The present invention generally relates to protective headguards for athletics and, more particularly, relates to a protective headguard for protecting a wearer from blunt impacts to the side of the head, such as a head impact with the ground resulting from a slip or fall.
Participants in many sports are increasingly using protective headgear of various kinds. Football players have long worn helmets to protect themselves from blows to the head and face. Sometime later hockey players also began to protect themselves with helmets. More recently recreational bicyclists have perceived the need to use protective headgear and have started to wear helmets in increasing numbers.
Traditionally, athletes in other sports, such as basketball, figure skating and soccer have not worn any protective headgear. This is probably because the players and organizers of these games have not sensed a need to use headgear because injuries to the head are not as commonplace as in sports such as football, hockey, and bicycling. However, studies are beginning to suggest that head injuries are more prevalent in a number of sports, including basketball, figure skating and soccer, than previously thought. The danger of trauma resulting from such head injuries may be greater for children. Therefore, at least from a safety standpoint, use of protective headgear by athletes participating in such sports, especially children, seems advisable.
Protective headgear designed for maximum impact protection generally employ a shock absorbing liner constructed from a material having a high plasticity. Plasticity is a physical property which allows a material to collapse upon impact so as to internally absorb at least a portion of an impact.
In order to allow materials to regain their shape after deformation, such materials must have a level of elasticity. Elasticity is a physical property which allows a material to return towards its original size and shape after deformation. While the use of highly elastic materials in the construction of shock absorbing liners allows continued use of the shock absorbing liner after an initial impact, as a general rule an increase in the elasticity of a material corresponds to a decrease in the plasticity of the material.
Certain sports, such as motorsports and bicycling where the force of a typical impact is very high but the frequency of impacts is generally low, protective headgear tends to utilize liners constructed from a material having high plasticity and low elasticity. This allows the protective headgear to protectively absorb the high impact of a crash, but requires that the protective headgear be replaced after each impact.
Other sports, such as football, hockey, and lacrosse where the force of a typical impact is fairly modest but the frequency of such impacts is generally high, protective headgear tends to utilize liners constructed from a plastic material having high elasticity. This allows the protective headgear to protectively absorb the modest but repeated impacts encountered in such sports without requiring disposal of the protective headgear after each impact.
Another guiding principle in the design of protective headgear is the ability to increase the protective value of headgear by increasing the area of contact between the headgear (i.e., the shock absorbing liner) and the head. Generally, the amount of impact generated kinetic energy which can be absorbed by a shock absorbing liner increases as the area of contact with the head increases. However, due to the necessary rigidity of typical protective headgear, it is often difficult to achieve a large area of contact between the shock absorbing liner and the head. Such rigidity also makes it difficult to obtain comfortably fitting off-the-shelf protective headgear.
Accordingly, a need exists for protective headgear having a high area of contact between the shock absorbing liner and the head which can be comfortably fitted when purchased as an off-the-shelf product and can be reused after impact.
Generally, the present invention relates to improvements to a headguard for athletes. The protective headguard, comprises (i) a front panel, (ii) a rear panel, and (iii) a means for releasably connecting the lateral ends of the front and rear panels. At least one and preferably both of the front and rear panels comprise layers of at least a shell, a shock absorbing liner and a comfort liner. When the lateral ends of the front and rear panels are connected and the headguard is worn, the front panel covers at least the forehead of the wearer and the rear panel covers at least the occipital bone of the wearer, while the crown portion of the wearer""s head remains uncovered.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to describe each illustrated embodiment of the present invention. The figures and the detailed description which follow more particularly exemplify these embodiments.