JPH11114118A - Tossing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a tossing machine at reduced cost, capable of automatically shooting a ball toward the chest of a batter from diagonally in front of the batter at predetermined timing, allowing the batter to easily practice toss batting by himself. SOLUTION: A tossing machine 1 comprises a ball stocker 3 storing balls, a curved ball guide 4 holding the balls fed from the ball stocker 3, an action arm 5 striking the balls waiting in the ball guide 4, and a drive means for operating the action arm 5 at predetermined timing in the direction for scooping up the balls.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a toss machine suitable for batting practice, and more particularly, to a novel toss machine capable of performing toss batting practice alone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, toss batting practice is very important for basic batting practice. In performing toss batting, the role of tossing the ball diagonally forward of the batter is essential. The person stands and looks at the batter's chest, toss the ball at a predetermined timing, and the batter hits the tossed ball to check and improve the batting form.

[0003] However, the conventional interpersonal toss batting practice requires at least two or more people, making it difficult to practice casually. He could not practice and had a very poor practice efficiency.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple and inexpensive structure in which one person can easily practice toss batting. The aim is to provide a completely new toss machine that can do this.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a toss machine comprising: a ball stocker containing a ball; and a curved ball guide for holding the ball delivered from the ball stocker. When,
It is characterized by comprising an action arm for ejecting a waiting ball in the ball guide, and a driving means for operating the action arm in a direction of scooping up the ball at a predetermined timing.

In the present invention, the driving means includes a motor, a sprocket rotatably operated by the motor, a pin held to be able to advance and retreat in a horizontal direction from a side surface of the sprocket, and an advancing and retreating pin along the cam groove. A cam body to be urged, a spring configured to urge the action arm in a scooping direction, and a stopper that abuts the action arm. The action arm engages with the cam body by rotation of a sprocket. Then, after rotating in the direction opposing the biasing direction of the spring, the engagement with the cam body is released and the spring is pulled by the spring to lift the ball in the ball guide in the scooping direction. It is desirable.

[0007]

Therefore, in the toss machine according to the present invention, the ball is automatically launched from a diagonally forward part of the batter to the chest of the batter at a predetermined timing and the ball is launched, so that it is easy to practice toss batting alone. Can be.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a toss machine 1 according to this embodiment comprises a housing 2 formed in a cubic shape, a ball stocker 3 formed on an upper portion of the housing 2, and a ball stocker 3 formed on the housing 2. Curved ball guide 4 for holding the ball B supplied from the ball guide, an action arm 5 for ejecting the ball B waiting in the ball guide 4, and operating the action arm 5 in a direction of scooping up the ball B at a predetermined timing. And a driving device 6 for driving the motor.

The housing 2 is formed in a cubic box shape, and the ball stocker 3 formed on the upper part thereof is
It is formed in a substantially concave cross section, and a plurality of inside, for example,
A ball B of about 50 or 100 balls can be stored,
The upper opening is formed to be openable and closable by the lid F. A ball hole 3a is formed in the bottom of the ball stocker 3, and the bottom is located directly above the starting end 7a of the gutter 7 for guiding the balls B to the ball guide 4 one by one. It is formed so as to be inclined toward the opened ball hole 3a.

The gutter body 7 is formed to have a substantially U-shaped cross section, and is disposed so as to be inclined so that the balls B flow one by one. As shown in FIG. 7, a hole 8 is formed for fitting and holding the ball B.

In this way, the ball B fitted and held in the hole 8 of the gutter 7 is moved by the ball feeder 9 to one ball.
The balls are supplied to the ball guide 4 one by one.

As shown in FIG. 5, the ball feeder 9 includes a laterally L-shaped arm 11 urged downward through a spring 10 and a shaft of a sprocket 12 constituting the drive unit 6. 13, an operating pin 14 protruding from the arm 13. When the sprocket 12 rotates, the operating pin 14 presses the one end 11 a of the arm 11. Then, the vertical piece 11b of the arm 11 rises, and as a result, the upper end of the vertical piece 11b lifts the bowl B from below.
The fitted state of the ball B and the hole 8 is released, and the ball B is delivered to the ball guide 4.

