U.S. patent number 3,872,511 [Application Number 05/449,972] was granted by the patent office on 1975-03-25 for protective headgear.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Angelo C. Larcher. Invention is credited to Charles E. Nichols.
United States Patent |
3,872,511 |
Nichols |
March 25, 1975 |
Protective headgear
Abstract
An impact absorbing covering for protective headgear including a
hard shell of one or two material thicknesses and having on its
inside surface for contact with the protective headgear, a
multitude of fluid chambers normally having direct flow
communication with the atmosphere or with a sealed chamber, but
which are hermetically sealed when the covering is impacted so as
to afford means to absorb the impact.
Inventors: |
Nichols; Charles E. (Chicago,
IL) |
Assignee: |
Larcher; Angelo C. (Chicago,
IL)
|
Family
ID: |
23786225 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/449,972 |
Filed: |
March 11, 1974 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
2/413;
267/114 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A42B
3/121 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A42B
3/04 (20060101); A42B 3/06 (20060101); A42B
003/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;2/2,3R,5,6
;267/114,117 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Schroeder; Werner H.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Kipnis; Samuel W.
Claims
I claim:
1. In a protective headgear adapted to fit over a hard shell
football helmet, said assembly comprising a substantially rigid
shell shaped to fit over the standard football helmet and of a size
to be spaced away from said helmet, spaced apart resilient cushions
attached to and arranged over substantially the entire inner
surface of said shell, and a neck on each resilient cushion each
engageable in an aperture in the shell for retaining said cushions
in place, said cushions having substantial contact with said helmet
and being adapted to partially or wholly collapse when the shell is
subjected to severe impact.
2. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 1, in which
each resilient cushion comprises a fluid filled chamber.
3. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 2, in which
valve means is provided in each chamber.
4. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 3, in which
the valve means is comprised of a reciprocable element movable into
full open and partially closed positions.
5. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 1, in which
the neck includes valve means.
6. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 1, wherein
the assembly includes an outer substantially rigid shell overlying
and connected to but spaced from the rigid shell.
7. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 6, wherein
each cushion comprises a hollow chamber opening into the space
between the inner and outer shells.
8. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 7, wherein
the outer shell substantially closes the opening into said space
when the outer shell is subjected to substantial impact.
9. In the protective headgear assembly recited in claim 6, wherein
each cushion comprises a hollow chamber having valve means opening
into the space between said shells, said valve means including a
normally open large fluid intake opening and a small fluid outlet
opening and wherein the outer shell closes the fluid intake opening
when said outer shell is subjected to substantial impact so as to
retard the collapse of the chamber.
Description
In football, the greatest potential for injuries is when a player,
running at full speed, collides with a goal post, a concrete wall
at the perimeter of the field, or head-one with another player. Two
players colliding head-one may develop a force equal to hitting a
concrete wall at 20 miles per hours, and when a player hits the
turf, especially the artifical turfs now in general use, following
a tackle or block, impact energy varies; that is, the impact energy
will be at least twice the velocity of the impact.
Although absolute human tolerances to energy impact cannot be
established, it appears evident that the solution is to disperse,
dispense, dissipate, and/or absorb the impact energy prior to its
reaching the hard shell of the helmet and the cranial cavity of the
skull. For most impacts, the injuring energies result from
acceleration, deceleration or compression of the head or any
combination of these three. The sudden setting of the head
(acceleration) or stopping of the head (decleration) may often
result in the generation of intra-cranial pressures and
intra-cranial lesions, such as hemorrhages, contusions and
concussions.
The lines of force, or energy, of impact are transmitted through
the vault and base of the cranial cavity, and should a fracture
develop as the result of impact, serious sub-dural or extra dural
hematomas may occur. At the moment of great traumatic impact, the
skull is pressed agaist the brain and this may cause contusions of
the meminges and brain, especially if the head is held firmly and
cannot recoil. Should the head be free a fraction of a second after
impact, momentum of the blow throws the brain forcibly against the
skull opposite the point of impact. A blow of the posterior region
of the skull causes contrecoup lesions (contusions) of the tips of
the frontal and temporal lobes when the brain is forced against the
irregular bone of anterior and middle cranial fossae.
Response to any injury causes edema and hemorrhage or both. This
means an increase in the size of the brain within a bony cavity of
limited size and hence an increase in intra-cranial pressures.
Brain injury of the kinds sought to be prevented can be defined as
laceration of the brain, sub-dural hematomas, cerebral concussion,
and extra dural hemorrhaging involving veins and arteries rupturing
in sub-dural spaces.
In the present disclosure, which is an improvement over the
structure shown and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,787,893, issued Jan.
29, 1974, there is provided, an outside protective covering for the
conventional type headgear or helmet. This covering is of a size of
to overlay the headgear and be spaced therefrom so as to accomodate
a multitude of fluid chambers or cushions arranged over
substantially the entire inside area of the covering so as to
afford means on the outside of the helmet to absorb the forces of
impact on the covering. These fluid chambers function to absorb,
dissipate, and dispense most of the shock of impact before it
reaches the helmet. Thus, the absorption or dispension of immediate
shock wave exteriorly of the helmet tends to decelerate movement of
the brain within the cranial cavity of the skull. It is this
acceleration of the brain upon impact that causes about 95% of
fatalities arising from football head injuries.
Such exteriorly located air chambers, which are strategically
located, will absorb much of the impact energy and disburse its
full force over a wide area and allow the cranial cavity to freely
recoil and prevent intra-cranial pressures from developing.
