Game ball carcass, a game ball, and methods of making same

• US 20050277499A1
• Filed: 02/04/2005
• Published: 12/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Frank I Teh Chang
• Original Assignee: Frank I Teh Chang
• Inventors: Chang, Margaret Yuen Yuen, Tang, Ya Fang
• Granted Patent: US 7,645,203 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 473/604
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 41/085 Closures

Abstract

A carcass of a soccer ball or other inflatable game ball has a bladder with a valve for introducing air into said bladder; a fabric pocket layer located outside said bladder composed of a plurality of fabric pieces sewn to form a spherical shape, with a hole for the valve, the sewing thread for sewing said fabric pieces and the sewn margin being located in the inner side of said fabric pocket, and an opening being cut for reversing and placing the bladder being located on one of the fabric pieces; and an opening-cover adhered solidly on said opening for enclosing said opening. The surface of the manufactured ball is soft, with good tactility and the performance of ball-controlling is good. At the same time because there is no sewn margin left on the out side of the fabric pocket layer, no slight unevenness will exist on the surface of the fabric pocket layer, the ball will have a substantially perfect spherical shape, and can be easily controlled by athletes during a game.

Claims

1. A carcass of a ball for a ball game, comprising:

a bladder with a valve for introducing air into said bladder;

a fabric pocket layer located outside said bladder composed of a plurality of fabric pieces sewn to form a spherical shape, with a hole for the valve, wherein the sewing thread for sewing said fabric pieces and the sewn margin are located at an inner side of said fabric pocket;

an opening located on one of the fabric pieces for reversing the fabric layer and placing the bladder; and

an opening-cover for enclosing said opening.

2. A carcass according to claim 1, wherein said opening is closed by adhering with said opening cover.

3. A carcass according to claim 1, wherein said hole for the valve is located at the position of the opening-cover.

4. A carcass according to claim 3, wherein the opening is a cut opening which is ring-shaped, said opening-cover originally being the opening part of said cut fabric piece, and said valve opening of said fabric pocket layer being located on said opening-cover.

5. A carcass according to claim 4, wherein a cutting line forming said opening is an unclosed ring so that the opening-cover has a base connecting to the fabric piece.

6. A carcass according to claim 3, wherein the opening is formed by cutting lines, the cutting lines forming said opening having multiple cross cutting lines hence forming several pieces of opening-cover connected to the fabric piece on the base, and said valve opening of said fabric pocket layer being located at the cross point of said cutting lines.

7. A carcass according to claim 1, wherein, through the reinforcing cloth adhered onto the inner side, said opening-cover encloses said opening.

8. A carcass according to claim 2, wherein, through the reinforcing cloth adhered onto the inner side, said opening-cover encloses said opening.

9. A carcass according to claim 3, wherein, through the reinforcing cloth adhered onto the inner side, said opening-cover encloses said opening.

10. A carcass according to claim 1, wherein sewing lines are pre-printed on the fabric pieces.

11. A carcass according to claim 1, wherein a counter weight of similar weight as the weight of the valve and valve house is placed oppositely to the valve in the fabric pocket layer of the bladder.

12. A ball for a ball game, from inner to outer side in sequence comprising:

a bladder with a valve for introducing air into said bladder,

a fabric pocket layer located outside said bladder, and

a skin layer comprising a plurality of panels, said fabric pocket layer being the same pocket layers as in claim 1.

13. A ball according to claim 12, wherein said skin layer is a skin layer of an adhesion structure formed by a plurality of skin pieces adhered onto the fabric pocket layer.

14. A ball according to claim 12, wherein said skin layer is a skin layer of a sewn structure sewn by a sewing machine.

15. A reinforcing layer for an inflatable ball, comprising:

a plurality of pieces sewn together along seams to form a spherical shape with the seams facing outwardly,

wherein one of said pieces includes an opening spaced from the seams for accommodating reversing of the spherical shape so that all the seams face inwardly, said opening also accommodating insertion of an inflatable bladder.

16. A reinforcing layer according to claim 15, wherein the opening is formed by cutting said one of said pieces to form at least one opening cover flap from said one of said pieces, and

wherein said at least one opening cover flap is solidly adhered at the opening after insertion of said bladder.

17. A reinforcing layer according to claim 16, wherein said pieces are fabric pieces which are machine sewn together along said seams.

18. A method of making a reinforcing layer for an inflatable ball, comprising:

cutting out a plurality of pieces,

sewing the pieces together along seams to form a spheridal shape with the seams facing outwardly, and

forming an opening in one of said pieces of the spherical shape, said opening being spaced from the seams,

reversing the spherical shape using the opening to thereby place all the seams to face inwardly with the opening subsequently accommodating insertion of an inflatable bladder.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the opening is formed by cutting said one of said pieces to form at least one opening cover flap from said one of said pieces, and

wherein said at least one opening cover flap is solidly adhered at the opening after insertion of said bladder.

20. A method according to claim 18, wherein said pieces are fabric pieces which are machine sewn together along said seams.

21. A method according to claim 20, wherein said seams are sewn using a computer controlled sewing machine.

22. An inflatable game ball comprising:

an inflatable bladder,

a reinforcing layer surrounding the bladder, and

a skin surrounding the reinforcing layer,

wherein the reinforcing layer comprises;

a plurality of pieces sewn together along seams to form a spherical shape with the seams facing outwardly,

wherein one of said pieces includes an opening spaced from the seams for accommodating reversing of the spherical shape so that all the seams face inwardly, said opening also accommodating insertion of an inflatable bladder.

23. A ball according to claim 22, wherein the opening is formed by cutting said one of said pieces to form at least one opening cover flap from said one of said pieces, and

wherein said at least one opening cover flap is solidly adhered at the opening after insertion of said bladder.

24. A ball according to claim 22, wherein said pieces are fabric pieces which are machine sewn together along said seams.

25. A ball according to claim 22, wherein the skin comprises leather or imitation leather.

26. A ball according to claim 25, wherein the skin is adhesively connected to the reinforcing layer.

27. A ball according to claim 26, wherein the skin includes a plurality of skin pieces connected together.

28. A ball according to claim 25, wherein the skin includes a plurality of skin pieces sew together.

29. A method of making an inflatable game ball which includes:

an inflatable bladder,

a reinforcing layer surrounding the bladder, and

a skin surrounding the reinforcing layer, said method comprising making the reinforcing layer by the following steps;

cutting out a plurality of pieces,

sewing the pieces together along seams to form a spherical shape with the seams facing outwardly, and

forming an opening in one of said pieces of the spherical shape, said opening being spaced from the seams,

reversing the spherical shape using the opening to thereby place all the seams to face inwardly with the opening subsequently accommodating insertion of an inflatable bladder.

30. A method according to claim 29, wherein said seams are sewn using a computer controlled sewing machine.