Patent Publication Number: US-2002004946-A1

Title: Visor attachment assembly for helmet

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention.  
       [0002] The present invention relates to a visor attachment assembly for a helmet. More specifically, the present invention relates an attachment assembly comprising a visor and a cover, hood or cap made of an elastic or stretchable fabric or covering for a helmet attached to the visor.  
       [0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art.  
       [0004] Heretofore various visor assembles and visor attachments for helmets have been proposed. Examples of previously proposed non-analogous visor assembles are disclosed in the following U.S. patents:  
                                                   U.S. Pat. No.   Patentee                          4,475,254   Bay           4,575,875   Dawson et al.           4,718,127   Rittmann et al.           5,091,997   Foehl           5,113,535   Hedges et al.           5,187,502   Howell           5,333,329   Hong           5,469,584   Casartelli                      
 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005] According to the present invention there is provided a visor attachment assembly for mounting on a helmet comprising:  
       [0006] an elastic, flexible and resilient cover, hood or cap constructed, sized and arranged to be elastically received over a helmet and held thereto; and  
       [0007] a visor affixed to and extending outwardly from the cover, hood or cap.  
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0008]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a visor attachment assembly constructed according to the teachings of the present invention.  
     [0009]FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the visor attachment assembly of the present invention shown in FIG. 1.  
     [0010]FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the visor attachment assembly shown in FIG. 2 positioned over a helmet.  
     [0011]FIG. 4 is a rear elevational view of the visor attachment assembly and helmet shown in FIG. 3.  
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)  
     [0012] Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, there is illustrated in FIG. 1 a visor attachment assembly comprising a visor  12  and a fabric cover, hood or cap  14  which is constructed and arranged to be received over a helmet  16  (FIGS. 3 and 4).  
     [0013] According to the teachings of the present invention, the cover, hood or cap  14  is constructed, sized and arranged to be snugly received over a conventional helmet  16 . To achieve this function, the cover, hood or cap  14  is preferably made of a stretchable flexible resilient material, such as a mesh or net material  17  shown in FIG. 1, which easily can be stretched over the helmet  16 .  
     [0014] Alternatively, and as shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and  4 , the cover, hood or cap  14  can include an elastic band  18  around the lower edge thereof for facilitating expansion of a lower edge  20  of the cover, hood or cap  14  to facilitate mounting of the visor attachment assembly on a helmet  16  and, with the elastic band  18 , firmly hold the cover, hood or cap  14  to the helmet  16 .  
     [0015] One preferred material for the cover, hood or cap  14  is a lycra, or, alternatively, a mesh or net material.  
     [0016] Preferably, the visor  12  is made of a stretch material with a stiffening element  22 , as shown in phantom in FIG. 2 The visor attachment assembly is particularly useful with helmets, such as helmets worn by youngsters while skiing and by cyclists. In particular, on sunny, rainy days or snowy days, a skier or cyclist can quickly and easily mount the visor attachment assembly on a helmet and provide protection over the eyes, and perhaps sunglasses worn by the user, in a simple and efficient manner.  
     [0017] Then, when there is no need to use the visor attachment assembly, such as when the snow or rain has stopped falling or when the sun is no longer an eye irritant to the skier or cyclist, the visor attachment assembly can be easily, simply and quickly removed from the helmet and compacted to a small volume and inserted in a pocket, while the user is still wearing the helmet  16 .  
     [0018] As a result, the visor attachment assembly of the present invention enables a skier, cyclist or other user of a helmet  16  to simply and quickly mount a visor  12  on the helmet  16  by mounting the visor attachment assembly to the helmet  16  and simply and quickly remove the visor  12  from the helmet  16  by pulling off the visor attachment assembly  12  from the helmet  16 .  
     [0019] From the foregoing description, it will be apparent that the visor attachment assembly of the present invention has a number of advantages, some of which have been described above and others which are inherent in the invention. Also, modifications can be made to the visor attachment assembly of the present invention without department from the teachings of the present invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is only to be limited as necessitated by the accompanying claims.