Two California companies, 6D Helmets and Dynamic Research, Inc., have been named grand prize winners of the NFL’s Head Health Challenge III. The Challenge is part of a four-year, $60 million program Head Health Initiative that GE and the league collaborated on creating.
“We’re thrilled to be named the winners of the Head Health Challenge III along with our project partners Dynamic Research Inc.,” Bob Weber, CEO and co-founder of 6D Helmets LLC, said in a statement. “Together we worked to further develop Omni-Directional Suspension for application into multi-impact helmets. This award allows us to continue to refine our system for future helmet applications.”
The third Challenge tasked researchers with the discovery or development of new or repurposed materials that can do a better job of absorbing or mitigating force. These materials could then become the future components in all manner of personal protective equipment, on or off the field.
The winning entry was an improved model of 6D’s existing Omni-Directional Suspension helmet technology. The system was first developed in 2011, and has been commercially available in bicycle and motorcycle helmets since 2013. The improved design is more resilient after multiple impacts and reduces some impact forces felt by the wearer by more than 70 percent when compared to baseline foam protective equipment. The structure of the material includes a middle layer of absorbent posts sandwiched between foam that helps reduce shear forces— impacts that happen at an angle rather than straight on.
WIth the ever-increasing scrutiny around traumatic head injuries in football, the NFL entered the research partnership with GE in 2013 in two parts – a $40 million dollar R&D program and the $20 million dollar, three-part Challenge series. The aspirations of the program are not only to improve the safety of NFL players, but also athletes, first responders, military personnel and others who face potential head impact injuries.
“The goal of the Challenge is to support innovation and help stimulate the marketplace with next-generation materials and design, and the impressive work by Dynamic Research and 6D Helmets has the potential to do just that,” Jeff Miller, NFL executive vice president of Health and Safety Initiatives, said in a statement.
In addition to GE and the NFL’s support, the initiative was also backed by Under Armour and the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST provided a dedicated research facility where the majority of testing and, eventually, scoring was to take place.
Using the test facility, as well as advanced computer modeling, 6D was able to not only create the winning entry, but also to make improvements to its existing commercial PPE offerings.
“The Challenge allowed us to exercise material testing and analysis that further unlocked the potential of our ODS technology,” Robert Reisinger, director of engineering and co-founder of 6D Helmets, said in a statement. “Over the course of the challenge, we gained a greater understanding of its capabilities by individually tuning for both linear and rotational forces to reduce brain injuring accelerations. Some of these new features are already supported in our latest product offerings.”
The first two rounds of the Challenge focused primarily on accelerating identification and improving treatment of traumatic head injuries. More than 1,000 concepts from 30 countries were entered into the three parts of the Challenge, with winners of the first and second rounds selected in 2015.
The five finalists for the third Challenge, including the joint effort of 6D Helmets and Dynamic Research, Inc., were selected later that year and given $250,000 and one year of development time before the grand prize was awarded.