TeXtreme spotlights composite protective headgear

At JEC World 2016, spread-tow reinforcements specialist Oxeon (Borås, Sweden) had on hand the recently announced Avance MIPS, an innovative ski racing helmet made by protective headwear manufacturer Giro Sport Design (Santa Cruz, CA, US). “TeXtreme has enabled us to create an ultralight shell that’s tougher, stiffer and stronger than anything Giro has previously offered. Most importantly, TeXtreme provides impressive high-energy impact management,” says Mattia Berardi, Giro Ski’s product manager. According to Berardi, “The Avance MIPS outer shell is constructed from TeXtreme carbon fiber fabrics. TeXtreme’s wide, flat tapes fit tighter together and remain straighter than the round tows found in conventional carbon fiber materials, and thus require less resin needed to bind the fibers together.”

Also on display at the booth was a new Pro Star motorcycle helmet from Bell Helmets (Scotts Valley, CA, US). Chris Sackett, vice president of Bell Powersports, says: “For the new Pro Star, we wanted to take shell technology to the next level and by using the ultra-thin TeXtreme carbon fiber material we managed to engineer our best shell ever. The unique charac- teristics of the TeXtreme material enabled us to take out 20% of the weight and still have the same high level of performance.”