April
2015
Virginia Tech Publishes First Ever Study Rating Hockey Helmets
Following a three-year-long study, Virginia Tech has published the first-ever rating system for hockey helmets. This comes on the heels of a prior study and rating system by VT with respect to football helmets.
The VT team, co-led by Stephan Duma, who is the head of VT’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, and Steven Rowson, an assistant professor in the same department, included study and ratings of 32 different models of hockey helmets. Their findings were published in the April 2015 issue of Springer Journal Annals of Biomedical Engineering. Testing was conducted on each helmet in four directions and at three separate energy levels, with a total of 48 tests per model. The process, in its entirety, included more than 2,000 impact tests done both on and off the ice.
Of the helmets tested, six helmets earned two stars, 16 helmets received one star, and nine had zero stars. The helmet that yielded the best test results was the Warrior Krown 360.
As was the case with the previous football helmet study and rating system, this study is sure to draw the ire of hockey helmet manufacturers to the extent that their particular helmets did not rate highly on VT’s scale.
For a first-hand look at the study’s results, please click here.