US20170112202A1

US20170112202A1 - Protective Gear Sport Ware

Info

Publication number: US20170112202A1
Application number: US14/920,977
Authority: US
Inventors: Roger Williams
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2015-10-23
Filing date: 2015-10-23
Publication date: 2017-04-27

Abstract

An improved method of using a magnetic repulsive sports equipment to reduce the impact force received by a wearer by providing a first sport equipment on a first wearer, and a second sport equipment on a second wearer. The first and second sport equipment each has a body, and at least one magnetic element associated with the body. The magnetic elements each have a pole orientated in a direction exterior of the sport equipment. They produce a repulsive magnetic force when the magnetic elements are at a predetermined distance from each other prior to the first and second sport equipment making contact. The magnetic elements (+) are made from any material that produces a magnetic field between a north and south pole. The magnetically repulsive sport equipment can be any sport equipment that receives an impact, such as but not limited to, helmets, shoulder protectors, elbow protectors, knee protectors, thigh protectors, hip protectors, shin protectors, wrist protectors, arm protectors, chest protectors, spine protectors, neck protectors, face protectors, torso protectors, and abdomen protectors.

Description

(B) CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

(C) FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

(D) MICROFICHE

Not applicable

(E) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1)FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to magnetically repulsive sports equipment for use in connection with reducing the impact force on sport equipment through magnetic repulsion.

(2)BACKGROUND

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure, and may not constitute prior art.
Athletes that participate in contact sports, such as football and hockey, are subject to exposure to hyperextension, whiplash-type head movement, axial cervical compressive forces, concussion, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Particular athletes and their playing positions are subjected to greater physical contact per play, which can force the athletes head rapidly backward to create a whiplash effect or can incur a strong impact, which can result in serious and disabling injury, and even contribute to death.
According to research by The New York Times, released on Sep. 16, 2007, at least 50 high school or younger football players in more than 20 states since 1997 have been killed or have sustained serious head injuries on the field. A further study published in the September 5^thissue of Neurology indicated that National Football League (NFL) players may face a higher risk of dying from Alzheimer's disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This study links the risk to head injuries, even while wearing a protective helmet authorized by the NFL.
Researchers from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, in Cincinnati, analyzed 3,439 former NFL players who had spent at least five seasons in the league between 1959 and 1988. Of those players, 334 of them had died. Their causes of death were analyzed by researchers, and it was found that seven had died of Alzheimer's and seven had died of ALS. It was also determined that this is nearly four times higher a rate than that of the general population. Thus resulting in a possible direct link between helmet impacts and increased rate of death.
Outside of the link between Alzheimer's disease or ALS and head injuries, another type of injury suffered by football players is a concussion. A concussion is defined as an impact to the head that causes a change in mental status. Changes in mental status include memory problems, dizziness, headaches, confusion, blurred vision, or even loss of consciousness. These symptoms may last a few minutes, or many days. Not all people who have concussions lose consciousness.
Although football players wear helmets and other protective equipment, many players still suffer concussions. Over the last 20 years, there have been studies that indicate that 15-20% of high school football players (200,000-250,000 players) suffer concussions each year. Researchers at the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina analyzed data from 242 schools and 17,549 football players. They found that 888 players (5.1%) had at least one concussion in a season. Of the 888 players who had one concussion, 131 of them (14.7%) had another concussion the same season.
Even though concussions appear to have decreased in number and severity over the last few years, the overall number of head injuries is still high. As shown by the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory study, players who have one concussion are approximately three times more likely to have a second concussion the same season than those players who have not had an injury. Head injuries jeopardize not only football players' careers, but their future health.
Sports-related injuries to the scalp, skull, or brain can occur when two athletes collide in the field. Such injuries can lead to permanent disability or death. Yet head-to-head tactics, such as butt-blocking, face tackling, or spearing tackles that make the head the initial and primary contact point with an opposing player, frequently occur in football. It is also common for players to lower their heads and use the crown of their helmets to strike a blow against an opponent on the field. These tactics lead to increased risk of brain injuries among football players at the college and professional level, as well as among children and teenangers who are involved in this sport.
Several types of impact absorbing equipment, such as helmets, have been developed for athletes participating in severe contact sports. The player's helmet includes shock absorbing elements or materials to absorb a percentage of the impact force. However, these systems to do not provide proactive repulsion characteristics to the impact prior to contact with the helmet, and they do not provide an active impact deflection prior to contact.
The known impact absorbing helmets are designed to reduce direct impact forces that can mechanically damage an area of contact. Known impact absorbing helmets will typically include padding and a protective shell to reduce the risk of physical head injury. Helmet liners are provided beneath a hardened exterior shell to reduce violent deceleration of the head. These types of protective gear are reasonably effective in preventing injury. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of protective gear remains limited. similar approach is targeted by patents files under the numbers US 20140215693 A1, US 20140259308 A1, wherein magnetic elements are placed under the outer layer of helmets. Magnets are positioned identically in helmets so that the north magnetic field is facing outward. When two or more helmets come in close proximity, the like magnetic fields repel one another.
“Sole with buffer elements,” as suggested in US 20030213146 A1, also aims to provide a sole with a plurality of buffer elements embedded in the sole at areas bearing the most part of pressure applied to the sole by a wearer' foot. Each of the buffer elements includes a non-magnetic housing that has a compressible structure, and two permanent magnets that are vertically, oppositely disposed in the housing. This invention gives forth a sole that absorbs a reactive force from the ground and provides a buffer effect.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not describe magnetically repulsive sports equipment that allows reducing the impact force on sport equipment by magnetic repulsion installed at various locations in any sports wear.
Therefore, a need exists for new and improved magnetically repulsive sports equipment that can be used for reducing the impact force on sport equipment by magnetic repulsion. In this regard, the present invention substantially fulfills this need. In this respect, the magnetically repulsive sports equipment, according to the present invention, substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art. In doing so, it provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of reducing the impact force on sports equipment through magnetic repulsion.
Thus, for the foregoing reasons, a need exists for a system installed on sports ware that provides better protection from impact forces during play or field collisions. The present invention provides protective gear that can alleviate the above problems and substantially fulfills this need.

