Patent ID: 7926119

Claim:
Impact-protection slip-plate structure comprising a generally planar, plural-layer, outside-jacketed, shock-absorbing barrier assembly positionable relative to the human anatomy in a location adjacent a body zone to be protected, and disposed within said assembly, a generally planar, friction-reduced slip-plate organization including a pair of facially confronting, generally planar slip-plate sub-structures disposed on opposite sides of a friction-reduced slip plane, responsive to an impact occurring along a line which lies at an angle other than normal to said slip plane to produce relative-motion impact-initiated slippage, along a path taken from the group of paths consisting of straight and curved, of the two slip sub-structures with respect to one another along opposite sides of the slip plane, said barrier assembly further including slip-loadable biasing structure operatively associated with said slip-plate sub-structures, (a) operable nominally to hold said sub-structures yieldably in a nominal, non-slipped positional relationship with respect to one another on opposite sides of said slip plane, (b) constructed to accommodate a limited amount of the mentioned impact-initiated, relative-motion slippage between the sub-structures, and (c), further operable, following the occurrence of such slippage, to urge the two slip-plate sub-structures relatively to return to the mentioned nominal, non-slipped positional relationship.