Personal Protective Equipment Liner
A protective liner for personal protective equipment comprises a foam component and a polymer component. The foam component is embedded in parallel with the polymer component such that the foam component and the polymer component absorb energy in parallel during impact.
The present application is a non-provisional application of, and claims priority to, U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/983,127, filed on Apr. 23, 2014 and titled “ENERGY ABSORBING PROTECTIVE HEADGEAR LINER COMPOSITE,” which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
BACKGROUNDMild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI), commonly referred to as “a concussion,” is an injury that frequently occurs in contact sports, such as football. Sport-related brain injuries have been estimated to occur 1.6 to 3.8 million times every year. Additionally, it is estimated that some football players receive up to 1,500 head impacts per season. Although every impact may not result in MTBI, numerous impacts to the head can result in long-term brain damage through an impact induced neurodegenerative disease known as Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, with emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
The present disclosure relates to protective liners for personal protective equipment. The protective liner provides energy absorption and may be disposed along the interior surface of personal protective equipment such as, for example, American football helmets, sports helmets, military helmets, boxing headgear, construction helmets, bump caps, shoulder pads, shin guards, body pads, ballistic vests, shoes, and/or any other appropriate type of personal protective equipment. For example, the protective liner may be used in helmets and/or headgear to protect a wearer's head and reduce the likelihood of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (MTBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), or other types of injuries.
The protective liner comprises a foam component and a thermoplastic and/or thermoset component. The foam component may comprise one or more layers of open-cell, closed-cell, semi-open cell, and/or viscoelastic foam (VEF). The thermoplastic and/or thermoset component may comprise a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), such as, thermoplastic urethane (TPU), a thermoset and/or any other type of thermoset or thermoplastic/thermoplastic elastomer.
In some embodiments, the thermoplastic and/or thermoset component comprises a chambered component having one or more engineered chambers. The geometric configuration of the engineered chambers may comprise a hemisphere configuration, a honeycomb-shaped configuration, a tetrahedron-shaped structure and/or any other appropriate geometric configuration. The foam component may be inserted into the engineered chambers of the thermoplastic and/or thermoset component to form the protective liner.
In other embodiments, the thermoplastic and/or thermoset component may comprise a thermoplastic and/or thermoset encapsulant component that encapsulates the foam component that is in a base geometric form. The foam component may comprise a base geometric form such as, for example, a cylinder, a prism, a cube, a tetrahedron, a cuboid, and/or other type of appropriate geometric shape. As such, the thermoplastic and/or thermoset component encapsulates the geometric form of the foam component to produce the protective headgear liner.
The foam component and the thermoplastic and/or thermoset component are configured with each other such that when an object impacts a helmet, headgear, and/or other type of personal protective equipment including the protective liner, a portion of the kinetic energy resulting from the impact is absorbed in parallel by the components, instead of being transferred to the wearer's head and/or other protected portion of the body. The foam component allows for a higher energy absorption during impact while the thermoplastic and/or thermoset component allows for a higher resilience (or return to shape) of the foam component. Because the amount of energy that is transferred to the wearer's head and/or other protected portion of the body is less than the amount that would otherwise be transferred if the personal protective equipment did not comprise the protective liner, the risk in experiencing various types of injuries by the wearer is reduced.
In the following discussion, a general description of the system and its components is provided, followed by a discussion of the operation of the same.
Turning now to
The thermoplastic chambered component 14a shown in
The foam component 12a may be disposed within the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a. The configuration of the foam component 12a being disposed within the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a allows the foam component 12a and the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a to absorb energy in parallel to each other. Further, the foam component 12a allows for a higher energy absorption during impact while the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a allows for a higher resilience (or return to shape) of the foam component 12a.
In some embodiments, the foam component 12a may be attached to the surrounding wall of the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a. The foam component 12a may be attached to the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a by an adhesive, a resin, and/or any other suitable substance that can be used to securely attach the foam component 12a to the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a.
In some embodiments, the top portion and the bottom portion the foam component 12a may comprise one or more thermoplastic sheets 16. Similar to the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a, the one or more thermoplastic and/or thermoset sheets 16 may comprise thermoplastic elastomer, such as, for example, thermoplastic urethane, a thermoset, and/or other various types of TPE and/or thermoset material(s). In some embodiments, the one or more thermoplastic sheets 16 are attached directly to the top and/or bottom portions of the protective liner 10a via an adhesive, a resin, and/or other suitable material that may be used to securely attach the one or more thermoplastic sheets 16 to the top and/or bottom portions of the protective liner 10a. The one or more thermoplastic and/or thermoset sheets 16 may provide additional energy absorption and protection of the protective liner 10a.
The manufacturing method of protective liner 10a entails injection molding and/or other type of molding process of the thermoplastic chambered component 14a and the insertion of the foam component 12a. The foam component 12a may be inserted after foam production or may be injection molded into the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a. The foam component 12a may also be inserted into the chamber of the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a during or between the injections for the molding process of the thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a. The foam component 12a may be produced from slab, bonding, and/or molding processes. The thermoplastic and/or thermoset chambered component 14a may be produced from various types of molding processes.
