Personalized 3D Helmet

Introduction:
We researched the motorcycle helmet market to find what buyers are looking for in a helmet
with regards to safety, comfort, and aesthetics. According to Young Choppers (linked below),
four of the most important features a helmet should have are reliable protection, ventilation, easy
removal, and wearable technology.

To ensure reliable protection, it is important to have an exterior shell, an impact-absorbing liner,

comfort padding, and a retention system. An exterior shell is typically made from a rigid material
like thermoplastic or fiber-reinforced materials. This is designed to absorb impact forces and
disperse them through the other layers. An impact-absorbing liner is designed usually with
styrofoam to further cushion your head as a shock is created when you stop and your head
continues moving due to inertia. Comfort padding is important to provide a proper fit for your
head. Finally, the retention system keeps the helmet comfortably on your head. This is
commonly made of a strap that connects to the exterior shell, and is located under the chin.

Ventilation is something that is often overlooked by consumers. It is very important to allow cool
air to enter your helmet and keep the temperature of your head at a comfortable level. In
addition, “the front vents also prevent the fogging of your visor. Mist particles forming on the
visor are extremely dangerous on the road and in heavy traffic as they greatly reduce visibility.”

An ideal helmet should have quick release buckles to allow you to quickly remove your helmet.
After a long motorcycle ride, your hands may be slightly shaking and it may be difficult to take
off a large helmet. These mechanisms make the riding experience much more enjoyable.

Many modern helmets have technology attached to the helmet such as communication gear and
cameras. While these are certainly helpful, we would like to add Bluetooth speakers built inside
the helmet. We would need to keep the speakers small, flat, and comfortable to rest your ears
against.

Safety Standards:
There are several safety standards before a helmet can be legally sold. The DOT Helmet
Standard, which stands for “Department of Transportation,” is the main standard for helmets in
the U.S. The standard is FMVSS 218, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard #218 for
Motorcycle Helmets, and it is applicable to helmets sold for on-road use in the U.S.
FMVSS 218 sets standards in impact attenuation, penetration resistance, and retention system
effectiveness. The standard also requires peripheral vision to be more than 105° from the helmet
midline, and projections from the surface of the helmet may not exceed 5 mm.

The impact test measures acceleration of a human head form inside the helmet when dropped
from a fixed height onto an anvil. The peak acceleration energy is 400 G.

The penetration test involves dropping a piercing test striker onto the helmet from a fixed height.
If the striker doesn’t penetrate deep enough to contact the headform, it passes the test.

The retention system test involves placing the helmet’s retention straps under load in tension. An
increasing load (first 22.7 kg for 30 seconds, then 136 kg for 120 seconds) is applied for a certain
amount of time and the displacement of a fixed point on the retention strap from the apex of the
helmet is measured.

If the helmet abides by these regulations, the following items must be included on the helmet:
● The manufacturer’s name
● Model number or name
● “DOT” below the manufacturer’s name
● “FMVSS 218” centered below DOT
● The word “Certified” below FMVSS 218

Sketches:
We made several sketches (orthographic and perspective) of our helmet before creating a 3D
model on Fusion 360.

Orthographic Sketches:
Perspective Sketch:

Materials:
The materials we chose to use are very important in keeping the user of the helmet safe in the
case of an accident. We designed a full-face helmet, the safest option on the market. This model
is highly recommended by numerous distributors and has been approved by both the U.S.’
Department of Transportation and the Snell Memorial Foundation. The outer shell is composed
of carbon fiber and kevlar, an almost indestructible exterior that is rather expensive but of the
highest quality. For the inner shell, we decided to use a combination of Expanded Polystyrene
foam (EPS) and a removable center pad. We chose EPS because the material is dense and thick
enough to cushion the impact, while the inner layer of foam padding not only can be removed
and washed as needed, but ensures comfort. The helmet’s polycarbonate visor is designed as a
shield from the wind, sun, and weather. As such, it is built into the closed face helmet front but
can be flipped up manually and even removed for cleaning purposes. The polycarbonate material
can handle rather high impacts and are absorption resistant. The chin strap is a double-D
fastener, which is easily unbuckled for quick removal but rarely comes undone while riding. The
four elements of the exterior shell, interior padding, shield, and chin strap create a great, full-face
helmet that is exceptionally safe, easy to wear, and popular amongst motorcycle drivers.
Additional Features:
Some other things we added to our helmet design were air vents, a sun visor, and small
Bluetooth speakers. There is a small opening on the top side of the helmet that allows for good
ventilation. The visor can be used to increase visibility of the road. There are speakers so the user
of the helmet can listen to music while driving their motorcycle. In addition, we all made a few
modifications from our base helmet to create four different helmet variations.

Nick B’s Modifications: I modified the speaker system to consist of a Bluetooth unit with dual
stereo speakers on either side. I chose to do this because the placement of the speakers next to
the ears should keep the user comfortable and they should direct most of the sound directly to the
ears. Here is the model with the modification:
https://students4212.autodesk360.com/shares/public/SH919a0QTf3c32634dcfa2124bafb4ca40ed

Kelsey’s Modifications: I will be creating a Bluetooth sound system that connects motorcyclists
through a simple speaker pairing, allowing drivers to listen to the same music, talk over the
phone, and share navigational directions. This modification is similar to the dual stereo speaker,
but allows for communication between riders through the addition of a small microphone located
slightly below the helmet’s visor that wraps around the user’s ear. Here is the model with the
modification: ​https://a360.co/2tSC6Q7​.

