Patent Application
20070124851
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motorcycle helmet, and more specifically to a motorcycle helmet wherein a shield, visor and jaw guard are configured so as to be rotated with one hinge point to make it easy to assemble and use, while the operation and structure of the visor are modularized into one to reduce cost and improve productivity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Motorcycle riders must wear a safety helmet to protect the head and the front of helmet should have a shield installed to prevent sight obstruction and breathing difficulty due to winds blowing from front.
And to protect the jaw of the wearer, a jaw guard is provided at the bottom of the helmet in the jaw portion. Both ends of this jaw guard are pivotably mounted on hinge portions installed on both left and right sides of the helmet body, so as to be adjusted suitably according to the shape of the face of the wearer.
Also, a visor can be provided to intercept sunlight coming directly into the eye in daytime. Such a visor is also pivotably mounted on the hinge portions installed on both left and right sides for use by moving up or down as necessary.
As described above, the conventional helmet has components that need to be opened or closed as necessary, such as the jaw guard, shield and visor, but conventionally there were no helmets in which these three components can be opened and closed around one shaft.
In the visor of the conventional helmet, the visor portion that can be opened or closed, the pivot for opening and closing this visor, and the operating lever are configured individually as separate parts and they are in such a structure that makes it very difficult to assemble these together with the shield and jaw guard, so it is not suitable for mass production.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a motorcycle helmet having a jaw guard, shield and visor, all of which can be pivoted around one pivot shaft.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a motorcycle helmet wherein all the modules can be easily assembled in one place after the modularized visor parts of an opening and closing structure are produced separately in another production place.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a motorcycle helmet comprising: a helmet body in which an opening for the face is provided on front and pivot holes are formed on both left and right sides; a jaw guard which protects the jaw of the wearer by covering part of the opening of the helmet body and which can be pivotably moved by hinge portions provided on the extending portions of both left and right sides as a hinge point; a shield which opens and closes the remaining part of the opening above the jaw guard and which can be pivotably moved by latch pivot portions provided on extending portions on both left and right sides as a hinge point; a visor which intercepts sunlight incoming into part of the opening in the helmet body and which can be pivotably moved by the lever mechanisms on both left and right sides having control levers as a hinge point; and a fastening screw which is screwed to pivot holes on both left and right sides of the helmet body so as to pivotably move all of the hinge portion of the jaw guard, the latch pivot portion of the shield, and the lever mechanisms of the visor by making pivot holes as a hinge point.
Preferably, the visor is modularized by comprising a visor body including a visor portion for intercepting sunlight incoming into part of the opening in the helmet body, and extending portions extended to left and right from the visor portions and having visor pivot holes and lever inserting holes formed at the position eccentric with the visor pivot hole; a control lever including a protuberance at one end thereof which is inserted into the lever inserting hole of the visor body, and a lever pivot hole at the other end thereof; a lever arm which is inserted into the lever pivot hole of the control lever; a fastening plate which has a visor pivot inserted into the visor pivot hole of the visor body and a lever pivot inserted into the lever pivot hole of the control lever, and which can fix these on the inside of the helmet body; a guide flap which is fixed at one end of the lever arm of the control lever to be introduced within a predetermined range of movement according to the rotation of the lever arm; and an adjusting knob which is joined to the lever arm of the control lever by passing through the guide flap and moves within a predetermined range along an arc hole formed on the side of the helmet body.
Other objects and aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Below will be described in more detail a motorcycle helmet according to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in these drawings, the helmet according to the present invention includes a jaw guard 20 for covering the opening 11 in a helmet body 10, a shield 30 and a visor 40. These parts are provided all on one pivot shaft for each to operate pivotably.
For this, on both left and right sides of the helmet body 10 are formed pivot holes 12.
And, the jaw guard 20 for protecting the jaw of the wearer by covering part of the opening 11 of the helmet body 10 is pivotably mounted on the helmet body 10 by hinge portions 22 arranged on both sides of the extending portions 21 of the jaw guard 20.
