WO1997048300A1

WO1997048300A1 - Head and face protection for skaters

Info

Publication number: WO1997048300A1
Application number: PCT/SE1997/001078
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gustav Ingmar Johnson
Original assignee: Gustav Ingmar Johnson
Priority date: 1996-06-17
Filing date: 1997-06-17
Publication date: 1997-12-24
Also published as: SE9602384D0; SE505298C2; SE9602384L; AU3282097A

Abstract

This invention is a head protecting device intended primarily for skaters to prevent injuries that may occur when a moving skater accidentally falls on the ice. The device would protect the wearer from head injuries due to direct blows by his head hitting the ice, as well as facial lacerations due to his face in planing contact under motion along the ice after the fall. A special feature of the face guard is that after the fall it is activated for face protection when coming into contact with the ice.

Description

Head and Face Protection for Skaters.

Background

Long distance skating as a sports activity has become increasingly popular in recent years, not the least because it has proved to suit people of a broad age spectrum.

Practised with care, especially in groups with experienced leaders, it is a safe kind of sport, where accidents are quite rare. Incidents, such as narrow escapes of drowning, are seldom occurring, largely due to the obligation in well known skating clubs, that active members must carry safety equipment, such as e.g. ice studs, ice pike and throw line. Suitable clothes including gauntlets, knee and elbow protectors are also mandatory.

Unfortunately, the use of head protection has not yet caught on among skaters due to absence of suitable helmets on the market. Since skaters often attain a speed of 30 km/h or more, the risk of head injury would be considerable in accidental falls or in collisions. A treatcherous and feared condition by skaters would be a sudden occurrence of thin surface ice, which is often difficult to discover, especially when snow covered. The result may be a fall causing serious head injury to the skater. His face in particular, may be very badly lacerated due to planing against the sharp ridges of hard solid ice in a winding pattern beneath the surface ice.

This invention is intended for protection of the skaters face as well as his head in case of accidental falls when skating, and would therefore prevent injuries both due to direct impact of the head hitting the ice and also due to planing face contact under motion along the ice, causing serious face lacerations,especially under conditions of thin surface ice. Description of the invention.

This invention, primarily intended as head protection for skaters, consists of a specially designed helmet with an attached facial protection device, that prevents slashing of the skater's face by an accidental fall and subsequent contact with the ice.

The helmet has low weight in order not to be tiring during lengthy skating excursions. It must also be equipped with a chin strap to make it firmly attached to the wearer's head.

On the outside the helmet has a hard surface, partly to resist impact blows by accidental falls onto the ice and partly to give a minimum of friction during forward sliding contact with the ice after the fall. For this latter reason the helmet must not have any protuding portions, like ribs, slots, etc, which otherwise may cause a serious rotational violence to the head and neck area of the wearer.

On the inside, the helmet is, like in the ordinary way, equipped with an impact damping liner to protect the head from blows in different directions.

The face protector, attached to the helmet, consists of a relatively long foldable guard, or could be a retractable visor. It should preferably be made of cold resistant,shatter proof, relatively soft plate material with low friction against ice.

Attachement and blending of the guard to the outside surface of the helmet must be smooth to avoid that the helmet is caught when sliding along the ice, with subsequent risk for injury, caused by straight impact and /or rotational violence to the skaters head and neck area. During normal skating activity the guard is stationary in a raised position to allow the skater free visibility, and the guard then works as a sunshade. If the skater falls forward, the guard is activated by the contact with the ice. and thereby is pulled down between the skater's face and the ice, to prevent serious facial injury by the motion of the face in planing contact with the ice.

The possibility of folding down the face protector from the raised position may be effected by a hinge joint near the attachement of the guard to the helmet shell, and by the use of a spring to hold the guard in the normally raised position.

Another simpler way is to attach to the helmet a relatively long face guard made of a cold resistant relatively soft rubber or rubber like pliable plate material, so that this guard in its activated down position is formed as part of a cylindrical shell, covering and protecting the face. Provided that the material is soft and pliable, this guard may be folded upwards so that the cylindric shape is buckled near the attachement to the helmet shell and held in this position by its own shape and elasticity or aided by means of a thin coil spring or an elastic band, attached with some tension to opposite edges across the guard to hold it stationary raised in the buckled shape so it would provide free visibility to the wearer and serve as a sun shade, and remain in this position even if the guard is quite long. If the skater should fall, the guard is activated to its original cylindric form, after contact with the ice and simultanous forward motion of the fallen skater, it will protect the wearers face by the guard coming into its activated position between the wearer's face and the ice.

