U.S. patent application number 16/808886 was filed with the patent office on 2020-06-25 for safety helmet capable of absorbing multi-direction impact.
The applicant listed for this patent is VOG - IMAGE POLICE INC.. Invention is credited to Gavin Michael VOS.
Application Number | 20200196697 16/808886 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 62712848 |
Filed Date | 2020-06-25 |
United States Patent
Application |
20200196697 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
VOS; Gavin Michael |
June 25, 2020 |
SAFETY HELMET CAPABLE OF ABSORBING MULTI-DIRECTION IMPACT
Abstract
A safety helmet includes a shell, a flexible frame attached to
the shell from inside, and a slide-facilitating member attached to
the flexible frame from inside. In virtue of the slide-facilitating
member, the shell when receiving incoming impact can slide with
respect to a head of a user wearing it, so that the safety helmet
can absorb and convert energy of the incoming impact force into
other forms of energy, thereby enhancing protection to the user's
head.
Inventors: |
VOS; Gavin Michael;
(TAICHUNG CITY, TW) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
VOG - IMAGE POLICE INC. |
TAICHUNG CITY |
|
TW |
|
|
Family ID: |
62712848 |
Appl. No.: |
16/808886 |
Filed: |
March 4, 2020 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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16023832 |
Jun 29, 2018 |
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16808886 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A42B 3/145 20130101;
A42B 3/066 20130101; A42B 3/32 20130101; A42B 3/064 20130101 |
International
Class: |
A42B 3/06 20060101
A42B003/06; A42B 3/32 20060101 A42B003/32 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jun 12, 2018 |
TW |
107120239 |
Claims
1. A safety helmet, comprising: a shell; a flexible frame, being
attached to an inner surface of the shell; and a slide-facilitating
medium, being attached to an inner surface of the flexible frame,
having two aligned substrates moveable against each other, and
serving to allow the shell to slide with respect to a user's head
wearing it when the shell receives incoming impact.
2. The safety helmet of claim 1, wherein the two substrates of the
slide-facilitating medium each have a low-friction surface, and the
low-friction surfaces of the two substrates abut against each
other.
3. The safety helmet of claim 1, wherein the two substrates of the
slide-facilitating medium are magnets, which face each other with
magnetic poles having the same polarity.
4. The safety helmet of claim 1, further comprising a covering;
wherein the covering is attached to the inner surface of the
flexible frame and the slide-facilitating medium is wrapped by the
covering.
5. The safety helmet of claim 1, wherein the shell has a casing and
a buffer layer, in which the buffer layer has an outer surface
thereof attached to an inner face of the casing, and the flexible
frame is attached to an inner surface of the buffer layer, and the
flexible frame is also detachable.
6. The safety helmet of claim 5, wherein the flexible frame is
attached to the inner surface of the buffer layer through a
fastener.
7. The safety helmet of claim 6, wherein the flexible frame has two
symmetrical top ribs and a side rib, in which the two top ribs each
have a front end thereof integratedly connected to a front end of
the side rib, and the side rib has a rear end thereof provided with
an adjuster that is used to adjust a circumference defined by the
side rib.
8. The safety helmet of claim 5, wherein the inner surface of the
buffer layer has a plurality of mortise and an outer surface of the
flexible frame has a plurality of tenons, so that the tenons of the
flexible frame engage with the mortises of the buffer layer,
respectively.
9. The safety helmet of claim 8, wherein the flexible frame has two
symmetrical top ribs and a side rib, in which the two top ribs each
have a front end thereof integratedly connected to a front end of
the side rib, and the side rib has a rear end thereof provided with
an adjuster that is used to adjust a circumference defined by the
side rib.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 16/023,832, filed Jun. 29, 2018, and this
application claims priority of Application No. 107120239 filed in
Taiwan on Jun. 12, 2018 under 35 U.S.C. .sctn. 119; which are
incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
[0002] The present invention relates to safety helmets, and more
particularly to a safety helmet that absorbs impact from multiple
directions.
2. Description of Related Art
[0003] Most existing safety helmets are formed by a rigid casing
and a buffer layer filled under the rigidity casing. When impact
acts on such a known safety helmet, the rigidity casing first bears
a part of the impact energy, and the buffer layer later absorbs a
part of the energy. The remaining energy has to be borne by the
user's head and cervical vertebra. For safety helmets, incoming
impact can be divided into three types, namely radial impact,
tangential impact, and diagonal impact. Radial impact can cause
linear acceleration of a user's head that may lead to skull
fracture and/or traumatic brain injury. Tangential impact can cause
angular acceleration of a user's head that may bring about
shear-based injury to brain and/or cervical vertebra. However,
according to statistics, there have been seldom cases about pure
radial or tangential impact. The most common type of injury is
damage caused by diagonal impact, which is a combination of the two
foregoing types of impact. When being subject to diagonal impact, a
human head can have linear acceleration and slew acceleration at
the same time, making it more vulnerable to grievous injury, such
as cerebral concussion, traumatic brain injury (TBI), subdural
hematoma (SDH) and diffuse axonal injury (DAI).
