In American football, controversy rages about the testing of helmets…ie which to assign the greatest ratings for concussion resistance.
When you crash your motorcycle, you throw your helmet away…assuming it saved your head.
Today’s invention adopts a similar approach to crashes on the gridiron.
The game stops so often and the players are swapped so frequently that each time a tackle occurs, anyone involved could be handed a brand new, high-specification helmet.
Frankly, the sport could afford this easily (even at school level). It would also allow players in major leagues to be seen more by their adoring fans.
In future, I could see these helmets being printed in 3D on the bench and designed to match perfectly the contours of the individual wearers’ heads.
Pingback:Quora
You could coat each helmet in a thin layer of wax in a contrasting colour to the underlying plastic. On impact, this would visibly crack and signal the need for a replacement. If a player needed more than say five helmets in one game, he would be replaced and given a brain scan.
I’d also suggest making the body of the helmet from closed-cell plastic foam as this is great at extending the duration of impact (and thus lowering the peak force).