Ballistic Helmet Impact Protection

Pad comfort and protection are clearly linked, but certainly the most important characteristic of a helmet pad is its ability to protect the head from shock impact. Oregon Aero engaged two separate, independent, certified laboratories specializing in impact testing to measure the effectiveness of the Oregon Aero^® pad system: Intertek Testing Services, Cortland, N.Y., and Head Protection Research Laboratory in Paramount, Calif. For the testing, we asked the labs to simulate as closely as possible the placement of a helmet on a human head with our pads. Each session involved testing six helmets and six pad systems of the same kind. Two helmets and pad systems were tested in an ambient (room temperature) environment, two in a hot environment and two in a cold environment. Each helmet with pads was placed onto an approved head-form and dropped twice onto an anvil at seven different locations on the helmet. So for each environmental condition, the pad system received 28 impacts at seven different locations on the helmet. In total, the helmets received 84 impacts on the anvil and precise acceleration values were measured for every helmet impact. Above are the results of the independent testing done on Oregon Aero^® pads averaged from both labs.