Improved helmet with resiliently deformable elements in its lower rear portion

The subject of the invention is a protective helmet, especially a helmet, in the lower rear part of the outer body equipped with elastically deformable elements, intended in particular for pilots of aircraft or helicopters. The invention can also be used in any other type of helmet.

Protective helmets known for various applications, used by various users such as cyclists, motorcyclists, firefighters, skiers and others, such as pilots of aircraft or helicopters, regardless of the purpose of the helmet, consist of a rigid outer body, usually spherical, with a hole for the face , which body cavity includes padding protective elements that increase comfort in a place where it encloses the user's head.

Depending on the type of application, designers have designed helmets with the shape that corresponds to their purpose. Although many helmet improvements were designed, developed and made, the perfect solution was not achieved. Although the overall comfort of known helmets is generally satisfactory, still, despite the use of a flexible material lining or a belt located inside the rear of the helmet body, the comfort of the helmet at the level of the user's neck leaves much to be desired. For improvement, complex and costly regulatory solutions are often used to adjust the padding or strap to the size and shape of the neck of the user.

A protective helmet according to French Patent No. 1214865 is known, in particular, having an outer body, the shell of which at the front has a face opening, in which a leather protective insert is placed around the rear edge and a lining surrounding the edge on both sides. This solution does not provide sufficient adjustment to the neck shape of the rear wall of the helmet, the edge of which cuts into the user's neck despite the insert.

A protective helmet according to British Patent No. 1060567 is also known having a multi-part or deeply cut body in the form of separate sectors pulled by means of clamping straps anchored in a rigid outer frame. The back wall of the body has a large neck protrusion, to which a leather peri-neck collar is attached. This solution is characterized by a very complicated construction, unreliability and lack of sufficient ventilation of the cervical area.

The object of the invention is to eliminate the disadvantages encountered in currently known solutions and systems for holding the helmet, as well as to increase the comfort of use.

In the new helmet solution proposed in accordance with the invention, the rear part of the body is equipped with particularly simple means of flexibly adapting the helmet to the needs of the user, while the helmet is adapted to the user's neck automatically, ensuring comfort at an unprecedented level.

According to the invention, the protective helmet with the main outer body, in the shell of which there is a front opening for the face, is characterized in that the bottom wall of the body has elastically deformable elements, the main outer body is made of deformable material.

The shell of the outer body is preferably formed of plastic or a composite material, e.g. one that contains at least one layer of glass and / or carbon and / or aramid or other fiber impregnated with thermoplastic or thermosetting resin.

Another feature of the invention is the formation of the shell of the main external body of the helmet, determined by individual shell walls, namely the upper shell front wall extended backwards through the upper shell back wall, which in turn extends downwards through the lower rear wall limited from below by the lower edge, the rear wall of the bottom of the coating has at least one open cut-out in most of it terminated from below with the bottom edge

Depending on the helmet design, the bottom rear wall of its shell has two, three or four or more side holes in the form of slots open towards the bottom edge, in particular the central cutout and two side cutouts thus forming two side elastically deformable tongues and two side flexible deformable parts of the coating.

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Depending on the design, all three notches have the same length or the length of the middle notch is different from the length of the side notches.

Also, depending on the design, all three notches have the same width or width of the middle notch is different from the width of the side notches.

Most preferably, the protective helmet of the invention comprises a neck pad partially secured by means of notches in the helmet shell and has at least one protrusion integrated with the neck pad, associated with one of the corresponding retaining notches.

The invention will be explained in more detail on the basis of the drawing, which shows examples of the helmet according to the invention, in which: Fig. 1 - the helmet in the outer side view, Fig. 2 - the helmet in the front view, Fig. 3 - the rear view of the helmet, with the view of the technical means particularly important for the invention, Fig. 4 is a view of the enlarged section of the helmet in section IV-IV shown in Fig. 3, with the neck insert being fastened, Fig. 5 - shows the view of the helmet section in the VV section shown in Fig. 3, illustrating the finish of the lower edge of the body, Figs. 6 and 7 show the helmet in a front view (Fig. 6) and in a rear view (Fig. 7), Fig. 8 the helmet in a rear perspective view, Fig. 9 illustrates in view the neck insert with attachment, Figs. 10 to 18 show the helmet in a rear view, as in Fig. 7, showing sketched examples of nine other possible variants of the helmet, while Figs. 19a and 19b show, as in Figs. 8 and 9, the rear perspective view of the helmet in other variants of its embodiment, and Figs. 20 and 21 show a fragmentary sketch a helmet illustrating other possibilities for attaching the neck insert.

It is noted that the drawings do not show, for simplicity, examples of standard, different types of chin straps of the helmet of any shape and design.

Protective helmet 1, in the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 to 9, in particular for pilots of planes, with a longitudinal plane of symmetry P, has a main outer body 2 with a front opening for the face 3 and an internal 4 sending commonly called calotin [piuska, mycka, cap ].

The main outer body 2 has a coating 5 of a clearly spherical shape with an overall vertical plane of symmetry P, made mainly of composite material, formed from superimposed layers of reinforcing fibers, impregnated and connected with sobaosin resin. The fibers may be of glass, aramid, nylon, polyethylene or carbon, and the matrix may be a thermosetting or thermoplastic resin.

