1 March 2010

By the Skin of Your Helmet

I’m thinking you might be like me, an enthusiast of "R & D" (research and development) —on that assumption, the recent introduction of SuperSkin Lazer helmet will probably interest you. These new “helmets with skin” offer something that its inventors claim reduces risk of injury by nearly 70%!

Various studies on helmet safety have shown, that there’s one potentially lethal injury, rotational injury-also known as intracerebral shearing that we're still very challenged with. Now what’s that all mean? Well, during a mishap, our helmet makes contact with the road; its rigid shell grabs against the pavement causing the helmet to rapidly twist around. Our head twists with the helmet but this occurs so quickly that the brain doesn’t keep up-in fact the brain moves a few milliseconds after the skull it’s contained in! I never knew this either. This results in the shearing of blood vessels and nerves with the consequence of disabilities or in some cases death.
SuperSkin it’s called is an elastic membrane that covers the outside of the helmet. It has a gel lubricant underneath, to help it slide against the helmet’s hard shell. The way it works is when a SuperSkin helmet hits the road, its membrane is what will catch the pavement, twist around, and tear away. The helmet will obviously still move, but only once those initial milliseconds of energy have been absorbed by the membrane. It’s modelled after the way the scalp slides against the skull.

The British company Philips Helmets Limited spent 15 years developing the technology. Independent testing was done through the helmets they sent to the Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg who determined that they did reduce the risk of intracerebral shearing by 67.5%! Belgium’s Lazer Helmets licensed the technology, in fact won an award in 2009 for best innovative patent.

SuperSkin is offered on three of Lazer's standard models-- the Rider, the Solano and the SMX.

We know the importance of wearing a helmet for safety and for just plain old comfort against velocity and the elements. Even, I too have enjoyed destroying numerous helmets from over done corners, loss of grip, at speed while racing. Thanks to my helmet and gear I’m happily here sharing the next wave of technology with you!

Visit their
website to view videos and read more testing stats!


*sourced Lazer Helmets

2 comments:

Lushy said...

My first lid was a Lazer (still have it) and I loved it. I came off on track with it and it saved my noggin. I think this new membrane sounds like a winner but proof is in the pudding I guess.
Any safety improvement has to be a good thing doesn't it

TM said...

hi friends .. I like this article very helpful for me,,,,