Patent Application
20200390165
The present invention relates to sports protective equipment, and more particularly to a groin guard for protecting the groin region of a human body.
The groin guard is worn on the groin region of a human body to protect the groin region from sports injuries. With reference to
The groin guard 90 having the foaming material attached around the edges of the rigid housing 91 has softer edges to contact the skin of the human body, but the design of the groin guard is less attractive in its appearance. The groin guard 90 having the elastic plastic material formed around the edges of the rigid housing 91 may have an attractive appearance, but provides less comfort than the groin guard having foaming material. Moreover, a user may still feel discomfort when wearing the groin guard, because the main body of the conventional groin guard 90 is made of the rigid plastic housing.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide a groin guard to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The main objective of the invention is to provide a groin guard which is visually appealing and is enhanced in wearing comfort and protection.
The groin guard has a cushion cup and a rigid cover. The cushion cup has a concave surface, a convex surface, and a foam layer being a block integrally formed by a foaming material. The rigid cover is integrally combined with the convex surface of the cushion cup via an injection process. A hardness of the rigid cover is higher than a hardness of the cushion cup.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
The cushion cup 10 has a concave surface 101, a convex surface 102, a foam layer 11, and a fabric layer 13. The foam layer 11 is in a block form, which is integrally formed from a foaming material via a pressure forming process, and has a concave inner surface and a convex outer surface. The foam layer 11 has two sides formed respectively as the concave surface 101 and the convex surface 102 of the cushion cup 10. The material of the foam layer 11 may be Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate Foam (EVA Foam), Polyurethane Foam (PU Foam), or other foaming materials. The foaming material is porous, soft, lightweight, cushioning, and vibration absorptive. Thus, the wearing comfort of the cushion cup 10 can be enhanced, and the cushion cup 10 can absorb impact force. The cushion cup 10 can improve wearing comfort, impact absorption, and protection by increasing the thickness of the foam layer 11. The fabric layer 13 covers both of the two sides of the foam layer 11 to protect the foam layer 11 from being scratched and to enhance the wearing comfort of the cushion cup 10.
The rigid cover 20 is integrally combined with the convex surface 102 of the cushion cup 10 via an injection molding process. The hardness of the rigid cover 20 is higher than the hardness of the cushion cup 10. The material of the rigid cover 20 can be selected from rigid plastic materials which have good abilities to withstand impact energy, such as polypropylen (PP), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), fiber reinforced plastics (FRP), nylon, or thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) etc. The hardness of the rigid cover 20 may be Shore hardness 50D to 75D. After the cushion cup 10 is formed, the plastic material of the rigid cover 20 is injected and formed onto the convex surface 102 of the cushion cup 10 and is directly combined with the surface of the fabric layer 13 via an insert molding process. The rigid cover 20 becomes a shield on the cushion cup 10 against direct hitting by objects. With the injection process, the rigid cover 20 is directly combined with the convex surface 102 of the cushion cup 10. The cushion cup 10 and the rigid cover 20 can be designed and formed as a whole piece via mold design. The groin guard that is visually-appealing in appearance, is comfortable in use, and has a good protection effect can be produced.
The surface area of the rigid cover 20 is equal to or less than the surface area of the convex surface 102 of the cushion cup 10. The rigid cover 20 may be defined at a middle region of the cushion cup 10, which is a zone prone to objects hitting. The rigid cover 20 may have ribs formed in a partial region to increase structural strength of the partial region of the rigid cover 20. Preferably, the cushion cup 10 may have multiple embossed blocks 115 formed on the convex surface 102 at a region of the convex surface 102 that is not covered by the rigid cover 20. The embossed blocks 15 are arranged at spaced intervals, are directly formed by the foam layer 11 with the fabric layer 13 tightly covering the surface of the foam layer 11. The embossed blocks 15 can disperse the impact force and improve the appearance of the cushion cup 10. The cushion cup 10 and the rigid cover 20 can be designed to match each other in an integral appearance to be visually appealing to consumers.
With reference to
With such arrangements, the groin guard in accordance with the present invention has the rigid cover 20 as a shield to protect the groin region of the human body from direct impact by objects and the cushion cup 10 being soft and cushioning to enhance the wearing comfort. The foam layer 11 of the cushion cup 10 is vibration absorptive to enhance the impact resistance and protection. The rigid cover 20 is combined with the convex surface 102 of the cushion cup 10 via plastic material directly injected onto the convex surface 102 to produce the groin guard having an appealing appearance.
