In This Issue

1. Annual Snell Certified Manufacturers Meeting
2. Snell FIA Children's Helmet Standard Effort
3. FIA Super Helmets Testing Update
4. Snell 50th Anniversary Booklet

 Annual Snell Manufacturers Meeting

The Foundation will host a Manufacturer’s Meeting at 9:00 AM on Friday, February 16, 2006, at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. Snell certified manufacturers are welcome to attend. Any other interested parties should contact the Snell office in California for details. Snell board of directors Dr. Harold A. Fenner, Dr. Daniel J. Thomas and Mr. William H. Muzzy will attend as will Mr. Ed Becker, Mr. Randy McCarty, and Ms. Hong Zhang.
 

 Snell/FIA Children’s Helmet Effort

FIA, the Fédération Internationale de l’ Automobile, and the Snell Memorial Foundation continue to work toward a joint Snell/FIA standard and certification program for children’s motor sports helmets.

The new standard is expected to include a few departures from existing Snell standards in order to better serve children and, particularly, children below the age of twelve years. Among these departures, the standard will add a 52 centimeter circumference head form to the five already called out in most standards. This head form is the ISO C head form and falls halfway between the two smallest sizes of the head forms currently in use. The standard will also specify head form masses corresponding to those currently used in ECE standards including a 3.6 kg specification for the C head form.

The standard will also include some additional limits on helmet construction. Helmet weights must not overtax children’s neck strength and endurance and the lower edge and chin bar configurations must not interfere with head and neck movement.

This standard is intended to serve children involved in motorcycle and kart competition as well as other off-road motorized activities. The standard will not test to the same levels of impact called out in corresponding Snell standards for adult helmets but the impact demands will still exceed those of DOT and ECE 22-05. Although neither the Foundation nor FIA expect to make any recommendations regarding on-road use of these helmets, we are confident that many of the helmets built to this joint standard will also meet DOT and ECE 22-05 requirements. Indeed, it may be prudent for manufacturers to seek ECE 22-05 and/or DOT qualification for children’s headgear even though they recommend against street use.

It is expected at this time that Snell and FIA will also undertake a certification program to this children’s motor sports helmet standard. This program will be administered through the Snell office in California.

The program will be similar to current Snell certification programs and will include an RST enforcement component. For certification testing, it is expected that manufacturers will be able to submit helmets to certain test labs in Europe or to the Snell laboratory in California but all test results will be reviewed at the Snell office in California before certification is awarded. Certification labels will be available from the Snell office. The projected label fee is expected to be $2.00. $1.00 of which will go to Snell and the other to FIA.

FIA Super Helmet Testing Update

The Foundation has made a lot of progress toward FIA 8860 and FIA 8858 capability. These FIA
standards apply to Formula 1 helmets and to HANS® tether hardware. The Snell lab expects to receive FIA authorization to test to these standards in the early spring of 2007.

New Snell 50th Anniversary Booklet

A new Snell booklet is published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Snell Memorial Foundation, Inc. The booklet briefly reviews the historical development of the Foundation, describes various current activities, and documents all the research projects funded by Snell and through the George Snively Foundation. There is also an introduction of each Snell current board of directors, members, staff as well as the Snell Safety Education Center, Inc.

Here at Snell we are very proud of the contribution made by the Foundation in making crash helmets more protective and grateful for the support of the public and the cooperation of the helmet manufacturing community. This half century mark of the Foundation reminds us of our mission to public safety and head injury prevention and our obligation to the memories of Mr. William “Pete” Snell and Dr. George A. Snively whose vision and dedication brought the Foundation into reality.

A copy of the booklet is mailed to you with this newsletter. More copies will be distributed in the Snell booth at the Dealer Expo and three other motorcycle consumer shows this winter season. If you are interested in obtaining more copies of the booklet, please contact Hong Zhang at the Snell office.

 

Who to Contact at Snell

Editor: Hong Zhang, Director of Education

copyright 2006, Snell Memorial Foundation, Inc. - HeadsUp Issue 43