New Testing and High Performance Products Improve Football Helmets
October 18, 2011; Woodstock, CT – As the football season reaches its peak, so does news about football-related head injuries. In a sport where up players up to and over 200 pounds barrel into each other at intense speeds, it is easy to understand why.
Football-related head injury has come under increased scrutiny due to players reporting later effects of memory loss, speech impediments, and depression. The American Association of Neurological Surgeons estimates that 300,000 head injuries in the U.S. are incurred while playing football at all levels.
“There has been an extraordinary amount of attention paid to football-related concussions over the last couple of years,” said Dave Sherman, Business Development Manager, PORON® Cushioning Materials. “The good news is that NFL’s expanded commitment to medical research on brain injury, improved helmet testing and safer playing techniques, has filtered down to the college, high school and even midget levels.”
Sherman added that there are several matters going on at the same time to improve football helmet safety.
- A number of industry and medical groups are doing research to understand the underlying causes and ways to mitigate concussions. This research is pointing out that small impacts, such as a lineman hitting the ground, may contribute as much to trauma as an open field, high-impact, special-play collision. Understanding what causes the concussion helps in designing a good helmet.
- New design approval requirements are being made by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE), the football helmet approval board. The old requirements focused on protecting the player from breaking his skull bone rather than a concussion.
- Radical new testing from the University of Maryland, called Star testing, has logged the severity and location of helmet impacts by player position in order to rate a helmet design for its ability to mitigate impact for all game-time situations.
- High-performance material developers such as Rogers Corporation, manufacturer of PORON® XRD™ Extreme Impact foam, work closely with manufacturers to improve helmet safety. The molecular structure of PORON XRD instantly creates a protective shell on impact, while still remaining soft and flexible next to the body. PORON XRD can be found in Rawlings Sporting Goods’ NRG Quantum helmet worn by several NFL players, including Ronnie Brown and Steven Jackson.
“We are consistently working on improving our materials to help sporting goods manufacturers design products that provide not only the best safety and comfort, but also allow athletes to compete unhindered by their equipment,” said Sherman. “That way, athletes will want to wear the protection.”
Sherman also added that it is extremely important for gear to properly fit the player. Helmets need to almost become one with the head so that there is no movement or shifting. For example, some helmets are designed with inflatable air pads or contouring memory foam to help create a snug fit.
“While all the best gear in the world can be developed to help prevent high-impact sports injuries, it really comes down to how it’s worn and used,” said Sherman. “And that is ultimately the responsibility of the coaches and players.”
Nancy Fendler
Fendler Communications
T: 207-846-0700
M: 207-671-9071
For over 40 years PORON®Cushioning, a division of Rogers Corporation High Performance Foam Division, has provided footwear, apparel, and protective equipment brands with materials that support, protect, comfort, and help athletes stay in the game. Rogers Corporation (NYSE:ROG) is a global technology leader in specialty materials and components that enable high performance and reliability of consumer and power electronics, mass transit, clean technology, and telecommunications infrastructure. Headquartered in Connecticut, Rogers operates manufacturing facilities in the United States, Belgium, China, Germany, and South Korea, with joint ventures and sales offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.rogerscorp.com, www.poroncushioning.com.
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