WaveCel – A behind the scenes conversation with the inventors of WaveCel technology
As a follow-up to our blog post entitled “MIPS and WaveCel Bike Helmet Safety Technologies” we want to point you to a recent podcast episode “A talk with the creators behind the WaveCel helmet” on the “Better with Bikes” podcast from Trek Bicycle. In this episode they interview the two scientists that created WaveCel, along with Tony White, Trek’s lead helmet designer.
The podcast episode will be of interest to those who want to learn more about the “why” and the “how” behind the WaveCel technology; i.e., why a new helmet safety model and technology was needed, and how WaveCel better protects the brain of a cyclist who is involved in a crash that has a head impact. OK…this podcast is a bit nerdy, but it is a fascinating listen regarding the rationale behind the model and technology, and how the WaveCel technology was designed and tested.
The first project that the two scientists from Legacy Biomechanics Laboratory, Dr. Steve Madey and Dr. Michael Bottlang, worked on was to stabilize the elbow, and that led to a commercially viable product for the laboratory. Dr. Madey and Dr. Bottlang then got interested in how to prevent concussion injuries in sports.
As we referenced in our original blog post on this subject, the researchers discovered that the dominant cause of brain injury was the result of rotational (spinning) forces, not linear forces on the head and brain. On the podcast episode Dr. Madey and Dr. Bottlang discuss in some detail why rotational forces, not linear forces, are the primary result of brain injury common in cycling and other sports, and how the honeycomb configuration of the WaveCel technology helps to minimize the effect of those rotational forces.
On the podcast Dr. Madey and Dr. Bottlang also discuss why the 35-year-old standards for helmet testing and safety need to be updated, and how those standards might be updated.
For those interested in the deeper scientific details, you can download their scientific paper “Evaluation of a novel bicycle helmet concept in oblique impact testing” published in Accident Analysis and Prevention (Volume 124 [2019]: 58-65).
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