Gentex Corporation

Brad L Sutter

Robert A Sallavanti

Scott M Hartley

Francis J Kuna

Joseph A Slivinski

Charles F Acker

David James Burke

John B Arnaiz

Michael Fenton

Deborah Panna

A safety fastener for mounting fitting equipment such as suspension and retention systems onto a ballistic helmet. The nut portion of the fastener fits substantially within a grommet that is attached to a strap that forms part of the suspension or retention systems. The nut retains, rather than clamps, the grommet to the helmet. The grommet can be pulled off the nut. The pull-out force is less than the fastener fracture force. The configuration of the fastener allows ballistic threat energy to be absorbed by helmet deformation and delamination along with grommet pull-out to provide energy dissipation in stages which avoids the creation of secondary projectiles from the fastener itself.

Low protrusion safety fastener for ballistic helmet

There is provided a removable optical assembly for a helmet. The removable optical assembly includes an optical device retention system and an optical device attachment assembly. The optical device retention system is adapted to couple to the helmet and has an optical device receiving portion. The optical device attachment assembly has a latching mechanism. The latching mechanism is adapted to releasably latch the optical device attachment assembly to the optical device receiving portion. The optical device retention system further has a deflection flange adjacent the optical device receiving portion for deflecting extraneous elements over the optical device receiving portion and the latching mechanism.

Removable optical assembly for a helmet

There is provided a protective helmet assembly that includes a shell, a suspension band, and an adjustable headband and a crown pad. The shell is constructed from at least PARA-ARAMID to provide ballistic protection. The suspension band is attached to the shell. The adjustable headband and the crown pad collectively adjust to a shape of a head of a user while maintaining the head of the user in a non-direct-contact relationship with the shell. The adjustable headband and the crown pad each have a plurality of screw less connectors for directly securing the adjustable headband and the crown pad to the suspension band without screws.

Protective helmet assembly having lightweight suspension system

The present invention provides eye protection systems. The eye protection systems include a lens capable of being mounted in and being interchangeable between a plurality of different lens-mounting platforms. These platforms may include spectacles or goggles with release mechanisms, which permit the lens to be removed while providing full ballistic protection when installed in the platform. The lens of the present invention protects against a plurality of threats including spectrums of light, such as sun light, ultraviolet light, or laser light, wind, dust, projectiles, etc. The lens may include a laminate structure, which protects sensitive technologies from exposure to environmental conditions, such as chemicals, weather, etc.

Eyewear for ballistic and light protection

A helmet visor operating mechanism in which springs urge the rolling elements of respective pairs of rolling elements toward relatively smaller radial dimension spaces between a brake ring carried by the visor and an axle carried by the helmet shell to lock the visor against movement toward its raised position and against movement toward its lowered position. Respective actuators mounted for rotary movement on the axle have pairs of tangs extending into the space between the axle and the ring and between the rolling elements of the respective pairs. Outwardly extending tabs can be squeezed together to cause the tangs to move the rolling elements of the pairs away from each other against the action of the springs to unlock the visor and permit it to be raised or lowered by subsequent movement of the tabs in the same direction.

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Duryea, PA, United States of America

Brad L Sutter