SuperSkin helmet touted as lifesaver

Photos from the SuperSkin website demonstrate how the SuperSkin helmet reduces deadly rotational forces

What happens when a motorcyclist's head hits the ground in a crash? Quite a lot, actually, but one aspect is what is called “intracranial shearing,” which simply means that the brain inside the skull has a bit of lag time before it rotates along with the rest of the skull. This lag is deadly.

Suppose you could create a helmet that would reduce this shearing. It could save lives.

This is exactly what Dr. Ken Phillips set out to do and the result is the SuperSkin helmet by Lazer. In simple terms, the outer skin of the helmet swivels on impact, thereby absorbing some of the rotational force.

According to Dr. Phillips, quoted in the Mirror of London, "I realised the scalp is a really important part of brain protection. If you hit your head the scalp slides over the skull. Energy is absorbed by compression of the scalp and what we call rotational acceleration is taken up by movement of the scalp. So I decided to see how this could apply to helmets."

The resulting helmet design was tested by the UK's Transport Research Laboratory and at the University of Strasbourg in France. Test results show the rotational impact reduced by 50 percent and the possibility of brain damage by nearly 70 percent.

The helmet was put into production by Lazer Helmets, the maker of a wide range of helmets for a variety of sports. The SuperSkin helmet uses an anti-rotational membrane and a lubricant that imitate the natural movement of the skin over the skull.

The SuperSkin helmet will go on sale this summer. As yet, no price has been announced, but the cost for the unique construction could add as much as $200 to that of an otherwise comparable helmet.