360 Helmet - The Extended EPS revolution starts here..

One of the keys of the 360’s design was to try to surpass CE norms in terms of the front, side and rear impacts - to make a safer helmet and provide more protection across more of the head. To understand why this seemed essential to us, and should be important to everyone, it’s worth seeing how the current tests work.

About Helmet Testing

In the current CE/UIAA regime every helmet is tested in the following way. Utilising an approved test rig at an approved test house, three types of weight are dropped from pre-determined heights at prescribed points onto a number of ‘conditioned’ helmets placed on a ‘head form’. The helmet is awarded a pass if the required results are obtained at each point.

The centre test for the helmets is with a 5kg weight from 2m - this makes a big bang in the test room and is a certainly a hefty hit.

So what are the tests, weights and results;
1. Impact test - A 5kg rounded weight is dropped from 2m twice, 10cm apart, in the centre of the helmet. Impact force measured must be less than 10kN CE or 8kN UIAA.

2. Impact test - A 5kg flat bottomed weight is dropped from 50cm at 4 points at the front, sides and rear of the helmet. Impact force measured must be less than 10kN CE or 8kN UIAA. (Note: the lower the figure recorded the better)

3. Penetration test - A 3kg pointed weight is dropped from 1m in the centre of the top of the helmet. No mark must be seen in a ‘putty’ which is placed in the ‘head form’.

So, surprisingly for a sport whose realm is steep cliffs, sheer drops and exposure, one that requires a head for heights; the test drop heights for the head gear that we rely on in these circumstances can seem a little underwhelming. Even a layman might guess that when you’re 1000ft up El Cap, with 2000ft above, a falling object may come from further than the 50cm of the current Side, Front and Rear tests!

However, these lab tests do have their purpose, they set a baseline to help compare products. Yet it needs to be recognised they also have their limitations, for example what if the baselines they help compare aren’t set at a high enough level? The picture they can give may be misleading. And to our eye the dichotomy in the differing drop test heights between very close points in the current test is the perfect example of this.

Basically, how come the 5kN central impact test is from 2m yet can be as little as 10cm away from a place where it’s deemed a 50cm drop suffices?

It seems as if in this case it’s as if the test was designed not knowing how climbing works, imagining all climbers as ‘stiff necked Joes’ that climb with their heads upright and necks straight – ignoring the fact for example, that when ‘below’ is screamed, indicating an object is hurtling down, the automatic response is to bend, not to stiffen up! And in that case where’s the rock going to hit? Certainly not dead centre!

So how come the other drop test with a 5kg weight which could be as little as 10cm apart from the first is only from 50cm??

And to follow his through, this would allow helmets to be built that were fine with a ‘direct hit’, but could lack substance if not hit where the tests stipulate they must be toughest. Yet as a buyer unaware of the testing regime how can one know which will do what?

It was for these reasons that we determined that the 360 should be designed to provide true, real world protection, not to merely made to pass tests, but to greatly exceed them. So we raised the bar by raising the weights: achieving the CE standard at four times (or 200% over) the height required for the Side, Front and Rear tests: achieving 150% higher (2.5m) than needed in the Penetration test: as well as adding in penetration passes at Side, Front & Rear at 1m.

So in designing the 360, the most important issue for Wild Country was to be able to provide a product that, like all our hardware, is built to be as safe and functional as possible rather than aimed at passing tests. And with the 360 we have done that, proving our Extended EPS system by surpassing the CE tests and creating a stronger, safer helmet.

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