Note the comments re rotational injuries in the following:
Building a better motorcycle crash helmet THE enemy of the
best is the good enough. That is the lesson which Kenneth
Phillips, a British inventor, is learning the hard way. Dr
Phillips has designed a motorcycle crash helmet that mimics
the protective properties of the human head. Tests suggest
that it provides 60% more protection than conventional crash
helmets. If used widely, it could save many thousands of
lives. So far, though, not a single company has shown an
interest in developing it as a product. When a head hits
the ground during a crash, it is subjected to two kinds of
acceleration: linear and rotational. Traditional helmets are
good at protecting against linear acceleration, but offer
limited protection against rotational forces. Rotation,
however, can be particularly damaging. When the brain
rotates inside the skull, blood vessels and delicate
membranes get torn. Dr Phillips, who trained as a
physician and saw at first hand the damage that motorcycle
accidents can cause to the head, turned to the head itself
for inspiration for an improved helmet. The scalp, he
observed, provides the brain with protection against
rotational forces because it is elastic, compressible and
moves around the skull without friction. So when a head hits
a surface, the scalp absorbs some of the rotational part of
the impact by moving across the skull. As a result, less
energy is transferred to the delicate tissues of the brain.
To mimic this process, the Phillips helmet has an outer
shell of polyethylene that moves independently of the inner
cushion. It really is that simple. The resulting helmet
looks and feels pretty much like a normal crash helmet. But
slow-motion video footage taken during crash tests at
Britain's Transport Research Laboratory, in Berkshire, shows
that the outer shell does indeed move freely around the
inner one, and the head is kept steady. Dr Phillips
claims that his helmet should not be much more expensive to
produce than a traditional motorcycle helmet?and it would
certainly be more cost-effective. He has not, however, been
able to interest any existing crash-helmet manufacturers in
making it. Instead, he has started his own company, Phillips
Helmets (www.phillipshelmets.co.uk), with a view to
manufacturing the new helmets himself.
Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
chapmancentral.co.ukchapmancentral.co.ukOpen ↗
88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University