Apparatus for projecting hockey pucks
King  
 1 1 APPARATUS FOR PROJECTING HOCKEY PUCKS [76] Inventor: Gordon Allan King. 20432 Coulson St.. Woodland Hills. Calif. 91364 [22] Filed: Sept. 13, 1973 [21] App]. No.: 396,673  
 [52] US. Cl 273/1 B; 124/4; 124/6; 124/42; 124/47; 273/129; 294/19 A [51] Int. Cl A631) 69/00 [58] Field of Search 273/1 B. 129 R. 129 E. 273/201; 124/4. 6, 7. 8. 9. 42. 43. 46. 47: 294/19 R. 19 A [561 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 712.159 10/1902 Voege 294/19 A X 1.658.145 2/1928 Uyei 294/19 A 2.432.155 12/1947 Herold 124/6 2.832.188 4/1958 Harrell et a1 294/19 A X 2.962.321 11/1960 Fowler et a1. 294/19 A 2.996.058 8/1961 3.602.208 8/1971 Huerlimunn 124/6 3.794.318 2/1974 Holmes 273/1 B Primary E.rarrriner-Paul E. Shapiro Attorney. Agent. or Firm-Craig 0. Malin [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus for projecting hockey pucks from a puck storage chamber. A sweeper attached to the end of a rod is rotatable coupled to a support and driven by a motor or hand crank through the rod. The storage chamber has an opening communicating with the sweep path. A plate and index arm is rotatably coupled to the support for movement from a puck retain ing position adjacent the chamber opening to a puck passing position away from the chamber opening. A puck is fed by gravity from the chamber into the sweep path where it is struck by the sweeper and pro&#39; jected outwardly.  
 A puck retrieval and storage chamber comprising a tubular puck sized body has pivotally mounted detents at one open end. A spring loaded rod coupled to the detents holds them in a normally puck retaining position partly obscuring the opening. but can be manipulated to retract the detents to permit entry and exit of pucks from the tube.  
 7 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures APPARATUS FOR PROJECTING HOCKEY PUCKS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION l. Field of the Invention This invention relates to the field of sporting equipment, and more particularly to an apparatus for projecting hockey pucks.  
 2. Description of the Prior Art Ball throwing machines utilizing elastic bands or springs for propelling the balls are known particularly for the sport of baseball. These machines generally re quire relatively complicated cocking or cam mechanisms to provide the propelling energy. They throw the ball into the air at relatively high speed and are not suitable for propelling pucks along a flat surface such as the surface of an ice rink.  
  An air-powered, piston driven machine for propelling hockey pucks is known from US. Pat. No. 3,665,9l0. Such known machine is designed to propel pucks at high speeds toward a goalie to give the goalie practice. None of the prior art provides a machine for passing pucks in rapid succession to hockey players to drill them in the shooting of the puck.  
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to provide an economical apparatus for projecting hockey pucks toward hockey players for use in improving their passreceiving and shooting skills.  
  It is a further object of the invention to provide apparatus capable of storing many pucks and rapidly and conveniently projecting the stored pucks one at a time along a hockey playing surface.  
  According to the invention, pucks are gravity fed from a puck storage chamber into the sweep path of a rotating sweeper. The sweeper strikes the puck and projects it outwardly along the hockey playing surface.  
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings representing preferred embodiments of the puck projecting apparatus according to the present invention. In the drawings:  
  FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the invention;  
  FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-section taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1;  
  FIG. 3 is a top view ofthe embodiment shown in FIG. 1;  
  FIG. 4 is a horizontal cross-section taken along line 4-4 shown in FIG. 2;  
  FIG. 5 is a cutaway and partially sectioned vertical view of another embodiment of the invention utilizing an electrical motor and automatically releasable puckholding detents;  
  FIG. 6 is a partial section of the embodiment of FIG. 5 showing the detents in the open position;  
  FIG. 7 is a vertical view of the puck storage chamber adjacent the chamber opening;  
  FIG. 8 is a horizontal section of FIG. 7 taken along line 8-8; and  
  FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a single puck retrieval and storage chamber having puck-holding detents.  
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. I shows an embodiment of the invention having four puck storage chambers 1 vertically mounted upon a support 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the support 2 includes a base 3 having a bearing 4 for rotatably mounting a sweeper 5 coupled to a rotating means 6. The rotating means 6 comprises a vertical shaft 7 having a crank 8 at its upper end for manually rotating the shaft 7 and the sweeper 5 through a sweep path.  
  The hockey pucks 9 are stacked vertically within each chamber. As shown in FIG. 2, the chambers I have openings at their lower ends communicating with the sweep path. The bottom puck 10 in the stack on the right side in FIG. 2 rests upon base 3 in the sweep path of sweeper 5. Thus, when crank 8 is turned, vertical shaft 7 rotates, and sweeper 5 is turned through the sweep path until it strikes bottom puck 10 and projects it outwardly onto and along the ice or other playing surface.  
  To prevent more than one puck at a time from being gravity fed into the sweep path from the several storage chambers l, a retaining means I1 is provided. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, this retaining means 11 can comprise a plate 12 positioned below the openings in the chambers I. As best shown in FIG. 4, a pie-shaped wedge opening is provided in the plate I2. When the plate opening is positioned under one puck storage chamber 1, pucks from that one chamber only are gravity fed to the sweep path.  
