Mid Sweden University

On behalf of MIPS AB a development of an airbag helmet has been conducted. The purpose of the project was to investigate how air can be used to reduce rotational forces on an impact. The goal was to investigate the competitive situation, benchmark 3-4 concepts relative to an existing MIPS helmet and propose technical solutions, materials and design of an airbag helmet. The work has been structured along an agile model form with phases: pre-study, planning, implementation and completion. The pre-study was consisted a market and business analysis, stakeholder analysis, methodological approaches and theoretical study. Those were the basis for a product specification that the implementation phase was based on.

The implementation phase consisted a generation of concepts, a selection and testing of concepts. Testing the concept has been implemented in the oblique helmet impact test and by using FEM. Sources of error of engineered performance has been the number of repeated attempts, different weight of helmets, different size of the outer shell, different design of the air gap and that only one of three possible strike points (pitched) has been tested. Finally, the project proved that air can reduce translational acceleration, angular acceleration and angular velocity relative to a helmet without MIPS-technology. Concept winner has proven to reduce peak-strains in the brain up to 30.6% against the reference helmet without MIPS. Suggestions for further work should be to use experimental planning and FEM to save time and resources when developing the helmets that protect the head against rotational forces.