Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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MILITARY SAFETY HELMET
- Background of the Invention
The invention relates to a military safety
helmet with a helmet cap resistant to bombardments
and with a band arrangement, as internal equipment,
connected firmly to the helmet cap at several points
and composed of an approximately horizontally
encircling annular supporting band and of bands
which extend in a radiating manner from the top side
and the ends of which are connected firmly to the
supporting band.
In military safety helmets, a known band
arrangement is composed of textile bands which are
connected to the helmet cap, preferably by riveting,
at several, for example, at six, points in the
region of the annular supporting band.. The purpose
of the band arrangement is to keep the skull away
from the cap, in order, under the effect of an
impact, to avoid transmitting the impact energy -
directly through the cap. to the skull of the helmet
wearer. It is possible for the skull to come in
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contact with the top of the helmet cap only when the
textile bands have lengthened to a considerable
extent, thereby expending some of the impact energy.
Since the band arrangement is fastened directly to
the helmet laterally, lateral impacts can be
transmitted directly to the skull of the helmet
wearer. Since bombardments of the helmet cap are
possible and likely from all sides equally, band
arrangements of this type are unsuitable for damping
the bombardment energy of a wide variety of possible
bombardments before it is transmitted to the skull
of the helmet wearer.
There are known work safety helmets, the
internal equipment of which must satisfy
requirements fundamentally different from those in
military safety helmets. For this internal
equipment, it is known to produce the band
arrangement from plastic and, for damping violent
impacts on the helmet, to provide, on the outside of
the plastic bands, basses which experience plastic
deformation under high impact effect and which thus
transmit the impact energy to the skull of the
helmet wearer only after it has been damped. It is
not possible for bosses to be provided where the
radiating bands are fastened to the helmet cap
itself. As these points, therefore, impact energies
are transmitted to the skull without being damped.
The functioning of the internal equipment of work
safety helmets of this type is based essentially on
the fact that the radiating bands are fastened to
the helmet cap and the supporting ring remains
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movable. In DE-U 76 23 197 there is an additional
band which makes the connection between the
radiating bands and the supporting ring and which is
itself not fastened to the helmet cap. This band is
located on the rear side of the helmet. The
supporting ring is itself connected firmly to the
helmet cap on the front side of the helmet. Padding
is provided at this location.
Internal equipment known from the work safety
helmets cannot be transferred directly to military
safety helmets. All-round impact damping could be
achieved by means of an inserted Styropor cap in the
manner of a motorcycle crash helmet. This design
cannot be adopted, however, because it does not
allow a sufficient ventilation of the helmet
interior. The interior ventilation of crash helmets
is~ based on the capture of the relative wind;
therefore, this possibility is not available on
military safety helmets.
G.B. Patent 1,108,502 discloses an internal
equipment for a work safety helmet, which is
composed of elastically flexible strips fitted with
rectangular ribs close to one another. Two Y-
shaped strips extend from an encircling headband in
a curve matching the form of the cap to two
fastening points located opposite one another. A
high density of the shock absorbing ribs cannot be
achieved thereby, because the bands are relatively
wide and a larger number of bands would result in an
excessively high weight of the internal equipment.
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This internal equipment is not intended for military
safety helmets. -
Summary of the Invention
It is therefore an object of the present
invention to provide an improved military safety
helmet.
It is a particular obj ect of the invention to
provide such a helmet in which all-round impact
' damping, especially under the effect of shocks, is
obtained with the use of a band arrangement allowing
good ventilation.
Another object of the invention resides in
the provision of an effective yet lightweight
damping arrangement for use in headgear.
In accomplishing the foregoing objects, an
internal band arrangement forming a supporting
basket for a military safety helmet is provided,
comprising:
(a) an encircling annular supporting band;
(b) a plurality of radiating bands extending
from a central fastening piece to the supporting
band;
(c) at least one band connecting to each
other pairs of the adjacent radiating bands;
(d) bosses formed on the annular and
radiating bands so as to point towards the inner
face of the helmet cap, the radiating bands having
a width substantially the same as the bosses; and
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(e) means, including fastening strips
extending from at least some of the radiating bands,
for firmly connecting the internal band arrangement
to the helmet cap so that the band arrangement rests
against the inner face of the helmet cap via at
least some of the bosses.
Also provided is a helmet embodying the
above-described internal band arrangement.
Further objects, features and advantages of
the present invention will become apparent from the
detailed description of preferred embodiments that
follows.
Brief Description of the Drawincts
The invention will be explained in detail
below by reference to the attached drawings.