[0004] For ensuring protective capability of safety helmets, the
relevant manufactures usually test their helmet products for impact
absorption before shipment. Nevertheless, since these tests are
usually designed for radial impact, the existing safety helmets may
be good at absorbing radial impact, but are likely to fail to
protect their user from impact acting in different directions
(especially diagonal impact).
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The primary objective of the present invention is to provide
a safety helmet that absorbs multi-direction and thereby provides
improved protection to its user's head.
[0006] To achieve the foregoing objective, the disclosed safety
helmet comprises a shell, a flexible frame, and a
slide-facilitating member. The flexible frame is attached to the
inner surface of the shell, and the slide-facilitating member is
attached to the inner surface of the flexible frame. Therein, the
flexible frame supports the shell, while retaining the
slide-facilitating member, so that the slide-facilitating member
can fittingly and comfortably embrace a user's head. The
slide-facilitating member facilitates slide of the shell. Thereby,
when the shell receives incoming impact, especially diagonal
impact, the slide-facilitating member allows the shell to slide
with respect to the user's head. In this way, the impact force
otherwise acting on the user's head can be absorbed and converted
into other forms of energy, thereby providing better protection to
the user's head.
[0007] Preferably, the foregoing slide-facilitating member has a
slide-facilitating medium. The slide-facilitating medium may be
realized in various aspects. For example, the slide-facilitating
medium may be a fluid such as gas or liquid. Alternatively, it may
be a plurality of freely rolling beads. Alternatively, the
slide-facilitating medium may be two aligned substrates that abut
against each other with a low-friction surface so as to have
relative displacement therebetween. Alternatively, the
slide-facilitating medium may be two aligned magnets facing each
other with magnetic poles having the same polarity, so that the two
magnets can easily have relative displacement due to magnetic
repulsion. Alternatively, the slide-facilitating medium may be two
aligned substrates and a plurality of flexible threads arranged
therebetween. These flexible threads allow the two substrates to
perform relative displacement. Alternatively, the
slide-facilitating medium may be a plate made of a viscoelastic
material. The plate has a plurality of recesses and a plurality of
tongues, which are arranged next to each other alternately, so that
the plate can use its own elasticity to allow such slide.
Alternatively, the slide-facilitating medium has a substrate and a
plurality of flexible bars connected to the substrates. The
flexible bars have deforming property that allows such slide.
[0008] More information about the configuration, features,
fabrication and uses of the safety helmet of the present invention
will be provided in the following description in detail. However,
people skilled in the art shall appreciate that the detailed
description and embodiments as well as aspects are for illustration
only, and by no means intended to limit the scope of the present
invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a safety helmet of the
present invention.
[0010] FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the disclosed safety
helmet.
[0011] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional applied view of the disclosed
safety helmet.
[0012] FIG. 4, similar to FIG. 3, shows the shell receiving
impact.
[0013] FIGS. 5a-5g illustrate different aspects of the
slide-facilitating medium of the disclosed safety helmet.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0014] This is to be first emphasized herein that like elements or
features will be identified by identical numbers throughout all
figures.
[0015] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a safety helmet 10 of the
present invention comprises a shell 20, a flexible frame 30, and a
slide-facilitating member 40.
[0016] The shell 20 has a casing 21 and a buffer layer 22. The
buffer layer 22 is adhered to the inner surface of the casing 21
using an adhesive. The casing 21 is made of a rigid material, such
as hard plastic, and serves to provide first-line protection. The
buffer layer 22 is made of a shock-absorbing material, such as
foam, for damping shock and buffering.
[0017] The flexible frame 30 is made of an elastic material, such
as elastic plastic. As shown in FIG. 2, the flexible frame 30 has
two symmetrical top ribs 32 and a side rib 34. The two top ribs 32
each have one end integratedly connected to the front end of the
side rib 34, and the rear end of the side rib 34 is provided with
an adjuster 36, which can be used to adjust the circumference of
the side rib 34 so that the side rib 34 can fittingly wrap
different sizes of users' heads. Furthermore, the top ribs 32 and
the side rib 34 are each detachably attached to the inner surface
of the buffer layer 22 of the shell 20 inner surface through a
fastener (not shown) such as a Velcro tape. Moreover, as shown in
FIG. 3, the top ribs 32 and the side rib 34 may each have its outer
surface provided with a plurality of tenons 38, so that in addition
to the adhesion of the fasteners to the inner surface of the buffer
layer 22 of the shell 20, these tenons 38 can engage with mortises
23 correspondingly arranged on the buffer layer 22 to enhance the
combination between the flexible frame 30 and the shell 20 while
allowing easy detachment of the flexible frame 30 for convenient
adjustment.
