Visor and combination thereof with a protective helmet

Abstract

Visor for a protective helmet, having two retaining arms and two bearing devices for the retaining arms which are attached to a helmet shell of a helmet in order to pivot the visor between two end positions corresponding to an operational position and a parked position in which the visor is folded up and is disposed on the outer surface of the helmet shell. The visor is provided with a soft lip, preferably made from TPU or TPE, at the location where it comes into contact with the helmet shell in the end positions. When the visor is manually activated to pivot out of an end position, the visor is accelerated by resilient pretensioning in the direction of the other end position until the lip is in contact with the helmet shell substantially without recoil. The lip damps the movement momentum of the visor and additionally has a sealing function.

Claims

1. A helmet for protecting a face of a user, the helmet comprising: a helmet shell comprising a downsloping front region defined by a front edge and an outer surface; a visor comprising a face protector movable between an operating position and a parking position, the operating position being where the face protector is folded down and rests on the front edge and the parking position being where the face protector is folded up and disposed at the outer surface; two bearing devices, each bearing device being attached to the helmet shell of the helmet, each bearing device associated with a respective retaining arm for pivoting the face protector between the operating position and the parking position; a soft lip disposed at an upper edge of the face protector, the soft lip when in the parking position sealing the face protector to the outer surface of the helmet shell to prevent water from migrating to the face of the user; and a frame of the face protector, the frame comprising a protruding edge and the soft lip comprises a receiving notch in a first surface fro receiving the protruding edge for attaching the soft lip to the frame; wherein each bearing device is formed as a part of a two-piece plug coupling, a first coupling piece configured to be plugged onto a second coupling piece which is mounted inside the helmet shell; wherein a second surface of the soft lip is opposite the first surface of the soft lip, the second surface of the soft lip and an outer surface of the helmet shell define a channel directing water away from the face of the user, the channel comprising a cross-sectional shape of two straight lines extending upward from a point.

2. The helmet of claim 1, wherein at least one bearing device of the two bearing devices comprises a spring-biased end position lock, the lock for locking the retaining arm in one of the positions by frictional force, and wherein, when a pivot motion of the face protector out of the operating position is manually initiated, the lock accelerates the face protector toward the parking position until the soft lip touches the helmet shell without a rebound.

3. The helmet of claim 1, wherein the soft lip comprises a soft resilient material, the material being shock absorbing and sealing.

4. The helmet of claim 3, wherein the material is selected from the group consisting of rubber, thermoplastic polyurethane, thermoplastic elastomers, silicon rubber, or polyvinyl chloride.

5. The helmet of claim 1, wherein the soft lip is attached to the face protector or to frame of the face protector by a frictional force.

6. The helmet of claim 1, wherein the soft lip is attached to the face protector or to the frame of the face protector by form fit or by adhesion.

7. A visor in combination with a helmet shell, the visor for protecting a face of a user, the combination comprising: a helmet shell comprising a downsloping front region defined by a front edge and an outer surface; a visor comprising a face protector movable between an operating position and a parking position, the operating position being where the face protector is folded down and rests on the front edge and the parking position being where the face protector is folded up and disposed at the outer surface; two bearing devices, each bearing device being attached to the helmet shell of the helmet, each bearing device associated with a respective retaining arm for pivoting the face protector between the operating position and the parking position; a soft lip disposed at an upper edge of the face protector, the soft lip when in the parking position sealing the face protector to the outer surface of the helmet shell to prevent water from migrating to the face of the user; and a frame of the face protector, the frame comprising a protruding edge and the soft lip comprises a receiving notch in a first surface for receiving the protruding edge for attaching the soft lip to the frame; wherein each bearing device is formed as a part of a two-piece plug coupling, a first coupling piece configured to be plugged onto a second coupling piece which is mounted inside the helmet shell; and wherein a second surface of the soft lip is opposite the first surface of the second surface of the soft lip and an outer surface of the helmet shell define a channel directing water away from the face of the user, the channel comprising a cross-sectional shape of two straight lines extending upward from a point.

8. The combination of claim 7, wherein the soft lip comprises a soft resilient material, the material being shock absorbing and sealing.

9. The combination of claim 8, wherein the material is selected from the group consisting of rubber, thermoplastic polyurethane, thermoplastic elastomers, silicon rubber, or polyvinyl chloride.

