What is this patent about?

The patent is about a V-Shaped Shield (VSS) seat, the intention of which is to better protect a person from a land mine or IED blast. The following diagram, Figure 1 from the patent, shows the idea -

For background, typically the blast impulse from a land mine or IED is directly upwards, because the ground in which the device is buried acts to focus the blast vertically upwards. The ground acts to direct the bulk of the blast vertically upwards, as shown in this diagram -

So as a result of this upwards force, the V-shield shape is intended to provide protection by deflecting the blast impulse around the seat. For many years a solution to the land mine problem was to make the whole vehicle cab a ‘V-hull’, but this increases the weight of the vehicle, and raises the centre of gravity, making a ‘V-hull’ concept heavy and unstable. Heavy and unstable are undesirable vehicle characteristics for a vehicle in land mine country, which is typically off-road, so the idea of this patent is to -
    a) keep the vehicle light,
    b) keep the vehicle stable,
    c) provide an option for easily up-grading the safety of conventional vehicles.

How does the 'VSS seat' improve on the 'V-hull' concept?

The two diagrams below show the difference between the old ‘V-hull’ concept and the improved VSS proposal.

The V-Hull shield (shown in red above) lifts up the entire vehicle cab. This requires a lot of armour, which increases the weight of the vehicle. Also the centre of gravity of the vehicle is raised, making the vehicle unstable and prone to roll-overs. This extra weight and instability is an especially big problem for off-road vehicles. This is a typical example of a ‘V-hull’ vehicle -

As one can see, the in ‘V-hull’ vehicle above, the centre of gravity of the vehicle is very high, making the vehicle very unstable.



The VSS seat shield (shown in red above) does not affect the height of a conventional vehicle cab. So the centre of gravity of the vehicle is kept low, keeping the vehicle stable. It also requires less armour, which means less weight. A lighter and more stable vehicle, results in increased off-road vehicle performance and safety.

Note that a typical VSS seat would weigh about 30% of the weight of a full cab V-hull option, so even side by side VSS seats will have an advantage over the V-hull. This is because of the ‘Square Cube Law’ effect, which in practice means that a smaller structure is stronger than a larger structure, made of similar construction methods. There is also the benefit of allowing the blast impulse a path to dissipate between the VSS seats. And in addition, the conventional floor of a vehicle with VSS seats will act as a stand off whipple shield, and therefore make the blast easier for the VSS seat armour to handle. And very importantly, the angle of the armour on a VSS seat can usually be sloped at a steeper angle, and therefore increase it’s effectiveness.

Other benefits of the VSS seat

The seat also protects a strapped in person from impacting the vehicle roof, because the device is extended above the head. Also the VSS Seat will provide side and back protection as shown below, in Figure 5 of the patent, which shows a ‘One part’, or monocoque, option for the VSS seat -



This is a photograph showing a model of Figure 5 ‘One Part’ VSS seat -


Note - The VSS seat could also be constructed as a ‘Two Part’ option. This envisages a situation where the lower part could be inserted under the vehicles foot pedals, and then the upper part fixed on top. This would be particularly useful to add protection to a conventional truck, construction machine, SUV or sedan vehicle. See the Two Part picture gallery for examples of this.

Who would be interested in purchasing this patent?

This patent could be of interest to vehicle manufactures, particularly makers of military vehicles, police vehicles, trucks or up-armoured conventional car makers.

What is my intention?

It is my intention to sell the rights to the patent as a whole, or alternatively licence the use of the patent to a manufacturer. If you want to purchase this patent, contact me using the email form, or by email at -
nwkirkness @ yahoo . com