Stopper rail for silent piano

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11250820-B2
Application number	US-202117215708-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2021
Priority date	Mar 30, 2020
Publication date	Feb 15, 2022
Grant date	Feb 15, 2022

Abstract

A stopper rail of a silent piano, which can make collision noise generated when a hammer shank collides against the stopper rail, blurred in the sense of pitch thereof and difficult to be recognized by the human ear, in a silent performance mode. In this mode, the stopper rail is contacted by the hammer shank of a hammer being pivotally moved to stop pivotal movement of the hammer. The stopper rail includes a rail body having a predetermined flexural rigidity allowing vibration, a first cushion provided on one surface of the hammer shank, for being contacted by the hammer shank being pivotally moved, and a vibration suppressing portion provided on an opposite surface of: the rail body to the first surface so as to apply a load to the rail body to suppress vibration of the rail body when the hammer shank contacts the rail body.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A stopper rail for a silent piano that can be played while switching between a normal performance mode in which a hammer being pivotally moved in accordance with depression of a key is allowed to strike a string and a silent performance mode in which the hammer is blocked from striking the string, the stopper rail having a hammer shank of the hammer being pivotally moved brought into contact therewith to block further pivotal movement of the hammer, in the silent performance mode,
the stopper rail comprising:
a rail body that extends in a direction of side-by-side arrangement of a plurality of the hammers of the silent piano and has a predetermined flexural rigidity allowing vibration;
a first cushion which is provided on a first surface of of the rail body on a side toward the hammer shank and with which the hammer shank is brought into contact; and
a vibration suppressing portion which is provided on a second surface of the rail body opposite to the first surface so as to apply a load to the rail body, for suppressing vibration of the rail body when the hammer shank is brought into contact with the rail body.

2. The stopper rail according to claim 1 , wherein the vibration suppressing portion extends along a substantial entirety of the rail body in a longitudinal direction of the rail body and has a weight causing gravity of the weight to act as the load on the rail body.

3. The stopper rail according to claim 2 , wherein the vibration suppressing portion further includes a second cushion provided between the rail body and the weight.

4. The stopper rail according to claim 1 , wherein the vibration suppressing portion has a tension mechanism that causes tension to act as the load on the rail body.

5. The stopper rail according to claim 4 , wherein the tension mechanism includes:
a tension generating plate that extends along a substantial entirety of the rail body in a longitudinal direction of the rail body, for generating tension,
a pair of fixing screws for screwing opposite ends of the tension generating plate to opposite ends of the rail body in the longitudinal direction of the rail body, respectively, and
an interposed portion which is interposed between the rail body and the tension generating plate and cooperates with the tension generating plate by fastening of the pair of fixing screws to cause the tension to act on the rail body.

Assignees

• Kk Kawai Gakki Seisakusho
• Kk Kawai Seisakusho

Inventors

• Tanaka Kousuke

Classifications

• G10C3/18

  Hammers · CPC title

• G10C3/00 Primary

  Details or accessories · CPC title

• G10C3/16

  Actions · CPC title

• G10C5/10

  Switching musical instruments to a keyboard, e.g. switching a piano mechanism or an electrophonic instrument to a keyboard; Switching musical instruments to a silent mode · CPC title

• G10C3/22 Primary

  specially adapted for grand pianos · CPC title