Protective headgear

Details Protective headgear Protective headgear

1999-11-02

2001-09-25

Lindsey, Rodney M. (Department: 3765)

Apparel

Guard or protector

For wearer's head

C002S009000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06292954

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to protective headgear of the type comprising a covering for portion of a user's head of a substantially cage-like structure comprising rigid bars.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such headgear usually comprises a protective helmet and a face mask attached thereto. Conventionally the protective headgear is more generally of a relatively solid material and the face mask is a grid-type face mask of cage-like structure. The face mask is formed in the shape of a cage by crossing or intersecting bars for encompassing some or all of the wearer's face. It is known to provide a helmet as well which consists of bars with open spaces between the bars to allow the head of the wearer to breathe, a typical example of this is the bicycle helmet. The bars of the face mask have hitherto been of greater rigidity than those of the helmets as the cross-sectional area of the bars for the former is more critical than the latter.
Protective headgear is used extensively in sports to protect a wearer from a ball or other impact such as being struck by another player wielding a playing stick such as a hockey stick, baseball bat or hurley, or simply to protect from damage on contacting a fixture or structure on or adjacent the playing field, or falling onto a hard playing surface. It is now common to use such face masks in almost all sports such as hurling, ice hockey, lacrosse, cricket, baseball, American football and indeed in non-contact sports such as mountaineering, canoeing, kayaking and so on.
The construction of a face mask is always a compromise as there is a basic contradiction between providing maximum protection and maximum visibility. Thus, the bars making up such a face mask must be as thin as possible while at the same time being sufficiently strong. Heretofore, these face masks were generally manufactured from steel. The problem is that steel of its nature is relatively heavy and thus such face masks are often quite heavy, in some cases exceeding even 300 g. In many instances, this provides considerable discomfort for the user. Further complex and intricate shapes and designs are difficult to provide when steel is the chosen material.
Typical examples of such face masks are, for example, a hockey face mask such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,858 (Neeld et al), U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,758 (Newman et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,658 (Harris). In an attempt to overcome the problems inherent in the manufacture of such face masks and protective headgear generally from steel it is known to provide for example a face mask of a plastics material, however, such face masks have not been particularly successful heretofore. U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,758 referred to above also suggests that a face mask could be manufactured from a suitable fibre reinforced composite material and European Patent Specification No. 0 466 618 (Schappe) describes the manufacture of such a composite material comprising reinforcing fibres, for example, of carbon, aramid or glass which are generally in the form of multi-filaments woven with multi-filaments of thermoplastic matrix fibres. Another example of a composite carbon fibre and thermoplastics fibre blend is described in European Patent Specification No. 0 156 599 (Celanese Corporation).
Heretofore very little attention has been paid to the manufacture of helmets forming part of a protective headgear from such materials. While it has been suggested that headgear in the form of a face mask can be manufactured from such polymer composite materials co-consolidated together, they have not as of yet been particularly successful. The problem appears to have been that while the fibre reinforced polymer composite material which is co-consolidated together at a number of intersections to form a grid has provided what is apparently a light-weight and strong face mask this has not been the situation in practice. On impact the face mask has tended to disintegrate in the sense that the bars forming the grid or cage-like construction tend to come apart laterally i.e. in the direction of the impact at the intersections and thus are not sufficiently rigid to provide adequate protection. A similar problem would arise with a cage-like helmet manufactured in this way. Indeed the inventors are not aware of such a construction of helmet having been produced except in steel.
The present invention is directed towards providing protective headgear of substantially cage-like construction comprising rigid bars of a suitable fibre reinforced composite material which will be considerably lighter than those heretofore provided and which at the same time will be sufficiently structurally strong as to protect a users head and face.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention there is provided protective headgear of the type comprising a covering for portion of a user's head of substantially cage-like construction comprising rigid bars wherein the rigid bars are formed of a fibre reinforced polymer composite material co-consolidated together at a number of intersections, and in that at least some of the fibres of one bar are physically anchored to the fibres of another bar at each intersection. Once the fibres of one bar are physically anchored to the fibres of another bar, then if an impact occurs the strength of the fibres is retained and the one bar will not separate from the other.
Ideally, each bar comprises a bundle of yarns, each yarn being formed of aligned reinforcing fibres embedded in a polymer matrix material and in which at least some of the yarns of a bundle forming a bar are anchored to some of the yarns of another bundle forming another bar by interleaving the yarns at the intersection. The interleaving of the bars is a particularly easy way of anchoring one bar to another because by interleaving the bars you have of necessity reinforcing fibres of one bar above and below the reinforcing fibres of the other bar.
The yarns can be manufactured as a bundle in many ways, for example, the bundle may comprise a plurality of lengths of yarn twisted together to form a coherent bundle. This is a well known way of providing what is effectively a rope of reinforcing fibres and polymer filaments which can then be used in a mould.
Alternatively, the yarns forming each bundle are longitudinally arranged in collimated configuration.
In the latter case, ideally additional yarns are double-helically wrapped or braided around the longitudinally arranged yarns to form an outside retention covering over a core of the longitudinally arranged collimated yarns. These are particularly suitable and well known ways of making a bundle of such yarns.
Alternatively, the yarns of a bundle may be physically connected to the yarns of another bundle by for example, the yarns of a bundle projecting through the bundle forming another bar at the intersection.
Alternatively the bundle forming one bar is wrapped around another bar at the intersection and indeed in the latter case when there is a T shaped connection the bundle is wrapped around the bar and back on itself.
In a further embodiment the bundle is knotted to another bundle at the intersection. All of these are relatively simple ways of mechanically anchoring of one bar to another and will achieve the object of the present invention.
In one embodiment of the invention some of the yarns forming a bar are turned at the intersection away from the other yarns, such that the yarns form at least part of two other bars projecting away from the intersection. This is a particularly effective way of ensuring that there is adequate anchoring between the fibres.
In another embodiment of the invention there are at least three bars forming an intersection with a hole therebetween, each bar being interleaved with two adjacent bars lying above one and below the other and indeed in many instances four bars forming a substantial rectangular hole therebetween will be used. These just happen to be very neat and efficient ways of anchoring the bars together.
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