GB2438820A

GB2438820A - Combat arts garment

Info

Publication number: GB2438820A
Application number: GB0611024A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Roy Frederick Brooker
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2006-06-05
Filing date: 2006-06-05
Publication date: 2007-12-12
Also published as: GB2438820A8; GB0611024D0

Abstract

A garment comprises a hardwearing outer layer 15 to protect inner layers of the garment, the outer layer also being sufficiently flexible to allow it to temporarily deform in response to an impact; a non visco-elastic padding layer 21 designed to temporarily deform in response to said impact; and a visco-elastic material layer 25 located at a position within the garment so as to mould around the contours of the shape of a wearer of the garment.

Description

A Combat Arts Garment This invention relates to a protective garment

suitable for use in combat arts.

Martial, or combat arts are steeped heavily in tradition. Followers consider the individual codified teachings and practices to be at the heart of their respective art forms and as such there is a strong resistant to change. This prejudice extends to the equipment used in their teaching and practice and consequently many articles of equipment have changed little in design since their conception.

One use for such equipment is to provide protection to participants against impacts during training. Traditionally this protection has been provided by a soft layer of padding which absorbs a portion of the energy from each impact. The inventor has realised that to maximise protection and to improve comfort, it is important the garment be well fitted to the user. Until now only basic shaping of the garments has been performed using lamination or moulding processes. These techniques have not been intended to provide a close fit, the lack of exact conformity causing a degree of discomfort which has, up until now, been considered acceptable.

The inventor has discovered that by incorporating a visco-elastic material into combat garments, each wearer of the garment can be provided with a close individual fit to their body. Additionally, the visco-elastic material acts to attenuate the affect of an impact on the wearer's body.

The invention provides a garment suitable for use in combat arts comprising in combination: a hardwearing outer layer to protect inner layers of the garment, the outer layer also being sufficiently flexible to allow it to temporarily deform in response to an impact; a padding layer designed to temporarily deform in response to said impact and made from a non visco-elastic material; and a visco-elastic material layer located at a position within the garment so as to mould around the contours of the shape of a wearer of the garment; The visco-elastic material is preferably a foam situated between the padding layer and the lining. When subjected to a sharp, high compression rate impact, visco-elastic materials tend to act more as an elastomeric solid. However, when subjected to low rate compressive forces they tend to act more like a viscous material and deform around the object which is exerting the force. However, when the force is removed the material will slowly return to its original shape. Their tendency to behave as viscous material increases with increased temperature. Consequently, when the garment is in use, the visco-elastic material is able to mould closely around the contours of a wearer, assisted by the body heat of the wearer and is able to distribute forces from high speed impacts more evenly across the wearer.

It is preferable that the outer and the padding layers be temporarily deformable and it is particularly preferable that the padding layer be capable of returning to its original shape quickly after any impact so that the garment can absorb energy from repeated impacts occurring in quick succession. As visco-elastic foams may i behave viscously in response to an impact, the accompanying slow recovery back to its initial shape after this deformation makes them unsuitable for use in the aforementioned layers.

The garment also comprises a liner, having a relatively low coefficient of friction, compared with the other layers and may be comprised of polyester or silk material.

The liner serves to protect the padding and visco-elastic layers from wear and tear.

In one preferred embodiment the garment comprises a relatively stiff backbone, situated between the visco-elastic material and the padding layer. The backbone's primary function is to act as a shield to protect the wearer from impacts by dissipating the energy of the impact. As an auxiliary function, the backbone may act to maintain the shape of the garment.

It is favourable that the padding layer comprises one or more layers of foam, which may have different stiffnesses so as to provide both a combination of absorb and dissipation characteristics and may also provide other ergonomic functions.

Additionally, there may be extra layers of padding spread between the various layers of the garment which may constitute the padding layer.

Two embodiments the invention will now be given by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of a curved focus pad constructed in a manner according to the invention; and Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of a boxing glove constructed in a manner according to the invention.

Referring first to Fig 1, the focus pad I is designed to be held onto the palm of a trainer's hand and to be used as a target for the practice of striking movements such as punches and kicks. The pad I has a concave contact surface 2 onto which blows are inflicted, and a supporting surface 3, onto which a glove 3A is sewn so that a trainer can support the pad 1. Herein the contact surface will be referred to as the front of the pad and the supporting surface as the back of the pad.

A core of the pad 1 is formed from two pieces of medium density polyurethane chipped foam 4, 5 which are plied with an adhesive so as to provide a thick, energy absorptive layer. Foam 4, is plied on its front facing surface to a stiffer ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) foam 7. Foam 7, has a greater ability to resist compression than chipped foam 4,5 functioning to dissipate some of the energy of an impact across a greater area of the foam 4,5 as well as to add support to the pad and to give a firmer and more the desirable spring back' feeling to the striker imparting the impact. A thicker layer of EVA foam 8 is plied to the back surface of chipped foam layer 5.

Foam 8, provides a similar support function as foam 7 and dissipates the remaining unabsorbed impact energy across the wearer's hand. The curved shape of the pad is formed by moulding of the plied foams whilst the laminating adhesive sets.

