The present invention relates to a helmet and associated equipment, such as attachment systems for helmet-borne equipment.
Helmets have been known for a long time and come in various designs and configurations. Some helmets are designed for withstanding impacts. Some helmets, typically used by military personnel, are designed also with anti-ballistic function. While it was previously common to produce ballistic helmets with a metal layer, it is now common to produce a helmet main body in a lighter composite material. Typically, the main body of anti-ballistic helmets is made of a cured fiber reinforced composite, which provides a ballistic protection while having alight weight.
An example of an anti-ballistic helmet is given in publication US20100229271, where the main body comprises monolayers of unidirectional ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers.
While the main object of helmets is to protect from impacts and in some cases to provide anti-ballistic function, helmets are also used to carry various types of equipment. Such equipment may include lights, cameras, communication devices, camouflage devices and more.
For attachment of such equipment, different systems are known. Some helmets comprise a net that spans across the external face of the helmet main body. Also known are patches that are glued to the external face of the helmet, which comprises one face of a hook-and-loop system, such as Velcro. Thus, to attach a device on the helmet, the device comprises a compatible face of the hook-and-loop system, so that the device can be easily attached and removed.
The company Core Survival (www.coresurvival.com) presents an attachment patch for helmets, where the patch itself is attached to a net on the helmet, while the equipment itself is connected to the batch with a hook-and-loop system (Velcro). In addition to the hook-and-loop system, the patch comprises an attachment string that secures the equipment, such as a light-source, to the patch.
Furthermore, in the front part of the helmet, it is known to attach a shroud. The shroud is provided with a connection interface, to which compatible equipment can be securely attached.
An object of the present invention may be to provide a helmet attachment system that provides advantages compared to the known solutions in the art.
Another object may be to provide a helmet attachment system that reduces the risk of unintentional removal (loss) of attached equipment.
Furthermore, an object may be to provide a helmet attachment system that is less exposed to wear during use.
Other possible objects will appear from the discussion below, where various advantageous features are presented.
According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a helmet attachment arrangement that has a base layer and an attachment layer. The attachment layer is attached on one face of the base layer. The attachment layer comprises a plurality of attachment layer sections that have a mutual distance and that together define a string-receiving pattern.
As will become apparent from the description of the helmet attachment arrangement herein, the helmet attachment arrangement can be attached between the main body of a helmet and a net attached to the main body.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the string-receiving pattern comprises at least three pattern ports, through which strings of a net can enter and exit the string-receiving pattern. In some embodiments the string-receiving pattern can have four pattern ports.
Advantageously, the attachment layer can comprise a part of a hook-and-loop attachment system. Such a hook-and-loop system is typically known and referred to as Velcro. Other attachment systems can however also be used, for instance snap buttons (typically used with raincoats and the like).
In some advantageous embodiments, the string-receiving pattern can be a strip-receiving pattern. It will then be configured to receive strips of a sheet net. The strips of a sheet net will exhibit a flat configuration with two opposite and parallel faces. Such a sheet net will be discussed in further detail below.
The helmet attachment arrangement can comprise a flat portion configured to follow an external face of a helmet. Moreover, it can further comprise auxiliary attachment means that extend out from the flat portion.
Typically, the auxiliary attachment means can be extensions of the attachment layer sections, which can be bent up/curve up from the shape of the flat portion and which can be folded around a piece of equipment. Advantageously, the auxiliary attachment means can also comprise a hook-and-loop system, a strap buckle, snap buttons, or other suitable attachment means that can attach two or more auxiliary attachment means together.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a helmet having a helmet main body. The main body has a helmet edge that defines an aperture for reception of a user's head. The helmet further has a net that extends over or along the external surface of the main body. The net comprises strings that completely encircles net apertures.
In some embodiments, the net comprises less than 60, 40, or even less than 30 fully encircled net apertures. In some embodiments, the net comprises even less than 20 net apertures that are fully encircled by the net strings. Along the periphery of the net, there can advantageously be strings having free ends, which are attached to the helmet main body.
