Patent Application
20130333100
The present invention relates generally to the field of protective helmets, and in particular to a new and useful football helmet.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,069,498 to Maddux et al. discloses a helmet with a rigid shell containing impact absorbing pads that are removably attached to the inner surface of the shell. The pads are made of spaced inner and outer sheets of TPU (thermoplastic urethane) each have a plurality of spaced apart and projecting hollow protrusions extending to the other sheet with the protrusions of one sheet alternating with the protrusions of the other sheet to form an impact absorbing pattern of alternating protrusions in the space between the sheets. From this reference it is known to use hook-and-loop fastening tape for connect the pads to the inner surface of the helmet shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,178 to Maddux et al. discloses a quick release, twist-off faceguard retainer for use with a protective headgear and faceguard. The headgear has a face opening and the faceguard has at least one substantially horizontal top bar. The retainer includes two complementary retention arms that form two complementary retention channels with one channel having a downward opening and the other having an upward opening. Each have an inner surface which together surround the top horizontal bar of the faceguard. A space between the two retention arms receives the top bar so that the faceguard can be twisted into place.
Published U.S. patent application US 2009/0106882 to Nimmons et al. discloses a helmet with unique shell configuration and faceguard assembly with unique attachments at the sides of the helmet shell for connecting the faceguard to the shell. As with conventional faceguards, the faceguard of this patent application has upper cross-bars that extend generally horizontally across the front of the helmet shell, just above the lower edge of the face opening of the shell.
Published U.S. patent application US 2011/0131695 to Maddux et al. discloses a protective jaw pad for a helmet shell that includes first and second resilient shock absorbing members. The first shock absorbing member includes a sheet with a plurality of hollow protrusions, tapering side walls of the protrusions being compressible for absorbing shocks applied to the shell and the second resilient shock absorbing member is either a monolithic block of foam or is made of a second sheet with a plurality of hollow protrusions that are interleaved with the first protrusion.
Published U.S. patent application US 2011/0214224 to Maddux et al. discloses a helmet with partial turn faceguard mounting for faceguard connecting loopstraps that engage around wire or bar segments of the faceguard to fasten the faceguard to the helmet shell.
A need remains for further advancements in the field of football helmet design.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a football helmet with helmet shell, faceguard, internal padding system, comfort liner, attachment arrangement and other improvements over currently known helmets.
Accordingly one of the various objects of the invention is to provide a football helmet with replaceable nose bumpers. One of the nose bumpers is of the twist-off faceguard retainer type for the quick removal of a faceguard according to U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,178 and the other is a nameplate nose bumper that can accommodate an eye shield and/or multiple loopstraps for connecting a faceguard to the helmet shell. U.S. Pat. No. 8,146,178 is incorporated herein by reference for its teaching of a twist-off faceguard retainer.
The retainer and the nameplate holder of the nose bumper are each molded pieces, one serving as a nameplate holding bumper and the other as a twist-off retainer. Both are capable of mounting the upper portions of a faceguard to a helmet shell.
Both retainer and holder are provided in the improved helmet because the twist-off retainer alone does not allow the user to mount most currently available eye shields or certain faceguards to the helmet. Also, not all users desire the twist-off feature since it is so new and different. For these reasons and to satisfy user demand and provide flexibility to mount all of the following, both the twist-off retainer and the nameplate holder are included in one new helmet. The new helmet can accommodate: traditional loopstraps and hardware; quarter turn loop straps and hardware such as those of published U.S. patent application US 2011/0214224; and all manufacturers' eye shields. Published patent application US 2011/0214224 is incorporated herein by references for its teaching of partial turn fasteners for mounting loopstraps for faceguards to a helmet shell.
This two piece design of a nameplate holder with a twist-off retainer mounted over the top of the holder allows product to be sent out that addresses all user requests and combinations. If a user wants to use the twist-off feature and has no eye shield then they just use the product as shipped. If user has an eye shield or desires to use other mounting hardware in place of the twist-off retainer than they simply unscrew two screws and remove the twist-off retainer and then are left with the molded nameplate holder that allows the mounting of other hardware such as loopstraps and eye shields.
Another object of the invention is to provide a helmet that includes an improved comfort liner assembly that has areas of foam cushioning of different hardness for improving comfort and also for improving the impact absorbing qualities of the new helmet. A triangular modular cushion arrangement is also provided for the back, sides and crown of the comfort liner.
