Military Helmet Visor Mounting and Optical Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing helmet assemblies for military and law-enforcement personnel lack an efficient and easily installable attachment system for face shields, mandibles, and other accessories, which also provides ballistic and impact protection while minimizing optical aberrations for wide field of view requirements.
Innovation Solution
A helmet assembly with a center top mounting arrangement for the face shield, allowing easy deployment and retraction, and a circumferential reinforcement system for attaching various accessories, including a visor system with a lens design that offers both impact and ballistic protection while reducing refractive power, astigmatism, and prism across a wide field of view.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional attachment system with multiple pivot arrangements is used for the face shield, then the face shield can be securely held in deployed position, but the installation and removal process becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment system is divided into separate modular components: a mounting arrangement on the helmet and a corresponding mounting mechanism on the face shield. This segmentation allows for simplified installation where components are attached independently rather than requiring complex integration, while maintaining secure connection through dedicated interface elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the attachment function from the face shield structure itself and places it in a separate mounting arrangement on the helmet. This extraction allows the face shield to be a simpler, lighter component that can be quickly attached and detached from the helmet's mounting system, improving ease of operation while maintaining reliability through the dedicated mounting interface.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a lens with high ballistic and impact protection is used, then protection against projectiles and impacts is improved, but optical aberrations such as refractive power, astigmatism and prism increase
Solution Approach 1:
The lens design applies local quality variations by creating different thickness regions: thicker portions in the center for enhanced ballistic protection and thinner edges for reduced optical aberrations. This localized thickness variation allows the lens to provide maximum protection where needed while minimizing optical distortions in the field of view.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameter of lens thickness to optimize both protection and optical performance. By varying thickness from center to edges and controlling overall lens depth, the system achieves high ballistic and impact protection through adequate material density while reducing optical aberrations through optimized geometric parameters.
3Strength
If a thick lens is used for ballistic protection, then impact resistance is improved, but the field of view is restricted due to increased optical aberrations
Solution Approach 1:
The lens employs local quality differentiation with thicker central portions providing impact resistance and thinner peripheral portions minimizing optical aberrations. This localized thickness variation maintains a wide field of view by reducing edge distortion while preserving protective strength in the central viewing area.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent addresses the thickness-field of view contradiction by moving to another dimension: controlling lens depth and thickness distribution rather than simply increasing overall lens size. This dimensional approach allows adequate material thickness for protection while maintaining optical clarity and wide field of view through optimized three-dimensional geometry.
Data Source
AI summary
A helmet assembly includes a face shield and a single, center top mounting arrangement that operatively connects a center top location of the face shield to a center front mount on the helmet. The face shield can be raised and lowered about a pivot axis provided in the mounting arrangement between a tilted up, non-use position and a lowered, deployed position. The mounting arrangement can include a detent and two recesses, wherein the detent engages a first recess at a slightly forwardly displaced position to allow ventilation between the helmet and mandible and the face shield and a second recess at the tilted up, non-use position. The recess and detent engagement can be overcome by easy manual force acting on the face shield to reposition the face shield.