In some embodiments of the helmet according to the invention, the main body can be made of an anti-ballistic material. Such an anti-ballistic material can advantageously comprise a fiber-reinforced composite. Such a composite can in preferred embodiments be cured or consolidated during production of the helmet main body.
In some embodiments, the net can be a sheet net, which is made of a sheet material from which said net apertures are cut.
With the term sheet net is meant a net having strings in the form of strips that have a flat configuration, meaning that they have a parallel and substantially flat upper and lower face. Moreover, the width of the strips will be larger than their height. Advantageously, the ratio between the width and the height of the strips can be at least 2:1, or even more preferably at least 4:1 or even 8:1.
In some embodiments, the helmet edge can be provided with an edge band that has a plurality of recesses. Furthermore, the net can comprise a plurality of free strings, the ends of which are attached to the helmet main body.
Preferably, the free strings can be attached to the helmet main body by means of attachment clamps.
Furthermore, the attachment clamps can in some embodiments be at least partially arranged in the recesses of the edge band.
In some embodiments of the helmet according to the invention, the attachment screws can extend through an attachment aperture that extends through the main body (i.e. through the wall of the main body). The attachment clamps, which fasten free strings of the net to the main body, can be attached by the attachment screws.
The net can in some embodiments be a sheet net. In such embodiments the attachment apertures can comprise strip-receiving apertures that have a straight edge against which the free strips of the net abut.
Advantageously, the edge band further has inner recesses that are arranged on the internal side of the main body. Preferably, the free strings or free strips of the net extend through the attachment apertures, and are clamped to the main body both by the attachment clamp and by an additional clamp, such as a counter screw head, on the opposite (i.e. inner) side of the main body.
The said strip-receiving apertures can advantageously have a shape similar to the Greek capitol letter omega, i.e. like a circular aperture combined with a slit-shaped aperture at the periphery of the circular aperture.
The helmet can in some embodiments have an edge band that comprises a wear indication means.
The wear indication means can for instance comprise a wear indicator layer embedded in the edge band, behind a wear layer. In other embodiments, the wear indication means can include a wear groove.
Advantageously, in embodiments where the wear indication means comprises a wear groove, there may be several wear grooves divided by wear ribs.
In some embodiments, the helmet can have a front attachment means that is attached to the front part of the main body by means of at least three screws. One screw can be an upper screw and two screws can be lower screws. According to such an embodiment, the two lower screws can be arranged at least partly in a recess of an edge band arranged to the helmet edge.
In this way, since the two lower screws for connection of the front attachment means (typically referred to as a shroud) can be the same as two of the attachment screws used to attach the net, one only needs one additional screw to attach it with three screws.
In some embodiments of the helmet, the net can be attached to the main body by means of attachment screws, and one or more wire attachment clips can be connected to the internal face of the main body by means of threaded nuts, by means of the heads of counter screws, or by means of discs.
In embodiments where a disc is used to attach the wire attachment clip, the disc can typically be retained in place by means of a nut or counter screw that engages with the attachment screw.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a helmet attachment system that comprises a helmet, a net arranged on the helmet, and a helmet attachment arrangement as presented above and in one or more of the appending claims.
While several advantageous and possible features of the invention have been presented above, some non-limiting and more detailed examples of embodiment will be presented in the following with reference to the drawings, in which
Referring to
Onto the main body 3 there is arranged a net 5. In the shown embodiment, the net is in the form of a sheet net 5, as the net is made of a sheet material. Other embodiments may involve another type of net, such as a net made of strings, strands or cords.
Advantageously, the sheet net 5 can be made of a sheet material from which apertures 7 are cut, such as by laser cutting, punching or other methods.
The sheet net 5 comprises said net apertures 7, which are at least partially defined by strips 9. Some of the net apertures 7 are completely defined (encircled) by the strips 9. The strips 9 extend between strip junctions 11. Some strips 9 extend between a strip junction 11 and an attachment section 13.
