A Bicycle Helmet Designed To Stink When Damaged
Personal safety is very important when it comes to bicycling. It is wise for a cyclist to use protective gear such as wrist guards, elbow pads, knee pads and a helmet. That being said, the helmet is obviously the most important piece of protective equipment you can use. Of course, making sure your helmet is good condition for use is just as important as having it in the first place. But how you do know when your helmet needs to be replaced after long-time use? Apparently, some German scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg decided to deal with this issue by designing a bicycle helmet that actually stinks when it’s been damaged.
They placed microcapsules of stinky oil inside of a helmet as a mechanism to signal when the piece of head gear is damaged and should be replaced. These tiny capsules are 1 to 50 micrometers in size. In the event of a cyclist having a serious fall off of a bike, stress is put on the helmet. Then cracks can develop in the helmet, lessening its effectiveness as protective head gear, which puts you at risk of a future head injury if you keep using that helmet. However, the stinky smell released by the microcapsules in the helmet are intended to provoke the user to get rid of that head gear and replace it. The amount of stinky smell released in the helmet depends on the size of the cracks when the head gear is damaged. Larger cracks will give off more of a stench.
According to Dr. Christof Koplin from the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, bike riders tend to waste their helmets by replacing them too soon after having a fall. Furthermore, cyclists also face the uncertainty of not really knowing when their protective head gear is truly damaged and must be replaced. Thus, the capsules of stinky oil are a suitable answer to resolve this issue. Personally, I’d take my chances with a regular helmet and waste money on a replacement instead of dealing with head gear that punishes me with a foul stench if I break it.
Tags: bicycle helmet, Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, German scientists, stinky oil capsules
July 30th, 2011 at 11:11 pm
really good article…
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