Football contact injuries to the head and neck have resulted in concussions and spinal damage to players, as well as a negative perception of, and reduced participation in, American football.
In the National Football League of the United States, players suffered 271 concussions in the year 2015, more than in each of the previous four years. Many former players are likely to suffer brain damage later in life. This is causing parents to prevent their children from participating in American-style football.
It has been heretofore known to provide helmets and collar protective wear for football players. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,497,872; 6,058,517; 9,119,433; 9,032,558; 8,621,672; and US published patent applications 2016/0044984; 2016/0044982; 2016/0037852; 2015/0327619; 2015/0327618; 2015/0216249; 2014/0359924; 2014/0081180; 2013/0232667; 2012/0297526; 2012/0278980 all disclose head and/or neck protective wear, and all are herein incorporated by reference to the extent that the disclosures are not inconsistent with the present application.
In addition to American football, international football or soccer poses a similar risk of concussion and head/neck injuries. The potential for these injuries is present for person-to-person collisions as well as ball-to-head collisions which occur during the “heading” of the football or soccer ball.
Many impact-limiting collars for football players have been proposed. These collars can have different shapes to mitigate the various aspects of cranial impact such as side-impact or head-on impact. None of these collars have proven sufficiently effective to be universally adopted. Some of these collars limit head motion, are awkward to wear, or are difficult to suit all player body types. These collars are also likely to be uncomfortable to wear in warmer locations.
The present inventor has recognized that it would be desirable to provide a neck and head protective collar or similar brace that was normally flexible for active movements by a player during active sports but provides an effective bracing during an impact to the player to protect the neck and/or the brain of the player.
The exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a neck brace or neck support which, during an impact, will transfer head impact force or reaction force from just the cranium to the entire human frame without impeding normal head motion before and after the impact. The phrase “reaction force” refers to the force on the neck and cranium that results from the torso being directly impacted with the head unsupported. This can occur, for example, when an airborne player is struck in the torso and the neck and head experience “whiplash.” The exemplary embodiment utilizes a flexible dilatant neck brace wherein stiffness changes in proportion to the force of the cranial impact or reaction force. The neck brace distributes head impact or reaction force over the entire body, instead of relying solely on the neck muscles to compensate for and accommodate the impact or reaction force.
Under normal conditions, the brace flexibility would not hinder head motion any more than a heavy neck scarf. However, due to the composition of the neck brace, the brace would become rigid immediately upon either side or head-on impact, distributing the force over the entire torso, not just the head. The hardening process happens in mere milliseconds. After impact, the brace becomes flexible again.
As illustrative, with respect to body armor, a particle filled fluid, as a dilatant or shear thickening fluid, is diluted in ethanol. The particle filled fluid is then saturated into the KEVLAR fabric, and then placed in an oven to evaporate the ethanol. The shear thickening fluid permeates the KEVLAR and the KEVLAR strands hold the shear thickening fluid in place. Impact causes the fluid to harden, making the KEVLAR four times stronger. After impact, the armor becomes flexible again.
The exemplary embodiment comprises a neck brace with a higher ratio dilatant fluid-to-fabric filler in an impervious and flexible outer coating or layer. The higher ratio would improve brace-to-neck conformity, allowing the brace to naturally fill in the gap the lower element extremities and the shoulder pads.
The human head is only 8% of total body mass, and therefore vulnerable when impacted by an opponent's entire body mass. According to Newton's second law, force equals mass times acceleration (F=MA), therefore acceleration equals force divided by mass, which means the higher the mass, the smaller the acceleration. Thus, coupling the head mass with the torso mass reduces acceleration experienced by the skull during impact. The exemplary embodiments provide a neck brace capable of distributing head impact across the entire body, so as to reduce the head's acceleration and concomitant concussive effects by up to a factor of eight, the ratio of head mass to body mass.
Without neck and head support, a cranial impact or reaction force causes rapid motion of the brain with respect to the skull. The brain literally rattles and suffers damage due to impact within the cranial cavity. The head is only linked to the torso by a neck muscle strength which, especially during unexpected and sudden impacts, has little time to react. However, according to the exemplary embodiment of the invention, virtually instantaneously, the dilatant fluid within the neck brace becomes rigid, in whatever attitude the player may be, preventing the head from moving independently from the rest of the body.
Additionally, spinal injuries can be reduced by the dilatant neck brace of the invention. By encompassing the entire neck area between the helmet and jaw line, and the shoulder pads, only minimal spinal compression may take place before the brace stiffens up and transfers the load to the rest of the body.
Dilatant fluids, also known as shear thickening fluids, are liquids or solutions wherein viscosity increases as stress is applied. The dilatant fluids are non-Newtonian fluids, as they do not have a linear shear stress versus shear rate which is unique to Newtonian fluids.