Further, in order to protect various articulated areas of the skull
it is preferable to provide as an integral part of the helmet and
on the interior thereof, a pattern of padded ribs which function to
prevent abnormal pressures on the cranial structure.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an impact
absorbing covering for a hard shell protective headgear.
Another object is to provide a headgear protective assembly which
includes a multiplicity of fluid chambers critically arranged on
the interior surface of a hard shell protective covering.
Another object is to provide impact resisting air chambers in a
protective headgear covering, with novel valve means.
Another object is to provide a protective headgear covering with
newly constructed air chambers or cushions having normally direct
communication with atmosphere, which communication is restricted
when the covering is subjected to impact.
Another object is to provide a protective covering of the character
referred to which is not difficult or expensive to manufacture and
which is very reliable for the purposes intended.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent
with reference to the following description and accompanying
drawings.
IN THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a vertical central sectional view of a protective
covering and associated helmet embodying features of the
invention.
FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the protective covering, showing the
fluid chambers in dotted outline.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged detail sectional view of one fluid chamber,
showing its valve means in open condition.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail sectional view of the valve means in
closed condition.
FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the valve body, the stem being
omitted.
FIG. 6 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 1, but showing a
modified form of construction.
FIG. 7 is an enlarged detail sectional view of one of the air
chambers in the FIG. 6 assembly, showing its valve in open
condition.
FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7, showing the valve in closed
condition.
Referring now to the exemplary disclosures of the invention as
shown in the accompanying drawings, and particularly to the
embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 through 5, the protective covering for
headgear includes a hard shell 11 shaped to fit over the helmet 12
which is in turn fitted on the human head (not shown) in the
conventional manner. The helmet 12 may include, on its inside, a
padded cage-like liner or the like, not shown.
The hard shell 11 is substantially larger than the helmet so as to
leave a space 13 therebetween which space is substantially occupied
by a multiplicity of fluid (air) chambers or cushions 14. Each of
these chambers 14, which is fabricated from elastic material, such
as rubber or a suitable plastic, has a tubular neck 15 (FIG. 3)
that extends through an aperture 16 in the shell 11 for mounting
the chamber on the inside surface thereof. The neck preferably has
an external flange or shoulder 17 that functions to retain the
chamber in mounted condition. Such mounting affords means to easily
and quickly remove and replace a chamber should it become ruptured
or otherwise damaged.
Mounted securely in the tubular neck 15 is a tubular valve element
18 comprised of an externally beaded cylindrical wall 19, having an
internal annular flange 21 suitably formed with radial slots 22.
Arranged for free axial reciprocation within the valve element 18
is a valve body 23 having a large external flange 24 on one end and
a smaller external flange 25 on its other end. As best shown in
FIG. 3, when the valve body 23 is in a lowermost position as shown
in FIG. 3, atmospheric air is free to enter into the chamber 14 so
as to hold the chamber wall extended. Now, when the hard shell 11
receives an impact, it is urged toward the helmet 12 thus tending
to collapse the chamber. However, rapid collapse is prevented and
instead high resistance is offered against such collapse by the
movement of the valve body 18 axially in an outward direction so as
to carry its large flange 24 tightly against the radially slotted
flange 21 thus closing the radial slots and restricting the escape
of air through the small axial passage 26 in the valve body.
Accordingly, when impact is applied to one or more of the chambers
14, the impact is instantly partially absorbed by the chambers
impacted with any other surrounding impact force being distributed
against adjacent chambers. Thus, it is evident that the fluid
chambers 14 absorb, distribute and dissipate the impact shock and
prevent its full force from impinging upon the helmet 12 and thus
onto the skull.
In the FIG. 6 to 8 modification, the same principle of impact
absorption is effected. Here the protective covering is comprised
of inner and outer hard shells 31, 32 respectively, having a space
33 therebetween.
The inner shell is provided with a multitude of spaced apart
openings 34 in each of which is mounted a resiliently collapsible
chamber or cushion 35. These chambers are, like the chamber
described hereinbefore, fabricated from elastic material, such as
rubber or a suitable plastic, and each is formed with a tubular
neck 36 having an axial passage 37 therethrough, and terminating in
an outwardly flared mouth 38. The neck is inserted through one of
the openings 34 and is prevented from inadvertent withdrawl by an
external flange 39 that engages over the outer surface of the inner
shell 31. Outwardly of the external flange 39 is a pair of radial
apertures 41, which communicate with the axial passage 37 and with
the space 33 between shells 31, 32.
This construction is such that under normal conditions the space 33
and chambers 35 contain air or other fluid, which is admitted
initially through a vlave 42 and pressurized. Now. when the outer
shell 32 is subjected to a hard impact, it is driven toward the
inner shell 31 and in so doing contacts the flared mouth 38 of the
related chamber neck thus sealing the axial passage. Both shells
31-32 move inwardly toward the helmet 12 causing pressure to be
applied to the impacted chamber 35. Because the passage mouth 38 is
closed, the highly pressurized air in the impacted chamber 35 will
escape slowly through the radial apertures 41 into the space 33
where the increased pressure is equalized between the space and
non-impacted chambers 35. Thus the impact force is distributed over
a large area of the covering and is thereby prevented from having
its full force impinge directly upon the helmet 12 and thus onto
the skull.
Although I have described preferred embodiments of the invention,
in considerable detail, it will be understood that the description
thereof is intended to be illustrative, rather than restrictive, as
details of the structures may be modified or changed without
departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Accordingly, I
do not desire to be restricted to the exact construction shown and
described.
* * * * *