Lightweight molded protective helmet
OwnerMichele A. Chiarellainventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lightweight molded protective helmet for use by cyclists and preferably produced by stretch-blow molding a moldable plastic material. The helmet includes outer and inner shells or surfaces each having a plurailty of openings therein, with the surfaces being connected together by walls of the openings formed integral with the surfaces of the helmet. The openings in the helmet surfaces can have any shape such as circular or elongated, and can be made substantially perpendicular or inclined to the surfaces. Also if desired, the space between the substantially parallel outer and inner surfaces can be filled with a plastic energy-absorbing foam material to provide a composite helmet construction.
Claims18
In a unitary lightweight protective helmet, formed by blow molding of a moldable plastic material, the combination comprising:
- (a) an outer surface and an adjacent spaced apart conforming inner surface, each of said surfaces being joined at their periphery by a wall formed during molding, so as to form a generally hollow interior space therebetween;
- (b) a plurality of molded adjacent spaced openings extending from said outer surface through said inner surface, each said opening being defined by a continuous wall connecting said outer surface to said inner surface and thereby forming a plurality of individually spaced interconnected zones located between a plurality of said adjacent openings;
- and
- (c) each of said zones being formed by a passageway bounded by proximate spaced areas on each of said respective surfaces and corresponding walls of said openings, whereby said zones are adapted to provide impact absorbing characteristics for the helmet when placed under load stress conditions.
In a unitary lightweight protective helmet formed by stretch-blow molding of a moldable plastic material, the combination comprising:
- (a) an outer surface and an adjacent spaced apart conforming inner surface, each said surface being joined at their periphery by a wall formed during molding, so as to form a generally hollow interior space therebetween, said surfaces each having a thickness of 0.050-0.10 inch and an overall thickness of 0.30-0.60 inch;
- (b) a plurality of molded adjacent spaced openings extending from said outer surface through said inner surface, each said opening being defined by a continuous wall connecting said outer surface to said inner surface and thereby forming a plurality of spaced interconnected zones located between a plurality of said adjacent openings, said openings wall thickness being 0.040-0.090 inch;
- and
- (c) each of said zones being formed by a passageway bounded by proximate spaced areas on each of said surface layers and corresponding wall of said openings, the surface spacing area width between adjacent said openings being about 0.5-4 times the helmet overall thickness, whereby said zones are adapted to provide impact absorbing characteristics for the helmet when placed under load stress conditions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.