3D printing helps create safer padding for helmets

A team from the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory and its HRL Laboratories partners used advances in 3D printing to create new helmet padding that consists of highly-tuned open-cell lattice structures. Their findings are published in ScienceDirect.

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"Careful control of the lattice design imparts novel compression characteristics to the padding that reduce peak head acceleration during blunt impact events compared to existing state-of-the-art foam padding," said Dr. Thomas Plaisted, the lab's project lead. "Testing demonstrated a 27 per cent increase in energy attenuation efficiency when inserted into a combat helmet compared to current best-performing foam pads."

A significant challenge for the design of protective padding is providing the highest level of impact protection while minimizing weight and space it occupies inside the helmet, Plaisted said in a statement. The padding must be comfortable to allow a soldier to wear a combat helmet for extended periods.