Safety Helmet Face Shield

Abstract

A safety helmet transparent protective face shield pivotally connected at its opposite, upper ends to a mounting band formed of slightly resilient material and having female snap fastener forming openings for connection to male snap fastener halves secured to the front of a safety helmet. A latching tab, formed by a pair of spaced apart slits in the upper edge of the shield, has a groove on its rear surface receiving a forwardly directed flange formed on the band for releasably latching the shield in vertical position on the front of the helmet.

Description

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Safety helmets such as those worn by police officers, motorcyclists, drivers and the like, have conventionally been provided with various forms of face shields to protect the face of the helmet wearer. Mounting of such shield upon the helmet has been a problem since the shields must be capable of sustaining relatively high impacts and still remain in place. At the same time such mounting means must preferably be easily releasable so that the wearer can remove the shield, with one hand motion, rapidly when desired.

Previous systems for mounting such face shields have been relatively complex and expensive and particularly, lack the requirement of rigid securement of the shield in place while at the same time permitting rapid one hand removal thereof.

Hence, the invention herein relates to such a type face shield and particularly to a simplified mounting system for securing the shield upon a safety helmet.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Summarizing, the invention herein contemplates a face shield pivotally mounted upon a mounting band which is formed for snap fastening to the conventional snap fasteners found on conventional safety helmets, with the shield having an integral latching tab for releasably latching the shield in vertical position before the wearer's face and for one-handed release for swinging the shield upwardly over the top of the helmet and out of the way. The means for securing the band to the helmet comprises forming a central opening and two spaced apart, horizontally elongated slots, each configured in such a way as to function as female snap fastener halves for interlocking with the conventional snap fasteners found on helmets and with the slot configuration providing means for fastening to any conventional helmet despite some misalignment or improper spacing of the snap fastener halves mounted upon the helmet.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following description, of which the attached drawings form a part.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a typical safety helmet with the face shield herein mounted in use position.

FIG. 2 is a small size, front perspective view of a safety helmet per se.

FIG. 3 is a perspective, disassembled view of the parts making up the face shield.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view of the upper edge of the face shield and mounting band.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 5-5 of FIG. 1, and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view in elevation, of the front helmet snap fastener secured to the band.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a typical, conventional safety helmet, such as that worn by police officers, generally designated as 10 and having the conventional forward, centrally located male snap fastener half 11 and two spaced apart side located male snap fastener halves 12. The snap fastener halves are located immediately above the conventional lower edge bead 13 found on helmets.

The face shield is formed of a transversely curved, plastic panel 15 formed of a relatively stiff but slightly resilient or flexible material, such as polycarbonates or the like in a thick enough gauge to maintain its stiffness. The upper edge of the panel is provided with a rearwardly extending flange 16, preferably tapering so as to be deeper at the middle of the panel and merging into the wall thickness of the panel at the opposite sides thereof.

The opposite sides of the panel are formed as side ears 17 having central holes 18.

A latching tab 19 is formed integral with the upper edge of the panel at its center by means of a pair of spaced apart vertical slits 20 which define the tab. The lower edge of the tab is preferably weakened by means of a notch 21 or the like in order to increase its bendability relative to the panel, this being particularly necessary where the panel is of thick and more stiff material. The upper edge of the tab is provided with a finger grasping extension 22 extending upwardly from the flange portion 16 encompassed by the tab.

A lower bead 23 extends across the tab just beneath the rearward flange so as to form a channel 24.

For mounting the panel upon the helmet, a band 25 is provided. The band is preferably made of a flat strip of plastic material, such as a polycarbonate of about one-eighth of an inch in thickness and about one inch in height, although the dimensions are by no means critical. Such material should be of a type which is stiff, but relatively resilient or flexible upon the application of force.

The band is provided with a forwardly extending upper flange 26, tapered to conform with the shape of the rearward flange 16 of the panel for face to face contact therewith, with the rearward flange of the panel resting upon the forward flange of the band.

A centrally located hole 27 is formed in the band with its edge 28 being V-shaped in cross section and being of a diameter to snugly receive and connect with the central male snap fastener half 11 of the typical safety helmet. Thus, the hole forms an integral female snap fastener half.

The opposite sides of the band are provided with elongated slots 29 whose upper and lower edges 30 are also V-shaped in cross section so as to snap fasten to the male snap fastener halves 12. Thus, the height of the slots is slightly less than the diameter of the snap fasteners, but the snap fasteners can enter the slots anywhere along the length thereof to accommodate to inaccuracies in dimensional spacings between the central and side snap fasteners of a typical helmet.