The lower and upper faces of the foam layers 4, 5, 7 & 8 are capped by two smaller pieces of soft foam 9, and 10 which provide extra cushioning on the top and bottom of the pad.

The foam core is contained within a housing formed from a hardwearing leather exterior 11 and a polyester liner 12. At the front of the pad, sandwiched between the liner 12 and the leather 11, is a thin layer of soft polyurethane foam 13. Between the leather 11 and liner 12 at the back of the pad is a visco-elastic polyurethane foam 14 of a type commercially available from Vitafoam Limited.

The foam core members 5-10 are enveloped by a sheet of polyethylene 18 which helps to ease insertion of the foam core into the housing during assembly.

The glove 3A is formed from a shaped leather outer layer 15 with a polyester liner 16.

The former leather 15 is connected to the supporting surface 3 by a leather member 6 Stitched in a pattern so as to leave gaps for the entry of fingers. The space between the leather 15 and liner 16 is also filled with visco-elastic polyurethane foam 17.

In use when the trainer inserts his hand into the glove the tightness of the glove around the hand and the wears body heat cause the proximal viscoelastic foam layer 14 and 17 to deform viscously and to mould around the contours of the hand creating a close fit for the wearer. If the hand moves inside the glove, the material will deform so as to accommodate the new shape and will recover its original shape in places where there is no longer a force exerted by the hand. In this way a close fit will always be maintained. Once the wearer's hand is removed, the visco-elastic layer will return to it original, non-deformed shape, ready to mould around the hand of the next wearer.

When the pad 1 is struck by with a sharp blow, the leather contact surface 2 deforms and the force of the impact is transferred to the foam core. Energy is absorbed and dissipated by EVA foam 7 & 8 and partially absorbed by layers 4 & 5. Irrespective of the force of the impact, both the chipped and EVA foams will recover to their original shape quickly after as the impact force has been removed forcing the leather contact surface 2 to do likewise. This allows the pad to be ready to absorb the energy of subsequent impacts which may occur in quick succession.

A portion of the energy of the impact is transferred as far as the visco-elastic material.

When subjected to a high compressive impact such as a hard punch or kick, the layer will behave as an elastomer and temporarily absorb and then dissipate the remaining energy, reducing the affect of the impact on the wearer.

Referring now to Fig 2, the glove 26 comprises an outside (contact) surface 19 made from a flexible relatively hard-wearing material such as leather. Beneath this layer is sewn a relatively soft polyester lining 20. The bulk of the glove is formed from a two plied layer of foam comprising a latex rubber foam 21 bonded with adhesive along one face onto a medium density polyurethane chipped foam 22. As with the focus pad, the distinct curve of the glove is formed by holding the plies together in the desired shape until the adhesive has set.

Under the layers 21, 22 is a stiff backbone 23 made from a rubber material, and is substantially shorter that the other foam layers. The gap formed between the relatively linear backbone 23 and the curved padding 22, is filled with stuffing material, cotton wool 24.

Lying on the opposite side of the backbone 23 to the plied foam 22 is a layer of visco-elastic foam 25 which is adhesively bonded to the backbone 23 and portions of foam 22 that extend beyond each side of the back bone 23.

When donned, the semi-clenched fist lies between the liner 20 and the visco-elastic foam 25. As with the pad 1, the combination of the tightness of the glove and body heat causes the foam 25 to compress around the fist, compressing more where there is a greater force, such as the knuckles moulding around the contours of the hand, and will, as with the pad, deform in consequence of any movement of the fist, so as to maintain a close fit.

In use the latex and chipped foam layers 21, 22 act to absorb a portion of the energy from an impact, and will recover their shape relatively instantly so as to be ready for subsequent blows. The backbone 23 acts to shield some of the energy of the impact.

It will be appreciated that the above only illustrates two examples of possible equipment which could utilise the invention. Other examples include: chest guard, shin pads, hand mittens, head guard and grappling gloves.

Neither is the invention limited to the materials used in the above illustration for example the padding layers may be constructed from foams formed from other natural or synthetic materials or may not even be a foam but another material such as down. Equally the visco-elastic layer and outer layer may be formed from any synthetic plastics material which displays the necessary characteristics.

Claims

Claims 1 A garment suitable for use in combat arts comprising in

combination: a hardwearing outer layer to protect inner layers of the garment, the outer layer also being sufficiently flexible to allow it to temporarily deform in response to an impact; a padding layer designed to temporarily deform in response to said impact and made from a non visco-elastic material; and a visco-elastic material layer located at a position within the garment so as to mould around the contours of the shape of a wearer of the garment;
2. A protective garment according to Claim 1 comprising, between the visco-elastic material, a backbone which is relative rigid in comparison with the aforementioned layers.

3. A protective garment according to any preceding Claim in that the padding layer is capable of recovering to its pre-impact shape relatively quickly compared with the visco-elastic layer 4. A protective garment according to any preceding Claim 1 in that the padding layer comprises multiple layers of non visco-elastic foams of different stiffnesses