Releasable impact mitigating fastener

Abstract

The releasable impact mitigating fasteners is an adaptable mechanism that may be used as the main energy management source and/or be used as a supplemental energy management source. The improved releasable impact mitigating fasteners are easily incorporated into protective devices such as helmets and/or other protective gear for a variety of activities, applications and/or industries, that require enhanced impact absorption, reusability, and/or quick release capabilities under specifically designed impact loads, etc. Each of the releasable impact mitigating fasteners comprise a first end, a second end and an impact mitigation structure. The first end comprises a face plate, the second end may comprise at least one flange. Each of the releasable impact mitigating fasteners may further comprise a base.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 664,801, entitled “Releasable Fastener,” filed Apr. 30, 2018, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]The present invention relates to methods, devices, and systems for improving a helmet or other item of protective clothing with releasable impact mitigating fasteners and / or releasable impact mitigation structures that allow for modular component replacement and / or enhanced impact absorption performance. More specifically, the present invention relates to releasable impact mitigating fasteners and / or releasable impact mitigation structures for connecting components of protective devices such as helmets and / or other protective gear for a variety of activities, including athletic competitions, law enforcement and / or military operations.BACKGROUND[0003]There are a variety of traditional helmets that provide for releasable helmet ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]In various embodiments, a releasable impact mitigating fastener can be provided with differential decoupling characteristics for compressive, tensional and/or lateral loading, with each decoupling characteristic particularized based on the design, arrangement and/or size of the releasable impact mitigating fastener components, as well as the various material characteristics thereof. Such designs may have particular utility in a wide variety of helmet applications, including in the anchoring of facemasks to a football helmet, where significant compressive loading may be desired (i.e., to protect the player's face from direct impacts on the face mask), while allowing for much lower decoupling forces between the facemask and helmet where the facemask may be tensioned and/or tangentially loaded (i.e., where the player receives a glancing facemask blow and/or is being grabbed by the facemask by an opposing player), which could allow the facemask to decouple from the helmet in a desired manner. In a similar manner, various embodiments could provide decoupling characteristics based on the direction and/or angle of impact to the helmet (an

Problems solved by technology

However, the current releasable helmet retention systems only provide limited functions that focus on securing and release.

Such a design typ

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