In order to assist the insertion of the male snap fastener halves 12 into the slots, the opposite ends of the slots are preferably sloped at 31 for guiding the fastener while bending the band.

Preferably, an elastic band 33 is also provided for fitting around the rear of the helmet and better stabilizing and holding the band in place.

The elastic band, plastic band and panel are secured together by suitable fasteners 34, such as rivets of the required length which pass through holes 35 in the elastic band, 36 in the plastic band 25 and 18 in the ears of the panel.

OPERATION

In operation, the panel is pivoted upwardly and the elastic band is positioned around the rear of a helmet with the plastic band at the front of the helmet. The wearer then presses the plastic band against the helmet so as to connect with the central male snap fastener half 11 and then with the side snap fastener halves 12.

Thereafter, the face shield is lowered until the latching tab bead 23 forces the latching tab forwardly so as clear the flange 26 and permit it to enter into the channel 24 formed on the rear face of the latching tab 19.

The panel is now rigidly held in position and the two flanges, namely, flange 16 of the panel and flange 26 of the band are now arranged in face to face contact, one above the other, to prevent the passage of fluids as well as other foreign materials and moving air.

To lift the face shield up out of the way, the user simply grasps the extension 22, pulling the tab forwardly, so that it resiliently moves to clear the flange 26 out of the channel 24, at which point the shield may be raised upwardly.

Claims

Having fully described an operative embodiment of this invention, we now claim:

1. a face shield comprising:

a horizontally extending and horizontally curved mounting member having a forwardly extending centrally located flange;

a normally vertically arranged, transparent, transversely bent, slightly flexible face shield panel having its upper edge portion overlapping said mounting member;

pivot means pivotally connecting the opposite, upper ends of the panel to the mounting member for pivotally moving the panel out of the vertical position to a position above the mounting member;

a latching tab formed of a pair of vertical, horizontally spaced apart slits formed in the upper edge portion of the panel at the center thereof to provide a narrow strip having its lower edge integral with the panel, the strip being manually forwardly bendable out of and resiliently returnable into the plane of the panel;

a flange receiving groove formed on the rear surface of the tab near its upper end for closely receiving and latching the tab to said mounting member flange for normally retaining the panel in its vertical position and for releasing the panel for upwards pivoting.

2. A face shield as defined in claim 1, and said tab groove defined by a rearwardly extending tab flange formed integral with the tab for overlying said mounting member flange and an integral bead extending the width of the tab and spaced beneath said tab flange a sufficient distance to underlie the mounting member flange.

3. A face shield as defined in claim 2, and including an integral upward extension portion formed upon the upper edge of the tab for manually grasping and moving the tab.

4. A face shield as defined in claim 1, and said panel having a narrow, rearwardly directed, integral upper edge panel flange extending for substantially its full width, with the mounting member flange being horizontally elongated to support said panel flange in face-to-face contact for its full length.

5. A face shield as defined in claim 1, and said mounting member being in the form of a narrow, flat band, arranged against and fastened to the front lower portion of a safety helmet shell by means of a centrally located and two side located male snap fastener halves secured to the shell, and a central and two side openings formed through the band and being sized to tightly and resiliently receive and releasably connect to the male snap fastener halves.

6. A face shield for releasable connection to the center and two side male snap fastener halves secured to the front and side lower portions of a conventional safety helmet shell, comprising:

a flat, narrow, thin band formed of a generally stiff, but slightly resilient material, horizontally curved to overlie the front and side portions of the helmet shell;

a central opening formed in the band to closely receive and surround the central snap fastener half, and a pair of side openings formed in the band to receive the side snap fastener halves;

each side opening being horizontally elongated to form an elongated slot and being of a height of slightly less than the diameter of the snap fastener halves, with the upper and lower edges defining the slot being cross-sectionally shaped to correspond to and mate with the outer shape of the received snap fastener half for thereby forming a female type snap fastener half along the entire length of the slot for releasably connecting to the male snap fastener half anywhere along the length of the slot, and

a normally vertically arranged, transparent,transversely bent, slightly flexible face shield panel having its upper edge portion overlapping said mounting member;

pivot means pivotally connecting the opposite, upper ends of the panel to the band for pivotally moving the panel out of the vertical position to a position above the band;

a latching tab formed of a pair of vertical, horizontally spaced apart slits formed in the upper edge portion of the panel at the center thereof to provide a narrow strip integral with the panel and manually bendable forwardly;

a forwardly extending flange formed on the upper edge of the central portion of the band;

and a flange receiving groove formed on the rear surface of the tab near its upper end for closely receiving and latching the tab to said band flange for normally retaining the panel in its vertical position and for releasing the panel for upwards pivoting.