Smart armour and leathers design

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This from new Scientist.... and stolen blatently from another forum

"A futuristic flexible material that instantly hardens into armour upon impact will protect US and Canadian skiers from injury on the slalom runs at this year's Winter Olympics.

The lightweight bendable material, known as d3o, can be worn under normal ski clothing. It will provide protection for US and Canadian skiers taking part in slalom and giant slalom races in Turin, Italy. Skiers normally have to wear bulky arm and leg guards to protect themselves from poles placed along the slalom run.

Skiwear company Spyder, based in Colorado, US, developed racing suits incorporating d3o along the shins and forearms and offered members of the US and Canadian Olympic alpine ski teams the chance to try them out several months ago. "Now they love it and won't ski without it," claims Richard Palmer, CEO of UK-based d3o Labs, which developed the material.

Although the exact chemical ingredients of d3o are a commercial secret, Palmer says the material is synthesised by mixing together a viscose fluid and a polymer. Following synthesis, liquid d3o is poured into a mould that matches the shape of the body part it will protect.

Brief impact
The resulting material exhibits a material property called "strain rate sensitivity". Under normal conditions the molecules within the material are weakly bound and can move past each with ease, making the material flexible. But the shock of sudden deformation causes the chemical bonds to strengthen and the moving molecules to lock, turning the material into a more solid, protective shield.

In laboratory testing, d3o-guards provided as much protection as most conventional protective materials, its makers claim. But Phil Green, research director at d3o Labs, says it is difficult to precisely measure the material's properties because the hardening effect only last as long as the impact itself.

However, Green believes it may be possible to alter the properties of d3o for new applications. "There are certainly opportunities to dabble with the chemistry and enhance the effect," he told New Scientist. The ultimate goal is "flexible ballistic protection", he says.

Another potential application may be sound-proofing. The propagation of sound waves should generate a similar strain to an impact, so it may be feasible to create a material that becomes more sound proof in response to increasing noise. "It could have some very interesting, unexplored properties," Green says.

Quite interesting by the sounds of it. Got me thinking (dangerous I know) but has the design of protective gear e.g. leathers etc really moved on at all in recent years? Or have they got as good as they are going to get?

With the design of new bikes gradually getting "better", does the protective gear we wear also improve? Are the leathers from 10 years ago as good as today?

I suppose the basic design of leathers is very simple - wrap the rider in dead cow (or if you're rich Kangaroo) skin and reinforce with armour.

What will we be wearing to protect us in the future?

[Cillit-BANG]

OMG!!!

[DukeRed]

Was thinking the same, cornstarch and water. Kept me entertained for hours and that wasn't when I was little. I like the idea but surely you have to impact before it goes hard so for a fraction would you get the full brunt? Do you reckon you could use it again and again? Sell by dates?
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[Cillit-BANG]

Yeah, reminds me of eating custard powder. Bizarre.

If it's thick enough, during the fraction of the second before it gets hard, it should compress and absorb some of the impact, so even better.

[Aikman666]

I dont really see how this could be applied to bikers.
Leather is used for its hard anti abrasive qualities isnt it? Kevlar is also used because it softens impacts slightly.

Think of this matter in the way that they went through stages of designing cars:-
They thought back in the day "Roight then, people are dying in cars, so what can we do to protect the driver?" and some bright spark reckoned "I KNOW! lets make the cars so rigid, the impact will be less traumatic on the car".

Well we all know what happened there, more people died still. So then they thought "Ahhhh, but what if we designed cars so that they ABSORB the energy of the crash?"...and so crumple zones were born.

My point is this:-

It would be nice for something to absorb the impact at low speeds but at higher speeds its probably more likely to do more damage than it solves. Ideally what we need is a material that would dissapate the energy.

Or maybe i forgot to take me pills thismorning again?
What is it better to have, a material that goes immediately solid, or one that dissapates the energy?

Oh yeah one more example, when those of you punched the custard mix, did it hurt? It did didnt it? Unless you had a whole suit made out of it instead of individual bodyparts, i dont see it working.

Tell me if im wrong here
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[DaveH]

A double skinned suit, with the gap between the skins filled with custard!

You could even get full fat and low fat versions for varying degrees of protection!!

Even more; if you fall off while wearing it, the heat build up from the friction would cook the custard giving the wearer a hot, sugary, snack to combat the effects of shock after the event!!!

mmmmm Ambrosia Devon Custard.....

[DaveH]

On a slightly more serious note, Dainese were working on a crash helmet that would deploy an airbag that would form a neck brace in the event of a crash.

The biggest problem is knowing where the rider is going to end up.

In cars the occupants are in a clearly defined cage, so there are a finite number of areas that the driver/passenger will hit and the airbags can be located there.

On the other hand the rider can, and is often, separated from his bike and can land virtually anywhere. Maybe there could be an airbag on top of the yokes so that if the rider is catapulted forward, as in the much posted Think! campaign, they are protected from hitting the car. It may help in one particular scenario, but not for the majority though.

The other option is for the rider to have some sort of intelligent suit, but going highside needs different control measures compared to lowsiding, then there is frontal and side collisions.

You could alway have a lead connecting you to the bike so that the suit is activated when you come off the bike, but you can bet that one of the times you will just get off your bike and forget to disarm it and foomp: suit deployed!! The inverse of the disc lock hazard.

Would seem that armour and load spreading would be the evolutionary path of the moment, until a lateral thinker can come up with a revolutionary approach to the whole subject...and we're not talking leg protectors here!!

Possibly from aviation, where the aircraft does not provide the crash protection for the pilot; the safety system involves removing the pilot from the aircraft and managing the risks once away from vehicle...

Maybe the next step will involve everyone riding reclined backwards, a la chopper, with an ejection seat instead of a hardtail!!!

[tintin]

Don't forget that a few years ago the EU were considering compulsory leg protectors on all bikes
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[DaveH]

Very scary indeed, wish they could just be buried and forgotten about