Description

The invention relates to a helmet according to claim 1 and to an airbag adapted for being used as a part of such a helmet according to claim 22.

Helmets of the generic type are widespread and predominantly used by motorcycle riders. Such a helmet comprises a basic body extending in a first direction from a rear end to a front end and in a second direction from the lower end forming a rim to an upper end. When used by the user, the basic body of the helmet covers basically all of the head except at least a part of the face, especially the eyes, the nose and the mouth. So, the basic body comprises a forehead area which is located in front of the user’s forehead when the helmet is worn. Below this forehead area the basic body has an opening being located in front of at least a part of the face of the user when the helmet is worn. In case that the helmet is a so called full-helmet, the basic body has a chin area below the just mentioned opening such that this opening is a hole having a closed border.

The basic body usually comprises a main body, a cushioning inside the main body and a protective outer shell on the outside of the main body. The main body is usually relatively thick (several cm) and made of an inherently stable, foamed and shockabsorbing material like Styrofoam. The outer surface of the main body is covered by the rigid outer shell which is usually made of a hard material like a polycarbonate or a fiber reinforced plastic material. A visor can be attached to the basic body, such that the opening of the basic body can be closed by the visor.

Such a helmet, especially in form of a full helmet, gives good protection to the user’s head in case of an accident. From generic WO 2021/160817 A1 it is known to provide an inflator and an airbag being in fluid communication with the inflator, wherein both, the inflator and the airbag are attached to the basic body of the helmet. The airbag is attached to the basic body at the forehead area of the basic body and the inflator is attached to the basic body at the rear end of the basic body. Further, a rigid pipe connecting the inflator and the airbag is provided in such a way that gas from the inflator flows through the pipe into the gas space enclosed by the airbag such that the airbag expands and gives additional protection to the forehead of the driver.

This follows from the following concept: It turned out that in case that the motorcycle (or other vehicles which is used by the person wearing the helmet) comes to a stop because of a frontal crash, it happens often that the forehead area of the helmet hits an object (for example another vehicle) at a high speed. So, the deceleration is in this case often tremendously high, such that it is likely that the user is seriously of even deadly injured even if the helmet as such remains intact, especially because the neck of the user is subjected to extremely high forces. So, the risk for the user can be lowered by providing a cushion (namely the protection section of the airbag) only in the area of the forehead such that an extra distance for the deceleration is provided.

Providing a protection section exclusively at the forehead area of the basic body has the advantage that only a small volume of the airbag needs to be filled by gas such that this protection section can inflate very quickly to its full volume. This is very important in order to give the desired extra protection for the user since the time for deployment is usually very short. Further, only a small inflator is needed.

Starting from this prior art, it is an object of the invention to further improve a helmet of the generic type.

This task is solved by a helmet having the features of claim 1 . An airbag adapted for being used as a part of such a helmet is defined in claim 22.

As the helmet described in generic WO 2021/160817 A1 , the helmet according to the invention comprises an inflator being attached to the basic body and an airbag being attached in fluid communication to the inflator and also being attached to the basic body such that at least a section of the airbag deploys to the outside of the basic body when filled with gas.

According to the invention, the airbag has not only a protection section which only covers a relatively small surface of the basic body when filled by gas, namely at least a section of the aforementioned forehead area, but also a hose-shaped filling section extending between the inflator and the protection section 46.

Because of the very limited space which is available for the airbag assembly, the inflator needs to be remote from the protection section and it turned out that the best place for this inflator is the rear end of the basic body of the helmet and thus remote from the protection section of the airbag (as is known from the prior art), but it turned out that a relatively long and thin filling tube limits the filling speed of the protection area. So, a filling section of the airbag extends between the protection section and the inflator. Since this filling section only serves for filling purposes, not for protection purposes, it is shaped such that its volume is small (compared to the protection section) which additionally leads to a fast filling of the protection section.

The main advantage of such a filling section over a rigid filling pipe as known from the prior art is that it increases its volume during deployment, meaning that it only needs a small storage volume but still provides a relatively large cross section for the gas flow.

Additional advantages are the following: The filling section is lightweight, flexible and does not comprise stiff elements. The number of necessary sealings is reduced since no additional sealing is needed between the protection section and the filling section and so, the gas-tightness is increased. And finally, the assembly is simplified.

