STTR Phase I: Customized Manufacture of Protective Headgear for Mitigation of Fall Related Injuries

STTR 第一阶段：定制制造用于减轻跌倒相关伤害的防护帽

• 批准号: 1417120
• 负责人: James Ferguson
• 金额: $ 22.46万
• 依托单位: Alba-Technic, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1417120&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Customized; Manufacture; Protective

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project lies in the ability to manufacture customized non-stigmatizing, attractive headgear containing advanced materials to provide protection in older adults from head injury as a result from a fall. Injury from falls is a severe and growing problem with the personal consequence of potential severe injury and economic consequences to individuals, families and the healthcare system. Initially targeted to older adults, this product can be used by persons who seek to stay active without the fear of injury from falling. The commercial product is an aesthetic design that relies on custom fit eliminating unsightly chinstraps typically found in impact resistant helmets. Manufacturing success will lead to development of other protective devices such as hip protectors and then for other susceptible body parts (wrists/elbows). Commercial success will be sales to individuals, active retirement communities, nursing homes and hospitals. Further success can be defined by the ability to license the technology and manufacturing process to leaders in other industries such as active sports including football, hockey, skiing and extreme sports. With this STTR, the manufacturing design methods will also provide hands-on experience to engineering students that can be applied to other projects in their careers. This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project will design a customizable, small batch manufacturing system for protective headgear to mitigate the impact from falls. The direct medical cost of falls is estimated at $30.0 billion. Customized and automated manufacturing of the headgear will alleviate the concerns highlighted in the previous compliance trials that indicated goodness of fit is essential to a marketable headgear product. This effort will solidify our ability to manufacture a non-stigmatizing headgear design in a cost-effective manner. Research objectives include quantifying parameters for a customized fit, designing and developing the automated manufacturing system for a product tailored to the individual. The research plan includes using state-of-the-art techniques in image capture and testing of the automation/customization scheme. Automation of the process will control the shape and material details of the product. Another task will evaluate the inclusion of 3-D printing as its capability is quickly maturing and it has the potential to create fully customized headgear. Phase I anticipated results include an operational version of a CAD front end system to capture head piece parameters and the design of a small batch manufacturing system to be built in Phase II.

该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于能够制造自定义的非污名化，有吸引力的头饰，其中包含先进的材料，以保护老年人由于跌倒而免受头部受伤的保护。 跌倒的伤害是一个严重而日益严重的问题，因为可能对个人，家庭和医疗保健系统造成严重伤害和经济后果的个人影响。该产品最初是针对老年人的，可以由寻求保持活跃的人使用，而不必担心会因跌倒而受伤。商业产品是一种审美设计，依赖于自定义拟合，消除了通常在耐撞击头盔中发现的难看的下巴。制造成功将导致其他保护设备（例如髋部保护器）的开发，然后为其他易感身体部位（手腕/肘部）开发。商业上的成功将是向个人，活跃的退休社区，疗养院和医院销售。可以通过将技术和制造过程许可给其他行业的领导者，例如足球，曲棍球，滑雪和极端运动的领导者来定义进一步的成功。借助此STTR，制造设计方法还将为工程专业的学生提供动手实践经验，这些经验可以应用于其职业中的其他项目。这个小型企业技术转移阶段I项目将设计一个可自定义的小批量制造系统，用于保护头饰，以减轻跌倒的影响。跌倒的直接医疗费用估计为300亿美元。量身定制和自动化的头饰制造将减轻先前合规试验中强调的担忧，即表明拟合良好对于可销售的头饰产品至关重要。这项工作将巩固我们以具有成本效益的方式制造非耻辱性头饰设计的能力。研究目标包括定制拟合，设计和开发针对个人量身定制的产品的自动制造系统的量化参数。研究计划包括在自动化/自定义方案的图像捕获和测试中使用最先进的技术。该过程的自动化将控制产品的形状和材料细节。另一个任务将评估3-D打印的包含，因为其能力很快成熟，并且有可能创建完全定制的头饰。第一阶段预期的结果包括CAD前端系统的操作版本，该系统可捕获头部件参数以及在II阶段构建的小批量制造系统的设计。