US20100107317A1

US20100107317A1 - Impact-protection safety structure of headwear

Info

Publication number: US20100107317A1
Application number: US12/265,735
Authority: US
Inventors: Mao-Jung Wang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-11-06
Filing date: 2008-11-06
Publication date: 2010-05-06

Abstract

An impact-protection safety structure is provided for a headwear, including an impact protector formed by a knitted resilient net lining having a suitable thickness and fixed at a suitable location on an inside surface of the headwear to serve as padding, whereby when the head of a wearer is subjected to impacts, proper buffering and protection are ensured so as to realize safety and protection against impact to the head after the headwear is worn.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to an impact-protection safety structure of a headwear, which comprises a knitted net lining protector having a suitable thickness fixed to an inside surface of a headwear by means of adhesives or sewing to form buffering means between the headwear and a wearer's head for protecting the head against damage caused by a falling object or impact occurring at a particular location of the head so as to surely realize safety and protection against impact for head.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

A conventional sports hat is often of a design illustrated in FIG. 6, wherein a hat body 20 made of fabrics of a single layer is formed by sewing several pieces of fabric to show a spherical recessed configuration to fit the contour of a wearer's head and a visor 21 extends a front edge of the hat body to provide a complete headwear structure. Over years, such a configuration is not subjected to significant variation. The most commonly seen modification or variation of the sports hat is the variation in the curvature of the recess of the hat body 20 to make the hat more streamlined, or minor modification is made on the configuration of the hat to correspond to the curved shape of the visor 21 in order to make the overall structure of the hat more contour compliant and comfortable. No design in structure concerning use safety is available, especially for protection of a wearer's head. For example, an old person's head is easily damaged by impact when he or she falls. Further, satisfactory improvements regarding discomfort of wearing caused improper air ventilation due to poor air permeability of the fabrics making the hat are also not available. For the general use of headwear nowadays, wearing a headwear is not just for aesthetic or decoration purposes, and the consideration of safety is getting more and more weight. There is apparently a significant room for improving the currently available headwear in order to overcome the ventilation problem and at the same time ensure wearer's protection against impact so as to make a modern headwear satisfying the need of multiple functions for a headwear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the insufficient practicability of the currently available headwear, the present inventor, based on years' experience in developing and fabricating headwear, has conducted a series of experiments and researches to eventually invent an impact-protection safety structure of headwear in accordance with the present invention, wherein a knitted impact-protection net lining protector having a proper thickness is fixed to an inside surface of a headwear by means of adhesives or sewing so as to provide a proper buffering space inside the headwear for providing protection against impact to the head caused by unexpected falling or a falling object, to thereby through overcome the problem of insufficient protection against impact of the currently available headwear.
A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a headwear that has an inside surface to which a layer of knitted net lining for providing proper buffering and protection against impact is attached to provide buffering and protection against impact when a wearer's head is subjected to the impact and thus preventing occurrence of physical damage and realizing practicability of multiple functions for the use of the headwear. The design of a protector by using a net lining that is formed by knitting realizes a structure that ensures protection against impact and also provides excellent air ventilation to ensure comfortable wearing, whereby the structure of the headwear completely meet the needs for a novel design that ensures use safety.
The foregoing objective and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts.
Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a headwear constructed in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the headwear of the present invention in an assembled condition.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view illustrating a headwear of the present invention that comprises a locally arranged net lining protector.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the headwear of the present invention that comprises the locally arranged protector.