The dilatant fluid is a colloid, having tiny particles suspended in a liquid. The particles repel each other slightly. They float easily throughout the liquid without clumping together. The energy of the sudden impact overwhelms the repulsive forces. The particles stick together in masses called hypo-clusters. After impact, the particles begin to repel one another again, and the clusters fall apart. The apparently solid substance then reverts back to a liquid.
Some dilatant fluids are disclosed for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,342,049; 6,946,138; 8,856,971; and 8,105,184, herein incorporated by reference to the extent that these disclosures are not inconsistent with the present disclosure.
The embodiment of the present invention provides a neck brace or collar that stiffens under impact or reaction force and transfers the impact load to the player's entire body through the shoulders. The neck brace conforms to a player's shoulder/helmet contours. The neck brace transfers helmet load to the shoulders. It does not restrict normal, relatively slow movements. The collar can be released between plays, which is particularly useful in warm weather, as the collar may prevent heat dissipation around the wearer's neck and head area. A mouth guard could be strapped to or incorporated with the collar wherein the mouth guard and the neck brace can be re-positioned together upon the re-commencement of action on the field.
The exemplary embodiment includes an impermeable polymer sleeve filled with dilatant fluid and fabric. This sleeve naturally conforms to the gap between the helmet and shoulder pads and allows normal functional motion, but that stiffens exponentially to speeds of impact.
An alternate embodiment is disclosed wherein the neck brace and shoulder pads are engaged as a unit. An integrated Helmet-Neck roll-Shoulder pad system is provided that includes an upper neck roll attached to the helmet and a lower neck roll attached to the should pads. Each neck roll is composite with helmet- and shoulder pad-adjacent component being rigid open vented composite for light weight and neck area ventilation. The neck roll adjacent component is shear-stiffening component. A ball bearing race is sandwiched between the two adjacent neck rolls. The plastic balls are strung and spaced on a wire frame. The balls are pressed into the two adjacent shear stiffening components.
The head is protected from both lateral and head-on impact. The bearings permit rotational neck motion. The balls are pressed lightly into the shear-stiffening neck roll material. Normal speed motion offers little resistance to the motion. High impact twist hardens the neck roll and prevents inadvertent twisting motion
Numerous other advantages and features of the present invention will beanie readily apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the embodiments thereof, from the claims and from the accompanying drawings.
While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there are shown in the drawings, and will be described herein in detail, specific embodiments thereof with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments illustrated.
This application incorporates by reference U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/427,628, filed Nov. 29, 2016 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/448,572, filed Jan. 20, 2017.
Certain fluids exist whose viscosity increases exponentially with the applied rate of shear. These are known as shear thickening fluids or dilatant fluids. Flexible body armor is one example of the use of dilatant fluid properties, whereby a normally flexible fabric is treated with a dilatant fluid and becomes rigid upon being impacted by a bullet. Body armor consists of KEVLAR treated with polyethylene glycol that is diluted with ethanol in order to disperse the polyethylene glycol over the KEVLAR fabric. The stiffening effect of the dilatant treatment increases bullet resistance by a factor of four.
The KEVLAR and polyethylene glycol mixture can be used in the collar of the present invention. Some other dilatant fluids are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,342,049; 6,946,138; 8,856,971; and 8,105,184, herein incorporated by reference to the extent that these disclosures are not inconsistent with the present disclosure.
An alternate embodiment is disclosed in
A ball bearing assembly 242 is sandwiched between the two adjacent joint components 232, 236. The ball bearing assembly 242 includes balls 246, such as plastic balls, strung and spaced on a wire frame 248. The balls 246 are pressed into the two adjacent shear stiffening components 238, 240.
The head is protected from both lateral and head-on impact. The balls 246 permit rotational head motion by relative rotation of the joint components 232, 236. The balls 246 are pressed lightly into the shear-stiffening components 238, 240. For the joint components to relatively rotate, at least one of the components 238, 240 must deform or compress sufficiently, upward (component 238) or downward (component 240) to allow the balls to relatively pass through the moving component 238, 240. Normal speed motion such as head turning or tilting motion offers little resistance to the motion. However, high impact causing a rapid twisting, hardens the neck roll components 238, 240 and prevents undesired rapid twisting motion, relative rotation, of the joint components 232, 236, and thus prevents undesired rapid twisting motion of the head with respect to the torso of the player.
As shown in
Although the dilatant filled collars 16, 50, or shear-stiffening components 238, 240 are described above as including a an outer impermeable polymer sleeve containing a fill of fabric treated with a dilatant solution or fluid, the collars 16, 50 or shear-stiffening components 238, 240 could also be composed of an outer casing or sleeve containing a shear-stiffening fluid, without the fill of fabric within the casing or sleeve.
From the foregoing, it will be observed that numerous variations and modifications may be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is to be understood that no limitation with respect to the specific apparatus illustrated herein is intended or should be inferred.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/427,628, filed Nov. 29, 2016 and U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/448,572, filed Jan. 20, 2017.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62427628 | Nov 2016 | US | |
62448572 | Jan 2017 | US |