First prototype underway...

I layed up the first prototype helmet from the pooleman mould on Thursday with a carbon, kevlar, glass, glass, kevlar construction with epoxy resins. The production didn't go entirely smoothly as the gel coat was still tacky as I was doing the carbon which made it difficult to properly lay out and compress the weave into the correct shape for the helmet. Likewise my kevlar at the moment is a standard weave and not a twill weave so won't fold into the helmet shape in one piece so this will look scrappy and won't help with the strength of the finished piece.

To fix this I will wait more time after the gel coat before applying the carbon next time so that it is not tacky and can be layed in properly before a single piece of pre-whetted biaxial glass is layed ontop which will whet out the carbon and hold it down. I'm going to source a different supplier for kevlar whocan do it in a twill weave which will also fold into shapre without being cut. Hopefully prototype two will start late next week.

Laters.

Pooleman mould finished

Here it is:

The edges have been smoothed out to get rid of the kink around the ear curve of the original plug however its very difficult to get the whole thing symmetrical as you can imagine. I'll be in contact with the Uni team who will be scanning the whole thing early tomorrow and we should be able to scan one side and then invert it to create a symmetrical mould.

I've ordered some more materials for creating a finished helmet so should get under way with the first "prototype" by the end of the week. For the first helmets I wont be using a vac-bag system as it will cost a fair amount to fully set up. Instead I will be using a system of layered peelply, absorbant foam and polyethyline followed by sand to build the pressure.

On my recent trip to Poland I met a guy who used to make motorbike helmets for an italian company. He really liked red wine. And I got a fair amount of information from him about polystyrene manufactring and how to mould different densities etc. which will be useful in the "chuck" helmets as part of a layered foam system of polystyrene and polyethylene closed cell foams for impact absorbtion.

I have also made some contacts trying to get hold of some Glass Fiber Reinforced Laminate (GLARE) currently being used in the manufacture of the Airbus A380 (the huge double decker one). This is very thin sheets of aliminium separated with pre-impregnated resin/fiber sheets. This would be revolutionary for helmet manufacture as the shape desired could just be pressed from a sheet containing x number of laminates for the desired strength properties and then autoclaved to cure the resins. The aluminium would hold shape and so no moulds would be required after the initial press, processing time and costs would be a fraction of existing ones. But as I'm finding out, this stuff is very expensive and hard to get hold of so i'm not holding out too much hope for it at the moment.

Chow for now.

Project tophat

I've started a new blog at:

www.projecttophat.blogspot.com

Covering my manufcture of a carbon fibre tophat, because, you know, I might need one someday.

It should at least provide a novelty.

Francis

Mould progressing

The first half of the Split Center Line Mould has come off the plug and looks very fetchings in its green gel coat.

The second half of the mould has been started today and should be finished layering up mid week for use after its cure cycle.

It's pretty crappy and slow work this time of year as my set up in the back of the garage only has heating for the immediate work area by the use of heated work mats. This mens that I freeze while i'm out there and worst of all my breath condences on the inside of my half mask meaning that by the end of a few layers I'm literally blowing bubbles in it while i'm trying to work. Oh the fun...

Hello and happy new year,

This will be the first of a few posts today with some various updates. Firstly here are some rough sketches of the range of helmets I am planning on developing. These are primarily aimed at watersports but if things take off can be modified later to cover various other sports.

So from the top down:Flash: You know, as in Gordon. This guy doen't want to be a hero but when it comes to it he's got the balls to put Brian Blessed and Pierce Brosnan on their knees with their eyes closed and their mouths open, and whats more he's never over dressed.

As I've said before (look down) this helmet has all the important bits covered; full frontal, temporal and occipital portection povided by the composite shell and a peak to keep the lovely Scottish weather out your face or to tuck and cower behind while getting the daddy of all spankings.

Chuck: Named after a guy who I met on my season away in france who literally used to throw 40kg ardecheoirs onto 10ft tall traillers; a true beast. But to help you visualise it you can think of Chuck Norris. If ever you were to be unfortunate enough to have accidentally insulted Mr. Norris' grandmother and find him coming at you with a roundhouse kick that would floor a cow, then you'd want to be wearing one of these.

This has all the coverage of the "Flash" (above) bat with added ear protection and some extra "comfort" coverage at the top end of the cheekbone, because, after all, perforated eardrums are no fun. This design will be sized slightly larger than the "Flash" to enable some more absorbtion of those big knocks and thus protect your jubbly bits.

You will feel near invincible, just don't let it go to you head.

Twitch: Last and very much least this one is a nut case. Designed for those park and play ventures where there is relative safety from large hits. With minimal coverage and a low profile this helmet will cause few problems for those who spend a lot of their time transiting the wet and dry phases. The peak will be more horizontal so as to not catch on jets of water and shift. It will also give you better vision for spotting that next end.

These helmets will all be made with full composite construction consisting of an outer carbon layer, kevlar jointing layer, two biaxial fibreglass weaves in opposing directions to give strength on major axies and finished off with an inner kevlar layer. Construction will be epoxy vac bag to optimise strength to weight characteristics.