Protective helmet

Abstract

The invention relates to a protective helmet, comprising an outer shell (1) for distributing impact forces and an antenna (2) for transferring a radio signal, which antenna is arranged at least partially inside the outer shell (1). The outer shell (1) consists of a main material in a main region (5). The protective helmet is characterized in that the outer shell (1) consists of a cut-out material in a cut-out region (6), the cut-out material having a lesser damping effect on the radio signal in comparison with the main material. The invention further relates to a method for producing a protective helmet.

Claims

1. A protective helmet comprising: an outer shell adapted to distribute impact forces; and an antenna located at least partially inside the outer shell and configured to transmit a radio signal; wherein the outer shell defines a main portion formed of a main material including a main fiber composite including a main matrix material and a main fiber material and a cut-out portion adjacent to the main portion and formed of a cut-out material including a secondary fiber composite including a secondary matrix material and a secondary fiber material, wherein the cut-out material defines a lower damping effect on a radio signal compared to the main material, the main matrix material corresponds to the secondary matrix material in its composition, and the secondary fiber material is different from the main fiber material, wherein the outer shell defines an extension portion and the antenna extends substantially completely along the extension portion, and wherein the extension portion is spaced from the main portion by at least 10 mm.

2. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the main fiber material includes carbon fibers.

3. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the main portion and the cut-out portion are integrally bonded together.

4. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the cut-out portion adjoins the main portion along at least three directions on the outer shell.

5. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the antenna contacts the outer shell.

6. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the outer shell defines a concave shape configured to partially enclose a head of a wearer of the protective helmet and defines a center point configured to substantially correspond with a center of the head of a wearer when worn, a point reflection about the center point of at least one portion of the cut-out portion defines a mirror region, and a mirror region radio path for said radio signal, starting from the antenna and extending through the mirror region, defines a lower damping than a main portion radio path for said radio signal extending through the main portion.

7. The protective helmet according to claim 6, wherein the outer shell defines an opening and the mirror region overlaps the opening.

8. The protective helmet according to claim 6, wherein the cut-out portion overlaps with the mirror region.

9. The protective helmet according to claim 8, wherein the cut-out portion defines a first contiguous cut-out partial portion defining the extension portion and a second contiguous cut-out partial portion defining the mirror region, and the main portion separates the first contiguous cut-out partial portion from the second contiguous cut-out partial portion.

10. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the protective helmet defines an inner layer within the outer shell configured to damp impact forces.

11. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the antenna extends in a longitudinal direction of the helmet more than in a transverse direction thereof that extends transversely to the longitudinal direction.

12. The protective helmet according to claim 11, wherein longitudinal direction is oriented substantially vertically.

13. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the antenna is positioned on the outer shell substantially centrally relative to an outer shell transverse direction defined by a left and a right lateral direction of a wearer of the protective helmet.

14. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the extension portion is substantially completely surrounded by the cut-out portion.

15. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the antenna contacts the cut-out portion.

16. The protective helmet according to claim 1, wherein the secondary fiber material defines a lower damping effect on a radio signal compared to the main fiber material.

17. A protective helmet comprising: an outer shell adapted to distribute impact forces; and an antenna located at least partially inside the outer shell and configured to transmit a radio signal; wherein the outer shell defines a main portion formed of a main material and a cut-out portion formed of a cut-out material, wherein the cut-out material defines a lower damping effect on a radio signal compared to the main material, wherein the outer shell defines a concave shape configured to partially enclose a head of a wearer of the protective helmet and defines a center point configured to substantially correspond with a center of the head of a wearer when worn, a point reflection about the center point of at least one portion of the cut-out portion defines a mirror region, at least part of which consists of the cut-out portion, and a mirror region radio path for said radio signal, starting from the antenna and extending through the mirror region, defines a lower damping than a main portion radio path for said radio signal extending through the main portion, and wherein the cut-out portion overlaps with the mirror region; and wherein the cut-out portion defines a first contiguous cut-out partial portion defining an extension portion and a second contiguous cut-out partial portion defining the mirror region, and the main portion separates the first contiguous cut-out partial portion from the second contiguous cut-out partial portion.

18. A method comprising: producing a protective helmet including an outer shell adapted to distribute impact forces and defining a main portion and a cut-out portion, said producing step including arranging in a molding device a main fiber material in the main portion of the outer shell for molding the outer shell; surrounding the main fiber material with a main matrix material; curing the main matrix material and, in turn, embedding the main fiber material therein and forming a main fiber composite; locating an antenna at least partially inside the outer shell that is configured to transmit a radio signal; and forming the cut-out portion of the outer shell adjacent to the main portion with a cut-out material including a secondary fiber composite including a secondary matrix material and a secondary fiber material; wherein the cut-out material defines a lower damping effect on a radio signal compared to the main fiber composite, the main matrix material corresponds to the secondary matrix material in its composition, and the secondary fiber material is different from the main fiber material, wherein the outer shell defines an extension portion and the antenna extends substantially completely along the extension portion, and wherein the extension portion is spaced from the main portion by at least 10 mm.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the secondary fiber material defines a lower damping effect on a radio signal compared to the main fiber material.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Other details, features, objectives and advantages are explained in the following description with reference to the Figures, which are understood not to be limiting, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a schematic exploded view of an exemplary embodiment of a proposed protective helmet; and

