Patent Publication Number: US-8117678-B2

Title: Hard hat lanyard

Description:
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 10/906,417 filed on Feb. 18, 2005 now abandoned, which was a nonprovisional application of Application Ser. No. 60/545,220 filed on Feb. 18, 2004. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to apparel worn for personal protection, namely hard hats. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Hard hats are a mandatory safety item used in or around electrical power plants, chemical plants, construction sites, warehouses, and other industrial sites. The requirements are mandated through safety programs due to overhead hazards associated in these types of industries. Hard hats are intended to be a type of safety equipment that will protect the wearer from overhead hazards as well as from bumping one&#39;s head in areas where there are low clearances. However there are cases when the hard hat can be considered a hazard in itself. For instance, in most industrial work places where overhead work is being performed, workers are typically wearing a hard hat. If a worker leans over or bumps their head the hard hat most likely will fall off. This is fine except for where the hard hat can becomes a falling object and a hazard to personnel or vital plant equipment below. 
     In other cases, such as at nuclear power plants, workers often will work from a bridge crane that straddles the reactor vessel cavity that is filled with water. If the hard hat falls off the worker, it may land in the pool of water. If the hard hat cannot be retrieved before it sinks the retrieval process may be time consuming and very costly. Typically, a nuclear power plant will lose approximately $100,000 per hour of down time during a refueling or maintenance outage. Depending on where the hat finally came to rest, it could take up to several hours to retrieve, and consequently could delay the plant from coming back online. 
     A chin strap used with a hard hat is one method to keep the hard hat on a wearer&#39;s head. However this method can be uncomfortable and sometimes a bit cumbersome. Another issue is that the chin strap is in direct contact with exposed skin. When working in contaminated environments, items that are in direct contact with exposed skin should be laundered prior to donning. However, hard hats, even with chin straps, are not typically laundered. Therefore, if the hard hat is used in a harsh or contaminated environment, it can spread to the wearer&#39;s exposed skin. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 701,639 (1902, Stamm) discloses a hat guard device that prevents a straw hat from blowing away. One end of the retainer is hooked through the hat, and the other end is hooked into the lapel button hole. This system may have been acceptable for straw hats. However, one cannot insert a hook into a hard hat because the hard hat material is too hard by its very nature. Also, the weight of the hard hat would pull through a lapel button hole. Furthermore, industrial workers are unlikely to wear formal jackets having lapel button holes. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,236 (1991, Pritchett) discloses a hat retaining device that attaches at one end to a hat and at the other end around the wearer&#39;s neck. This would be unsuitable for use with a hard hat because of the danger of attaching a loop around the wearer&#39;s neck when working in an industrial environment. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,887 (2000, Yagi) discloses a hat and retaining device having a permanent stopper affixed to the crown of the hat on one end and a clip on the other. This would also be unsuitable for use with a hard hat because it would require modifying standard safety equipment made to a particular standard. Adding devices to the crown of a hard hat may make it unsafe in an accident. None of the above references employ a feature that can easily release the hat from the wearer without completely removing the retaining device. 
     What is needed, therefore, is a device that prevents a hard hat from falling to a place where it cannot be easily retrieved. What is also needed is a hard hat retaining device that does not require modifying a piece of safety equipment. What is needed is also device that prevents contamination of the wearer by not coming into direct contact with a wearer&#39;s skin. What is further needed is a hard hat device that can be easily released when the hard hat is not being used. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that prevents a hard hat from falling to a place where it cannot be easily retrieved. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a hard hat retaining device that does not require modifying a piece of safety equipment. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a device that prevents contamination of the wearer by not coming into direct contact with the wearer&#39;s skin. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a hard hat device that can be easily released when the hard hat is not being used. 
     The present invention achieves these and other objectives by providing a hard hat lanyard having a lower strap having a first end and a second end, a lower strap fastening mechanism adapted to fasten the lower strap second end to an article of a wearer&#39;s clothing, an upper strap having a first end and a second end, an intermediate release mechanism fastened to the lower strap first end and the upper strap second end that is adapted to releasably secure the lower strap to the upper strap, and an upper strap fastening mechanism adapted to fasten the upper strap first end to a non-separable portion of a hard hat. 
     The intermediate release mechanism is preferably a side release buckle but may be any type of release mechanism known to those of ordinary skill in the art that can be used to repeatedly join and release two straps to each other. The upper and lower straps are preferably made of a stretchable fabric but may be any type of flexible and/or resilient material used for tethering two items together. The upper strap fastening mechanism is preferably includes a cam buckle that is used to secure a portion of the strap that is wrapped around the hard hat inner brim. It should be noted, however, that the upper strap fastening mechanism may be removably attached to the hard hat or permanently fixed to a portion of the hard hat. The lower strap second end that attaches to the clothing of wearer may be removably attached or permanently attached to the wearer&#39;s clothing. Any of the known methods of removable and permanent attachment mechanisms may be used. 
     These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, claims, and accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a plan view of the hard hat lanyard of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a bottom plan view of the inside of a hard hat. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The invention is a hard hat lanyard for securing a hard hat to a wearer, the lanyard comprising a lower strap having a first end and a second end, a lower strap fastening mechanism adapted to fasten the lower strap second end to an article of a wearer&#39;s clothing, an upper strap having a first end and a second end, an intermediate release mechanism fastened to the lower strap first end and the upper strap second end that is adapted to releasably secure the lower strap to the upper strap, and an upper strap fastening mechanism adapted to fasten the upper strap first end to a hard hat. 
