Patent Publication Number: US-7900278-B2

Title: Ergonomic duty gear belt

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
     This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/828,749 filed Oct. 9, 2006. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is directed to an ergonomically improved duty gear belt worn by police officers or military personnel which is conically contoured and can be worn around the hips to distribute the load of duty gear components over wider areas of the hips. 
     Law enforcement, military personnel and the like require an extensive array of accessories to perform their assigned duties. For example, police officers carry a wide range of accessories such as a night stick, a flashlight, a chemical agent dispenser, handcuffs, communications radio, firearms, and extra ammunition magazines for their firearm. The total weight of these accessories can often reach up to 25 pounds. Typically, these accessories are attached to a belt worn around their waist and commonly referred to as a duty gear belt. Typical prior art duty gear belts are formed of a semi-rigid material, such as leather having a constant width of about two to two and one-half inches. Each of the various accessories are attached to the duty gear belt through the use of loops or other fasteners which connect them to the duty gear belt. 
     Although these duty gear belts were effective in connecting the accessories to the waist of the wearer, they were not designed for ergonomic comfort or to provide desirable weight distribution of the accessories around the waist of the user. Due to the heavy weight of the accessories and the non-ergonomic design of prior duty gear belts, many wearers developed discomfort during use and even as severe as back injuries and nerve damage. 
     Consequently, there is a need for an ergonomic duty belt that is comfortable, reduces injury and evenly distributes the weight of the duty gear accessories upon the wearer. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is an ergonomically improved duty gear belt worn by police officers or military personnel designed so that it is contoured and can be worn around the hips to distribute the load over a wider area of the body. The duty gear belt of the present invention effectively transfers the load of law enforcement or military duty gear and holsters to the hips of the wearer and also can provide ballistic protection to the waistline and lower back of the wearer. The duty gear belt is a padded contoured belt which can be either attached to a police belt or duty gear pouches and holsters, or can be integrally formed to accommodate duty gear components. 
     The duty gear belt is a conically shaped belt contoured around the hips to distribute load over wide areas of the hips. The belt is a three-piece design having two side portions which are hinged in the back. The hinged connection includes a fastener which extends through the two separate side sections along the top and has a secondary adjustment strap positioned along the bottom of the jointed sections to provide a secondary adjustment to secure the belt to the waist. A strap is also positioned in the front of the belt having connectors to secure the belt around the wearer. 
     The two sections of the belt can either be padded or can include ballistic packages to provide ballistic protection to the duty gear belt. The two side sections have an interior fabric that is made of a stretchable material to form a curved shape to the side sections. The side sections are molded in a geometrical curved configuration by sewing the stretch material to the outer covering of the side sections to achieve the conical shape. The conical shape alternatively can be formed by a molding process. Positioned on the exterior surface of the duty gear belt are keepers for attaching the duty gear components to the belt. The keepers can be webbing for a Molle system for attaching the duty gear components for tactical applications or other types of fasteners to connect the individual components of the duty gear or holsters. 
     The duty gear belt of the present invention also includes a lumbar pad connected to each of the side components in the rear which wraps around the hinged connection and provides support and ballistic protection in the lumbar area of the wearer. The present invention improves load distribution, increases comfort and reduces stress on the lower back of the wearer. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of the ergonomic duty belt of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  illustrate the ergonomic duty gear belt  10  of the present invention. The duty gear belt  10  is ergonomically designed to be worn by police officers or military personnel and is contoured to be worn around the hips of the wearer to distribute the load over a wider area of the hips. The duty gear belt  10  is a three-piece design having side portions  12  and  14  and a lumbar pad section  16 . Side portions  12  and  14  are hinged in the back. The hinged connection includes a fastener  18  which extends through holes  20  in side sections  22  and  24 . The fastener  18  is positioned through holes  20  in an upper portion of side sections  22  and  24  so that the belt can rotate about the fastener to adjust for wider or narrower hip sizes of the wearer. The belt is designed to be conically shaped to have a smaller diameter along the top surface  26  and a larger bottom diameter along lower surface  28 . The hinged connection allows for the overall conical shape to be adjusted depending upon the anatomical shape of the user of the belt. A secondary adjustment strap  30  is attached along the lower section of side portion  12  to connect to the lower portion of side portion  14  to adjustably fasten the lower portions of the side sections together. The secondary adjustment strap  30  provides a secondary adjustment to secure the belt to the waist of the wearer. Similarly, there is a front strap  32  having a buckle  34  to secure the belt around the wearer in the front. 
     The two side sections  12  and  14  have a pad  36  positioned within the interior of the sections. The pad  36  can be simply a foam pad for comfort or can be a ballistic package having a plurality of sheets of ballistic material, commonly known in the industry depending upon the threat level for which the duty gear belt is designed to provide protection. The two side sections have an interior fabric panel  38  that is made of a stretchable material to form a curved shape to the side sections. The side sections are molded into a geometrical configuration by sewing the stretch material to the outer covering  40  to achieve the conical shape. Alternatively, the side sections can be molded into its geometrical configuration by a molding process. 
     Positioned on the outer covering  40  are keepers  42  for attaching the various duty gear items to the belt. Similarly, webbing  44  can be attached to the outer covering for use with a Molle system of attaching the duty gear components to the belt for tactical applications. Similarly, other types of fasteners such as hooks, buttons, snaps, or Velcro can be positioned on the outer covering for attachment of duty gear components. The webbing  44  as shown in more detail on the back pad  16  includes rows of stitching  46  to provide individual slots for the Molle system. 
     The lumbar pad  16  has a narrower connection portion  48  which attaches to the hinged connection location of the side sections and a lower portion  50  having a support pad  52  positioned on its surface. The connection portion  48  attaches to the side portions and the pad is wrapped around the belt such that the pad  52  provides support and padding in the lumbar area of the wearer. Webbing  46  is located on an exterior surface for attachment of duty gear components. The duty gear belt of the present invention effectively transfers the load of the duty gear components across a wider area of the hips of the wearer and can provide ballistic protection to the waistline and the lower back of the wearer. The duty gear belt of the present invention improves load distribution, increases comfort and reduces stress on the lower back of the wearer. Typically materials used for the duty gear belt is canvas or nylon in addition to the stretchable material to provide as light of weight belt as possible. 
     Although the present invention has been described and illustrated with respect to a preferred embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that changes and modifications can be made therein which are within the full intended scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.