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<b>HEAD CASE:</b> Anirudha Surabhi was inspired to build a lighter,stronger helmet after a bycycle crash - the result was the cardboard Kranium.
Anirudha Surabhi had a bad fall from a bicycle which cracked his helmet and gave him a minor concussion: he vowed to make a better helmet.
Woodpeckers, he knew, bashed their heads against trees all day long with no ill-effect to he looked to the bird to creat the Kranium helmet.
According to Gizmag, Surabhi knew 'peckers have a unique corrugated cartilage structure which separates beak from skull and this concept gave rise to the Kranium’s honeycomb cardboard structure called dual-density honeycomb board - D2, for short.
SCEPTICISM
As highlighted by the cardboard bicycle, cardboard can be a surprisingly versatile manufacturing material in the right hands. The Kranium promises to be 15% lighter than a standard glass-fibre helmet while absorbing up to three times the impact energy during a collision.
While some bicycle riders may balk at the thought of trusting their head to something as seemingly fragile as cardboard the Kranium does have some rather impressive safety figures, Gizmag reports - enough to secure the interest of F team Force India which is incorporating Kranium technology into its own helmet design.
Rather than remaining rigid, the helmet is designed to allow a degree of flexing to help absorb an impact, of which it can withstand up to three times as much as a typical expanded polystyrene helmet yet be 15% lighter.
These figures derive from tests conducted by Surabhi and his collaborators, in addition to laboratories such as Germany’s Technischer Überwachungs-Verein (TUV) and Head Protection Evaluations in the UK.
The Kranium is waterproof and has the green credentials of... recycled paper.
After two years of development the Kranium will be released sometime in December 2012.
Woodpeckers, he knew, bashed their heads against trees all day long with no ill-effect to he looked to the bird to creat the Kranium helmet.
According to Gizmag, Surabhi knew 'peckers have a unique corrugated cartilage structure which separates beak from skull and this concept gave rise to the Kranium’s honeycomb cardboard structure called dual-density honeycomb board - D2, for short.
SCEPTICISM
As highlighted by the cardboard bicycle, cardboard can be a surprisingly versatile manufacturing material in the right hands. The Kranium promises to be 15% lighter than a standard glass-fibre helmet while absorbing up to three times the impact energy during a collision.
While some bicycle riders may balk at the thought of trusting their head to something as seemingly fragile as cardboard the Kranium does have some rather impressive safety figures, Gizmag reports - enough to secure the interest of F team Force India which is incorporating Kranium technology into its own helmet design.
Rather than remaining rigid, the helmet is designed to allow a degree of flexing to help absorb an impact, of which it can withstand up to three times as much as a typical expanded polystyrene helmet yet be 15% lighter.
These figures derive from tests conducted by Surabhi and his collaborators, in addition to laboratories such as Germany’s Technischer Überwachungs-Verein (TUV) and Head Protection Evaluations in the UK.
The Kranium is waterproof and has the green credentials of... recycled paper.
After two years of development the Kranium will be released sometime in December 2012.