In the drawings:
Figure 1 is a view of the inner face of a
military safety helmet; and
Figure 2 is a longitudinal section through
the helmet according to Figure 1.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments
According to the present invention, a
significant improvement in military safety helmets
is achieved because the band arrangement is made of
plastic and forms a supporting basket, because all
the bands of the supporting basket have formed-on
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bosses pointing towards the inner face of the helmet
cap and because there extend from the bands, above
the supporting band, fastening strips which have no
bosses and the ends of which are connected firmly to
the helmet cap.
The band arrangement according to the
invention is inherently relatively stable, because
the ends of the band arrangement are connected
firmly to the supporting band. Neither the radially
extending bands nor the supporting band are fastened
directly to the helmet cap. On the contrary,
fastening takes place by means of the fastening
strips which extend from the bands above the
supporting band. The design according to the
invention of the band arrangement makes it possible
to provide, on all sides, formed-on bosses which are
arranged between the bands and the helmet cap and
which preferably rest against the inner face of the
helmet cap.
2 0 The plastic basket according to the invention
thus constitutes a unitary part which has an impact-
damping property because of the bosses and which is
fastened to the helmet by means of the fastening
strips. The plastic basket according to the
invention therefore has, on the one hand, the
properties of a Styropor cap and, on the other hand,
the properties of conventional internal equipment
for work safety helmets, in which the supporting
band is movable in relation to the radially
extending bands.
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. In a preferred embodiment, the fastening
strips extend from radiating bands. At the same
time, the fastening strips have a length which
corresponds approximately to half the length of the
radiating bands.
To obtain a suitable damping behavior, it can
be expedient if the bosses have different heights,
and two different heights are usually sufficient.
The damping effect is initially determined by the
higher bosses alone, while a more pronounced damping
effect is achieved when the lower bosses also
experience subsequent deformation.
It is preferable- to provide only three
fastening strips, so that only three fastening
means, for example, rivets, pass through the helmet
cap. Appropriately, two fastening points are
provided laterally in the front region and one
fastening point is provided centrally at the rear.
The stability of the plastic basket and a
uniform damping effect are obtained if two adjacent
bands are connected to one another by means of at
least one connecting strip. If, in a preferred way,
eight radiating bands are provided, then, together
with the connecting bands, a sufficiently uniform
distribution of the bosses and therefore of the
damping resistance can be obtained.
The bosses can preferably have a diameter of
approximately 10 mm. With this dimension, a desired
damping effect for the severest types of bombardment
coming under consideration can be obtained, while
the weight of the supporting basket is at the same
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time as low as possible, if the radiating bands have
approximately the width of the bosses. The bosses
can be designed as hollow cylinders and, if
appropriate, taper conically towards the helmet cap,
in order to achieve a progressive increase of the
damping effect.
The preferred embodiment of a military safety
helmet illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 has a helmet
cap 1, on the inner face of which a supporting
basket 2 is fastened to form internal equipment.
r The supporting basket 2 is produced from plastic and
is composed of an approximately horizontally
encircling annular supporting band 3 and of eight
radially extending bands 4 which are connected
firmly to the supporting band 3, for example by
riveting, and which extend approximately radially
from a central elliptical fastening ring 5 on the
top side of the helmet. Two radial bands 4 are
connected respectively to one another in each case
by means of a connecting band 5', these being
aligned approximately tangentially and joining the
radial bands 4 approximately at half the length of
or offset outwardly relative to the latter.
Two fastening strips 6 extend obliquely
rearwardly from the radial bands to lateral
fastening points 7, where they are fastened to the
helmet cap 1, for example by riveting. A third
fastening point 8 is located centrally on the rear
side of the helmet. A fastening strip 9 connected
to this is bent out of a. portion 4 " , widened in
this region, of a radial band 4' extending
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rearwardly, so that the connection between the
radial band 4' and the annular supporting band 3 is
made via two lateral strips 4 " '.
Two tabs 10 projecting obliquely upwardly are
formed on the supporting band 3 laterally relative
to the rearwardly directed radial band 4' and
possess in pairs holes 11 for fastening a netting
strip intended to extend over the helmet in the
longitudinal direction and improve the wearing
comfort.
r Both the radial bands 4 and the annular
supporting band 3 have a plurality of bosses 12
which are arranged next to one another in the
longitudinal direction of the bands and are designed
as hollow cylinders, as shown in Figure 2, and which
taper somewhat conically upwards.
The entire supporting basket 2 therefore
rests against the face of the helmet cap 1 via the
bosses 12.
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