Patent ID: 9726249
Date: 2017-08-08
CPC Classifications: A41D,A42B,A63B,F16F,F41H

Claim:
1. A football helmet for use by a player of American football, comprising: a manufactured, shock-mitigating, material layer, the material layer comprising one or more spiral shaped elements, each of the spiral shaped elements having a rod that extends in a spiraling manner from a first end to a second end, the rod tapering continuously along its length from the first end to the second end so that the first end exhibits a larger cross sectional area than the second end, the first end being fixed and the second end being unfixed and free, the second end capable of movement and vibration when the helmet is impacted by an object; wherein the helmet is sized and shaped for receiving a human head therein; wherein the spiral shaped elements are capable of transforming a longitudinal mechanical shock wave into shear waves within the material layer when the football helmet is impacted by the object in order to dissipate impact energy in a direction associated with the shock wave; and wherein all of such longitudinal mechanical shock wave is transformed into shear waves.