Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
TITLE OF THE INVENmrnnr
A protective sports headgear.
IiE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a protective
sports headgear having a visor shield which may be
manually lifted over a helmet and, when in the lifted
position, may be retained in this position. Also, when
in the lifted position the visor shield may be easily
removed by the user.
DESCRIPTION OF PRIOR I~RT
Protective headgears are used in many sports
such as hockey, football, etc. Such headgears consist
of a helmet and of a face guard which may be of the
transparent plastic visor type or of the rigid metallic
grill type.
One known problem with such headgears occurs
when the wearer is not during playing action and wishes
to remove the helmet for various reasons, such as
ventilation, removal of the pressure exerted by the
constricting structure of the helmet, or simply to wipe
a perspiring face. one protective headgear may be found
described in U.S. patent 5,093,936 issued March 10, 1992
to Itech Sport Products Inc. However, such equipment is
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cumbersome in its use since each opposite side of the
face guard is provided with a resilient lock element
which the user must manually operate to enable him to
raise the guard upwardly.
An improved sports headgear may be found
described in Applicant's co-pending Canadian application
number 2,114,826 filed February 1, 1994. This
protective headgear is easily operatable by the user and
this is achieved by providing a single interlocking
arrangement at the front upper region of the face guard
so that the user may single-handedly disengage the
locking arrangement and lift the visor upwardly to
extend over the helmet forehead area.
TEMENT OF THE INVENT
The present invention pertains to a further
improvement of such protective sports headgear in that
it allows the visor shield, once in the lifted position,
to be retained in this position in a manner that it will
not fall back into a face covering position due to
gravity or to weak head movements. The improvement also
consists in allowing, still in the lifted position, to
easily remove the visor shield from the helmet so that
it can be replaced should it be damaged or scratched or
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that it needs cleaning. These features are achieved by
the provision of a pivot member on each opposite side of
the headgear.
The present invention therefore relates to a
protective sports headgear which comprises:
- a helmet including a forehead area and top
and sides to cover a wearer's head;
- an intermediate adapter fixed to the
forehead area, the adapter defining a front
l0 portion and opposite side portions;
- a visor shield pivotally mounted relative
to the adapter;
- a pivot member secured to the visor shield
and pivotably mounted to each opposite side
portion of the adapter allowing the visor
shield to pivotally move from a face covering
lower position to an upper lifted position
where the visor shield extends over the
forehead area of the helmet; and
- releasable inter-engaging means
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respectively mounted on the visor shield and
on the adapter to lock the visor shield in
the face covering lower position.
In one form of the invention, the pivot member
consists of cooperating means between the adapter and
the visor which will enable an easy disengagement of the
visor shield from the adapter.
In another preferred embodiment of the
invention, the cooperating means permit the visor shield
to be retained in its upper lifted position, thus
preventing the visor shield to return to a face covering
position due to gravity or to head movements.
other objects and further scope of
applicability of the present invention will become
apparent from the detailed description given
hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that
this detailed description, while indicating preferred
embodiments of the invention, is given by way of
illustration only, since various changes and
modifications within the spirit and scope of the
invention will become apparent to those skilled in the
art.
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$RIEF DESCRIPTIpN OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a protective
sports headgear incorporating the present invention;
Figure 2 is a side elevational view showing
the visor shield in the upper lifted position;
Figure 3 is a front elevational view of the
pivot member;
Figure 4 is a side elevational view of the
pivot member;
Figure 5 is a rear elevational view of the
pivot member;
Figure 6 is a rear elevational view of the
pivot member shown attached to part of the visor shield;
Figure 7 is an enlarged side view showing the
relative positions of the pivot member and the adapter
side portion with the visor engaged in the lower face-
covering position;
Figure 8 is an enlarged side view showing the
relative positions of the pivot member and the adapter
side portion with the visor in the upper lifted
position; and
Figure 9 is an enlarged side view showing the
relative positions of the pivot member and the adapter
when the visor shield may be disengaged from the
adapter.
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pFgORrpmrpN DF PREFERRED EMRODIMEN'~'R
Referring to figure 1, there is shown a
protective sports headgear, generally denoted 10,
consisting of a helmet 12 and of visor shield or face
guard 14. The helmet has a forehead area 16, a top area
18 and opposite sides 20. Such helmets are well-known
and may have various shapes and configurations; the one
illustrated in the figures is one which is used most
often in the game of ice hockey.
The visor shield 14, made of transparent
plastics material, is arch-shaped and extends over the
open front portion of the helmet, terminating to the
side portions thereof. In this lower position, the
visor shield is said to be in a face-covering position.
An adapter, generally denoted 24, is used as
an intermediate element between the helmet 12 and the
visor shield 14. The adapter 24 includes a flat curved
band portion 26 (see figure 2) which follows the contour
of the forehead area of the helmet; it includes an
enlarged central area 28 and two opposite side areas 30.