10. The combination of claim 7, wherein the soft lip is attached to the face protector or to the frame of the face protector by a frictional force.

11. The combination of claim 7, wherein the soft lip is attached to the face protector or to the frame of the face protector by form fit.

12. The combination of claim 7, wherein the soft lip is attached to the face protector or to the frame of the face protector by adhesion.

13. The combination of claim 7, wherein at least one bearing device of the two bearing devices comprises a spring-biased end position lock, the lock for locking the retaining arm in one of the positions by frictional force, and wherein, when a pivot motion of the face protector out of the operating position is manually initiated, the lock accelerates the face protector toward the parking position until the soft lip touches the helmet shell without a rebound.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Examples of embodiments of the invention are further described below with reference to the drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a side view of a visor of the invention on a protective helmet, in particular for forest workers, wherein the visor is shown folded up in a parking position,

(3) FIG. 2 shows the protective helmet in the same side view as in FIG. 1, wherein the visor is folded down in an operating position and wherein the protective helmet additionally carries a hearing protection not shown in FIG. 1,

(4) FIG. 3 shows a top view of a front half of the protective helmet of FIG. 2,

(5) FIG. 4 shows the visor and a front part of the protective helmet as a detail in a sectional view,

(6) FIG. 5 shows a part of the detail of FIG. 4 on a greater scale, and

(7) FIG. 6 shows, as a detail, a support joint which connects a support arm of the visor and a bearing device to each other, wherein the visor is shown folded down in an end position corresponding to the operating position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(8) In the drawings, a protective helmet collectively denoted 10 is shown in an embodiment destined in particular for use in the forest industry. The protective helmet 10 comprises a face protection collectively denoted 110 with a visor 12 of the invention, which is shown folded up in an end position corresponding to a parking position in FIG. 1 and folded down in another end position corresponding to an operating position in FIG. 2. Bearing devices 40 of the face protection 110 are formed identically in symmetrical fashion on both sides of the helmet 10. Therefore, no difference is made in the following description between right and left bearing devices, support joints, retaining arms, and so on.

(9) The visor 12 of the face protection 110 comprises, on each side of the helmet 10, a retaining arm 14 and the bearing device 40, which is formed as a plug and on which a part of a support joint is formed. The bearing device 40 of each retaining arm 14 is attachable at the inner face of a helmet shell 18. Each bearing device 40 is formed as a part of a two-piece plug coupling, which part can be plugged onto the other part of the plug coupling which is mounted inside on the helmet shell 18. Said other part of the plug coupling is not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. It consists of several rod-like protrusions formed on the inner face of the helmet shell 18. The bearing device 40 is plugged onto the rod-like protrusions whereby the support joint 16 of the visor 12 comes to rest at the inner face of the helmet shell 18 in each temper region. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the bearing device 40 can be seen attached inside to the helmet shell 18.

(10) The retaining arm 14 is formed at one end against the back side of a frame 22 of the visor 12. At the free end of the retaining arm 14, the support joint 16 is formed. The following structure of the bearing device 40 and the support joint 16 is known from the above-mentioned document DE 10 2010 027 015 A1 from which claim 1 starts in its generic expression. Each bearing device 40 comprises a spring-biased locking element, which is also known from the above-mentioned document and which does not need to be described any further. The locking element can be taken along when folding the visor 12 up and down to retain the visor 12 in its one or other end position releasably by frictional force.

(11) At least one of the bearing devices 40 of the visor 12 is provided with a spring-biased end position lock which locks the retaining arm 14 in each end position by frictional force and which biases the visor 12 toward the other end position when the pivot motion of the visor 12 out of an end position is initiated manually. This is described in greater detail considering the example of a bearing device 40 as shown in FIG. 6 and as known from the above-mentioned document DE 10 2010 027 015 A1.

(12) At the free end of the retaining arm 14, a ring bearing bushing 42 is formed. Each bearing device 40 comprises a bearing pivot 44 for receiving the ring bearing bushing 42. Each bearing device 40 is formed as a plug or part of an already mentioned plug coupling, which plug or part can be plugged onto the other part of the plug coupling which is mounted inside on the helmet shell 18. The bearing pivot 44 of each plug coupling part comprises axially protruding resiliently flexible tappets 44′ on which the ring bearing bushing 42 can be snapped.

