Velasa Sports, Inc.

Cytyc Corporation

Russell K Layton, Jr

Daniel A Beaudet

Ivan D Goryachev

Matt Hanczor

Clive Bolton

Alex Taylor Willisson

Brian Austin

David I Freed

Brian M Hanley

Gregory Scott Torrisi

Lionel Stewart MacLean

Zachary S Hastings

The present disclosure provides for a skate blade including a peripheral rim including a top surface and a bottom surface, the top surface configured to interface with a skate and the bottom surface configured to be in contact with a skating surface. The peripheral rim can include a first material, the peripheral rim defining one or more openings between the top surface and the bottom surface. The skate blade can further include one or more support ribs extending across the one or more openings of the peripheral rim.

Skate blade clamping systems

The present disclosure provides for a skate sharpening system comprising an operative unit and a base, the operative unit comprising a central body, the central body comprising a skate receiving slot, a skate clamp being positioned adjacent to the skate receiving slot such that a skate can be secured within the skate receiving slot for a sharpening operation, the operative unit further comprising a grinding unit, the grinding unit being configured to translate along a length of the slot such that the grinding unit can conduct the sharpening operation on the skate that is secured within the skate receiving slot, the operative unit being positioned over at least a portion of the base, the base comprising a swarf-receiving cavity, the operative unit and the base being pivotably connected.

Skate blade sharpening system

A skate blade grinding system used to sharpen and profile the blades of ice skates. The skate blade grinding system can include a housing that includes an elongated slot for receiving the blade of an ice skate for sharpening, and clamp jaws for retaining the skate. The skate blade grinding system can automatically operate a grinding wheel and move the rotating grinding wheel back and forth along the lower face of the skate blade to grind the skate blade.

A skate blade alignment system used to align a skate blade sharpening system. The skate alignment system can align a grinding wheel for sharpening a skate blade secured within the skate blade sharpening system. A controller can enable alignment operations and control an alignment process.

A blade holder tool is disclosed for a user to hold a skate blade and insert the skate blade into a sharpener unit for a sharpening operation. The blade holder tool includes an upper portion graspable by a user to hold the blade holder tool and place the blade holder tool in an inserted position in the sharpener unit. It further includes a lower blade-engaging portion that grasps the skate blade and locates the skate blade in a sharpening position in the sharpener unit.

Skate blade holder tool

A skate blade sharpening system used to sharpen the blades of ice skates. The skate sharpener can include a housing that includes an elongated slot for receiving the blade of an ice skate for sharpening, and clamp jaws for retaining the skate. The housing can include at least one slot cover to engage the skate blade. Engagement of the skate blade can be sensed by a controller to enable sharpening operations to proceed. The skate blade sharpening system can automatically operate a grinding wheel and move the rotating grinding wheel back and forth along the lower face of the skate blade a desired number of times to sharpen the skate blade.

A skate blade sharpening system retains a skate blade in a sharpening position whose centerline has a first location relative to a first visual reference feature. A motor-driven rotating shaft has a wheel-mounting location for mounting a grinding wheel for sharpening operation. The shaft accepts an alignment wheel at the wheel-mounting location during an alignment, the alignment wheel having a second visual reference feature having a second location relative to a centerline of the grinding wheel when occupying the wheel-mounting location. An adjustment mechanism moves the shaft transversely during alignment to vary relative position between the wheel-mounting location and the sharpening position including an aligned position in which the centerline of the grinding wheel is aligned with the centerline of the sharpening position, the aligned position being indicated by alignment of the first visual reference feature with the second visual reference feature during alignment.

Skate blade sharpening system with alignment adjustment

A grinding wheel for use in a skate blade sharpening system includes a metal grinding ring having an abrasive-coated outer surface for contacting a skate blade to be sharpened during sharpening, and a generally disk-shaped hub to which the grinding ring is fixedly mounted. The hub and grinding ring are configured for mating with an arbor on a rotating shaft of the skate blade sharpening system. Generally the hub is of a less expensive and lower-density material than the grinding ring. In one embodiment, the hub is of a lightweight material such as thermoplastic.

Compact grinding wheel

An ice skate blade edge measurement device includes a measurement device frame and a measurement indicator. The measurement device frame defines at least one storage location for the measurement indicator such that, when not being used to measure an alignment of a pair of sharpened skate blade edges, the measurement indicator can be stored. One storage location can be on a front side of the measurement device frame away from a measurement location and another storage location can be on a back side of the measurement device frame.

Skate blade edge measurement system

A grinding wheel assembly for use in a sharpening system includes a grinding wheel configured to be mounted in the sharpening system to carry out sharpening operations in which the grinding wheel removes material from a blade to be sharpened, such as the blade of an ice skate. The grinding wheel assembly further includes an identification tag attached to the grinding wheel, the identification tag having (1) secure memory including a usage location for persistently and securely storing a usage tracking value, and (2) interface circuitry for engaging in communication with a transceiver of the sharpening system to enable electronic circuitry of the sharpening system to both read from and write to the usage location to track usage of the grinding wheel for sharpening operations. The memory may also store other data including user-specific system parameters usable to customize operation, and fault information usable to diagnose fault conditions.

Grinding wheel with identification tag

Skate blade sharpening system with alignment adjustment using alignment wheel

A skate blade retention mechanism for retaining a skate blade in a sharpening position to be sharpened includes a pair of elongated jaws configured for symmetrical jaw opening and closing movements about a centerline of the skate blade in the sharpening position. A biasing mechanism is configured and operative to apply a bias force to symmetrically bias the jaws toward a closed position with sufficiently high force to retain the skate blade in the sharpening position when the skate blade is located between the jaws as so biased. An actuator is configured to actuate the jaws against the bias force to an open position under user control to permit insertion and removal of the skate blade.

Growing community of inventors

Acton, MA, United States of America

Russell K Layton, Jr