Swedish helmet safety firm MIPS has teamed up with industrial safety firm Guardio to offer the world’s first hard hat with a MIPS brain protection system.
Already popular among motorcycle and bicycle helmet manufacturers, MIPS (which stands for Multi-directional Impact Protection System) has developed its brain protection system after more than 20 years of research with the Royal Institute of Technology and the Karolinska University in Stockholm.
Now the firm is targeting the construction industry’s hard hat, citing figures from the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing that the construction sector has the greatest number of both fatal and non-fatal traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in US workplaces.
Guardio has partnered with MIPS to create the Armet helmet, which will be available from June this year.
The helmet will feature the MIPS brain protection system, which is designed to reduce the rotational motion transmitted to the brain from angled impacts to the head. Rotational motion can affect the brain and increase the risk for minor and severe brain injuries. MIPS’ added protection system has been proven to reduce the rotational motion when implemented in a helmet by absorbing and redirecting energies and forces otherwise transmitted to the brain, the company claimed.
“We are very excited about the partnership with Guardio which means that we now can add protection to safety helmets as well,” said Max Strandwitz, CEO of MIPS. “This is a new category for us but a category that MIPS have been looking at for a long time. Guardio is a partner that shares our values and we are looking forward to when the helmet will be released on the market.”
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I reside in uk, currently there is no uk distributor, as an individual I was quoted £125.00.
Thank god that someone is thinking of head safety. Hard hats have evolved very little since the 70s. This is a welcome advancement and should be mandatory as part of PP.
at what cost for each hat? the likely retail costs of these new units will be a key factor on potential take up of the Helmet for Construction & other Engineering and Industrial works – lets hope they are substantially reduced from $230 for their ‘go faster’ aerodynamic bike Helmets.
Rod is correct and the initiative is to be applauded. But what’s the real science behind the sales in MIPS? All helmets are explicitly brain protection devices and I’d suggest that the majority of head impacts cause an element of rotational an/or lateral motion; if not then the likelihood is not only a cranial injury but also a risk of spinal column damage. The strength and energy-absorbent plasticity of a helmet shell and its inner ‘harness’ surely provide some degree of omni-directional protection. Are we trying to protect workers in falls from height and/or ‘near static’impacts? There are major differences between site injuries and bike injuries; the bike casualty’s brain velocity has to be arrested safely and it is far more likely that a biker suffers more than one impact (or at least a complex impact) in an accident than a site worker.
Please inform me when these hard hats will be available and east coast US dealers selling them.