GB936559A - Improved ball projecting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

936,559. Ball-projecting devices. R. E. ANDERSEN ENGINEERING WORKS (PROPRIETARY). Feb. 6, 1962 [Feb. 17, 1961], No. 4472/62. Class 132 (2). A ball-projecting machine for use in practising ball games, comprises a striker arm 17 which is mounted on a driven, rotary shaft 15 so as to be pivotable relative thereto, and is arranged to be periodically retracted to the position illustrated in broken lines in Fig. 1, prior to being released to strike a ball held in a cradle 23. The lower end of the arm 17 is bifurcated at 16, the crotch thus formed straddling a disc 14 which is rigidly mounted on the shaft 15 and is provided with notches 21 in its periphery. The crotch of the striker arm is also provided with a detent 20 which is spring-urged into engagement with the periphery of the disc 14, and thus periodically with a notch 21. The arm 17 is then retracted against the action of spring 19, which is anchored between the wheeled frame of the device and an extension 18 of one limb 16 of the bifurcated striker arm, until the detent is released from the relevant notch 21 by a fixed trigger 22, the resultant forward swing of the striker arm being arrested by a shock-absorber 37. The striking head 28 of the arm 17 may be rotatable to present variously shaped striking faces to the ball, and thereby vary the trajectory of the latter, this rotation being effected by means of a ratchet 36 on the striking head engaging a pawl 34 as the striker arm is retracted. A second disc may be mounted on the shaft 15, arranged to be movable into close proximity with the disc 14, with a view to masking some of the notches 21 in the latter. The cradle 23 is fed with balls from a passageway 24, under the control of a gate whose operation is synchronized with that of the striker arm. The device may be modified to simulate the bowling of cricket balls, the head 28 being replaced by a cup which retains the ball until the forwardly moving arm abuts against the shock-absorber 37.