Protective helmet
View Patent ↗A safety helmet, for example, usable in sports such as football, is shown and described. The safety helmet includes an outer shell and an inner shell. The latter encircles a head of a wearer of the safety helmet. The outer shell is coupled in spaced apart relation to the inner shell by impact attenuators that include in one variation elastically deformable pins. The pins protrude through the inner shell to the inner head seating structure, and outside the inner shell to the outer shell. In another version of the impact attenuators, the pins are bound to a lattice construction providing openings further accommodating deformation responsive to impact forces. Inner and outer shells may have holes to accept ends of the pins. The number of holes may exceed those actually occupied by ends of pins, thereby providing adjustability in number and location of either version of impact attenuator.
1 . A safety helmet for protecting a person from impacts during sports activities, the safety helmet comprising:
an outer shell;
an inner shell, the inner shell having an interior and a head opening configured for inserting a head of the person into the interior of the inner shell; and
a plurality of impact attenuators coupled to said inner shell and to said outer shell, such that the plurality of impact attenuators support the outer shell and the inner shell in spaced apart relation, wherein each impact attenuator of the plurality of impact attenuators comprises:
a plurality of resilient pins that include a protrusion end and an opposed flat stub end; and
a stabilizer coupled to each of said plurality of said resilient pins, the stabilizer including a lattice structure with multiple rows of intersecting elongated members in a stack between the inner shell and the outer shell and multiple columns of intersecting elongated members, the multiple columns of intersecting elongated members are coupled to the multiple rows of intersecting elongated members at intersections, the multiple rows of intersecting elongated members and the multiple columns of intersecting elongated members are spaced apart to leave interstitial openings between the multiple rows of intersecting elongated members and the multiple columns of intersecting elongated members, wherein the plurality of impact attenuators are configured to accommodate impacts by enabling adjustment of a position of at least one of the impact attenuators about a surface of the outer shell and a surface of the inner shell.
2 . The safety helmet of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of resilient pins of said impact attenuators further comprise at least one outwardly projecting flange between the protrusion end and the opposed flat stub end and wherein said stabilizer is coupled to said pins at the at least one of said outwardly projecting flanges.
3 . The safety helmet of claim 1 , wherein the interstitial openings of the stabilizer are configured to accommodate elastic deformation of the stabilizer when subjected to an impact to the safety helmet.
4 . The safety helmet of claim 1 , wherein each said stabilizer is configured to engage up to eight said resilient pins.
5 . The safety helmet of claim 1 , wherein some of the plurality of impact attenuators have a first flexibility characteristic and others of the impact attenuators having a second flexibility characteristic.