US 2010/0299812 A1Published application

Protective arrangement

AssigneeKranos IP Corporation

InventorsLarry E. Maddux, Raymond J. Drake, JR., Louis Anthony VanHoutin, Vincent R. Long, Cortney Warmouth

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Abstract

A protective arrangement has a rigid shell to cover a body part and at least one impact absorbing pad removably attached to the inner surface of the rigid shell. The pad has an outer part made of an outer curved sheet and an inner part made of an inner sheet that is parallel to and spaced inwardly from the outer sheet to define a space. The inner and outer sheets have a plurality of spaced apart projecting hollow protrusions extending to the other sheet, the protrusions of one sheet alternating with the protrusions of the other sheet to form an impact absorbing pattern of alternating protrusions in the space between the sheets.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A protective helmet arrangement comprising:

a rigid helmet shell adapted to cover the head of a wearer, the rigid shell having an inner surface with selected concave curvatures, the inner surface having a frontal portion, a crown portion, a pair of opposite temporal portions, and an occipital portion;
a plurality of impact absorbing pads spaced apart on, and removably attached to the inner surface of said rigid shell, said plurality of pads comprising:
a frontal pad removably attached over the frontal portion;
a crown pad removably attached over the crown portion;
a pair of temporal pads removably attached over the respective temporal portions;
and an occipital pad removably attached over the occipital portion;
each pad being made of at least two parts of molded thermoplastic urethane that are bonded together;
said pads each comprising:
at least one outer part comprising an outer sheet having the selected curvature of the rigid shell adjacent the portion of the inner surface to which the pad is removable attached;
and at least one inner part comprising an inner sheet that is substantially parallel to and spaced inwardly from the outer sheet to define a space between the inner and outer sheets that is open around a perimeter of the inner and outer sheets;
each of the inner and outer sheets have a plurality of spaced apart projecting hollow protrusions extend to the other sheet, the protrusions of one sheet alternating with the protrusions of the other sheet to form an impact absorbing pattern of alternating protrusions in the space between the sheets;
each protrusion having a open larger diameter base at the sheet from which it extends, a smaller diameter peak with a peak opening therein, and a side wall that tapers from the base to the peak;
each base being one piece with the sheet from which it extends and each peak being fused to the sheet of the other part of the pad;
the peak opening in each peak extending also through the sheet of the other part of the pad;
at least some of the sheets having additional vent openings between the open base of their protrusions and peak openings;
and including at least one scalloped edge at the periphery of the space;
and
inside padding removably attached to an inside surface of the inner sheet.

15 more elements

A protective arrangement comprising:

a rigid shell adapted to cover the body part of a wearer, the rigid shell having an inner surface with selected concave curvatures;
and
at least one impact absorbing pad removably attached to the inner surface of said rigid shell, said pads comprising at least one outer part comprising an outer sheet having the selected curvature of the rigid shell and at least one inner part comprising an inner sheet that is substantially parallel to and spaced inwardly from the outer sheet to define a space between the inner and outer sheets that is open around a perimeter of the inner and outer sheets;
each of the inner and outer sheets have a plurality of spaced apart projecting hollow protrusions extend to the other sheet, the protrusions of one sheet alternating with the protrusions of the other sheet to form an impact absorbing pattern of alternating protrusions in the space between the sheets;
each protrusion having a open larger diameter circular base at the sheet from which it extends, a smaller diameter circular flat peak with a peak opening therein, and a frustoconical side wall that tapers from the base to the peak;
each base being one piece with the sheet from which it extends and each peak being fused to the sheet of the other part of the pad, the peak opening in each peak extending also through the sheet of the other part of the pad;
at least some of the sheets having additional vent openings between the open base of their protrusions and peak openings and including at least one scalloped edge at the periphery of the space.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.