A ski brake of the abovementioned type is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,083,028, issued Mar. 26, 1963. In this known ski brake the blade members are loaded by a spring, for example, a helical or torsion spring. A disadvantage of this known construction lies in the two blade members forming with the connecting bar on one side and the two springs on the other side are separate parts. In addition, in the known construction, the brake part and the stepping plate are made of a flat material, for example of sheet metal. For this reason, the two pivot axes are then additionally to be designed separately which causes the braking wing to receive a form which can be produced only with increased expense.
On the other hand, a ski brake is also known which consists of spring steel wire. Such a brake is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,563, issued Mar. 29, 1977 and assigned to the same assignee as is the present subject matter. This construction has again the disadvantage that each brake leg or blade member must each be constructed with two extensions in order to be able to form on the one side a guideway on the holding plate and on the other side a support for a stepping plate. In spite of this compact structure, which overcomes the disadvantages of earlier similar ski brakes, in reality deformations still occur which apparently are caused by construction and cannot be avoided in totality.
The objects of the invention are to design a simple ski brake so that neither separate springs nor two extension pairs are needed. Starting out from a ski brake of the abovementioned type, the objects are inventively achieved by the entire ski brake consisting in a conventional manner of a barlike spring steel wire, wherein the two swivelling blade members are each constructed of two sections of the spring steel wire, the wire being bent at 180.degree. at the free end of the blade member, and wherein the two springs are each formed by one bent end of the spring steel wire, which ends are guided under pretension on a control cam which extends in longitudinal direction of the ski, and wherein the control cam has at least one locking position, in which the blade members are held in the braking position.
The two ends of the barlike formed ski brake therefore do not only form the pivot axes of the wings, but also the resilient part of the same. By using a control cam, a braking position both forwardly and also backwardly is achieved. This means that the ski brake is effective even when the ski would be freely sliding on a hill with the tail thereof pointing downhill.
A particularly advantageous embodiment of the inventive ski brake consists in that the bent portions of the two ends of the spring steel wire each form with the associated pivot axes one acute angle. This embodiment is of importance for adjusting the desired initial tension.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds