Protective helmet covers with inflatable bladders

Abstract

Protective headgear assemblies are provided that reduces the impact forces by spreading them laterally and uses air to resist the impact forces and decrease the rate of deceleration of the human head on impact, can have an energy absorbent inflatable outer shell made of uniformly consistent viscoelastic material in contact with and placed directly on the outer surface of a rigid helmet; the outer shell layer having an inner layer and an outer layer separated into segments by partitions; the segments having openings into a common collector segment having an air valve to receive air from outside of the outer shell; the openings providing a restricted passage for the air in the segments to escape into the collector segment then distributed into remaining segments on impact, then returning to equilibrium after the impact.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A protective headgear assembly that reduces the impact forces by spreading them laterally and uses air to resist the impact forces and decrease the rate of deceleration of the human head on impact, comprising:
 an energy absorbent inflatable outer shell made of uniformly consistent viscoelastic material in contact with and placed directly on the outer surface of a rigid helmet;   the outer shell layer having an inner layer and an outer layer separated into segments by partitions;   the segments having openings into a common collector segment having an air valve to receive air from outside of the outer shell; and   the openings providing a restricted passage for the air in the segments to escape into the collector segment then distributed into remaining segments on impact, then returning to equilibrium after the impact.   
     
     
         2 . The protective headgear assembly of  claim 1 , where the energy absorbent, viscoelastic layer is made of polyurethane. 
     
     
         3 . The protective headgear assembly of  claim 1 , where the energy absorbent, viscoelastic layer is made of rubber. 
     
     
         4 . The protective headgear assembly of  claim 1 , where the segment openings are in the range of about 0.5 cm to about 0.05 cm. 
     
     
         5 . The protective headgear assembly of  claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the inner and outer layers are in the range of about 0.08″ to 0.250″. 
     
     
         6 . The protective headgear assembly of  claim 1 , further comprising an inner shell layer having an inner layer and an outer layer separated into segments by partitions;
 the segments having an openings into a common collector segment having an air valve to receive air from outside of the outer shell;   the openings providing a restricted passage for the air in the segments to to escape into the collector segment then distributed into remaining segments on impact, then returning to equilibrium after the impact.   
     
     
         7 . The protective headgear assembly of  claim 1 , further comprising a detachable neck brace. 
     
     
         8 . The protective headgear assembly of  claim 1 , further comprising fasteners between the outer shell layer and the rigid helmet selected from the list consisting of: hook and loop fasteners, pressure sensitive adhesives, snaps, buckles, composite screws, and combinations thereof. 
     
     
         9 . A protective headgear assembly that reduces the impact forces by spreading them laterally and uses air to resist the impact forces and decrease the rate of deceleration of the human head on impact, comprising:
 an energy absorbent inflatable matrix of uniformly consistent hollow rubber tubes in contact with and placed directly on the outer surface of a rigid helmet;   the hollow tubes having openings into a common collector segment having an air valve to receive air from outside of the hollow tube matrix;   the openings providing a restricted passage for the air in the hollow tubes to escape into the collector segment then distributed into remaining tubes on impact, then returning to equilibrium after the impact.