And, the shield 30 that can close or open the remaining part of the opening 11 above the jaw guard 20 is mounted pivotably on the helmet body 10 by latch pivot portions 32 formed on both ends of the extending portions 31 of the shield 30.
The visor 40 that is arranged over the top of the opening 11 in the helmet body 10 to intercept sunlight is pivotably mounted on the helmet body 10 by lever mechanisms 42 installed at both ends of the visor 40. The lever mechanism 42 includes a control lever 42a for adjusting the angle of the visor 40.
To assemble, as shown in
At this time, the jaw guard 20 and the shield 30, as shown in
As shown in
The mounting plate 23 is provided with a guide lip 23c and the spacer 24 is provided with a concave-convex portion 24a corresponding to the guide lip 23c so as to make it possible to fix the jaw guard 20 in a desired position. This is roughly similar to the structure of a conventional motorcycle helmet, so detailed description of this is omitted.
Also, in order to adjust and fix the height of the shield 30 at a desired position, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, an arc slot 34 having a latch 33 is formed in the latch pivot portion 32 and a latch protuberance 23d having elasticity is formed in the mounting plate 23. Therefore, it is possible to fix the shield 30 by adjusting the height to a desired position by rotating around the pivot hole 12 by the latch 33 of the latch pivot portion 32 and the latch protuberance 23d of the mounting plate 23.
Meanwhile, the visor 40, as shown in
Namely, the visor 40 is modularized with a visor body 41, the control lever 42a, the fastening plate 43, a guide flap 42f and an adjusting knob 42 so as to have a structural characteristic for improving the productivity and assemblability of parts.
The visor body 41 comprises a visor portion 41a for intercepting part of the opening 11 in the helmet body 10, and extending portions 41d extended to the left and right from the visor portion 41a. In the extending portion 41d of the visor body 41 are formed a visor pivot hole 41b into which the visor pivot 43b of the fastening plate 43 is inserted and a lever inserting hole 41c for connecting the control lever 42a.
And, the control lever 42a includes a protuberance 42b at one end thereof which is inserted into the lever inserting hole 41c of the visor body 41, and a lever pivot hole 42c at the other end thereof. A lever arm 42d is inserted into the lever pivot hole 42c of the control lever 42a.
The fastening plate 43 has a visor pivot 43b which is inserted into the visor pivot hole 41b of the visor body 41, and a lever pivot 43a which is inserted into the lever pivot hole 42c of the control lever 42a, and which can fix these on the inside of the helmet body 10.
Also, as shown in
And, on the inside of the arc hole 13 are formed a plurality of catch slots 13a in which the protruded portion of the adjusting knob 42e is inserted. Therefore, as shown in
Accordingly, when the helmet wearer holds the adjusting knob 42e and moves along the arc hole 13, the lever arm 42d moves pivotably in the lever pivot hole 42c as a hinge point. Since the visor body 41 is moved up or down with the visor pivot hole 41b as a hinge point according as the control lever 42a is moved, the visor 40 can be accurately moved into the position of the wearer's field of vision.
Because the protruded portion of the adjusting knob 42e is inserted in the catch slot 13a in a state operated like this, it is possible to maintain the moved position as it is, even after the adjusting knob 42e is moved to a desired position.
As described above, it is possible to enhance productivity by reducing cost and assembly time by reducing the related parts, because the present invention has made the jaw guard, shield and visor move pivotably centering on one hinge point. Also, since the wearer is provided with all of the jaw guard, shield and visor, he can use each element easily when necessary.
Furthermore, because it was made possible to produce the visor separately in another production place by modularizing the parts of its opening and closing structure, the productivity and assemblability for all the modules are improved.
Although the present invention has been described in connection with the exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawings, it is only illustrative. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalents can be made to the present invention. Therefore, the true technical scope of the present invention should be defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-0117926 | Dec 2005 | KR | national |