In one embodiment, the un-deployed airbag is located between the main body and the outer shell such that it is protected by the outer shell during normal use of the helmet. For this purpose it is preferred that the main body comprises a groove at its outer surface (as is generally known from the generic publication) such that the un-deployed airbag is located in this groove between the main body and the outer shell. In order to give the airbag the possibility to deploy, the outer shell preferably shows a preset breaking-line at least in the forehead-area such that the protection section of the airbag can deploy from the main body of the helmet. Since it is preferred that the groove has a minimum depth, it is further preferred that the preset breaking line also extends along the filling section of the airbag such that also the filling section can deploy such that its diameter enlarges from the un-deployed to the deployed state.

In another embodiment, the airbag is located on the outside of the outer shell. This has the advantage that the outer shell does not need to have any split-lines or the like such that its integrity is fully preserved.

Also in this case it is preferred to locate the airbag inside a groove - here in a groove that extends into the outer shell. In order to ensure a tight contact between the outer shell and the main body, the groove section of the outer shell preferably extends into a groove of the main body such that at least almost the whole inner surface of the outer shell contacts the main body (as is also the case with traditional helmets without airbag).

Placing the airbag on top of the outer shell further has the advantage that the mounting process of the airbag to the basic body is easy and that the necessary mounting elements do not have to interact with the foamed main body. This minimized the risk that the user is injured by a mounting element in case of an accident.

In a preferred embodiment, the outer shell comprises at least one mounting hole and the airbag comprises at least one opening at least partially overlapping said mounting hole and the mounting element extends through the mounting hole and the opening.

The mounting element can comprise a head, a shaft and a locking cross-piece extending essentially perpendicular from the cross-piece, wherein said cross-piece has a length exceeding its width, and the mounting hole has an oblong shape with a width that is smaller than the length of the cross-piece. So, the securing procedure is very simple: The mounting element only has to be turned from an unlocked to a locked position. The opening can especially be located in a mounting lug of the airbag. Usually, the main body needs a hollow at the position of the mounting element. In order to protect the airbag, it is often preferred that at least a part of the un-deployed airbag is covered by an additional covering.

In one embodiment of the airbag, the airbag is substantially T-shaped (one could also say mushroom-shaped) and symmetrically arranged at the basic body in such a way that the filling section extends in the longitudinal middle plane of the basic body. This has the advantage that the helmet is and behaves completely symmetric. In this case, the flow-path of the gas branches at the transition point between the filling section and the protection section.

In another embodiment, the airbag is substantially C-shaped and defines an unbranched flow path which can be preferred in view of a quick filling of the protection section. In this case, the filling section is asymmetrically arranged at the basic body, namely extending along a side area of the basic body.

Like with traditional helmets, the main body of the basic body of the helmet usually consists of a foamed plastic material like Styrofoam and the outer shell usually consists of a hard plastic material, for example a fiber-reinforced plastic, but also non-fiber- reinforced plastics like ABS can be used.

The invention will now be described in detail by means of preferred embodiments in view of the figures. The figures show:

Figure 1 a subassembly of a first embodiment of the inventive helmet being comprised of a main body and a cushioning,

Figure 1 a the sub-assembly of Figure 1 in a top view (viewed from direction R1 in Figure 1 ),

Figure 2 the two cuttings of an airbag,

Figure 3 the airbag sewn from the two cuttings shown in Figure 2, Figure 4 what is shown in Figure 1 after the airbag shown in Figure, 3 an inflator and an control element have been attached to the main body of the basic body,

Figure 5 what is shown in Figure 4 after an outer shell has been attached to the main body, such that the mounting process of the helmet is completed,

Figure 5a a sectional view taken along plane A-A in Figure 5,

Figure 6 what is shown in Figure 5 after the inflator has been triggered, such that the airbag is in its deployed state,

Figure 6a a sectional view taken along plane B-B in Figure 6,

Figure 7 a second embodiment of an airbag in a representation according to Figure 3,

Figure 8 another embodiment of a basic body of an inventive helmet in a representation according to Figure 1 ,

Figure 9 a sectional view taken along plane B-B in Figure 8,

Figure 10 a top view onto the basic body of Figure 8 from direction R2 in Figure 8,

Figures

1 1 a-d a mounting element,

Figures 12a a sectional view taken along plane C-C in Figure 10 and the mounting element in a representation according to Figure 1 1 b,

Figure 12b the items shown in Figure 12a after the locking cross-piece of the mounting element has been pushed through the opening in the airbag and the mounting hole in the outer shell, Figure 12c what is shown in Figure 12b after the mounting element has been turned 90° such that it is in a locked position,

Figure 13 the basic body of Figure 10 and the airbag of Figure 3 being mounted to the basic body via mounting elements,

Figure 14 the helmet in the state of Figure 13 in a representation according to Figure 8,

Figure 15 what is shown in Figure 14 after an additional covering has been attached to the outer shell and thus the completely assembled helmet,

Figure 16 the helmet of Figure 15 in a representation according to Figure 13,

Figure 17 a helmet according to the prior art in a view from the side, and

Figure 18 the helmet of Figure 17 in a sectional view according to Figure 5.