(F) SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of systems for providing better protection from impact forces during play or collisions on the field, the present invention provides an improved system for providing magnetically repulsive sports equipment. As such, the general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new and improved system for installing magnetic elements on sports ware for providing magnetically repulsive sports equipment that has all of the advantages of the prior art, and none of the disadvantages.
To attain this, the present invention is essentially comprised of a sports equipment system for reducing the impact force on sport equipment using magnetic repulsion. The sports equipment system includes sports equipment that is worn by a wearer or sports person. The sport equipment has a body, at least one magnetic element associated with the body, and an impact absorbing member configured to receive at least a portion of the magnetic element. The magnetic element has a first pole that is orientated in a direction exterior of the sport equipment, and is configured to produce a repulsive magnetic force when a second magnetic element of a second sport equipment is at a predetermined distance from the sport equipment prior to the sport equipment contacting the second sport equipment.
The magnetic element is a plurality of magnetic elements associated with the body at a plurality of locations on the body.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods, and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions, insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a new and improved magnetically repulsive sport equipment that may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.
An even further objective of the present invention is to provide a new and improved magnetically repulsive sport equipment that has a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor. Accordingly, it is then susceptible to low prices of sale to the consuming public, thereby making such magnetically repulsive sport equipment economically available to the buying public.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide magnetically repulsive sports equipment for reducing the impact force on sport equipment through magnetic repulsion. This allows for proactively reducing the impact force prior to contact between sports equipment.
Lastly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a new and improved method of using a magnetic repulsive sport equipment to reduce an impact force received by a wearer by providing a first sport equipment on a first wearer, and a second sport equipment on a second wearer. The first and second sport equipment each has a body, and at least one magnetic element associated with the body. The magnetic elements each have a pole orientated in a direction exterior of the sport equipment. They produce a repulsive magnetic force when the magnetic elements are at a predetermined distance from each other prior to the first and second sport equipment making contact.
Other aspects of the present invention will become apparent, from time to time, throughout the specification, as hereinafter related.
It is noted that the purpose of the foregoing summarized matter is to enable the Patent Office and the public generally, especially scientists, engineers, and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly, from a cursory inspection, the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application.
These, together with other objectives of the invention and the various features of novelty that characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages, and the specific objectives attained by its uses, reference should be had to the descriptive matter, in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.

(G) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To further clarify various aspects of some example embodiments of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the appended drawing. It is appreciated that the drawing depicts only illustrated embodiments of the invention, and is, therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B depict exemplary embodiment of back protection shoulder packs with installed magnets.

FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B show leg guards used in games like football and hockey.

FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B show the wiser of the helmet used players in games soccer or rugby or American football.

FIG. 4. The figure shows the earth magnets installed inside the toe section of the sport shoe.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE INVENTION