(3) FIG. 2 shows a schematic side view of the protective helmet of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

(4) The protective helmet shown in FIG. 1 is a motorcycle protective helmet. It has an outer shell 1, which is especially represented in an exploded view in FIG. 1. The protective helmet also has an antenna 2, which is set up here for a Bluetooth communication and is especially connected for this purpose by means of a transmission line 3 having a contact arrangement of a slot 4 for accommodating a communication device (not illustrated separately here). The communication device sends and receives radio signals by means of the antenna 2.

(5) In a main region 5, the outer shell 1 consists of a main material, which is a fiber composite having carbon fibers as fiber material and vinyl ester resin as matrix material. This main material can also be designated a main fiber composite. In a cut-out region 6 that is different from the main region 5, the outer shell 1 consists of a cut-out material which here consists of a further fiber composite, which comprises glass fibers as fiber material and likewise vinyl ester resin as matrix material. This further fiber composite can also be designated a secondary fiber composite. The use of glass fibers leads to the damping effect of the secondary fiber composite on the radio signals being lower than the damping effect of the main fiber composite. The damping effect of the cut-out region 6 is therefore lower than that of the main region 5. The vinyl ester resin is the same for the main region 5 and the cut-out region 6.

(6) When producing the outer shell 1, the carbon fibers and the glass fibers were respectively inserted into the corresponding molding device as scrim in accordance with the desired arrangement of the cut-out region 6. A collective impregnation with the vinyl ester resin and then curing of the vinyl ester resin subsequently took place. In this way, an exclusively bonded connection was created between the cut-out region 6 and the main region 5 by means of the vinyl ester resin along the border 7 between the cut-out region 6 and the main region 5. As can be seen in FIG. 1, the main region 5 surrounds the cut-out region 6 completely. Alternatively, the cut-out region 6 could extend as far as the lower edge 8 of the outer shell 1.

(7) The antenna 2 is elongated and extends longitudinally along the cut-out region 6. A corresponding longitudinal direction 16 as well as a transverse direction 17 running transverse to the longitudinal direction 16 are illustrated in FIG. 1. The corresponding contact surface of the antenna 2 defines an extension region 9 indicated in FIG. 1, which lies completely within the cut-out region 6 and has a distance from the main region 5. The present arrangement of the antenna 2 leads to a substantially vertical orientation, when the protective helmet is worn.

(8) The radiation pattern of the antenna 2 is such that a first main direction passes through the cut-out region 6 substantially perpendicular to the outer shell 1. The second main direction of the antenna 2 extends exactly opposite. This fact is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 2.

(9) It can be seen from the schematic illustration in FIG. 2 that the outer shell 1 defines a center point 10 in accordance with the center of the head of a wearer of the protective helmet. A mirror region 11 (only shown here in side view) is defined by a point reflection of the cut-out region 6. A radio path of the radio signal starting from the antenna 2 and leading through this mirror region 11 defines a mirror region radio path 12. It has a lower damping of the radio signal than the main region radio path 13 likewise illustrated in FIG. 2, which leads through the main region 5 starting from the antenna 2. The lower damping in the exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 can be explained by the fact that the mirror region 11 is arranged in the visor opening and because of this opening there is no damping by the outer shell 1 along the mirror region radio path 12. The damping by the visor 19 is considerably lower. The mirror region 11 therefore overlaps with an opening region 14 formed by the visor opening. It would also, however, be conceivable that although the mirror region 11 is in the outer shell 1, the outer shell 1 in the mirror region 11 also consists of a material that has a lower damping effect compared to the main material of the main region 5. The mirror region 11 would thus also be in the cut-out region 6, wherein the cut-out region 6 can also consist of a plurality of partial regions possibly not connected to one another.

(10) Alongside the outer shell 1, the protective helmet shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 also has an inner layer 15 for damping impact forces, which consists of expanded polystyrene (EPS) in the present case. The outer shell transverse direction 18 defined by the left and right lateral direction of a wearer of the protective helmet, which direction, in principle, must be differentiated from the above transverse direction 17 relative to the antenna 2, substantially corresponds to the transverse direction 17 in the present exemplary embodiment.

(11) While the above describes certain embodiments, those skilled in the art should understand that the foregoing description is not intended to limit the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. It should also be understood that the embodiments of the present disclosure described herein are merely exemplary and that a person skilled in the art may make any variations and modification without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. All such variations and modifications, including those discussed above, are intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.