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The present invention relates to a welder's helmet and more particularly to a welders helmet with a respirator.
It has been well known in the welding art for a welder to wear a helmet in order to protect the welder's face from sparks as well as providing a tinted sight window to protect the welder against damage to the eyes due to the intense flash caused by electric arc welding, and other welding processes. A typical welder's helmet utilizes a nearly opaque or light radiation absorbing window to block the intense arc light, but still allow the welder to view the workpiece on which he is working.
Accordingly, welding masks have been designed to sufficiently protect the welder against damage to the eyes and against sputtering or thrown particles of metal that are otherwise projected toward the welder's face.
There are further known welder's helmet designs that include means for protecting a welder against poisonous or noxious fumes and gases that are commonly given off by the welding rods. Although these known welder's helmets with means for protecting a welder against poisonous or noxious fumes present an advancement in the welding art for protecting the welder, it is still desirable in the welding art to provide a welder's helmet with a respirator that is more suitably adapted to the individual welder's face, provides a better airtight sealing around the user's nose and mouth, and provides reduced obstruction to the user's vision.
Accordingly, the welder's helmet, according to the principles of the present invention, provides a respirator mask having an independent strap for ensuring that the respirator mask is securely fitted to a user's face. In addition, the respirator mask includes a pair of filters that are received in respective openings in the welder's mask that are disposed to separate sides thereof so as to reduce the obstruction of the welder. Finally, a foam interior mounting structure is provided inside of the helmet to accommodate for variances in welders' faces. In particular, the foam interior mounting structure can be adapted by adding additional layers of foam for mounting the respirator mask within the welder mask.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a welder's helmet with respirator, according to the principles of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a front plan view of the welder's helmet with respirator, as shown in FIG. 1, with the respirator portion, disposed within the helmet, being shown in phantom for illustration purposes;
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the various components utilized in the welder's helmet, according the principles of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a rear plan view of the welder's helmet illustrating the foam spacers that are utilized for securing the respirator within the welder's mask according to one aspect of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a rear plan view of the welder's helmet with the respirator in place inside the helmet according the principles of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a cap member utilized for covering the openings in a welder's helmet when the respirator is removed;
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a cap member according to a second embodiment; and
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a cap member according to a third embodiment.
The following description of the preferred embodiment(s) is merely exemplary in nature and is in no way intended to limit the invention, its application, or uses.
With reference to FIG. 1, a welder's helmet 10 according the principles of the present invention, is shown. The welder's helmet 10 includes a welder's mask 12 including a sight window 14 which can include a single window or a pair of separate windows for each eye of the user. A dark, light absorbing panel 16 is pivotally mounted to the welder's mask 12 and can be moved to an open position as illustrated in FIG. 1, and moved to a closed position as illustrated in FIG. 2 for covering the sight window 14. The welder's mask 12 includes a pair of openings 18 disposed on opposite sides of the mask as best illustrated in FIG. 2. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the welder's mask 12 includes a head ring assembly 20 disposed on the interior of the welder's mask 12 that is designed to engage a user's head. The head ring assembly 20 includes an adjustment feature 22 to allow the head ring 20 to be adjusted in diameter to fit different sized user's heads. The head ring assembly 20 also includes a top head strap 24 which engages the top of the user's head. The top head strap 24 is also adjustable for different sized user's heads.
A respirator mask 30, best shown in FIG. 3, is disposed within the welder's mask 12 and includes a pair of respirator filter cartridges 32 disposed on opposite sides thereof and disposed within the pair of openings 18 provided in the welder's mask 12. The respirator mask 30 includes two internally threaded apertures 34 which are engaged by thread portions 36 disposed on filter cartridges 32. As best shown in FIG. 5, the respirator mask 30 includes a strap including a first strap member 38 and second strap member 40 which are provided with connector portions 42, 44, respectively, to allow the strap 38, 40 to be engaged around a user's head in order to secure the respirator mask 30 to the user independent of the welder's mask 12. The openings 18 provided in the welder's mask 12 are slightly larger than the diameter of the filter cartridges 32 to allow relative movement therebetween.
With reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, a plurality of differently sized foam spacer strips 50, 52, 54 are provided for connecting the respirator mask 30 to the interior surface of the welder's mask 12. The foam spacer strips 50, 52, 54 are applied as illustrated in FIG. 4 such that the application of a single or multiple layers of foam spacers 50, 52, 54 allow the user to “build-up” the mounting surface within the welder's helmet to which one portion of a hook-and-loop type fastener 60 can be mounted so as to provide appropriate spacing for connection with an associated portion 62 of a hook-and-loop type fastener that is adhesively secured to the front of the respirator mask 30, as shown in FIG. 3. With the hook-and-loop fastener 60, 62, the respirator mask 30 can be removed from the welder's mask 12 so that the welder's mask 12 can be utilized without the respirator mask 30 if desired.
The side openings 18 provided in the welder's mask 12 also allow for the easy accessibility and changing of the respirator filter cartridges 32 which are easily threaded into and out of the threaded apertures 34 provided in the respirator mask 30. With each of the openings 18 being disposed on opposite sides of the mask, the mask is not required to extend further away from the front of the user's face, which would otherwise cause an obstruction to the user's vision. The foam spacers 50, 52, 54 can be provided with self adhesive layers so that they can be easily applied within the helmet to adapt the helmet for the individual user.
When the welder's helmet 10 is utilized without the respirator mask 30, the openings 18 can be covered with cap members 70, as best shown in FIG. 6. The cap members 70 are preferably made from the same material and color as the welding helmet itself, and can include flexible memory clips 72 that engage the opening 18 or can be provided with other fastening means to allow the cap members to substantial cover the openings 18.
As an alternative, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the cap members 170 can be provided with one or more magnets 172 adhered to it. The magnet could be a magnetic ring or a plurality of spaced magnets, such as the button-shaped magnets that are shown. The welding helmet can also be provided with corresponding magnets or metal surfaces adhered or otherwise secured to it to correspond with the magnets 172 of cap member 170 for holding the cap members 170 in place. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art, that the magnets can be placed on one or both of the cap member and helmet while the other corresponding mating element can be either magnetic or metal.
As still another alternative embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the caps 270 are provided as a dual layer magnetic cap that can be utilized when the welding helmet has the filter clearance holes cut into it, rather than being formed in the helmet molding process. The cap 270 can be made to accommodate for either multiple button sized magnets such as illustrated in FIG. 8, or accommodating a ring magnet. The two layer 272, 274 of the cap are adhered together by an adhesive. Once this is completed, the magnets 276 are then adhered into place on the cap 270. The dual layer style cap 270 is a resultant of the manufacturing process of the helmet. An added safety ring feature is added to the helmet around the filters clearance holes in order to protect the welding operator from sharp edges on the holes that may result due to the holes being cut into the welding helmet as a retrofit system.
The description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and, thus, variations that do not depart from the gist of the invention are intended to be within the scope of the invention. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.