With a view to Figures 17 and 18, a helmet of the prior art is described. The shown helmet is a full-helmet, which is the most important type of a helmet for drivers of motorcycles, quads trikes, etc. This helmet has a basic body 10 and can additionally comprise a visor (which is not shown in the drawings). The basic body 10 extends in a first direction (X-direction) from a rear end to a front end and in a second direction (Z- direction) from a lower end (which forms a rim) to an upper end. The terms “rear”, “front”, “lower”, “upper” refer to state in which the helmet is commonly worn by the driver. The basic body 10 comprises a main body 20, a cushioning 22 being located on the inner surface of the main body 20, and an outer shell 24 outside the main body. The main body 20 is usually made of a foamed and thus shock-absorbing material like Styrofoam and the rigid outer shell 24 covering the outer surface of the inner layer 20 can for example consist of a fiber reinforced plastic material. In advanced helmets, the main body 20 can again comprise more than one layer. As has been mentioned, the helmet 5 is a full-helmet such that the basic body 20 comprises a chin area 15 forming the lower front area. An opening 17 is located between this chin area 15 and a forehead area 16. This opening 17 is located in front of the user’s face when the helmet is worn. Figure 1 shows a sub-assembly of a basic body (namely all of the basic body except the outer shell) of an inventive helmet in a representation according to Figure 9. The difference between the prior art is that the main body 20 has a groove 30 at its outer surface as is known from generic WO 2021/160817 A1 . This groove 30 has an inflator section 31 at the rear end of the main body 20, a forehead section 36 at the forehead area and a connecting section 32 connecting the inflator section 31 to the forehead section 36. The main body 20 can be made from the same material as the main body of a helmet of the prior art.

As can especially be seen from Figure 1 , the connection section 32 of the groove 30 has a relatively small width in Y-direction and the groove 30 widens at the forehead section 36. Further, the connecting section 46 has a less depth than the inflator section 31.

Figure 2 shows two cuttings 40a and 40b from which the airbag to be attached to the main body 20 is sewn. One can easily see that the two cuttings 40a, 40b are congruent such that they both have a filling section 42a, 42b and a protection section 46a, 46b. Instead of using two cuttings, it would of course also be possible to use only one cutting and fold the same along a folding line as is for example known from knee airbag cushions or side airbag cushions. Mounting lugs 47 are provided at the edge regions of the cuttings by means of which the airbag - especially its protection section - is attached to the main body 20. These mounting lugs 47 are usually in one piece with the main area of the cuttings. A complete airbag 40 can be sewn from these two cuttings by means of a single seam 48 as can be seen from Figure 3. In this first embodiment, the airbag is symmetric and thus T-shaped (or mushroom-shaped) such that the flow path of the gas is branched. In other embodiments, the airbag can also be made in one piece by means of the known one-piece-woven technique.

This airbag 40, an inflator 50 and a control element 54 for the inflator 50 are now attached to the main body 20, such that the inflator 50 is placed in the inflator section 31 of the groove, the filling section 42 of the airbag 40 is located in the connecting section 32 of the groove 30 and the protection section 46 of the airbag 40 is located in the forehead section 36 of the groove 30 and connected to the main body 20 by means of the mounting lugs 47, each having an opening 50. The control element 54 usually comprises a sensor such that it can trigger the inflator 50 in case of an acceleration or deceleration beyond a determined threshold value.

In a final assembly step, an outer shell 24 is attached to the main body 20.

When the inflator 50 is triggered, gas streams into the filling section 42 of the airbag and from there into the protection section 46 which then extends from the basic body 10 as can be seen from Figure 6. So, a cushion is provided in front of the users’ forehead that cushions an impact in this area, such that the forces acting on the users head and neck are reduced.

