Cue shaft tip insert

Abstract

A tip insert for a cue shaft having a cavity at the tip has a tip disc to support a tip for striking a ball and an inwardly extending section for bonding to the inside surface of the cavity. The inwardly extending section includes one or more centering flanges and a bonding surface, the centering flanges interfacing with the inner surface of the cavity and enabling a substantially consistence bond distance between the bonding surface and the inner surface of the cavity. The tip insert can be machine from a single piece of material comprising glass fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets, where the individual sheets of the material are oriented perpendicular to the longitude axis of the tip insert to increase the durability and performance of the tip insert when transferring the force from the tip striking a ball.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A cue shaft tip assembly comprising:
 a shaft with a cavity at a tip end, the cavity having an inner surface;   a tip insert at the tip end of the shaft, the tip insert having a tip disc and an inwardly extending section, the inwardly extending section comprising:
 one or more aligning protrusions configured to interface with the inner surface of the cavity, 
 a bonding surface adjacent to the one or more centering protrusions, and an epoxy reservoir formed around between the bonding surface and the inner surface of the cavity; 
   a tip at an end face of the tip disc for striking a ball; and   a tip silencer positioned between the tip and the tip disc.   
     
     
         2 . The tip assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the tip silencer has an axial length of at least 0.003 inches. 
     
     
         3 . The tip assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the tip silencer comprises a material to damp a high-frequency force generated during a strike of a ball with the tip. 
     
     
         4 . The tip assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the tip silencer comprises at least one of volcanized fiber and a composite material. 
     
     
         5 . The tip assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the tip is integrated with the tip disc, the tip and tip disc being formed from the single piece of material. 
     
     
         6 . The tip assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the tip insert is comprised of fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets, at least a portion of the fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets forming the tip disc being oriented perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the shaft. 
     
     
         7 . The tip assembly of  claim 6 , wherein the fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets are selected from the group consisting of carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets and fiberglass epoxy laminate sheets. 
     
     
         8 . The tip assembly of  claim 6 , wherein the fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets are G-10/FR4 fiberglass epoxy laminate sheets. 
     
     
         9 . The tip assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more aligning protrusions are at least one of one or more centering flanges and a plurality of axially oriented centering ribs. 
     
     
         10 . A tip insert for a cue, the tip insert comprising:
 a tip disc; and   an inwardly extending section adapted to be inserted and attached to a tip end of a cue shaft having a cavity at a first end and a tip silencer positioned between the inwardly extending section and the tip end of the cue shaft, the inwardly extending section comprising a bonding surface configured to be bonded to an inner surface of the cavity;   wherein the tip insert has at least a portion forming the tip disc being oriented to be perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the shaft.   
     
     
         11 . The tip insert of  claim 10 , further including a weight-reducing cavity. 
     
     
         12 . The tip insert of  claim 10 , wherein the tip insert is machined from a single piece of material. 
     
     
         13 . The tip insert of  claim 14 , wherein the tip disc comprises an integrated tip for striking a ball. 
     
     
         14 . The tip insert of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 one or more aligning protrusions configured to interface with the inner surface of the cavity, the bonding surface being adjacent to the one or more aligning protrusions; and   an epoxy reservoir formed between the bonding surface and the cavity of the cue shaft, when positioned into the cavity of the cue shaft the one or more aligning protrusions enabling a substantially consistent bond distance between the inwardly extending section and the inner surface of the cavity in the epoxy reservoir.   
     
     
         15 . The tip insert of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more aligning protrusions is one or more centering flanges. 
     
     
         16 . The tip insert of  claim 15 , wherein the one or more aligning protrusions are a plurality of axially oriented centering ribs. 
     
     
         17 . The tip insert of  claim 10 , wherein the inwardly extending section is a cylindrical inwardly extending section. 
     
     
         19 . The tip insert of  claim 10 , wherein the tip insert is constructed from fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets being oriented perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the tip insert. 
     
     
         20 . The tip insert of  claim 10 , wherein the tip insert is comprised of fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets, at least a portion of the fiber-reinforced epoxy laminate sheets forming the tip disc being oriented perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the shaft. 
     
     
         21 . The tip assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the tip insert comprises a phenolic resin. 
     
     
         22 . The tip insert of  claim 10 , wherein the tip insert comprises a phenolic resin.