Configurable Chinstrap Harness for Dual Safety Standards
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current safety helmets conforming to either EN397 or EN12492 standards require separate chinstraps due to differing tensile force requirements, leading to impracticality and increased risk when switching between environments, as existing solutions either require multiple helmets or inconvenient and unreliable buckle mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
A chinstrap harness with selectively configurable safety devices, allowing manual adjustment between two tensile force thresholds without tools, integrated with the anchorage system to prevent long-term degradation and ensure compliance with both standards using a sliding switch mechanism and resilient prongs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single chinstrap is designed to meet EN397 standard with release at 150-250N, then it protects against strangulation in low-level work, but it fails to meet EN12492 standard requiring no release up to 500N for height work
Solution Approach 1:
The chinstrap incorporates a dynamically adjustable tensile strength mechanism through a switchable anchorage system. The second anchorage allows the user to switch between a first configuration (weaker, for EN397 compliance with 150-250N release) and a second configuration (stronger, for EN12492 compliance with no release up to 500N). This dynamic reconfiguration enables a single chinstrap to adapt to different safety standard requirements while maintaining reliable performance in each mode.
2Reliability
If multiple complete helmets are carried to comply with different standards, then both EN397 and EN12492 requirements are met, but the user carries extra equipment and experiences time loss during swapping
Solution Approach 1:
The chinstrap is designed as a universal device that can function under both EN397 and EN12492 standards through its switchable anchorage system. By integrating two anchorages with different tensile strength characteristics into a single chinstrap, the invention eliminates the need for users to carry or swap between multiple helmets or chinstraps. The user can simply switch the anchorage configuration on-demand to comply with the required safety standard for the current task.
3Reliability
If replaceable chinstrap harnesses are provided for different standards, then users need only one helmet, but they must carry extra chinstrap harnesses that may be lost or misplaced
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the functionality of two separate chinstrap harnesses (one for EN397, one for EN12492) into a single integrated chinstrap unit. By combining two anchorages with different tensile strength characteristics into one device, the system eliminates the need to carry multiple separate chinstrap harnesses. The merged design reduces the quantity of components from two complete chinstrap sets to one, while preventing loss or misplacement by consolidating all necessary elements into a single harness.
4Adaptability or versatility
If a buckle mechanism with two settings is used to adjust tensile force threshold, then the chinstrap can comply with both standards, but the mechanism is complex and may be difficult to operate reliably
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a complex adjustable buckle mechanism, the invention segments the anchorage system into two distinct, pre-configured anchorages (first anchorage for EN397, second anchorage for EN12492). Each anchorage is independently designed with its own specific tensile strength characteristics. This segmentation approach simplifies the overall system by replacing a complex continuously-adjustable mechanism with two simple, discrete, pre-engineered components, each optimized for a specific safety standard.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables a single safety helmet to meet both EN397 and EN12492 standards without the need for multiple helmets or tools, enhancing user safety and reducing equipment costs by maintaining reliability and longevity of the chinstrap.
Implementation Method 1
the prongs are resiliently flexible and are deflectable inwards towards each other when a tensile force on the chinstrap harness exceeds a predetermined threshold
Data Source
AI summary
A chinstrap harness for a safety helmet, the chinstrap harness comprising first and second elongate side sections of flexible material (12a, 12b, 12c), each side section having a first end and an opposing second end, wherein said first end comprises means (3a, 3b) to connect said chinstrap harness to a safety helmet, and the opposing second end of each side section includes means (1) for releasably coupling said side sections adjacent a user's face. In use, said first side section (12b, 12c) incorporating along its length, and intermediate its first and second ends, a safety device (10) coupled across a break in said second side section (12b, 12c), said safety device (10) being selectively configurable between a first configuration, in which said safety device is free to release when a tensile force applied to said chinstrap harness exceeds a first predetermined threshold, and a second configuration, in which it can sustain, without releasing, a tensile force of at least a second predetermined threshold, said second predetermined threshold being greater than said first predetermined threshold.