The present invention relates generally to a glide bar rail table for a racquet stringing machine and, more particularly, to an improvement in a swivel glide bar rail table which greatly improves the convenience in stringing racquets, especially racquets with unconventional string patterns.
Most present day racquet stringing machines use rectangular or square glide bar rail tables so that two rails are parallel to the main strings running in the vertical direction of the racquet and two other rails are perpendicular to the main strings and parallel to the cross strings. Typically, in stringing the main strings with these types of devices, glide bars are mounted, along with the clamps, on the rails parallel to the main strings; then, after finishing the main strings, in stringing the cross strings, the glide bars are mounted on the rails parallel to the cross strings. It is usual to start with the main strings.
However, with the foregoing arrangement, the stringer has to first remove the clamps after finishing the main strings and then remove the glide bars. The glide bars then have to be remounted on the rails parallel to the cross strings followed by mounting of the clamps. I have found that these remounting steps are very inconvenient and unnecessarily time-consuming.
Moreover, the modern advances in racquet design have brought about string patterns other than the perpendicular main string-cross string pattern. For instance, some racquets have three-directional string patterns which cannot be strung by conventional stringing machines of the aforementioned type without the use of special clamps.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds