The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 08, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 05, 2000
Bridgestone Sports Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A spherical body having a core and a surface layer is manufactured by a method comprising a preforming step in which a pair of sheet blanks ( ) are formed into half-shells ( ) in a two-part mold ( ) having hemispherical concave mold halves by pressing each blank from one side while applying vacuum suction to the other side; a surface layer forming step in which the half-shells are loaded into another two-part mold ( ) having pattern-forming projections, the core ( ) is placed on one mold half, and the other mold half is joined thereto to close the mold, thereby pressing the core against the inner side of each half-shell, concurrent with which vacuum suction is applied to the outer side; and a molding step in which the surface layer is fused and solidified onto the core within the closed mold.