  The retainer plate 12 is rotatably coupled to support 2 and connected at its center to a vertical retainer shaft 13 concentric about the vertical shaft 7. The upper end of the retainer shaft 13 has an index arm 14 for showing the position of the plate opening (and hence the chamber being used) and for use in turning the retainer plate 12 to move the plate opening under another chamber 1. The opening in the plate 12 can also be moved to a position between two chambers l to hold all the pucks in all the chambers.  
  A retaining wall 23 attached to base 3 is provided around a portion of the periphery of the sweep path as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The retaining wall serves to guide pucks from below their respective puck storage chamber 1 to an exit 24 in the retaining wall 23. The exit 24 can then be aimed to project the puck in the same direction regardless of the chamber from which it came.  
  FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the invention utilizing an electric motor I5 controlled by switch 16 to rotate the sweeper 5 by means of pinion gear 17, mating gear 18, and vertical shaft 19. Other types of motor, such as spring powered motors, could also be used to power the rotating means.  
  FIG. 5 also shows another embodiment of the retainer means utilizing detents 20 pivotally coupled to the exterior vertical wall of the puck storage chamber 1. The detents 20 are operated by a rod 21 and a spring 22 biasing the detents 20 into the closing position shown in FIG. 5. When several detents 20 are used. a detent operator ring 25 can be used to tie all the detents together.  
  The detent rod 21 has a head 27 with a cam surface. A rotor 28 fixedly attached to shaft 19 rotates as the shaft 19 rotates. As the striker 29 on the end of the rotor 28 strikes the cam surface on rod head 27, the rod is lowered and the detent is automatically moved to the open position to allow passage of a puck, as shown in FIG. 6. The angular relation of the rotor 28 and the sweeper 5 is arranged so that a puck is released from each chamber just in time to be struck by the sweeper 5.  
  All the pucks projected out upon the ice must even tually be picked up and returned to the storage chambers l of the apparatus. FIG. 9 shows a puck retrieval and storage chamber 30 which can be used for this pur pose. The tubular body 3] is simply pressed over the top of a puck. Cam surface 32 (FIG. 7) is pressed against the upper edge of the puck and the detent is opened to allow passage of the puck into the tubular body 31. Spring 22 returns the detent 20 to the closed position to hold the puck within the tubular body 3]. When the tubular body 31 is full of pucks it can be placed over a puck storage chamber 1 of the apparatus and the detent 20 opened to release the pucks into the chamber.  
  In other embodiments, the puck storage chamber 1 can also serve as a puck retrieval and storage chamber of the apparatus by making it removable from the apparatus. for use in retrieving the pucks. After loading it with pucks from the playing surface in the manner described above, it could be reattached to the apparatus, thus eliminating one step of the loading operation.  
  Standard rubber ice hockey pucks can be slid across many feet of rough concrete with relative ease by hand cranking the rotating means 6. The distance and speed the pucks travel can be varied somewhat by changing the speed at which the crank 8 is turned. An operator can easily eject the packs at a rate of approximately one puck per second.  
  The puck projecting capabilities have been found to be related to the resiliency in the rotating means 6. In particular, the torsional resiliency of the vertical shaft 7 can be utilized to assist in projecting the pucks. The optimum resiliency can be obtained in numerous man ners. such as varying the geometry or material of the vertical shaft 7.  
  From the foregoing, it can be readily realized that this invention can assume various embodiments. Thus, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described herein, but is to be limited only by the appended claims.  
 What I claim is:  
  1. An apparatus for projecting hockey pucks comprising:  
 a support;  
 a sweeper rotatably coupled to said support to rotate through a sweep path:  
 means for rotating said sweeper through said sweep path. said rotating means being coupled to said sweeper,  
 a puck storage chamber having an opening communicating with said sweep path; and  
 a retainer means movable to a puck retaining position adjacent said chamber opening and to a puck passing position away from said chamber opening, said retainer means comprising a plate rotatably coupled to said support, and an index arm connected to said plate to rotate said plate into said puck retaining and puck passing positions, whereby a puck from said storage chamber is struck by said sweeper during rotation through said sweep path and projected outwardly from said apparatus.  
  2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support includes a base horizontally positioned below said sweeper.  
  3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including a retaining wall coupled to said support adjacent to the periphery of said sweep path and enclosing a portion of said sweep path, said retaining wall providing an exit communicating with said sweep path to permit the escape of a hockey puck from said sweep path.  
  4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including a plurality of said puck storage chambers, and wherein said retainer means is movable to a plurality of said puck passing positions, each of said puck passing positions allowing passage ofa puck from only one of said puck storage chambers.  
  5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotating means comprises a vertical shaft connected to said sweeper, concentric to the axis of rotation of said sweeper; and a crank extending outwardly from an upper portion of said shaft to turn said shaft.  
  6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotating means comprises a vertical shaft connected to said sweeper concentric to the axis of rotation of said sweeper; a motor operatively coupled to said shaft to rotate said shaft; and a controller for activating said motor.  
  7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including in combination a puck retrieval and storage chamber comprising a tubular body having at least one open end; at least one pivotally mounted detent adjacent said open end; and a spring loaded rod coupled to said de tent to move said detent from the spring loaded normally closed position in said open end to an open position out of said open end.