Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Mitigating Helmet Pad

AgileNano™ and GENTEX®, the manufacturer of 1/3 of the ACHs in the field, propose a revolutionary, breathable helmet pad system to mitigate TBI and dramatically decrease thermal burden. Our Phase I demonstration will combine four types of protection into a single lightweight, integrated suspension pad system to mitigate both blast shock front and concussive injuries while greatly improving Warfighter comfort and performance. The first layer of AgileNano-GENTEX system will cradle the head and promote air flow, wick away perspiration and prevent the growth of odor causing bacteria. Next, the Flowair™ concussive protection layer, combines a mechanically strengthened, strain-rate sensitive, density gradient, polyurethane foam reinforced by a tetrahedral lattice truss textile system, with a low density shear thickening material (LDSTM) to meet the 17 fps/150 G blunt trauma requirement while promoting cooling airflow. LDSTM has already demonstrated impact attenuation of 61 Gs at 10 ft/sec. in drop tower testing. The percussive protective, outermost part of the pad system will use AgileNano’s AgileZorb™, a revolutionary nanotechnology-based, blast energy absorbing material. AgileZorb™ reacts quickly enough to smoothen and lower the supersonic shock front and was recently shown by the Navy to reduce transmitted blast pressures by 75% to 90%.