The main outer body 2 has a coating 5 formed by its walls, namely: an upper front wall of the coating 5, extended towards the rear of the upper rear wall 7 of the coating 5, the extension of which is the lower rear wall 8 and two side walls 9a 9b of the coating 5. The front wall the upper 6 corresponds to the area of ​​the user's forehead, and is delimited by the upper edge 10 of the face opening 3, and the two lateral edges 11a, 11b. The upper rear wall 7 of the coating 5 is adapted to the shape of this region of the user's skull, and the lower rear wall 8 of the coating 5 corresponds to the region of the user's neck. In addition, the shell 5 of the body bowl from below is limited by its lower edge 12, which is defined by the surface of the plane Q inclined at an angle relative to the horizontal plane of symmetry H of the body bowl, obliquely towards its rear AR and upwards HA. The side walls 9a, 9b of the coating 5 correspond to the regions of the user's ears, and are bounded from the front by the lateral edge 11a, 11b of the face opening 3 and from below by the front edges of the lower edge 12 of the coating 5 of the helmet body.

According to the invention, the rear bottom wall 8 of the outer body shell 5 from below bounded by the bottom edge 12 is equipped with elastically deformed elements that allow an exact fit around the neck and comfortable operation of the helmet by the user.

In the embodiment of the invention, illustrated in Figs. 1 to 9, the bottom rear wall of the body shell 5 also has holes or cutouts 13,14a, 14b that pass downwards down the body BA to its bottom edge 12. According to this embodiment, three holes or cutouts 13,

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14a, 14b have the shape of slots open towards the bottom edge 12, which form two deformable quasi-tongues 15a, 15b and two lateral deformable parts of the coating 16a, 16b. The bottom edge 12 of the body shell 5 thus includes these three longitudinal cutouts 13,14a, 14b, including one central cutout 13 and two side cutouts 14a, 14b, which parts of the helmet shell 5, at the level of these holes in the bottom rear wall 8 provide flexibility. The axes of symmetry XI-X'1, X2-X'2, X3-X'3, passing through three slots 13,14a, 14b are directed upwards of the HA axis of the body bowl and along their length L almost perpendicular to the lower edge 12.

According to the relevant regulations, the helmet is equipped with a peripheral neck pad 17 located inside the body at the level of its lower edge 12. The neck pad 17 consists of a lining foam layer 18, covered with fabric 19. In an optimal solution, the neck pad 17 is at least in part helmet deformable cutouts 13, 14a, 14b. For this purpose, the insert 17 is provided with projections 20, 20a, 20b located therein corresponding to the respective cutouts 13, 14a, 14b. Thus, the upward extension of the neck insert 17 in this embodiment, a flexible fastening wall 21, with three fastening projections 20, 20a, 20b arranged therein, each consisting of a cylindrical portion 200 ending with a fastening flange 201, as clearly shown in Figures 4 and 9.

The central part 170 of the neck insert 17 is mostly elongated sideways forward with its side extensions 171172, attached inside the helmet on the part of the inner side which is located at the level of the lower edge 12 and on the side edges 11 a, 11 b of the face opening. Side extensions 171,172 can be attached by any means, such as gluing, fastening with adhesive tape, short circuit etc.

To give the helmet a better look and finish, a wrap around 22 is provided, clearly visible in Figs. 1, 3, 4 and 5. The U-shaped wrap around 22, made of flexible plastic and integrated with the bottom edge 12, adheres firmly to the edges of three slotted notches: the middle 13, and the two side 14a, 14b.

In addition, the helmet 4 has a hat 4, for example made of rigid foam covered with a layer of elastic foam for comfort and a decorative fabric for the helmet's internal filling. The rear part of this cap is its extension in the form of a back strap 26 providing comfort, made of flexible foam, under which there is a flexible wall fastening 21 the neck pad, as shown in Fig. 4.

In the exemplary embodiment, the three holes of the middle and two side cut-outs 13, 14a, 14b are made in the shell 5, in the bottom rear wall 8 of the body 2. They have the same length and the same width, although in this solution it can of course also be shaped differently. For example, only one cutout in the form of a slot 13 could be envisaged, as shown in Fig. 10 or two cutouts 14a, 14b, as shown in Fig. 11, or more than three cutouts, as seen in Fig. 12, e.g., four notches 14a, 14'a, 14b, 14'b.

In addition, although the cutout drawings have the same length "L" and this width "1", they may also be other solutions, for example, outlined in Figures 13, 14, 15 and 16, representing four other possible variants. In both variants illustrated in Figs. 13 and 14, the cutouts 13, 14 and 14b have different lengths, while in the variants of Fig. 15 they differ in width.

It is mentioned that the cross-sections 13, 14a, 14b, 14'a, 14'b directed towards the bottom edge 12 of the wall are longitudinal slits widening upwards of the helmet, although this solution could be different, as exemplified in Fig. 17 and 18 showing two other options for implementation.

According to the invention, the helmet can of course be equipped with one or more protective rotary face shields, such as the shield 50 also shown in the drawing.

Figures 19a and 19b show a variant according to which the neck plug 17 is fastened with fixing projections 20, 20a, 20b inserted into the associated holes 200, 200a, 200b made in the helmet wall.

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It is mentioned that the circumferential profile 22 can also be an element for holding the neck insert 17, actively holding the fastening tabs 20, 20a, 20b. Thus, as shown in Fig. 20, retaining projections 220 can be made on the circumferential profile 22 to hold the cylindrical portion 200 of the mounting projections 20, 20a, 20b forming the neck insert tabs 17. Figure 21 shows a variant of the solution according to which the enclosing profile consists of a circumferential projection 221 for holding the clamping flange 201 of the fastening tabs of the neck insert 20, 20a, 20b.

It is obvious that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but also includes all their technical equivalents, as well as their combinations and combinations.

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FIG 6 [R

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171

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FIG 10

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FIG 4

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FIG. twenty

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FIG 21

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FIG 1

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UP Department of Publications. Circulation of 70 copies

Price PLN 4.00