FISHING REEL

Abstract

A fishing reel according to the present invention comprises a level wind device that uniformly winds a fishing line around a spool rotatably supported between left and right side plates of a reel body. The level wind device comprises a fishing line guide that comprises: a pair of rollers each provided with a through hole extending in an axial direction; a pair of roller fixing shafts inserted into the through holes of the pair of rollers and rotatably supporting the rollers; and a base portion supporting the pair of roller fixing shafts and engaging with a worm shaft supported between the left and right side plates, and a fishing line is inserted into between the pair of rollers.

Claims

1. A fishing reel comprising a level wind device that uniformly winds a fishing line around a spool rotatably supported between left and right side plates of a reel body, wherein the level wind device comprises a fishing line guide that comprises: a pair of rollers each provided with a through hole extending in an axial direction; a pair of roller fixing shafts inserted into the through holes of the pair of rollers and rotatably supporting the rollers; and a base portion supporting the pair of roller fixing shafts and engaging with a worm shaft supported between the left and right side plates, and a fishing line is inserted into between the pair of rollers.

2. The fishing reel according to claim 1, wherein the pair of roller fixing shafts has such a frame structure that the roller fixing shafts are integrated by a connecting portion.

3. The fishing reel according to claim 2, wherein the connecting portion is engaged with a guide shaft disposed between the left and right side plates.

4. The fishing reel according to claim 1, wherein a metal plate is installed on the base portion, and each end of the pair of roller fixing shafts is held on the plate.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an embodiment of a fishing reel according to the present invention as viewed from a front side;

[0012] FIG. 2 is an exploded view illustrating a configuration of a fishing line guide of a level wind device; and

[0013] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of the fishing line guide.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] Hereinafter, a fishing reel according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. Note that, in the following description, the front-back direction (front side, back side), left-right direction, up-down direction (upper side, lower side) will be defined as directions illustrated in FIG. 1.

[0015] As illustrated in FIG. 1, the fishing reel according to this embodiment comprises a reel body 1 having left and right side plates 1A and 1B in which left and right frames 2a and 2b are covered with left and right covers 3a and 3b, respectively. In the reel body 1, a reel leg located between the left and right side plates and attached to a fishing rod 100 is integrally formed. A spool shaft is rotatably supported between the left and right frames 2a and 2b by way of a bearing, and a spool 3, around which a fishing line is wound, is integrally fixed to the spool shaft.

[0016] In this embodiment, a handle 5 that rotationally drives the spool 3 is installed on the left side plate 1A side, and a known power transmission mechanism that transmits a rotational driving force of the handle 5 to the spool shaft is disposed in a space between the left frame 2b and the left cover 3b. In addition, a known clutch mechanism that switches the spool shaft between the power transmitting state and the power shielding state is disposed on one of the side plates, and the clutch mechanism switches from the clutch ON state (power transmitting state) to the OFF state (power shielding state) by pushing down a clutch lever 8 disposed between the left and right side plates on the back side of the spool 3. Here, the return from the clutch OFF state to the clutch ON state can be performed by rotating the handle 5 by a known automatic return mechanism.

[0017] A level wind device 10 is disposed between the left and right side plates 1A and 1B and in front of the spool 3. The level wind device 10 comprises a fishing line guide 20 through which the fishing line wound around the spool 3 is inserted, and the fishing line guide 20 is reciprocated between the left and right side plates of the reel body 1 to evenly wind the fishing line around the spool 3. Specifically, the fishing line guide 20 is engaged with a worm shaft (screw shaft) 11 rotationally driven via the power transmission mechanism, and when the worm shaft 11 is rotationally driven along with the rotational operation of the handle 5, the fishing line guide 20 engaged with the worm shaft 11 is reciprocally driven.

[0018] Note that, the worm shaft 11 is accommodated in a tubular body (cylindrical body) 12 turnably held between the left and right side plates, and a long hole 12a extending in the axial direction is formed in an outer surface of the tubular body 12. A spiral groove 11a is formed in the surface of the worm shaft 11, and the spiral groove is exposed through the long hole 12a. When an engagement pin 29 of the fishing line guide 20 is engaged with the spiral groove 11a, the fishing line guide 20 is reciprocally driven with the rotation of the worm shaft 11.

[0019] Hereinafter, the configuration of the above-described fishing line guide 20 will be described. The fishing line guide 20 comprises a pair of rollers 22 each provided with a through hole 22a extending in the axial direction (rotation axis direction of the roller), a pair of roller fixing shafts 24 inserted through the through holes 22a of the respective rollers 22 to rotatably support the rollers, and a base portion 28 supporting the pair of roller fixing shafts 24 and engaging with the worm shaft 11 supported between the left and right side plates.

[0020] The base portion 28 of this embodiment is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, and has a through hole 28a through which the tubular body 12 penetrates in the left-right direction. The through hole 28a and the tubular body 12 inserted into the through hole 28a are engaged by an engagement relationship having a non-circular cross section, and the base portion 28 is in a state of being prevented from rotating with respect to the tubular body 12. In addition, a holding hole 28b for holding the engaging pin 29 screwed into the spiral groove 11a of the exposed worm shaft 11 is formed in the base portion 28. A female screw portion 28c is formed in an inner circumferential surface of the holding hole 28b, and a male screw portion 29a of a fixing member 29A holding the engagement pin 29 is screwed and fixed thereto, so that the spiral groove 11a of the worm shaft 11 and the engagement pin 29 are engaged.

