GB2161696A

GB2161696A - Protective safety helmet

Info

Publication number: GB2161696A
Application number: GB08418371A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Davies; Granville Stewart Galt
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1984-07-19
Filing date: 1984-07-19
Publication date: 1986-01-22
Also published as: GB8418371D0

Abstract

The shell of a safety helmet incorporates a compartment (11) which carries or is constructed to carry a radio and which incorporates means affording access to the compartment (12) from the shell. Preferably the compartment is situated at the back and below the crown of the shell. By locating the radio in the helmet, the distance the helmet wearer can move from his base is maximised because he is not physically tied by such constraints as a conventional land line. At the same time, locating the radio in the shell frees the wearer from the constraints of a body radio, whilst positioning it at the back and below the crown of the shell locates it in a region of the helmet which is statistically least likely to suffer impact damage. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Protective safety helmet Field of the invention The invention relates to protective helmets and in particular to the class of protective helmet intended to function as a safety helmet protecting a wearer's head from sudden impact.

Such helmets are of an essentially rigid hard-shell construction and can be categorised into three main designs. The earliest comprised a shell covering the wearers temples and crown, with a non-rigid harness extending down around his ears and around the back of his neck. Later designs had the rigid shell extending down around the ears and the back of the wearer's neck, the portions extending around the ears being sufficiently flexible to be prised apart to a limited extent in order to fit over the ears when first donning the helmet. Most recently the rigid shell has been extended again to form a jaw piece and these are known popularly as "full-face" safety helmets.

Review of the prior art Communication with the wearer of a modern safety helmet is difficult, as the helmets tend to be thickly padded inside the shell in order to retain the shell firmly on the wearer's head (and to some extent to cushion the transmission of impact from the shell to the head). Because of this, and also because safety helmets are worn often in circumstances where communication must be maintained but where the communictor has to remain at an appreciable distance from the helmet wearer, it is known to provide the helmet with earphones and a microphone and to link these to a radio signal transmitting and receiving set (a "radio").

One example of such a link is the series of land lines connecting the several members of a helicopter ground crew individually to a radio within the helicopter. Another example is the coiled cable through which a Grand Prim team manager transmits last-minute instructions to his drivers as they sit on the starting grid. Yet another example is the relatively short link between a helmet equipped with earphones and a microphone, and a radio carried on the helmet wearer's body.

The land line type of link restricts the distance which the helmet wearer can move from his base, and is easily cut or tangled. Body-mounted radios linked to a helmet overcome this problem to some extent, but the radios themselves are vulnerable in use and can hamper the wearer's movement.

Summary of the invention According to the invention, the shell of a safety helmet incorporates a compartment which carries or is constructed to carry a radio and which incorporates means affording access to the compartment from the shell.

By locating the radio in the helmet, the distance the helmet wearer can move from his base is maximised because he is not physically tied by the land line type of connecting link. At the same time, locating the radio in the shell frees the wearer from the constraints of a body radio.

Preferably a wall of the radio-carrying compartment is removable to allow access to the compartment for installation, servicing and/or removal of the radio. The wall could be removable from the interior or the exterior of the shell depending upon the user requirements.

Preferably the removable wall, when in position, forms part of the internal surface of the shell and blanks off the compartment from the rest of the shell. With such a construction, the wall need not necessarily be as well able to withstand impact as the rest of the shell, but it nevertheless provides a bulwark against any danger of a sudden impact driving the radio into the wearer's skull.

Preferably also the removable wall seals off the compartment in a dustproof and/or waterproof manner from the rest of the shell. Safety helmets with communication equipment are very often worn in circumstances where the helmet stands a fair change of getting wet and/or of being penetrated internally by dust. The advantages of a waterproof and/or dustproof construction, although known in themselves, enhance the effectiveness of a helmet embodying the invention when they are present.

The removable wall may advantageously be so constructed that it is as well able to withstand impact as the rest of the shell. Any danger of the radio inadvertently being driven by impact into the wearer's skull is thus minimised.

Conveniently, the rest of the compartment, other than the removable wall, forms part of the impactbearing external surface of the shell. It is then most likely to be made of material identical to that of the rest of the shell and this will result in a better balanced helmet.

The rest of the compartment, other than the removable wall, may advantageously be faired into the external surface of the shell. If it is faired, rather than projecting abruptly, there is a better chance of any impact being transformed into a glancing blow rather than taken full-on.

In practical embodiments of the invention the interior of the shell will be padded, as previously outlined when discussing conventional safety helmets. In a further feature of a helmet embodying the invention, the padding may, in use, come between the wall of the radio compartment and the wearer's skull. This will reduce still further any risk of an impact driving the radio damagingly against the wearer's skull or against the back of his neck.

Where a removable wall gives access to the radiocarrying compartment, and the wall forms part of the internal surface of the shell, the padding in the region of the wall may advantageously be readily removable and may be held removably in position in the shell by a touch-and-close fastener such as that currently sold in the United Kingdom under the trade mark VELCRO.

Brief description of the drawings In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 shows a helmet embodying the invention, in side eievation; Figure 2 shows the same helmet in end elevation when viewed from the back; Figure 3 shows the helmet in plan; and Figure 4 shows in "exploded" perspective the way the helmet components fit together; and Figure 4a shows a modification.

