Helmet Project Explained

Mr. Eaton has developed an abundance of mechanical skills in his Engineering career that allow him to branch out into other projects of a mechanical nature.  As the head injury and concussion issue has become more prevalent in recent years, it became apparent that the traditional helmet design was overdue for improvement.  Combining his passion for sports with an engineering mindset, he set out to improve on today’s traditional football helmet design which has remained relatively unchanged for many decades.  It appeared that current helmet design had reached its maximum protection potential provided by its traditional shell & internal padding.  While many new designs focus on improved internal padding, there is still much needed improvement to be made for the safety and head-health of athletes.  The mission is to improve the athletes' impact protection using an innovative suspension design while maintaining little to no increase in overall size & weight.  

Similar to automobile, motorcycle & bike suspension, this concept features suspended impact areas.  When impacted, these impact areas travel with applied resistance to absorb the impact force by extending deceleration time, ultimately decreasing the realized impact by the player.  Initial testing reveals a potential 40%-60% decrease in impact force vs a standard helmet of current design.  Integrating this suspension concept into current helmet designs would greatly improve the level of protection and safety for all athletes.  With further design, this system could be tuned and optimized for player position, size, speed, etc.  Position specific models based on the most common impact areas are also an option.  This can potentially decrease the frequency and severity of concussions by reducing the force of impacts to the head while also protecting against the much more frequent and less noticeable sub-concussive impacts which are considered to be a significant contributor to the development of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).  

While this design is demonstrated in a football helmet, it can also be applied to other types of helmets for improved protection.  Hockey, motocross, auto racing, cycling, etc...

Eaton Designs has been issued U.S. Patent 9918507 and is interested in securing licensing arrangements with equipment manufacturers to integrate this design into helmet models of all types.