These areas are provided with a given arrangement of
holes 31 so that the adapter may be fixedly mounted to
various types helmets. Fastening elements (not shown)
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secure the adapter to the helmet by engaging these holes
and corresponding holes in the helmet.
In the central frontal region of the headgear,
there is provided a lock device, generally denoted 40,
which is described in greater detail in applicant's
above described Canadian patent application. It
essentially consists of a first male part 42 mounted to
the upper edge of the visor shield and of a female part
44 mounted to the central area 28 of the adapter. With
reference to figure 2, the male part has a traverse pin
46 that engages in a lower recess 48 of the female part.
A finger gripping lever 50 is actuatable frontwardly by
the user to release the locking engagement and to enable
the visor shield to be raised to the lifted position
shown in figure 2, that is over the forehead area 16 and
partially over the top area 18 of the helmet. With
other visors, the lifted position may be somewhat lower
than that shown.
The pivotal movement of the visor shield
relative to the helmet is accomplished by means of pivot
members 52 located on each opposite side of the
headgear, which pivot members also secure the visor
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shield to upwardly extending portions 30~ of side areas
30 of the adapter.
Referring to figures 3, 4 and 5, each pivot
member 52 comprises an elongated body 54 which displays,
at one end thereof, a pivot head 56 having a neck
portion 58 and a flange portion 60 defining
diametrically opposite extensions 62 and 64. A pair of
small catches 66 and 68 are formed on diametrically
opposite sides of the pivot axis. The opposite end of
the pivot member 54 has a serrated surface 70 on its
rear side and a hole 72 to receive a screw 74 (see
figure 1). The front wall of body 54 has a surface area
75 to receive a data identification label or the like.
Due to the various face configurations of
users, it may be desired to vary the position of the
visor shield relative to the helmet for optimum viewing.
To achieve this, there is provided, as
illustrated in figure 6, an adjusting mechanism which
consists of an elongated slot 76 along the side portion
of the visor shield. Screw 74 extends through slot 76
and connects the pivot member to the visor shield. By
untightening screw 74, relative adjustment of the visor
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shield to the pivot member 54 is made possible. The
proper positioning of the visor shield to the pivot
member is ensured by the presence of a stopper edge 78
along one side of pivot member 54. The visor may
include a serrated area 79 to engage the serrated area
70 of the pivot member.
The adjustment feature of the visor shield to
the pivot member is particularly useful when a chin
contacting frame 80 is mounted to the visor shield (see
figures 1 and 2). This frame is hingedly connected at
82 and 84; it is arc-shaped and located inwardly of the
arc-shaped lower part 86 of the visor shield. A chin
contacting pad 88 is pivotally mounted at 90 to the
frame 80. The construction and operation of the frame
80 and its chin contacting element 88 are described in
applicant's Canadian patent application No. 2,114,825
filed February 1, 1994. The pivotal movement of frame
80 is limited when the visor shield is in the position
shown in figure 2, that is when its upper edge contacts
the lower part 86 of the visor 14.
The pivot member on each side of the visor
shield allows the visor shield to be raised from a down
face covering position to an upper lifted position where
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it may be held in a way that it will not fall back under
gravity or by small head movements and also where it may
be esasily removed Prom the helmet for replacement,
repair or cleaning. Referring to figures 7, 8 and 9,
the relative positions of the pivot member to the
adapter for these three positions are shown.
Figure 7 shows the position of the extensions
62 and 64 in the recessed area 100 of the rear face of
the adapter when the visor shield is in the face
covering position (the dotted lines show the position of
the pivot member body 54).
Figure 8 shows the extensions 62 and 64
resting on lobes 102, 104 in the recessed area 100 when
the visor shield is in the lifted position; there, the
lobes prevent easy return under gravity of the visor
shield to the face covering position. To return the
visor shield to such position, the extensions 62 and 64
must be forced downwardly over the lobes 102, 104. This
is made possible by the resiliency of the plastics
material used in the construction of the adapter.
Figure 9 shows the extensions in registry with
their correspondingly shaped openings 106, 108 (shown in
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figures 7 and 8) so that the visor shield may be
forcingly removed from the adapter. The presence of
catches 66 and 68 renders this removal to be forceful
since these catches must slide over the bore of the
aperture in order to move out of their engagement in the
recessed area.
The visor shield is also provided with a
series of ventilation openings on each opposite side and
in its lower part to provide proper maximum cooling for
the users during their sport activity.
Although the invention has been described
above with respect with one specific form, it will be
evident to a person skilled in the art that it may be
modified and refined in various ways. It is therefore
wished to have it understood that the present invention
should not be limited in scope, except by the terms of
the following claims.
