individual sport rated helmets

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Permalink Reply by Brad B on September 5, 2009 at 8:28

i'm guessing anything in this country has already been rated, unless you're planning on making stuff yourself...
either way, http://www.standards.org.au/ is the local (and world) leader in this field. hit them up.

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Permalink Reply by Robbo on September 5, 2009 at 9:04

From an ASRA standpoint it would require a considerable amount of money. As you can see even mainstream skateboard does not yet have a helmet rating. Australian standards is a very commercially driven organisation. You have to create a proposal establishing a net benefit to all stakeholders within the community and commercial sector, this includes creating a commercial benefit for standards Australia.

A standard must provide a value or benefit to the Australian community that exceeds the costs likely to be imposed on suppliers, users and other parties in the community as a result of its development and implementation. Given the limited size of the Australian market if no Australian companies make helmets and you design a standard that exceeds a foreign standard you would immediately see a withdrawal of helmets out of the Australian market as foreign suppliers may or may not see the benefit of supplying a separate product for the Australian market. The usual course is to look for a foreign safety standard created in a different sport and attempt to apply it to your particular sport as in downhill bicycle to downhill skateboard, you would than apply to have a multi-standard created. From my understanding downhill bicycle is a European standard. Standards Australia would than like to see how they could profit from the collaboration with you in creating an Australian version.

The costs for lab testing are not small but it is easier to find a standard from another sport and determine that that is suitable for your chosen sport and apply for a multi-standard

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Permalink Reply by Sakamoto on September 5, 2009 at 13:21

There are 3 main rating systems Worldwide...Australian Standards, Snell and DOT. On a worldwide scale, "Australian Standards" is harder to meet than the other two, with "Snell" second then "DOT". This is the process a manufacturer must follow in order to get the "Aus Standard" sticker on their helmets.
A manufacturer must supply the testing organisation 4 helmets out of every hundred produced for testing/destruction. A minimum of 4 batches is required. If all four batches pass the testing process, then 4 helmets out of every thousand must be supplied for a minimum of four batches. If there are NO failures, the manufacturer receives the "Australian Standard" accreditation and sticker. If at any stage a helmet fails, then the process starts all over again. As you can see by doing the maths, a manufacturer must produce a hell of alot of helmets to get the best rating.
Compression, Impact and Stretch are the main Test Catagories. As Robbo mentioned, due to the cost, alot of crew will try for a "Crossover/Multi-Standard" between sports in order to save money.

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