All Pads Are Not Created Equal: A Helmet Must Be Worn To Be Effective

It seems like a simple product to manufacture: Small pads that go into a helmet to protect the head if it’s hit by the wave of a bomb blast, vehicle accident or fall. But done right, these pads are not simple; they are not just little pieces of randomly selected foam or some other seemingly obvious cushioning material.

About a decade ago, the U. S. Army asked Oregon Aero to develop an improved liner system for a helmet then under development for the U.S. Special Operations Command. The helmets in use then were unstable, uncomfortable and provided minimal protection against blast forces. Oregon Aero invested a great amount of time and money to research and develop a better helmet suspension system to meet the Army’s rigorous specifications. The result was dramatic: Our padding system stabilized the helmet so it wouldn’t wobble (even when running), made it painless to wear and vastly improved the helmet’s blast protection properties to below injury levels. The pad system, installed in the Army’s highly acclaimed MICH helmet, received universal positive feedback. After our achievement with the MICH helmet, we began offering similar upgrades for other military helmet styles such as the ACH, PASGT and LWH, and have sold more than 600,000 upgrades to all branches of the U. S. military in all parts of the world.

Oregon Aero’s invention of the first helmet pad liner system has clearly been a monumental success. It was the result of thorough research, expert engineering, and field testing to make sure the pad provided a high level of head protection. But we knew impact protection wasn’t the only consideration. Common sense told us that no pads will offer protection if they are so painful to wear that troops remove the pads, or pulverize them (removing the impact protection), or worse yet, avoid wearing the helmet altogether. Wearing a helmet can mean the difference between life and death, so we developed a precisely engineered composite pad system, not only to provide a high level of protection but also a high level of comfort. Troops have even told us that our padding system actually allows them to sleep with their helmets on. A helmet can offer protection and be painless.

In addition, our engineers developed a proprietary coating for each pad that allows cooling air to pass through the pads to the scalp, but does not allow water or moisture to penetrate the pads. This helps keep the head cool but the pads dry. Keeping the pads dry is critical so the protective properties of the pads are not compromised. Our pads also are covered with a self-wicking fabric which draws perspiration to the edges and evaporates it to cool the pad and prevents the perspiration from running into the eyes and impairing vision.

Oregon Aero® pads are not just hastily assembled pieces of foam or other material. They came from years of research and development. They are an expertly engineered, rigorously tested piece of technology specifically designed to offer a high level of protection and comfort. In fact, each pad goes through 27 separate manufacturing steps. It took this kind of painstaking attention to detail and listening to those using the pads in the field to produce the most effective pads available.

We continue to test and improve our pads and the suspension system we developed with them. The feedback we gather from troops in the field using our equipment is very important and we incorporate this feedback into our product designs. We receive messages frequently from troops in the field with non-Oregon Aero pads in their helmets that the pads are rock-hard, hot and painful. Needless to say, these troops are replacing these pads with Oregon Aero® replacement pads because they provide both protection and comfort. To repeat the obvious: A helmet must be worn to be effective and troops are more likely to wear a helmet that is pain-free, stable and cool. We knew this when we developed our pads and built this critical element into them. Click here to read messages we’ve received from troops about the protection and comfort the Oregon Aero® pad system offers.

Helmet Impact Data

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. Here are the results of the independent testing done on Oregon Aero® pads averaged from both labs: