawal or Unclip at any time to example, to replace a link belt with relatively low bending stiffness by such a higher flexural rigidity, if it is deemed by the institution of so-equipped glove for desirable or necessary to stiffen the glove as a whole and to increase its protective function.

Preferably, the integral connection of the individual strips is reinforced with the board by ribs or ridges, which can be integrated from the outset by a corresponding design of the injection mold.

Preferably, the circuit board between the reinforcing ribs has perforations in order to increase the pliability and flexibility of the finger protector in the back of the hand and at the same time to reduce the weight of the protector.

The circuit board, the strips and the member bands are preferably made of plastic, with modified thermoplastic resins can be used as thermoplastic plastics, elastomers and elastomers. More preferably, the plastic is selected from the group consisting of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyamide, polymethyl (meth) acrylate, polyurethane, rubber or mixtures thereof or copolymers existing group. The plastic used can be foamed or unfoamed used.

To facilitate buttoning of the equipped with nipples link belts in the openings between the individual members and to keep the total material thickness as thin as possible, the apertures circumscribing material layers preferably have a thickness less than the members of the strips.

Particularly preferably, the strips are made ​​of a composite of at least two plastic layers, wherein the the perforations circumscribing material is composed of a smaller number of layers than the remaining parts of the strips, for example only of a single layer, while the remaining parts of the strips of two or three may consist layers. It is particularly advantageous in this before ferred embodiment, when the at least two plastic layers consist of plastics of different hardness and elasticity, wherein the softer layer below, the faces to be protected finger lies.

Preferably, in the underside of the limbs of the strip has a recess in the form of a beam extending in the direction of the longitudinal groove for receiving the member band is formed. This avoids that the link belt preferably protrudes from the concave curved surface of the underside of the strip and presses on the top of the finger to be protected when the protector is integrated into a sports glove.

The preferably only on one side equipped with nipples link belt is buttoned in a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention exchangeable from the underside of the strips forth in the transverse direction to the beam openings. If member bands of different bending stiffness or different hardness or otherwise different material properties are shown in different colors, the sportsmen can very easily make the exchange with the intention of adapting the mechanical properties of the finger protector in the desired manner to the respective requirements.

The individual members of the member band are preferably interconnected via constrictions or tapers material. In another advantageous embodiment, the members of the member band below the nipples are slotted by means of incisions, without the one-piece nature of the member band would be lifted thereby. Such additional slots reduce the bending stiffness of the member band in the fold direction of the fingers significantly, which - in addition to the different choice of material - another means available to vary the mechanical properties of the finger protector individually and be able to adapt to the respective needs.

In order to increase the protection of the fingertips and for reasons of mechanical strength of the entire finger protector the first term and the last term can be lengthened and / or stiffened each individual strip.

Although the finger protector could theoretically with only a single strip produced and used to protect a single finger, its main advantages only come to full fruition, if it has at least two strips for protecting two fingers. Particularly advantageous is a finger protector with four or five strips to protect the four fingers of one hand, without the thumb, or for the protection of all five fingers of one hand, including the thumb.

The finger protector according to the invention is integrated into the back of the hand portion of the glove so that it is surrounded on all sides by a soft foam layer or a foamed-woven layer. It can be foamed and / or sewn; but preferably it is removable and replaceable embedded in the back of the hand portion of the glove, so that it can be replaced at any time by a protector other bending stiffness or other hardness or even by replacing one or more of the member bands modified in its properties and then reinserted in the same glove can be. As the integration of the finger protector is made in a Glove, in particular goalkeeper glove, in detail, is known in the art and familiar. For example, can be provided in this glove with Velcro closable openings.

Further details of the invention are described below in conjunction with the drawings:<ul><li>Figure 1 is a plan view of the top of a preferred embodiment of a finger protector according to the invention;</li><li>Figure 2 is a plan view of the underside of the finger protector of FIG. 1;</li><li>Figure 3 is a side view of a link belt with nipples for buttoning in the finger protector according to Figures 1 and 2; and</li><li>Figure 4 is a side view of another embodiment of einknöpfbaren member band.</li></ul>

The finger protector 1 (Figures 1 and 2) which is intended for use in a goalkeeper's glove and protects the right hand of the goalkeeper, consisting of a circuit board 2, the piece assigned with four fingers of one hand strip is 3, said four strips are seen in figure 1 from left to right, are designed to protect the index finger, the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger, and thus associated with those fingers. Each strip 3 is connected to reinforcing ribs 17 with the printed circuit board 2, which comprises between the reinforcing ribs 17 perforations 18 to increase the flexibility of the board and for weight reduction.

Each strip 3 consists of a beam of integrally interconnected links 10, including the extended and stiffened start and end members 10a, 10b. The links 10 are through transversely to the beam direction through holes 11 mutually movable in two opposite directions, in each case in a plane which is perpendicular to the paper plane.

The perforations 11 are formed as slots 14, is introduced centrally in addition to the per a circular recess 9 a buttonhole. The slots 14 are limited on the side edges of the strips 3 extending in the longitudinal direction by narrow webs 15, so that the individual links 10 of each strip remain integrally connected with each other.

To better adapt the strip 3 to the surface of the finger to be protected of an athlete, the strips in cross section are curved so that the top surface 12 convex, the underside 13 (Figure 2) is concave. In addition, the strip 3 in the longitudinal direction are pre-curved fingers corresponding to the natural curvature of a relaxed hand.

In the bottom 13 of the limbs 10 a recess 19 is formed in the form of a straight line extending in the beam direction longitudinal groove for receiving a member band 4 respectively.

The link conveyor 4 (Fig. 3 and 4) consists of individual members, preferably made of plastic, which are connected to each other through constrictions or corresponding material 20 tapers. Each slat 4 is provided on one side with nipples 5, having a disc-shaped collar 16 in the illustrated embodiment, and are thus designed hütchen shaped or umbrella-fungal. The distances of the nipple 5 are adapted to the spacing of the perforations 11 in the strip 3, and the geometric shape and dimensions of the collar 16 are adapted to the slots 14 and the additional recesses. 9

The link belts 4 are buttoned with nipple 5 of the bottom 13 forth in the perforations of the strips 3 so that the collar 16 that the perforations engage behind 11 bounding material of the strip 3 and the remaining on the underside 13 of members 6 flush or almost flush in the recess lie 19th

In another embodiment (Figure 4) of the member band 4, the links 7 of the chain-belt 4 are cut or slit in order to increase the chain-like mobility of the chain-belt 4 is still below the nipple 5 by notches 21 without the integral nature of the member band 4, including the nipple 5, set aside.

In the drawn embodiment, the strips 3 are made of a composite of two plastic layers of thermoplastic elastomer of varying hardness and elasticity, wherein the softer layer below, the faces to be protected fingers lies.