The ball B dropped from the end portion 7b of the gutter 7 is housed in the ball guide 4.

The ball guide 4 is formed into a substantially crescent shape and has a substantially U-shaped cross section.
The ball B accommodated therein rolls in the ball guide 4 and abuts against the action arm 5.

The upper end of the action arm 5 is connected to a base member 15 fixed to the bottom of the ball stocker 3.
The action arm 5 is inserted into the ball guide 4 while being rotatably supported by a shaft 16 protruding from the ball guide 4.

The action arm 5 is urged by a coil spring 17 in a scooping direction (clockwise direction in FIG. 2). The base member 15
A stopper 18 protrudes from the shaft 16 on the left side thereof, and a rubber cushion 19 is wound around the outer periphery of the stopper 18 as shown in FIG. Accordingly, when the action arm 5 rotates in the launching direction, it abuts against the stopper 18, but the impact sound at this time is buffered by the rubber cushion 19. As shown in FIG. 2, the tension of the coil spring 17 can be changed by locking and fixing it to one of a plurality of locking tools 24 arranged in parallel. Is changed, the flight distance of the toss ball B can be adjusted.

The action arm 5 configured as described above
Is driven by the motor 20, the sprocket 12 which is rotated by the motor 20, the pin 22 which is held in a horizontal direction from the side surface of the sprocket 12, and the pin 22 is moved forward and backward. And a cam body (not shown). The motor 20 turns on the sprocket 12 by turning on a switch (not shown), and moves the action arm 5 at intervals of, for example, three seconds. The drive is controlled so as to perform the launch operation at intervals of 5 seconds.

That is, when the sprocket 12 starts rotating by a switch operation, the pin 22 protruding from the sprocket 12 causes the action arm 5 to push the ball guide 4 against the tensile force of the coil spring 17.
And the pin 22 is retracted at a predetermined position by the action of the cam body to release the engagement state with the action arm 5, and the action arm 5 is pulled by the tensile force of the coil spring 17. Since the ball B held in the ball guide 4 is instantaneously rotated in the ball launching direction (clockwise direction in FIG. 2),
Is thrown out so as to be scooped up from the opening 23 opened at the same time.

Although not particularly shown, the cam body may employ a mechanism as shown in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-46828.
When the pin 22 reaches the position, the pin 22 is pulled by the biasing force of the spring and retreats to release the engagement between the pin 22 and the action arm 5, and the pin 22
If the pin 22 is configured to move forward against the urging force of the spring when the pin 22 reaches the position and engage the pin 22 and the action arm 5, various known mechanisms may be employed. Can be.

In the above embodiment, the case where the housing 2 is formed in a cubic shape has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the ball stocker 3 is also formed separately from the housing 2. Of course, it may be possible.

[0022]

As described above, in the toss machine according to the present invention, the ball is automatically launched from a diagonally forward part of the batter to the batter's chest at a predetermined timing. An excellent effect of being able to practice batting is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a toss machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a right side view of the toss machine.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the toss machine.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an action arm stopper of the toss machine.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a ball feeder of the toss machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 B ball 1 tos machine 2 housing 3 ball stocker 4 ball guide 5 action arm 6 drive device 12 sprocket 20 motor 22 pin

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A ball stocker in which a ball is accommodated, a curved ball guide for holding a ball delivered from the ball stocker, an action arm for ejecting a ball waiting in the ball guide, and a predetermined action arm A driving means for operating the ball in the direction of scooping at the timing of (1). 2. The driving means includes a motor, a sprocket rotatably operated by the motor, a pin held horizontally reciprocally from a side surface of the sprocket, and a cam for moving the pin back and forth along a cam groove. Body, a spring configured to urge the action arm in the scooping direction, and a stopper that abuts the action arm, the action arm being engaged with the cam body by rotation of a sprocket. After rotating in a direction opposing the biasing direction of the spring, the engagement with the cam body is released and the spring is pulled by the spring to lift the ball in the ball guide in a scooping direction. Item 2. The toss machine according to Item 1.