Apparel – Guard or protector – For wearer's head
Reexamination Certificate
2003-05-22
2004-06-22
Welch, Gary L. (Department: 3765)
Apparel
Guard or protector
For wearer's head
C351S155000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06751811
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
This invention relates to athletic sunglasses with a head mounted elastomerically powered tensioning system used to rotate a lens from the viewing position in front of the eyes, to a non-viewing position above the forehead.
Outdoor athletes today are more cognizant than ever of the need to wear sunglasses as a protective barrier from the elements. Sunglasses shield the eyes from accidental invasion of foreign objects, and provide protection from the sun's ultraviolet A, 315 to 400 nanometers, and ultraviolet B, 280 to 315 nanometers, radiation levels.
Although sunglasses have been around for a long time, the basic design remains the same. Two earpieces that attach to a lens frame, that attaches to a nosepiece. Unfortunately, the shape and construction of the human head does not lend itself well to attaching ordinary sunglasses to its protrusions.
Typical sunglasses have earpieces that fit around the ears, and provide a pulling force to keep the nosepiece from sliding down the nose. The nosepiece resists this pulling force by digging into the bridge of the nose. The head feels this opposition of forces whenever sunglasses are worm. The result of these two opposite forces is sore ears and a sore nose. This is one of the problems that is solved by this invention.
The other problem of ordinary sunglasses is the inability to conveniently remove and stow the sunglasses from the viewing position when conditions require. One such condition is the wiping of perspiration from around the eyes during the heat of athletic competition, or simply the need to temporarily remove the sunglasses from the viewing position. Ordinary sunglasses require a place to be stowed during these conditions, and this is another problem solved by this invention. The outdoor athlete needs a sunglasses system that will a.) provide a tensioning system that will keep the sunglasses comfortably in place even during rigorous physical activity, b.) have the ability to quickly and easily rotate the sunglasses out of the line of sight to wipe perspiration from around the area of the eyes and then quickly and easily rotate back into the line of sight, even during the physical activity, and c.) provide easy adjustability for properly locating the sunglass lens and frame to the face.
With regard to using tensioning systems to hold the sunglasses in place, the prior design of U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,808 to Carpenter, issued Dec. 12, 1989, is indicative of the simple flip up approach of using a coiled spring tension device to hold the sunglasses in place. This arrangement also allows the sunglasses to be rotated into and out of the line of sight of the wearer. However, this design is fragile because of the single tiny flip up mechanism used to attach the eyepiece to the headband. This one fragile attachment point would allow even the smallest of impacts experienced during a sports activity to drive the eye pieces into the wearers eyes and face, posing an unacceptable risk of damage.
With regard to the ability to quickly and easily rotate the sunglasses into and out of the line of sight of the wearer, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,616,367 to Jean, issued October 1986, U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,254 to Daigle, issued December 1987, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,430 to Janusz, issued March 1989, as being indicative of the approaches used to hide the eyepieces in a headband to remove them from the line of sight of the wearer. This approach is not only cumbersome and time consuming for the hands to operate, but more importantly, it drastically limits the size and shape of the eyepieces that can be used because of the need to fit inside the headband when not in use. Since these eyepieces are too small and too flat to adequately follow the contours of the head and face, unfiltered sunlight as well as foreign objects are allowed to reach the eyes from the sides and bottoms of the eyepieces.
A later design to solve the problem of protecting the eyes from unfiltered sunlight and foreign objects was shown by U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,189 issued to Duggan in August 1989, by using a one-piece wrap around eyepiece held in place by a hook and loop attachment of the headband. Although the eyepiece gave better eye protection, it was still cumbersome and unwieldy to operate by requiring two hands to change the position of the eyepiece.
A more logical design to provide a rotating eyepiece was provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,475,issued to Lynd on Apr. 21, 1992, by providing a wrap around eyepiece that rotates up and down by means of two arms attached to a cap headband. However, no tensioning system was provided to keep the eyepiece firmly in place in the two desired positions. And finally, the eyepiece had to rotate into a cap bill, thus limiting its travel, making the design unsuitable for a vigorous sport like basketball.
Another visor related design was made with U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,703,issued to Nordin et al in August 1993. This positional visor arrangement has two obvious drawbacks. The first is the pivot end of the journalling pin not being secured, which allows the journalling pin to slip out of the journalling opening when the visor is in either the up or down position. The second drawback is the obvious sliding friction required to expand the journalling opening for the journalling pin to rotate. Large bending moments are generated almost instantaneously during the first small movement of the journalling pin since the maximum rigidity of the journalling opening is located in the radiused corners. There is no smooth gradual increase of the forces created during operation.
A cap visor related design was made with U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,125,issued to Phillips in September 1985. However, there is no tensioning system to raise and lower the eyeshield, plus a fragile single attachment and rotation point for the eyeglasses makes this design unsuitable for aggressive sports. Even a mild impact in the area of the rotation attachment point could send the eyeglasses into the eyes and face of the wearer.
A similar design of U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,374,issued to Van der Woude in February 1990 is also based upon the single fragile attach and rotate point and same lack of a tensioning system to raise and lower the eyeshield.
A welder's eyeshield was invented with U.S. Pat. No. 2,588,553,issued to McWethy in May 1948, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,700,158,issued to Larsen in January 1955, that rotated a protective shield into and out of the wearers line of sight. The design however, has no tensioning device to raise and lower the eyeshield, but instead uses the wearer's chin to perform this function. This design is not only cumbersome, but also limited in its applications in sports.
A similar invention, U.S. Pat. No. 2,245,990, issued to Loud in June 1941 was used to rotate a protective eyeshield by means of a single hinge point and springs to assist raising the eyeshield. The use of the long coiled springs provides tension in only one direction. Tension is provided to assist the upward rotation of the eyeshield, but provides no assistance in the lowering of the eyeshield, thus the design must use snap catches on each side to keep the eyeshield from springing upward during line of sight use.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,187,932, issued to Cornell in January 1940 was a more efficient use of the spring by having the spring not only provide force to raise the eyeshield, but also to provide force to lower and hold the eyeshield in the viewing position. The drawback of using a spring-operated system is the bulky nature of their design. Springs do provide tension, but at the expense of precious available space around the forehead. To provide a sleek, compact design for the fashionable sports sunglasses market, the required tension must be supplied by a smaller and more efficient method than longitudinal coiled springs.
A similar approach, but a more complex design, was used in U.S. Pat. No. 2,103,006, issued to Helfenstein et al in Dec. 21, 1937. The springs were used to balance the welding hood in a desired viewing position, rather than provide force to snap the protective
Ogram Mark
Welch Gary L.
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