second prototype

I have now put on the second of my prototypes, the changes I have made from the first one are...

1. less gel coat


2. Vac bag construction


3. EST logo


4. Kevlar changed to carbon kevlar for better drapability and single piece construction


5. less resin used as a result
   
   

First I stopped being so lazy and polished up the mould a bit more:

After this I made the vac bag I would be using with plenty of material so it can get right down into the inside of the helmet. I have stolen a 1600W vacuum cleaner and stuck a port in it to create my vacuum.

The EST logo has been created from polyethylene which is easy to create but doesn't fold well into the mould so hasn't given a perfect imprint. It has been suggected that I use sheet wax next time which can be heated to mould into the shape of the helmet, something for the third prototype.

I layered up the carbon when the gel coat was touch dry so that the weave could be manipulated without being damaged too much( It's still not perfect). All the other layers went in fine in single peice sections which was great. I'm trying a new release film which is cheaper than peelply but apparently does the same job (I hope). After this the polyester fleece is put on and the whole lot put into the vaccum bag.

It impressive how much a standard vacuum cleaner can do. Mould will come off on Wednesday night and I should hopefully have something to show for slalom so I'll see people there.

Helmets now scanned...

My designs have now been scanned by Gary Quinn from the Innovation Center at Teesside University. It was a weirdly quick process to scan once we had the angles right but then piecing all the parts together on the computer was in comparison slow and frustrating. The final scan of one side of the helmet mould was made up of over 85,000 polygons and it still looked a bit rough...

We scanned one side of the mould which was then mirrored to produst two identical sides. We also scanned the plug to create a 3D image which can be manipulated to create new designs and patterns although this has not been finished on the pc yet.

Next step is to contact some people called D-lab who can wrap the 3D construction in "smooth sheets" on a computer and then use this to model a new mould with different size of shape.

OOOK...so the first prototype didn't really work too well for a few reasons

1. Carbon fiber is a bastard to work with
2. Experimenting with different methods of applying pressure didn't work.
3. Gell coat too thick

On the plus side the helmet is solid as a rock. I might bring it to slalom so we can kick the sh*t out of it to see just how good it is. The weight of the first shell is 600gms something Ican definately improve on.

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.

The "pooleman" mould starts

Hello and as promised here are some pictures of the current goings on;



The Plug: this is essentially my first design from what is to be the "flash" series of helmets (more on this later). The helmet is designed to cover all of the major areas including the frontal, temporal and occipital parts of the head. A helmet for the everyday paddler on the local run but with enough security for running the sh*t and at the same time sufficiently casual not to look like a co*k. If you're not bothered by all the technical bits then please skip to the last paragraph now.


The Mould: the mould for this helmet needs to be made in two parts due to the complex inward curves at the back and the temple and peak areas round the front. For this a cut out of the center profile of the helmet is stuck to the center line and made flush with plasticine.



This done I have fixed domed screws through the plywood such that their indent in the mould casing can be used to position the two sides of the mould accurately. The plug was then waxed and polished with mould release wax before a coating of PVA releasing agent which has given things a slightly blue tint and a very glossy finish.

This is the gel coat (top layer) of the mould just gone on. It is a polyester based resin which is thicker than normal resins so it will sit in place on the mould and not go running off places. It is also extremely heat stable and chemical resistant so can withstand being exposed to other resins once it's cured.

Some of you may have noticed that its a bit cold at the moment (what with it being boxing day and all) so the moulding process is being done in the back of my garage ontop of two heat mats and when not being worked on sits inside an insulated container as well so that should keep it at a reasonable temperature.

In about an hour from now I will start building up the layers of the mould with various thicknesses and types of fibreglass mat.



The entire mould will take approx. two weeks to make and cure fully as each side must be made separately. After this the first protoype helmets will be produced in the L/XL size which is often neglected but before that systems for Vac-bagging need to be looked at

Merry christmas all,

sorry but no updates as of yet as i'm not at home, although i have made some contacts in teesside university who will help with the 3D scanning and resizing of my models to create the different helmet sizes and will also use all their CAM stuff to speed up my moulding process.

I will uplaod sosme photos of the design tomorrow followed by some of my sketches and blurb.

the beginning of days...

Howdy, so...the blog is because every now and then people ask me how the helmets are coming along, what colour and designs i'm going to do, how much they will cost, whether they can really beat sweet etc, etc..

And most of the time I dont have a clue and just want to go to sleep.

So I have started this blog which I can keep updated when i'm actually awake enough and so I can revert to my antisocial and introverted ways and maybe get some work done. It will also serve as an alert for when people need to give me a kick up the arse..

So here's your first update:

The helmet designs have been going nowhere since early November;

Prolems at the minute are:

• 1) how to make the first mould from the plug
• 2) how to scale the mould down so as to fit "normal" people as at the minute its a tad too big

The good news is I have now solved problem no.1 and will shortly be getting on the way with making the first split center line mould (SCLM) and then the first L/XL helmet prototypes (aka the "poolemans").

I have just purchased some new resins and tooling gel coat more suitable for making the moulds so things should get moving again when they arrive.

I'll be putting some pictures and descriptions up of what i've got and what i'll be doing with it as well as my general rants, ravings, philosophical musings, and if i get bored some actual boating bits too.

Francis.

P.S. "EST" - est are a group of paddlers from newcastle who i have temporarily stolen the brand name from to cover up my poor lack of imagination. Hopefully they either won't notice till its too late or I will be struck by some divine inspiration before too long. Check them out at:

http://www.swim-team.blogspot.com

http://extremeswimteam.co.uk