Nick N’s Modifications: I will be making a light system in the back, to notify other drivers of
your position during dark nights and foggy days. This will ensure the safety of riders, on and off
of the bike, which is the first priority of a bike helmet.
https://students4127.autodesk360.com/shares/public/SH56a43QTfd62c1cd968bd67d72ac9bf1ed
0

Rohan’s Modifications: I added a golden strip on the side to represent the inside speaker for the
helmet. Basically, this strip is a speaker that plays inside the helmet. It has a 180 degree reach,
with the strip expanding across half of the helmet. Additionally, it is positioned where the ears of
the driver will be so the sound is as close and clear as possible. I also added some decal that fits
the aesthetic of our helmet. Here is the model with the modification and aesthetics:
https://a360.co/39tmMZ9

Calculations Using Our Helmet:

Before we discuss our hypothetical situations to run the DOT standard tests, we will briefly go
over the basic physics concepts that are essential to making helmets do what they do. The first
basic concept that is important in helmet safety is Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion. This states that,
for an object with mass m, a force F will be required to accelerate that mass such that F = ma.
We can see that if a force is constant, mass and acceleration will be inversely proportional. This
is important to helmets because when someone wearing a helmet crashes, an impact force
decelerates the helmet and the user to a stop. This force ends up being very large, and the impact
on the helmet transfers some force to the head. The point of a helmet is to absorb most of the
impact. See below for our impact force calculations.

Another important physics concept that affects motion is friction. While there is significant
friction between the tires of a motorcycle and the road, that is not the most important with
regards to the helmet. The friction between the head and the helmet is more important for safety,
because without it, the head would be able to move around much easier within the helmet. This
would drastically reduce safety in the event of a crash. Friction is essential in limiting motion
because it acts as its own force in the opposite direction of the main force.

We further researched the tests of the DOT helmet standard to see if we would be able to conduct
any theoretically. These tests would tell us if our helmet could be legally used on U.S. roads.

The first test was impact attenuation, which requires the helmet (with a headform) to be dropped
from a height of 1.5 ft onto an anvil. The test should be conducted in four temperature ranges:
Ambient Temperature (16°C to 26°C), Low Temperature (-15°C to -5°C), High Temperature
(45°C to 55°C), and Wet Temperature (16°C to 26°C). The helmet should also be dropped on to
the anvil from different positions: Left Front, Right Rear, Right Front, and Left Rear. Finally,
two different anvils should be used: a flat and hemispherical steel anvil. The impact force should
not exceed 400 G’s. If we were to drop the helmet from a height of 1.5 ft, it would take
approximately 0.305 seconds to fall (from d=0.5at​2​), reaching a final velocity of approximately
9.82 ft/s (from v​2​=2ad). The impact force of this helmet would thus be approximately 491 lbs *
ft/s​2​, or about 68 N (from change in mv = change in Ft, using a 0.2 second impact time). To find
the impact force using G’s, we divide by the mass of our helmet + head form to get an impact
force of about 49 G’s. This is much less than the peak value from the DOT standard of 400 G’s.
However, this is assuming that the test is unaffected by temperature and the position it strikes the
anvil, which is not a fair assumption. If we were to construct the actual helmet from our model
and test ourselves, it would be much easier to test under all the conditions.

In the penetration resistance test, a 3 kg mass is dropped on a cone-shaped punch device (from a
height of 1 m) that is positioned directly above the face shield of the helmet. The helmet passes
the test if the face shield does not shatter. However, we were unable to simulate this test with our
information. ​Factors such as the differences in the geometry of helmet shells, molds,
manufacturing processes, and several others have drastic effects on the calculations for this test.
If we were to conduct this test, we would have to find several constants to accurately represent
our helmet according to these factors. This test is not realistically possible given our information.
The third test evaluates the retention system, which requires a strap retention machine. One of
these devices can be found at ​http://www.cadexinc.com/snell_retention.php​. The machine uses
the handle command to modify the height of the release mechanism. The machine also uses a
sensor device to read the real time displacement of the test sequence. To perform the strap
retention test, the release system sends a command to drop the mass from the top to the down
position. Three loads of varying masses are applied to the straps (first 22.7 kg for 30 seconds,
then 136 kg for 120 seconds), and the displacement of a fixed point on the retention strap from
the apex of the helmet is measured. If we had one of these devices or something (and the actual
helmet of course), then we would have been able to actually conduct this test. But, once again,
the myriad amount of outside factors that affect the test make it nearly impossible to make any
realistic calculations.

Works Cited:
Original Helmet: ​https://a360.co/2GX27R9

https://ultimatemotorcycling.com/2013/04/08/motorcycle-helmet-standards-explained-dot-ece-22
-05-snell/

https://youngchoppers.com/5-features-the-ideal-motorcycle-helmet-should-have/

https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/final_sae_motorcycle_presentation_v
2-tag.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Integrated-Helmet-Graphic-Black/dp/B00VBRNLE8?ref_=
fsclp_pl_dp_1&th=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_helmet

http://www.cadexinc.com/snell_retention.php