Apparel – Guard or protector – For wearer's head
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-22
2001-12-25
Lindsey, Rodney M. (Department: 3765)
Apparel
Guard or protector
For wearer's head
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332226
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to helmets of the type used in athletic contests where the participants typically wear the helmets for protection. The present invention provides for a liner having an impact absorption capability, but which also includes an impact indicator so that a supervisor or the user will be able to determine by inspection of the liner after an impact the character of the impact in terms of its magnitude as well as the location of the impact should it result in injury to the head of the wearer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In many athletic contests, rough and sometimes dangerous encounters occur particularly among school children such as in football, soccer, and other sports and these have frequently led to injury to the head or spinal column of the user which can result in life long disability and even death. As a consequence, there has been a need for improvements in athletic helmets and a number have become available such as is disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,390,367, 5,621,922, 5,539,935, 5,546,609, 5,287,562, and Ser. No. 08/685,840. While these improvements have provided supervisory personnel the ability to monitor unnecessary or dangerous activities during athletic contests or even to prevent injury, the installation of such equipment as well as devices provided by others have not been widely accepted due primarily to the expense and the reluctance of officials to seek funding in already reduced school budgets.
The need for improved safety in such contests has become paramount with the increasingly large damage awards to victims, who are often students, who have suffered injury during athletic contests supervised by school officials. In professional sports, it is well known that a number of prime athletes have had their careers shortened or their playing time diminished as a result of head injuries which are not accommodated by the present athletic helmet design.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention overcomes a number of the foregoing shortcomings by providing a relatively inexpensive yet superior safety device in the form of a removable liner for a conventional helmet thus avoiding a major expense in redesigning a piece of equipment that is in widespread use. In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides a compressible liner which will have a required low degree of compressibility or resistance to crushing to provide enhanced safety for the wearer of the liner in a conventional athletic helmet such as a football helmet. In addition, the liner is sufficiently flexible and formable to be easily installed from a supply in any size helmet. Further, the material is preferably expanded polystyrene foam where the foam has been expanded with a nontoxic, colored gas. With this arrangement, when an impact on the head of the wearer is experienced, the gas filled cells will burst and leave a color indicator about the site of the impact. A supervisor will then be able to determine whether unnecessary roughness has been employed in the contest or the event and thus be able to take remedial action and additional training for the individual involved. In another embodiment, a multi-layer lining system is employed to assure safety and compression of one or more of the layers only upon receiving an impact above a selected threshold. When so deformed, the affected layer or layers can be removed and easily replaced.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3616463 (1971-11-01), Theodore
patent: 3946441 (1976-03-01), Johnson
patent: 4064565 (1977-12-01), Griffiths
patent: 4663785 (1987-05-01), Comparetto
patent: 5343569 (1994-09-01), Asare et al.
patent: 2566632 (1986-01-01), None
Lindsey Rodney M.
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
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