Safety helmet with individualized head-contoured liner

Claim 1

An improved safety helmet assembly which is individualized to a wearer''s head for distributing impact forces substantially uniformly over the head, comprising a substantially rigid domeshaped outer helmet shell of generally uniform thickness, a domeshaped inner shell of substantially uniform thickness and positioned within said outer shell, a deformable cap-like headpiece of generally uniform thickness and positioned within said inner shell to define a dome-shaped cavity therebetween, said headpiece being effective to receive the wearer''s head and to conform to the contour of the head over the entire area covered by said headpiece, means for securing a lower edge portion of said headpiece to the corresponding lower edge portion of said inner shell and forming a fluid-tight seal around the bottom of said cavity, means defining an opening extending to said cavity to provide for introducing a fluid expandable plastics foam material into said cavity after said headpiece and said inner shell are positioned on the wearer''s head, the expanded plastics foam material filling said cavity and having a substantially firm inner surface conforming to the contour of said headpiece and the wearer''s head, said inner shell, said headpiece, said securing means and said expanded plastics foam material forming an individualized subassembly, and means for retaining said individualized subassembly within said outer helmet shell and providing for using said subassembly wIthin different said outer helmet shells.