Arai values the helmet standards mandated and policed by government agencies and motorsports sanctioning bodies. “Standards are important,” he said, noting, “They not only protect the wearer, they protect the manufacturers and the industry.” Yet Arai never designed helmets just to meet standards. The criteria for those regulations, he explained, are based on the absorption and dispersion of energy stemming from direct, lab-controlled impacts that pinpoint specific locations on the shell.
Arai helmets meet standards without compromising the shape of the shell. “This is something nobody else does,” said Michio. “To preserve the ability to ‘glance off,’ we main- tain strict control of the charac- teristic of the lamination from one location to another.”
To retain a smooth, round shape that promotes glancing off while meeting helmet standards requires the use of a unique multi-density expanded polystyrene liner.
To preserve the ability to ‘glance off,’ we maintain strict control of the characteristic of the lamination from one location to another.
“Human heads are not perfectly round or oval, but the shell has to be round,” said Michio Arai. “The basic shape we learned from an egg. That’s the best, we believe. But the head is not shaped like an egg, so the density of the liner has to vary correspondingly. “That’s really difficult to control, but we do it. That makes the difference. It’s what we do:
We make a stronger shell and an impact-absorbing liner of different densities. It’s a very sophisticated way of making a liner. That’s what I created.”
“When you think of protection, your first thought is impact absorption,” said Michio Arai. “But there is another part, the other half of the story: glancing off.” That is, the shape of the helmet helps mitigate impact energy before any type of standard can even come into play. Struck off-center, a round, smooth shell will “glance off” a stationary object, deflecting energy that might otherwise be transmitted through the shell and liner to the wearer. “Don’t let the energy get inside the helmet,” smiled Michio Arai, pounding his fist on a table for emphasis.
HELMET STANDARDS A helmet’s ability to protect cannot be seen from the outside. Therefore, helmet standards can become the goal for some manufacturers and riders, as passing the local standard in each market is all that is required. But at Arai, passing standards is considered the mini- mum. In addition to passing standards, our mission as a helmet manufacturer is head protection for our fel- low riders. Arai makes continual efforts to pursue gains in head protection from unpredictable riding impacts.
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