In another different alternative the face protection is made with a guard in the form of a wide band that is normally rolled up to e. g. a one turn roll at the front edge of the helmet and held in this position for free visibility by its own shape and elasticity or by spring elements, e. g. laid in flat springs or wires, to keep the guard normally rolled up. In case the skater should fall, the guard, after contact with the ice, would become rolled out to cover the wearer's face for protection against scrubbing on the ice.

Still another variant of face protection would have the form of a relatively stiff, shatterproof shell, or visor, that may slide in grooves inside or outside the top surface of the helmet and held in its normal retracted position on the inside or outside of the helmet shell, by means of spring force or by a snap mechanism. This type of face protector has, preferably in its lower portion, a short downward sloping and relatively soft peak, normally serving as a sun shade. After an accidental fall and contact with the ice, the peak catches on the ice, which helps to pull down the protector to cover the wearer's face. In its lowered position, the travel of this face protector is limited by a stop, and in this position the softness and direction of the peak would prevent the wearer's head to be exposed to harmful violence, due to excessive braking friction, when sliding on the ice. In the version with the face protector located on the outside of the helmet, it would be particularly important that the protector guides and upper edge are well blended to the helmet outside surface to avoid the possibility that these parts catch onto roughness in the ice during the forward sliding after the fall, and as previously indicated, with the risk of injury to the wearer's head and/or cervical vertebral column, due to impact and rotational violence to the head.

One variant of this type of protector would be a visor, hinged around an attachement point on each side of the helmet. In the normal travelling position this visor is held up by spring force and/or by a locking device, located either on the inside or outside of the helmet shell. In order to make a compact helmet assembly, the visor should closely follow the helmet shell outer surface and in the retracted position just about go clear from touching the helmet shell, for ease of activation. Like in the previous case, this type of visor is equipped with a sloping, relatively short and soft peak with the same functions as mentioned before, and it would for the external type of visor be important that the top of the visor and associated parts are well blended to the helmet surface to avoid any kind of violence to the head or the cervical vertebral column due to the helmet catching on the ice

In the last two alternatives of face protection, the external types of visor may have some advantage by simpler design and possibility of lower manufacturing cost, whereas the types with internal visor, requiring partly a double shell in the form of an inside pocket, would be safer against shattering, since it is protected from the impact by the first contact with the ice. At the same time it avoids the risk of head injury due to forces arising with an external visor catching on the ice. The internal visor may also give the helmet a more attractive appearance, at the same time as it offers less wind resistance, which is important in long distance skating.

All above types of face protection may be internally padded or made of soft material with double walls, with air cells or like, to dampen and distribute forces due to impacting on the ice. Such dampening protection may be formed to the shape of the wearer's face to obtain the best possible safety against injury.

Above types of helmet with face protection could, besides in skating, also be used with advantage to avoid head and face injuries in other sports activities, like e. g. bicycle riding.

Description of figures.

Figures 1 - 10 illustrate different types of head and face protection for skaters, in the form of a helmet with a corresponding face protection, before and after activation to the down folded position.

Figure 1 shows the helmet with an external hard shell 1 , an internal impact dampening liner 2, a chin strap 3, and with a face protecting guard in the form of a relatively soft flat plate 4, that is hinged to the front portion of the helmet, just above the face of the wearer. Under normal skating this guard is held up for visibility in a raised position by means of a spring 5.

Figure 2 shows the same head protector as in figure 1 , but in the activated mode 6, after falling forward and subsequent contact with the ice 7.

Figure 3 shows an optional typeof head protector in the form of a long cylindrical guard 8, preferably made of pliable elastic material, that under normal skating conditions is raised by buckling 8 its cylindrical shape, near the helmet attachement, and assisted by a thin coil spring 9, or by an elastic band, attached cross wise to the top side of the guard by opposite edges with slight tension, to keep the guard in the raised buckled position 8. Otherwise this alternative is similar to the head protector of figure 1.

Figure 4 shows the same head protector as in figure 3, but in activated mode 10, after falling forward and in sliding contact with the ice.

Figure 5 shows an optional type of head protector with the face guard in the form of a wide band of elastic soft material, under normal skating held up in a one- turn roll 1 1 , by means of spring force or by the elasticity of the band. Otherwise this type of head protector is similar to the one in figure 3.

Figure 6 shows the same head protector as in figure 5, but with activated face protector 12, after a fall forward and contact with the ice.

Figure 7 shows an optional head protector design with a face guard in the form of a relatively stiff shell 13, or visor, that may be retracted inside or outside the helmet shell, thereby closely following the shape of the helmet without touching it, for compactness, and guided by grooves or edges on the inside or outside of the helmet shell. During normal skating, the face protector is held up for visibility, by spring force and/or e.g. a snap locking device. The lower edge of the visor has a short peak 14, of relatively soft material, serving as a sun shade in the raised normal position, but when activated after a fall, by ice contact, it will help to pull down the visor to protect the face.

