For ASTM F-08: Protective Capacity of Ice Hockey Player Helmets against Puck Impacts

Abstract

Many studies have assessed the ability of hockey helmets to protect against falls and collisions, yet none have addressed the injury risk associated with puck impacts. Thus, the purpose of this study was to document the capacity of a typical vinyl nitrile ice hockey helmet to reduce head accelerations and brain deformation caused by a puck impact. A bare and a helmeted Hybrid III male 50 th percentile headform were struck with a puck three times to the forehead at 17, 23, 29, and 35 m/s using a pneumatic puck launcher. Linear and rotational accelerations were captured using accelerometers fitted in the headform and used as input in the University College Dublin Brain Trauma Model to obtain brain deformation. The helmet reduced peak resultant linear acceleration, peak resultant rotational acceleration, and maximum principal strain but a comparison with published brain injury risk curves shows that it did not reduce the concussion risk below 50 % for impacts at or above 23 m/s. Thus, a vinyl nitrile ice hockey helmets can protect players from direct puck impacts in amateur and youth leagues but may not be adequate in competitive elite leagues, where the puck can be shot at velocities well above 23 m/s. Furthermore, competitive adult male ice hockey players struck to the helmet by a puck may need to consider changing their helmet as it was shown that direct impacts above 29 m/s decreased the helmet's ability to reduce head peak linear acceleration in subsequent impacts.

Protective Capacity of Ice Hockey Helmets against Different Impact Events

“…These results are consistent with previous research, as ice hockey helmets have been found to reduce engineering parameters for low velocity puck impacts but not for high velocities. 49,66 However when MPS was assessed, the ice hockey helmet that was tested was unable to reduce MPS to below the levels of concussion and TBI reported in the literature 32,60,62,88 except in the site 1 at 40 m/s and site 2 at 20 m/s conditions. As such, the tested ice hockey helmet adequately reduced this engineering parameter in a limited number of conditions.…”

“…The mass of the impacting arm is similar to that calculated for shoulder-to-head impacts in ice hockey reconstructions. 66 The end of the impacting arm was fitted with two different strikers to simulate stiff elbow collisions and shoulder-to-head impacts. A striker consisting of hemispherical nylon pad with a 35.71 ± 0.01 mm thick vinyl nitrile 602 foam disk underneath was used to simulate stiff elbow collisions (Fig.…”

“…Injuries caused by puck impacts are characterized by low mass and high velocity impact. 25 These impacts produce a very short duration of linear and rotational acceleration pulses, 49,66 whereas collisions in ice hockey are largely dependent on the characteristics of the part of the body that impacts the head 25 and have been found to produce lower magnitude and longer duration linear and rotational acceleration. 29,31,64 In addition, each of these events can impact the head in a linear (through the center of mass, or centric) and nonlinear…”

Helmet efficacy against concussion and traumatic brain injury: a review

“…Ten studies examined helmet efficacy against concus-sion through in simulacra and in silico impact tests. 5,47,57,68,69,83,85,87,89,98 These studies are summarized in Table 1. Two of the 10 studies observed military helmet efficacy against concussion and blast injury in the ACH.…”

“…Ice hockey, baseball, and speed skating helmets were all shown to have significant risks of concussion by impact velocities or acceleration directions. 87,89 Karton et al found that bicycle, ice hockey, and speed skating helmets all consistently presented a greater than 50% probability of players wearing these helmets sustaining a concussion at the mean peak rotational accelerations. 47 From striking-pendulum impact tests, O'Sullivan et al showed that standard Taekwondo helmets do not protect against low-energy (50g) and high-energy (150-g) head impacts that can induce concussion.…”