The improved helmet also includes a new mounting arrangement for the improved comfort liner that makes the initial assembly and all later reconditioning of the helmet easier and more secure then using hook-and-loop fasteners that has been the preferred mounting mechanism for both the comfort liner and the padding, up until now.
The comfort liner assembly has three separate comfort liners that make up the assembly set for the helmet. These are a front liner, a crown liner, and a lateral liner. The crown liner and the lateral liner are air liners that utilize air to fit the helmet to the wearer. The front liner is unique because it utilizes a new way of attaching the liner to the nose bumper and helmet shell. To this end the front liner incorporates a molded nose bumper that has a tongue and groove design that allows it to easily slide into and attach to the injection molded guard mount or nameplate holder that is ultimately attached to the helmet shell. This design eliminates the need for wrapping the liner around the front pad and using adhesive tape for liner attachment which was the method of the past. By getting rid of tape, the liner is easier to assemble, more robust and less susceptible to potential failures in the field, and by eliminating the thickness of hook-and-look (e.g. Velcro brand) tape fasteners the inventors are able to increase the standoff or thickness of the TPU padding system which has lead to a significant improvement in performance of the helmet.
Also, the front comfort liner includes both softer foam (e.g. VN1000 polyether polyurethane foam) and harder foam (e.g. PORON foam) in three critical front pockets of the front liner. This harder foam in place of the softer, comfort-only foam, has also lead to a significant performance improvement. Two of the pockets in the front liner still contain the traditional softer comfort foam members. The front comfort liner also includes a button and elastic straps that allow it to be attached to the TPU padding easily and without adhesive and hook-and-loop fastening tapes. This attachment system (button and elastic strapping) is unique and improves ease of assembly while providing less chance of detachment in the field.
The crown liner and the lateral liner both are unique in that they too incorporate the buttons on their outer, shell-facing surfaces, that slide into selectively placed keyholes in the inner surfaces of TPU pads of the helmet's padding system, and thus hold the liners in place.
Another object of the invention is to provide a football helmet with dual durometer TPU padding in selected areas of the helmet shell that also improve the impact attenuating characteristics of the helmet. A single durometer TPU padding of a similar structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,069,498 in the sense that it comprises pads with inner and outer parts of molded thermoplastic urethane, each including a sheet with a plurality of spaced alternating hollow protrusions extend to the other sheet, but for the improved helmet disclosed herein, the outer part is of softer or lower durometer than the inner part for some of the pads. This is not the case for U.S. Pat. No. 8,069,498 which uses equal durometer inner and outer TPU padding parts. Other areas of the new helmet have higher and substantially equal durometer values for the inner and outer parts of their pads. U.S. Pat. No. 8,069,498 is incorporated herein by reference for its teaching of TPU pad construction.
The opposing pieces of TPU with integrated cones or protrusions that oppose each and have different durometer, allow the padding to absorb both smaller and larger impacts while maintaining the most comfort for the wearer. The TPU cones of the outer parts of the pads, coming from the vicinity of the helmet shell and extending toward the wearer's head, are wider at the shell and narrow down as they come toward the head of the wearer and are of a softer durometer for at least some of the pads to provide the most comfort for the wearer. In these pads, the inner part cones with larger surface protruding from the vicinity of the wearers head, and narrowing toward the shell, are of a stiffer durometer.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a football helmet with padding that is fastened to the inside surface of the shell using mechanical fasteners that extend through the shell, preferably in the form of T-nuts or similar mechanical fasteners at strategic locations in the helmet shell, rather than the currently used hook-and-loop tapes for this purposed. This greatly improves ease of assembly of the padding system in the helmet shell initially, and expedites replacing the padding system that is done as part of the reconditioning of a football helmet, for example, before the start of each new football season.
Another object of the invention is to provide a football helmet with a unique faceguard having an upper bar assembly with raised eyebrow areas at the sides that extend by multiple times the diameter of the bars over the front portions of the helmet shell, above a lower edge of the front portion of the shell that forms a face opening, and on either side of the nose bumper. This adds further protection to the player wearing the helmet by separating any impact with the faceguard even further from the helmet shell then is the case for prior faceguards.
The various features of novelty which characterize the invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and specific objects attained by its uses, reference is made to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which preferred embodiments of the invention are illustrated.
