Flattened Wire Face Mask Impact Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current face masks for sports players lack sufficient resistance to impact from high-velocity balls, particularly in team sports like softball, where hits to the face can cause injury due to increasing batting technology and player skill levels.
Innovation Solution
A wire cage face mask design featuring a U-shaped headband with a wire cage structure that includes an upper bar, intermediate bar, lower bar, lateral side bars, and a front bar, all made from flattened wire members with specific orientations to enhance impact resistance, providing additional yield strength and maintaining a clear field of vision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a wire cage face mask provides a blocking structure to withstand and absorb impact forces, then protection against ball impact is improved, but interference with the player's view of the ball field increases
Solution Approach 1:
The face mask is divided into multiple discrete wire bars (upper bar, intermediate bar, lower bar, lateral side bars, front bar) arranged in a cage structure. This segmentation allows the mask to provide impact protection through the distributed wire framework while maintaining open spaces between the bars that preserve the player's field of view.
Solution Approach 2:
The wire bars are positioned strategically at specific locations (upper, intermediate, lower, lateral, front) to provide impact resistance where needed while leaving other areas open for visibility. The flattened wire members with curved surfaces facing outward provide localized strength against ball impact without obstructing the player's view of the ball field.
2Strength
If the face mask uses thicker or denser wire materials to increase impact resistance, then protection against ball impact is improved, but the weight of the mask increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wire members are flattened to change their cross-sectional geometry, which increases their moment of inertia and resistance to bending forces without significantly increasing their volume or weight. This parameter change allows the wire to provide greater impact resistance while maintaining lighter overall mask weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The face mask combines multiple wire members with different orientations and configurations (flattened wire with curved surfaces facing outward) to create a composite structural system that provides enhanced impact resistance through geometric configuration rather than relying on any single heavy material.
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
The wire cage face mask effectively reduces the acceleration of the player's head during impact, remaining securely in place and offering enhanced protection against ball impacts while minimizing interference with the player's view, as demonstrated by meeting impact test standards.
Implementation Method 1
Said upper bar, intermediate bar, and front bar each comprising a flattened wire member having in cross-section opposing curved surfaces and opposing flat surfaces, said upper, intermediate, and front bars oriented to have a respective one of the curved surfaces facing a first outward direction relative to the u-shaped forehead portion of the headband
Data Source
AI summary
A face mask comprising a U-shaped headband for securing to a player's head and a wire cage attached to the headband to provide resistant to impact by balls having a spaced-apart upper bar, intermediate bar and lower bar, interconnected by a pair of opposing side bars and a front bar, which upper bar, intermediate bar, and front bar each comprising flattened wire members having in cross-section opposing curved surfaces and opposing flat surfaces and having one of the curved surfaces facing a first outward direction and the flat faces facing in opposing lateral directions.