| Headset-accommodating, load-balancing, helmet strap system -> Monitor Keywords |
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Headset-accommodating, load-balancing, helmet strap systemRelated Patent Categories: Apparel, Guard Or Protector, For Wearer's Head, Soldier`s (i.e., Ground Based Trooper) HelmetHeadset-accommodating, load-balancing, helmet strap system description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060179537, Headset-accommodating, load-balancing, helmet strap system. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims priority to prior-filed, co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/653,744, filed Feb. 16, 2005, for "Headset-Accommodating, Load-Balancing, Shock-Cushioning Helmet System". The entire disclosure content of that prior-filed provisional application is hereby incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a self-load-balancing helmet strap system which featuring a chin-strap cinching, or simply a chin-strap, subsystem which uniquely accommodates the wearing and use, along with a load-cushioning helmet per se, of an audio headset communication system of the type having the usual central, elongate, overhead band (headband), and pair of lateral earphone units mounted adjacent opposite ends of this band. Very specifically, the system of the present invention is designed especially to accommodate both (a) automatic lateral load balancing, and (b) cooperative wearing and use of a helmet shell and an audio headset, without in any way compromising the utility of an internal, load-cushioning pad system which is critically designed to provide both comfort and shock-absorbing protection for the wearer. [0003] A preferred and best mode embodiment of the invention is described and illustrated herein in the context of a military helmet--an environment wherein the invention has been found to offer special utility. In this setting, the invention is described in relation to certain other helmet componentry, including an internal suspension frame, or suspension (two different styles are described herein), for mounting various internal components, such as a load-cushioning pad system, and a special pad-position-adjustable load-cushioning pad system per se. In the environment of this other helmet-associated structure, it will be important to note how the features of the present invention uniquely cooperate with this other structure. [0004] While it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various kinds of helmet-shell internal suspensions and load-cushioning pad systems may be employed along with the present invention, one embodiment of the invention is illustrated and described herein in relation to (a) a helmet-shell suspension structure made in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,409 B2 covering an invention entitled "Helmet Liner Suspension Structure", and (b) a suspension-mountable load-cushioning pad system made in accordance with the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,099 B2 covering an invention entitled "Body-Contact Cushioning Interface Structure". The suspension and load-cushioning pad system illustrated and disclosed respectively by these two patents cooperatively present to the head of a wearer a frame-supported arrangement of adjustably, changeably and removeably attachable acceleration-rate-sensitive, shock-absorbing pads. These pads are designed to provide high-level shock-impact protection to the head of a wearer under circumstances where, preferably, an entire helmet system utilizing these components is bilaterally load-balanced on a wearer's head. [0005] In another embodiment of the invention, where additional lateral and vertical clearance inside the opposite sides of a helmet shell may be desired to accommodate especially bulky headset earphone units, a shorter, rear-sector-disposed helmet-shell suspension structure is used--having an overall "length" whereby its opposite ends terminate, inside the helmet shell, rearwardly "short" of where such earphone units will reside when the subject headset is worn. [0006] As will be seen, the system of the present invention, which is largely featured in the structure of and mounting for a unique chin-strap cinching subsystem, accommodates this other helmet-internal componentry (suspension and load-cushioning pads) in a manner easily enabling lateral self-load-balancing of an entire helmet system, and in a context which, in the bargain, so-to-speak, also uniquely accommodates non-interfering presence of an audio communication headset of the type generally described above. In other words, the system of the present invention not only easily accommodates the cooperative wearing, with a helmet, of an audio headset, but does so in a manner, and with features, which uniquely also accommodate and offer proper lateral self-load-balancing on a wearer's head. [0007] In a military helmet, protective load-cushioning, lateral-load-balancing, and, for certain military personnel, easy accommodation for the simultaneous wearing of auxiliary headgear, such as a communication audio headset, are high on the list of important conditions to-be-achieved. As will be seen from the description which follows below, the present invention uniquely and successfully addresses these considerations, and does so in a manner which promotes all of them without compromising any. Significantly, and as will also be seen, the very same features of the present invention which promote and accommodate proper lateral self-load-balancing to deal, for example, with the different specific ways in which different wearer's choose to position helmets on their heads, also deal with the successful accommodation of auxiliary headgear, such as the mentioned audio communication headset structure. [0008] Conventional helmet systems, and especially the chin-strap cinching subsystems which are employed in such systems, present non-adaptable configurations at the lateral sides of a helmet with respect to the features of conventional chin-strap subsystems. This non-adaptability, and the adverse conditions which it creates, are particularly experienced near the lower perimeter portions of a wearer's ears where such non-adaptability creates unacceptable spatial-interference conflicts with auxiliary equipment, such as with the earphone units in communication audio headsets. Such conflicts lead to significant, and potentially uncomfortable, not to mention dangerous, wearing conditions for a wearer such as a soldier. [0009] Thus, in prior art structures there is, effectively, an interference-space conflict which typically exists between the space occupied by a simultaneously worn helmet system and a headset. Very specifically, conventional lateral strap components which form parts of a typical chin-strap cinching subsystem in an overall helmet system are so constructed with "rigidified" positions relative to a helmet shell, that they effectively nearly always overlie lower perimeter regions of a wearer's ears, and do so in a manner which interferes with easy, comfortable and safe wearing of a headset along with a helmet load-cushioning system. [0010] The present invention significantly addresses these prior art "interference" problems, and as will be seen, does so in a practical, simple and inexpensive manner. Fundamentally, the