Moving on to
In some embodiments, the protective liner 10a may be attached to the helmet shell 20 by an adhesive, a resin, a hook and loop component, and/or any other appropriate attachment component for securely attaching the protective liner 10a to the interior curvature of the helmet shell 20. In some embodiments, a foam sheet 22 may be disposed along the curvature of the bottom layer of the protective liner 10a. The foam sheet 22 may comprise one or more layers of open-cell, closed-cell, semi-open cell, and/or viscoelastic foam in series. In some embodiments, the foam sheet 22 may differ from the foam component 12a in density, base material, and/or cellular structure. For example, the foam component 12a and the foam sheet 22 may both comprise the same open-cell foam. In other embodiments, the foam component 12a may comprise open-cell foam while the other foam sheet 22 may comprise closed-cell foam. Further, the densities of the foam component 12a and the foam sheet 22 may be different in some embodiments and the same in other embodiments.
Referring next to
Moving on to
Referring next to
The protective liner 10c differs from the protective liner 10a of
The thermoplastic and/or thermoset encapsulant component 24 comprises thermoplastic elastomer, such as, for example, thermoplastic urethane, a thermoset, and/or other various type of TPE and/or thermoset material(s). The thermoplastic and/or thermoset encapsulant component 24 encapsulates the geometric form of the foam component 12c. In some embodiments, the foam component 12c is attached to the wall of the thermoplastic and/or thermoset encapsulant component 24 by adhesive, resin, and/or other suitable material. In other embodiments, the foam component 12c is not directly attached to the wall of the thermoplastic and/or thermoset encapsulant component 24. In some embodiments, the protective liner 10c may comprise may be filled with Helium, Argon, and/or other gases to alter the temperature effects of the foam component 12c for heat dispersion and/or pressure effects of the protective liner 10c for increased energy absorption.
Turning now to
The manufacturing method of protective liner 10c entails vacuum forming of the thermoplastic and/or thermoset encapsulant component 24 either directly on the foam base and/or vacuum forming of thermoplastic and/or thermoset encapsulant component 24 onto a mold from which the foam base is inserted and then sealed to a base thermoplastic and/or thermoset layer. The protective liner(s) 10c may be produced individually or in sections that are interconnected by the interconnected channels 26 (
Turning now to
Referring next to
The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are merely examples of implementations to set forth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure. Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments without departing substantially from the spirit and principles of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations are intended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure. Disjunctive language used herein, such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, or Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and should not, imply that certain embodiments require at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.
Claims
1. A protective liner for use in personal protective equipment, comprising:
- a polymer component; and
- a foam component embedded in parallel with the polymer component.
2. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the foam component comprises one or more layers of at least one of: open-cell foam, semi-open cell foam, closed foam, or viscoelastic foam.
3. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the polymer component comprises at least one of a thermoplastic or a thermoset.
4. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the polymer component comprises an engineered chamber configuration comprising one or more engineered chambers.
5. The protective liner of claim 4, wherein the engineered chambered configuration comprises at least one of: a honeycomb-shaped configuration, a hemisphere-shaped configuration, or a tetrahedron-shaped configuration.
6. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the polymer component is an encapsulant that encapsulates the foam component.
7. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the foam component comprises a geometric form of at least one of: a cylinder, a prism, a cube, a tetrahedron, or a cuboid.
8. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the protective personal equipment is a helmet, the protective liner is disposed within an interior portion of the helmet, energy generated by an impact to the helmet is absorbed in parallel by the foam component and the polymer component, the polymer component increases rebound of the foam component impacted by absorption of the energy.
9. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the protective liner comprises an inert gas for optimizing thermal conductivity of the protective liner.
10. The protective liner of claim 1, wherein the inert gas comprises at least one of helium or argon.
11. An item of personal protective equipment, comprising:
- a shell; and
- a protective liner disposed within an interior portion of the shell, the protective liner comprising a foam component embedded in parallel with a polymer component comprising at least one of a thermoplastic or a thermoset.
12. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 11, wherein the polymer component comprises an encapsulant, and the polymer component encapsulates a geometric form of the foam component.
13. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 12, wherein the geometric form comprises at least one of: a cylinder, a prism, a cube, a tetrahedron, or a cuboid.
14. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 11, wherein the polymer component comprises one or more engineered chambers, the foam component being embedded in the one or more engineered chambers.
15. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 14, wherein the polymer component comprises at least one of: a honeycomb-shaped configuration, a hemisphere-shaped configuration, or a tetrahedron-shaped configuration.
16. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 11, wherein the foam component comprises one or more layers of at least one of: open-cell foam, semi-open cell foam, closed foam, or viscoelastic foam.
17. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 11, wherein the polymer component comprises thermoplastic urethane.
18. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 11, wherein the protective liner is a single unit.
19. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 11, wherein the protective liner comprises a plurality of units that are separate relative to each other.
20. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 19, wherein individual ones of the plurality of units are connected to adjacent ones of the plurality of units via an interconnecting channel, the interconnecting channel allowing for at least one of fluid transfer or gas transfer.
21. An item of personal protective equipment, comprising:
- a shell; and
- means for absorbing energy generated by an impact to the shell, wherein the means for absorbing the energy is disposed along an interior portion of the shell.
22. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 21, wherein the shell is flexible.
23. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 21, wherein the shell is rigid.
24. The item of personal protective equipment of claim 21, wherein the means for absorbing the energy comprises a protective liner.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 23, 2015
Publication Date: Oct 29, 2015
Inventors: Gustavus Alston Rush (Starkville, MS), Gus A. Rush, III (Meridian, MS)
Application Number: 14/694,851