The invention relates to the field of safety helmets and more particularly to safety helmets for use in construction, manufacturing or industrial applications, and it has its object a safety helmet with enhanced protection against impacts.

It is known that a safety helmet, such as for construction, manufacturing or industrial workers, typically includes a hard shell portion, i.e. a head casing for taking impact, a lining portion such as headband or harness and an adjustment mechanism for size fitment and retention.

Safety helmets are designed mainly to protect from falling objects. For this purpose, the safety helmet has generally a hard or rigid shell portion which is the external portion of the helmet and an interior liner arranged against the inner surface of said hard shell portion. The hard shell portion has impact resistance and particularly the ability to dissipate energy and provided by a shock, and generally consists of a resistant and lightweight material. Such an outer hard shell portion is designed and extends to provide protection against impact from front, rear and the sides. The interior liner arranged within helmet is generally formed of energy absorbing layers.

However, current safety helmets do not allow to sufficiently minimizing the impact effects on the outer surface of the hard shell and the absorption of energy due to the impact is not sufficiently reduced.

This invention has as its object to remedy to these drawbacks by proposing a safety helmet that it not only performs its expected functions of impact deflection and distribution, but also minimize, more than current safety helmets, said effects of impact in the direction of the headform from considerations of a vertical, front, back or side impact situation. It aims to also perform better than the current safety helmet the energy absorbing function, independently of any interior energy absorbing layers arranged within helmet. Furthermore, it is another object of the invention that the shape and styling of the protective safety helmet has to meet not only the applicable safety standards, but also provides for product features, brand identity, ergonomics and unique differentiation among others.

For this purpose, the present invention, has as its object a safety helmet with enhanced protection against impacts, more particularly for use in construction, manufacturing or industrial applications, comprising a protective hard shell capable of extending upon a surface region of a head of a person wearing the safety helmet, said surface region including a front region intended to at least covered the forehead of the head, a rear region intended to at least covered the back of the head and a top region forming the top of the helmet, said protective hard shell comprising an outer surface being exposed to said impacts, and being characterized in that the protective hard shell comprises a protrusion shield, globally in the shape of a Y or a tuning fork, crowning or surmounting the outer surface and extending longitudinally and through the top region from the front region to the rear region, said protrusion shield having a body portion and a branching with two legs extending from the latter, said protrusion shield being bounded laterally by two longitudinal outer walls and each leg being bounded laterally and inertly by an inner longitudinal wall.

The invention will be better understood using the description below, which relates to at least one preferred embodiment, given by way of non-limiting example and explained with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which

- figure 1 shows a perspective three quarter view, from the front side, of a safety helmet with enhanced protection against impacts according to this invention, in a preferred embodiment with an outer surface exposed to impacts crowning or surmounting by a Y-shaped protrusion shield,

- figure 2 shows a front view of the front region of the safety helmet represented in figure 1,

- figure 3 shows the safety helmet represented in figure 1, from the rear side,

- figure 4 shows a bottom view of the safety helmet represented in figure 1,

- figure 5 shows a side view of the safety helmet represented in figure 1.

The figures show a safety helmet with enhanced protection against impacts, according this invention, more particularly for use in construction, manufacturing or industrial applications, comprising a protective hard shell 1 capable of extending upon a surface region of a head of a person wearing the safety helmet, said surface region including a front region la intended to at least covered the forehead of the head , a rear region lb intended to at least covered the back of the head and a top region lc forming the top of the helmet, said protective hard shell comprising an outer surface Id being exposed to impacts.

According to this invention, the protective hard shell 1 comprises a protrusion shield 2, globally in the shape of a Y or a tuning fork, crowning or surmounting the outer surface Id of the hard shell and extending longitudinally and through the top region lc from the front region la to the rear region lb, said protrusion shield 2 having a body portion 2a and a branching with two legs 2b, 2c extending from the latter.

Always according to this invention, the protrusion shield 2 is bounded laterally by two longitudinal outer walls 2d, 2e and each leg 2b, 2c is bounded laterally and inertly by an inner longitudinal wall 2f, 2g (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). It will be understood that each leg 2b, 2c can then be bounded outwardly by a portion of one of the longitudinal outer walls.

Preferably, the protective hard shell 1 can be a moulded plastic, and more preferably rather than of a single thickness, varying wall thickness and transitions can be used in making the protrusion shield 2 that extends from the front region la to the rear region lb of the safety helmet.

Preferably, as it can be seen more particularly in figures 1, 3, 4 and 5, the two legs 2b, 2c of the protrusion shield 2 can extend substantially in the rear region lb and the body portion 2a can extend substantially in the front region 2a.

In a preferred embodiment where the protrusion shield 2 is in the shape of a Y, the two legs 2b, 2c, which are joined to the body portion 2a in diverging relationship, can be spaced from each other with a space widening substantially in the rear region lb (figures 1, 3, 4).

The two legs 2b, 2c of the protrusion shield 2 can extend on different sides of the median longitudinal plane P of the protective hard shell 1 (see more particularly figures 3 and 4).