Figure 8 shows the same head protector as in figure 7, but with activated face protector 15, pulled down to a stop after falling forward and in contact with the ice.

Figure 9 shows an optional head protector design in the form of a relatively stiff visor 16, that may be mounted to the inside or outside of the helmet outer shell by two pivot points 17, one on each side of the helmet and located on a common transverse axis. Under normal skating conditions the visor is retracted by means of spring action and/or a locking device. The visor shell form follows closely without touching the helmet shell to obtain compactness and ease of activation. At the lower edge of the visor a short, relatively soft peak 18, is attached, used as a sun shade in normal skating and after falling, as a help to activate the visor for the face protecting mode. Except for the pivoted visor this option is similar to the head protector of figure 7.

Figure 10 shows the same head protector as in figure 9, but with the face protector 19, activated after a forward fall to its pulled down position against a stop.

Claims

Patent claims.

1. A head protector, primarily intended for skaters, to prevent injury due to impact on the head when a moving skater accidentally falls on the ice, as well as protection against facial lacerations due to face planing during contact with the ice under simultanous forward sliding along the ice following the fall, where the head protector is characterized by a special helmet provided with an external, smooth, hard and impact resistant shell (1), an impact dampening liner (2), a chin strap (3), and in addition provided with an integrated face protecting guard, made of transparent or opaque material, and is activated to its down folded face protecting position after a fall and subsequent contact with the ice.

2. A head protector according to claim 1 , characterized by the face protecting guard in the form of a thin flat plate (4), being attached to the helmet by a hinge and normally held in a raised forward pointing direction by means of a spring (5), so that after an accidental fall forward and contact with the ice (7), the face protector would be activated (6), to its down folded protecting position between the skater's face and the ice.to avoid facial injury to the skater.

3. A head protector according to claim 1 , characterized by the face protecting guard (8), of cold resistant, pliable material, in the form of a cylindrical shell, firmly attached by its upper portion to the helmet front above the skater's face, and by buckling the cylindrical form giving the said face protecting guard a raised position for free visibility, by using a thin coil spring (9), or elastic detail, attached crosswise with tension to opposite edges on the top side of the guard, assist in holding the buckled shape, but so that after an accidental fall forward and contact with the ice, the buckled guard would resume its original cylindrical shape (10), thereby covering and protecting the skater's face against direct contact with the ice.

4. A head protector according to claim 1 , characterized by a face protecting guard in the form of a wide band, in normal use rolled up (1 1), by means of its own elasticity or by means of one or several springs, in such a way that after an accidental fall forward and contact with the ice, the face protector is activated and rolled out (12), between the skater's face and the ice, thereby covering and protecting the skater's face against direct contact with the ice.

5. A head protector according to claim 1 , characterized by an integrated face protector in the form of a curved, relatively stiff shell or visor (13), that may be retracted on the inside or outside of the helmet shell (1), conforming to the said helmet shell with clearance and guided by grooves or edges on this same shell, further, under normal skating the visor is kept in the retracted position by means of a locking device and/or elastic member, whereby a short, relatively soft peak (14), at the lower end of the visor would serve as a sun shade, but in case the skater accidentally should fall, the forward motion and this peak catching on the ice would help to pull down the visor to a stop in a pulled-out position (15), between the wearer's face and the ice, thusly preventing face injury.

6. A head protector according to claim 1, characterized by an integrated face protector in the form of a visor (16), placed inside or outside the helmet shell and attached to the helmet in two pivot points (17),one on each side of the helmet shell, so that the visor may be moved up and down in front of the face, and that the visor under normal skating may be held up by means of spring action and /or a locking device, further that the visor has a curvature conforming to the helmet shell with clearance, and at the lower edge of the visor there is a short, soft peak (18), normally used as a sun shade, but after an accidental fall forward and subsequent contact with the ice serving to help pull down the visor (19) between the skater's face and the ice, against stops in the helmet shell and the upper edge of the visor.

7. A head protector according to claims 1 , 5 and 6, but chararacterized by the internal visor being located in a pocket between the outer helmet shell and an internal helmet shell, or part of that, when the visor is in its raised position.

8. A head protector according to claims 1,5 and 6, characterized by an externally placed face protector - visor having a lip on its upper edge for smooth blending to the helmet shell and easy gliding without catching on the ice.

9. A head protector according to claims 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, characterized by the face protector - visor being provided with damping and force distributing material or by the face protector being double walled with damping cells.