Have you always wanted to be your own boss and have a real impact on your local community? Owning a business in your own town is more than just a dream—it is an opportunity now available with us at The Helmet Doctors.
Take the first step towards your self-employed journey, simply complete our Expression of Interest form with your details. Once received, we will guide you through the necessary steps, including signing the required Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) enabling us to discuss how easy this opportunity could be in your local area.
Afterward, we will reach out to organize a convenient time for a video meeting where we can discuss your vision of running your own business with The Helmet Doctors. We will address any questions you may have, and provide you with valuable insights and guidance on how our services are needed in your town.
Don't let your dream remain just a dream. Let us show you how you can unlock the immense potential of your own business in your town. Complete the Expression of Interest form today, and let us embark on this exciting journey together!
Motorcyclists & Motorsport enthusiasts, buckle up for a compelling journey that unveils the crucial link between helmet safety and your passion for adrenaline. We shed light on the specific risks you face, and the devastating consequences of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs), & present an innovative solution to fortify your protection.
Welcome to The Helmet Doctors, where we strive to empower you with the knowledge and tools to ensure a safe and exhilarating ride/drive every time knowing your helmet’s structural integrity is in optimal condition.
Below and the following stories we will brief you on the areas:
But now let’s look at …
Our R&D In NDT Methods Of
Motorcycle Helmets
Four different NDT techniques were used in the correlation of physical damages present in the helmets; visual and correlation analysis, various x-ray techniques (fixed & mobile techniques), ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT), and microscopy analysis, before concluding the NDT technique of Holographic Interferometry was scientifically proven to overcome all of the above-mentioned shortfalls.
Ultrasonics
Ultrasonic non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques have had extensive success in the structural analysis of composite materials. The process involves an energy pulse that is transmitted from an ultrasonic transducer and travels through the thickness of a test material. This pulse will then be reflected from the back wall of the material and back to the transducer.
Flaws within the material can then be detected and located if a subsequent signal pulse is reflected from the flaw rather than the back wall of the material. At this stage, conventional pulse-echo ultrasonic NDT techniques have not been thoroughly investigated on motorcycle helmets. However, there is one important factor to consider before this technique is trialed on the sample helmets.
Ultrasonic couplings are used in this NDT process to facilitate the unimpeded transmission of sound energy between the transducer and the test surface (Olympus 2016). Careful attention must be paid to the interface coupling substance used on thermoplastic helmet shells as these substances, particularly petroleum-based solutions, can degrade thermoplastic materials (Woishnis and Ebnesajjad 2012) – essentially making this method a destructive form of testing.
In conclusion, conventional pulse-echo ultrasonic NDT was found to be an unviable technique for the detection of ‘hairline’ fractures within the outer shell of a helmet. The thin and complex curvature of the outer shell, especially in composite shells, limits the through-thickness resolution and sensitivity of signal pulses and creates obstacles to good acoustic coupling of the transducer and the shell. This results in an extremely time-consuming and inefficient process for confirming the presence of stress fractures in the outer shell of helmets.
X-ray
In 2009, an industrial X-ray computer tomography (CT) scanner was used to scan a full-face motorcycle helmet with a GRP shell and an EPS liner at EMPA Dübendorf for the purposes of creating a finite element analysis (FEA) model of the helmet. The chin bar was removed for the scan. The X-ray source was set at 225 kV and 4 mA. A total of 431 continuous slices were scanned with a pixel size of 0.40 by 0.40 mm in the horizontal plane with 0.60 mm between slices (Mills et al. 2009).
Figure 7 on our website shows small gaps between the liner and the shell near the hanger plates (steel components where the chin straps are attached). The liner is not bonded to the shell, it is an interference fit in the shell. The metal components of the helmets, i.e., the hanger plates, result in artifacts in the images. These surrounding bright streaking artifacts are due to the high density of metals being outside the range of scanning, beam hardening, scatter effects, and Poisson noise (Boas and Fleischmann 2012). The image quality is inadequate for satisfactory extraction of the geometry of the EPS liner as the differing densities did not contrast well and overlapped with the grey levels of other components.
Microscopy Analysis
Microscopy analysis allowed some potential fractures in the outer shell to be identified, but as most of these potential fractures did not match up on both sides of the samples cut by the waterjet they could not be confirmed as directly correlating to those potential stress fractures displayed in the x-ray images. Additional potential fractures were discovered in the microscopy analysis process, which was not visible in the X-ray images. These differences were identified due to the fracture/defect may have been either in or out of the plain of the X-ray imaging. Voids were also discovered in the shell sample cuts which were not present in the X-ray images.
The conclusions drawn from our initial R&D/investigation showed the current imaging techniques did not allow for a successful correlation of physical damages in the outer shell and inner liner of motorcycle helmets.
The Helmet Doctors identified from these shortfalls specialized areas were required in our R&D/study, including the development and optimization of technologies involved in lasers. Investigations into advancements in laser technologies & techniques allowed The Helmet Doctors reliable methods to ensure absolute confirmation of damages within the motorcycle helmets.
As a result, The Helmet Doctors were able to advance and settle their R&D & techniques in the NDT techniques of shearography and holographic interferometry.
Shearography
Shearography is an NDT technology that is aimed at monitoring the derivative of the skin displacement of the sample monitored. It is an optical interferometric technology and physically our system can be compared to a misaligned Michelson interferometer. Working on displacement derivatives enables us to get rid of rigid body translation that disturbs other interferometric methods.
Testing to detect internal defects inside the provided motorcycle helmet, Shearography aims to monitor the derivative of small skin displacements of samples along the Z axis.To detect the internal defect, we induced a small thermal expansion of the motorcycle helmet samples. Internal stress due to the heterogeneities will be transferred to the surface and monitored by the advancements of the laser camera to identify, read, record & measure the defects down to as low as 10nm (nanometers).
Further details of our R&D, and the evolution of our technology and techniques can be seen on our website under the tab of Technology > Technology Know-How
For more content or illustrations, head to our website, or check out our FAQ. To reference our article to your friends, or family, in the Motorcycling/Motorsport community, click the link below or simply copy this URL or bookmark the page for future referencing: https://thehelmetdoctors.com/contact-us-helmet-protection-motorcycle-safety-course/. Otherwise read our next article about An Inside Look: Drop Testing Helmets to Australian & International Standards & Design Rules, titled “Helmet Safety Revealed Part 2”
“Our motorcycle safety course in helmet protection”
a2307046
