Mounting for face mask

Aug. 2, 1966

3,263,236

D. C. HUMPHREY

MOUNTING FOR FACE MASK

Filed Sept. 10. 1964

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PTTORHZYS

United States Patent Office

3,263,236

Patented August 2, 1966

3,263,236

MOUNTING FOR FACE MASK

Dolby C. Humphrcv, 700 Indiana Ave., Torre Haute, Ind.

Filed Sept. 10, 1964, Ser. No. 395,371

Claims. (Cl. 2—9) \ Tliis invention relates to football helmets and face guards therefor, and in particular to the attachment of a face guard to a helmet.

A popular type of face guard for a football helmet is one in which metal tubes arc formed into a grill-like arrangement and covered with a rubber-like material and then attached to the front of the helmet. This type of face mask provides the maximum in safety to the individual wearing the helmet, but at times has the disadvantage that it can break the material of the helmet, which latter is a relatively hard plastic material. It appears that the breaking of the helmet comes about principally on account of high localized stresses in the region of attachments of the guard to the helmet because of the stresses that pass through the face guard, then through the helmet into engagement with nuts, such as T-nuts provided in the helmet.

Tile present invention is concerned with an arrangement for mounting a metal face guard of the nature referred to on a helmet in such a manner that the aforementioned regions of high localized stresses arc substantially eliminated, thus protecting the helmet against breakage.

Another object is the provision for an arrangement for connecting a metal grid-like face guard to a football helmet which permits the face guard easily to be mounted on or removed from the helmet.

Still another object of this invention is the provision of a resilient holder or clamp means for clamping the face guard to the helmet so as to provide for at least a small amount of workability of the face guard on the helmet and a certain amount of resilience to absorb shocks that might be imposed on the face guard so that these shocks do not tend to stress the helmet beyond a permissible amount.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become more apparent upon reference to the following specification taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view showing a helmet and face guard combination according to the present invention:

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view indicated by line 2—2 on FIGURE I;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary plan sectional view indicated by line 3—3 on FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary perspective view showing another type of attaching, means for attaching the face guard to the helmet;

FIGURE 5 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 5—5 of FIGURE 4, and

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to FIGURE 3 but showing a different type of holder for connecting the face guard to the helmet.

Referring to the drawings somewhat more in detail, in FIGURE 1 the helmet is indicated at 10 and the face guard is indicated at 12. The face guard is made up of a plurality of tubular metal members in criss-cross relation welded together and covered with a rubber-like plastic material.

The face guard at the top, in the form which is illustrated in FIGURE 1, has an upstanding metal plate 14 welded to the top transverse bar of the face mask and said plate also being covered by the rubber-like plastic material which, in FIGURE 2, is indicated at 16. Plate 14 has spaced therein and receives screws 18 that are threaded into T-nuts 20 having heads on the inside of the helmet and extending through holes drilled in the helmet. There is preferably a rubber-like spacer washer or strap 22 provided between the back of an upstanding plate 14 and the 5 front of the helmet to space the face guard slightly from the helmet not only to provide for a certain degree of resilience in the connection between the face guard and the helmet at the top of the face guard, but also to protect the helmet material from possible chemical reaction with the 10 plastic material covering the face guard.

The face guard at the sides has substantially vertically extending bar portions 24 and these bar portions arc received in a U-shaped resilient holder or strap element 26 which may be of rubber or rubber-like resilient plastic 15 material. Each holder 26 comprises a flexible strap portion 28 that passes around bar 24 and enlarged head portions 30 and 32 at the ends of the strap portion which arc brought together as illustrated in FIGURE 3, when the face guard is mounted in place on the helmet. A screw 20 34 extends through head part 32 into engagement with a T-nut 36 by extending through the wall of the helmet and into the head part 30. The size of the head portions are such that they provide a substantial amount of resilience when the face guard is thrust backwardiy on the helmet 25 and thus absorb shocks so that they are exerted with too great an impact on the helmet.

The strap portion 28 is resilient and flexible, and this will permit some considerable latitude of movement of the face mask on the helmet so as further to protect the helmet 30 from being overly stressed by normal shocks and impacts and the like exerted on the face guard.

The resilience of strap 28 also permits the face guard to be pulled out slightly at the bottom so that the helmet is easier to put on than with rigid connecting of the face 35 guard to the helmet.

In FIGURE 4, I show how clamp strips 40 could be employed which might be of a somewhat resilient nature with the strips being connected to the helmet by screws 42 and having hook like ends 44 engaging the bars of the face 40 guard. This arrangement also prevents the direct transmitting of shocks from the face guard into the helmet and provides an easy means of mounting the face guard on the helmet. Upon the application of stress to the face guard beyond an allowable limit, the face guard could snap free 45 from the holders, or break the holders, thus tending to protect not only the helmet and face guard but also the individual wearing the helmet.

FIGURE 6 shows how a flexible strap element 50 could be employed either at the top or sides of the face 50 guard or both places, to retain the face guard on the helmet with a certain degree of flexibility between the face guard and the helmet. Strap member 50 is a simple strap having the ends brought together and clamped to the helmet by screw and nut means 53. Element 50, in particu³³ lar, will permit some lateral movement of the vertical sides of the face guard relative to the helmet so that some considerable distortion of the face guard can be encountered without breaking the helmet.

All of the arrangements illustrated and described are θθ particularly characterized in introducing some flexibility in the connection of the face guard to the helmet, and .certain ones, particularly the preferred arrangement first described, have the advantage of introducing in addition thereto a certain yieldability in the connections at the ⁰ side of the face guard and a substantial amount of shock absorption between the face guard arid the helmet.

All of the arrangements are relatively inexpensive and are easily applied to conventional helmets and substan70 tially eliminate breakage problems in connection with the helmets.

It will be understood that this application is suscepti3,263,236 ³ ble to modification in order to adapt it to different usages and conditions; and accordingly, it is desired to comprehend such modifications within this invention as may fall within the scope of the appended claims.