CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/576646
CompositesWorld.com 83 NEWS N E W S N S N E W S E N W S W Composite Football Helmets Given the increasing role compos- ites have and are playing in headgear and helmets of all types, it was only a matter of time before someone attempted to build a fber-rein- forced composite football helmet. Tat distinction fell to SG Helmets (Brownsburg, IN, US), the manufac- turer of the SG helmet, introduced to the market in 2012. Short for Simpson and Ganassi (i.e., former race car drivers Bill and Chip), the SG is made of Kevlar aramid fber (from DuPont Protection Technologies, Richmond, VA, US), carbon fber and epoxy. Bill Simpson, the primary point person in the endeavor, spent 1.5 years on R&D; and another 1.5 years on feld testing. Testing was conducted at Purdue University (Lafay- ette, IN, US) where researchers found the SG helmet was at least 50% better at dissipating forces to the head than the traditional PC helmet. One of the key benefts of the helmet is that it is about half the weight of its predecessors (~0.91 kg). After some initial product-launch issues, which included defects such as cracking, the SG is getting noticed in a market known for its conservatism: 40 to 50 players in the National Football League (NFL) have adopted the helmet, a metric that is note- worthy not only because of the short time the helmet has been on the market but also because the SG is targeted to youth league football, at the high school level and below, where one of the greatest benefts aforded by the switch to composites is the lighter weight of the shell. Te weight reduction meshes well with the body sizes of the hundreds of thousands of kids playing pee-wee, Pop Warner and high school football, many of whom are wearing ABS/PC helmets built for people three times their size. "I'm not trying to sell to the NFL. My interest is in the kids," says Simpson. (And the numbers indicate that's also good business. See the Side Story titled "Football participation tops in high school" on p. 84.) Toward that end, SG Helmets reports that several high schools and youth leagues in Indiana have adopted the SG. Notably, the SG was recently given a fve-star rating, based on a safety and performance testing and rating system devised by the bioengineering department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State American football: The last holdout Although paddle sports, bicycling, professional hockey and major league baseball have converted to the use of composite protective headgear, football — a full-contact sport — still relies almost entirely on helmets like these, featuring unrein- forced polycarbonate shells with interior foam padding. Concern over concussions has been a catalyst for change. Source | University of Michigan, Athletic Department First composite football helmet to market SG Helmets (Brownsburg, IN, US) recently introduced the frst commercial composite football helmet, the SG Simpson, made of Kevlar aramid and carbon fbers and epoxy. Company co-founder Bill Simpson (pictured) says the SG is at least 50% better at dissipating forces to the head than the conventional unreinforced polycarbonate helmet at half the weight. Simpson is targeting youth football, but says 40 to 50 National Football League players also have adopted his helmet. Source | SG Helmets Value: Balancing performance and price Virginia Tech's (Blacksburg, VA, US) bioengineering department created a labo- ratory rating system for football helmets, called STAR, based on 120 diferent measurements. STAR gauges a helmet's ability to absorb energy and reduce head acceleration, and assigns a helmet a rating from 1 (lowest) to 5. Of the 26 commercial football helmets tested thus far, 25 — including the Rawlings Tachyon model pictured here — are made with a polycar- bonate or ABS shell. The sole commercial composite helmet, the SG Simpson, and the Tachyon both received Virginia Tech's 5-Star rating, but the respective diference in price point, US$414 vs. US$299, is a stimulus for additional R&D; inquiry. Source | Rawlings Sporting Goods