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using the terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced with only some of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order to not obscure the illustrative embodiments.
In the present invention, new and improved magnetically repulsive sports equipment of the present invention for reducing the impact force on sport equipment by magnetic repulsion is illustrated, and will be described. More particularly, the magnetically repulsive sports equipment can be any sports equipment that receives an impact, such as but not limited to, helmets, shoulder protectors, elbow protectors, knee protectors, thigh protectors, hip protectors, shin protectors, wrist protectors, arm protectors, chest protectors, spine protectors, neck protectors, face protectors, torso protectors, and abdomen protectors.
Alternatively, the magnetically repulsive sport equipment can also be sport equipment worn by a player and in combination with sports paraphernalia containing the magnetically repulsive sport equipment, such as but not limited to, baseballs, softballs, bats, hockey pucks, hockey sticks, footballs, or polo mallets. The present application will describe, as an example, an embodiment of the present invention as associated with a football helmet. However, it can be appreciated that the present invention can be associated with any impact protection equipment. Thus, the following exemplary description does not limit the scope of the present invention.
The magnetically repulsive sport equipment can be a helmet with multiple magnetic elements. The magnetic elements can be associated with an entire or partial surface of the helmet. The magnetic elements are orientated so that each magnetic element has the same pole facing away from the helmet. When a second helmet having the same magnetic elements in the same orientation of the first helmet impacts the first helmet, the repulsive force produced between the similar poled magnetic elements of the impacting helmets reduces the impact force or deflects the impact. Thus reducing the impact force felt by a person wearing the helmets, and reducing the potential of head or neck injury.
The magnetic elements are made from any material that produces a magnetic field between a north and south pole. The magnetic field produced is invisible, but produces a force that attracts the opposite pole of other magnets, or repels the same poles of other magnets. The magnetic elements can be made from, but not limited to, earth magnets, ferromagnetic materials, ferromagnetic materials, paramagnetic materials, or diamagnetic materials. Ferromagnetic and ferromagnetic materials can be, but are not limited to, iron, nickel, cobalt, alloys of rare earth metals, lodestone, alnico, ferrite, gadolinium, dysprosium, magnetite, samarium-cobalt, neodymium-iron-boron (NIB), lanthanoid elements, ceramics, or curable resins comprised of magnetic materials. Paramagnetic materials can be, but are not limited to, platinum, aluminum, oxygen or magnetic ferrofluids. Diamagnetic materials are magnets that are repelled by both poles.
Referring now to the invention in more detail, FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B depict exemplary embodiment of back protection shoulder packs with installed magnets having magnetically repulsive force according to the present invention. The FIG. 1A shows the placement of earth magnets (2) on back protection shoulder packs worn in games like football, an outer plate (1), a (inner) pad and pad/foam (back) (4). FIG. 1B shows a detailed view of the back protection shoulder pack with same components of FIG. 1A.
Again, referring FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B show leg guards used in games like football and hockey. The FIG. 2A shows outer shin guard (5), outer plate (6) of the shin guard, no. of magents (7) installed in between the the outer shin guard and inner shin guard (8). The FIG. 2B provides a more detailed view of the shin guard with the arrangement of the earth magnets. The figure also consists of the same componets as FIG. 2A.
Further, referring FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B show the wiser of the helmet used players in games like soccer or rugby or American football. FIG. 3A includes earth magnets (9) and (10) inside the solid steel tubes (11) or like of the wiser. A outer plastic coating (12) is provided that surrounds the solid steel tubes (11). Further, a detailed view of the arrangement of the earth magnets inside the steel tubes of the wiser is shown in FIG. 3B. The figure essentially depicts the same components of the FIG. 3A.
Also illustrated is the earth magnets placed inside spikes or sport shoes in FIG. 4. The figure shows the earth magnets (14) installed inside the toe section of the sport shoe. The figure includes inner foam (13) and outer shoe layer(15). The magnets (14) are placed in between the inner foam and outer shoe layer.
While embodiments of the magnetically repulsive sport equipment have been described in detail, it should be apparent that modifications and variations thereto are possible, all of which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention. With respect to the above description, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly, and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention. Although reducing the impact force on a helmet by magnetic repulsion has been described for exemplary purposes, it should be appreciated that the magnetically repulsive sports equipment, herein described, is also suitable for reducing impact on the human body regarding other sport protection equipment, balls, or pucks containing the magnetic elements.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.

Claims

What is claimed:

1. An improved system for installing magnetic elements on the sports ware for providing magnetically repulsive sport equipment comprising:

at least one sport equipment having a body;

at least one magnetic element associated with said body, said magnetic element having a first pole orientated in a direction exterior of said sport equipment; and

wherein said magnetic element is installed to produce a repulsive magnetic force when a second magnetic element of a second sport equipment is at a predetermined distance from said sport equipment prior to said sport equipment contacting said second sport equipment.

2. The system for installing magnetic elements on the sports ware as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sport equipment is different from said second sport equipment.

3. The system for installing magnetic elements on the sports ware as claimed in claim 1, wherein said magnetic element is a plurality of magnetic elements attached to said body.

4. The system for installing magnetic elements on the sports ware as claimed in claim 1, wherein said magnetic element is a plurality of magnetic elements attached to said inner body.

5. The system for installing magnetic elements on the sports ware as claimed in claim 1, wherein said magnetic element is a plurality of magnetic elements impregnated in one of said body.

6. The system for installing magnetic elements on the sports ware as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sport equipment is a helmet.

7. A method of for installing magnetic elements on the sports ware to produce a magnetically repulsive sport equipment to reduce an impact force received by a wearer of the magnetically repulsive sport equipment comprising the steps of:

a) providing a sport equipment on a wearer of first sport equipment comprising a body, at least one first magnetic element associated with the body, and a impact absorbing member configured to receive at least a portion of said first magnetic element; and

wherein said first magnetic element having a first pole orientated in a direction exterior of said sport equipment;

b) producing a repulsive magnetic force when said magnetic element is at a predetermined distance from another magnetic element prior to said sport equipment contacting said another sport equipment.