invention proposes a unique chin-strap cinching subsystem, wherein opposite-side, flexible, lateral strap-elements carry a chin-engaging component in a relatively freely-slidable fashion which allows the lateral strap elements to clear the lower perimeter regions of a wearer's ears. This ear-perimeter accommodation allows, as an important consequence, for the easy co-wearing of a headset in a manner which does not compromise desirable lateral load-balancing with respect to the way in which an associated helmet sits on a wearer's head. In fact, the slidability just described tends uniquely to enhance the capability of the chin-strap cinching subsystem of this invention to enable and accommodate self-seeking, lateral-load-balancing with respect to a wearer's head. The system of the invention does this even in the context of the cooperative use, in the shell of a helmet, of a load-pad cushioning system of the type described in the above referenced '099 patent, which cushioning system allows a wearer freely to remove, adjust and reposition the locations of load-cushioning pads inside the shell of a helmet. [0011] The various important features and advantages of the present invention, some of which have just been mentioned, will become more fully apparent as the detailed description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0012] FIG. 1 is an isometric view illustrating a conventional military helmet assembly in a condition being worn by a soldier. In this view the lateral "interference" problem (adjacent the wearer's ears), and as generally outlined above, is clearly evident. [0013] FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1, except that this figure shows a military helmet possessing a chin-strap cinching subsystem which has been made and mounted in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Here, one can observe the significant lateral clearance which is provided around the lower perimeter portions of a wearer's ears. [0014] FIG. 3 illustrates the worn helmet assembly of FIG. 2 in a situation where an audio communication headset is also being worn by a soldier. [0015] FIG. 4 is a bottom elevation looking into the underside of the helmet system per se of FIGS. 2 and 3, and showing the various details of construction of the structure of the present invention. [0016] FIG. 5 is similar to FIG. 2, except that it illustrates a modified form of the invention employed with a shortened, helmet-shell-internal, rear-sector suspension structure (shown fragmentarily in dashed lines), like that mentioned earlier herein, to provide extra lateral and vertical clearance for especially bulky earphone units (such as the earphone unit pictured fragmentarily in dash-dot lines in this figure). DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0017] Turning attention now to the drawings, and beginning with FIG. 1, as was mentioned above, this figure illustrates the prior art interference and lateral load-balancing issues which exist in an overall helmet assembly employing a chin-strap cinching subsystem 6 of conventional design and mounting. One can clearly observe in FIG. 1 how lateral strap elements 8a, 8b, 8c which form part of the illustrated, conventional chin-strap cinching subsystem 8, nominally directly overlie lower perimeter portions 10 of a wearer's ear--a condition which means that these straps are so positioned that they will definitively interfere with positioning of the lateral earphone units of any headset (not shown) which might also be worn by the user pictured in FIG. 1. Such interference is a direct result of the "typical" design of the illustrated, conventional chin-strap cinching subsystem, wherein one can see that, as a practical matter, the relative positions of the lateral strap elements, and of the portion 8d of the cinching subsystem which engages the chin, are effectively "rigidified"--a condition effectively assuring both headset interference, and lateral load imbalance, in all but one, or only a very few, wearing dispositions. [0018] Looking now at FIGS. 2-4, inclusive, wherein FIG. 4 isolates and individuates a helmet and the incorporated structure of the present invention in a manner useful for seeing structural details of the invention, indicated generally at 20 is a military helmet having a shell 20a inside of which is suitably anchored (in this particular embodiment of the invention) an all-around suspension, or suspension frame, 22 which is made herein is accordance with the teachings of above-referred-to, prior-issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,681,409 B2. As will be more fully developed shortly, shell 20a, via suspension frame 22, is equipped with a self-load-balancing, self-adjusting, load-balancing chin-strap cinching subsystem 24 which is constructed in accordance with a preferred and best mode embodiment of the present invention. [0019] Suspension 22, in general terms, includes a wrap-around, elongate band 22a which is directly and appropriately anchored to the inside of shell 20a, with this band suitably carrying a pair of forward, lateral, chin-strap lateral-element attaching structures, or devices, 26 which, as illustrated in the figures herein, take the form of conventional, strap-attaching D-rings. These D-rings, while conventional per se in their individual construction, as incorporated herein in the context of the practice and behavior of the present invention, play a special role in the functional performance of the particular embodiment of the invention now being described. They do this, as will become more fully apparent, by furnishing relative-motion, lateral sliding, pivotal-style mountings/connections for the forward ends of lateral strap elements employed in the chin-strap subsystem of the invention. [0020] Also suitably carried on band 22a near the rear of helmet shell 20a, are two lateral-element rear end attaching devices generally shown at 28. Devices 28 are also per se conventional in design, and are configured to accommodate quick-release attaching of the rear ends of the mentioned chin-strap subsystem lateral elements. These devices 28 receive the rear ends of such lateral elements in a manner which allows for adjustable, "pull/relax" tightening and loosening of such lateral-element rear ends so as to enable the establishing and releasing of desired tension in the associated lateral elements of subsystem 24. Cinching and loosening, effectively, of the chin-strap subsystem herein is especially simplified and enabled by the employment of devices 28. Uniquely, merely by pulling on and loosening the two, rear, chin-strap-subsystem lateral strap element ends which connect with these devices (28), all major chin-strap subsystem adjustments, including lateral load balancing relative to other components installed in helmet 20, are accomplished. Attaching devices 28 are also referred to herein as pull-to-cinch-and-tighten, friction-action mountings. Continue reading about Headset-accommodating, load-balancing, helmet strap system... Full patent description for Headset-accommodating, load-balancing, helmet strap system Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Headset-accommodating, load-balancing, helmet strap system patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. 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