Compositions for preventing head injuries in team sports

Abstract

A manufacture or composition of matter for impact mitigation and injury prevention when used as elements of a helmet for football and other sports, or in other similar impact mitigation situations, which protects the wearer from concussions and other injuries by providing a soft and flexible yet very strong outer surface, and a gel or other viscous interior, held in place against the head of the wearer by the same or a similar yet softer material as on the outer surface; and a helmet which does not have earholes and uses an electronic means to transmit sounds.

1 . A highly flexible yet strong manufacture or combination of matter, Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303 (1980), described as the outer shell of a helmet, with possibly a matte or woven impression on the outside, since a shiny surface would crack at the first collision, and which may or may not be shaped like a traditional football helmet, with perhaps a somewhat larger overall exterior surface area than present helmets.
 1a. The method described in  1  above, being a manufacture or combination of matter, which may include chemicals used to alter the elasticity and flexibility of the method, for preventing injuries in team sports; comprising a combination of materials in the outer shell of the said helmet, one combination being a first compound consisting of a strong yet flexible cloth such as a thin layer of any flexible Kevlar® fabric; and a second compound consisting of an infusion within, or a covering over the interior and exterior surface of the first compound, of rubber or another non-porous or waterproof substance, for the very specific purpose of providing a lightweight and flexible exterior surface for a sports helmet. Also useful may be a combination of infused rubber, or another non-porous or waterproof substance, or one of the other herein described means of waterproofing, and Kevlar® 49 Fabrics, which are fabrics with Low density, high tensile strength and excellent toughness, resistance to fatigue and impact damage as well as good wear resistance, or Kevlar 29 Fabrics, Ballistic Grade such as Warp 17 Kevlar 29 3000 Denier X Fill 17 Kevlar 29 3000 Denier, Plain Weave.   1b. The method described in  1  above, being a manufacture or combination of matter consisting of woven stainless steel wire, Kevlar®, and polyester, infused with rubber; or a combination of Kevlar® infused with nitrile rubber; or a combination of a nylon or Kevlar® infused with or coated with Polyurethane, which is made of highly elastic organic polymers, or chains of molecules that are primarily composed of carbon and hydrogen derived from fossil fuels, which in some formulations can be soft and rubbery in use; or a combination of the same materials infused or coated with Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE, UHMW), also known as high-modulus polyethylene, (HMPE), or high-performance polyethylene (HPPE), or with Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene. The best-known brand name of PTFE-based formulas is Teflon by DuPont; or a combination of Gore-Tex materials, typically based on thermo-mechanically expanded PTFE and other fluoropolymer products, along with one of the waterproofing methods described in this Paragraph 1; a combination of 1000 (or less or more) Denier very heavy weight nylon with a urethane coating, which has excellent tear strength and is very abrasion resistant; or a rubber or another non-porous or waterproof substance combined with Spandex, Lycra or elastane, which are synthetic fiber known for their exceptional elasticity, and are polyester-polyurethane copolymers; or other similar materials.   
     
     
         2 . A manufacture or combination of matter, which may include chemicals used to alter the viscosity and flexibility of the method, described as a stiff yet highly malleable and viscous gel of any kind between the outer shell of the helmet and the inside liner; with or without pockets or baffles or separators running from the outer shell to the inner lining made of a flexible material, extending at a 90 degree or other angle from the outer shell to the inner lining, permeable only with carefully calculated holes, dividing the gel into calculated moveable compartments; all for the specific intended purpose of use in team sports and other external impact mitigation situations, which protect the wearer from concussions and other injuries; the described pockets or baffles or separators will have small holes in them which will allow the movement of fluids side-to-side from one part of the interior space to another only at a pre-determined rate of transmission, and will eliminate almost the entire unrestrained lateral or sideways surge brought about by kinetic energy which can occur in any volume of liquid or gel when it is suddenly impacted or otherwise acted upon by an outside force, and this restraint of surge is particularly important with regard to impacts to the side of the helmet, and to sideswipe impacts regardless of the angle with which the impact intercepts the outer shell of the helmet.
 2a. The method described in  2  above, being a manufacture or a composition of matter for preventing injuries in team sports; comprising a combination of matter consisting of (1) the outer and inner shell of the helmet as described herein, combined with (2) a malleable and viscous gel of any kind, including but not limited to the formulations described in the rest of this sentence, in combination with the outer and inner shell, said gel being structured to be flexibly in the space between the outer shell of the said helmet and the inside lining of the helmet and to be able to compress sufficiently to relieve much of the stress of an impact on the brain; one formulation being a medical grade collagen gel with various concentrations of glutaraldehyde which render the gel more or less viscous, for the specific purpose of acting as an external impact mitigation structure. See “Characterization of collagen gel solutions and collagen matrices for cell culture” by Sheu, Huang, Yeh, and Ho, Biomaterials 22 (2001) 1713-1719; or a hydrogel, which is a network of polymer chains that are hydrophilic; or a fairly liquid ultrasound gel with chemical additives to make it more or less viscous; or IsoGel®, a unique super soft viscous polymer that provides superior properties for cushioning and comfort products, which is chemically altered with different additives and formulations to provide complete customization of the IsoGel® polymer system to fit any application.   
     
     
         3 . An inside lining between the inner surface of the shock-absorbent gel and the scalp of the wearer, to hold in the moveable and possibly somewhat liquid shock-absorbent gel; which conforms to the shape of the head and is made of probably much softer yet still waterproof combinations of the same or similar materials as the outer shell; in a combination of matter, with an inner liner between the inner materials which hold in the gel and the scalp, made of cloth or other soft material; and/or a honeycombed or other breathable flexible material against the head, which conforms to the shape of the head, and which may allow some circulation of air next to the scalp. The inner liner may or may not have blocks of soft foam between the liner and the head to allow the circulation of air. 
     
     
         4 . The outer shell and the inside lining of the present invention may be made of the same materials or of different materials, or different formulations of the same material such as Kevlar. These different materials must be bonded together at the edge of the helmet in such a way that no leakage or tearing or rupture will occur when force is applied to the exterior of the helmet. Here it is described that the two portions of the helmet, the outer shell and the inner cap, shall be bonded together with the application of a viscous strip of soft plastic between the edges, or a glue which is flexible after drying, and that after this initial bonding the two sections shall be anchored by sewing the two sections together with rather large loops of a high tensile strength thread. The sewing will prevent any separation of the glued edges under even the maximum force applied to the exterior of the sports helmet. The bonding of the sections of possibly disparate materials in a sports helmet is the innovation, and may include different materials than otherwise described here. 
     
     
         4 . The absence of an ear hole on either side of the here described helmet. Traditional helmets have an ear hole penetrating from the inside to the outside of the helmet on each side, so that the individual can hear sounds from the field of play. The preferred embodiment would not have an ear hole, which would allow for a more even distribution and give of the gel within the sides of the helmet. With no ear hole, the preferred embodiment would be a manufacture or combination of matter, the combination of matter being (1) the “absence of an earhole” along with (2) the use of an electronic radio device of heavy duty construction with a microphone to the outside of the helmet and/or a wireless connection to other players and/or to the sidelines.