The original StormTrooper helmet. Image courtesy of Curventa
Found this fascinating, it’s a story about well known UK-based industrial design firm Curventa and how they helped a client, RuRoc, take its ‘Storm Trooper’ snowboarding helmet from the slopes to the autosport world. The helmet helped launch RuRoc back in 2007, with it’s integrated google, facemask and of course, head protection. What’s interesting is that RuRoc have now been asked to provide the product to the Formula One racing world as safety gear for pit crew.
Image courtesy of RuRoc Racing.
As Director at Curventa, Ian Murison said, “Crews usually wore motorcycle helmets, but a lot of the mechanics found them too hot and heavy to wear during races. In 2008, the Red Bull team contacted RuRoc and said they wanted to use the snowboarding helmets for their crews. We made some modifications and added flame retardant materials to the helmets, and they broke on the Formula One scene last season. Pretty soon, the McLaren team ordered chromed helmets for their pit crew. Now RuRoc has distributors in North American, Canada, and Europe selling to other motorsport teams.”
The original StormTrooper helmet. Image courtesy of Curventa
Curventa did the design work for RuRoc founder, Rob Gavin, when he came to the London firm with a rough physical model of a snowboarding helmet that protected faces from extreme cold while venting enough to prevent goggles from fogging over. Curventa laser scanned the helmet design then entered the data into SolidWorks following physical mock-ups. “We created the early designs in blue foam, and once approved by the client we laser scanned them into SolidWorks. From then on, we were designing and detailing on the fly within SolidWorks,” Murison said. “We did a lot of adjusting inside SolidWorks, tweaking the helmet design to adjust how it fit in the back, for example, or how it moved when the wearer turned their head. SolidWorks really held up well during that process.” There’s also another little nugget of info in the press release, in that the design team made heavy use of the Freeform feature in SolidWorks during the design process.
Image courtesy of RuRoc Racing.
If you fancy an F1 spec helmet for your own purposal use, they’re 400 quid a pop and available over the web – you can even get your company logo laquered into the back of them.Or you can buy Brawn F1, McLaren or Force India (shown above) replica helmets if that’s your bag.
