Football is a sport that involves a lot of physical contact and collisions, which can result in injuries to the players. To protect themselves, football players wear various types of gear, such as helmets, shoulder pads, and knee pads, that are designed to absorb and dissipate the impact forces. However, not all padding materials are equally effective at mitigating impacts. Some of them may compress too much or too little, becoming either too rigid or too soft, and losing their cushioning ability.
A team of engineers from the University of Colorado of Boulder and Sandia National Laboratories has developed a new design for padding that can withstand big impacts better than conventional foams. The new design features a modified, 3D-printed foam material that buckles under the force of an impact, unlike current foam cushioning materials that compress when squeezed hard enough and become rigid. The team used algorithms to redesign the geometry of the cushioning materials, by reorganizing the foam’s interior into a network of honeycombs and kinks, like those found in the bellows of an accordion. Those kinks reportedly guide the honeycombs as they collapse during an impact, thereby enabling a smoother collapse.
The team tested their new design in the lab using an impact-testing machine, and found that it could absorb as much as 25% more force than current state-of-the-art technologies. The team also simulated how the new design would perform in different scenarios, such as a football helmet hitting the ground, or a package falling from a height. They found that the new design could reduce the peak acceleration and the peak stress experienced by the objects inside the padding, which could potentially prevent damage or injury.
The team published their findings in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies. They hope that their new design could one day be used in various applications that require impact protection, such as football gear, bike helmets, shipping crates, car bumpers, and more. They also plan to explore other ways to improve the performance and durability of their padding materials, such as using different materials, shapes, and sizes.
The following table compares the characteristics and advantages of different types of padding materials:
| Type | Characteristics | Advantages |
|---|---|---|
| Foam | Squishy material filled with tiny holes and channels | Good at absorbing blows, easy to manufacture and customize |
| Plate lattice | Network of towers that look like honeycombs | More efficient at absorbing forces, can collapse in a wave-like pattern |
| Buckling lattice | Network of honeycombs and kinks that look like accordions | Can withstand big impacts, can collapse smoothly, can absorb more force |