Preferably, the junction between the legs 2b, 2c and the body portion 2a can be situated at a level corresponding substantially to the top region lc (figures 1, 3, 4). Thereby, the two legs 2b, 2c can extend substantially in the rear region lb from the top region lc and the body portion 2a can extend substantially in the front region from said top region lc.

In a preferred embodiment, as can be seen more particularly in figures 1, 3 and 4, the safety helmet, according to this invention, can comprise a transverse spacing wall 2h, preferably rectilinear or straight, and the inner longitudinal walls 2f, 2g of the two legs 2b, 2c can be spaced from each other, at the level of their junction with the body portion 2a, by the transverse spacing wall 2h. The transverse spacing wall 2h, that connects the two inner longitudinal walls 2f, 2g together, can extend substantially perpendicularly or obliquely or in a curved manner from and in relation to the outer surface Id of the protective hard shell 1. So, the branching of the protrusion shield 2 is not sharp from the middle and has a spacing formed by the spacing wall 2h between the two legs 2b, 2c or branches of the protrusion shield 2 at start of said legs. Such a spacing wall is particularly done for enhanced load distribution around or through the two legs and reducing any spot or point load effects.

It will be understood that the branching of the protrusion shield 2 of this invention can comprise further leg(s) in the rear region or in the front region.

Each outer longitudinal wall 2d, 2e and each inner longitudinal wall 2f, 2g can extend substantially perpendicularly or obliquely or in a curved manner from and with regard to the outer surface of the protective hard shell 1.

Preferably, the thickness of each leg 2b, 2c can decrease at its free end to said outer surface Id (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Furthermore, at least one of the longitudinal outer walls 2d, 2e, preferably on the side of the body portion 2a, can comprise at least one aperture 3 through said corresponding longitudinal outer wall 2d or 2e, the or each aperture forming an air vent (figures 1, 3, 4, 5).

The protrusion shield 2 can be curved on the top region lc following the shape of the outer surface 10 of the latter (figures 1, 2, 3, 5).

Moreover, each leg 2b, 2c can widen at its end (see more particularly figures 3, 4, 5).

Each longitudinal outer wall 2d, 2e of the protrusion shield 2 can be curved toward the interior of the latter (see more particularly figures 3, 4).

Furthermore, preferably, the protrusion shield 2 consist of a hollow recess, globally in the shape of a Y or a tuning fork, formed in the inner surface le, opposite to the outer surface Id, of the protective hard shell 1 (figure 3).

On the other hand, as it can be seen in figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, to provide a front impact reinforcement in the protective hard shell 1, the latter can comprise an additional protrusion shield If, named frontal protrusion shield, preferably with an arch- shaped or bell- shaped contour, crowning or surmounting the outer surface Id in the front region la. In addition, the protrusion shield 2, which can then be named main protrusion shield 2, can extend from the frontal protrusion shield If, preferably from the top of the latter.

Moreover, as it can be seen in figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, the protective hard shell 1 can comprise, in the front region la, a marking area, preferably with an arch- shaped or bell- shaped contour, made in the outer surface Id of the protective hard shell 1 and the protrusion shield 2 can extend from the said marking area and more particularly from the top of the latter. Such a marking area can be provided, for example, for brand identity, label, logo or graphics. In addition, said marking area, if any, can be formed by the front protrusion shield If defined above.

Preferably, the thickness of the protective hard shell 1 can be greater at its lower edge lg, opposed to the top region, on at least a portion of its perimeter (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

The protective hard shell 1 can comprise further on its outer surface Id, as it can be seen in figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, a step-shaped protective structure lh with at least two steps extending within all or part of the perimeter of the hard shell 1 at least at the lower portion or lower edge of the same. The step-shaped protective structure lh can comprise a step formed by the front protrusion shield If and a step extending in the front region la over the front protrusion shield If and being able to be adapted to the contours of the same (figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

It should be noted that such a safety helmet according to this invention can include further, but not shown on the figures, a lining portion such as headband or harness and an adjustment mechanism for size fitment and retention. It can also further include an interior liner, not shown on the figures, which can be arranged against the inner surface Id of said hard shell portion.

Thereby, such a protrusion shield 2 and, where appropriate, such a front protrusion shield If, can create(s) a styling and performance bridge from front to rear side of helmet shell and constitutes the primary area or region that absorbs and distributes the impact and may be crushed or buckled under sufficiently high impact to thereby absorb energy and prevent or minimize the transmission of such energy to the wearers head. In this manner, while certain regions of the protective hard shell 1 are thickened slightly differently as compared to a conventional single thickness shell, the energy absorbing characteristics of the helmet are substantially increased and, for certain purposes as per standards, for example european standards (EN), there is no need of additional energy absorbing inner structure.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the at least one embodiment described and represented in the accompanying drawings. Modifications remain possible, particularly from the viewpoint of the composition of the various elements or by substitution of technical equivalents without thereby exceeding the field of protection of the invention.