This invention concerns an appliance for protection against impact and strain injury and is particularly intended to prevent such injuries to sports people.
In certain sports, such as football for example, players are particularly vulnerable to injury of the lower leg including bruised lower shins, swelling of the softer muscle tissue on the inner shin, bruised ankles, abrasions to the calves and rear of the leg and swelling or bruising to the Achilles tendon. Many of these injuries occur as a result of impact but also muscle and tendon strain.
Conventional injury prevention means in general include such as elasticated sleeves adapted to be applied over joints or sensitive areas of the body, and devices known as shin pads i.e. one-piece rigid shields which are worn, for example, beneath a football sock. Existing shin-pad designs, whilst effective to a degree, offer a limited level of protection against many of the aforesaid types of injury. One weakness of the standard shin pad is that as a result of a head-on or side-on impact, the pad tends to slip around the lower leg beneath the sock and thus does not provide sufficient impact resistance.
The present invention is concerned with providing a protective appliance which conforms closely to the shape of a body part and which affords adequate impact resistance whilst maintaining its position in use. A further object of the present device is to ensure that the force of an impact is distributed throughout the appliance thus minimising localised bruising.
Commensurate with affording adequate protection, the wearer must retain complete freedom of movement so as not to impair physical performance and also to ensure that muscle injury due to unnatural movement or restraint, does not occur.
Patent specification GB 2328859 describes a protective appliance including a flexible web or sleeve adapted to be worn about a part of the body and to conform closely to the shape thereof, and a plurality of interconnected plates of an impact-resistant material attached to or adapted to be attached to the web or sleeve such as to permit limited relative movement between the plates. The plates are described as being attached directly to the web or sleeve or threaded onto a central elasticated strip where the strip is attached to the web or sleeve. The plates are individually and independently movable relative to each other and to the elasticated strip. In another embodiment as described in GB 2328859 the plates are interconnected by being individually and directly stitched onto the web or sleeve without being connected together upon a common strip.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved appliance of this general kind and which permits greater flexibility of use and may be interchangeable with other such devices or movable from garment to garment.
According to the present invention, an appliance for protection against impact and strain injury includes a plurality of interconnected plates of an impact resistant material attached to or adapted to be attached to an article to be worn about a part of the body such as to permit limited relative movement between the plates; characterised in that the plates are aligned along a common backing member; and in that means are provided for removably mounting the appliance on an article to be worn.
The backing member may be one or more ligaments extending centrally or in spaced disposition along the appliance.
The interconnected plates may be attached to the backing member in mutually overlapping relationship.
At least two of the interconnected plates may be mounted in fixed relative disposition along the backing member.
The backing member may be elasticated.
The backing member may form, or include a fastener thus to be removably attachable to a part of a garment.
The backing member may form, or include, one part of a strip of hook and loop fastener thus to be removably attachable to a part of a garment.
The appliance may be contained within a sleeve removably or permanently attached to a garment.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The known appliance shown in
An outer protective layer is provided in the form of “stretch armour” and consists of a number of panels 12 each comprising a vertical column of overlapping plates 13 of an impact-resistant material such as a high density polyethylene, connected together on, and movable with respect to, an inner central strip of elastic. The degree of rigidity and yet potential overall flexibility is selected to provide the desired properties of impact resistance and distribution while retaining complete freedom of movement for the wearer.
Each such panel 12 of stretch armour and elastic strip is stitched at its opposed ends, as shown at 14, to the inner sock 10.
The plates 13 of each panel, although overlapping and to some extent nesting together, are of progressively varying shape and dimensions throughout the length of the panel thus to conform to the shape of the limb. Thus, for example; the front panel 12 has plates which are wider at the top and gradually reduce in width down towards the ankle. The panels 12 may overlap where appropriate to provide a complete shield around the lower leg leaving a space only where necessary to ensure complete freedom of movement.
Owing to the overlapping configuration of the plates 13, the force of any impact is distributed throughout the associated panel 12 and thus dispersed over a large surface area with the effect of minimising localised bruising.
The entire appliance, because of its close conformity with the shape of the leg may be worn conveniently beneath, for example, a football sock and thus can be concealed thereby.
A similar appliance may be adapted for use on any part of the body but particularly those parts most prone to impact injury.
Referring now to
Accordingly, the appliance is constructed independently of the article to which it is to be attached and may thus be applied to the article at any selected location. Tapes 18 of hook and loop fastener such as that sold under the registered trade mark VELCRO are permanently attached to the ligament 16 in the two end regions thereof whereby the appliance can be readily attached to, and detached from, the garment.
Alternatively, an appliance such as shown in
The elasticated nature of the ligament 16 maintains the plates 15 in the correct relative orientation but allows for relative movement between them as the appliance bends, due to the flexible and resilient nature of the ligaments.
In place of the VELCRO fastener tapes 18, the ends of the ligament may be removably attached to a garment, and replaceable thereon, by means of adhesive tapes, press studs or the like. By making the appliance detachable it can be replaced by one having different properties of rigidity or flexibility, or when worn or damaged.
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The appliances 46 are removably attached to the sock 45 as will be described, and a further pair of appliances 47 may be non-removably mounted on both sides of the ankle region.
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Thus, the appliances 46 are removable from the sock 45 for washing and for replacement if they become damaged. Removability of the appliances 46 enable the wearer to select the required impact resistant characteristics. For this purpose, appliances having a variety of levels of rigidity may be made available.
Referring now to
Optionally, press studs or further VELCRO fixings 57 may be located in the side regions of the end plate 48 to become engaged with the sock or garment thus to provide additional security preventing the side edges of the plates from lifting in use. Such additional fixings may be provided on some or all of the plates 48.
Referring now to
The appliances may be made available in a number of different thicknesses or grades of rigidity and strength. For example, a user having a recent injury may apply a thicker or heavier grade of appliance initially and then reduce its thickness and weight during the recovery period.
Thus, it will be seen that the ability to remove the appliance from a particular garment and to replace it when required enables different protective properties to be employed and the appliance is removable from the garment for washing both the garment and the appliance.
While the appliance is ideal for use by people engaged in sports activities it may be used also by law enforcement personnel or for medical and surgical applications where, for example, a limb is required to be immobilised or merely protected from touch or impact.
Having a central common ligament (or a pair of spaced parallel ligaments) which is preferably, though not essentially, elasticated, the appliance is self contained, simple to manufacture and can be made available in different widths and lengths. Furthermore, the length of a particular appliance may be reduced by removal of several of the plates 13, for example, by cutting the ligament to the required length.
The ability of the appliance to distribute or dissipate impact energy throughout the plate assembly, affords the wearer a degree of control over the effect of the impact. For example, in a sports environment, the speed and direction of rebound of a ball impacting upon the appliance may be better controlled by a player as a result of the force dissipation.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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0012130.1 | May 2000 | GB | national |
0015779.2 | Jun 2000 | GB | national |
0021583.0 | Sep 2000 | GB | national |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/GB01/02133 | Nov 2001 | US |
Child | 10757755 | Jan 2004 | US |