Integral complex buffing structure of safety helmet

[0001] The present invention is related to an integral complex buffing structure of safety helmet, which is able to fully distribute the impacting force so as to reduce the linear transmitted impact energy and minimize the danger caused by many times of impact at one point.

[0002] FIGS. 1 to 3 show a conventional safety helmet formed of a casing having a certain thickness and made of anti-abrasion and anti-compression hard plastic such as ABS and PC. A high-magnification foamed hardened material such as EPS, EPO and EPU is laid over the inner face of the casing as a lining for absorbing shock. The foam material is snugly attached to the casing. When a user wear the helmet on his/her head, the foam material serves to retain the user's head and buff the shock, while the casing is able to prevent a sharp object from thrusting the head. The casing and the foam lining fully absorb the external impact to provide double protective functions for the user's head.

[0003] However, the foam material is a hard close-type buffing material. When suffering impact, the buffing ability of such material is still limited so that a concentrated impact can be hardly fully distributed and eliminated. When a strong impact is concentrated on the casing and transmitted to the foam material, the impact will directly act on the user's head. As a result, the user's head will suffer a strong impact and may get hurt.

[0004] Accordingly, when the helmet suffers a concentrated impact or is many times strongly impacted at one point, the deformation of the casing and the foam material can exceed the critical point of deformation of the material. Therefore, the material will be unable to restore its original state after impacted. This leads to decrement of the anti-impact ability of the casing. Moreover, after impacted, the casing and the foam material tend to separate from each other and inward dented and lose their anti-collision function.

[0005] An improved safety helmet has been developed. The top of the foam material of such helmet is formed with a socket in which a dome cover with lower density is inlaid. The dome cover serves as a softer and collapsible layer between the casing and the foam material for overcoming the above problem. However, it is hard to integrally and truly assemble the dome cover with the casing and the foam material. Therefore, the quality of the safety helmet will be poor.

[0006] It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an integral complex buffing structure of safety helmet, which is able to fully distribute the impacting force to a larger bearing area. Therefore, before the great impact energy is transmitted from the casing to a wearer's head, the linear transmitted impact energy is greatly reduced so as to protect the user. It is known that complex material has been applied to the safety helmet. Such material includes an upper and a lower layers made of high density material and a beehive-type or soft buffing foam material with low density. Referring to FIG. 7, when suffering an impact and prior to breakage in direction of thickness, the intermediate layer of low density is able to distribute the impact and protect a user from being injured by concentrated stress.

[0007] The integral complex buffing structure of safety helmet of the present invention includes a casing, a lining body and a buffing body integrally sandwiched between the casing and the lining body. The casing is made of a hard plastic material. The lining body is connected on inner face of the casing and made of hardened foam material with high density. The buffing body is made of soft highly shock-absorbent material with low density. When suffering an impact and prior to breakage, the buffing body is able to fully distribute the concentrated or stronger point impact to the periphery and convert the impact into weaker components of impact. Therefore, the impact energy exerted onto one point is greatly reduced. After the impact energy is fully spread by the buffing body to larger bearing area, the energy bearing ratio of unit area is reduced so that the user's head is protected from being injured at one point.

[0008] Moreover, the casing, the buffing body and the lining body of the present invention are made of different materials by integral foaming. The respective layers cooperate with each other to achieve excellent impact-buffing effect. The impact energy is more truly transmitted so as to prevent any of the layers from solely bearing the load and being easily damaged.

[0009] The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:

[0010] FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a conventional safety helmet;

[0011] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the conventional helmet in an impacted state;

[0012] FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a part of the helmet of FIG. 2;

[0013] FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the present invention;

[0014] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the present invention in an impacted state;

[0015] FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a part of the present invention according to FIG. 5; and

[0016] FIG. 7 is a compression load-strain diagram of the low density sandwiched material of a complex material in an impact test.

[0017] Please refer to FIGS. 4 to 6. The safety helmet of the present invention includes a casing 1, a lining structure 2 and an integral complex buffing body 3 disposed between the casing 1 and the lining structure 2.

[0018] The casing 1 is made of a hard plastic material such as PU, ABS and PC. The lining structure 2 is laid on inner face of the casing 1 and has a configuration substantially identical to that of inner wall of the casing 1.

[0019] The lining structure 2 is made of high-magnification foamed hardened material such as EPS, EPO, EPU and EPP for absorbing shock. The lining structure 2 has relatively high density and is snugly attached to the inner face of the casing 1. A user's head fits into the lining structure 2 and snugly contact therewith.

[0020] The buffing body 3 is made of low-resistance material (low-magnification foamed material or silicone material such as EVA and EPE. The buffing body 3 has relatively low density and is soft to serve as a buffing pad body as a sponge body. The buffing body 3 is integrally sandwiched between the casing 1 and the lining structure 2. When suffering concentrated impact, the soft buffing body 3 with low resistance is able to fully absorb high speed impact. Moreover, the buffing body 3 is naturally collapsible to effectively distribute and transmit low and middle impact to the periphery. Therefore, the energy bearing ratio of unit area is apparently reduced to fully buff the strong impact energy. Accordingly, when suffering great inertial impact, the buffing body is able to absorb the strong impacting force and distribute the strong external force to larger area. The instantaneous impact is reduced by the buffing body 3 so as to protect the object enclosed therein. Moreover, the impact is fully dismissed so that the possibility of exceeding of the instantaneous deformation of the material over the critical point of the material is lowered. Therefore, after impacted, the materials can naturally restore to their original state and position. Therefore, the safety helmet is excellently anti-impact with respect to many times of (or continuous) impact at one point.

[0021] The buffing body 3 can be formed with multiple beehive structures 31 facing the lining structure 2. The lining structure 2 is integrally foamed with conic bodies 21 (or column bodies) corresponding to the dents or perforations 311 of the beehive structures 31 so as to locally or totally fill the dents 311. Therefore, the connection between the lining structure 2 and the buffing body 3 is enhanced to integrally combine the lining structure 2 with the buffing body 3. This prevents the buffing body 3 from separating from the lining structure 2 when suffering impact. Moreover, the beehive structures 31 and the conic bodies 21 form a section for fully transmitting and absorbing energy. The beehive structures 31 also enlarge the energy-transmitting area and reinforce the buffing body 3 so as to more effectively buff impact.

[0022] A mesh body 4 can be integrally added between the connecting faces of the lining structure 2 and the buffing body 3 or added into the material thereof. When the lining structure 2 is foamed, the mesh body 4 is tightly combined with the lining structure 2 or the buffing body 3 without easy detachment. Accordingly, the structure of the entire safety helmet is reinforced. Moreover, the mesh body 4 serves to screen the vents 5 of the safety helmet and prevent alien articles such as rocks and bugs from getting into the helmet through the vents 5.

[0023] The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.