(13) A spring-biased locking element 50 forms an end position lock, engages in the ring bearing bushing 42 from outside, and can be taken by the ring bearing bushing 42 when the visor 12 is folded up and down to retain the visor 12 in its one or other position releasably by frictional force. One of the two positions of the spring-biased locking element 50 is shown in FIG. 6, in which the visor 12 is in the operating position. The spring-biased locking element 50 comprises a roller rotatably supported at one end of a rod 52, wherein the other end of the rod 52 extends slideably through a pivot bearing 55 and wherein a pressure spring 58 rests against the rod 52 between the pivot bearing 55 and a shoulder to generate the spring bias. When the pivot motion of the visor 12 out of an end position is manually initiated, the visor 12 is biased toward the other end position by the locking element 50 forming an end position lock.

(14) The visor 12 is provided with a soft resilient lip 30 at least in a region in which it can be brought into close proximity or into touch with the helmet shell 18 in the end positions. The frame 22 and the actual face protection, for example, a clear view screen or fine-meshed metal grid 24, form a face protector 23.

(15) The frame 22 of the visor 12 encloses the actual face protection, which is a clear-view screen or a fine-meshed metal grid 24, for instance as known from document EP 1 182 943 B1. The frame 22 consists of a hard stiff plastic but it could easily consist of aluminum or the like instead. The visor 12 could also consist of a frameless clear-view screen with retaining arms or of a frame provided with retaining arms which encloses and supports a clear-view screen or a protective grid.

(16) The lip 30 is formed and disposed on the frame 22 of the visor 12 so that in the operating position according to FIGS. 2, 4, and 5 of the visor 12 it can be placed onto a protruding front edge 19 of the helmet shell 18 and/or against an adjacent edge region 20 of the outer surface of the helmet shell 18. While the frame of the known helmet according to the above-mentioned document DE 10 2010 027 015 A1, from which the generic expression of claim 1 starts, can also rest upon the front edge of the helmet shell, that front edge corresponds to an edge region 20 shown in FIG. 5, since the helmet shell of the known protective helmet does not have a protruding front edge like the protruding front edge 19 of the helmet shell 18 of the protective helmet 10 shown and described here.

(17) Furthermore, the lip 30 is formed and disposed on the visor 12 so that in the parking position according to FIG. 1, it rests or can be brought to rest against the outer surface of the helmet shell 18 at the top. Here it is shown that it rests against the outer surface of the helmet shell 18 at the top.

(18) The lip 30 is made of a soft resilient material which is shock absorbing as well as sealing. The material of the lip 30 can be selected among rubber, TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), TPE (thermoplastic elastomers), silicon rubber, PVC, and the like. Preferably, the lip 30 consists of rubber, TPU, or TPE.

(19) In the example of an embodiment shown and described here, the lip 30 is attached to the frame 22 of the visor by form fit and by adhesion. Instead, it could be attached to the frame merely by frictional force. For this purpose, the frame 22 is provided with a protruding edge 23 which engages in a complementary notch formed in the lip 30. In addition, the lip 30 can be glued or welded with the frame 22. Preferably, the lip 30 is sprayed to the frame 22 which is sprayed or has been sprayed around the metal grid 24.

(20) The combination of the visor 12 with a protective helmet like the protective helmet 10, which has the protruding front edge 19 in a front region, enables the visor 12 to have its effect and to have its damping and sealing function.

(21) The notch of lip 30 is in a first surface. A second surface of lip 30 is opposite the first surface. The second surface and the outer surface of helmet shell 18 define a channel 21 directing water away from the face of the user. Channel 21 having a cross-sectional shape of two straight lines 21a, 21b extending upward from a point 21c.

LIST OF REFERENCE SYMBOLS

(22) 10 protective helmet 12 visor 14 retaining arm 16 support joint 18 helmet shell 19 front edge 20 edge region 22 frame 23 ledge 24 metal grid 24′ clear-view screen 30 lip 40 bearing device 42 ring bearing bushing 44 bearing pivot 44′ tappet 50 locking element 52 rod 53 resilient finger 55 pivot bearing 58 pressure spring 60 support joint 110 face protection