Description of the preferred embodiment The helmet illustrated is a hard-shell safety helmet whose shell extends down around the wearer's ears and around the back of his neck in use; but it is not a "full-face" helmet. The materials from which the shell is constructed can be selected without further inventive thought by the intended skilled addressee of this specification. The methods of manufacturing the shell will similarly present no problem to him and need not be discussed here.

An essentially square box-like compartment is built into the helmet shell at the back of the shell and below the crown thereof. This compartment is referenced generally 11 in the drawings. As shown, it projects from the external surface of the helmet, although it could with advantage be faired i.e.

streamlined into the rest of the helmet. It is made of the same material as the rest of the helmet shell and is thus equally well able to withstand impact.

The walls, top, bottom and back of the box 11 form part of the external surface of the helmet shell.

Awall 12 is removably fitted inside the shell to close off the box 11. The wall 12 is made of material identical to that of the rest of the shell and of the box 11, and is synclastic so as to continue the curvature of the internal surface of the shell when it is fixed in place.

Respective posts 13 project one from each corner of the removable wall 12. A respective nut 14 is held captive inside the projecting end of each of these posts. As figure 1 shows, when the wall 12 is located in position inside the helmet shell, the nuts 14 align with respective holes drilled in the back of the box 12; and headed screws 15, inserted from outside the helmet, pass through the holes and engage the nuts to hold the wall 12 firmly in position.

A continuous rubber sealing strip 16 fits between the periphery of the wall 12 and the surrounding internal surface of the helmet shell. As the screw 15 are tightened, the seal 16 is compressed to form a dustproof and waterproof seal between the wall 12 and the surrounding surfaces of the helmet shell.

The helmet shell is padded internally, to be a deliberately close fit on the wearer's head and about his ears. The padding is removable from the shell and, as figure 4 shows, is in two pieces. The lower piece 17 is generally U-shaped and, when in position, pads the ear-covering and neck-covering regions of the helmet. The upper piece is capshaped and pads the rest of the helmet. Both padding pieces are held removably in place by interaction between the mating halves of a succession of touch-and-close VELCRO fastening strips referenced 18 and secured respectively to the padding pieces; to the internal surfaces of the helmet; and to the surface of the wall 12.

The U-shaped padding piece 17 consists of conventional foamed plastics material. The other piece, which is referenced 19, comprises a polystyrene liner 19A faced with foam plastics padding 19B. The padding piece 17 can contain the earphones and communications package generally, and the shell may or may not incorporate sound ventilators in its ear regions working in conjunction with earphones in the back of the padding piece 17 from which the sound is piped forward to deformable earcups in order to minimise the risk of the wearer's ears being damaged by impact driving a conventional hard ear-cup into his ear-drum.

A radio suitable for use with the helmet illustrated is currently marketed in the United Kingdom by the Motorola Company and is a miniature waterproof short range radio sold underthetrade mark EXPO.

In Figure 4a the back region of the helmet shell is shown in plan and in section, and has been modified. The posts 13 are omitted from the removable plate 12 and are replaced with a relatively thin sheet metal strip 21 which is U shaped when viewed as in Figure 4a with its opposite ends fixed to the back face (i.e. the face defining the fourth wall of the radio compartment) of the plate 12. Nuts 22 are held captive are locations spaced apart across the back of plate 12 and align with holes running through the back of the radio compartment 11.

In use, as illustrated, screws 23 enter the holes in the back of compartment 11 from outside the shell, in a manner similar to the screws 15 of the Figure 1 to Figure 5 embodiment, to pass through plate 21 and engage nuts 22. As the screws 23 are tightened, plate 21 pulls the removable plate 12 firmly against the interior of the shell to define and close off the radio compartment.

The Figure 4a embodiment may be preferable in some circumstances because posts 13 could tend to transmit impact rather than to collapse under impact. Plate 21 could be designed to collapse under compression impact and so avoid this possible danger.

Claims

1. A safety helmet shell incorporating a compartment which carries or is constructed to carry a radio and which incorporates means affording access to the compartment from the shell.

2. A safety helmet shell in accordance with Claim 1 and in which a wall of the radio-carrying compartment is removable to allow access to the compartment.

3. A safety helmet shell in accordance with Claim 2 and in which the removable wall, when in position, forms part of the internal surface of the shell and blanks off the compartment from the rest of the shell.

4. A safety helmet shell in accordance with any of Claim 2 or Claim 3 and in which the removable wall seals off the compartment in a dustproof and/or waterproof manner from the rest of the shell.

5. A safety helmet shell in accordance with any of Claims 2,3 and 4 and in which the removable wall is so constructed that it is as well able to withstand impact as the rest of the shell.

6. A safety helmet shell in accordance with any of Claims 2 to 5 and in which the rest of the compartment, other than the removable wall, forms part of the impact-bearing external surface of the shell.

7. A safety helmet shell in accordance with any of Claims 2 to 6 and in which the rest of the compartment, other than the removable wall, is faired into the external surface of the shell.

8. A safety helmet shell in accordance with any of the preceding Claims and in which the radio compartment is situated at the back and below the crown of the shell.

9. A safety helmet shell substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

10. A protective safety helmet incorporating a shell in accordance with any of the preceding Claims.

11. A helmet in accordance with Claim 10 and incorporating interior padding constructed and arranged substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated in Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.