Wearing helmets has become an essential part of protective gear for athletes engaged in high-impact sports like football, hockey, and even professional cycling. While modern models have advanced significantly over the past few decades to create units that are more comfortable and easier to wear, the protective equipment industry still faces challenges when it comes to understanding the immediate and lasting effects of head trauma. Ensuring current helmet standards meet our evolving knowledge of how blunt force impacts affect the human body requires a commitment to implementing advanced testing methods and developing innovative solutions that are able to iterate over time.
At Biokinetics, we are proud to be at the forefront of sports safety research through our extensive head impact testing capabilities. Below, we’ll explore some of the prevalent challenges and objectives for helmet testing, as well as how our team helps contribute to a safer future for athletes. Read on to learn more.
Challenges Facing Future Sports Helmet Testing
Evolving Knowledge of Concussions and CTE.
At present, however, current tests face limitations when it comes to finitely replicating the complex dynamics of real-world head impacts, which can vary in severity, direction, and frequency. Different sports, for example, carry very different risks where impacts are concerned; a boxer requires protection against the potential for multiple repetitive impacts, whereas a cyclist will require a helmet that prioritizes different types of impact resistance, as would a professional football player. This makes it critical to develop tests that cover a wider array of impact types while providing comprehensive data on helmet performance.
Industry leaders like the team at Biokinetics remain committed to solving these challenges through advanced, innovative testing to provide the most accurate results possible. Replicating real-life impact scenarios as effectively as possible is a core objective in the future of impact testing, and our team is proud to be at the forefront of advanced testing.
Balancing Protection with Comfort and Performance
Another challenge in the future of helmet design and testing is balancing safety with comfort and performance. Safety must always come first, but there is a fine line between protection and a unit that is too bulky or uncomfortable to wear in dynamic scenarios. Helmets that are uncomfortable or impractical to use for their intended purpose are less likely to be worn properly (if at all), thus negating any potential benefits. Manufacturers are well aware of this consideration, and partner with equipment testers to develop designs that meet evolving standards, while also allowing athletes to perform comfortably and efficiently in a variety of conditions.
Rapid Technological Advancements
With technology evolving at a rapid pace, the materials and methods used in helmet design are constantly changing. This presents both an opportunity and a challenge for testing organizations who must ensure that their methods are up to date and able to accommodate shifting standards and the introduction of new materials like advanced polymers or energy absorbing foams which require specialized testing to determine their effectiveness.
Evolving technologies like sensor equipped helmets and models developed with smart materials continue to advance testing methodology and present the opportunity to create a new framework of understanding moving forward.
Objectives for Future Helmet Testing
In addition to finding reliable methods of replicating head impacts, two driving objectives for the future of helmet testing include:
Increasing Focus on Sub-Concussive Impacts
Concussions have long been the focus of helmet safety, but in previous years w there has been an increasing focus on understanding sub-concussive impacts (those that may not immediately cause noticeable symptoms). These smaller, repetitive impacts may seem less volatile on the surface, but evolving data suggests that they can still lead to long-term brain injury. Future testing objectives must focus on identifying how helmets protect against these less dramatic but still significantly harmful impacts for players.
Collaborating with Industry Leaders for Testing Innovation
One challenge that permeates the testing market at present is a lack of cohesion between regulators, sports leagues, and manufacturers. Creating a partnership between core parties is crucial to driving innovation forward and achieving agreed upon standards that address the evolving needs of athletes in all sports.
Specialized Testing For Helmet Safety with Biokinetics
Biokinetics is proud to offer industry-leading biomechanics knowledge, testing facilities and practices when it comes to assessing sports safety gear including evaluating the risk of head impacts for helmets. We offer comprehensive helmet testing services and more through our risk and performance analyses for results you can trust when it matters most. Learn more about our helmet assessment and testing capabilities by contacting us today.