In the drawings:
Referring now to the drawings, in which like reference numerals are used to refer to the same or similar elements,
As shown in
As shown in
As best shown in
Each protrusion 42b, 44b has an open, larger diameter base 42c and 44c at the sheet from which it extends, a smaller diameter peak 42d and 44d, and a side wall that tapers from the base to the peak for each protrusion, each base, side wall and peak being molded of one piece of TPU with the sheet from which they extend, and each peak being fused, as best shown in
The first durometer of the various outer TPU parts of the various pads is between about 80 and 95 Shore-A and the second durometer of the various inner TPU parts is between about 90 and 95 Shore-A. For the back (38), both sides (36) and crown (34) pads, the inner parts have a second durometer that is from between about 5 to 10 Shore-A harder then the first durometer of the outer parts so that the small peaks of the outer part protrusions are softer toward the wears's head. For the central and both side portions 32a of the front pad 32, both the first and second durometer are about equal at about 95 Shore A for maximum protection at this front area of the helmet were impacts are most often expected to occur. This harder frontal durometer value is also reflected in the harder foam used in the comfort liner assembly at this location as will be explained later. The side portions 32a of the front pad 32 are connected to the central portion thereof by flexible extension 42h of the inner sheets 42 thereof, as shown in
The first durometer of the outer part of the back pad 38 is advantageously about 80 Shore A with the second durometer of the inner part thereof being about 85 Shore A. Back pad 38 has bottom and top portions that are connected to each other by a flexible extension 44e of their inner sheets 44a shown in
The first durometer of the outer part of the crown pad 34 is advantageously about 85 Shore A with the second durometer of the inner part thereof being about 90 Shore A. Here, as with the back and side pads, the softer outer protrusion are used but, for better protection, overall harder padding is used at the crown then at the back and sides. The overall crown pad harness is also less than the front pads, again to optimize impact protection where and as it is needed.
According to the invention and contrary to current practice in the assembly of football helmets, at least some of the pads of the padding system are removably attached to the inside surface of shell by mechanical fasteners 50 extending through the shell 12, such as T-nuts shown for example in
A further pair of screws 53 at the front portion 14 of the shell 12 under the upper parts of a faceguard 80 as seen in
At least some of the pads have inner sheet 44a with one or more keyholes 52 therein, each keyhole, as best shown in
As with the use of mechanical fasteners to removably connect the padding system to the helmet shell, the use of keyholes and buttons facilitates the removable connection of the liners to the padding system without the use of hook-and-loop fasteners that cannot be placed with great precision nor can they be engaged with great precision. These improved mounting arrangements improve the initial assembly and all later reconditioning of the helmet over what has been the norm in this field.
Referring now to
The liners that are over at least some of the pads have one or more resilient buttons 54 each with a resilient stem 56, formed with or fused to an outer plastic sheet of the liners, for engaging each respective keyhole 52, each button having a diameter for being received in a respective large diameter portion 52a of a keyhole and each stem having a diameter that is larger then the constricted passage 52c and of a size for being received in a respective small diameter portion 52b of a respective keyhole 52, so that each button is removably trapped at a respective keyhole. A shown, in
To help further connected the front liner 62 to and over the front pad 32, and as shown in
Each of the liners comprises inner and outer plastic sheets 68a, 68b make of thin (e.g. 0.02 to 0.04 inches) TPU sheets (see
The back cushion assembly 68 (
The front liner 62 as shown in
The liners also comprise at least one relatively thin foam member 62e between the inner and outer plastic sheets 62f, 62g and under the relatively thick members 62a in some of the pockets that is make of the softer foam.
The football helmet as shown in
Each side connector 100 comprised a loopstrap connector engaging around a respective one of the side bar parts 82 and a mechanical fastener 102 for removably connecting the loop connector to the side portion of the shell, such as a T-nut or the partial turn connector of published U.S. patent application US 2011/0214224.
With reference to
The front liner 62 of the comfort liner assembly also cooperates with the nose bumper 90 to hold the front liner against the front pad 32 of the padding system. To this end the front liner 62 includes an extension of the inner and outer plastic sheets forming a ribbon connector 62c in
The sealed plastic sheets 62f, 62g for creating the pockets of the crown and lateral liners 64, 66, 68, can be inflated with air via inflating fittings 64b and 68e connected to the outer sheets of the crown liner 64 and the lateral liner 66, 68 for adding air into at least some of the pockets of the crown and lateral liners for creating a closer fit for the comfort liner assembly and the wearer's head. To this end and as shown in
The inflating fittings 64b and 68e extend in circular recesses in the upper edge of the back pad 38 and in the back edge of the crown pad 34 seen in
While specific embodiments of the invention have been shown and described in detail to illustrate the application of the principles of the invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without departing from such principles.
