Head and neck protector

Abstract

A head projector comprises a protective skirt for use with a helmet for protecting parts of a wearer's head below the peripheral edge of the helmet, such as the temporal and occipital regions. The protective skirt comprises one or more layers of high tensile strength flexible material, such as an aramid material and a securing mechanism for enabling the skirt to be suspended from the helmet in the required position. The protective skirt may extend to a position below a person's head to cover and protect a person's neck region.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 663,197 filed on 21 Mar. 2005, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to head and neck protectors, and in particular, but not limited to, head and neck protectors for military use.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Protective systems for protecting military personnel include a standard combat helmet having a hard protective shell. As a result of the degree of protection that the helmet is required to provide, the helmet can be relatively heavy, putting on stress on the neck and shoulders of the wearer and making it difficult and tiring to wear the helmet over prolonged periods of time. In the interests of reducing the weight of the helmet, some military helmets have been redesigned with a reduced lower profile, as shown in FIG. 15, so that parts of the lower head (occipital...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005]Advantageously, this arrangement provides a relatively lightweight protective system which can be adapted to effectively extend the protection provided by a standard military helmet at the sides and / or back of the wearer's head.

[0018]Advantageously, forming the protective skirt from different sections that are flexibly connected together may assist in increasing the flexibility of the neck protector for added comfort. For example, the sections may be arranged to allow a lower section of the skirt to swing in a direction between the front and back of a user to reduce bunching of material and resistance exerted by the skirt on a user tilting his or her head back, for example, when lying on his or her front on the ground, or horizontally, in a firing position, for instance. Thus, in this embodiment, the coupling means for coupling the sections together is more flexible than the sections themselves. Furthermore, providing spaced connectors may assist in increasing the flexibility between the different skirt sections and provides a gap between the sections for ventilation and cooling.

Problems solved by technology

As a result of the degree of protection that the helmet is required to provide, the helmet can be relatively heavy, putting on stress on the neck and shoulders of the wearer and making it difficult and tiring to wear the helmet over prolonged periods of time.

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