     The preferred embodiment(s) of the present invention is illustrated in  FIGS. 1-2 . Turning now to  FIG. 1 , the hard hat lanyard  10  includes an upper strap  12  and a lower strap  14 . The straps are preferably made of a stretchable fabric. The stretchable fabric is a polyester elastic webbing, such as that made by American Cord and Webbing. Use of a stretchable fabric helps dampen, or soften, the initial shock of the hard hat when it has fallen from the wearer&#39;s head. Although a non-stretchable fabric can be used, the trauma to all the components of the hard hat lanyard, clothing attached to the hard hat lanyard, and the hard hat itself would be much greater when the hard hat falls from the wearer&#39;s head. This could accelerate wearing, or even tearing of components of the hard hat lanyard, as well as the clothing or hard hat attached to the hard hat lanyard. 
     The lower strap  14  has a first end  24  and a second end  26  opposite the first end. A lower strap fastening mechanism  28  is fastened to the lower strap second end. The lower strap fastening mechanism  28  is adapted to fasten the lanyard  10  by the lower strap second end  26  to an article of a wearer&#39;s clothing, such as a shirt, jacket, or overalls. The lower strap fastening mechanism  26  could be any of a suspender clip, garter clip, button snap, or the lower strap second end could even be secured to clothing by sewn stitches, adhesive and the like. 
     For industries where protective clothing is used it may be helpful to eliminate the lower strap fastening mechanism  26 , and stitch the stretchable fabric directly to the protective clothing itself. This could be particularly handy in those cases where a uniform such as coveralls or other protective clothing is worn on a daily basis. In this embodiment, one portion of the hard hat lanyard will remain on the clothing at all times. 
     The upper strap  12  has a first end  20  and a second end  22  opposite the first end. Cooperating ends of an intermediate release mechanism  30  are fastened to the upper strap second end  22  and the lower strap first end  24 . The intermediate release mechanism is adapted to releasably secure the lower strap  14  to the upper strap  12 . Preferably, the intermediate release mechanism  30  is a side release buckle. 
     The intermediate release mechanism enables the hard hat lanyard  10  to separate into two pieces. This allows the wearer to remove the hard hat  16  from the head without the entire hard hat lanyard  10  still being attached to the clothing. This becomes particularly convenient when the wearer is taking a break from work, or is even done work for the day. When the wearer puts the hard hat  16  back on the head, it is then an easy process to reattach the intermediate release mechanism  30 , thus making the hard hat lanyard  10  one piece again. 
     To the upper strap first end  20  is secured an upper strap fastening mechanism  32  that may optionally include an inner brim securing strap  13  that wraps around a hard hat inner brim  18 . Upper strap fastening mechanism  32  is adapted to fasten the upper strap first end  20  to a hard hat  16 . When the optional inner brim securing strap  13  is used, one end of inner brim securing strap  13  couples to upper strap fastening mechanism  32 . The upper strap fastening mechanism  32  is preferably selected from the group consisting of a slip through cam buckle or a hook and loop fastener. When optional inner brim securing strap  13  is not used, upper strap fastening mechanism  32  may be one of a button snap adapted to fasten to a mating snap on hard hat inner brim  18 , a button snap adapted to fasten to a mating snap on the hard hat shell, or may be permanently fastened to either hard hat inner brim  18  or to hard hat  16 . The upper strap fastening mechanism  32  may also be configured to allow a wearer to make minor adjustments to the length of the hard hat lanyard  10 . 
     It is important to note that the types of fastening mechanisms described such as clips, buckles, fasteners, and the like, is not limiting and that any type of fastening mechanism (both releasable and permanent or combinations thereof) may be used with the present invention. 
     Turning now to  FIG. 2 , there is illustrated one embodiment of the inside of a hard hat  16 . Hard hat  16  has head support structure  50  connected to hard hat  16  such that head support structure  50  supports hard hat  16  above the head of a user. Heat support structure  50  includes a hard hat inner brim  18 , a head support  52  securely attached to inner brim  18 , and an adjustable head band portion  60 , Adjustable head band portion  60  provides means for adjusting the fit of the inner brim  18  to a user&#39;s head. Hard hat  16  also includes at least a pair of strap openings  17  for receiving chin straps and the like. 
     It is an important aspect of the present invention that the hard hat lanyard  10  attach to a portion of the hard hat or hard hat opening that cannot be separated. For instance, hard hat lanyard  10  must be connected to one of the pair of strap openings  17  or to a non-separating portion  19  of inner brim  18  or to the head support  52  since head support  52  is also securely connected to the non-separable portion  19  inner brim  18 . 
     Because hard hats have more mass than baseball caps and the like, hard hat lanyard  10  should not be connected to a separable portion  60  (also known as the adjustment band portion) of inner brim  18 . In the unfortunate event that the hard hat falls off of one&#39;s heat, the hard hat lanyard functions to prevent the hard hat  16  from falling away from the user and potentially causing injury to a person below, damage to expensive equipment, contamination to a process, and/or any number of unfortunate side effects caused by the falling hard hat  16 . If the hard hat lanyard  10 , however, is connected to a separable portion of hard hat  16  such as the adjustment band portion  60 , the stress imparted on the adjustment band portion  60  caused by the hard hat lanyard  10  stopping the fall of the hard hat  16  may, at times, cause the adjustment band portion  60  to separate and detach from the hard hat lanyard  10 . This would defeat the purpose of the hard hat lanyard  10 . 
     Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described herein, the above description is merely illustrative. Further modification of the invention herein disclosed will occur to those skilled in the respective arts and all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.