SAVANNAH, GA-August 10, 2016- Blue Force Gear®, a growing design and manufacturing company in the firearms accessories industry, announces that it has been granted its second US patent for the Helium Whisper® load carrier system and associated manufacturing methods. US patent 9,295,319 embodies the ability for a load carrier system to include a unitary piece of material.
The patent covers two embodiments of the load carriage system. One of which pertains to the unitary piece of material, and the other being the benefits through manufacturing methods of Helium Whisper®.
Helium Whisper® revolutionizes the MOLLE attachment system by combining a single piece back panel with ULTRAcomp®, an extremely durable, lightweight high-performance proprietary laminate. By reducing the number of parts involved in MOLLE attachment, the single-piece design decreases potential errors and weak points, provides easier production and offers a lighter alternative to any other pouch system.
“Blue Force Gear continues to innovate as the leader in the production of lightweight gear,” says CEO Ashley Burnsed. “For more than two decades the primary health threat to troops has been common joint, muscle and bone injuries including back pain. The average load carried by a Rifleman can be in excess of 127 pounds. Blue Force Gear celebrates every ounce of weight reduction because ounces equal pounds, and our pouches built with the Helium Whisper® system can reduce weight by up to 60 percent, making our service members lighter, faster and quite possibly healthier.”
This patent solidifies Helium Whisper® as a true innovation in lightweight attachment systems. In addition to Blue Force Gear’s products, the Helium Whisper® attachment system is in wide use by manufacturers such as SAFARILAND Group, Velocity Systems, Platatac and Strategen who license the technology from Blue Force Gear directly.
Tags: Blue Force Gear
Hypalon doesn’t really offer much weight savings, pound for pound it’s about the same as webbing.
I’m also confused about their patent, they obviously can’t patent anyone from using “Hypalon” so where is the actual patent? The lamination of fabrics? Because that too can’t be patented and I’m sure First Spear does the exact same.
Is it the velcro fastening system?
I’m no patent lawyer, but I read it as a patent on how they build their “1 piece” back.
I ask because you can never get a straight answer from a company, granted for obvious reasons. Being deceptive and not wanting to give a way for someone to find a workaround.
In layman’s terms, this utility patent on Helium Whisper covers the construction of a MOLLE compatible backpanel out of a single piece of material. Secondly, Blue Force Gear does not build anything out of Hypolon. As SSD mentioned, it is not Berry Compliant. We currently build all the Blue Force Gear Helium Whisper pouches out of our proprietary laminate ULTRACOMP which is unlike Hypolon and HANK in it’s unprecedented strength and durability especially when used in this application. More info can be found here:
http://heliumwhisper.net/
Thanks,
Stephen
Nobody in the US uses Hypalon anymore because it’s not Berry compliant. But HANK, which is, is lighter and less labor intensive than traditional PALS.