[0018] The slide-facilitating member 40 has a covering 41, which is
made of a low-friction material, such as flannel. The covering 41
has one side adhered to the inner surface of the flexible frame 30
through fasteners (not shown) such as velcro tapes, so that the
slide-facilitating member 40 can be retained by the flexible frame
30 to have the reverse side of the covering 41 contact a user's
head 12 directly. In this way, the covering 41 can be easily
detached for convenient cleaning when staining. The
slide-facilitating member 40 further has a slide-facilitating
medium 42 wrapped by the covering 41. In the present embodiment,
the slide-facilitating medium 42 has two aligned substrates 43 and
a plurality of flexible threads 44. The two substrates 43 are fixed
to the covering 41 by means of an adhesive. The flexible threads 44
are arranged between the two substrates 43 regularly or
irregularly. With the presence of these flexible threads 44, the
two substrates 43 can perform relative displacement easily. It is
to be also noted that, the slide-facilitating member 40 shown in
FIG. 2 contains two units, one corresponding to head top and the
other embracing the head peripherally. However, in practice, the
two units may be integrated into a unity, or alternatively be
divided into three or more units, depending on practical needs.
[0019] With the foregoing configuration, when the shell 20 is
subject to incoming impact, the casing 21 of the shell 20 bears
part of the energy, and the buffer layer 22 of the shell 20 absorbs
a part of energy. Then when the remaining energy is transmitted to
the slide-facilitating member 40, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the
slide-facilitating member 40 has the slide-facilitating medium 42
allow the shell 20 to slide with respect to the head 12, so that
the impact force reaching the slide-facilitating member 40 is
converted into potential energy generated by the relative
displacement. The slide-facilitating member 40 can even slide with
respect to the head 12 due to the low friction of the covering 41,
so that the impact force reaching the slide-facilitating member 40
can be further converted into thermal energy generated by mutual
friction. This makes the user's head 12 and cervical vertebra only
have to bear the last remaining energy. In other words, when the
disclosed safety helmet 10 is subject to incoming impact, it uses
the deformation of the shell 20 itself, the relative slide between
the shell 20 and the head 12, and the friction between the covering
41 and the head 12 to multiply absorb and convert the impact force
otherwise directly acting on the head 12 into other forms of
energy, so as to reliably protect the head 12 from impact coming in
multiple directions, especially diagonal impact.
[0020] It is further to be noted that the slide-facilitating medium
42 may be embodied in various forms. For example, as shown in FIGS.
5a-5b, the slide-facilitating medium 42 is a fluid such as air or
colloid, which uses its deforming property to allow the shell 20 to
slide. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5c, the slide-facilitating
medium 42 is composed of a plurality of rolling beads 46. These
rolling beads 46 use their arbitrary rolling to slide the shell 20.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5d, the slide-facilitating medium
42 is composed of two aligned substrates 48 each having a
low-friction surface 50. The low-friction surfaces 50 of the two
substrates 48 abut against each other so that the two substrates 48
can move with respect to each other easily and in turn allow the
shell 20 to side, Further, the two substrate 48 may be made of a
low-friction material such as Polyoxymethylene (POM), Aramid,
plastic with chemical lubricants, Polyimide (PI), ultra-high
molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), or the like. Alternatively,
as shown in FIG. 5e, the slide-facilitating medium 42 is in the
form of two aligned magnets 52, which face each other with the
magnetic poles 54 having the same polarity (not limited to the N
pole or the S pole), so that the two magnets 52 can perform
relative displacement easily in virtue of magnetic repulsion,
thereby facilitating slide of the shell 20. Alternatively, as shown
in FIG. 5f, the slide-facilitating medium 42 is a plate made of a
viscoelastic material and having a plurality of recesses 56 and a
plurality of tongues 58, these recesses and tongues 56, 58 are
arranged next to each other alternately, so that when the
slide-facilitating medium 42 performs elastic deformation under an
external force, slide of the shell 20 is achieved. At last,
alternatively, as shown in FIG. 5g, the slide-facilitating medium
42 has a substrate 60 and a plurality of flexible bars 62 connected
to the substrate 60, so that the elasticity of the flexible bars 62
allows the shell 20 to slide.
* * * * *