FIG. 5 is a partial perspective view illustrating a net lining protector in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional hat.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following descriptions are exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
With reference to FIGS. 1-4, a headwear constructed in accordance with the present invention comprises a headwear body 10 that is formed and shaped by sewing pieces of fabrics and has a front edge from which a visor 11 extends. The headwear body 10 is shaped to have a recessed and curved inside space to which a net lining protector 12, which is formed by a knitted article having a proper thickness, is attached in such a way that an overall stacked thickness of the knitted net is preferably around 3-12 mm to provide an attachable curved configuration corresponding to and easily complying with the curved inside surface of recessed and curved inside space of the headwear. The protector 12 can be fixed by any known means, such as loop-and-hook fastening pads or simply by sewing. Alternatives, simple buckling structure, such as buckles or buttons, are surely applicable to fix the protector 12 to the inside surface of the headwear body 10. The knitted material of the protector 12 is comprised of loose and puffy thin resilient yarns A that possesses proper resiliency knitted to show a configuration of net-like lining, whereby the protector 12 shows a plurality of hollow openings that provide an excellent ventilation structure, making the whole protector 12 featuring both air ventilation and resilient buffering realized by knitting and thus ensuring the effect of resiliency and buffering for the headwear structure for protection against impact. When a wearer puts on the headwear, the knitted assembly of the loose and puffy net lining provides buffering to an outer circumference of the wearer's head to ensure use safety and impact protection, and further, with the excellent air ventilation, discomfort of wearing the headwear caused by sultriness can be prevented. As such, the headwear is surely of the practicable value of wearing comfortableness and safety against impact.
The use of the net lining protector 12 that features high air ventilation and is formed by a resilient knitted article having a suitable thickness in accordance with the present invention can be such that, depending upon the need of actual uses, namely those according to the wearer, the size of the knitted netting surface can be varied, or special configuration can be alternatively adopted. In other words, the protector 12 can be of a size identical to and thus completely covering the curved inside surface of the headwear body 10, or the protector 12 can be made a locally arranged attached configuration in accordance with a special need for such a local area, as illustrated in FIG. 4, wherein the protector is locally set at selected location of the inside surface of the headwear to meet the needs for special protection against impact. Alternatively or additionally, reflector strips 13 or reflector pads can be attached to an outside surface of the headwear by for example sewing to allow the headwear body to feature practical values of safety and alarming for both inside and outside surfaces thereof. For a person walking in the night or an old person, or a restless child, the knitted layer of the net lining can serves as padding fixed inside the headwear, wherein the padding can be a single layer of knitted article or a stack of more than two layers of the knitted article. A preferred thickness of the stack is around 5-12 mm, which provides comfortableness of wearing and does not influence the aesthetics of the outside appearance and can also meet the needs for air ventilation in wearing the headwear to thereby satisfy the requirements for a modern headwear. In view of the features of impact protection and air ventilation of the headwear, it is apparently a novel and practical creation of an inside structure for headwear and the net lining protector 12, through proper selection of materials for the knitted net article to serve as a shaping component, may provide assistance to shape the outer contour of the headwear, and thus, a brand new design for headwear product is provided.
To summarize, the impact-protection safety structure of headwear in accordance with the present invention takes advantage of assistance and covering provided by a protector formed by internally arranged knitted net lining to secure proper buffering in case of impact occurring to the headwear and thus realizing an impact protection design for protecting a wearer's head and also to ensure wearing comfortableness by providing excellent ventilation with the knitted structure of the net lining.
While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Claims

1. An impact-protection safety structure for headwear having a body and a visor extending therefrom, characterized in that the body forms a recessed and curved inside space in which a resilient protector in the form of knitted net lining and having a given thickness is set, whereby with the net lining protector positioned on and attached to an inside surface of the body, ventilation and impact-protection safety are realized for use of the headwear and for unexpected impact of a head wearing the headwear.

2. The impact-protection safety structure for headwear according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the protector is around 3-12 mm.

3. The impact-protection safety structure for headwear according to claim 1, wherein the protector comprises a single layer or more than two layers of knitted articles.

4. The impact-protection safety structure for headwear according to claim 1, wherein the protector has a surface area that completely covers a recessed and curved inside surface of the body or the protector is locally arranged on the curved inside surface of the body.

5. The impact-protection safety structure for headwear according to claim 1, wherein the protector is fixed to the body by sewing or loop and hook fastening.

6. The impact-protection safety structure for headwear according to claim 1, wherein the protector is fixed to the body by buckles or buttons.

7. The impact-protection safety structure for headwear according to claim 1 further comprising reflector strips or reflector pads attached to the body to provide additional alarming.