"Customizable fastener for a visor to a motorcycle crash helmet".

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DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a fastener for a visor to a motorcycle crash helmet with the possibility to aesthetically customize such a device.

The customization of the helmet may appear to be only an aesthetical matter. However, both for obvious hygienic reasons and for reasons which go beyond technical fields into psychological ones, this understandable requirement may arise, especially when one's crash helmet is to be deposited in a cloakroom in a public place and it is desirable to avoid mixing up helmets.

The user therefore requires a crash helmet which has excellent technical features, is achieved by an industrial process, and furthermore may immediately be recognized among many, the typical counterpoint between mass production on one side and individual customization requirements of the product on the other side arising again.

Customization solutions for crash helmets are known at an individual and not at an industrial level, even if often by means of, so to say, empirical solutions, which in brief include applying internal or external labels, attaching external artificial elements such as reproductions of animal ears made of synthetic coat, various colourings obtained by means such as indelible markers or aspecific enamels.

Regardless of the artistic result which is more or less creative depending on the user's imagination, the perplexity upon the duration and consequences of such interventions remains, the interventions usually being carried out with materials which are not dedicated and which may aesthetically damage the crash helmet (e.g. because of the incomplete removal of the customizing decoration by wear), if not in a long term even structurally because of incompatibility between the materials for the decoration and the plastic material of the crash helmet.

Furthermore, some solutions do not solve the problem of immediately identifying one's own crash helmet, such as for instance internal labels, which, among other things, are deteriorated by using the crash helmet.

Solutions such as airbrushing the crash helmet are expensive professional interventions, unless they are not made by amateurs with all of the advantages and drawbacks.

If creative solutions are dismissed and plain and professional alternatives are to be sought, the "factory-made" customization is the only possibility, although it is nothing but a small compromise between mass production and customization. However, this latter solution is not yet available on the market in the above disclosed terms.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a plain "factory- made" customization for a motorcycle crash helmet.

In accordance with the invention, such an object is achieved by means of a fastener for a visor to a motorcycle crash helmet, characterised in that it includes a decorative element which may be selected by the user and a fastening element provided with a plurality of openings through which the underlying decorative element may be seen from the outside.

These and other features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, shown by no way of limitation in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows an axonometric view of a crash helmet with a visor with a fastener according to the present invention;

Figure 2 shows a section view of the fastener mounted on the crash helmet with a visor;

Figure 3 shows an exploded view of Figure 2;

Figure 4 shows an axonometric view of the crash helmet with an exploded view of the fastener;

Figure 5 shows a helmet, a visor and a fastener in a partially assembled condition;

Figure 6 shows three models of openings of the fastening element and three models of decorative element in combination.

Figure 1 shows a fastener 1 assembled to fasten a visor 2 on a crash helmet 3. On the other hand, Figure 3 shows an exploded view of the fastener 1 consisting of a fastening element 5, a disc-shaped decorative element 4, a first positioning element 9 and a second positioning element 10.

As shown in Figure 6, the fastening element 5 is provided with openings 7 through which the underlying decorative element 4 may be seen from outside, and the configuration and possibly the number of openings 7 may be selected by the user of the crash helmet 3. Portions corresponding to the decorative element 4, displaying an image or colour chosen by the user and/or selectable from a plurality of materials, may be seen thereunder. This allows to customize and thereby immediately identify one's own crash helmet. The combination between the selectable configuration of the fastener 5 and the selectable decorative element 4 allows a further customization degree, thus allowing to reciprocally multiply the possibilities of customization selection. In this manner, in virtue of the customization, the possibility is reduced of two users mixing up their two crash helmets which are of the same model and colour. The crash helmet may also be customized depending on whether it is worn by a female or a male.

With reference now to the remaining figures, the embodiment shown displays the circular fastening element 5 and the openings 7 of the fastening element 5 in a number of three, having the same shape and arranged symmetrically with respect to the centre of the circular fastening element 5. A threaded pin 6 integral with the fastening element 5 is placed centrally thereto. Said threaded pin 6 is engaged in a corresponding cavity 8 placed on the crash helmet 3 for assembling the visor 2.

The pin 6 may be provided with a male threading and the cavity 8 may be provided with a female threading. A positioning element 9 with a central hole 21 and an O-ring 10 housed

in an annular groove 20 of the positioning element 9 are interposed between the crash helmet 3 and the visor 2.

Figures 2, 4 and 5 specifically show the assembly sequence of the crash helmet 3 and the visor 2, which features the resting of the positioning element 9 on the crash helmet 3, centring the cavity 8 on the crash helmet 3 on the central hole 21 of the element 9. The O-ring 10 is placed in the groove 20 of the element 9. The visor 2 is placed above, taking care that the fastening holes on the visor 2 correspond to the cavity 8. The decorative element 4 and the element 5 are assembled on the visor 2, the element 5 being fastened so as to engage the pin 6 in the cavity 8 of the crash helmet 3, advantageously threaded complementarily to the cavity 8.

It is clear that the crash helmet 3 may feature both fasteners 1 of the crash helmet in a customizable version.