In the embodiment shown in
As any common helmet, the helmet main body 3 comprises a helmet opening configured for receiving the head of a user. The helmet opening is defined by a helmet edge 15. Attached to the helmet edge 15, there is an edge band 17, which in the shown embodiments is a continuous list that extends along the entire helmet edge 15. As shown with
Also shown in
By fastening the sheet net 5 immediately adjacent the edge band 17, the sheet net 5 covers substantially the entire external face of the main body 3 (except for the exposed areas in the net apertures of course). Furthermore, one avoids extending the sheet net 5 around the helmet edge 15, where the sheet net 5 would be exposed to substantial wear.
The function of the attachment screw 19 and the attachment clamp 21 is shown in
The strip 9 is clamped between the attachment clamp 21 and the helmet main body 3, when the attachment screw 19 is tightened with the attachment nut 19a.
As shown in
Referring again to
The U-shape thus has two parallel walls. The recesses 23 discussed above are in one of these parallel walls.
It will be understood by the person of skill, that the wear indicator layer 17a and the wear layer 17b may be of the same material, however having a different colour to enable the wear indicating function.
Another embodiment of a wear indication means will be discussed further below with reference to
In
A particular advantage with the wear indicator layer 17a, is that by enabling indication of wear of the ballistic helmet 1, one can avoid that the edge of the main body 3 is exposed to water or other contaminants. Such contaminants could in some embodiments enter into the anti-ballistic material of the main body 3, and thus possibly reduce its anti-ballistic function.
The edge band 17 can be attached to the helmet main body 3 by any suitable means, for instance with an adhesive.
In the following, some example embodiments of a novel helmet attachment system will be presented.
In the embodiment shown in
Advantageously, the upper face of the attachment layer 35 can comprise one part of a hook-and-loop system, such as the system often referred to as Velcro. In such embodiments, equipment that shall be attached to the ballistic helmet 1 can be fastened simply by placing the equipment onto the attachment arrangement 31 on the helmet (provided of course that the equipment is provided with a mating part of the hook-and-loop system).
In other embodiments, instead of or in addition to the hook-and-loop system, the attachment layer 35 can comprise other attachment means, for instance snap-buttons/snap fasteners.
In the embodiment discussed with reference to and shown in
The attachment arrangement 31 depicted in
In the embodiment shown in
The auxiliary attachment means 39 can be bent upwards from the surface of the helmet main body 3, to envelop a piece of equipment. This is shown in
In the embodiment shown in
The helmet attachment arrangement 31 having the auxiliary attachment means 39, may be provided with an equipment aperture 39a in the auxiliary attachment means 39. The equipment aperture 39a permits communication between the attached equipment 101 and the ambience. For instance, if the equipment is in form of a camera, the camera can capture images through the opening provided by the equipment aperture 39a. Similarly, if the equipment 101 is a lighting device, light can be emitted through the equipment aperture 39a.
In advantageous embodiments, such as shown in
In the embodiment shown in
Still referring to
The wire attachment clip 50 is thus arranged on the inner face of the main body 3, and is configured to removably secure a wire, such as a communication wire or a power supply to equipment attached to the ballistic helmet 1.
It will be appreciated that along the helmet edge 15, there are additional attachment sections 13 corresponding to the one shown in
It is again referred to
The attachment means 60 is attached with one upper screw 119 and two lower screws 119. Furthermore, the two lower screws 119 are arranged in two respective recesses 23 of the edge band 17.
Also shown in
Reference is now made to
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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20191369 | Nov 2019 | NO | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2020/081625 | 11/10/2020 | WO |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2021/099183 | 5/27/2021 | WO | A |
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Guisan, Thierry; International Search Report; PCT/EP2020/081625; dated Feb. 3, 2021; 4 pages. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20220378139 A1 | Dec 2022 | US |