Abstract: A banded earmuff for protecting a worker's hearing, includes a band (12) formed of a wire frame (34) and a flexible polymer sheath (32) around much of the wire frame and a pair of pods (14,16) that press around the wearer's ears. The wire frame includes parallel wire lengths (50, 52) with opposite end parts joined by loops (70, 72). Each pod that seals around the ear has a mount (40) that is coupled to the wire length end parts. Each mount has a groove (42) with opposite sides that receive the pair of wire length end parts. This allows the pod to pivot on the wire length end parts, and to also slide along them. The sheath is molded with a pair of slits (114, 116), and middle length parts of the wire frame are installed through the slits into passages (54, 56) in the sheath.

Abstract: A noise blocking earmuff is described, which has a better noise blocking ability and which is more comfortable than prior earmuffs. The earmuff includes a cup-shaped shell (20), a cushion (22) that surrounds the open inner end of the shell and which presses against the head of the wearer, and an inside sound-absorber (26) lying in the shell. The cushion is formed of slow recovery material which has a rebound of no more than about 10 percent, to more comfortably and completely conform the cushion to the area of the wearer's head that the cushion presses against. The inside sound absorber includes a layer (50) of resilient felted foam for blocking higher frequency sounds, and a layer (52) of unfelted foam for blocking lower frequency sounds, to obtain a better overall noise blocking capability.