Apparel – Guard or protector – Hand or arm
Reexamination Certificate
2003-04-28
2004-09-07
Patel, Tejash (Department: 3765)
Apparel
Guard or protector
Hand or arm
Reexamination Certificate
active
06785909
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sports guard for sports with improved shock-absorbing capacity.
2. Description of the Related Art
Outdoor activities such as fast skating and grass skiing are popular among young people. It is, however, not uncommon to see fracture and injury to the joints resulting from impacts during sporting activities. Further, accumulation of the impacts result in compression fracture as well as injury to the cartilage of the joints. A wide variety of sports guards have heretofore been provided to protect sportsmen from being injured to the knees, elbows, wrists, etc. A typical sports guard includes a shock absorbing material (e.g., sponge) covered by abrasion-resistant outer layers made of, e.g., leather, nylon, or elastic silk. Straps are provided to secure the sports guard on the part of the user to be protected. For protecting the wrist, U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,389 proposes a shock absorbing wrist guard including a shock absorbing device that has a plate, two wings extending from the flat plate, an arcuate portion bridged above a portion of the flat plate which is located between the wings, thereby defining a space between the arcuate portion and the flat plate. A plurality of cushion elements are formed in the space and connected between the arcuate portion and the flat plate portion for absorbing an external reactive force transmitted through the arcuate portion. Nevertheless, the cost is increased, and the shock-absorbing effect of the wrist guard is insufficient or not uniform in some cases.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,408 discloses a wrist guard for increasing shock-absorbing capacity. As illustrated in
FIG. 1
of the drawings, the wrist guard disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,408 includes a glove-like body
11
, two straps
12
secured to the body
11
, and a guard device
2
provided to a lower portion of the glove-like body
11
. The guard device
2
includes a substrate
20
, a first resilient arcuate plate
21
projecting from the substrate
20
, and a second resilient arcuate plate
22
projecting from the substrate
20
toward the first resilient arcuate plate
21
and having an end in contact with an inner end edge of the distal end of the first resilient arcuate plate
21
. The curvature of the second resilient arcuate plate
22
has a vertex which has a distance to the substrate
20
longer than a distance between the distal end of the first arcuate plate and the substrate
20
. When the guard device touches the ground as a result of falling, as illustrated in
FIG. 2
, the second arcuate plate
22
is deformed, with the distal end of the second arcuate plate
22
in contact with an inner end of the first arcuate plate
21
, thereby absorbing the relative larger impact so that no impact is transmitted to the wrist. Nevertheless, compression fracture and injury to the cartilage of the joints are still problems to sportsmen even if they wear the wrist guard. The present invention is intended to provide an improved sports guard for increasing the shock-absorbing capacity, which would be extremely useful in protecting the fragile parts of a human body, avoiding occurrence of compression fracture as well as injury to the cartilage of the joints of the user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved sports guard for increasing the shock-absorbing capacity to thereby avoid occurrence of compression fracture as well as injury to the cartilage of the joints of the user.
A sports guard in accordance with the present invention includes a hollow body having a pad attached to a side thereof. The pad includes a substrate and an outer layer. The substrate includes a first shock absorbing member. A second shock absorbing member is embedded into at least one section of an inner face of the first shock absorbing member. The second shock absorbing member has a shock absorbing capacity greater than that of the first shock absorbing member and is located in a position corresponding to a joint of a user wearing the sports guard. By such an arrangement, transmission of an external impact to the joint is almost impossible.
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1253260 (1918-01-01), Levinson
patent: 2759189 (1956-08-01), Cole
patent: 3044075 (1962-07-01), Rawlings
patent: 3496573 (1970-02-01), Kucher et al.
patent: 4484360 (1984-11-01), Leighton et al.
patent: 4513449 (1985-04-01), Donzis
patent: 5207430 (1993-05-01), Goins
patent: 5222256 (1993-06-01), Wang
patent: 5313667 (1994-05-01), Levine
patent: 5330391 (1994-07-01), Mitchell
patent: 5339465 (1994-08-01), Kyewski
patent: 5435007 (1995-07-01), Kalvestran et al.
patent: 5445566 (1995-08-01), Hayes
patent: 5566389 (1996-10-01), Li
patent: 5594954 (1997-01-01), Huang
patent: 5600849 (1997-02-01), Hu
patent: 5813050 (1998-09-01), Popowski
patent: 5983408 (1999-11-01), Li
Kamrath Alan D.
Nikolai & Mersereau , P.A.
Patel Tejash
LandOfFree
Sports guard with improved shock-absorbing capacity does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Sports guard with improved shock-absorbing capacity, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sports guard with improved shock-absorbing capacity will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3231691