Building a Better Helmet

Why don't they use memory foam inside? You could jump right onto your head and not even spill a drop of wine.

NASCAR experimented with this kind of helmet years ago, and in testing they work. But when put into actual practice, they provided only slightly more protection at a much higher cost. The real problem was with the neck whipping the head and sloshing the brain. The HANS device, or head and neck system proved to be much more effective, and has been tested in combat situations for military use.

These types of helmets were in use almost 40 years ago. When I played football we had helmets that had small water pouches that also had air pumped into them for a tighter fit once on. I remember being hit several times and the pouches did their job and would break open upon impacts that were server and no damage to my head.

Mutant humans of the future will have exoskeleton heads to compensate for being generational head cases.

Sometimes these headcracking activities are unavoidable. When terrorists make threats, you would have us just roll over and give up because we can't be taking part in dangerous activity? Most sports spawned from pastimes of troops coming off the battlefield or in times of peace. How to keep sharp in idle times. Read a book if you want to be a writer.

At higher speeds not real sure if a helmet would stop the brain from sloshing from one side to the other. Helmets protect from blunt force injury but can only slightly reduce the Slosh effect.
Slosh=mc3

The brain floats in a fluid, no amount of padding will stop it from moving in the fluid when the head gets hit hard enough to move it. Take an open bottle of water and wrap it in all the bubble wrap you want and hit. The water will spill out. You can only prevent concusions by stopping blows to the head.

This is nothing new riddell makers of football helmets for years, has had a helmet with water packets 2 inches long 1 inch wide and 1 inch deep in there helmets years ago, i had one when i played football 30 years ago and it saved me many a concussion, only problem was they broke open and leaked from consistant abuse and the helmet cost like 75 bucks back then. but it sounds like typical politics lets use tax money and give mit an absurd amount of money to steel and develop something thats already been done, then they can sell it back to the army at a 1000 dollars a copy and say its so expensive to develop. sound like the drug companies any one!

@disgruntled ca resident. Yes I to playes in 78-82 and we had water helments and also a few that used air,What happened to them and why or if their not used or still made is a mystery.

lose the hard shell and the helmet cannot be used as a hammer.

XRD Poron is the way to go anyone who works in impact absorbing materials needs to give it a shot. There is plenty of video and information on this material.

The solution to football injuries, IMHO, is to take helmets and padding away. Rugby is every bit as violent as football but with fewer really serious injuries, because rugby players don't have an offensive weapon on their heads. If you aren't wearing a helmet you aren't going to lead with your head when you tackle because it would hurt too much!

If you want to stop helmet to helmet hits, take their helmets away.

Helmets should not be used. Players just use them as battering rams. Rugby, the sport that American football was modelled on, has been played for 700 years and those players use no protective gear whatsoever. It is the equipment that makes the game dangerous. At the University od Sussex in England we ave developed ar more advanced helmet technologies. Google: ThermaHelm !

But is it cost effective? Better armor is already out there but is not used by the military because it costs too much.

read the stories about the scientist study of the wood peckers and why they can literally bang their heads and not damage their bird brains --- worth a review !

When I played football, 1982 - 1988, we had a choice of helmets. Crappy Riddell padded helmets or air-padded Bike helmets. I opted for the Bike helmet. Bottom line is: the force generated then applied to the helmet will travel through thus the brain will bounce around smacking itself againt the skull side to side, front to back, well you get the idea.

army helmets were made with a suspension system, the therory was when a blast occurred the air space between the suspension and the shell could allow the shell to absorb the blast, it does however the rest of the body like your ears and soleplexas take it too, the result is disorentating and or disableing, thus the flash bang gernade used by law enforcement, so you would have to have in effect an entire suit isolating you from damages.

They shouldn't be made out of carbon fiber. I ride my motorcycle approx. 10,000 miles a year. Every 4-5 years i get new helmets(for me and my passenger)(due to helmet interior shell breaks down) anyhow I had the option this last time of going carbon fiber. which initally I liked it due to being lighter HOWEVER,its so strong and woven so tight if you are in an accident it has no "give". I read an older report where the NFL was testing carbon fiber helmets on a few select players. carbon fiber is okay if it does not get hit or much impact. Then the other thing with carbon fiber. Have you ever see carbon fiber explode/break apart. I played jr high and high school football. there was times we cracked the old plastic helmets if we were at an away game if we could "make do" with the helmet till we get home do that. a carbon fiber helmet when impacted hard it basically shatters.(think of glass but not sharp objects).

Expanded polystyrene? Sure maybe bike helmets are made from that. And yes, those will permanently deform upon impact. Most football helmets use Ethylene Vinyl Acetate foam, vinyl nitrile foam or a combination of the two, which do not permanently deform upon impact. Over time, the vinyl nitrile will break down and the impact properties will go down, but only to a small extent under normal conditions. They think because MIT is doing it, it must be some sort of "new science." We've been working with football helmets for 30 years. This is nothing new. By the way, you'd think that MIT would have a better drop test platform than a pulley and a rope!