[0021] The pair of roller fixing shafts 24 are formed so as to extend in the up-down direction at constant intervals along the direction in which the worm shaft 11 extends, and when the roller fixing shafts 24 are inserted into the through holes 22a of the rollers 22 respectively, a gap S through which the fishing line can be inserted is formed between the pair of rollers. In other words, since the rollers 22 are only rotatably held by the roller fixing shafts 24 and their outer circumferential surfaces are exposed, the frictional resistance to act on the fishing line coming into contact with their outer circumferential surfaces is reduced, thus enabling the rollers to smoothly rotate. Note that, each roller 22 is preferably formed of a material having low frictional resistance, e.g. a metal material such as aluminum or titanium, or formed by metal plating a resin material.

[0022] In addition, the pair of roller fixing shafts 24 respectively holding the rollers 22 preferably have an integrated structure such as a frame structure as illustrated in FIG. 2. In this embodiment, the pair of roller fixing shafts 24 have such a frame structure that their upper ends are integrally connected by a connecting portion 25 (substantially U-shaped frame body 26), thus improving handleability, assemblability, and strength. Here, the frame body 26 can be integrally formed of a hard resin, for example, or can be formed by bending a metal material.

[0023] The pair of roller fixing shafts 24 are supported on the base portion 28. In this case, it is preferable that a metal plate 28A is installed on a surface of the base portion 28 and ends 24a of the pair of roller fixing shafts 24 are supported by the plate 28A. Circular recesses 28e in which lower ends of the rollers 22 are located are formed in a surface of the plate 28A, and through holes 28f are formed at the center of the recesses 28e respectively. In addition, fitting holes 28g are formed in the surface of the base portion 28 at positions corresponding to the through holes 28f of the plate 28A, and thus when the plate 28A is installed on the surface of the base portion 28, the roller fixing shafts 24 of the frame body 26 are supported by the base portion 28 while holding the rollers 22. In this case, a constant gap G is formed in each circular recess 28e so that the recess can be kept in non-contact with the roller 22 held by the roller fixing shaft 24.

[0024] The frame body 26 is, on its upper side, engaged with a guide shaft 30 disposed between the left and right side plates 1A and 1B. A recessed groove 31 is formed in the guide shaft 30 of this embodiment along the axial direction, and the frame body 26 can stably reciprocate in the left-right direction by engaging the connecting portion 25 of the frame body 26 with the recessed groove 31. Note that, an upper surface of the connecting portion 25 is preferably slightly separated from the bottom of the recessed groove 31, so that the frame body 26 can smoothly slide in the left-right direction.

[0025] According to the level wind device 10 having the above configuration, when the clutch is turned off and the fishing line is released, the fishing line is inserted into the gap S between the pair of rollers 22 and does not receive a large resistance from the surfaces of the rollers 22. To put it another way, the rollers 22 are held by the roller fixing shafts 24 to be rotatable, and unlike the known technique described above, no resistance due to contact of a roller cover or the like for fixing the roller is generated, so that the pair of rollers 22 can smoothly rotate even when the fishing line comes into contact with rollers. As a result, the flying distance does not decrease at the time of casting the fishing line, and the falling speed does not decrease at the time of the fishing line releasing operation.

[0026] When the clutch is returned to ON and the handle 5 is wound up, the fishing line guide 20 is reciprocally driven in the left-right direction by the engagement pin 29 engaged with the spiral groove 11a of the worm shaft 11 driven to rotate, so that the fishing line is evenly wound around the spool 3. Since a large resistance does not act on the fishing line even in this state, the winding operation can be performed lightly.

[0027] Since the above-described fishing line guide 20 is configured by three components of the pair of rollers 22, the frame body 26, and the base portion 28 (the plate 28 A), the number of components can be reduced, and because of their simple configuration, it is possible to improve the assemblability and the exchangeability of the components (improvement in maintainability) as the level wind device. In addition, since the structure is simplified, it is possible to reduce cost, reduce the influence of tolerance, and make rattling less likely to occur.

[0028] Further, in the configuration described above, since the number of components is reduced, it is possible to reduce weight as the level wind device. In this case, in this embodiment, since the frame body 26 is fixed by disposing the metal plate 28A on the base portion 28, it is possible to secure the fixing strength as a whole. Thus, the other components can be formed of a lightweight material such as resin, and the weight can be more efficiently reduced.

[0029] The embodiment according to the present invention has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and may be modified in various ways.

[0030] The present invention has features in the mounting structure of the rollers 22 of the fishing line guide 20 of the level wind device 10, and other configurations, for example, the size and shape of the reel body, the engagement member to be engaged with the worm shaft 11, and the like are not particularly limited. In addition, any fishing line guide 20 will do as long as it comprises the roller fixing shafts 24 that hold the pair of rollers 22, and is not limited to the linear frame structure (frame body 26) as illustrated in the drawing and can be appropriately deformed.