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.
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