In the just described embodiment, the complete helmet including the airbag is symmetric. As can be seen from Figure 7, also asymmetric geometries can be used such that the airbag is substantially C-shaped. In this case the filling section 42 (and thus the connecting section of the groove) extends on one side of the basic body 10 offset of the middle-plane in the X-Z-plane. The flow path of the gas is un-branched in this case.

Figures 8 to 16 show another embodiment of the helmet according to the invention. One main difference is that the airbag is not located between the main body 20 and the outer shell 24, but on top of the outer shell 24. One advantage of this embodiment is that the outer shell 24 does not need to have split-lines or the like such that it is as sturdy as the outer shell of a traditional helmet.

Also in this embodiment, a groove 30’ for accommodating the airbag 40 and the inflator is provided, but - since the airbag is located on the outside of the outer shell 24 - this groove 30’ extends into the outer shell 24. Since it is desired that the inner surface of the outer shell 24 is in contact to the outer surface of the main body, the main body also comprises a groove into which the groove section of outer shell 24 extends (see Figures 8 and 9). The thickness of the outer shell 24 is preferably essentially constant. The shape of the groove 30’ in the outer shell 24 is substantially the same as the shape of the groove 30 in the main body 20 of the embodiment shown in Figure 1 a. As can for example be seen from Figure 10, mounting holes 52 are provided in the outer shell 24 at the positions of the openings 50 in the mounting lugs 47. These mounting holes 52 have an oblong shape with a length exceeding the width.

Figures 1 1 a to 1 1d show a mounting element designed for mounting the airbag 40 to the outer shell by using an opening 50 in the airbag and a mounting hole 52 in the outer shell 24. Since in this embodiment four pairs of openings 50 1 mounting holes 52 are present, of course also 4 mounting elements 60 are needed.

Figure 1 1 b is a side view from direction R3 in Figure 1 1 a, Figure 1 1 c is a bottom view from direction R4 in Figure 1 1 a and Figure 1 1 d is a top view from direction R5 in Figure 1 1 a. The mounting element 60 comprises a head 62 with a circular lower surface, a shaft 64 extending from the lower surface and a locking cross-piece 66 at the end of the shaft 64. The length of this locking cross-piece 66 is a little smaller than the length of a mounting hole 52 and the width of the locking cross-piece 66 is a little smaller than the width of a mounting hole 52. Further, the length of the locking cross-piece exceeds the width of a mounting hole 52. A slit 63 is arranged in the upper surface of the head 62 such that the mounting element can be rotated with the aid of a screw driver.

Figures 12a to 12c show how a mounting lug 47 of the airbag 40 is mounted to the outer shell 24 by means of the just described mounting element 60. The airbag 40 placed in the groove 30’ of the outer shell 24 in such a way that the openings 50 essentially flush with the mounting holes 52. The openings 50 can essentially have the same shape as the mounting holes 52). Then the locking cross-piece of a mounting element 60 is pushed through the opening 50 and the mounting hole 52. It is to be noted that the main body 20 comprises a hollow under each mounting hole 52 such that the locking cross-piece does not interfere with the main body 20. Finally, the mounting element 54 is turned by 90° (Figure 12c) such that it secures the mounting lug 47 to the outer shell 24. These steps are of course performed for each pair of openings / mounting holes (see Figure 13).

In order to protect the airbag from the environment and in order to enhance the optical appearance, an additional covering 70 that covers the airbag 40 and the inflator 50 can be attached to the outer shell 24 (Figures 14 and 15). This covering can comprise split- lines and/ or hinges to allow at least parts of it to be moved by the deploying airbag such that the airbag can deploy from the basic body as described in view of the first embodiment. As an alternative, the additional covering could completely disengage from the outer shell when the airbag deploys.

Of course, the principle of locating the airbag outside the outer shell could also be applied to the geometry described in view of Figure 7.

List of reference numbers

5 helmet

10 basic body

15 chin area

16 forehead area

17 opening

20 main body

21 hollow

22 cushioning

24 outer shell

30 groove in main body

30’ groove in outer shell

31 inflator section

32 connecting section

36 forehead section

40 airbag

40a, b cutting

42 filling section

42a, b filling section of cutting

46 protection section

46a, b protection section of cutting

47 mounting lug

47a, b mounting lug of cutting

48 seam

50 inflator

54 control element

50 opening in mounting lug

52 mounting hole in outer shell

60 mounting element

62 head

63 slit in head

64 shaft

66 locking cross-piece 70 additional covering